Holme Pierrepont Whitewater Course. You've probably been hearing and seeing a fair bit of it on your social feeds lately as the World Freestyle Champs have just wrapped up, but there is a lot more to this Whitewater park. We decided to dig into the place and uncover its past, present, and future.
Holme Pierrepont sits on the edge of a city within a country park, offering a whole bunch of activities for locals, day-trippers, or destination paddlers looking for a few days of Whitewater paddling in the summer months of the UK (a rare prospect indeed!). It is safe to say that "HPP" is established as the home of freestyle paddling in the UK, a status that has evolved since the rodeo days of the early 90s. During the 90s boom of playboat design, the Whitewater course was buzzing with paddlers testing new boats, learning new moves, and exchanging ideas and tips, which continues to this day.
The course was built in 1986, a landmark project primarily driven by Frank Goodman, best known for his sea kayaking firsts and for establishing the Nottingham-based sea kayak manufacturer Valley Canoes. Essentially, Frank, like us, liked playing in boats. The course is modeled as a side channel of the River Trent on the edges of Nottingham, England. Sherwood Forest is
