Cian Omert is the youngest paddle sports instructor in the country, completing his assessment on the weekend of his fourteenth birthday.

After seeing a school notice for a kayak club he started his kayaking career in the summer of 2019 and after his first trip to the Nene Whitewater centre he became “really hooked…on white water.” After hours of rolling practice and river trips, he became qualified to teach students in similar situations to where he started. Being a similar age to his students makes him more empathetic and understanding of the demands they endure with a mature grasp of how to “juggle kayaking with school life.” However, he is aware that there are “many aspects of coaching” that he “still needs to get under [his]… belt.”

The most rewarding part of kayaking, Cian says is surfing waves with “great people around him…out in nature”. Despite the innately solitary nature of being in a kayak by yourself, teaching fellow students and going on trips through his local club allows Cian to meet new people through the sport he loves. This increase in social interaction has taught him “great leadership skills” which he acknowledges will aid him in other areas of life. The most important skill that all great instructors have, he says is “staying extremely calm” even in life-threatening situations such as “boat[s] getting pinned” and “capsizing in white water”. He says these experiences have improved his performance at school. As counterintuitive as this sounds, being a demanding sport both physically and psychologically Cian explains that the ability to “adapt and acclimatise to stressful situations,” has positively fed into his academic life.