You would want nothing less for your own children.
Borderlines is a not for profit company with the aim of removing as many of the barriers to participation in angling as possible for all groups of the population regardless of age, ability, race, religion or social background with particular emphasis on the disadvantaged, disabled and those requiring rehabilitation. The Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was our first serious contributor, a £6822.44 grant from their Sustainable Development Fund enabled us to take 120 youngsters from deprived wards in Cumbria on to the Solway Firth in 2006 to not only learn about fishing but gain an introduction to this nationally scarce habitat and the invertebrate, plant and wildlife communities it supports. Thankfully Shakespeare also supported Borderlines with this project by providing tackle at substantially discounted rates.
With all of our sessions safety is paramount, this is particularly so with sessions involving youngsters, during the last decade or so several tragic incidents have occurred on school out of bound trips, If we allow coaching standards and attention to detail to drop, an incident such as this could happen within angling, such incidents illustrate all too graphically the need for constant vigilance, by properly trained and qualified angling instructors. As coaches we have a duty of care to maintain coaching standards and attention to detail to provide a safe and secure environment in which to learn angling.
Angling instruction for Borderlines is provided by Clive Mitchelhill, Glyn Freeman and Chris Bowman. Clive and Glyn are both members of the Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors and FFF. Chris is a Professional Anglers Association registered coach and is also Borderlines Company Secretary.
Things are now going full circle, We are now getting youngsters who have attended our junior angling courses doing their works experience with us, some have become very competent anglers. They will become the angling coaches, tackle dealers and fishery managers of the future. We are not just showing people how to catch fish; we are casting better futures and if all of us within angling and it's allied industries work together on this, things, as they say, can only get better.
There is a new Scottish initiative to bring 50,000 newcomers into the sport called SNAP (Scottish National Angling Program), which is being promoted by the Scottish Countryside Alliance Educational Trust www.scaet.org.uk is running this. They have the same aims and objectives as we do. The object being that all organisations, clubs and fisheries with similar interests will pull as one to achieve this aim. Not a bad idea!
Borderlines Company No. 5500597, Registered at Company's House Cardiff 6/7/2005