Caoimhe Connor

Caoimhe is Lead paddle sports Instructor at Tollymore National Outdoor Centre in Northern Ireland. Originally from Belfast she is now living at the foot of the Mourne Mountains in County Down. Her passion is all things water from being a volunteer helm at the local lifeboat and teaching water safety to paddling. Paddling a sea kayak became a massive part of Caoimhe’s life in 2012, when introduced by a local coach Mike McClure, he showed her that the sea offered so much variety from rough seas, tidal races and surf to calm coastlines and sandy beaches. She was hooked! Caoimhe has since made her passion her job and couldn’t be happier. Her coaching has taken her across the world from Ireland, to Wales, Scotland, Canada, New Zealand and America. Caoimhe enjoys passing on her skills of incident management to create confident independent paddlers. She enjoys nothing more than exploring coastlines with caves and rock gardens. She feels extremely privileged to be a sponsored paddler for Nigel Denis for her solo circumnavigation attempt of Ireland in 2017. On the water Caoimhe like to use a Romany Classic for rough water and coaching, she loves how it handles amazingly in all conditions and is a really fun boat! Caoimhe used a Pilgrim Expedition for paddling around Ireland and a Latitude 3 piece in her expedition to Iceland in 2024. Caoimhe is a British Canoeing provider of Sea Kayak leader, Sea kayak rescue and safety course, Open Canoe Leader in white water and open water, Paddlesport Leader, Paddlesport Safety and Recue Course. She is a British Canoeing coach in Sea Kayak and Open Canoe working towards her advanced coach in Sea.