Made it to half term and not died. Bonus!

Teifi Tour in Llandysul. Normally an opportunity to get riotous and not paddle anything good. Luckily it rained loads and we managed to hit the middle Tawe and the Mellte at “classic” levels. Nothing too pushy but plenty of fun, and in the sun to boot.

Hiking to the “cheat’s” puton. Photo by John “Perfect Day” Vincent

Keeping my eye in for SlopeJam 2009…. Maybe. Photo by Mike “Classic Burning Man” Moxon

Lowri resurfacing from some sort of sketchy pitony thing. Photo again by MM

Hopefully some more fun before the week is out!

A few weeks ago I helped the Lowri and the FlowFree gang host the first of many of the revived WCA Freestyle Development weekenders in Llandysul. A great time was had by all despite terrible water levels, and the boundless enthusiasm of so many young and not so young paddlers was great to see! On the second day there was small competition through one of the rapids, with a chance to show off the skills they had been learning and developing from making eddies, busting tailies or going for the elusive Loop…. I took a load of photographs from that, which I have now got round to hosting. You can check them out, and also order prints at www.digibug.com/tlphotography

Youngest on the water, slickest into the eddies, James Cooper gets an end to impress the judges… 

Keep an eye on www.flowfree.co.uk for more info on the next weekender!

I’ve moved house, started a new course, and done lots of work, some play, and some photography.

Lining up for the Falls of Falloch, low water. Pic - Lowri Davies

Chris G heading for a faceplant. Classic waterfall fun.

Love my F4 L Series!

Chris Eastabrook runs the Gnorway Weir on the Ystrad.

I’m currently back in Manali fending off the beggars and avoiding the dog crap. We had a superb mission over the Rohtang Pass and into the Spiti Valley. We based ourselves in a superb guest house (Nimaling) in the lovely little town of Kaza. We were dubious having heard it’s nickname as “Kazai”, but it turned out to be nice and have just about everything we could need including a tailors. (We all have new shirts!)

Adam, cool in the face of gnar!

We spent 3 days kayaking sections of the Spiti which had nearly everything you could want from a river. Deep gorges, blind corners, BIG holes, jazzy lines and amazing scenery. We also managed first descents(?) on the Gyundi, Lingti, and the North fork of the Pin, which ranged from grade VI terror-fest to grade II/III cruising.

More info in due course, but for now, enjoy the photos….

Patrick hiking into the Gyundi, a montage that I will improve when I’m home and have Photoshop!

Ki Gompa, Spiti Valley

Pin Valley

Scouting (and running away from) the unrunnable “Shotgun-Not!” Canyon of the Lingti (Pic P.W.Clissold)

Patrick running one of the many gorges of the Spiti.

Some of the group are now heading to the Chandra/Chenab and the Dras. Good times…. I’m off to get a suit tailored, get home and have some beef!

Well, we made it Manali. The bus journey was rubbish, other than a couple of hours of sleeping strapped to the boats on the roof. Turns out this is pretty illegal, so it’s a good thing we weren’t noticed!

Beas

We’ve been based out of a lovely hotel, hot showers, cider, comfy beds. It’s been lovely. I’m currently stuffed from a  curry and Baskin Robins icecream. Oh and a bloke gave a beggar a good kicking. What a super place! But I digress….

When Tim arrived, several of us jumped on a few km of the Manalsu behind Old Manali. Shrinkavision kicking in nicely it proved to be pretty blind, super continous and really good fun. A few chunky pourovers to get beaten in, and plenty of tasty lines. Just the job before some cider and momos! (yes Liz, they are ace!)

Today we ran a few sections of the Beas. Patrick and Tom H were feeling a little worse for wear and so decided to get on lower. It seems they had the best time… (click)

The rest of us put on a swollen grey river that was thundering along at a fair old rate. After a km of so we reached a (more) blind rapid and pulled in for a scout. It looked like a nice chunky rapid, a few bigger holes to dodge but nothing major, before (appearing to) flatten off and provide a big eddy. We all dropped in and made it through to the corner, but it didn’t flatten off. Out in front I could see the eddy I was after, but guarding the main line to it were 3 of the most horrendously jazzy pourovers of doom and destruction I have ever seen. Somehow I got through, don’t ask me how, I don’t know!

Tim and Ralph found a sneak line waaaay out in right field and Dave and Adam managed to stop above. All good fun. While we were faffing about Tim’s boat headed off for a solo mission, and me and him legged it to the boats to give chase. After a couple of hundred metres I was forced to conceed, but Tim manned up and got his boat out (using Ralph’s boat). Just was we were all getting it together Adam took a  raping and parted company with his boat. We got him out but the chasing and illness combined to leave me and Dave resting by the bridge while the others carried on. We played cricket with the locals and did a lot of sleeping…. More boating tomorrow, and then on to more multi day adventures…

Me, Dave and Adam on the Beas.

Phew, it’s sweaty out here in Uttranchal Pradesh! I’ve been out here for about a week so far and been having an excellent time. Patrick tells the tale of the Yamuna river on his blog. All I’l add is that within 36 hours of landing in Dehli I was in the middle of some awesome rapids!

Yamuna locals

Following on from that we took half a day to catch our breath and stock up on grub before heading to the next valley over, the home of the Tons…

Taxi!!

We had heard vauge rumours that the Tons might be paddled or rafted, but had no real info, so we picked some points, booked taxis and away we went!

In the absence of a eggs benedict, how about some breakfast gnarl?

Arriving after dark, all we could hear was an enormous roar, and by torchlight we discovered an enormous hole! Fortunately daylight showed us that we had lucked out and camped at the bottom of a monstrous (2km?) long rapid.  Luck was with us, and other than a couple of portages it all went nicely, and we soon arrived at a lovely little spot to camp.

Patrick on the Tons

Read and Fun!

Overnight the rain brought the river up to a much more jazzy level, and combined with the early morning mist we made slow progress before being ejected from the river by a millitary type who insisted we were breaking the law. Keen to avoid a fine we skedadled!

 

Scouting the Gnar on day 2 on the Tons.

We are now resting/recovering in Missoori, and heading to Manali shortly for the next adventure……

If you live in the South West you can’t have missed the epic rainfall we had in the last 10 days or so. This has pretty much all gone into the rivers making lives miserable for normal people, but delighting kayakers! Monday night was a little disappointing, the Lyn wasn’t as tanking as we hoped, but still a fun little cruise through the woods, and some nice sketchy paddling in the gorge to dodge the odd tree.

The rest of the week saw the Dart go nuts and rocket up to a big big level. Too high for most to take on the upper, we dodged the odd hole and wavewheeled our way down a superb loop. Certainly the best way to do this run!

Dan on the Newbridge wave.

Chris on Washing Machine. This washed out by the time we had finished playing.

Later in the week we made it over the bridge and had a cruisy run down the Mellte. Chris made this video…

CLICK (Sorry, it’s on Stalkbook)

Cruising back in the dark, another after work mission done!

Since then the water has dried up a little bit, leaving us back on the bikes…

Twisting your face helps twist the bars. (pics Adam Hunter)

It’s been a pretty busy time in my little world… 2 weeks since my last little update and I’ve barely stopped.

 

My Desk — My office and secretary.

Monday to Friday I was working at Biblins Youth Camp for Mendip Outdoor Pursuits, taking groups of kids down through Monmouth and on to Redbrook in canoes and kayaks. All good fun on and off the water. I got to play with my new tarp as well for some proper open boating action. There was even some circus action…

 

Phil breathing fire.

Friday was a bit boring as my co-paddler Elena buggered off to a bit of a do that was going on at a local farm…

Sunday found me at the Glastonbury festival soaking up the atmosphere (and the cider) and kicking back to some superb tunes. The highlight was almost certainly giving it some glowstick loving to Groove Armada. Top stuff.

Cider Bus — 11am raver

Sun going down on the other stage

 

Tuesday and I was right back at on it with some more paddling on the river Yeo, again for Mendip OP and a bit of biking up on the Mendips with the gang from Palm/Dagger.

The rest of the week was taken with more freelance work before a trip to the big city of Bristol for light refreshment, a celebration of Hazel’s 21st, Elena’s 19th and my love of alcohol. Hangovers aplenty we set sail for North Devon in foul weather expecting the surf to be crap. It was messy, but out back was hayoooodge. Big air, big screams (from some of us), big beatings and big fun!! I stuck some of the biggest (luckiest) blunts I’ve ever accidently bounced into, and managed to tuck up and not get too beaten. The waves and wind were a bit much for some though, with a helicopter rescue of some surfers from the rocks at the Northern end. Say what you want, the conditions were brutal.

Huddled in the pissing rain in a leaky tent for the night we discussed plans for what to do with all the water. Sadly these had to based around only having playboats as the extra 200 miles needed to collect some creek boats were a few too many! Myself, Chris “Performance Kayaks” Georgiou and Elena had a couple of cracking runs down the Dart loop. It’s been years since I set out just to paddle the loop, and this is a shame. In low water its a load of crap, but with good levels it is superb, lots of fun waves to play on, and a few superb kickers to kickflop off. I’ve finally got my head round launching these moves, I’m now working on landing them!

The non-stop fun continues tomorrow with more freelancing and with luck good levels on the river Lyn.

Big “woop woop” to everyone who has ammused me in the last couple of weeks.  Only two weeks until I set off for India… Patrick sends these words… CLICK

It’s always good to get a few unexpected river miles…

Yesterday me, Dom and Dan had a very nice bit of cake at Mill on the Exe, followed by some enjoyable sinking at Pots and topped off with a civilised birthday party in a plush penthouse! In the night the heavens opened just enough to give us a morning of sport on the Upper Dart. A couple of enjoyable runs, on the ledge, and then just on the ledge. Just enough water to keep it cruisy. Lovely!

That’s the Alps done and dusted for another year. Just a short trip for me this year, mainly to have a couple of events… These went off ok, more on them coming soon.

The recent ban on paddling the swollen rivers was lifted the day we arrived, the sun came out, and other than dodging an avalanche it was all good.

Cruising down the sunshine run in the sun.

Will Laws dropping in for his first big seal launch, on the second river he’s ever paddled!

Kicking back in the sun after some cracking Briancon Gorge speed descending.

The Gyronde, with a hangover. Splashy at best, mainly crap.

Dagger Beers. Cheers Cheese!!

The first back hammer where I didn’t land on my head. Woo!

All pics thanks to Lowri Davies