Kayaking

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!

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

Last weekend was Mitch’s birthday, and in true Bangor style we paddled down the straits to the pub.

Hiking in to the put on. A pleasant 5 minute walk.

A very blury me.

Woo, pretending I am James Bond, I peel off the drysuit to reveal shirt and cords.

#

Birthday Boy Mitcharooo.

This morning the postman dropped off a big parcel of goodies from Level Six. Included amongst my trendy hats, shirts, caps and thermals was my awesome looking dry suit. Billed as athlete designed, it actually was, with emails flying back and forth about pee zips and socks last year. Hotly anticipated since OR last year it’s finally made it here. Unfortunately just in time for the summer, but it’s never to early to get hyped for next season. The boys in Canada have been shredding in the Barrier for a little while now, Zach had this to say “The new Barrier Drysuit is keeping me perfectly dry and does not constrict the movement needed for waves like Chambly at all.”

Zach looking for some air time in chilly Canada.

The new suit has all the features I’ve come to love from the Mack cag, combined the funky styling of the Georgian dry trousers. Big chest pocket with little jobby for the car key, sleeve pocket, plenty of room without being baggy, and the really good waist tightening system.  Add to this a couple of pockets in “normal” places, proper metal zips on the back and the crotch that you can do up on your own, decent zip covers, and reinforced soles to the feet and you’ve got a sweet suit. I’ve not got out in it yet as it’s lovely and warm here and I’m trying to revise for my finals, but I’m dead excited about living out of this suit on the rivers of India this summer.

The suit, so fresh it still has labels on it!

The back of the suit, showing the zip cover and the natty elasticated zip thing, making it possible to put it on all by yourself.

Re-enforced soles to the socks, and the trendy flares.  

The pee zip and cover, again full metal zip and decent tab to pull, probably even works with one hand.

Level Six are brought into Europe by Rokxat Adventure Traders, with luck there will be some kit in the shops of the UK soon! If you want some more info on the suit check out THE INFO! or drop me an email.

The clock has been doing lots of ticking, as it is wont to do, and I am excited/terrified to discover that I am 4 exams and an oral away from the summer. Crikey. Shame that is still 2 weeks of sloggy slog.

Tim Burne keeping freestyle cool.

This is clearly the last part of a Tricky Woo, and I’m just about to twirl round into a blazing series of clean ends. I’m certainly not falling on my head.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!

Answers on a postcard please!

I got my CF cards of NSR pics back today. There are quite a few, the highlights generally being the party.

Building one of the monumnetal mounds of music.

Light… Cameras… Action!

DJ Dave spins the wheels of steel

StalkFace album

My Gallery (all the pics!) 

More pics coming soon…

Stanley Embankment, perfectly calm evening, beautiful sunset, and just as the crowds got cold and bored the wave got to it’s best. Winner.

Pics - Kate Wilkinson (I think) 

This weekend, apart from running some CST assesments, which are always fun, I paddled two of the “best class V hits in Wales” on the Afon Enion. And jolly good they were too, other than being very hungover and landing on my face of course…

The second drop of the Enion looms. It’s higher than it looks from the cliffs above! (Pic Lowri Davies)

I also had many a good time brought back to me last night when I had a play in a bright green Dagger Juice… Them was the days…

Ken Hughes 

Today I was lucky enough to be invited along to a Gorge users seminar at Plas Y Brenin. The idea was to get the CCW, gorge walkers, the WCA and so forth together, pool some info, and try and make a start on a conservation plan. I was enthralled to hear a presentation on the flora of some of our local gorges, and it was great to get a load of info on the Prysor Gorge from the guys who know most about it. It was also good to hear that so far there is no significant damage being done to these sensitive areas. Testament perhaps to our respect for our landscape. Refreshing also to take a step away from the legal access aspects, and look at “How and Why” rather than “No canoeing”, and with some hard work from lots of dedicated groups, these gorges will remain in fine fettle for generations.

The land owner of the Llugwy, Conwy, Lledr came along, purely it seems to try and cause trouble in the afternoon, rabbiting on about how he paid for fishing rights, or some other out dated arguement. I hope you are reading this; Sir, you are out of touch, and would do well to learn a little more of what canoeists and other outdoors groups do before you shout yourself horse to a group of them. I notice that you didn’t bother with the morning session, or the session after your little outburst. Well done.

Cheers to Ash at the WCA for the invite, it was excellent.

Ooh, and exciting news, there is now a series of physical guages on the Aberglaslyn. Very simple to use, if its below the line, DON’T PADDLE IT!!! 

Well, it’s been a while!! My Easter Holidays zoomed past and I’m back slogging through more uni work.

I kicked off the Holiday with Jules and Danny, celebrating hi sbirthday in fine style with a few Welsh rivers, including a little run gnarl fest, more of which later!

From there I headed to Manchester, dumped the car and headed to the Lakes. Lowri gave a couple of Four Borders Expedition talks, and there was no water. There were however cream teas, fudge, and pub dinners. Marvellous stuff.

That done, we headed up to a very dry Scotland for a few days paddling with Aber Uni Canoe Club, before a 5 star assement and the student safety camp. All of this went off with minimum fuss, and before I knew it we were back in Yorkshire, and Lowri was doing her level 3 coach, again cruised! One more talk in York, then back to Manchester to rouse Dave Fairweather for victory breakfast and home to Somerset.

A few days loafing about, some classic Saunton surf, and I’m back in North Wales in time for lectures, assignments, and a whole load of other stuff.

Pictures coming soon…. in the mean time…. http://www.digibug.com/tlphotography/

P.s. Still no rodeo pics! Sorry!

Last weekend (as you may have gathered from various other blogs) was the National Student Rodeo. Every year it grows, every year it gets betterer and betterer! Thursday afternoon was spent helping out with some of the set up, and grabbing a quick run down the course in my squirt. It was ridiculously chilly, and high levels meant that none of the squirt spots were going very well however. A “quiet one” on Thursday night ended up in a trip to Nottingham’s Rock City and a bit of emo handstand bashing, before trying to ride a horsie. Ooops.

Friday dawned far too early, if a little windy. Most of the day was taken up with carting about enormous speaker stacks for the boys at Extreme Events who provided top notch tunes all weekend. I also discovered that while I’m no DJ, I can tape XLR cable to the floor and put up banners…

Every year we all say “We’ll just have a quiet one” on Friday, and this was no exeption. I spent some time convincing people to try and sleep on the roof of the Pyranha bus (sorry sammy!)….

Saturday dawned even earlier, and even windier than Friday, but not dispirrited the million or so entrants began endless runs down the extreme slalom course. Personally I decided that as it was a Pirate theme, that a galleon was the only logical choice.

The entry to squirt this year was enormous, with 40 odd people entering, and a fair few shreds being bought out and dusted off. The standard was also loads better than last year. Good to see the Perception Minge out on the water again. Ben White, Claire O, and Emma ran some awesome coaching on the lake at the top, and I finally got my head round totally vertical stern stalls. Then 20 or so of us were invited to head down to the Pyramid Pool for the heats. I had a couple of pretty good runs, though the heliwashout eluded me this time, and was chuffed to have made the final.  The rest of the afternoon was spent judging men’s novice heats… expect an “Explains” on the “Fresher”, a badass new move for this year sometime soon…

Saturday night was the premiere of Sam Ward’s short film on the section of the White Nile that is going to be lost with the new dam. Max has it on his blog. It’s very good.  After that we gotvery merry to some random band who were a bit pants, followed by Paddy from Palm mixing it up before Dave and Al from E-E took us through to the wee small ones, before we headed off to find place/vans to kip in.

Sunday was even earlier! The squirt final was a knockout affair, which I really enjoyed. The magic roundabout serving up some tip top downtime. After an (unlucky?) splat based error I washed out of the eddy and spent most of my time fighting my way back into it. Ooops. 5th for me, and once again Dave F took home the bacon. Nice one Dave!

There are loads of stories and jokes from the weekend, that will come out in due course I’m sure. My photographs should be online in the next few days, so look forward to a bumper photo edition soon.

All that remains is to thank everyone who made the event so amazing again, Nick, Tim, LUUCC, Extreme Events, the sponsors, Ben, Emma and the squirty massive, Emily, Claire and the judging crew,  the runners, the hog roasters, River Legacy, and everyone else!

(Pics by Paul Wilkinson - more at the NSARRRR site )

It may have escaped your notice, but you can now ring up an EA line and get water levels for a whole shed load of North Wales rivers. All well and good, but all you get is a number, and unless you can relate that to something, it’s no use to you at all! More info on the (somewhat pricey) phone line is on the EA WEBSITE

Below is a correlation chart that I will add to in the future. I hope that this proves useful, and acts as a precursor to further river levels info.

This evening, after a day in the lab watching drips fall out of a tall bit of glass into smaller bits of glass I needed to unwind, and what better way to do this than with a sundowner squirt session under Menai Bridge. We are on smallish tides at the moment so there weren’t any seams to speak of, but instead a fantastic sunset framed by Telford’s marvellous span. I whirled about for a while, getting all dizzy and occasionally attaining my cubic attentions when I realised I had an audience. Not gawping chavs but a friendly seal who stayed to play for a few minutes, enjoying the swishying glitter nearly as much as me.

Ahem.

After a few refreshments on Saturday night, and feeling mighty refreshed, it was suggested that taking Mitch’s home made C1 S6X to Stanley Embankment would be a good way to spend the day. I haven’t ever paddled a closed cockpit C1 on moving water, nor can I roll one. Fortunately there was still a drysuit in the kit room (cheers Convict, I’ll drop it round in the week!), to make the whole adventure much more bearable.

It turns out the boat was actually pretty easy to paddle about, and after a good dose of hangover cure coke it was rude not to give it a go on the wave. The eddy feeds you on really nicely, and I was so shocked to actually be on the wave, kneeling up that all I managed to do was bounce about a bit and flush off! It’s a very odd sensation ot be kneeling up, with the water rushing past your knees rather than your bum. It was great to do something that put me nicely out of my comfort zone, and kept me thinking. When it was all tallied up I managed quite a few more rides than I did swims, which given how boily it was, I am pretty chuffed about. After this it was only fitting to retire to the pub for a late luncheon. Another weekend delightfully whiled away. - I’m gonna learn to roll it in tomorrow!

All Pics by Sarah Nash - Cheers Sarah.

Mitch is selling his Brand Spanking Nearly New Werner Sidekicks

Roundhousing like it’s going out of fashion. - Pic Neil Rogers

Mike from Aber catches a ride. Pic - NR

Neil at Stanley - Pic Gaz Allen

I have given up booze until the Rodeo.

 Here are a couple of short videos from our New Year trip to Portugal.

A brief intro to navigation… CLICK

A short, tounge in cheek video from the Rio Castro… CLICK 

Shame we didn’t manage to get more video, perhaps we had better go back!

Filming on location with Cat Plisold.  Pic RobT

Also known as BUSA slalom, hosted by Durham Uni CC and chums at Teeside in the industial North. A crack team from North Wales set off in a state of disrepair after a night of celebrations at the end of exams. Accomodations were shared with Manchester, and proved to be salubrious throughout.

Ooops! - Pic Lowri Davies

A shocking first run saw me accidently dodge outside of a gate, and mess up the following sequence, leaving me an unimpressive 103rd, and secretly pretty miffed. My second run proved to be just the ticket however; somehow it all clicked, I made every gate, with only one 2 second penalty. Regardless of the time I positively skipped back up the bank, delighted to have redeemed my run for myself. When it was all totted up I had made 33rd, which I am very proud of, particuarly as I was in a creek boat, mainly due to my own laziness!

Our C2 team was a disgrace, and the rest of Team Bangor did admirably, putting us in 15th place over all, despite limited numbers.

Yeah, I know, the pictures aren’t that great! More coming soon when I mend my Gallery.- EDIT - Pics now in the gallery

Big thanks to Rhi and the Manchester Uni Canoe Club, Durham and the organisers, and anyone else who made yet another weekend fantastic.

That little one that flows into the lake at Plas Y Brenin. A morning of boating has meant that this afternoon has been uber productive and I am excited about my exam, provided it is on LactoFerrins, and Blue Copper Enzymes. This morning we joined some guys from Boulder Adventures, as well as about 20 other people in various groups and had a cheeky run down. I didn’t take any photos as it was raining pretty hard, so here are some shots from MY freshers week trip, many moons ago. No one will spot the difference…

Tea Boy Tom, back when he still had a girl’s BA.

Captain Tim, before he got a rocker

Garth Farm Falls.

Only 4 more days of exams, then it’s back to dissertationing (and BUSA Slalom, CC Xmas dinner, BangAber, CanoeExpo, Dublin, Weekend off, Rodeo!)

Actually, anywhere but in my room would be good. Sodding exams. …At a lower pH the protein protonates…. yawn.

Tom Bailey, custard squirt boater has just sent me the footage from our jaunt to Wish You Were Here on the river Lune in Lancashire last summer. Here is a short video - (Right click, save target as)

Last time I put something up about exams, lots of people looking for mating tigers found my blog. Perverts.

I spent a pleasant Saturday with the gang from Leeds, Notts and Brum on the Aberglaslyn Gorge at freeride (low) level, and the Cwm Llan, still a long way up Snowdon, and still great fun.  Highlights included finding the most improbable hammer spot in the world, Sara’s line down the breaker (amazing!), discovering I could sidekick a creekboat, and all those nachos. Alas the rivers were up again today, and instead I have been slaving over such excitement as Wade’s Rules, the Styx approach and the Butler Volmann Equation. Not long to go….

Hick “The Huck” Norwood. I love my new lens. Crisp like there is no tomorrow, this is an ISO 1600 shot!

In Portugal last week I carelessly wrote off my nomad on the Rio Castro. (see below) I was left stumped with what to do with the poor thing, as it was unrepairable, and even if it did get welded, it was a very vulnerable spot, so stood no chance. Poor thing. However, I do now have most of a fantastic drinks cabinet…. Here’s how!

You will need…

1 broken creekboat, I used a Nomad, but you can use what you like.

1 large saw, 1 power drill, 1 screwdriver.

Glue, Microcell foam, Marker pen.

Dustpan and Brush, Radio tuned to BBC Radio 2.

Step One

Remove all the  extra bits from the boat, seat, footrest, all that caper. This is done using the screwdriver. Leave these on the sofa.

Step Two

Carefully mark round the boat using the marker pen, or duck tape should you prefer. You will ignore this line later, but it makes it look more proffesional.

Step Three

Carefully cut the boat in half, ignoring the line you drew in step two. This leaves you with two halves of boat. In this example we chose to use the bow.

Step Four

Using the power drill, make a circular hole that will hold a bottle of port, wine or similar. Affix a shelf made from foam below the hole for support. Add as many holes as drill power allows, before recharging and adding more.

Step Five

By this point you will have made quite a mess of the front room, use the brush to tidy up a bit, and stand back to admire your handywork.

A thumping big thank you to Dagger for being ace and sending my shiny new boat with due speed. www.daggereurope.co.uk 

Fresh from a nice long haul flight and sweaty cross London journey I arrived in “the bush” and met up with two fifths of the team for our jaunt to Portugal; namely Patrick Clissold and Lowri Davies. A brief break to watch kayaking porn, and we were on our way to salubrious accomodations provided by Rob Tuley and family close to Stanstead. After a brisk morning’s travel we were met in Porto by Theo, who had flown in from Sweden. Notable by their absence were a few others, put off by the poor forecast in the preceeding weeks. I don’t doubt they all had a cracking time sitting at home/going to scotland/driving into big puddles.

A mark of how welcoming Portugal is; even the baggage handlers are paddlers, speak good English, and pointed us in the direction of a new kayak shop in Porto. We didn’t visit in the end, which is a shame. Having collected the hire cars, paid up the waivers, and noted the damp nature of the weather we set off into the hills. After a good deal of beard scrathing, Theo’s “trusty” TomTom sat nav brought us to the top of the Rio Castro in Northern Portugal. The river was a good couple of feet below the advised maximum, but being keen to see what was coming we cracked open a beer or two and went for a walk. As it turns out we walked the length of the chossy lead in, and heading back with the horizon line of the granite gorge just in sight.

Camponatrual di Portugal, Lowri fastibreak o granitorock. Pic Rob T

Carros hiro dependablios

After a spot of wild camping we awoke to discover the mist had lifted to yeild a mountainous version of Dartmoor. Excited by this we paddled/walked into the top section of the Castro. We were treated to a fantastic gorge of steep, clean slides (or tobbogans as the locals call them) and drops.

Rob a kayako di unknownio.

Patrick tobogano, Tom a filmo Pic Rob T

After a few fun warm up slides, it was time for one of the main events. Known as back breaker, a gang of Irish paddlers ran it blind last year. Being a bit more cautious, we had a good scout!

Tom a “Back Breaker”, nae boofo! Pic Rob T

After Back Breaker, there are a couple of tight rapids, before a couple of large portages off cliffs. Carelessly, my boat suffered a little more than most off these cliffs, and a good session with the duck tape was required before we could carry on.

Lowri e Portagio a Castro Pic Rob T

After the portages the river relaxed, loosened its belt and filled up with boulders. After a km or so we hiked up to a nearby village, chatting to some local cows on the way. Victory dinner was taken in a casino in Spain, followed by some frosty wild camping.

Mornio e chillio di Portugal Pic Lowri D

From here we headed accross to Melgaco, and met up with Simon “Gene17″ Westgarth and his lady wife, the Irish, and some locals. After a wander round town picking out things that might mend my boat (thanks George + others!) we were fired up to hear about a river right there in town. The Mihno is Portugal’s answer to the Afon Dee. Still, it was sunny, sociable, and after a massive breach of shuttle etiquite the Irish took pitty on Patrick, Theo and myself and fed us.

Boat brokeno

NewYear was celebrated Portugal Style in the basement of a restaurant that was arranged for us by the locals (cheers again guys!) and would have been memorable, had it not been so alcohol fueled. There were a lot of courses, and a lot of wine and other spirits, followed by a club that turned out to be just round the corner. The next day we checked out a few rivers that looked a bit low, a bit easy, a bit hard, or a bit too much like they would make us sick, before trying to wild camp, giving up and finding a Motel near the Cavado and getting an early night…

After some more sodding TomToming we made it to what we thought was the start of the walk into the Rio Cavado. Theo was feeling delicate so drove shuttle.

Rob E Patrick sloggeo a Cavado

For reference, you will note the river in the top left of the picture, and the track leading to the river top right. We didn’t use this track, we walked a good hearty distance over a hill and through bogs, vines, brambles, gorse and a ploughed field. The river was well worth it. A short portagey lead in, followed by an excellent granite section.

Pot de Melto a droite, boofio a left! Pic Rob T

Trainio di Slopejamo!

Rob a nae concussio a Cavado

Team Runio di Maxifun Pic Rob T

We had a few blasts on super fun happy slide at the end of the gorge, which gave the river time to come up a fair chunk, and both Rob and myself time to fall a good 25 feet down cliffs into the river. Not for the unpadded behind. The short paddle out was made more entertaining by seeing how far I could paddle before I sank. (Further than you think!)

Back to the motel (for Theo’s health) we made grand plans for all weathers. These were pissed on by the fact that our maps weren’t detailed enough to show all the roads, and we had no gauges to go on. In the end we got on “7Km of Class III”, as it was getting dark. It was 7km of flat, and 3 rapids at the start. Swines! The only consolation was making up plays on the name of the damn thing. “Tamega”.

For our final night it was rude not to wild camp, and then paddle the Paiva “sex up” section. I’mlead to believe this was a fun section, I walked out of it, after the lead in finally killed my boat.

Lowri a SexUp Paiva Pic Rob T

All in all, a cracking trip, well worth the perseverence, and of course, thanks to Metcheck for putting off the people with real jobs!

We used the Kayak Portugal guidebook, which would be well complimented by some good walking scale maps of the area. We flew with Ryan Air (cheap and cramped, no probs with boats) and rented with Easy Car (cheap, and you can trash the car if you pay the excess). Big thanks to Rob’s parents for the late night driving, to the people of Portugal, kayakers and others who made our trip so delightful, and especially to the owners of Restaurant Central in Melgaco who opened their family dinner to 14 odd kayakers, including one who tried to elope with their daughter, and one who took a shine to wife!

Well that was a helluva year! “What!?” I hear you cry, “its only half way through December”.

Very astute of you, but on Monday I am off to the big playground that is Sun Peaks in British Columbia for some festive fun, and then a bit of a new year do in Portugal. I gather there are a few waterfalls out there as well….

It’s been a corker, bring on 2008, graduation, more student boater X, SlopeJam, the rodeo, Busa Slalom, my 21st, Dublin, France, Norway, teaching practise, India, and no doubt some academic work as well….

… I’m applying for an extra 12 hours in my day, I certainly need them.

Some recent photographs…

An excellent weekend in Yorkshire, marred by scandal and rumours of cheating.

The scandal was first uncovered early on Friday evening, when certain individuals who cannot be named for legal purposes were spotted leaving early, and not drinking “an utter skinful”. This was further fuelled by some dastardly souls taking to the water for “practise runs” at obscene hours of the morning. This level of energy at such an hour can only be achieved by anabolic steroids, as it has been proven that before the hours of daylight tea simply lacks the power.

By Sunday morning, the cheating was far too evident. A number of groups had not frequented the marquee and drunk themselves into a stupor, and  as such were “raring to go”, with several of their number not even looking queasy.

Fortunately as fine individuals, we were downright ill throughout the day, and as such maintained the moral highground above low tactics.

N.b. The above is all tounge in cheek! 

More photos to follow in due course…

We had a pub lunch. It was lovely.

Photographs can be found HERE for the daytime shots, and HERE and HERE for the night time party shots. Photos by Me, except the ones of me!

Thanks to everyone who helped out, or got me drunk.

The WCA are once again proving that they are years ahead of the Canoe England campaign for rivers access. For more info check out this short video from BC HERE and for more info on paddling in Wales, check out www.kayakingisnotacrime.org.uk

October, and some members of new committees from uni canoe clubs accross the country make a pilgrimage to Plas Y Brenin, for the 11th annual Student Safety Symposium. University canoe clubs are traditionally gung ho, disorganised, and some might say have a reputation for being a bit dangerous! The aim of the weekend (dubbed Octoberfest by some) is to try and address some of the issues commonly affecting canoe clubs across the county.

Chris Eastabrook - Llugwy. 

Friday night is an opportunity for the staff to get together and have a catch up on old tales, tell new extravagant lies (For example; “I just cycled here from Manchester”) and try in desperation to drink the bar dry.

Me, Swallow Falls - Pic Chris Eastabrook

Saturday morning dawns far too early, and after a slap up breakfast and a quick intro the students are treated to a couple of hours of lectures on minibuses, blagging from the AU and playing safe in general. Meanwhile the staff slope off to nurse hangovers, paddle if it’s rained, or go for a climb. This year it was dry and we went to the RAC boulders.

Milling about - RAC Boulders 

The afternoon plays host to a number of local based workshops, from CSTs and steep ropework to open boating for those who don’t. Ably accompanied by Pat Clissold and Rich Brookes I took a group of people for a potter round the lakes in open boats, and introduced them to the idea that paddling doesn’t have to be uber gnar to be fun.

Safely back to the centre, tea and cake is provided, followed by a selection of Q + A sessions with people well versed in various fields. I very much enjoyed chatting with people about the French alps alongside Fran, Dave and Adam D.

Carelessly, some idiot had booked England to loose at rugby that evening, meaning not as many people as hoped made the excellent talk from the 4 borders expedition, safely back from Siberia. Amazing Dave followed this up with a short (and great) video from his jaunt down the Thule Beri at Easter. The bar is then drunk dry, and then anything else that looks like drink is drunk.

Team Tea - Llugwy 

Breakfast stomached again, and the meat of the day begins. The whole of Sunday is spent on the water, or by the water working generally on skills and techniques to help lead in a club environment, from intorducing people to the water, all the way up to managing a group on a steep section of river. This year, myself, Pat, Lowri, and Dave joined Adam and Pete from the Brenin in taking a group into the heart of Welsh tourism and paddling Swallow Falls.

You’ll notice this post is pretty general, if you want to find out more, there is a safety camp at Easter in Scotland, and this another Welsh one next year, get in touch with Tom Parker at www.tomparkercoaching.co.uk

There is a lot of video footage to be edited, expect a video sometime soon….

Click on the image above to download the perfect text alert for your mobile phone.
Download, upload to your modern telephone, et voila.
Enjoy!

The last couple of weeks have been dedicated in some way to convincing freshers that paddling with Bangor Uni Canoe Club is a wholesome and enriching activity. The WCA academic planners went down a storm at the freshers fair, and the “Have a go” sessions at Llyn Paddarn was over subscribed.

Pic Jessie Knights

Friday was Lucy’s birthday, and so an excuse to not do much work!

For some reason we ended up in our garden drawing on the paving slates with chalk, before going to the RAC boulders in the heart of Snowdonia.

Tim doing some bad ass heel and toe hooking, RAC.

Birthday cake!

The next day it was time to take a whole gang of freshers on a fafftastic trip to the lakes at PyB to try and introduce them to paddling on edge, and maybe paddle some moving water. Courtesy of an Indian Summer, there was no moving water, but everyone seemed to have fun in the sun.

I met my dissertation tutors today, and then paddled down to High Tide Hole in my creekboat. I really wish I had a sea kayak, but then I certainly wouldn’t have any money, or probably a dissertation.

Pic by Mark Rainsley - SW Sea Kayaking

Once again I made the pilgrimage up North to the Wet West Paddle Fest, a fantastic get together at the start of the season, with some dam releases, and some partying.

Thursday afternoon, we left Bangor laden down with haribo, crisps and quiche, the food of champions. After being pulled over by the police and questioned about our drug habits, and a few wrong turns we made it to the Falls of Falloch, and kipped in the car park. In the morning we were joined by Jules Pike and Liam Kirkham (of Design Crisis fame) and made tracks for the Orchy.

Me running a drop on the Orchy, it probably has a name. - Pic C. Mitchell

The Orchy was running at a lovely “2″ on the gauge, with some fantastic curler rides and wave trains to enjoy all the way down. Pausing only to admire Jules and Mitch’s lines on the drop above, and to watch a salmon leap clean up the big drop towards the bottom, we blasted down in a mix of sunshine and showers.

Jules, Same drop, different line. - Pic C.M.

The afternoon was spent in Fort William searching out some tip top 70’s funk gear, and generally loafing about, before pitching camp at the Kinlochleven Ice Factor for an evening of frivolity. The entertainment for the evening came from a series of talks, me on Corsica, Dave and Giles on the Thule Beri, and finally the 4 Borders gang on their jaunt to Russian parts. Well lubricated by beers we slumbered merrily, for tomorrow was the Moriston.

Having looked in on the Thistle Stop tea room, just the other side of Fort Bill, for all day breakfast (the service takes all day it seems) we made it to the Moriston to join the million and one other people that were already there. The carnage was, quite frankly, amazing. How so many people avoided serious injury is a mystery to me, with only one ambulance called (I think). Still it made fantastic video!

Atti cruises down the Moriston, Pink lid and all. - C.M.

A few runs later, suitably knackered after a flat out speed run we called it a day, grabbed some fish and chips, and made fot the Nevis Centre and Mama Funk. A quick warm up game of 10 pin bowling next door, followed by some inventive drinks, and we were ready to throw shapes til the wee small hours.

Some old geezer. - CM

Once the wee small hours arrived, we discovered, to our joy that we were at the house of a local dentist, enjoying laughing a lot and a not very hot tub. These duties dispatched, 3 hours kip was all that we needed to go and watch Mitch and Atti have a crack at the Etive with some water in it, before stealing the march, and heading for home.

The Wet West Paddle Fest was fantastic again this year, and this is in no small way due to the hard work of the SCA Recreational chaps and chapessess, Cheers everyone! We videoed a good deal of boating on the upper Moriston, which will feature in a short video, available shortly on my blog. I’m sure I have lots more thoughts on the event, and hilarious stories to fill many pages, but these can wait a while.

Rosie tries a new look. - CM

Time to sell on the old work horse and make space for a shiny new creek boat. She’s done me a damn fine service, but still got plenty more in her.

The last ever 4 star from the old system is done and dusted.

The hardest thing about the Ardeche is not getting run over by the constant stream of mad French loonies on sit on tops.

Typical scenes on the Ardeche. Hot, sunny, lots of holiday makers.

A big thanks to Performance Kayaks for the loan of a Dagger Mamba for the week.

…Arriva trains, who are bloody awful.

…Ardeche, where I will spend next week, sunning myself and admiring the nudist beaches

…Amazed at the level of communication between Canoe England and the Welsh Canoe Association.

Some bloke with mad skillz on the Ardeche.

What are we going to do in November when the rivers run dry?

Actually, its quite nice.

2 weeks in Lancaster working for the Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training, and slacking off to play at Wish You Were Here, the local(ish) squirt boating spot.

Picture by Dave Fairweather

Turns out Jill Dando was on Holiday, not Wish You Were Here.

Totally by chance 2 days of boating coincided with Saturday and Sunday.

The Mellte get off, in lovely hot sun

Saturday started far too early in South Wales with Cheesy and Rosie. The Nedd Fechan is very jolly, and caused much hilarity, a short video - Click

After that, with levels dropping off, and the sun coming out the Mellte called to us, more fun video here - Click

The dark woods, Gandalf not pictured.

Sunday was wet, very wet. The Upper dart was honking along nicely at lunch time, a bit much for our group, so we ran a few little run gems further up the valley. Word on the street is that you shouldn’t paddle them, because it will ruin the access “agreement” on the Upper. If there is a good level in them, they are excellent. Show some responsibility and paddle these rivers high.

A short piece from the East Dart - Click

Having cruised down the lovely East and West, the upper had almost reached a nice cruisy level, so a few of us carried on down. Frankly excellent. There is a short video from that, as yet un-up-loaded.

What a cracking weekend. Next weekend I’m putting to sea, weather permitting.

The Mellte in South Wales has been “discussed” a lot recently on UK Rivers Guidebook, so it seemed only right and proper to go and run it again. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as high as last time, but it still wasn’t that scrapey, how people tolerate paddling it lower I have no idea. Anyway an all star cast of Me, Cheesy, Rosie C, Rob C, and Danny Y got on about 8pm, and got off an hour and a bit later, grinning like mad men(and woman). That makes 3 days in a row I’ve been paddling in decent flows, and its July! We often struggle to get that in winter. Enjoy this short feature presentation…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfkW8HnIfqA 

Its July, and I’ve just got in from some frankly excellent boating. First off some tasty ditch slide fun time on the Tawe in South Wales, which would have been really awesome if the gorge wasn’t just a big pile of tree mess.

Cap’n Morse on the Tawe.

Next up, the massivly hyped, uni group breaking Mellte, but with a difference, it had some water in it. Not loads, but enough to keep it all clean.

Me on the Mellte. Cracking shot by Si Morse.

Back to Brissle, and lured in by pizza and garlic bread, I was heartlessly tricked into going to an Avon Polo Club evening. Turns out polo is actually really good fun, providing you don’t take it too seriously!

The more astute of you will notice that the day was a bit old school, not only because Mike Moxon came along, but because I carelessly left my creek-boat in my other house. Hurley or Dartmoor tomorrow. Hurrah!

Its nearly weekend warrior time.

Turns out the alps are a long way away, and take about 3kg of Haribo to get back from.

The boater X rocked, full report coming up when I am more alive, cheers to everyone who helped/raced/cheered/got naked.

It was the summer solstice on the way home, by total chance.

My academic work for the year is done and dusted, a