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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
More pics coming soon…
Woah. I made a dissertation. Exams are on their way. Crikey, time has zipped by, and before we know it I’ll be in France and it will be time for the student boater X and SlopeJam! (www.studentboater.x.com)
We’ve had the first shortie cag sessions of year, some BBQ action and I’m slowly getting filled up with minging jabs for India. Back to the Grindstone, my poor nose!
Girls in the Fort, Tweed not pictured — Tom P gets to grips with the meat.
Look closely and you will see I am topless. Phwoar.
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 )
We’ve been talking about getting out for a night mission for a while. Me and Mitch finally managed to get our arses in gear, and did cruisy scramble up the Gribbin, followed by a sketchy descent just beyond Bristley ridge, in near daylight conditions. Hell of a moon!
Tryfan and Bristley Ridge, with the bright lights of the North coast faking a sunset.
Cantilever Rock, 20s of posing!
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!
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!
This christmas I was lucky enough to enjoy a damn fine family holiday to Sun Peaks in British Columbia. We visited last year, and were hooked. It gets good snow, the people are friendly, and there is more than enough to keep you excited for a long time. We had a cracking number of “powder days”, including an amazing first trax breakfast on Boxing Day. When me and my younger brother weren’t up to our knees in soft fluffy powder we were cruising perfect rolling piste with the parents, or floating merrily over the pristine and well maintained terrain parks. (Kind of like skate parks, but made of snow)
Truly excellent. For more info check out www.sunpeaksresort.co.uk
To get there, fly to Vancouver or Calgary, then get an internal flight to Kamloops and a short bus ride up to the hill.
On the way back, executive class was an unexpected delight, champagne before take off, 3 courses with a choice of wines, and a hearty breakfast made the fact that I had to sweat across London to meet up for the next stage of my adventures that bit more bearable… 
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…
They say a picture paints a thousand words. For me a good picture can paint a whole story, or it can just offer a few choices words.
I took this shot this evening, it’s of Menai Bridge, about 5 mins cycle from my house. I spent most of the day in front of the computer bashing out a few words about experiments and what-not. It got to about half 6, and it was dark and clear outside. It seemed rude not to go for a hack on my bike and get some photos of the bridge, as it’s always nicely lit. This photo can’t tell you all this, what it can tell you is that I have lost my tripod head. Bugger.
30 seconds, F9.0, ISO 200 28mm for those of you geeky enough to care!
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….
This weekend I went to Warwick to catch up with my dear chum Chris Eastabrook (holder of fine parties) dress up as a school boy, and go for a climb.
Chris - Holder of fine parties.
We achieved all of that and more, but it’s mainly in jokes, drunken lunacy and far too much silliness. Instead I feel i should tell you about an amazing service. AQA. Simply text any question you can think of to 63336 and within 30 min or so, you get an informative answer. Here are some examples…
“AQA; With China showing no signs of renouncing its sovereignty & foreign governments continuing to recognise it, freeing Tibet is probably impossible.”
“AQA; David Fairweather loves to kayak. He is 26 years old and lives in Machester. He is studying for a PhD but finds time to visit his gorgeous girlfriend”
AQA really does know just about everything!
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
I’m off to play pirates in Greece for a week. Have fun!
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.
A few fleeting days at home between adventures.
The wooden paddle is coming along steadily. Lots of planing today, making square things round is tricky. They have a name now. UgliStiks.
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.
In between the rain, summer creeking, coaching kids, and sleeping, we have built a few new dirt jumps. They are most excellent fun, I’m sure if its ever dry we will ride them again.
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…
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.
My creek boat is in Wales, so I went biking on the Mendips. It was good, I’m going again tomorrow.
Every year (or just about) a local dairy farmer swaps his cow sheds for stages, and herds stinky wet people about the place for a long weekend. Good thing too.
I only had a Sunday ticket, but still managed to see The National Youth Orchestra, Aqualung, Tiny Dancers, Cold War Kids, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, The Rakes, Mika, Kaiser Chiefs, Pendulum and The Chemical Brothers. It was quite muddy, I was glad of my rural training, and a decent pair of dry trousers!
It’s all over, France was a giggle as usual, and the Boater X was the jewel in the crown for me. A massive thanks to everyone who turned up, helped out, raced, gave us prizes, or got “Savaged”. I am already super keen to do the whole thing again next year, bigger, more prizes, more partying, and a return of Bar Savage. A few more photos, and some results can be found on the Boater X page here. All pics by Paul Wilkinson, thanks to him!
The next day, we were all a state.
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, and now I have a whole pile of things to look forward to…
Dressing up smartly and getting mucked up drunk. (Sam Leach and Rat Boy featured)
Shortly after that I’m off to the French Alps for a couple of weeks of fun. (Me in the Lions Den, Ubaye last year)
While I’m out there I’ve organised a Boater X, click the banner for more info!
When I get home I have a few weeks of kicking about, doing odd jobs, then I’m going on a sea kayaking adventure, followed by some open boat coaching, liberal amounts of squirt boating, maybe some surfing, and maybe an Ardeche trip.
All too soon it’ll be freshers week, and the whole thing will start again.
There is plenty of media from the recent trip to Val Sessia and Val Aosta, so here is a bit of a round up.
Part V of the idle bugger’s tour Italiano
Chris
I sat out the last river day of our trip with a sore back and sore shoulder. The others paddled the Soana, which was described as “Read and Run, Inspect and Swim”. I kicked back in the sun, took photos of lizards, and read Northern Lights.
The final day of our trip was spent stocking up on gin and wine for a pittance, loafing about in the sun eating ice cream, and jumping off bridges.
Mmm, Creamy.
The whole trip was truly awesome, thanks to everyone who made it great, you guys and gals know who you are.
Part IV of the skiver’s tour of Italy!
Dave and Pat arrived that evening, and it was another foul day, heavy rain and mingingness. Being young and keen, we went shopping again, and then huddled under umbrellas while the newcomers (team half holiday) ran the Gronda and Sorba Slides.
TPTV filming. (Pic, S Nash)
After a night on the vino, we waved a fond fairwell to Val Sessia, and headed West to Val Aosta. The Ayasse was high on our hit list after seeing photos of a fun slide-fest on www.adventurepaddler.org. When we (finally) got there, it was a apparent we were in for something a bit special. Fantastic, if a little terrifying waterfall paddling in a narrow gorge. Truly excellent.
Nick Horwood hucking his meat on the put in slide.
Me on the big hit entering the last gorge. (Pic S Nash) From the rocks where Tom and Dave are, you have 2 options. Run the drop, or jump into the pool with your boat, and hope that you don’t wash down into the sticky hole and 20 foot slide combo!
Tom P in the midst of it. The entry fall can just be seen in the background. After such an awesome run, it was only fitting to have an awesome meal, and the local restaurateur’s eclectic “no menu” scheme worked out rather well.
Coming up in the concluding part… The Soana, jumping of bridges, and home time!
Part III of the procrastinator’s tour of Alpine Italy
Finally it stopped raining, and the Semenzini had dropped to a more socially acceptable level. There is loads of stuff on the river, mainly smooth bedrock delight, like the awesome trumpet drop, which is much the same as being shot out of the end of a trumpet. The Gnar Per Mile (GPM) is certainly pretty high.
The main hit on the river is the cave drop, so called because its in a cave.
Nick fires it up and styles the line.
Chris narrowly avoiding landing on his head
A classic Horwood line.
With the Semenzini done, we went and ran the Gronda and Sorba slides again. Then we went to sleep in the rain (again).
Coming up in the next fun filled installment, Pat and Dave arrive, and things get even steeper….
Part 2 of the procrastinator’s tour of Italy!
We ran the sorba slides, they were really low, totally inconsequential, and quite good fun.
The next night it rained, a lot, and then rained some more. Just for good measure it carried on raining. We went to the Semenzini, which was on the high side of good. No one was feeling the love for a damn good hiding, so we wettied off, and went shopping.
Fully equipped with umbrellas, we decided it would be downright soft not to paddle something, so ventured to the Gronda, home of the Teva Extreme Race each year. This also had a substantial drop or two of water in it, but being shorter and less commiting, team exec fired it up. “Class IV, Read and Run, Survival Boating” And it was.
Hang time on the last drop of the Gronda. Pic Sarah Nash
Finally it stopped raining, and we made it onto the Semenzini, but revision calls, so that is a story for another day…
Part one of the revision break update series!
Ryan Air flights are a peculiar beast. I spent more on trains and petrol getting to and from the airport than I did on the flight. Once you get on board you are treated to a barrage of adverts for Ryan Air. Surely they have you hooked already if you have made it to the seat?! Collecting the hire car, the lovely woman at Europcar had laid on a treat, assuring us that we had been given a free upgrade, point-blank refused to give us the scrotty estate we had ordered.
The Executive Saloon. A 2L TDI Passat.
We spent the first few days hammocking at Campatongo in Val Sessia. It seems to be a focal point for paddling in the area, as well as being a prime spot for kicking back and telling extravagant lies about the day’s adventures. For about 80% of the time we stayed there it rained heavily. I guess we were lucky. Click on the cat and mouse for more info on this awesome spot.
30 seconds at Campatongo one evening
Egua
The first run was a low but excellent Egua. The major tributary of the Semenza, it has bedrock fun, interspersed with some bouldery steepness, but with straightforward lines and awesome moves.
The river kicks off with a bang, Nick Horwood busts his groove on the first drop. The Peli case is a video camera rig.
Me in one of the steeper slides on the river, about to turkey ham off the end of the slide.
Tea Boy Tom Parker getting towards the end of the river. It really was this good all the way down. Show the last slide a bit of caution, or send a probe first, as it can get really sticky.
Next time on Tarquin’s adventures, we go to the Semenzini, and are joined by Pat and Dave. Check back real soon
I’ve just got back from a long week in Val Sessia and Val Aosta in Alpine Italy. Some of the nicest steep paddling I’ve ever done, a truly excellent time was had by all. Enjoy these photos and short tales, there is video and more pics to follow.
A quick warm up on the Egua in low water. A cracking Grade V Leisure run, slides and boofs all over the place. (Pic Nick Horwood)
Some classic airtime on the race section of the Gronda (Pic Chris Eastabrook)
Tom P on Cave Drop, Semenzini. (Pic Tom Laws)
Far too much happened to try and compress it down to one reasonable length update, so I’ll let it filter out over the next few days.
I’m back in Wales after a short foray to the shire, and back in my seat of learning, with paper and pens and everything! Obviously we couldn’t start the term without a barbecue in our damn fine garden, so we did.
George, Mitch and Adam near the summit of Tryfan
Mmm, meat!
George gets stuck into the cider
I am always aware that a blog can become mind-numbingly tedious if it simply an account of “what I did at the weekend”, but sometimes, the best things happen at weekends!
Shudder Rudder on the Old Skool Wave
This weekend saw the National Student Rodeo 2007 take place at Holme Piere-Point slalom course in Nottingham. Threatened by high levels on the Trent early in the week, the water dropped off, leaving warm sunshine and a course ready for all and sundry from the nations finest centres of academia to strut their freestyle stuff.
Friday night is a time for arriving, pitching camp and uttering the infamous line “I’ll just have a couple this evening, got a long day tomorrow“. I don’t why, but we always seem to lie to ourselves. A plate of chips, some pasta, and far more cider than is healthy later we stumbled from the River Legacy marquee, and through the ditch to slip merrily into slumber.
Tom Parker, Saturday morning
Saturday morning came far too soon, and as top freestyle judges, we were expected to be at our stations ready to dish out marks for performance at 8.30am sharp! Dave Fairweather and I were left in charge of the old skool wave, where we awarded points for all the coolest moves including shudder rudders, pop outs, and being a German in a Microbat.
Dave Fairweather, Judging beard firmly attached
The afternoon strolled in, and it was time to go squirting. For those of you not familiar with the term, rather than being a fight with water pistols or a gentleman’s interest production, it is actually the subtle art of going underwater in a perfectly serviceable craft. Ben White and Claire O’Hara were on hand to give us some pointers before the competition got under way. A 10 minute jam format in the looping pool decided who was in the final, and thanks to an lovely smooth long head under ride, I made it through along with Dave, Oli Brown, and an eclectic selection of craft.
With this done and dusted, it was back to timing and blowing my whistle for the intermediate and advanced heats, before polishing off a quiche and getting all cowboy’d up for one of the best parties of the year so far. 500 students in a large tent, with to tunes laid down by Lincoln’s finest DJ. Truly excellent.
Roused at an ungodly hour for “up-time” Topo Duo was followed by the squirt final. After a run each on the eddy above Twin Waves, it came down to a sudden death final between myself, Dave, and Max Bilbow. After far more rounds than my already sore head could handle, it was decided that Dave could win, I would be allowed second place, and Max should come in a close third.
Ms Wall racking up the frequent flier miles
Ladies Expert was the usual cat fight between Lowri and Emily. In the end Lowri did more loops than Emily, or something, anyway, she was decided to be the winner.
Mens expert was hotly contested as usual, with Adam Spooner just pipping Tim Trew for 1st place in the looping pool. I missed the Intermediate, Novice and Open as I was squirting.
Tim Trew, Wizard of the West,
All that remained was to dish out the vast prizes, rumoured to include One million pounds and a Liquid Satisfaction guided trip to the moon. Full results and whatnot will appear at www.nationalstudentrodeo.org.uk soon!
Adam Dumolo ripping the looping pool to bits in the expert final….
….then dishing out the prizes!
An enormous thanks to everybody who made the event happen, particularly Adam and Sara. Also special thanks to the Leeds girls for keeping us in tea and toasties all weekend. Heroic! See you all next year for the NSARRRR!
P.s. Well done to Sara for winning the Des Mes sponsorship this year!
My house mate Adam is running for Athletics Union president in this years Bangor Student’s Union elections. A marvellous opportunity to get out and play with my camera, and take some more non boating shots.
Adam James
The elections are next week, if you are a student at Bangor University, go and vote, more details here!
Friday Jones running for Chairperson
There’s blood on the moon tonight.
It flows over the white, once bright as clean sheets;
now a contagion of raw yellow over a half-eclipsed sphere.
We drink shiraz,
it stains our lips and tongues burnt orange.
The next eclipse is three years away
and I wonder if your shadow will
engulf me then, burn cheeks red,
block the light.
But that would be impossible.
Our orbits would need to cross the same plane of space,
and your schedule is somewhat erratic.
My moon will never be completely dark.
I have lingering memories
of settling dust and water vapor.
A poem courtesy of google.
Tom
Simon
Matt
Alan
They say the climate is changing. The Crocuses and Daffodils are certainly out earlier this year, or maybe every year we forget when they arrive. Anyway, they look quite pretty, and provide an excellent opportunity to try something a bit different with my photography.
The saddest, geekiest post I hope I ever make.
‘My, you’re well equipped there Mr Laws!”
My apologies, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
