Level: Medium – actually with a decent amount of water
in!
Paddlers: Schneiders, Spudley, Christopher, Stuart, Gregory,
Hannah JJ, Abbey, Jack.
A text from Stu just as I was falling asleep on Friday
night informed me that in the morning we were paddling the Greta, so I set my
alarm and hoped I’d packed all my paddling kit because there was no way I was
getting out of bed to check. After walking across a frosty Wavertree Park to
get to Paddle Manor very early for a lift to sheds, Stu informed us that Spud
and I were leading. At sheds, we were reunited with Abbey and she was reunited
with her Scottish green Hoss. We made it to the Greta after one pause to
re-rack some dodgily angled paddles.
The
Learner Leaders attempted to do a river safety talk along the lines of river
leaders being akin to gods (or goddesses in this case) while Stu messed about
and managed to get piss in places he didn’t want it. This was the first of many
times I was to speak sternly to Stuart that day. Once we were all in boats we
set off speedily, trying to keep either me or Spudley in front. We spent a
while marvelling at the fact that there was enough water in the river to cover
the majority of the rocks, which I’m sure many of you remember from our
pin-tastic Freshers’ Trip when the river was super low. I can’t remember all
the separate rapids which were roughly grade 3, but after the first one or two
Stuart took the Learner Leaders aside and informed us that we should be the
‘probes’ and that he and Chris and Greg were ‘invisible’ would only do what
they were specifically instructed and wouldn’t do safety unless we told them
to. This forced me and Spud to paddle better as there was no one to rescue us
if things went TU, and also really think about using the whole group in the
most useful way. This gave me many extra reasons to shout at Stu when he was
awkward and didn’t do what he was told, but also improved my river-based
decision-making a lot, even though I erred on the side of caution pretty much
every time. Chris and Greg were exemplary and eddied out to pass on signals and
got on throwlines etc when and where we asked them to.
Abbey,
Jack and Hannah paddled really well, and Hannah being the only fresher on a
grade 3 trip I can forgive for her one swim where she unfortunately
body-slammed a rock upside down. To be fair, it was next to the eddy I was
sitting in and I can say that the rest of us all accidentally paddled over the
same bloody rock although Chris and Stu managed to make it into some boofy
thing. This didn’t make the booty beer at the end any less hilarious. “Grim” is
the only way to describe it. I attempted to chase Hannah’s boat, which became a
lot more successful when Stu came to help. Still cheerful and with cag
chocolate consumed, we got back on and paddled off.
We
found a play wave which some of us failed entirely to get on. Well done Jack, I
think that might have been a first river roll. Spud however, demonstrated the
perfect but intrinsically flawed Double Roll technique. Imagine self binning as
you roll up with too much force and just fall back in... and then do the same
thing AGAIN and have to low brace to prevent a triple roll.
Most
of the group marvelled at reaching the get out, having failed to do any such
thing on Freshers’ trip. Chris and I, leaders of the Freshers’ Trip Dream Team,
just looked smug and congratulated ourselves on a second run of the Greta with
minimal carnage. After a few neck-cramping minutes in the group shelter we
could get changed and spectate as Hannah did her booty beer. Points for effort.
We
had the traditional visit to Keswick fish and chip shop and I got asked to
leave the climbing shop for eating L
All in all a successful day trip which hopefully got me and Spud starting to
learn to lead and allow Stu etc to retire and live the easy life when they get
too old for that sort of thing.
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