Sometimes it rains in wales

Water

After much faff regarding the arrangements of the trip, five excited kayakers arrived at sheds. As we ventured into wales we noticed that there seemed to be a fair bit of water about. Myself, Liam and Tolly arrived at Betws-y-Coed first and stood around comparing lines over chip shop falls, soon after Hannah and Stu Haywood turned up followed closely by Gareth and Dom.

After a bit of decision making we headed off to paddle the Conwy. As we began to change in the rain Gareth soon realised he was missing a deck, so he kindly agreed to be shuttle bitch for the day. With the Conwy on high we zoomed down the upper section in no time without any hiccups. At this point Dom and Hannah jumped off.

It's a portage... (the first grade 5)

Continuing at a good pace we headed on into the middle Conwy. We bumbled down the river until we got to the first grade five. After a short inspection we all agreed there was some possibility of a safe line however we all also agreed that none of us was going to make it and would instead get destroyed in the huge, undercut, boiling hole at the bottom. The portage which Liam and Tolly didn’t enjoy was quick and whilst getting on and attempting to drop into Liam’s eddy I managed to get washed down stream, to which Liam decided it was best just to find me later. When we were all back on the water we headed towards the second grade 5 at which point Tolly decided to jump off. After running the lead in rapid we hopped out for an inspection. Stu decided he wished to run the drop so I headed down to be a safety boat. After getting on I attempted to set up in an ideal safety position however ended up flushed down the next few rapids with the words “there’s a deadly falls soon” on loop in my head. Liam watching this then noticed Stu had already broken out and was heading for the drop. With only an unpacked throw bag and stuck in a spectator position he watched as Stu was back looped several times and finally flushed from the drop. After some confused signalling between me and Liam everyone eventually with a lot of faffing got off the river and made it to the car park.

Nantygwryd - no fields in sight

We then after checking options headed off to the Afon Nantygwryd a small spate river that more or less runs down what must normally be a stream in a farmer’s field. After getting kitted up myself, Liam and Stu headed to the put in deciding to miss the rock slides at the top. Liam getting on spent

All the best rivers have wires across them

some time deciding whether Dom driving his car or the spate river which we were about to run worried him more. As soon as we left the put in (the least sunk section of a field) the narrow river quickly got steeper. After dodging under a wire we soon became to close and started playing bumper boats down the rapids which resulted in a roll for Liam. Getting off just in time we inspected another grade 5 which looked painful and portaged. The river then began to level off and we found that we were putting more effort into paddling against the wind than the rapids. We finally reached the last rapid where a small fan group of ours had assembled. Stu and Liam ran the drop getting good lines. I then jumped on and managed to get it a fairly wrong. My nose hit a huge rock stopping me, I then fell sideways into a hole and got briefly acquainted with the river bed.

Greg Styling the last drop

After jumping off we headed for a well-earned pint and meal in Betws-y-Coed.