Advanced WW Skills on the Tees

Wednesday marked our final day of Advanced WW Skills coaching with Paul Bull. An early start saw Dom, Schneids and myself off to the Tees with an epic 3 hour journey with plenty of rain- enough that the Tees would rise a good inch during the time we were on the water.

The morning session took place on a small double-drop rapid beneath low force. With good levels the three of us, and Derek who joined us, practiced old skills and stokes from previous sessions, showing how beginning a rapid with a good line generally meant a good line out of it. Having been avoiding the correct line due to thinking I actually was several feet to the right of myself I proved this well, taking a roll and the advice to “Stop paddling like a canoe-er!” on board. By the end of the session my line was almost matching Dom’s, who had since moved on to the auto-boof on the other side. On our final run, I planned to show Paul how far I had come under his careful guidance. Unfortunately the mention of lunch and the crowd of cheering school children put me off, and I took the glory of the worst line of the lot. With the thought of what was to come after lunch, Schneids and I practiced our rolls, and we got off.

Schneids' first run of the day

Dom takes the auto-boof

The Spud line- a common sight that day

After lunch we took a run up to Dog Leg, a grade 4 rapid that thankfully looks worse than it is! Derek and Paul set up safety on the bank. This turned out to be the wrong bank when Schneid’s boat spent time making love to eddy on the far side, (Unfortunately didn’t see what happened to Schneids but she definitely didn’t swim! ;) ) leaving it up to me to rescue it. Me, who is well known for rescuing kit... This rescue was on the same level of tact as the Vice-Captaincy speech, but eventually it was done after several previous attempts of trying to snag it with a sling and carabiner, pushing it out of an eddy with a paddle, shouting at it profusely… Schneid’s second attempt of training her wild Burn was more successful despite taking the dry line over the rocks. Not as a portage- she was still in her boat at the time!

The equivalent of asking a child to do brain surgery

Dom rocked up, all smugly modest and styled it first run, and proved that running the Dog-Leg itself actually seemed to make the line easier when he barely managed to get a paddle stroke between drops due to his speed, yet still made the corner effortlessly. After my first attempt concluded in another roll, my second was slightly more successful after sticking right and having time to contemplate my fear whilst amongst the boils.

Dog-leg

With time running out, the three of us carried on down to meet Paul and Derek at Low Force, pausing at a Grade 3 rapid that’s really difficult to scout from your boat but didn’t need scouted anyway! A lesson was learnt to slow down, and don’t get stuck downstream of a rapid when the entry to the easier drop was on the other side of the river, too far upstream to be made. Dom and I ran the slotty side, Schneid’s was wise enough to hold back and got a good line on the drop on the river right.

At Low Force, Paul ran us through the basics of boofing again. Easy! Gnar was hucked, tits were browned.

Dom on Low Force

Fortunately placed drop

Before

After

Needless to say that despite Paul’s amazing efforts at coaching us lot, boofing is still out of grasp currently!

We quickly ran the far left chute, Dom hammered it, and Schneids managed to actually run it upstream, wow! (Lol) Having not actually ran that beasty drop, we continued on down to the initial rapid, which had beefed up considerably thanks to the morning’s rainfall. Not having thought much of it, Dom,   Schneids and I blinded on down it. Only when in the middle of the drop did we realise that the line had since changed from right to left. Needless to say, I didn’t get either line and ran it straight center into the hole, and then spent some time upside down, using my paddles to push myself away from the rocks in the eddy I had made. Dom and Schneids followed looking as surprised as I did, but we all got off, laughing.

Looking a tad higher than this morning

Again, a massive thanks to Paul for his efforts to make us good boaters in three days! Let yourself rest easy knowing that because of your work with us, the freshers of LUCC next year are a lot safer now that we actually have some clue how to do this kayaking thing!