BUCS slalom

Table wrestling fun

So the thought of BUCS slalom brought to mind visions of greatness, of winning the event, being spotted by Olympic selectors, RBS offering to buy boats and fund training trips to warmer destinations, but enough about the aspirations of other Universities.  We had a greater quest and so, as reality kicked in, we contented ourselves with in the noble cause of chasing the Craic, not forgetting swimmers, paddles, boats and of course table wrestling!

Ben pushing hard

Happy Fiona

So the creepy village hall turned out not to be as creepy as it first appeared, until of course Matlida made her first appearance!  Friday night’s shenanigans left some bruised, some battered, some confused and all slightly pissed.  The course consisted of grade three with some sticky holes, tricky gates and questionable (yet smiling) rescue teams.  We set up camp at carnage corner passing the time watching the event unfold.  Those in the K1 would have two runs.  Most went smoothly and then Ian got on.  After swimming his plan changed from a vague ‘give it a shot’ to a fully fledged half assed approach and proceeded to attempt to get the worst possible score! He failed to achieve this! Adi made a valiant run down the course after throwing up; followed by a safety boater who had forewarned him he would not be taking part in any rescues.  

Gareth not getting the boat

One thing that amazed the whole crowd and brought a sense of awe to us all was the team GB C1 run.  Precision kayaking at its finest and a beauty to be hold.  Sunday provided at least some practice runs ahead of the women K1 and team events.  A back looped Fiona showed us all how it’s done, smiling all the way.  Chris and Gareth took on rescue detail at carnage corner, quickly adopting the cluster fuck approach.  The girls made valiant runs down the course and where well motivated by a cheering crowd the whole way.  Team events brought an edge of psychological warfare, which failed, that’s my fees well spent!  Tolly, Gareth and Ben finished ahead but Dom, Graham and spud certainly provided the most entertainment turning their run into a slalom/boater cross run.  As for Stu’s team, well the mystery of who hit the third gate will probably pass into kayaking folklore.

Carnage Corner!

All in all it was a great weekend, thoroughly enjoyed by all despite the swims, the racism, the old man jokes and river sickness.  I like to think the complete lack of flaff was down to my mature approach.  We may not have won BUCS but I think loser is a cat provided the only real sport for us, at least in it, everyone loses.  I shall sign off by asking, did anyone else see a tumbleweed roll through the village hall on Saturday night?  It was right after Manchester had to be reminded of their swim count!! Peace to the Madchester crew, always good to meet new boaters.

Coaching with Paul Bull Day 2: The Leven, South Lakes

Paddlers:  Dom, Schneids, Spud. Ruth was meant to be there but unfortunately was in the wrong country.

Coaches: Paul and his mate Gary, another coach who came along for a nice scenic paddle. A very good value coach:student ratio!

Walking down Smithdown to meet Dom at the fairly civilised time of 7.10am, I realised that it was snowing and dreaded another epic 10 hour drive to the Lakes. However, this time our delays were caused by traffic and not extreme weather! Dom picked up me and a rather woebegone Spudley – all kayaked out after a weekend on the Dee and the Mawddach plus having flu. My continual encouragements of “it’s good practice for Scotland!” were not particularly well-received.

We reached the Leven in cold sunshine and got changed – I discovered the joys of owning a cag that is not an XS i.e. I can put it on by myself without suffocating or dislocating a shoulder. Our pre-river briefing included a great talk from Paul on leadership including group kit, responsibilities, CLAP (if you don’t know this, look it up! :p) and how one could go about getting to know the group they were leading. The coaching on leadership principles continued throughout the day, fitting in nicely with our personal skills development. During this briefing it also transpired that Paul had never done the Leven before – this made us think a lot harder about our leading…

The first rapid was a weir leading into a drop on the left of an island. Although it drops suddenly it’s quite friendly and going left either spits you into an eddy or in Dom’s case onto a rock and into a roll. We ran it a couple of times to experiment with angle of entry and using timed power strokes to get to close eddies at the bottom. This was good to make us think about using only necessary paddle strokes to the best effect without wasting energy paddling hard at the centre of everything! Brute strength and speed is not a substitute for technique. The next weir was broken down with several green tongues available, so we ran that many times trying to get various ribbon eddies rather than just picking the easiest route down.

Next stop was a boulder garden, grade 3 at the top running into grade 2. I don’t think I have ever caught so many eddies in 100metres, probably dozens. Paul and Gary set us objectives each time we ran it so by the end we were breaking down the rapid nearly rock by rock so we could get to whatever position of most usefulness we wanted to be in. We felt we had earned our lunch by this point and fished it out of Dom’s boat. After another flat section we came to the weir before Backbarrow Bridge. Avoiding the swans, we scraped down the right hand side of the main weir and carried on to Backbarrow, where we quickly portaged to carry on with our coaching session on the next section of river. I still have an appointment with that rapid…

A natural triple drop weir below Death Weir in the sunshine started us off on the lower Leven which I had never done before. We reached another grade 3ish boulder garden and our eddyhopping began again in earnest. This one seemed more challenging, highlighted by the mine and Spud’s simultaneous pinning. I very slowly shuffled around my boulder (self rescue is the best rescue!) while Spud was getting too friendly with a tree branch in a small eddy. Dom, in the same eddy, just sat there having decided that Spud was not in mortal danger and he couldn’t do anything useful (a fair assessment). Gary, however, took pity on her and came and rescued her. I believe this is a technical.

Next came a huge water slide weir which Spud and I ran side by side. We stopped short of the duo high five as she nearly binned me at the bottom. The last rapid was a blind bend around an island, which put our leadership coaching into perspective. I missed the main eddy at the top and ended up going first around the corner, it was exciting but quite friendly and I caught the next eddy although I had lost line of sight.

Some more sunny flat water brought us to the get out. Once shuttling and racking etc was complete we trooped into the hotel at the get-in to have a hot drink and a cosy debrief with Spud’s lemon cakes. We felt a bit out of place in the hotel as it looked a bit posh for thermals and wellies. To Spud’s dismay she had to change out of her pyjama bottoms.

Once again we had a great day with Paul and Gary – thanks a lot to Paul for the excellent coaching and Gary for providing amusing comments and a helping hand. The lucky chaps are off paddling for another few days, but there should be some photos appearing on Paul’s facebook page soon. Thank you Dom for driving as well.

Schn

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The Mawddach Mission

Paddlers: Stu, Lloyd, Liam, Kim, Spud, Greg, James

It was a cold and rainy start at sheds at 7.45, exacerbated by the fact that we had to wait for Lloyd to arrive as he ‘forgot how long it took him to get ready in the morning’. (It’s not like you do it every day :P). We got racked and headed off to the Mawddach, hoping that levels would rise as rainchasers said ‘empty’ for most of the journey.

We turned up a very sketchy road to the get on and did the mission of a shuttle. James managed to take the wrong turning (I think he was following the sheep) but we finally got on the river.

Everyone was hesitant and feeling the nerves of the great Mawddach and after a little nervous swim from me we gathered up our confidence and set off into the depths of coed-y-brenin.

Greg was leading the way, with great speed, leaving the rest of us scattered throughout the rapids. After a few grade 4 drops and inspections we reached the first grade 5-the waterfall! Everyone pondered it for a while and Stu and Greg played paper scissors stone to see would go first. Greg won and set off, apparently missing his line but I was failing to take a photo of him at the bottom so didn’t see. Anyway his “deck popped”. Lols. No it actually did and he rolled up and paddled to the side almost completely submerged. Fairplay. He claims he styled it. Stu followed with a nice line. Liam and Lloyd enjoyed face planting but overall everyone did very well! Spud, James and I selflessly volunteered to do safety and take photos at the bottom and therefore didn’t run it :P

Immediately following this was a constrictor rapid. It was tight. There were some interesting manoeuvres and facial expressions on this one whilst everyone was avidly trying to avoid the syphon on river left. Spud rolled. We continued down some more grade 4 drops, with spud rolling, often stopping to inspect the ominous horizon lines. A few of the rapids were curlers on walls and one of them got the better of James who was spotted modelling the bung action of his new Jefe. The second grade 5 was reached and this looked more horrendous than Spud trying to cook a meal from scratch (those of you who don’t know-beware). We portaged.

From then on it was scout scout scout for the infamous Rhaeadr Mawddach. No one got too close when the immense horizon line was spotted. We walked around it whilst Liam and Stu contemplated which line they would take if they ran it (as if!). Lloyd was swiftly back on the water above the next set of rapids and began to ‘watch tap’ as the rest of us faffed around deciding where to get back on as we had seen a rather pinny tree in the second rapid of the set. Lloyd was blissfully unaware, but ran them unscathed. After much debate we decided on the best place to get back on, which was still horrendous, and carried on. The river eased off slightly and we flew. Until Greg, leading, ran a rapid blind and smashed his shiny new boat into a rock at the bottom. We wisely portaged.

The three nasties were upon us. They didn’t look overly clever so everyone besides Lloyd and Stu portaged. They ran them because they decided it would be easier than portaging however I think Stu regretted this decision when he was being worked in a hole and Lloyd had left him for dead by paddling off downstream. The portage was truly horrific and the get in was even worse resulting in my boat catching the current with only one of my legs in it (bit of a Scotland de ja vu moment). Technical.

We carried on blasting down until we arrived at a sort of rocky 90˚ angled wall bashing thing. Whilst everyone was inspecting it Liam shouted BOAT!! James had positioned his boat securely enough on a rock, with paddles inside, that it had somehow wobbled its way free and solo’d the rapid. At least we knew the gap was wide enough for us to fit! James and Lloyd set off downstream chasing it; Lloyd in a boat, James scrambling along the walls of a vertical gorge.  Greg, Spud and I were left to run it. I decided to go first and showed her how not to do it resulting in me swimming and spud rolling. Liam and I practiced live baiting so that was fun.

Everyone gathered downstream as James hopped back in. By this point it was 4.45pm and we were losing light fast. We blasted downstream, not caring what was in our way. A few rolls were had, a few welds were unwelded, a new boat was scratched, you get the drift. Oh and at some point, I can’t quite remember where, Spud rolled and scraped her head and face along a rock, completely removing GoPro and mount from her helmet. Don’t worry, she was fine.

We saw the confluence with the Eden and knew we were almost finished. The last big thing we encountered was a slot with about a 5ft drop on the other side. Lloyd inspected it and said ‘keep straight’. With these precise instructions everyone pencilled and ended up in a lovely recirculating boily eddy. At one point Stu, Spud, James and myself were in there. With some excellent advice from Greg on how to leave an eddy, we all exited successfully. Thanks Greg!

Finally we ran public toilet falls with excellent boofing skills and got out. We thought it was over, we thought we could eat, we thought we could go home. But James lost his car keys, for about half an hour! He had opened the car at least!

Exhausted, dehydrated, hungry, aching, but full of the joys of the Mawddach we set off home.

A trip to the Dee – 9/02/2013

Paddlers: Iain, Earnie, Dom, Spud, Graham, Greg, Adi, Jack

With us all meeting at sheds at the relatively late time of 9am we all seemed to be fairly awake which meant we loaded the cars quickly and were soon off to the Dee. We quickly made it to the Dee despite Dom missing the junction for the petrol station (wouldn’t be a kayaking trip if Dom didn’t get lost!). We unloaded the boats and got changed causing us to find Greg was the early contender for dick of the day award as he bought a spraydeck that didn’t fit his playboat. 

Despite being at the Dee to paddle on water we decided to start the day by attempting to paddle down the hill towards Horseshoe Falls which pretty much failed for the majority of us. Once we got on the river we did some ferry gliding which went well for everyone except for me as I managed to tail squirt any time I got near an eddy. After a few more eventful eddies we made it to serpents tail were some beer booties were earnt with Adi and Jack swimming the first time we went down and Graham swimming the second time he went down. After graham had emptied his boat we carried on down to JJ’s.

When we got to JJ’s we attempted to have a surf in the hole which wasn’t particularly successful for any of us. Graham was the first to enter the hole which was going well for maybe 1 second until he decided it was much better for his head to be in the water. After deciding water wasn’t the place for his head he rolled up and while asking what he should do he went over again and got flushed out the hole and rolled up. Having seen graham style the hole so well for some odd reason Spud decided she didn’t want to try it but with a bit of gentle encouragement/peer pressure from the rest of us Spud decided to give it a go. Spud managed to stay on the wave for just a bit more than Graham before she went over and ended up swimming in the hole before Earnie rescued her.

After leaving JJ’s we only had Town Falls left which was fairly uneventful except for some tail squirting by me. With Town Falls done we got off and went in the search for beer needed for beer booties which Spud, Graham and Adi drank the majority off while Jack’s shoe was more like a sieve meaning most of his beer went on the floor and causing him not to drink much.

Thanks to Dom for organising the trip as well as driving one car and Earnie driving the other.

Adventures on the Cwn Llan

Cwm llan, wet rock, long walk in, series of drops. dead sheep made me chunder. walked back up a few times. portaged the death on a stick falls, got pinned, wet exit... great morning! then the tryweryn, 9 cumecs, centre closed.

James on unknown drop

Liam pretending some wet rocks are actually a river

Greg doing the look no paddle strokes manoever



James posing with Liam's lunch

Liam up to his usual tricks, hopefully get a staff discount on new pyranha boat

The Kayaks - There and Back Again

And so it falls to me to describe the epic adventure on which our weary group embarked that afternoon. Our groups quest was slightly delayed after a certain someone realised they were missing some important equipment, but it wasn’t long before we were ready to set off in pursuit of the groups in front. 

From my own personal perspective, following remarkable demonstration of rusty edging and steering, the first twenty minutes of the river appeared to be a mixture of cold water and tree branches, with my fondness for trees in particular causing great amusement for those in my group as I demonstrated perfect technique for how to take a branch to the face. The first eddy in particular gave me and Simon an important reminder on the need for edging to avoid a cold wake up call.

From here however, with Fred leading our fellowship, we proceeded to battle through the river and negotiate our way through the first sets of rapids without any serious problem, all the time in anticipation of the promised “minor hole” and “folding wave” that would give the more experienced members of our group something more exciting to paddle…(clutching at straws). Sure enough after strong paddling we came upon the promised hole which we all advanced through without any serious problems.

However, shortly afterwards, the journey would almost come to a premature end for two of our travelling band of merry kayakers. After catching up to the other group and being signalled by Grog, a failed attempt by me to manoeuvre into an eddy resulted in Spud being given an unexpected experience of the icy chill of the river, and left myself swimming down the gorge while Ben bravely pursued the now empty boat. It is safe to say that I have never experienced cold like that of a river in the Lake District in January, and unfortunately for Hannah she too would discover that the hard way after a brave attempt to roll for the first time in a rapid. For a while it looked as if this would be the moment that two of us dropped out of the quest, but there was no way that this was going to be allowed and after some donated chocolate and pep talking from Fred, Liam and the rest of the group we were convinced to get back in our boats, a decision we were later pleased of when we realised just how far the walk would have been!

Sick-Line JJ playing again

The rest of the river was negotiated without too many problems, other than one moment where Hannah and I were again out of our boats to manoeuvre ourselves off the rocks we had managed to get pinned on. The mood was lightened during the paddle as Adi, Graham and others played the usual game of trying to throw paddles over tree branches, providing much amusement with the standard scrabbling afterwards to rescue them before they floated downstream. Finally, we reached the get off where I gratefully wrapped my arms around a tree (had to end it the way I began).

After lots of hugging and jumping around to try and get warm ( I was happily informed by Mollie and Gaby that I was in fact blue at this point) we all got changed into warm kit, racked all the boats and gratefully climbed into the cars to enjoy the heating ready to set off, that is until Gareth realised he had again left his car keys in his boat!! We had a nice stop over at a Wetherspoons in Kendal to fill our stomachs before setting off on a much speedier journey back to Liverpool. I believe the junctions on which we were stuck for 5 hours on the Friday took us 14 minutes to drive down on the Sunday. All in all, despite my complaining about being cold on the river, and despite the weekend being completely different to what we had originally planned, it turned out to be a great trip and I think despite the exhausting effects of the journey, the experience of the M6 in the snow will not be one any of us forget!!