It's been Hectic

For those astute fellows out there who check on the blog on a fairly regular basis you may have noticed that there has been a distinct lack of pre/post paddling updates. Yes, sure there has been the standard post after a day's paddling, however, there hasn't been the banter in between these events. This is down to a number of reason, and all of these come down to one simple thing. The past three weeks has consisted of a series of events, which do not always occur in my life, meaning that it has felt like I have been constantly rushed and out of control.

I'll start three weeks back and hopefully by putting down, in this post, what's been going on I may be able to clear my mind somewhat, basically the essence of what blogging is all about.

Week Beginning 14th January
Monday morning the car broke down on my dad whilst he was on his way to work. This, when you don't look to deeply into it is not such a big deal. It is, however, if the car is less than half-a-decade old and is stuck in a garage for three days meaning you are left with a crappy Corsa, which is a pig to be a passenger in. It was amazing how this event, even though at no point was I really that effected by our (un)trusty 1.9 diesel Astra Estate being in a garage, throws you off your stride.

Week beginning 21st January
I started the bulk of the manufacturing needed for my climbing sequence trainer, the big idea that will make me lots and lots of money. I can only hope that once the project has been completed, and I've got my grade A for 3D Design, a nice climbing wall manufacturer will buy the idea, develop it further, make lots of money out of it and give me a cut of the profits to spend on my gap year and get nice shiny kayaking equipment. With me starting the manufacture I am now constantly worrying about things in the design that can go wrong, materials that won't turn up in time, or the worrying costs that are already escalating after two-and-a-bit weeks in the workshop.

The back of one of the panels, which will make up the climbing sequence trainer. On average it has taken me two-and-a-half hours to complete one whole panel. It hinges and takes up to 30 climbing holds. I've done three panels now. Go me!!!

Week beginning 28th January
Monday morning came and I got up at my usual time to get out on my bike to do the paper round. When I got to the shop the papers hadn't arrived, and still twenty minutes later they had not arrived. When they eventually arrived, I had to get out on my bike and get them delivered. This meant that when I returned home it was a bit hectic getting ready for college and out of the house for eight. This set me up for a whole day in the totally wrong mood leaving me completely standing on the back foot.

The next day came, and once again the day got off to a bad start. This time the papers were on time, however just as I was coming to deliver the last four papers my chain jammed on my bike and when I stopped to sort the problem out, I did more than free it, I freed it that much that it snapped and came off in my hand. Great, I had to walk to deliver the last couple of papers, but even worse than that I had no working bike for the next day. I cut my losses, and when I got home that night I popped out to the local bike store and purchased a bike in the sale ready for the next day's deliveries. The last couple of days I've been out on that delivering the papers and it's much better, in fact I've just finished setting up the lights and on board computer this evening before I came online to tap this out.

The new bike in all its shinning joy (taken from the Raleigh site).

This week I have also started on getting the long list of kayaking courses/assessments reduced by actually organising myself and getting some stuff booked. So far I have got a White Water Safety and Rescue sorted out with Tom Parker, of Tom Parker Coaching and Guiding fame and I have been that well organised I've actually managed to organise a group from the canoe club to attend the course with me. That leaves me with ten more courses to attend before I am content with my qualifications for now.

Plans for the coming weekend look pretty limited with me assessing some one star candidates on Coniston Water on Saturday and Sunday, still being limited in paddling options, is definitely going to be interesting. I'll be taking the Eskimo Topolino Duo out again this time on the Ribble. My front seat passenger is to be a River Ribble Water Bailiff's son. This day has been set up in the hope of building bridges between Anglers and Canoeists after some rather nasty experiences on the Ribble with Anglers objecting to us being on the river.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

Personal First D.

Today was to be the day, the day to end all days of paddling, the day that would go down in history as a monumental day for kayaking, the day I would actually get to paddle the Leven. The Leven, a grade 2/3 bumble in the southern Lakes, flowing out of the bottom of Windermere, is not really the most astounding river that can go down as a monumental day for kayaking, but for me it was a big thing. I had made attempts before to paddle the river, but various things had cropped up, like; being ill, the car being broken, the person driving the car being ill, too little water, too much water, too much celery in the salad crisper meaning that the balance was just totally out of line for the rest of the week kind of things which make it hard to get on the river.

So today was the day. I got dropped off at Fulwood Leisure Centre and caught a lift up to the Lakes where I met up with the rest of the group. The first thing that greeted me was a lovely sign reading "No unauthorised canoeing," maybe I still wouldn't get to paddle the river. Luckily, it was a day when canoeing was authorised, so not even a minor technicality stopped me from getting on the moving water. Though I guess , if it wasn't a day when canoeing was authorised each member of the group could authorise someone else to paddle the river, until we were all authorised, and then maybe we could have got away with it! Anyhow lets not whittle away our time talking about the ins and outs of access agreements, frankly they suck, and as soon as the laws in Scotland for rivers come into action over here the better. We eventually got on the river when all was said and done. However, the river wasn't done until it was done so we headed off downstream so I could actually say I had paddled the Leven.

Once on the water the Brickchute Weir soon comes into sight and basically this has a nice little stopper on one side great for some cheeky side surfing, and cheeky bow/stern splats and anything else that is cheeky that can be done in a really shallow hole. Then in the middle of the river there is a small wave train, and it may have been possible that on the second wave of the train, the first being too hard to get on, loops could have been thrown. Then after this chute there is another part to the weir that we didn't seem to go in, I don't know why, but we just didn't.


After the Brickchute Weir there is this cheeky little drop, which has been known to be a bit unkind to paddlers that have had upside down experiences if the line, which is suppose to be hit with style is not styled in anyway what so ever. However, today the drop had a rather nice boof spot (middle left of the above picture) for some cheeky boofs, which I managed to hit rather well, though I was a bit too far right, which meant I missed landing in the eddy. We soon moved on from here as there wasn't much in the way of playing potential, but downstream there was the odd little drop to get a cheeky boof, followed up by a cheeky surf in some shallow play features, which weren't letting you go to big in case you just got to cool.


There is also a section of river called the Graveyard, which is littered with boulders, which was rather splendid for getting some rather tight break-outs, which could have been classed as cheeky by some folk, but they were there for the taking and I must say that I took them rather well.


Once we had reached the end, as stated by the access agreement, but is by no means the end of the river as there is some rather splendid looking grade 4 supposedly, we headed back to the top to repeat the section again. Cheeky boofs were had, as were cheeky side surfs and there may have been the odd tight break out made.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the second run as my camera decided to pack in, but if the ones on display aren't enough to keep you happy there are some more here.

On re-reading this post I seem to have got a bit hooked up on cheeky surfs and boofs, I don't know why that is, but it's just what my fingers decided to type. Maybe people should start referring to small boofs and small play features as cheeky just because you can. Who knows?

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

Signed this?

Have you signed this? If not perhaps you should click yourself over there right now and get it signed. We need a constant flow of signatures to get this petition noticed and then maybe something may be done to improve access to the rivers of this fine country.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

I must be stupid!!!

Today I got a lift down to North Wales and the home of Canolfan Tryweryn to paddle the... wait for it... Tryweryn. Fancy that! Now I must be really stupid to go and paddle the Tryweryn, a place where you have to pay to get on the water, when there has been so much water put down recently. However, when reading the Internet regarding river levels all the grade 3/4 gems which I want to get out on seem to be running empty. So maybe the Tryweryn was the only option where you were guaranteed water with out having to drive around for two hours like last week.

Once we had arrived at the centre and paid our fees we got changed and sorted out the days plans. Some of the people that we had met up with had decided to stick to the top section and play on the features which have been developed here and the four remaining, me included, would blitz down the top section and then continue on downriver to do the lower section as well.

Getting on the river above the Chipper.

Looking up the Graveyard.

The start of the lower section could be said to begin just after the NRA Bridge and straight away you are into one of the two main drops on this section of the Tryweryn. The first of these is Chapel Falls, which I got out to inspect just to take a look at the line, whilst one other member ran it. I then provided rope support for the next paddler down. Unfortunately they didn't quite get their line and ended up having a bit of a surf in the hole. To give them credit they stuck it for quite a while and made an effort to fight their way out. I think I would have pulled my deck sooner than they did and started swimming like a carp. When they did swim however I had a rope straight to them and they were out of the water in seconds whilst the person who ran the drop first chased down the paddle which had floated off downstream. The boat obediently floated into the eddy where I was stood. Whilst we were recovering from this rescue the rest of the group came down the river and ran the falls with varying degrees of success.

A bit of carnage in Chapel Falls just after the swim.

I then stepped up to run the falls and took a similar line, but totally different to everyone else, to one I had taken on this rapid before. It was a nice line I thought with a fair bit of margin for error, however it took you straight into the eddy so it looked sweet when hit right. Luckily I hit it well, and with just one hard pull on the left blade I was out of the hole and sat comfortably in the eddy ready to paddle on downstream.

The river from then on in settles down a bit and is basically a grade 2/maybe pushing 3 bumble and considerably easier than the top section. With the recent wind however there was the odd tree in the river making the negotiation of some rapids a bit harder. Only one piece of wood in the river lead to a mandatory portage for the group, which isn't to bad. There probably was a sneak route on the left, but it just wasn't worth it.

The fallen tree in the river on the lower section.

The next notable fall on the lower section of the river is Bala Mill Falls. The group of four all got out here to have a quick look-see. Half of the group decided it would go whilst the remaining members decided to walk it. I was in the half that decided to run it therefore I deposited my camera so that a couple of shots could be got of the descent. Once the two members that were portaging had completed their portage the other group member and myself got back in our boats and headed off downstream, breaking out once before heading off down over the falls. I was the last to go so I did get to see the line taken by the other paddler, but basically it looked like any line would go as long as the bow was kept on the water.

Digging deep to escape the small tow back of Bala Mill Falls.

The river now flattens out and it is just a couple of hundred paddle strokes before we were at the car, packing up and heading back to the centre to see what the other paddlers were getting up to. We eventually managed to locate them at the NRA Wave, which has supposedly been improved and on this 16 cumec release it did look mightily impressive and the moves that were being landed looked good.

Going for the helix.

One handed blunt.

A shot I am proud of - an arc of water flies off the stern as the paddler pulls a blunt.

A paddler pulling a blunt.

All was left to do now was pay a visit to the cafe, then the chip shop and head for home with stories of the M6 being covered in snow.

More pictures can be found here.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain