Kayak Massive

High water on the Dart

2008-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

After a conversation with Mr Wicks a few months ago I agreed that attending the Gene 17 Adventure Paddler weekend at the Dart Country Park sounded a good idea. For those of you unaware the event is essentially a load of talks, videos and photos from people who’ve paddled a bit more than the average, and during the day the opportunity to go and paddle the rivers in the South West.

The trouble was that I’d forgotten to make a note in the calendar and by the time Andy reminded me about it I’d subsequently agreed to attend my girlfriend’s family Christmas gathering (school boy error I know). Getting out of it wasn’t looking good as apparently ‘I’d promised’ and ‘love kayaking more’ than her, something I denied. She couldn’t find out the truth, so I had to attend the family do.

The solution was to go paddling on the Saturday and then the family do on the Sunday . I still wanted to pack in as much boating as possible so on the Friday night suggested to Andy that we start as early on Saturday as possible and proposed getting up at 6am. I was a little surprised when Andy agreed that this was a marvellous idea. So at 7am we had finished scoffing Andy’s mums bacon sarnies (which she’d felt obliged to get up and cook for us) and were on our way to the Dart.

Now it has been raining the night before, quite a lot, and it was still raining when we arrived at Newbridge. The night before I had chatted to some of the boaters from my local canoe club and they had informed me that they were planning to kick off with the Erme starting at 9 and then head over to the Upper Dart. ‘You lite weights’ I’d said ‘not early enough for us, we’ll have run the Upper Dart before you’ve had breakfast and will see you at the Erme afterwards. The Upper will be too high before you finish that’.

So Saturday morning there we were sitting in the car at Newbridge. The level didn’t look too bad, maybe lapping over the edge of the slab and all looked like a goer. Trouble was that there was only two of us and as we all know from the BCU handbook (or Mr O’dell) less than three must never be. We also knew the Dart can rise super fast and had no idea how long it would be before it was bloody good boaters only (something me and Andy are not).

Luckily another car pulled up, they also thought it was ok, but wanted to wait for a mate before making a call. We had faffed too long so headed up to the top. On the way we agreed the plan. If the guys we’d met in the car park decided it was a goer, it must be so we’d get on, if not we wouldn’t. Now for any Aston Uni freshers out there, you won’t find this method of decision making in any boating manual because it is not a good one.

When we got to the car park, we found three boaters about to get on who looked like they knew what they were talking about, well they had Palm Sidewinder dry suits on anyway. They informed us that it would be a good level, but we must get on asap (within the next 20 mins) or it would be super high and would reach ‘Scotney level’ by lunch.

The guys we had met in the car park turned up after making the decision to run it. We got the gear on and after suggesting to them that it would be much better for us all if we paddled as a five rather than two and three we got on. (Not that me and Andy were scarred. Safety 1st and all that).

Off we went. I’d not paddled the Upper Dart at this level before, before it had always been a bit on the low side. This time it was a superb level, and the continuous grade 4 that it is renowned for. It was certainly keeping me on my toes and I was feeling a little rusty. One of the chaps we paddled with reckoned it was a good medium level although I suspect it was a little higher than that.

The chaps we were paddling with had paddled it numerous times before which allowed us all to crack on swiftly, with just Andy and myself it would have taken a lot longer as we would have needed to inspect far more.

All was going well until a couple of hundred meters before Euthanasia, the biggest rapid on the river. One of the guys took a swim, he got out well before the rapid but his boat continued down a channel to the left of Euthanasia, where it was rescued.

The others couldn’t be arsed to walk back up and paddle the falls but Andy and myself decided to. We briefly discussed what the line looked like with our man (I really can’t remember any of their names as you’ve probably guessed).

As we got on the water myself and Andy realised we probably should have looked at the falls, I wasn’t really sure which part of the falls to go over! Andy though he knew so off he went. All seemed to go well although I couldn’t see him until I near got to the edge, so off I went. A lot more water than I’d seen down there before and still lots of fun.

Finally the fun ended and we arrived at Newbridge. The level was well over the ledge but no where near going through the third arch (otherwise known as Scotney level).
I immediately got on the phone to call the lads from Oxford, but Vodafone still haven’t heard of Dartmoor so I had no luck. We couldn’t really be bothered to paddle the loop along with every man and his dog, so Andy blagged a lift with a couple of guys who we vaguely knew and who also knew the Oxford guys.

When Andy arrived at the top he wasn’t surprised to see that the river had risen significantly but was a little surprised to see the Oxford guys on the river. They had just returned from bottling the Erme which was at a monstrous level.

Anyway Mr R and Mr W who Andy had given Andy a lift, were a little surprised too. Mr W and Mr R are pretty good boaters and were later presenting some of their adventures at the Gene 17 event. Despite this, they were wondering if they had missed the level and if the Dart was now too high. They therefore wondered why the hell the Oxford guys were on the river.

Anyway after a brief discussion with Mr R the Oxford lads got off the river. There’s no shame in this, being talked off a river is embarrassing as you’ve made a poor judgement getting on, but it’s so much better than a ‘cluster fuck’.

One of the Oxford group was mouthing off about only getting off because the others weren’t up to it. For the record, he’s a twat.

Anyway back to the boating. A decision was made to paddle the West Dart, as this was one of the few rivers in the area that was a goer in these high levels. Myself and Andy were a little delayed getting on as we still had to get our boats so we had to catch the others up.
We started in some tributary to the West Dart. There was lots of water and lots of barbed wire fences spanning the river which as well as bloody dangerous was a complete pain in the arse as it meant lots of portages.

We soon joined the West Dart and the others. The river was basically increasingly big and bouncing grade three. There were a couple of swims, Vicky got her boat nicely pinned followed, myself and Andy performed an efficient rescue.

The river seemed to get bigger and bigger (or so I’m going to claim). Ben went for a roll, I got myself in a position to T rescue him in case. He rolled up, a few seconds later I was upside down, I’m not sure why. I went for an attempt at a roll and then another... I simply couldn’t get the paddle to the surface and enough leverage to roll back up. Shit I thought, I’m going to have to bail. I wasn’t very excited about this, there weren’t a lot of rocks, but the waves were big.
I pulled the deck, the next minute I was being sucked to the bottom of the river, paddles ripped out my hands only to re-emerge straight away.

I managed to clamber onto an approaching rock as the wave rode over it, and then swim to the bank (the wrong side as it turned out). As I climbed out the bank I noticed Dave was also climbing out the bank.

Bollocks I though, he’s just swum, that’s just halved the chance of me seeing my boat again.
Strangely Dave, just thought I was on the bank as part of some elaborate rescue operation to save him. He was rather disappointed to find out, that I’d swum too.

We then legged it off in the hope of recovering our boats and paddles... Recovering my paddles seemed unlikely, and I was already thinking ‘hmm... cranked Werners next time?’
Having a swimming buddy is much more fun, someone to race down the bank with and share the embracement with.

So to summarise what happened next as you’re probably getting bored?

Amazingly both mine and Hodges boats were rescued before the Upper Dart. (A few meters after the get in to the Upper to be precise). Thanks to those involved.

My paddles ended up being thrown in someone’s garden pond and were later recovered. The order for those cranked Werners has therefore yet to be submitted.

After several minutes of deliberation Hodge and myself decided that swimming across river, (even with some throw line support) was not a smart idea and took a long walk back to the other side of the river, recovering Louise’s boat as well. (She’d swum in the back group round about where I had).

Finally we were all back in the car park to join numerous other boaters being reunited with their tuperware. Some were not so lucky, as the numerous posts on UKRiversguidebook.co.uk the following Monday prove.

Finally a few words on the evening event. The event was compared by the amusing Dave Carroll from Gene 17, most famous for flogging Andy a set of dodgy ‘Rough stuff’ paddles at a Canoe Show a few years back. ('Werners all the way', I say)

Talks included:

A couple of strange lads who had a weird trip to Iceland, walking for days to get to rivers they didn’t want to paddle as there was only two of them. Despite this they had a good time, and now have lots to do on their return trip!
The ‘Axis of Terror’ and their adventures in California and BC.
Debb Pinger (I think she won some world freestyle championships or something a few times) and her trip to an East African country that I can’t remember the name off.

There was also a raffle with what seemed like hundreds of prizes, despite this neither Andy or I won anything. The main prize was a Sweet Rocker helmet which is cool.

Neither Andy or myself went paddling on the Sun, this wasn’t a massive prob as the levels were all still silly high and I thought that a set of bollocks would be useful for future kayaking trips.

Sunbury Weir

2007-01-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

Rich and I were up early and after some minor confusion with a fallen tree and the old bill we found the relevant car park.

There were already three others guy getting ready when we arrived and they were on before us. We therefore saw a couple of guys go into the hole before us we took some of the pressure off.

The weir pool was very high and this somewhat flattened the hole making it less grrr then it might have been. That said, water was piling in a quite a rate and the hole was pretty retentive, especially in the middle. You could feel a lot of force behind the water and it weren’t a place for the nervous. It did wash out upside down, eventually, although I saw one guy roll three times before he got washed off. A lower weir pool would, presumably, become make it even more retentive.

There was perfect eddy service due to the surfers right gate being closed. This made getting on the hole really easy, much easier than say Shepperton. The paddle to get-out was a bit of a stitch but I'll leave that as a surprise.

I thought it was really good at this level, as the number of gates (we had six of seven) and the pool level changed you'd get a different feature. Defiantly somewhere to go back.

I'm not in any of the photo's but let me assure you that I was awesome;). Dave.

Click here for the video.

Portugal Surf Trip

2006-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Following an idea inspired (i.e. ripped-off) from some boys from Durham Uni we'd organised flights, hire cars and accommodation in the Algarve for some winter surfing action.

Following a gay-early start, Matt, Rick and I arrived at Stanstead, boats in tow, at the ridiculous time of 5am. After meeting Chris we had some fun with airport trolleys and cask's which suddenly seemed a lot longer in a crowded airport.

Despite having enough time to make the plane, Chris, Matt and Rick managed to drag their feet enough that I was left standing on the tarmac by myself, with everyone else already on the plane. I was considering ways of stalling the plane, included but not limited to chaining myself to the landing gear, thankfully, potential terrorist related problems were avoided when the three of them saunter up, not a care in the world it would seem.

A dull two and a half hour flight later we arrived into Faro to find the weather sunny and warm, in November! After some difficulty with a maxed-out credit card and a missing strap we managed to get two hire cars are were ripping it towards the coast. Only one wrong turn later and we arrived at Casa Linda to find a pretty decent two bedroom house, complete with swimming pool! Due to some slight confusion we ended had two singles and a double bed. Despite everyone fighting to have Ricky touch them in the night, Matt was the sharpest and was setting up the aromatic candles quicker than you could say George Michael.

Our host was nowhere to be seen so we took a drive to the local beach which considering we'd been in rainy London only a few hours previous was really quite special.

unfortunately, the same can't be said for what could only optimistically be called 'surf'.

fortunately there's about a dozen beaches within an hour or so of where we were staying so we headed down the coast to find more amazing beaches but pretty piddly surf. Not to be put of, we got on anyway and made the most of what was probably only two or three foot worth of action (I've always wanted to say that).

We paddled until the sun dissapared over the horizon and drove dangerously fast back to the house. We had a few beers, wondered where our host, the famous Linda of Casa Linda was and generally kicked-back.

Following day the weather was still great, the beaches still amazing but the surf still pretty poor. We spent quite a bit of time driving down the coast trying to find bigger surf. In the end we settled for a beach right on the south-west point of Portugal. Matt and I enjoyed taking a bit of pasting in the breaking waves before getting off and walking back up the beach where Chris, sensibly had chose a spot which didn't even getting face's full of wave every ten seconds. We made the most of only slightly bigger surf but still had a great time.

That evening we went into town, had a few beers and headbutted some restaurant windows (Matt)!

By the third day we were seeing a definite link between calm, sunny weather and no surf. We opted for the nearest beach, had a few easy sessions, sat on the beach, drank some beers and checked out the hairy Portuguese girls.

Following our last evening of setting fire to Jeffrey Archer books and still pondering why Linda had still not shown herself, we got an early-ish night before dashing back to Faro. It obviously goes without saying we made the trip to the airport much more stressful than was necessary but on the plus point we discovered the benefit of paying nine euros for no excess insurance.

The witty list of damage Ricky and I did to our hire car:-
- Snapped off aerial
- Bent bumper from reversing into a lamppost
- Dented and gouged roof from using punctured inflatable roof racks

The no excess standard has been set!

So, all in all, an amazing trip, the weather was great, the beaches great and the beer cheap, just a shame about the surf. We're already looking into another similar trip in February or March, can't wait.

Dave.

Pyrenees Easter 2006

2006-04-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

over easter this year 8 of us went out to the spanish pyrenees, the other members of the team included the Fairweather brothers of kayakstan fame, Giles (randy fandango to all you that read UKRGB), Lee, Mick, Phil and Rach (the one that swam on the glaslin gorge). the plan was to go looking for gnarly rivers, but arived in Jaca to find dry river beds. on the friday we paddled the Gallego, a bouncy 2/3 with one 4 and an excellent slip ramp and one great hole (oh how i was regretting bringing a creek boat).

that night we drove south to find the Ara which is supposed to be a great stretch of river. the next morning we paddled the lower ara, a stretch of river Reading uni and the guide book described as good solid grade 4. what we found was a great grade 3/4 river but nothing overly difficult. after running this river we went to scout of the upper section, a km long solid grade 5 with nasty syphens and even naster holes. just as we had decided we would do it, 2 local policemen turned up with guns demanding to see our permits for the river (and we thought river baliffs where bad) apparently you need a permit to run rivers in that provence of spain and without it you are breaking the law (properly breaking it, not just trespassing).

the next day after being unable to find how to buy permits we had a 3 hour drive across the mountins to find the Noguera Palleresa, stopping of at sort for a quick look at where the 2001 (i think) freestyle champs took place. the dam had not been released so we were all very unimpressed with the wave. fanally getting on the river at 5.30 (baring in mind that ur only aloud to paddle until 6) we blasted down the river, well we tried but had to keep inspecting stuff as we couldnt see over horizon lines around rocks and stuff. eventually as it started getting dark we decided to climb out of the gorge and come back to finsh it off the next day, which we did.

final thoughts

the rivers where good but not as gnarly as we had hoped. the upper Ara was too high to run when we were there but it would be great to run. loads of long slides and great drops. well worth me going back next year just for that.

the Noguera Palleresa was excellent, good continueous 4, think glaslin gorge at fairly high levels,with a few grade 5s thrown in for good measure.

the only real problem was that all the rivers are so far away from each other which makes running more than one river a day hard, especially when you dont know the rivers. one tip would be to get permits before you go.

ill try and get some pics up at some 'oint when i get some sent to me.

J

The Upper Yangzi (Tiger Leaping) Gorge

2006-04-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

Before anyone gets to excited, no, I most definatly didn't paddle this stretch of water.

The Yangzi, the third longest river in the world begins on Tibet/China border and initally flows through Yunnan province, South West China. After the Great Bend the river runs through Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. From the river to the top of the gorge is 3,900M, put another way, over two miles straight up!

I did a three day trek through the upper trail and then into the actual gorge itself. I'm not really one for treking and all this outdoors shit but I made an exception for this.

The trek is fairly tough but looking down into the river was quite somthing. Some of the paths are very narrow and the drops into the river are massive.

This stretch has never been kayaked in it's entirety and it never will be kayaked. Although, rather scarily, I saw it in very very low water and with the exception of two rapids which are the most definate portage you've ever seen, the rest of it looked like it would run at a big grade five. It has been 'run' by Chinese team in a capsule raft (you know, the kind of thing people go over Niagra falls in). They made it to the end but suffered ten fatalites, that somewhat takes the shine off a 'first descent'.

Anyway, enough of the blabbering, pictures are what you're hear for.

Looking through the gorge from the bottom.

The rapid just below Tiger Leaping Stone. Note the guy for scale, bear in mind he's a good ten meters above the water and this is super-low water! I stood pretty close to this rapid and it's frankly terrifying. I'm not sure you could call it a stopper as such, it'd just tear you apart. That said, what you can't see in the picture is that hard river right the river hits a big rock, forms a massive cussin wave, which, if you were the worlds top boater and you had a serious death wish might run. The only problem is that you'd probably get slammed into the rock with enough force to kill you and even if that didn't happen you'd pass with feet of the 'stopper'. Anything going in there isn't coming out alive.

The rest arn't mine but are pictures taken of the two big rapids in normal water. Again, note the people for scale. Spoof for the first run?

Actually, Ricky, how'd you grade that? Probably a big grade four right?

Scroll further down to see the rest of the rivers and compare the scale, scary.

The Mae Taeng, Chang Mai, Thailand

2006-02-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

DzaivSo, as we continued North from Malaysia we ended up spending some time Chang Mai, the major city of North Thailand. It turned out there was a river which was rafted so I rocked up and found a company that also did kayaking. Hurrah.

I paid my 2000 baht, woke up at 8am with a minging Beer Chang hangover and had to sleep the two hours out to the river. We stopped on the way to inspect one of the rapids which apparently had a shady stopper in the middle of it. It didn't look too bad to me but my guide wanted me to see the line.

After a bit of flapping about at the get-in I found myself with a rubbish BA and a rubbish helmet but a decent paddle and a decent boat. Quite what boat it was I can't remeber already but it was quite reasonble.

The initial few K were basically flat water with a couple of small rapids to float through. The river was coming to the end of the season so everything was pretty low. By the time we arrived at the first grade four rapid it was obvious that the low water meant there were rocks just about everywhere. The line down the rapid was pretty interesting. Over a small chute, round a big rock right in the middle of the flow, over another small chute and then a diagonal manuauver between some rocks and into (and through) a stopper. The rapid was probably worth the grade four my guide described it as.

It's been quite some time since I'd done any technical grade four so I was fairly pleased that I still had the skills. So, naturally, I then proceeded to make a right mess of the second major rapid. It was taken it two stages with a micro-eddy to be made half-way down. For reasons unknown the eddy-line caught the boat and before I knew it I was upside down. A swift roll sorted that out but it wasn't ideal. Following that I then managed to miss the line I wanted on the second part of the rapid. I got pushed into a rock and couldn't get round it so decided to just bosh straight down the middle. Despite very nearly getting myself vertically pinned on the final drop my tatic of PLF seemed to pay off.

We carried on down through another three named rapids, all of them probably worth a grade four at this level. Because of the low water we were making super tight moves through teeny chutes where the rocks wanted to have you're paddles off you, it was all good clean fun. Being upside down or taking a swim down any of the rapids really doens't bear thinking about. It certainly wouldn't be pretty.

In the rainy season the river apparently runs to a five plus and my guide said he wouldn't touch it at that level. Although to be fair, he was very American and thought everything was 'sick'. Obviously it was a warm water experience once again, it really is great to not wear any kit, just a deck, BA and helmet, it funny how much more movement you feel you've got. So, in the event you're ever in Thailand then the Mae Taeng is definatly worth doing, just catch it at the right time of year and whatever you do, don't be upside down going through the rapids.

Onto to Mynamar/Burma next. The Himalaya's extend into the Northern part of the country, so who knows what next?

The Padas, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

2006-01-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

While on the jolly round Malaysia we decided to head over to Borneo for a while. Apart from jungle trips and that kind of thing I met a Norwegian geezer who runs rafting trips down the Padas River, in the state of Sabah.

After a bit of discussion he agreed to lend me his own boat and provide me with one of his raft guides to take me down the river. The Padas is sold as a grade III with five grade IV rapids which have got various silly names like 'Headhunter' and the (obligatory) 'Washing Machine'.

After a mission and a half to get out to the river involving a mini-bus full of Chinese and a particularly smelly train-ride through the jungle (but I got around the strong smell of piss by sitting on the flatbed trailer they were towing), we got to the get out to pick up the rafts and my kit. In a surprising turn of events I got given a boat and gear that was actually half-decent. They gave me a Perception Ultra Clean which obviously doesn't mean shit to me but it's basically a highish volume playboat. They also had a Bliss-Stik but I was assured I'd get eaten alive paddling it.

Back on the train we went up to the get-in, the track passed by the river so I got a good look. It certainly looked pretty tasty, a high volume grade IV. Two of the rapids had some mean looking holes, one in particular they called 'The Maneater' which looked distinctly nasty, and was apparently capable of holding a swimmer. This was probably one of the biggest holes I'd ever seen and was keen not to get personal with it.

Because we're near the equator it's hot all year round so the river was actually warm! It was a great novelty for sure and I paddled with just a BA, deck and helmet. Its also interesting how less restricted and easier it is to paddle without thermals and cags.

Just before we got on I asked the obvious question, 'So, there aren't crocodiles in here are there'? 'Yes, but don't worry they leave further down stream'. mmmm. After a bit of flapping, Gee-Gee (my Malaysian guide) and I got on to the grade III float down to the first rapids. On the way we stopped to mess around in a small pour-over. My mans goes in, gets back flipped and next thing I see is a hand and a head appear beside the boat. Great, the geezer taking me down this grade IV had just swam on a small grade III. About two seconds later he produces his paddles in two halves. OK, so he's got an excuse but I'm sure he could have hand rolled? After more flapping in getting him out I stand around like a prick while he runs back up the river to get new paddles.

So we boshed down the river, hit the first rapid which was probably a soft touch for a grade IV but some of the waves and holes looked quite a bit bigger than they did from the train. The second rapid and the one with 'The Maneater' on was better. We had to paddle a long S-maneuver through the (400 meter) rapid to avoid three holes which you didn't want to be in. Saying there was chaos all around is probably an exaggeration but there was some pretty intense paddling for a few minutes. We were getting chucked all over the place as we paddled over or through big standing waves, one of them broke right as my man hit it and he got a bit of a trashing before he managed roll up. I also managed to hit two big(ish) holes which came out of nowhere but got through without too much drama.

The third rapid was similar, big waves and some big holes which needed to be avoided, Gee-Gee had to do another roll and I thew in a couple of big high-braces but we got down without either of us getting too badly trashed.

The rest of the rapids were, again, a soft touch for the grade, perhaps a 4- but nothing more. We tried to catch a few waves on the way down but none of them were really shaped well and wouldn't hold properly.

A couple of K of grade III led to the get-out. So, a nice river, I reckon you could take a Blis-Stik down it, you'd get trashed but there's no reason why you couldn't make it. The big holes were big and a swim down one of the rapids would have involved a lot of time under the water. It'd be interesting to do it in really high water, would probably push it up to a IV+ but the big holes would become distinctly dangerous.

So, in the unlikely event you ever go to Sabah then consider doing the Padas.

Apologies for the naff pictures, I had to leave the camera at the get-out.

Up North - Scotland

2005-11-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

I’ve always wanted to go to boating in Scotland, so when an opportunity arose with my local club (Kingfisher) to go up to the Fort William area for a week, I jumped at the chance and booked myself a place.

The first stage of any boating trip is of course getting there, and based on previous experience this can often be the most challenging and dangerous bit! With an absence of car crashes, breakdowns, and with ten hours to kill; I made a start on finding out what my fellow boaters paddling abilities since I had not paddled with most of them before…

“Well of course Fred [Wondre], along with Shaun Baker pioneered the first decent
of Swallow Falls back in the 80s”, Neil my driver explained.

I was scared…

…and that was nothing to do with the Swallow falls story, but because Neil seemed to have too many similarities with Aston’s John Allen. Did he have a stash of knives in the boot? On reflection it may have just been the beard.

The Spean
So onto the Rivers. The first River we set about paddling was the Spean and Spean Gorge.

At the get in a scarily high amount of ribbed buoyancy aids, old school helmets and 90 degree Schlegel paddles emerged, and I began to worry that they might be “BCU types”.

Fortunately they were all a really great bunch, and for every dodgy bit of kit there was someone who had purchased their kit this century. It was a fairly mixed group with people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and even 60! Fair play to anyone whose still boating serious white water at that age.

So the Spean; it was fairly low water and pretty much all grade 3 stuff. We portaged a couple of the main featured rapids, one was dangerously undercut, and the other had little water running though it. A few from KayakoJackos group who were on the river behind us did both, so I think on reflection we could have perhaps run them, but probably best not to screw yourself over on the first day.

So how many well known boaters can I name in one article? Time for another one… That evening Mr UK Rivers Guide Book, AKA Mark Rainsley popped over. For those of you who I’ve now lost, Mark runs probably the most popular kayaking web site in the UK (www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk). His Web site is largely responsible for Potters low productivity on his placement year.

Mark only intended on staying for one night, but we instead we ended up paddling with him for the whole week. This allowed us to do some bigger rivers as Mark is a nice chap and a fairly sh*t hot boater.

The Orchy
The following day was cold, wet and windy and rather strangely for a kayaking trip I woke up and didn’t feel dog rough and have a hangover. Probably something to do with the absence of a Mr A Funnel and an Aston Canoe Club Chair.

We paddled the Orchy, there were a few swims, some bits that most of us portaged and that I need to go back and do with a Creek boat, but apart from that not much to mention.

The Roy & a ditch
The next day we did the Roy which was only up the road from where we were staying. The Upper Roy is mostly grade 3 before the Gorge, with a couple of named grade 4 rapids. After portaging some nasty stuff it’s then on to the Roy Gorge which is a great section of fairly continuous grade 4.

The Roy gave me my beating of the trip. I watched one of the group in a creak boat in front of me struggle to paddle through a stopper. The next minute I was paddling it in my booster, and getting sucked back into it, then staring at the sky, you get the idea… It gave me an excellent trashing, which I actually enjoyed in a strange kind of way. After numerous rolls, and mystery moves, I eventually played my way out of it much to everyone’s surprise. They had all thought they were looking at the first swim of the trip.

After finishing the Gorge the river calms down into some mundane grade 2, and you head off for a gentle paddle home. Well at least that’s what we had all thought. Mr Rainsley had other ideas.

He had noticed a ditch which feed to the Roy, he recalled reading about in a guide book and proceeded to convince a number of us that we wanted to paddle the ditch, “only 2k up that way” apparently. After climbing up a massive hill that seemed to go on forever we reached a track,walked ags and found the get in.

The ditch was a bit bump and scrape in places, and was generally an entertaining technical grade 4 run. “The tributary was a nightmare carry up (major hillside to negotiate first before you reached the 2 km track) but certainly interesting...the river itself was surprisingly tricky and gnarly”. According to Mr UKRGB.

The Pattack

This is a great grade 3 run with a few more interesting rapids approaching grade 4. It has an interesting get in situation which involves driving well of the beaten track and through some estate. The great thing about Scotland is that there are no crappy access restrictions and the locals are nice and friendly towards boaters.

Nevis
This was an excellent grade 4 run. Described in the Scottish Rivers guidebook as grade 4 overall, but every rapid mentioned in the write up seems to be graded 5! This was one of my favourite rivers in Scotland. There are many named rapids and we had many swims on this river, but not from me you’ll be pleased to hear. One surprising swim was from the man who ran swallow falls, who was very grateful of my rescue.

Many great photos were taken of the Nevis. There is a short grade 5 section which looked very doable (in a creak boat!) however in the end only Mr UKRGB did it. The Nevis also ends with a great waterfall (Lower Falls), it looks impressive, but no skill is required.

The Coe
This was the final days paddle. It requires lots of rain to work, and despite that fact we expected none there was loads of it. This is a great run, mostly grade 4, with a fantastic gorge section, which reminded me a little of Chateau Q on the Guil.

There was much carnage on this river, described as a repeat of the Kingfisher Canoe Club Glen Coe massacre. One of the group went for a swim in the gorge, her boat and paddles went on down the river. The boat was retrieved but the paddles sacrificed to river gods. Not content with losing one set of paddles, another member of the group got a thorough beating resulting in a broken paddle and a swim. If only he’d bought Werners… and I suppose at this stage I should confess to running one of the falls backwards, still I got a great line, which was probably just as well!
Despite the carnage (and as you know I love a bit of carnage) the Coe is a great run, so if you get the water paddle it.

We had originally planned to do the Etive on the final day, but the rain had meant that the Coe was the better option. It’s a bit disappointing not to have paddled Scotlands most talked about river, but I will do it next time I’m there.

Scotland is a fantastic paddling destination. One of the things that I noted was the sheer number of rivers. There are so many, and when you’ve run out of them, so many ditches to do.

I can’t wait to go back, hopefully on a Aston or Ex Aston trip.

OK, so I know at this point they’ll be some of you, who are only still reading because you want to know if I swum or not. Well if that’s you, go and wash your mouth out now, and we’ll hear less of that nasty ‘S’ word please. Now you’ll be pleased to know that I didn’t disgrace myself, or the good name of Aston Beavers by swimming.

Martyn Read
October 2005

´Upper´ Urubamba, The Andes, Peru

2005-09-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Staying in Cuzco, 3500M in the Andes theres loads of companies offering rafting down the many local rivers. I persuaded one of them that they wanted to hire me a kayak and kit to go along with one of the raft tours.

I went for a one day trip (we need to get to Bolivia) down the ´upper´ Urubamba, the sacred river of theIncas, although just about everythings sacred, sacred river, sacred valley, sacred off-license etc.

I got presented with my boat, a full-on liquid logic creek boat, ideal for monster grade five, not so much fun on the 3/3+ which I was doing. The paddle and deck were not to bad although everything else was crap, still good enough I suppose. Paddling the creek boat felt like a tank after my Jackson.

The river was indeed 3/3+ with a few reasonable rapids.I managed to run the first 3+ rapid backwards which I put down to the tank I was paddling and also not actually doing any down-river for over a year (oh, the curse of Hurley). It´s funny how you get used to paddling your own boat and it was strange to adapt to a different (much bigger) one.

On the water for about three hours most of the stuff was just big and bouncy which would be great fun in a playboat. There were two or three rapids where you actually had to do something to get through including one with a rather nasty siphon. All the guys in the raft walked it but the two(!) safety kayakers and I ran it. Just a bit of a slide and then round a rock, you´d need to be quite a spastic to get into the siphon but if you did it´d probably be terminal.

Boshed on down, had a play in a few waves and holes, doing pop-outs in a creek is quite funny, get massive height.

No pictures unfortunately but I got this off the Internet.

All-in-all not at all challenging (once I´d got used to putting strokes in much earlier than in my Jackson) but was still really good to actually get in a boat and paddle down a river. Hopefully might get some more action in Bolivia and I know a couple of people in NZ who have promised to take me.

Thought for the week:The Andes are the longest mountain chain the world and there are hundreds, probably thousands or grade 4/5 rivers to be done. You can go at any time of the year and find water, depending on where you go. An idea to keep on the back-burner for the next few years, a one month, six week kayak tour of South America? Ship the boats over, hire a couple of cars and bosh round the mountains.

North Wales 5 th June 2005

2005-06-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

The major downside of the day was the start time. Because of some of the freshers taking part in a safety course, we had to leave uni at 0630 on Sunday morning, in order to be ready to drop them off at Canolfan Tryweryn for their course to start at 9. We did not quite manage to leave at the desired time, cos someone struggled to get out of bed, after deciding to stay out on Broad Street drinking until gone 0400! Needless to say Jethro was not looking in a good state.
After dropping the freshers off, Martyn, Jethro and I headed off to the Aberglaslyn gorge, for a spot of proper paddling in warm up for the Alps. On arrival, the water level was low, but it definitely looked runnable, so we got changed, and launched. Jethro started as he meant to carry on by getting pinned on his seal launch, much to the amusement of Martyn and myself.

We set off, with Jethro not looking, or paddling, particularly well. All was going well until Jethro managed to capsize and then struggle to roll back up. None of us can offer any explanation for his capsize. A minute or two later, Jethro is over again, rolling back up on his third or fourth attempt. His excuse was he got caught in a stopper, and went over. Now, Jethro 'ointed out the 'stopper', so both Martyn and I thought we would see how sticky it was. It wasn't. In fact, it wasn't much more that a ripple in the water. Conclusion: Jethro is still drunk!

Now, Jethro decides to up the anti on his next capsize, by going over a few metres above the breaker. Cue me and Martyn being concerned that that is not the most ideal place to be upside down, but both thinking he will roll before the breaker. Roll attempt 1 - fails. Roll attempt 2 - fails. He is now right above the breaker, but has managed to get himself over to river right, which is the line we had decided to run, but he is still upside down. As we watch Jethro go over the drop, we see what appears to be part of a cartwheel, but we conclude that, as Jethro is not in control, that it doesn't count. Much to our relief, Jethro manages to successfully roll up in the flat(ish) water at the bottom of the drop.

The rest of the run was uneventful, so we got out, walked back up, and started to get back in our boats when Becky Holder turns up. We had arranged with her to meet for a paddle, and said that we would let her know what the water level was like before she gets to the gorge, but we had no phone signal to communicate with her. After a very quick change, she joins us on the water for her first descent of the gorge. This time Jethro decided to see what it was like to run the drops the right way up, and managed to get all the way down without capsizing. After getting out, we start to walk up the interesting path on river left. This starts off OK, but does get quite interesting in places.

Back at the top, we had our first encounter with the water Bailiffs. Yes, they really do exist! They showed us a print out from the Welsh Canoe Association website which stated the dates of the access agreement for paddling the river. The agreement states that we are allowed to paddle between 18th October and 1st April. As it was June, and we knew full well we weren't supposed to be paddling it, we played dumb, said OK and got off.

We still had some time to kill before we had to pick up the freshers, so we stopped off a Pont Cyfyng on the Llugwy for a look. After deciding that it did look runnable at the current level, myself and Martyn decided to paddle it, for the second time in 7 months. This time, however, we thought that it might be a good plan to inspect the run in to the drops as well as the drops themselves. With Becky and Jethro providing safety cover at the bottom of the second drop, we set off. Again, the run in proved harder than it looked, and the stopper just above the first fall was much bigger than we thought it was from looking down from the road above, as Martyn found out. Sitting at the top, and having checked that safety was in position, a quick spoof decided that Martyn as going first. He made it successfully, so off I went. That fall also felt bigger than it looked both from the road some distance above, and from sitting in the eddy above, but we both made it down successfully. I took the lead down the second drop, and hit a rock at the bottom somewhere, before getting to the eddy, and waiting for Martyn to come down. Martyn made it down OK, but then seemed to struggle in getting to the eddy. We both got out, clambered up and over the rocks, before getting ready for the seal launch back in below the third drop. I think that we spent more time setting up for this than we took to run both the drops above, as it is not a particularly easy spot to launch from. We made it successfully, and headed back to the bus. Becky departed at this stage, muttering something about her setting off for a free lunch.

On the way back through Betws-y- Coed, we noticed what looked like an interesting piece of water, so Martyn got out his guide book to find out more. We decided that it must have been miners bridge rapid, and Martyn was reading the description when he announced that it was only a grade 5, and that it should be runnable then. A couple of minutes later, Martyn suddenly asks if the roman numeral VI means five or six? We inform him that it means six, to which he replies "Maybe miners bridge is not paddleable then" !!!! Never trust Martyn to read a guidebook and pass on the information within it!!! It could have been interesting!!

North Wales 21 / 22 May 2005 (Swimmer(s?))

2005-05-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

The weekend started with a few drinks in the guild to help Emma celebrate the end of her finals. During the evening we all consumed ‘sensible’ amounts of alcohol, and then took it upon ourselves to persuade the freshers that they all wanted to come along on Sunday’s trip to the Dee, regardless of what exams they might have remaining. This was followed by a trip to Manzils, where both Edsco and I promptly fell asleep on the table (or naan in Edsco’s case). We ate, and somehow made it back to Emma’s flat, where we were staying.
Saturday started nice and early, with Edsco’s alarm waking all but Edsco at 7am! No one really seemed to move then until about 10am, when we decided we should head off towards the Tryweryn. After stopping off for some ‘graduate’ style food, we made it to Nomad Paddleworks in Bala, where Martyn was hoping to demo a boat. After a bit of searching, the staff realised that the reason they could not find the boat to lend to Martyn, was because someone else had already taken it out, so we headed off. (Little did I know that I would be back within the hour!) Upon arrival at the Tryweryn, much mincing ensued before deciding that we really ought to get on the water, no matter how hung-over we all were. As we were getting changed, I delved into my bag to pick out my buoyancy aid, then realised that I had left it in London. I really should not go packing for things whilst drunk!! So, off to the rafting centre I headed hoping that they would be nice enough to loan me a BA for the day, but no. The cited something about them being responsible if the BA failed and something happened to me. So, does this mean that they are happy to lend these BA’s to rafters with a chance they might fail? Anyway, back off to Paddleworks in Bala, to purchase me a cheapo BA.
Finally, we got on the water, and had a go at eddy hopping, and generally messing about. The first run down was pretty much without incident, apart from Martyn getting another boater stuck in the ski jump (Martyn was surfing it, and the other guy came down, tried to avoid Martyn and got stuck). We all had a go at surfing most of the waves on the course, before heading back off to the top again. Between starting to get out of his boat, and making it to the top of the bank, Martyn somehow managed to wash all the paddling kit he was wearing, but denies he swam. I will leave it to him to provide his excuses.
For the second run, Edsco decided he was too old to fit back into his boat, and sat this run out. The remainder (Chris, Martyn and myself all attempted 360 flat sip seal launches down the raft launch ramp, but decided it was impossible to manage a complete 360, as no matter how hard we tried, we could only manage 270’s. Chris then demonstrated a new splat move, which we called the splat into broach pin move, much to the amusement of everyone on the bank. After un-pinning himself, we continued down, uneventfully, until the wave at an angle under the bridge. Martyn went first, making it into an eddy successfully on river right just after the wave. He was followed by Chris, who for some reason thought that it was to easy to stay up right, so went for a roll practice part way through the wave, only for him to not manage to roll back up. Next we saw his head bob up next to his up turned boat. Chris was swimming! Martyn took charge of getting Chris to the side, and I took care of his boat. Chris gave some excuse about not having paddled in a while, and thought that he needed to practise his self-rescue technique! We all hopped back in and we all paddled off to the centre wave, where we decided that we had had enough, and finished for the day. We headed of to Bala to find our luxurious accommodation at Bala Backpackers, before heading of to find food / beer.

Sunday we rose, breakfasted, and headed off to Eddy Lines to waste some time before meeting up with a group joining us for the day from uni. They arrived, and we headed up to the get in for the Dee. The level was low, but runnable, so we decided to get on at Horse-shoe weir, as none of us could see sense in paddling miles of flat water above. We paddled up the canal from chain bridge hotel to the weir, before paddling back down past the hotel on the river. Serpent’s tail quickly arrived upon us, but we not worth worrying about as the water level was so low. While getting out of his boat at the bottom in order to run it again, Martyn managed to wash all his kit again. Any excuses Martyn? The next point of interest was Mile End Mill, which we made use of for stopper surfing practice (on the second wave) and some attempts at playboating on the bottom wave. Just as we were preparing to head down to Llangollen, a couple of the other boaters in the eddy mentioned to us that we weren’t allowed to paddle down to the town, as this was not a designated ‘open’ weekend, and by paddling down we would be ruining everything for all the other boaters. To this we said ‘Ok’, before breaking in, and paddling downstream!
Next up was town falls, which we all inspected, um-ed and ah-ed about which line would be best to take, before all but the freshers ran it. This ended a good weekends paddling, which was topped off with the traditional visit to Llangollen Kebab House.

Unfortunately, the only swim of the trip was had be Mr Chriskew, plus a couple of technicals from Martyn.

Pictures will be posted soon.

Hurley - 21/22 May 2005 (Swimmer)

2005-05-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

As you probably know Hurley went up to a low two gates on Saturday morning (as predicted!). None of the front pages updated from one gate but given the rain we chanced it and were duly rewarded. Level was a very low two gates but possibly the best two gates level we've ever seen. Both gates were super-retentive, probably as retentive as it is on three. Rick and I basically had it to ourselves for about three hours on Saturday afternoon/evening. Was very sweet indeed. A slight aside, as I went to leave I put my boat against the barrier above the little concrete step to the river left of gate one (i.e. the closed gate). I then turned round to talk to Rick for about twenty seconds, looked back, where the £*$% is my boat, agghh! Bearing in mind that it was dark by this time and my boat had presumably got sucked round and through the open gates and washed down the river. Obviously I don't have airbags in my boat. Cue much panicking that my boat's never going be seen again. Rick has a look and can't find it. I tell him to look again and eventually he finds it bobbing around in the eddy on river left. I was very relived. That would have been a really really stupid was to loose your boat.

Anyway, moving on to Sunday. We went down again and met up with Rich Smith and Matt Pyne. Level was still really good and we had paddled for absolutely ages, something like five hours. My body currently hurts, a lot. We messed around on the wave, attempted some loops (and got trashed), Rick starting to look good on the blunts. Anyway, after about five hours both Matt and I were totally screwed and were getting off. Rick wanted 'one more go', fair enough. So we're getting back into our boats and we look round to see Rick in mid flow trying to hand roll. He half hand rolls (wasn't really close to coming up) once, twice, three times, and a bail! Matt and I wet ourselves to see Rick's head pop up away from the boat. Hurrah, Ricky takes a swim, Matt and I could barely contain our glee. We duly rescued his boat and paddles (which he'd failed to keep hold of) and put him back in his boat, asked if he was okay, not too cold and other patronising questions. First swim in nine years I believe. I'll invite Ricky to offer his explanations/excuses for this shocking behaviour but it was something to do with letting go of his paddles (doh!). Anyway, just thought you'd like to know this little nugget. To those going to Alps I daren't think what kind of absolution a sin such as this would require, I suggest a run down the Salmon course, a funnel at the end, a run back up to the top, another run down it and then another funnel at bottom. The guilty must be punished

Chertsey - 14 May 2005

2005-05-16T05:06:00.000-07:00

Well, what with there being no water in Hurley nor anywhere else I went to Chertsey on Saturday afternoon. Overall verdict is that it's a bit lame. Basically it's a small put powerful pourover in the middle of a big weir, if you put any part of the boat into it it'll flip you right over straight away. You can do this forwards and backwards and you can also shoot the whole thing but beyond that there's not really much to do. The water looked quite murky as well. Personally I can't recommend it. However, if it came to August and there's been no boating for ages then going down there with a few people on a sunny afternoon could be quite amusing, you could think up a variety of things to do I suppose.

Intended to go to Hambeldon on Sunday morning only to discover that the one gate had been closed, boo, good job I found out before making the journey mind.

Dave.

Hurley - 12 May 2005

2005-05-13T03:28:00.000-07:00

Took my French friend down Hurley. It was one gate and you could argue a good case that on one gate it's total bollocks. The 'wave' was small, low angle and quite flushy, you've got to work to stay on. That said, its quite fun to sit on the eddy-line, lean upstream and just as its about to tip you over do a big reverse stroke, that produced some interesting results, managed to hold the boat vertical for about five seconds before going over. Don't think it's worth the drive just for that though. French friend did well, only two swims and was paddling forwards under control after about twenty minutes. Told him to go in the wave with the inevitable results, water was quite warm though so swimming wasn't too bad. Also realised that my X-Rescue technique is totally crap (something to do with not being strong enough I reckon).
Dave.

The Mighty Don - 11 May 2005 (Swimmer)

2005-05-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

First a brief description of Abingdon or the Mighty Don as it’s become known. Like the Mighty Nene, the Mighty Don, certainly ain’t hardcore. The weir's made up of a few nasty walled in gate/sluice bits and then the playboating venue. This consists of 12 gates, which are similar to the side radials at Hurley.

On our visit 6 of the 12 gates were open, an ideal level apparently. Gates are open, one open, one closed across the weir.

There weren’t too many people on the water and it was soon my go. I went in the second open gate on river right, as the locals had done. First thing that struck me was that it was actually rather more sticky than it looked, and it was also rather shallow. I had a play. Now Abingdon is supposed to be a one move wonder, that move being the front surf. Frankly that’s bollocks if you ask me. I couldn’t seem to stay in a front surf, and it was more like surfing a stopper side on.

Now I’m not sure what had attracted Dave to the gate nearest the eddy, the locals had all avoided it, but Dave was upside down in it. The reason everyone had avoided it was that it was right next to a wall. Dave was upside down, and it looked like he was being bashed against the wall. Anyway soon enough there was that all too familiar sight, as Daves helmet appeared from underneath the boat, and to my embarrassment Dave went for a swim. We got him out, it was so shallow he pretty much walked out!

Later in the evening someone else went for a swim and I was relieved. But no, not to be outdone Dave promptly followed with another swim! Apparently he’d got his paddle stuck on the bottom!
So what can you do at Abingdon? Well you can surf the wave sideways, front ways a bit and do a few spins. It’s quiet steep, very stopper like, and fairly sticky. You can also pull off the spin dryer move. Where by you get stuck in the middle of the weir sideways and then go upside down and round and round and round… Great fun, and I got a round of applause for my efforts.

Abingdon is not worth travelling from much outside Abingdon for! But if you’re local and the valley is dry, Abingdon is a good bit of fun.

Martyn

HPP and Hambledon 7/8 May

2005-05-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

You missed out on some nice beatings this weekend...

Dave B, Martyn and myself took it upon ourselves to venture out of the valley for some paddling this weekend, and started off at HPP on Saturday. We had heard that they hade made some changes to one of the holes on the course, making it more interesting. Of course, we had to test this out, and we can all confirm that the hole half way down the course (just under a bridge) does now dish out some nice beatings for those fool-hardy enough to venture into it. It was normally ok for a few seconds, letting you think that you were in control, before it took over and decided to try and make a mockery out of you to the watching crowd. Due to the level of the water, the stopper at the bottom of the course (the Muncher?) looked like it would be nice and sticky, but should let you escape if you managed to get to the river right edge of it, so there was only one thing we could do, and that was to spoof to see who had to drop into it sideways to test our theory. Martyn was fortunate enough to lose, and so off he went. Dave and myself were stood on the bank, with throwlines at the ready, waiting for the expected swim, but Martyn was loving side surfing the stopper, even shouting to us that it 'seemed fine'. After a bit, he decided to try and get out of the stopper, y making his way to the right. This was when he decided that it was actually grippier than he thought. He did manage to escape though. Next, Dave nor myself could afford to be outdone, so we all took it in turns to get stuck in. Dave screwed up on the entry, and tested whether it would flush straight through if he took it upside down, which it did. We took a few attempts each, and I even tested out how long it would hold someone upside down for. The answer was I gave up after about 10 seconds of not going anywhere.

On Sunday, we decided to venture to Hambledon, to see what all the fuss was about. When we arrived, we walked up to inspect it, and all noticed that the majority of the people there seemed to be in boats much bigger than ours. Some were even in creekers!! This got us thinking that maybe we had mis-read something, but we decided to get on anyway. Despite there being many people in the eddy, by the time you had dropped of the wave, and got back into the eddy, it was your time to go again. No-one was managing more than a few seconds of surfing / trashing. On my first attempt, the force of the water popped my deck, leaving me with a swamped boat, so I paddled to the side, and emptied it. Slowly, the number of people who were there dropped, until it was just the 3 of us. Just after 1, some one came accross to let the ramps down, but before they did so, they cranked them right up for us which led to both Martyn and myself getting some lovely beatings, before the ramps were dropped. The hole then seemed to calm down, and became much less retentive, with all my attempts just flushing straight off. We then decided to call it a day, and head towards the pub.

I have some photos from Hambledon, which I will upload when I get the opportunity.

Hurley - April 30 2005 (Swimmer)

2005-05-03T03:19:00.000-07:00

They'd fixed the gate so it was on two back in the corner. Met Martyn in the car park and was very surprised to get to the wave to find no one else there, this despite it a sunny Saturday afternoon? Was quite a high two and a bit flushly, managed to do a few things but couldn't really seem to get much going, washed out to easily. Highlight of the afternoon was
warning Martyn we didn't want to see any more of this letting go of the paddles nonsense. Low and behold Martyn got flipped, made a dodgy attempt at a roll, let go of his paddles, almost hand rolled up and then bailed out. I was sitting in the eddy somewhat bemused at his antics but decided I'd better go help him get out. Always a pleasure to help Martyn get out the water after a swim!

Hurley - 29 April 2005

2005-05-03T03:15:00.000-07:00

Taking a record two and a half hours to get there I went for a solo mission to Hambeldon. It was on two gates and was impressively large, however only the river right side of the hole was at all retentive whilst river left washed through. Only spend about half an hour before moving over to Hurley. Hurley was down to two but the gate nearest the wall was jammed so it was running through the two middle gates. The result was a very low angle and it formed neither a hole nor a wave, instead a strange in-between. Wasn't really very retentive but was still quite a laugh. Paddled for a record three and a half hours between the two, sweet.

Hurley - 28 April 2005

2005-04-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Top quality three gate session in the evening/dark. Ricky got the beginings of blunts whilst I managed to pull a few (not very controlled) cartwheels in the first gate. Releasised that holding the edge right through the cartwheel is actually pretty difficult. Went over too far and got tashed alot. Also enjoyed a few quality mystery moves / enders in the eddy-lines.

North Devon Surfing and Hambeldon 23/24 April 2005

2005-04-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

We had a top weekend paddling down North Devon, Saunton Sands. Big grade four standard surf, Rick, Matt and I all took quite a pasting, although some more than others, Matt Pyne seemed to love it, even going so far as to capsize before the wave to be sure of a good upside down surf/beating, how we laughed. We reckon the wave height at between six and eight feet, the booster looked significantly smaller than the wave as it was being flung round inside the break. Not only were the waves big but 'ucking powerful, was quite hard to avoid taking a beating trying to get out. With a wave period of about ten seconds we got smacked by a massive breaking wave, got trashed, rolled up to find another one about to break, got pretty intense, lesser mortals would definitely have been swimming. We all got some clean air freefall from the top of the breaking waves, I left the water, closed my eyes expecting to get the beating a lifetime only to find myself bouncing in front of the break, was very cool. Front surf, side surf, back surf and spins were all easy to achieve as the power behind the wave made it super-retentive. Despite my early doubts of there really being eight foot surf off Devon I was proved wrong and we had the best surf session I've ever had.

Saturday night was a non-event, principally as we were totally spaked out from about three an a half hours surfing. Sunday was had potential for a bit of a river trip but the lack of a third person (and possibly water) made this difficult. We headed back towards London via Hambeldon where we messed around for a few hours, Rick and I set a equal record of a full ten seconds surfing in the hole. If you've seen Hambeldon on one you'll know that staying in there for ten seconds without getting trashed/washing out is not at all bad, Rick even managed some backwards surf action (apparently;).

Hurley - 21 April 2005

2005-04-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Another fine two gate session in the dark.

The Bitches 25-28 March 2005

2005-03-29T04:20:00.000-08:00

With the spring tide coming in over the bank holiday weekend, Dave, Martyn, Rick and Andy decided to head off to The Bitches in Pembrokeshire, South-West Wales. After many weeks of 'planning' and getting kit together we set off for the four hour drive to our holiday cottage accommodation.

Friday morning we went down to look at the surf and then headed over to St. Justatines for The Bitches at high spring tide. The Bithces are formed where the incoming tide is channelled between the mainland and a large island about a mile off-shore. The incoming tide flows over a set of under water rocks which produces large standing waves and a large hole. The speed and volume makes The Bitches a grade four trip (probably not actually a grade four paddle but the consequences of a swim could be serious, hence the grade). Prior to this he had sought advice from TYF who humorously told us we shouldn't go unless we were 'suitably qualified'. We laughed in the face of this potential danger.

We paddled the very (very) long way round the headland to a monster ferry across the incoming tide. The speed and volume of the water was quite something. After almost an hour of paddling to get out we found big standing waves which with the swell would rise and fall between about two feet and probably about ten feet on the swell. Unfortunately with the swell it was difficult to get on and stay on the front wave, we mostly ended surfing the second wave which wasn't always that retentive. The hole on river left varied from nothing at all to absolutely huge. We had a bit of a tentative play but were mostly fairly intimidated. Martyn did his best impression of someone that wanted to swim by (repeatedly) letting go of his paddles and hand rolling, complete madness if you ask me. After playing around for a couple of hours we made the long paddle back to the mainland. This naturally involved some scares involving horse rock and Andy Wicks deciding he couldn't be arsed to paddle hard and getting swept right out and round the main head land. We were briefly concerned. By far the most demanding/physical/tiring paddling I've ever done, we were totally knackered by the time we got back to shore.

The weekend followed in much a similar vain with one more trip out to The Bithces, although this time walking round the headland which was easier than paddling (if you've got a light boat). We also went surfing with some nice four/five foot waves coming in.

We were a little unlucky with the large swell which made The Bithces very surgy and not very clean, would be nice to go back with smaller/no swell for the nice glassy waves which appear. All in all one of those things which is more about the experience than necessarily the paddling, a damn good weekend though.

Pictures at http://andy-wicks.fotopic.net/c488559.html