Paddle paddle paddle paddle...

A week or so of canoeing and kayaking at both ends of Wales has been shattering, but loads of fun! It started with my 4 star leader open canoe training and ended with a club trip to North Wales and the River Dee, separated by a short break to attend a tutor induction event for the new(ish) Hill and Mountain Skills scheme at Plas y Brenin.

4 Star Training

The first day of a 3 day course with Ray Goodwin began with all six of us scraping the hail and ice out of the bottom of our boats at Pontiscill Reservoir. Despite the finger-numbing sub zero temperatures and the occasional snow flurry, the morning mist over the still water was somehow both calming and uplifting at the same time. We worked on refining our forwards paddling technique as we journeyed around the reservoir, stopping for lunch only long enough to scrape the icicles from our noses! In seriousness, the cold was significant enough that we had to keep moving as much as possible. 

A lack of wind in the morning threatened to dash any hopes of sailing, but by the time we had learned a few improvised sailing rigs, a gentle breeze had become a powerful wind cutting across the lake. Powering downwind, it was difficult to keep our pair of rafted canoes on course, but some timely bow jam strokes from Haydn steered us in towards the shore in a sheltered bay. The next challenge was getting back out again with the wind against us!

This challenge proved a great opportunity for me to experiment with micro-trim: positioning myself a little further forwards in the boat in order to dig the bow into the water against the wind. Progress was slow, but steadier than I have sometimes managed before in similarly strong winds.

Back on the River

The following two days were spent on the River Usk, running the Aberbran to Brecon and Sennybridge to Aberbran sections, both of which were familiar to me in a kayak, but not in a canoe. Nonetheless, I was pretty comfortable with the territory and relaxed a little as the sun came out on the final day. This proved to be a great opportunity to learn a bit more about lining and poling, skills which I had only rarely used before but which are essential on longer river journeys. I left the course with a pretty clear idea of what I need to work on before assessment and an eagerness to progress.

Heading for the Hills

The Hill and Mountain Skills scheme was introduced about a year ago by Mountain Training UK to offer an introduction to the UK's hills and mountains for the general walker. The ever-industrious Will Kilner is one of the approved providers for the scheme and offered me the opportunity to get involved as a tutor for his courses.

The two day induction took place at the National Mountain Centre at Plas y Brenin and covered everything from the ethos of the scheme to top tips for delivering training to participants. It was nice to get back into the mountains of North Wales, and it also meant I was just down the road prior to the first of what I hope becomes a regular Monmouth Canoe Club trip to the area.

Back on the River Dee

I met the rest of the club members taking part at Mile End Mill outside Llangollen and we wasted little time in getting straight on the River Dee (well, after a short break for tea and coffee anyway). I've run this section a few times now, so I was happy to lead. After a short warm up downstream of Horseshoe Falls we eddy-hopped down to the top of Serpent's Tail rapid. The river was as high as I have seen it, and the usual island by the rapid was almost washed out. With no-one leaping forward to have a go, we decided to portage the drop and headed on downstream.

A few easy drops and ledges took us to the top of the Mile End Mill site, where we got out to head up to the luxury cottage Tracy had booked for us (which worked out even cheaper than a bunkhouse would have been!).

Another run on the Dee the next day found Tracy's son Jack taking on some of the leadership too, picking sound lines for the group and even having a go at the Serpent's Tail. Unfortunately for him the legendary 'sting in the tail' was particularly sharp that day and tipped him out at the bottom. Sharpshooting Hugh hit him first time with a well aimed throwline though, and he was soon back on the bank.

As heavy rain began to fall we headed on down through the Mile End site, taking on a couple of extra drops before getting out in Llangollen this time. The rain put most people off the afternoon's planned trip across the Pontysyllte Aqueduct, but we made it across the following day instead. 

Sadly both me and Laura had to return home for work, so we missed out on the further exploits of the club, taking on a new river in Snowdonia and convincing one terrified member to sign up for the forthcoming SARA charity abseil, but that's another story!

My next trip out should see me safely on dry, if somewhat snowy, ground. A five day winter skills course in Scotland to look forward to!

(Photos borrowed variously from Haydn and Tracy)

And a bit wetter still...

The season of guinea pigging and generally trying to paddle as much as possible continues!

A first ever session paddling on the artificial course at Cardiff International White Water Centre found me fighting to hit eddies in the fast flow and finding little respite in those I managed to make it into. Unlike most of the rivers I have paddled, the whitewater course has fast recirculating eddies, meaning that when I paddled out of the flow, there was no real rest to be found. With vicious swirling boils to be found on each eddy line as well, I rolled and swam my way down the course.

The final indignity came on only my third run around the course, when I capsized, rolled back up again and promptly capsized again, with the concrete bottom of the course smashing into my paddle, which in turn smacked into my nose. A runny nosebleed and a bit of TLC from the centre staff later, and I was on my way home, chastened but determined to return and get to grips with the CIWW course.

A few days later, my much anticipated 4 star kayak training failed to materialise, due to an unforseen 2AM detour to west Gloucestershire, but that's another story...

I made day 2 of the training, and had a great day on the River Usk, with top-notch coaching from Paul Marshall of Inspire 2 Adventure. We ran the Talybont to Llangynidr section of the river, including the grade 3 Mill Falls rapid, a first for me, so I can't wait for the next course in January.

The latest bit of paddling was back up to North Wales, guinea pigging with Getafix again on a 4 star open canoe assessment.

A perfectly still first day on the Dovey Estuary gave me and Laura a fantastic introduction to open water canoeing, with wide-ranging vistas across the river in the early winter sunshine. The second day was on the River Dee, with eerie mist shrouding the riverbanks as we got on and bitterly cold weather prevailing for most of the day. The Dee had an entirely different personality to the last time we paddled it, with higher water leaving the Serpent's Tail almost washed out. The run from Horseshoe Falls to Llangollen seemed to take no time at all in the faster water, and it was soon time to bid farewell to North Wales again. For now.

If you're not getting wetter, you're not getting better!

... or so I was told many years ago when I made my first tentative paddle strokes on white water at Symonds Yat rapids. This week has seen me upside down and back to front almost as often as paddling the right way around, but despite this I'm convinced that I am indeed getting better.

A leisurely canoe on the Wye between Erwood and Glasbury was rudely interrupted by Hell Hole rapid, where my hasty readjustment to run a fast chute backwards was described as 'the coolest thing I've seen all year' by one of our group. If only it had been fully intended...

The Wye was only a warm up for 2 days as a mock student on a 4 star kayak assessment in North Wales organised by Getafix coaching. The first day was spent on the Vrynwy, a new river to all of the candidates, as well as me, Laura and the other 'guinea pigs'. With pretty consistent white water almost from the word go, the upper section of the river was fantastic fun, and not too difficult to run. Reaching Dolanog Weir - a pretty horrendous looking set of drops with a tree in the flow for good measure - we took the sensible option and walked around it.

Further down river, things began to get more interesting. Our leader for one section skidded high onto a rock running one drop that looked fairly innocuous from above, but proved to be far trickier. I tried to run the drop to the left, but was forced onto a rock, capsizing me only about 2 metres above the drop. Common sense overcame my initial instinct to try to roll, and I hunkered down instead with my face pressed close to my deck. Four or five thuds followed as the back of my head bounced off the rocks, until eventually the thumping stopped and I rolled back up, safe but disorientated at the bottom of the rapid. Craig, one of the candidates, insisted that I took the perfect line, with the only problem being that I was upside down at the time! Given the amount of expensive kit involved in kayaking, I was pleased to finally make use of my helmet.

Day 2 was spent on the Dee between Horseshoe Falls and Llangollen. The river was high, with the island at Serpent's Tail rapid partially flooded. After a bit of consultation with Pete, the assessor, I decided to run the main drop, and came up with a fairly detailed plan: Leave the eddy and ferry glide across to the start of the wave train. Follow the wave train towards the drop. Hard left into the drop, hard right out of the bottom. Here's what actually happened: Leave the eddy and battle across the flow, hitting the wave train part way down instead of at the top. Battle to stay on the wave train, struggle to avoid capsizing above the drop. Oh, hold on a minute - there's the drop. Fall down the drop into a foaming wall of white water. Oh dear, I seem to be upside down again. Wait. Wait. I think I might be out of the rapid now, try a roll. And again. That's better, I can breathe again. Head for the eddy. Capsize again on the eddy line. Roll back up again and catch breath.

Further shenanigans and playing in stoppers downstream led to me rolling 3 or 4 times more over the course of the day, but oddly enough left me more confident in my own abilities than before, which brings me to today. Cheque in the post, 4 star training booked.