Usk - Tal-y-bont Llangynidr, Wed. 29 Dec 2004

An end of year paddle for Hywel, Grant, Andy R., Matt, Rob, John N. and John M. Young John's baptism on Grade 3 water: see picture sequence.

Sea trip - Sully to Lavernock (and back), Sat. 11 Dec.

Three hardy paddlers - John N., Rob G. and I (Hywel) braved the elements - fine weather and a flat sea - for a walk in the park, or rather a paddle on the Severn Sea. The highlight was probably seeing what we thought was a mirage  - of men walking on the water as we paddled east to Lavernock. As we drew closer we realised they really were men - well, anglers actually - wadeing out onto Lavernock spit as it dried at low tide. We found we'd gone the landward side of the spit ourselves and we had to get out of the boats to cross. John and Rob were sceptical of my planning but when they saw the stream still ebbing at Lavernock Point they were almost convinced I'd got it right - until immediately afterwards when we turned and found paddling west hard work. They thought the tide was now on the flood. I kept saying it must be a local eddy but they weren't convinced until we saw the spit had widened from next to nothing to about 20 yards across. We landed west of Sully island for a long carry up the beach.

(I checked the actual tide times the following day. Low tide was around 12. We'd started at 10 and got back at 12).

Matt's report of Avon Descent, 7 Nov.

Both Grant and I had decided to put ourselves through the Ex descent earlier in the year when it all seemed a long way off and we felt brave.  But as the date came closer the prospect of an 19 mile paddle with little reward started to seem a less exciting prospect, when we discovered the Avon descent, only 10 miles.

I feel that we were not taking it all as serriously as we should when at 8.00am on the Sunday morning Grant called me to say that he was probably still over the legal alcohol limit to drive, feeling worse for wear myself, Esther said that she would drive us there, bless her.

Once at the start, surrounded by enthusiastic marathon
paddlers we felt slightly daunted by the photos of the weirs and warnings not to shot this one here and that one there, still as we came from the briefing I just thought I would follow Grant, but he to had not fully taken the details so we decided to just follow who ever was in front.

That is about as exciting as it got.  Met a few interesting characters, paddled 10 miles, looking at the back of Grant for most of the way, wishing that I still had a fiberglass slalom kayak instead of my redline.  The weirs were really of no consequence, because we were "racing" we could not even
stop to play.  Lots of fishermen, one about every 30m, for pretty much the whole distance, I never realised fishing was so popular.

I think that the moral of the story is, don't travel all the way to Stratford to do the Avon descent unless you really
have to.  If you cannot distinguish between the river and the canal you know that there is a long paddle ahead of you.

27-28 Nov. trips

Club members paddled the lower Taff, Radyr weir to Llandaff weir on the morning of Saturday 27 Nov. and the upper Wye, to Rhayader on Sunday. A bit of rain on Friday and Saturday must have put the water levels up slightly but it was still very low on the Wye. This was a first visit to that stretch for Rob and Tim.The letterbox slot was extremely tight: Tim was wedged in it for a second or so. Although the water was low thankfully it was not so low to actually be a "scrape" and it was an enjoyable trip.

AGM 9 Nov. 2004: minutes

Present (at the Plough, Whitchurch): Phil (Chair), Steve (Vice -C.), Les (Treasurer), Hywel (Sec.), Andy R. (Memb. Sec. & Equipment Off.), Grant (Training Off.), Richard, Rob, Matt, John N., Andy P.

1. Minutes of last AGM accepted.

2. Reports:

Chair: none.

Treasurer: had had to dip into reservce acct. for the first time to settle recnt pool bill as recent pool attendances had not been covering costs. The situation was not sustainable in the long term. Agreed discussion to be added as AOB.

Sec: had been contacted by CBBC Xhange who wanted to film us. (Richard agreed to liaise with them).

We'd had an e-mail from Sid Sinfield WCA following up on Nige Robinson's visit to club at the beginning of the year. In particular, he asked who had been nominated to deal with Child Protection.

The web site was now being updated regularly, and we have a blog. Unfortunately, as the www.dragonpaddlers.org.uk URL redirected to the new site it was no longer coming up in web searches. As a result few new people were finding us and pool attendances and membership were being affected as a result. (In discussion, Richard agreed to try to find a solution to the redirect problem).

Memb. Sec.: we had 29 paid-up members in the past year. 2004/05 membership fees were now due.

Equip. Off.: reported on equipment bought during the year: new spray decks, paddles, air bags. Noted that an equipment assessment was due.

Training Off.: explained that planned 3* training/assessment sessions would now be arranged for Spring 2005 as clashes had occurred with Autumn 2004 dates. (In discussion it was pointed out that those people who did their Canoe Safety test 2 years ago would need to be reassessed by this time next year to maintain their validity). 

3. Appointment of Officers:

As noted against names above but Phil stood down as Chair and Andy R. elected in his place. Matt. agreed to take over as Memb. Sec. and John N. as Equip. Off.

Nominations were sought for a Child Protection Officer but none were forthcoming. The Sec. was asked to respond to Sid Sinfield (WCA) explaining that the Club felt that legislative requirements were becoming too burdensome for volunteers, none of our members was willing to take on a role which could put them in a position of bearing responsibility, and as such we would not even seek to appointto such an office in the future.

4. AOB:

General discussion about the future. It was felt we were in a bit of a dip at the moment in terms of membership and pool activity, though in terms of river trips we had been, and still were, more active than we have been for years. Some actions were identified to improve the pool situation:

i. Participation in CBBC programme could give us a boost. Richard to pursue.

ii. Richard to try to find a way of improving hits on the club site from web searches.

iii. Some visits from youth groups/scouts to be arranged, by Grant and Andy respectively. Andy would circulate a proposal as to number of pool visits planned and charging/membership arrangements.

 

 

Sunday 7 November - a busy day for Dragon Paddlers

Dragon Paddlers were out in force today - 2 river trips!

Trip No. 1, Hywel, Tim and John C. went on the Usk from Sennybridge to Aberbrân. We were honoured to be joined with an intrepid paddler of international fareknown- Clare Jones. I paddled with her in the French Alps in 2003 but that's not why she's gets the write-up. No, she paddled as one of a two girl team to Alaska. Not from Wales, admittedly, but still.... Read about her trip on the following link. http://www.vividplanet.co.uk/insidepassage/pressinfo.html

(We joined up with 4 Cardiff C.C. members too - thought I'd better mention them too but hey, compared with Clare Jones - are you newsworthy?

Our trip was incident free (low water) - apart from the 3rd drop where I went too far to the left. There wasn't enough water to carry me over the lip and I eventually pencilled in vertically, hit the bottom and capsized forward. I rolled up but felt fairly silly. Oh, and Tim went canyoning on the first fall. He got carried down backward to the start of the drop, managed to turn his boat, but lost his paddle. Holding a branch he then climbed out of his boat and let it make the trip unaccompanied. Fascinating to watch. He did carry back up to do it all properly latter.

Trip No.2: Grant and Matthew went to Stratford-on-Avon for the Avon Descent. Matt promised a report so watch this space.

 

Usk, 31 October

Andy kindly made the access arrangements for us to o on the Usk from Tal-y-bont to Llangyndir and then unfortunately couldn't join us: a variation on the wedding aniversary excuse was given this time, on the lines "I forgot our ...". So it was me, John C., Rob and Tim who made the trip. A step up in whitewater paddling experience for Tim whose previous high point was the Sennybridge to Aberbrân trip of a couple of years ago. The water was quite high which made for a fairly bouncy, rock free trip. Tim managed well although taking a swim at the bottom of virtually the last whitewater section. (I didn't see it because I'd abandoned the boring leadership role to get some more important surfing practice in on a wave towards the beginning of the section: sorry Tim).

Mild weather too and a pint in the Star to finish. What more could we ask for?

Afon Clywedog trip report

Rob G., John C. and I went to Afon Clywedog on Sunday 10 October and we had a great time. The weather was fine and the dam was releasing at a good rate ~ 510 megalitres a day, which I think equates to about 5.5 cumecs. I found the run a bit easier at that level than at the 400 megalitres we had last year. The falls were bigger gushes and the grade 3 section less boney. No incidents to report. I was the only one to run the first fall and did so successfully though next time I'll choose to run the second section to the left rather than the right. The route on the right I tried wasn't the main flow with the result I did a bit of a spin on a rock and nearly messed up.

The three of us ran the second fall. After much scouting, peering through trees, we'd concluded it was clear of debris (the paddlers we met at the take out when setting up the shuttle had said it was which gave extra confidence), we all got the line right.

Most memorable for me was a fantastic wave. I've already forgotten exactly where it was - about half way I think. It had an eddy either side and was beautifully sized and regular. I whooped it up big time (well, as much as I could with my skilll level). John C. caught a few rides while Rob G. battled impressively and I thought he caught at least one, though he said on the way home it was more a case of a nearly catching one.

No swims, no incidents at all. Great. Here's hoping you non-paddlers have nicely decorated kitchens etc.

Andy's tale of the Tryweryn trip

Andy's tale of the trip can be read by download the pdf file from the link below. Unfortunately, the injury he received, which we thought was a bad knock but would just lead to bruising, turned out to be more serious: torn ligaments and 6 weeks off paddling. I'm sure we all sympathise with him and hope he has a quick recovery.

http://www.members.aol.com/padlwrcymru/DragonPaddlers/Andystale.pdf

Tryweryn 4-5 September

Six of us (Hywel, Andy P. and Luke, Matt, John C. and Grant) went to Tryweryn for the weekend. On both days we started on the lower section and then shuttled up to do the top section. ("We" excludes Grant here as he went on courses instead of joining the big adventure!). It was Andy and Luke's first visit to Tryweryn. A good time was had by all (but Andy's arm and thigh might not be in full agreement after his spectacular swim on the Graveyard section. Closely, followed in excitement, but not in injury terms by Luke's swims through Fedw'r Gog falls and below Chapel falls, and John C.'s after Fedw'r Gog's stopper). Well done all, and thanks for the chance to practise chase boating.

 

Glasbury to Hay trip, River Wye, 9 May 2004

Photos of our great paddlers! We had a good turn out: Hywel, Janette, Euros, Andy R. and Ieuan, Tina and Kevin, Tim, John M., Andy P. and Luke.

Great link

Practise your Welsh and visit my personal journal!

http://journals.aol.com/hyfforddwr/CanwioHywel/

Possible trips

4/5 Sept: Tryweryn 5:10 Coaching Festival & Tour to Bala. Tour ticket cost: £28 for 2 days (£14 for WCA members)

30/31 Oct: Teifi Tour. Cost £10 for two day ticket

Cosmeston pictures

Visit to Cosmeston

The club ran a successful trip to Cosmeston Lake today, providing an opportunity for a number of members to have their first experience of paddling on open water. Congratulations go to John, James and Euros (Da iawn!) all of whom passed their 2* test. Thanks to Grant, Andy and Steve for leadership, assessing and barbi respectively.

Evacuation Plans and Operating Procedures

At a Committee meeting on 9 March, it was agreed that we would attempt to draft evacuation plans/risk assessments for the following sites:

Upper Taff (Quaker's Yd - Trefforest): to be drafted by Hywel

Lower Taff (Upper Boat - Llandaf rowing club), and Cosmeston: Grant

Symond's Yat: Phil

Usk (Tal-y-bont to Crickhowell): Andy R.

Usk (Sennybridge - Aberbrân): John N.

Details of the sort of things needed are given in docs. (in Paper Port format), downloadable from the following:

www.members.aol.com/padlwrcymru/DragonPaddlers/PrepofanEmergencyEvacPlan.max

www.members.aol.com/padlwrcymru/DragonPaddlers/Localoperatingprocedures.max

To view them you will need, unless you have Paper Port, to download a viewer from: http://www.scansoft.com/paperport/viewers/

One of the reasons for preparing the plans etc. is to follow up on advice received from the WCA Club Visit report on 29/1/04 which included: "Not all coaches are qualified for sites used....I would recommend that these coach competencies and experience, and sites they can operate are discussed, minuted and reflected in risk assessments". If the coach will clearly be operating within his qualified competence, the immediate need for action is less. Therefore those of us qualified as L2 coaches can continue to coach on basically flat, sheltered water, L3 can coach on Grade 2 water, and 5* holders can lead on up to Grade3-4. So, Grant and Andy R. don't have to rush at the bits allocated to them whereas I, John N. and Phil do need to act to provide ourselves with cover for coaching/leading on the sites against our names above.

We also agreed to arrange sessions as follows: Cosmeston, Sunday 28 March (possibly with barbie); Glasbury - Hay on Wye, Sunday 9 May.