A busy weekend with Dragon Paddlers all over the place:
1. The main trip, Sunday morning: lower Taff. Andy's report (note to Andy: some spellings have been changed to modern English) (Note to readers: he's in IT):
"Radyr weir to Llandaff Rowing Club:
Paddlers were: Nick and daughter Carys, Andy Peate and son Jordan. Jon (not boy blunder John, John with the wave sport) and me.
We arranged to meet at ASDA's car park at Coryton. The plan was to travel to Symonds Yat, however, a quick phone call to the shop at Symonds Yat the day before revealed that the lower rapids had been washed out, so plan B was to paddle the lower Taff, which we duly did.
After the usual logistics and a spot of warming up exercises in the sunnier bits of the road at the get in we carried the boats to the picnic tables next to the sluice gate overlooking the weir. Jon and I decided to try the weir as it didn't look that big. I expected the river to be much fuller and faster flowing than it was considering the amount of rain fall we had in the previous days. Anyway while Jon and I prepared to risk all for a precious moment of glory, and of course waiting for a sizable crowd to appear from Joe Public to watch us, Andy organised Nick, Carys and Jordan. No dramas, excitement over for one day, Jon and I went over the weir without incident. The wave at the bottom of the shoot was quite small. I didn't punch my way through but, to my surprise I shot across the top and paddled in to a left hand eddy near the half submerged island opposite the weir. Anyway between Andy Peate and myself, we got everyone on the water safely, travelled down river a few meters to find an eddy to follow up on some important signals and other vital information. Once done we practised breaking in and out until Nick and Carys were comfortable with paddling on moving water. At this stage I need to mention that it was Nick and daughter Carys's first time on moving water and they did really well from the start. Note to Committee! We need to invest in kit for bigger paddlers. Nick was somewhat at a disadvantage as the kit I gave him was a little small, so wasn't really that comfortable!!!!
We travelled a little further on with Nick taking a swim. Presenting the gunwales of the boat to upstream current result! Nick took this in his stride and got back in his boat and carried on. Carys was a natural. Paddling very determinedly against someof the more challenging parts of the river and making the eddies well done. Jordan, Jon and Andy were their usual competent selves on this grade of water and appeared to have enjoyed the day.
Just after the last set of rapids, Nick successfully navigated the rapids, which at the time were flowing well, and took his eye off the river and ended up swimming again. At this point as the group was split with me at the bottom end of the rapid and Andy Peate and the others at the top end, make it potentially a very bad situation to be in. Andy Peate understand immediately what had happened and took charge of the group while I dealt with Nick. Andy sent Jon down to lend a hand and we successfully guided Nick to the river bank. Again Nick took it all in his stride and got on with. Andy controlled the remaining group members and brought them down to us. Once altogether again we set off.
Towards the end of the paddle Nick took another swim just after the last but one bridge. This where we were practising breaking in behind the uprights of the bridge some how Nick went over and swam! Nick was very good humoured about all of this and I must mention the water temperature was very cold, but fair play to Nick, this did not phase him out one bit. Well done for shear determination. We reached journey's end shortly after Nick's third swim all accounted for and a few lessons learnt along the way. Well done to Carys and Nick.First time out on moving water really did well. Jordan and Jon good co-ordination on the rescues and Andy Peate for his
competent assessments of the potentially exposed situations we found ourselves in.
A level 2 coach in the making!
Good day had by all
Andy Rees"
Phew: better keep the other reports short:
2. Saturday morning, Rest Bay. John C. and I went surfing. Beautiful morning. Big surf: 6-7ft swell. I went out through the break once and was sorry I had.
3. Later Saturday morning, Upper Taff (Quakers Yard to Trefforest): Matt and Jon.
4. Sunday, Wye (Afon Howey Bach - Boughrood). Rob and I. Beautiful day and trip. This is mainly a Grade 1 stretch with some 2, and 1 bit of Gr3: "Hell Hole" : which was basically a straight forward shoot on the extreme right. Rob and I ran it twice.
