Lower Taff, Thursday 2 Nov.

"Thursday 2nd Nov 06 Paul and Ben McDonald along with Steve White and myself paddled the lower Taff in glorious sunshine with a decent water level.

We started at the usual place Radyr weir. After some inspection I managed to convince the rest of the party to shoot the weir on the right hand side next to the re-circulating pool of death! With an ugly audience egging us on we paddled over the lip of the weir in timely fashion. Everyone completed this first hurdle without incident and found some small waves to play on before heading on down the river.

The day was cold; however, the sun was very strong which made the autumnal colours dance on the waters edge as we passed by the various shopping trolley’s and washed out foliage from the previous weeks high rain fall.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was filled with trying to steal Ben’s Mars Bar and practicing breaking in and out of some of the strong grade two eddies.

The broken weir was worth stopping and playing with everyone going down backwards and generally enjoying the decent water. The only other highlight was a show of macho strength at a small, but strong flowing eddie. The objective was to paddle up to a small protruding rock and through a very powerful grade seven wave. Note it was only a grade seven wave when I did it! Ben and Paul managed to do it only because they had smaller boats and paddlers!

All in all a good, pleasant afternoons paddle on the Lower Taff was had by all. Well done to Ben for getting on most of the waves and thanks to Steve and Paul for the company.

Regards

Andy Rees"

Tags: Taff

River Usk - Sennybridge to Aberbrân, Sun. Oct 29

"Phil D & Matt M met up with Dave C in the petrol station off the A470 at 0645hrs. Not to get a full days paddle... but to get one of the paddlers back to Cardiff to go shopping for a fireplace! Naming no names but it wasn't Dave and I've got one.

After asking for permission from the farmer to park in his field (the cockerel had already woken him!) we changed and headed on up to the 'put in' at Sennybridge. After inspecting the boats, Matt enjoyed breaking the news that I'd forgotten my drain plug. OOPS, GET THE GAFFER TAPE! Matt is training for his Level 3 coach, so was mightily impressed with himself when he also broke the news that he was carrying 2 spare drain plugs. (Not half as impressed as I was.)

All on the water, we enjoyed some great scenery as we paddled down to the 3
natural weirs. As the levels were on the low side, we shot all 3 and had a bit of fun letting the weir grab the boats and going vertical. (Not advisable if the levels are any higher than they were.)

There were some really good surf waves. On which Dave and I got some unintentional rolling practice. It's good to push the envelope.

Next big event came just past a bridge and before a mansion, river right. A nice clean eddy line provided some great tail squirt practice. Matt showed us how it was done... And I duly capsized! Still practice makes perfect and all three paddlers were nearly vertical at the end of the 5 minute session.

The rest of the trip passed without major incident and the scenery was just perfect. Food for the soul!

Looking forward to the next paddle,
Phil D"

Tags: Usk

Afon Ysgir and Upper Taff Sunday 22 Oct

Two lots of Dragon Paddlers went out.

In the morning, John C. and Tim ventured out to Afon Ysgir. The water level was high medium. Tim scored one roll (or was it a swim?), the river scored a lost paddle - from John as he saw the final (lethal) weir too late (he thought) and hence tangled with a tree to save himself.

In the afternoon, Matt, Dave, Phil and Jon A. tripped on th Upper Taff at an impressivley high water level - enough to flip Matt at Abercynon weir and permit the Graveyard rapid to be taken down the centre (after bank scouting), rather than on the usual river left side. Plenty of rolling and one swim from Jon.

Tags: Ysgir, Taff