18th January – Radyr Weir to Llandaff with Open Boats (friends of the club paddle)

Friends: SW,JN,NB

Not much time to spare this Saturday morning, so the 3 of us, not having used them for a while, decided to spend a couple of hours in the morning on an easy section of river in open canoes.
We arrived at Llandaff Weir, only to be met by 3 obviously newcomers to the sport but with plenty of adrenalin to spare. ‘’I got turned out of the kayak last week in the weir mate, I managed to get out but my kayak kept getting turned over and over again almost like it was stuck!!!! but no problem I managed to edge my way along the edge of the weir on the narrow concrete bit and managed to pull it out’’ said one, ‘’mm’’, ‘’oh’’ came the response from us. Then looking at his two mates who both had buoyancy aids on but only camoufladge trousers, camoufladge jackets, jack boots and no helmet or anything else besides were obviously going to attempt to go over the weir on a sit on top. The guy who had the epic the week before was determined to go back into the weir also, he did have most of the kit, except helmet, I think he had a buoyancy aid, at least there was something bulky under his spraydeck that made him look 9 months pregnant!!
The water was tremendously high again with a very long tow back the full width of the weir.
Then these guys then wanted us to watch them, at which stage Steve and I turned our backs and started to move our boats to the beach just below the weir, while Nick continued to try to persuade them not to do it. Ten minutes or so later Nick came to join us having convinced them not to attempt the suicide and we proceeded on down the river.
The river was very fast at this stage and it didn’t take us long to get down to the natural broken weir, where although the ‘white water’ was mostly washed through the flow was very fast and formed huge waves so it was like being on a roller coaster. We had forgotten how much fun it was in these big open boats. We broke out on the beach just below the next bridge for a cup of tea and our thoughts went back to the three guys at the weir, wondering what the storey had been after we left them. We hadn’t had any sight of them since leaving. The next section of river was much slower, still some bumpy water in places but in no time we were down to the get out.
Not a long paddle bur again very enjoyable.
Back at the get in the 3guys vehicle had gone so we assume all ended well for themwhatever they did.

(by John N.)