No rain but a demo day 25/4/09

Still no rain but there is some on the horizon so don't dispair all you boaters out there, we'll be on the water soon. Due to the evenings getting longer it could be an evening paddle.

Up and under had a demo day today with all the major boat suppliers. You could pick almost any boat you could think of in production today and have a go on the Ely. I tried a couple of play boats, and impressed with happy feet from Jackson kayaks, bought them. Looking forward to trying it out soon in the Juice.

Saw loads of people I know and had a chat to Hywel at the end. Very interesting, it turns out that more people know Hywel, than Hywel actually knows. He was struggling with a sea kayak beast of a boat (what else, there were loads there - he was in his element!), when he thought he saw a stranger nearby. That was until the -stranger- turned to him and said, "Do you want a hand with that Hywel?"...

See you on the water,
Phil

Tryweryn Sat 11/4/09

No rain for many weeks meant a trip to Bala for a run on the Dam released river. Paddlers who made the trek were;
Phil D - Mark D - Steve D - Matt M - Paul M - Ben M

We all took on the lower section first which is generally regarded as a technical grade 2. But we started from the lower car park, which everyone who's boated there before will know you have to blast through the NRA wave and Chapel falls. Chapel falls can be a nasty stopper if taken on the right.

I led the section and when through chapel I looked round to see the whites of everyone's eyes... All except Matt who had his poker face deployed.

Everyone got their breath and Paul led most of the way down to Bala mill falls. Mark was complaining that he was just too hot, so to remedy this he flipped his kayak and swam for it - very refreshing. First thing he stated was "I'm not running the upper!"

Bala Mill was great fun. After we checked out the line and Paul's face went a little whiter, we settled on an order of decent. Matt went first into the top eddie - cool as a cucumber - I ran the fall but didn't remember it being THAT big, and took up a position in an eddie at the bottom.

Paul's run was a classic - picked his line and then completely missed it. He did perform excellently though and I can testify that he has a fantastic high brace. I remember his eyes like saucers and his smile wider than his face, shouting in his Irish accent "I don't know how I stayed up... I DON'T KNOW HOW I STAYED UP... I DON'T KNOW HOW I STAYED UP!!!".

After the shuttle was sorted we moved on to the upper section. Fantastic runs. Ben took to it like a duck to water and we couldn't get him off Cafe wave for the second run.

Paul did well in the white stuff, down through the graveyard, conquered the ski jump but the dreaded Mrs Davies's bridge claimed another victim. Paul had a small swim and we rescued his boat just above cafe wave. There's a picture somewhere of me diving for it, and no Euros it's not a swim... not even a technical one!

The second run was a blast, we got 3 boaters in the micro eddie river right just above the graveyard, Matt D, Steve Delany and Me. - Chuffed to bits I exited... and capsized. Not my preferred choice to roll in the graveyard. But roll up I did.

Steve (Del) caught the micro eddie on the ski jump, Matt followed him in, but I couldn't squeeze the juice in!

Loads of fun on Cafe wave and NRA - Have a look at the pics on the website. (they should be going up soon). We also met up with some friends from Lemington Spa - They want to come and paddle some welsh water very soon.

Thanks to all I had a great time.

Phil D

Glasbury to Hay-on-Wye, Sunday 5 April

Low water but a good turn out. Some of the pictures:

Lower Taff and Symonds Yat

The last two weekends have seen two easy trips.  Last Sunday, Hywel, Owain, Euros, Emlyn and Nick T. went to Symonds Yat where we also met up with Steffan and Jack B.  The young ones did much rolling, the elder did much swimming!

The previous Sunday saw around 13 venture onto the lower Taff, being led by Andy, Phil and Nick B. A good trip was had by all, according to all accounts.

Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 Feb

Nick B, Paul Mac, Lewis, Ben, Mark, John C and Hywel tripped on the Ogwr Fawr, from Blackmill to Sarn. The first 4 named are regulars to this stretch but for the last 3 named it was a new river. It was suprisingly pleasant. We had to press our way through the crowds gathered for the hunt at the Fox and Hounds to get park and get on the river. When stting up the shuttle we realised it wasn't a bad level, at least not a scrape. The river description is: go over the small ledge natural weir (usually centre), and repeat n times. There's one substantial boxed weir with three steps - which we inspected. No problem at all on the day (as I suspected I found the second step quite a bit stickier than the first, partly due to the first taking one's momentum away so that the almost immediate approach to the second was quite a bit slower than one might like) but at even a lsightly higher level one could see it might be better portaged. 

Nick B had a go (intentional) at slotting into a stopper. Given there was really no possible alternative outcome than being sucked in, he did the job, rolling in the process before being washed out.

No other news worthy events.

Sunday found Rob G, Emlyn and Hywel gathered at Swanbridge, waiting for Grant, who'd invited us along - and didn't turn up. Given they found a Force 5 eastly freezing wind and moderately rough sea, the 3 wise men decided to have their cups of hot chocolate/coffee in the car, and talk of sea trips, before heading home as dry as when they arrived. A very pleasant trip. Thanks to Grant for organising it! The sea kayaking section goes from strength to strength.

Christmas paddle, 20 December 2008

Two trips - same place, different times. Both on the Upper Taff, one meeting at 8.30, the other at 10, both finishing together.

On the first there was Matt, Phil, Paul Mac, Nick B and Lewis, Jack, and Tom and another from London, Chris W and son, and on the second, John O', Emlyn, Andy, Euros and Hywel.

Andy has posted some video clips:

 http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=dragon+paddlers&search_type

Sunday 14 Dec: River Usk, Tal-y-bont to Crickhowell

As it rained on Saturday Matt thought the rivers would be up. They weren't. A good number turned up at Matt's at 9 (apart from Phil who'd insisted on a prompt start: he turned up around 9.15). The others were Hywel, Euros, Emlyn, Nick T, Chris W, Mark, Alan S and mate Jules, John C., 11 in all.

To cut a very long story - of scouting the Tarell, then going to Tal-y-bont and losing contact with Emlyn - short, we got on the river at 11.55, a mere 3 hours after meeting. No matter, it was a nice trip and it gave Nick T a chance to pull-off his first whitewater roll which he did, on two occasions. Only one swim, by Chris right at the end when he tried to practise his roll. Unfortunately, he didn't make sure others knew what he was up to, so when the roll wasn't, he swam and the boat was duly chased and rescued. (I think he scrambled to the bank in case you wondered).

Same again next Saturday?