It was that time of year again...The mighty Pyranha fest on the Mighty Afon Tryweryn. Me and some friends arrived on friday evening after a nice chilled paddle on the Dee. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of torrential rain shaking and tapping the tent I was in very loudly... It was a good job I brought my creek boat!
Things kicked off with a 'super serious' freestyle competition on Saturday morning...not really my cup of tea so as soon as I had finished my ride we set off to the deep depths of Wales to do some quality boating. We ended up on the Fairy Glen- A 'test piece' class 5 gorge near Betws-y-Coed. I was in my new creek boat (zet raptor) and I have to say it was some of the most fun I have had on the water in ages. I got really good lines all the way including the infamous class 5/5+ Fairy Falls. I had never ran this rapid before and was super stoked when I was at the bottom without putting one stroke wrong!
On Sunday, all the levels had dropped back off and it was time to hold my title for boater x champion!
After a bad start and my gopro being knocked off I battled to the front of the 20+ mass start and went to claim the win.
Now I am waiting to finish my exams and go boating...Pray for rain!
Yesterday I was lucky enough to have been chosen to take part in a special Youth Freestyle event which was to be held on the Legacy Loop. Now, credit it where it is due, the build quality of this course is outstanding. The water had no silt in because the water is held in a concrete lake and the water is slightly chlorinated..swimming pool?
The Legacy course itself was pretty nice and I would compare it to CIWW but slightly deeper. In regards to the main feature..it took time to get used to but was deep enough for loops although it was common for people to hit the bottom every so often but all hole tricks could be done with enough effort. Directly after this hole was another feature which loops could also be obtained in. In the competition, I came 2nd in the 15 and under age category which I was pretty pleased with!
However, I felt that the legacy loop still had a long way to go before it could be classed as a good paddling destination such as the Tryweryn or HPP. First of all, nearly every eddy was almost as fast as the main current itself creating some amusing carnage (to some)...it reminded me of bumper cars but with less control! To add to this some of the other features could be easily tweaked to become even better but I guess all this will improve with time!
James Weight mcnasties in the main feature on the 'Legacay Loop'
Unfortunately only the gb team were allowed to paddle the main Olympic course but believe me in saying it is world class as it indeed is! I cannot wait to take on the main course as it looks a top quality bit of white water. From observations and after asking people who have paddled it, it is definitely harder than the like of the Tryweryn, Hpp or any other 'artificial' or 'altered' course I have ever been to. It looked very continuous and included some pretty steep drops and big surging waves. It is also very continuous and I can imagine a swim on here would be fairly exhausting. It is definitely not for the faint hearted!
Now I have heard a lot of speculation on the price of the main course but I am pretty sure after an hour on this piece of whitewater you will be pretty tired and after 2 hours you will probably be tired for the next week!
Early on Saturday Morning me and Ryan Liquirish headed off to the Cardiff International White Water Course for the annual Thames Valley Freestylers 4th birthday event. When we first arrived the course hadn't been switched on yet so me and ryan did a quick long board session in the shadow of the rising sun untill the water came on. As soon as the water came on we were a bit weary of the depth of the course but as soon as we entered the main hole our minds were changed instantly! If you paddled this spot right it offered you good rewards at 9 cumecs and at 12 cumecs HUGE rewards! It was truely a great day with myself getting into the final of the freestyle competition and winning the very grueling Boater X race, another victory under my belt which I was pretty stoked with! A big shout out to Dave Wortley and Mandy Chan for running the event and of course Gareth Harvey who runs TVF! Well done to all the competitors and I think it is safe to say everyone enjoyed them selves thoroughly!
The final results were:
Freestyle:
1st: Matty Nicholas
2nd: Dale Mears
3rd: Ryan Liquirish
Boater X
1st: Charles Blyth (me)
2nd: James Metcalf
3rd: Dale Mears
A BIG thank you to Dale Mears for the photos...infact check out his blog here
Now I am waiting to get over a nasty case of food poisoning and for the rain to come so I can go creeking once again!
Also, check out my latest video of all my paddling up to date:
On the 25th-27th February I was given the opportunity to help out with my new sponsor West Midlands Canoe Centre to perform with the CIWW crew at the out door leisure show. Me and Chris Hackett did a daily display and entertained ( I hope) some large crowds and helped publicise our great sport a little bit more! It was a great experience and it was great to support a local company to me so please check out there site!
I have also recently become the proud owner of the new Project 56x! I feel I am really progressing in this boat as are a few others such as Dale Mears! While it is very different compared to the allstar I am glad I have made the swap and reccomend you all to try this out!
On the Friday night of the 4th of February, Myself, Miles Jones and Matty Nicholas met up and travelled to Betws Y coed to meet up with with Jason Raper and friends.
We spent that night sleeping in cars in a rustic forest with the sound of the Llugwy in spate in the distance.
The following morning we were up at half 7 and while I was still waking up Matty Nicholas and Jason Raper fired up chipshop drop. Both of them styled it!
After that we headed to the Nantygwyryd and began the steep walk in to the slides above. At this point the weather and visibility was shocking making getting decent footage pretty hard.
After that we headed down to the 'classic' section which was continuous rockslidey class 4. The one person who had done the river before forgot where the portage was so we ended up running the 'class 5+' Llys falls blind. Luckily we all got away with it and it all left us with huge smiles for several hours after!
Above: Me on the top slide
After this we proceeded to the mighty Aberglaslyn Gorge via the Lledr ( flood levels)
Pont-y-Pant was at the most biggest scariest level I have ever seen it at-Truly spectacular so it was no wonder that a few of the boys fired it up!
Both Matty and Jason got the first part of the line perfectly but they both ended up taking a ride in a pretty big hole but managed to get out. While all this carnage was happening I was meant to be filming but instead I was getting told off by fisherman..go me!
Above: Matty in the thick of it: can you see him?
After retrieving Rapers boat we proceeded to the Aberglaslyn which was at a sweet high level. I borrowed my friends gopro for this which can be found here:
The next day we walked into the Lower Prysor with full kit only to find it was a bit low so walked back out again. Shortly after we hit the Goedal stout..Apparently the rest of the river would have been 'unrunnable' at this level:
Me on the Goedal stout drop
The last river of the weekend was to be a medium high Mawddach which we had some very good moments including 3 people in a row getting back loop just above the last drop on the Three Nasties. Jason did a quick video of the group on the top drop:
Overall a great weekend, with great company: Nice one! :)
After a long time I finally got the chance to visit the mighty Hurley Weir.
I have been looking forward to visiting this spot for ages due to so much hype surrounding it!
I am going to be honest here, it is over rated, but that is not to say it isn't a great spot but it just not the same as a spot such as the Dee where you have beautiful surroundings, not just some concrete and a metal weir gate.
The first time I was there it was a lovely green 3 which you could soul surf until your heart was content! Sadly it dropped down to 2 during the time I was there which wasn't great considering the long drive and sub zero temperatures!
Today I returned to find a high level 3 gates with a nice pile.
Thankfully it was a bit warmer and I managed to stick a few blunt and nearly stuck a donkey flip!
I look foward to returning and having some more fun next time it is up :)
With a long 3 month gap between year 11 and sixth form approaching, I am currently looking into a trip to Iceland or somewhere further afield which should be brilliant!
Me below the big class 5 hit near the top of the river.
With a sudden rise in temperatures and rain fall the snow was melting and all the rivers were at meaty levels and running brown!
After waiting around for a while we ended up with a random group who didn't know each other very well but proceeded onto the mighty Mawddach non the less!
We drove towards the get in to find the mountain road completely iced over meaning that we had to shoulder our boats for nearly 2 hours to reach the get in.
Once at the get in we had a quick snack of fresh snow before venturing down some continuous class 4 and a couple of 5s. After 2 people walking out due to high water we were left with a final team of 4 people.
We finished the 8+ miles of continuous water just before dusk with welcomed soup and water.
