Ogwen and Cwm Llan

What an absolutely awsome day, I have found it hard to compare to!

We started off by meeting at the Ogwen with the WCC lads and some others but found out Kev and Chris were one and a half hours away! We decided to press on for a run of the Ogwen starting at Ogwen bank falls. Most people ran it but I decided to leave it for another (very soon) day.

This was my first run of the gun barrel and BOY was it fun!!!! The river was at a low-medium ish but all good fun. At the get out Chris had arrived in his paddlewagon just in time to pick us up for another run!
This was great as I was paddling really well and I was really in tune to the river.

When we got out to move on, we met some 'friendly' welsh people in there car who were quite expressive about their views. After a short 'language fight' and chasing their car (not literally)we were on our ways ;-) (don't ask)

After this we headed to the Cwm Llan with that LONG ASS walk in, which in all honesty I quite enjoyed as it made that sweet little gem that bit sweeter!
Once we got their the river was at a lowish level but still plenty of fun was to be had!

At the top I was very relieved and I was looking foward to the run in hand.....
All the drops were fine and my favourite was the very last one which is basically a 15ft. drop onto rock but GOOD GOLLY was it fun!

Here are a few other photos...

Scotland, WOW!

Here are a few photos of my Scotland trip with report below :-)

What a truely amazing place. The rivers were unique, the scenery amazing and the boating was 'lush'!

The rivers me and my group got done were :

Roy-high water

Gloy-high water (perfect)

Pattack x2-medium and then again in high

Archaig-low-medium water

Upper Spean to Invalair falls-2 pipes (alpine!!)

Etive-medium high

I think my favourite has to be the Gloy, what an outstanding continuous grade 3/4 run. Out of my group I was the only one not to swim which was pretty lucky. All the other swims were due to lack of attention, new boats and chase boating.

After this I would strongly discourage anyone to 'chase boat' unless you are on a piece of water which you know in side out.

I ended up swimming once on Right Angle, River Etive. I basically got a small dunkin' in the 'right angle' part. I took a roll and manged to get out. But by the time I was out I was way too far right. I went down the fall O.K but I resurfaced upside down and the pretty weird boils pushed me against the wall leaving me unable to roll. I popped my deck and got pulled to the side of the fall with water trickling down my head. As i was stuck in the most awkward place, it took a good 20 minutes to get me out of there.

In my opinion I think it was agood thing as I am still pretty inexperienced and a swim like this has never happened to me. The bad thing was that I lost beloved h2o team blades :(

So I am still currently paddless but borrowing friends blades:)

Cynfal

The Cynfal was an absolute blast. It begins with a tricky lead in but after that there are two 20foot freefalls which are bliss!



Here is a video of Taff running seond drop

Here is me running it ( this video is a little long and i do't arrive untill the very end so hang in there :-) )

Skip foward to 42 seconds.

Feel Good factor

The feel good factor. For the first time in my life I am truely happy with where my boating is taking me, I am now running rivers which i could of only ever dreamed of and several of my early paddlign goalshave already been accomplished. For example paddling Swallow Falls and the mighty Ogwen.
Yesterday I paddled the Ogwen. It was pretty high at his point. One of the people I was paddling wit said it was at the perfect level- It was HUGE!!!! I never scraped a rock once and there was some pretty beefy pour overs!
After ot first run we did it again and by this point the river had dropped off by atleast a foot. We were very lucky.
A big thankyou to everyone who was willing to take me paddling and more importantly, help have me have lots of FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN :D

A Happy Turn

Well, it has been a crazy week for me, on Sunday I paddled the Llugwy again but different parts.

First we paddled Pont Cuffin mainlining it as it was only just low enough to run it with te ease of getting out of it.

After that, we paddled down to the mighty Swallow Falls where I paddled all 3 drops but portaging the first bit of the last drop but continuing to do the last slide. After that where we paddled down to the mincer.

After close inspection of the first rapid I decided to run it.
The safety was set up, the atmosphere was tense and I was ready to go. As the lead in was a bit rocky, I managed to mess some of my line up. Non the less, I carried on to the 'mincer'. All was going well untill by back caught the undercut rock and I went into a slot where I unfortunately got pinned. Luckily MY face formed an air pocket where I could breathe and help with the rescue. Kev and John pulled me out of the water within seconds. A big thankyou goes to anyone who helped out with the rescue.

After a LONG break ( 3 weeks) off paddling i was ready and raring to go.
First stop was a flatwater session, although I was a bit rusty it all soon cam back to me...

The next day I was mean to be going on the Tryweryn but somehow there was water in Wales so we headed to a beautiful selecton of welsh classics including:

Wnion MEDIUM

Eden LOW

Angell LOW

And the 25 ft. drop on the galam LOW MEDIUM.

SYOTW :D

Marvelous Marston

The water was up, and a few of my friends had been tipped off about a local gem of a playspot. I walked down the muddy bank to come accross this:

After a wavewheel or 2 off the wave we set about carving this sweet spot up...

Although the feature was quite washy much fun was to be had in the hole straight after the wave which gave you a small thrashing every time :=)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG311HUzkj4
Watch this video. It is my first one and I hope it amuses you :)

WWSR and The Tryweryn

A few members from the club had set their eyes on running the Vrnwy on this wet Sunday. With being told it would definitely be running we all had our hopes up but to our disappointment it was dog low. The gorge looked runnable but not worth it. Our back up plan was the Tryweryn and I was very glad the boat i brought with me was my play boat!

Here is a picture of me on NRA wave :)

The time was right for me to embark on a WWS&R course as the skills which would be learnt are essential to any white water kayaker. My coaches for the weekend were the Dallaways who were extremely welcoming and were excellent at helping me progress.

The weekend went fast and I escaped with only a few boozes and a boozed bone from jumping across the chipper!

Sadly i have no photos from the weekend...

South Wales Trip

It was that time of the year again, I was off to Pembrokshire to visit my aunty which is an excuse to take my boat with me :)

On the way there I stopped off at Morriston weir and met up with Rich. The level was a bit low but the rides were fast, the pop outs small and the company great!

After that, we finally arrived at my autnies house just outside pembroke. From there we headed to a range of beaches including Manobeir, Whitesands and last but not least Fresh Water West where they have just filmed parts of Harry Potter and Robin Hood which I am looking foward to seeing in the cinema!

Here are a few photos from the trip....

Tryweryn Compression..

Due to the lack of water around, 2 successions of the Tryweryn would have to do.

The first, I paddled with Stu Parry, Elliot Mcgee and Bren Orton. It wasa real laugh and good to meet up with them all. I am getting quite close to landing the loop now but still practising :)

The next week I was off there again with some of the guys from http://www.therivercrew.co.uk/

Big thanks to Dave and t'other Dave and Rick Atkinson for a great day out. A few photos...

Photos by Chris Noble and Andrew Blyth

Holme Pierrpoint Paddlefest

On the 29Th March 2009, I set off to Nottingham for a day of paddling the new whitewater course which was recently renovated. At 11 o'clock, I had a course with the guys 'n' gals at FlowFree. It was a looping course and boy was it fun!
While getting used to my new jackson star, I gave a go at perfecting the trick of looping! After several attempts i cracked my first ever loop! I was over the moon. It really gave me some confidence and opened the path to proper playboating.


See you on the water,
Charles :P