Here is the lastest video: Progression...

Here are is my latest video...Enjoy :-)

Fairy Glen, Aberglasyln Gorge and numerous Dee Sessions...

As I am starting to really improve in my boating and start to push my boundaries, We decided to finally hit the Glen and I don't think we could have had a much better crew to show me down : Kev Griffiths, Chris Williams and Phill Davidson of the Welsh Rivers Guidebook Fame.

Well, my my, what a truly magical place! I have never been to such a place which has moved me so much.

It is just amazing how secluded and unique this gorge is. From the moment we got on it moved me in a way indescribable. The rapids were testing with must make lines, gnarly stoppers and lots of hidden nasties....

Due to light we only had time to run the lower gorge which included rapids such as Pipeline, Speed biker and end of the world- the infamous must run rapid.

Due to Captive Productions, I have had to hold nearly all the footage back except for a few various clips:

Here is me on SpeedBiker:

Here is the mighty Chris Williams running Pipeline:

Before we did the Glen We ran a low level Aberglasyln gorge, which was a really nice run which was quite technical at this level.. One thing that I loved of this river was the mellow green colour of the water...Fantastic!

Due to the recent lack of water I have been playing on the dee A few times over the last month, One time in my playboat which resulted in a nice healthy spanking in Serpents which involved a nice lengthy side surf numerous back loops before being briefly shoved under the undercut before I was freee!

Another session involved messing around in my solo on the Mile End Mill site with Peter Lamb, was great to paddle with him and learn some new techniques!

Afon Lledr

Right, It has been an awful long time since I last updated this blog and since my last post I feel my paddling has improved an awful lot...

Shortly after Christmas I met up with the 'usuals' and a few new faces for a paddle on the Afon Lledr. Wow, what a river. I can understand why the guidebook mentions that it isn't as popular as you would think due to the diversity of the rapids. We got on at Pont Y Pant which was one of the hardest rapids on the river which we ran... Straight onto solid grade 5 with no warm up wakes you up believe me! This was one of my first big grade 5s. Here is a video to prove it:

The video doesn't really do this amazing rapid justice but never the less, enjoy:

A full video of our day can be found here:

Afon Lledr Kayaking 27/12/09 from Charles Blyth on Vimeo.

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.