Pyranananananananananananana Fest

I've just got back from a wild weekend at Canolfan Tryweryn which was playing host to the third annual Pyranha Fest. For those of you not in the know PFest is a Pyranha organised event where a massive fleet of demo boats get brought down to Tryweryn for people to try over the weekend. There are organised coaching courses by some of Pyranha's top coaches and a whole bunch of fun competitions. In the evening there is a hog roast, short talks about recent trips, previewing of an up and coming paddling film (Means of Production 2) and of course a party.

For me this event really kicked off on friday as I arrived in Runcorn to help load up a fleet of vans with demo boats, tents, bean bags, merchandise and other general paddling paraphernalia. Once we were all loaded up and had a cup of tea we set off for Wales. Arriving in Bala we had enough time to sample the limited edition Angry fish ale before hitting the hay.

A cloudy start at Bala Lake.

Unluckily for me I had been delegated to work at Bala lake on saturday morning with almost the complete range of touring boats, open canoes and sea kayaks. The morning ended up being fairly quiet although I did do a short coaching session for a gentlemen who wanted one.

Then we loaded up the van and headed over to the river I arrived just in time to miss the rodeo (gutted) but in time for the Boater-X race. The race was scheduled to take place from the top of graveyard to the NRA bridge (thats a long way for those who don't know). Heats had 6 people in and mine was not without incident. Straight from the word go I got into a tussle with boring James Bradley who promptly pulled my spraydeck off. I managed to get it back on and over take him but could only finish 4th in my heat not enough to go through to the semi final. In the end Tom 'sickline' Wakeling came in first, David 'Spaghetti arms' Bain came second and Pete 'The Scud' Scutt came third.

A boater-X clash once my deck was back on

After a short rest a mellow surf session on Cafe wave turned into a 15 minute game of King of the Wave, luckily no-ne was injured.

Cleaning up in the Varun

Chillin out

Once all was said and done we packed the vans and headed back to the Glan Lyn, for an evening of talks, videos, hog and beer. Not to mention the odd informal breakdance off.

Throwing the Varun around

Sunday was a more chilled day with some paddling, relaxing and resting. At the end of the day we packed the Van and headed back to the factory.

A fun weekend was had by all and a big thanks should be said to all who were involed in the planning and implementation of the weekend.

Photos By Leanne Atlee