Scotland...

I have just come back from a nine day trip to Bonnie Scotland. I travelled up for the Wet West Paddle Fest. This is an event where the SCA organise shuttles for two dam release rivers. One per day. Saturday is an easy warm up river, the Garry. This is a nice fun play run, at grade 3 with a bit of sunshine a good time was had by all. The next day the river Morriston is running. This is a slightly more serious, but still great fun run. Scoring in at grade 4/5 this was a great river. Sadly my paddling partner Phil took a swim about halfway down the short upper section. After a spot of lunch and a little time to reflect Phil decided he didn’t want to paddle anymore that day, which left me with half a day and no paddling partners. Luckily for me I was able to link up with some who I sought of new and we decided to go and do the lower Morriston. This was another brilliant short section of grade 4/5 with fun drops, and narrow channels.

Sidesurfing on the Gary.

End of a rapid on the Morriston

Sunday night brought a large rain cloud. Since we were camping the weekend we slept in a bit till the rain passed. After hours of sleep it was still raining. We went and checked out a few rivers but eventually settled on a low grade ditch river because Phil didn't fancy getting on anything too scary. We opted to go the the Akraig, a 2km section of lake to lake, shallow whitewater. We had chosen this river as we had only one car and it was a short river. After a 20 minute blast down the river I began to walk back, I was looking for a private road that should have taken me 2KM back to the car. Sadly I never found that road and ended up having to do a two hour long walk back to the car in the rain. Not cool.

The following day we linked up with a few more people and drove to the Nevis. I had heard stories about the Nevis, and the epics that people had had in there. Since I didn’t want to put myself off I elected not to read the guide for it but to just go with the flow. Phil decided to sit the Nevis out, and followed our group of five along the river equipped with the camera. This was probably my favorite river of the whole trip, with committing gorges, blind bends and ‘must make’ lines, culminating in a wicked waterfall. Apon getting back in the car and having a look at the guide book it turned out I had just completed my first grade 5 river. Sweet.

Boulder Blast, the first Nevis rapid

Nevis Waterfall

We managed to cram a few other rivers in during the week including the Orchy and the Roy gorge. These rivers were great fun but all a lead in to the coming weekend’s main event. The Etive River race.

I had never paddled to Etive before, so when I joined my paddling sensei Pete Scutt on friday morning I was slightly unnerved at the speed we blasted down the river. Because we were going so fast and neither phil or myself really had no clue of the lines we got a bit worked over. Phil had two swims then decided to walk out half way down the river. I got nailed in a drop called the Crack of Doom after coming over the drop a bit sideways and despite making a good attempt to stay in my boat I had to take my first swim of the trip. Thanks to the rest of the group, Jenny and Tom for a quick rescue of my boat. I jumped back in my boat and we continued down. Needless to say I was a little more cautious now, but survived the rest of the river. We reset the shuttle a prepared to do the river again. I was a little more nervous this time, but after a few tips on improving my boofing I was off again. This time I did fine.

The next morning I went to register at the Glen Coe ski centre. The race is a team event, and after his swims yesterday Phil decided he didn’t want to take part. This left me partner less. After an hour and a half of anxious waiting, I was introduced to a man named Barnsey, he agreed to be my partner so I was back in the race. Pete had told me Barnsey was a machine, and he was right as we set off down the river I saw Barnsey disappear around the bend. Twelve and a half minutes later and once I had a few unfortunate instances including running the second drop of triple falls backwards and getting stuck on a rock we finished. Although I was exhausted Barnsey talked me in to running one of Scotland’s classic tributaries. I can’t remember the name of it but its the one with the pinball rapid on it. Anyway After a short walk up I was treated to around fifteen minutes of sweet slides and chutes, in-between beautiful pools of crystal clear water. The whole run was made even more stunning by the Sun shining, something we hadn’t seen all week. It turned out I had come 8th in the Etive River Race and will definitely be going back next year.

Backwards on the Second drop

So fast I'm blurred

I was lucky with the water levels this week and had one of my best paddling weeks ever. I would highly recommend Scotland to anyone who hasn’t paddled there before. Amazing

Stay safe .

Photos by Phil Hollman

The New 2010 Allstar. My review.......

I have been paddling a 2008 Allstar for nearly a year. From the first time I paddled it i thought it was the best thing ever, balanced cartwheels, big loops, comfortable enough to paddle for hours on end, easy to roll. The I had it on a wave and it was a dream, loose and easy to throw round. Essentially Its perfection in a boat.

So naturally when I heard that Jackson kayak were designing the boat I was very excited. Jackson kayak released a bit of hype and some pictures and videos of a boat that looked tricks would go bigger and with ease.

Two weeks ago the boats came into the UK, since I work at Whitewater:The canoe centre, I managed to blag the first go in the demo boat. Looking at the boat on the ground it is much shorter and fatter than my Allstar. When I sat in the boat I found my knees higher and closer together than what I was used to.

The new Allstar laid nose to nose with the 07-09 Allstar

When I got it on the water I could feel how much shorter the boat was. The Shorter tail combined with additional volume meant that it not only looped big, but loops came round easier. However, this boats lack of length meant that it cartwheeled faster than speeding train, so fast that cartwheel felt absolutely out of control. To add to the feeling of uncontrollability the seating position makes the boat feel continuously off-balance, especially when doing stalls or cartwheels.

Going BIG

Granted I have only been able to paddle these at Chertsey, which is not exactly a world-class play feature. However even my existing Allstar still feels much Better. Im my opinion Jackson Kayak had achieved perfection in a playboat with the 07-09 series Allstars. The new Allstar does loop BIG, but the boat length and seating position combines to make a boat that I don’t feel is as good as the older series of Allstar. The old adage of ‘If it aint broke don’t fix it’ springs to mind after paddling the 2010 Allstar.

Stay safe, paddle new boats when you can, and make your own opinions....

Seth

Open Canoeing. Its not just for old people.....

Last weekend a few of my friends and I headed up to North Wales to do our Open Canoe Four Star training. I have had my Open Canoe Three Star for a little while now and when I got the opportunity to to more I jumped right in. The training took place on the River Dee, and was run by GETAFIX. I was quite impressed my the amount of stuff we could cover in two days. As well as Honing our Personal skills we also learned about leading groups, different ways to run a river, poling, Lining and Tracking (This is where you use throwlines to guide your boat upstream through a rapid from the bank) and much more. Much fun was had by all, especially with many comedy swims happening all round (mostly by me).

Heres me goin for an eddy.

We travelled up on friday evening straight after work, luckily I wasn't driving as it was a trip which took five hours. When we arrived in Bala we were already booked into a bunkhouse. I can't remember the name of the place but it was awesome, Fifteen pounds per night including three meals a day. The only downside was that it was quite a way out of town. Oh well.

Setting up for another eddy.

Trying to catch the last wave.

Over the course of the two day the course was tailored to our needs by our coach Richard from GETAFIX. I think the course was run very well. Big thanks to them for sorting us out.

If your going open canoeing in the future, let me know as im always up for another trip.

Keep safe

I'm In............

I am now officially entered in the Etive River Race in September. Supposedly it is Britians most extreme kayak race, to find out more and to enter check hear.......

http://www.etiveriverrace.co.uk/

Hot summer. What a bummer.......

At some water levels, the Thames Weirs can create some of the best playspots in the UK. However, this summer has been both hot and dry, meaning that the sometimes world-class play features are no more a few small jets of water. Whilst at times the lack of water is frustrating, i feel im making the best of it. My regular paddling week consists of three slalom sessions a week at Shepperton. In addition i'm getting a couple of play sessions a week at the mighty Chertsey weir.

To keep things interesting in my paddling, I always try and learn new things. For a long time I have been totally unable to cartwheel, however after weeks of practice and hundreds of rolls I finally cracked it. Well going left anyway.

A stylish blast from Pete Scutt

However even with the best will in the world Chertsey is only entertaining for so long and eventually a drive up to HPP is in order.

To make thing even worse the initial heat wave that we had at the beginning of the summer is gone, replaced by rain. Frustratingly not enough rain to make any of the weirs run at a good level.

Oh well, its still good fun.

happy paddling....

Another Video............NSR 2009

This is a longer video of the event which took place in March 2009. Enjoy...

Holidays..................

In about September time, a few of my friends and I started planning a eurotrip kayaking holiday. The idea was to drive round the different paddling play spots of europe, and even run a few rivers. Well as time went on, pretty much everyone who wanted to do it had pulled out, leaving just me and one of my friends. Since a long holiday with two people would have been a bit boring we decided to do a weeks playboating in Lyon, south of France. In the week leading up to my trip I had everything sorted, car ready, clothes packed, eurotunnel booked, money changed. Then someone recommended i look into the Alps for a couple of days. Although I wasn't convinced initially I looked into day trips that could be done from Lyon. I finally settled on a day at Bourg-Saint-Maurice, a French International Slalom Site. More about that later.

On sunday morning we got on the road, the photo above is taken on the road in France, by midday temperatures were well into the high twenties, and when we arrived in Lyon after ten hours of driving on the wrong side of the road the temperature was well into the thirties.

The next morning after getting some food at the supermarket we headed over to Hawaii Sur Rhone. It turns out that this particular feature is quite easy to see from the motorway, but very difficult to get to, as navigating around the complicated French road system is hard. Finally we arrived, we walked over and had a look the size of the wave. BIG. There were a few other people there, so we got changed and jumped on. After talking to the people who were on the water we discovered that the water levels weren't great. What this meant was that the wave was extremely difficult to catch. With this in mind we persevered and although we didn't get loads of rides, but each one we did get was both amazing and terrifying. The speed down the wave was amazing, each hard carve lead to a bounce which threw your whole boat into the air.

Thats me, that little spec in the middle.

After a couple of days here we got up early and headed to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. I wasn't really sure what to expect when we got there, so when I arrived to see around a 900M of lovely Alpine river, made even better by the fact that no-one else was there. We spent the day playing on the river, the water was FREEZING, darn glacial melt.

A pic of Bourg (Taken from French website Eauxvives.org, as i can't find the one we took)

The next day we were back in Lyon, unfortunately for my paddling buddy Andy he swam, on his first ride of the day. As if this wasn't enough he lost his paddle. With no spare that put an end to his paddling week. Unluckily for me I pulled a muscle soon after. With no solution in sight we did the student thing. We bought some really really cheap wine and got extremely drunk.

The following day we felt a little worse for wear, so decided to wander around town.

Now i'm back in the UK and back at work. I had a good holiday, if you've got one coming up good luck, I hope it goes well. Be safe.