Mawddach 18/12/10

I set off early on a cold wintery morning, the thaw had started, snow bound kayakers could once again get out their gear and head to the rivers.

I arrived at the Mawddach car park to meet up with Charles Blyth, Paul Steels, Dave Bradshaw, Andy Brooks and Dan. With a quick look at the river level everyone was gunning to get ready and get paddling.

We all started travelling up the winding road in convoy, the amount of snow on the road was becoming increasingly thick and slippery, a local kind

ly stopped us and told us his troubles in his 4wd car with chains so we admitted defeat and left the cars. We continued. . . on foot.

We got the boats out and discussed how far it was too the get in. We estimated around 4 km so with this in mind we set off, committed to make a good day of it despite the long walk.

We were walking for over an hour with boats on our shoulder/sliding in the snow up and down the snow covered road, as we travelled further water became evidently melting with water flowing down the road underneath the ice/snow and flowing out of the ditch at the edge of the road.

A Quick Rest

We arrived at a little bridge where the get in was, the river was evidently flowing well, so with relief after walking all that way we put our boats on the water and started out decent.

Only 300 meters Andy found his boat leaking, after inspecting the hull a massive rip was found and he walked out.

So there were 5

We continued down for a good while, when we approached the first significant drop, a 6 meter waterfall with two plumes flowing down, take the left plume and you land in soft aerated water, take the right and you land on rock. After inspecting thoroughly and watching Dan I was confident to run it. I ran back up to my boat, paddled down, with a quick pause in the eddy I entered the flow and hit the line mint. I tucked on the way down and hit the water waiting at the bottom. I felt a power flow of water flow in to my boat and realized my deck had popped. I sprinted in to the eddy jumping out of my boat to get it on the bank before I sank. Emptied my boat quickly in case any of the others had a incident too. From careful analysis I have realised that I was so focused on my line. I hadn’t checked my deck was on at the sides, ooops !

Dave and I Inspecting the Icicles

After a quick swim and climbing trip to retrieve paddles (mentioning no names) we continued on dow stream. After some technical little drops we came to the next large drop, a gnarly rocky plume, we all decided that today wasn’t the day so we portaged, we also portaged the infamous Readher Mawddach, an 86 foot mess.

Dan Getting in Below Readher Mawddach

It was also my first run in my new Pyranaha Burn. I was immediately impressed by the speed it had on the water, and the ability to punch holes. It feels manoeuvrable on twisty drops and resurfaces fast on bigger stuff.

The group continued down through the picturesque forests of Coed y Brennin, the river was starting to widen as we came down through a series of perfect play holes.

As we paddled around the corner the wooden bridge appeared in the distance, this was one of my favourite sections of white water in the UK, and commonly known as “the three nasties” This section consists of 3 drops surprisingly enough, the first a river wide drop, with a sticky deep hole on the usual line. This the river then narrows through a series of holes then drops down the third drop which is horribly undercut.

At this point the light was beginning to fade, and with that the cold coming in. I was lucky to be wearing my new NRS creek gloves, which were both providing me with warm hands, and protecting from knocks.

After taking a quick look we decided we would run all the way to the bottom in one go.

Dan went first lining up over the hole with a nice boof. I went second, taking a different line with a lesser hole and continued down the next section, I saw Dan in the eddy above the final drop and looked up to see Paul boofing just to the right of Charles who was stuck in the hole. Paul stopped beside to see Charles successfully power out of the hole. Next came Dave, (in a low volume river runner) he back-looped in to the hole, and it was obvious the hole would hold him. He came out of his boat and luckily got to the side and out the river before the second nasty. His boat and paddle floated down, after trying to get both out before the third nasty (the most difficult) we followed down. Being a section I paddle regularly I broke out, hugged the central rock and boofed. After this all is a blur, as I felt myself being launched towards the cliff on the right. I was under the water with rock holding me under. I knew I must be in the undercut; a brief moment of worry came about as I was not moving, only feeling the water flowing past. I tried to push away from the rock which was pressing me onto my deck. I felt the pressure of the water start to slide me along and suddenly the pressure released. I twisted my paddle and rolled up, looking back at the rock I had just come out from underneath. The shock suddenly hit and I made it to the nearest eddy, relieved and thankful.

I started chasing after Dave’s boat, now full of water. I eventually got it to a rock, pinning it at the edge of the river. Paul followed close behind and lifted it out of the water.

After a quick transfer of his kit to the opposite bank, we continued downstream with only one drop to go, everyone got it fine and we continued down.

This time, only 4 of us left, we all came through smiling and ready to get off. We paddled the last section (warning: strainer at toilet falls!) and got off.

Hot soup was made and we were all warm again.

Thanks for a great day Guys!

http://www.nrsweb.com/

http://www.pyranha.com/

http://www.whitewateractive.co.uk/

http://slalom.nelo.eu/

www.charles-blyth.blogspot.com (CHECK OUT CHARLES’ BLOG!)

The Last few months have been very busy for me, My winter training has started and my programme has been set.

I am thrilled to have won “Chester’s young sports achiever” of the year award for the second year in a row.

I have recently gained a place on the Olympic development programme based in Nottingham so I have weekly trips there where I train on the white water course and in the gym.

After a positive trip to Scotland creeking i have been keen to get as much in as possible. I have been paddling lots of welsh runs, including fairy glen which is now one of my favourite runs along with the mawddach.

This year i managed to attend Pyranah fest at Bala. A great weekend was had with some really intense boater X racing and a fun freestyle event.

I am also pleased to announce i am now a member of Team Pyranaha where I am really looking forward to paddling with the rest of the team and running the creeks and racing in a burn :D

David

http://www.nrsweb.com/

http://www.pyranha.com/

http://www.whitewateractive.co.uk/

Etive Race 2010

On a rainy September day myself and Anton Lippek began the journey to Glen Etive for this years Etive river race. On the drive up we had rain pelting down all the way, both of us, excited for some high river levels.

We arrived at glen etive in the dark, we quickly put up our tent, eagerly anticipating the level of the river.

First light in Glen Etive

We woke up to the sight of two stags, this was cool, however they were walking in a ridiculously low river which did lower the excitement level somewhat. We had breakfast then made our way down to the river.

I got changed quickly in to my new NRS gear, immediately feeling warm and in a bubble away from the elements. After a few arm swings we both felt warmed up to start the river, paddling down styling the first few drops on the way down. As we went down, trying to remember the lines from the year before.

First run down right angle

On our second run down we met up with Pete Scutt and team Pyranha at right angle where Simon Tapely, the team photographer for the day, took some great shots of us on the fall. After this we went down the rest of the river chatting about the afternoons plans.

Second run down Right angle (Picture by Simon Tapley)

After chatting with the guys, we decided to join them to run the River Mheuran. After a long long walk up we reached the top of the run, finding a rock-slide had blocked part of the river. We tried to push rocks out of the way, and block areas to go over rocks. We just about made the pin ball type section passable with a push and a scrape so I walked up to the top. After running the first little slide and drop I was already buzzing for the main shoot.

Looking down from the top I begun to see how steep it was, I sped down the little drain pipe like run and shot off the end followed by a big woo from the other guys. It was the most fun I have had in a long long time, I ran back up to go again.

Flying down the shoot (picture by Simon Tapely)

On the second run I managed to time my strokes alternately tapping against the rock walls making more speed than I thought possible. I boofed off the end and tucked looking down at the insane amount of air I had achieved.

Off the end of the shoot trying to fly (picture by Simon Tapely)

We had one more run before making our way back down the mountain, I had a slightly sore back, even when I was tucking to the max.

Tucking off the drop (Picture by Simon Tapely)

On the walk back to the car I realized how light slalom boats really were...

That night we chilled out in the bar chatting about paddling and what the plans were for the next day, Anton and I ended up running the Etive a couple of times then just resting for the race the next day. . . .

The day of the race we got up early to go and take a look at crack or dawn, after a long debate we decided the line and were confident in running the drop in the race. On arrival to the ski centre we signed in, had a bacon bap and attended the safety briefing where we were told there was going to be a mandatory portage on crack of dawn.

Crack of dawn, night before the race

All the boats got thrown in the back of the van and all the racers were taken down to the river.

In the team race we set of to a flying start, both mine and Antons lines were clean and reasonably fast, just above ski jump Antons paddle got trapped in the rock and wouldn't budge, unfortunately he had to run back up the river bank to get it and it cost us more time than we had to spare.

All the pressure now was for the singles event.

Everyone waiting for the Resualts

I started on the single even sprinting from the start i clean lined all the drops on the way down, I had a few time losses where I got stuck sideways on the rocks on the way down, however most people found this as the river was so low. I boofed the final drop and sprinted at the finish line, other competitors cheering me on, I crossed the line and waited for my breath to recover and for Anton to come over the final drop.

Right angle in the singles race huck and tuck

I finished off 2nd behind Tom Wakling in the sponsored category with the second fastest time of the day.

All in all we had a great trip with some cool paddling with lots of cool people.

Thanks to everyone for a great few days I will look forward to racing again next year :D