Recent Posts
- A middle class sport
- FREE Foundation Safety and rescue courses
- 2010 annual awards
- Ampleforth Triathlon
- Cover stars
- Annual awards 2009
- Loch Tay to Perth, Openboat, at one with Nature
- Sowerby Bridge - Photos
- Wagon lane slalom results
- Video - Soca Slalom Site
archives
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- April 2008
- June 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- April 2010
- December 2010
- January 2012
- February 2012
Aire Waves
Leeds Canoe Club Blog. We paddle... lots!
Airewaves used to be Leeds Canoe Club's magazine letting people know what the club was upto. Its quite hard work pulling together a publication letting people know what the club is doing and publishing dates in advance is always hard as things tend to change. Step forth the blog.. Push button publishing for the masses. So here is the idea a few people in the club take it in turns to write up trips and talk about things in the club.
Monday, June 27, 2005Washburn
Leeds Canoe Club ran the Washburn release this weekend. Each of the local club take it in turns to run the release. This was ours. I turned up at 8:30 to find about 10 cars waiting for me to open up. The water came on and then the people came to paddle. Lots of people came from the club to lend a hand, taking money and providing refreshments. The weather was excellent and plenty of people came to the event. Nick and myself managed to escape in the afternoon to get some practise in for the alps. I've never actually spent much time on the
Washburn as I've usually been leading groups down. I think Nick was the same so it was good to practise hitting every eddy and surfing every wave. Jonathan was there with his camera and took lots of pictures. Some of which are here.
Friday, June 17, 2005Trywern Video
Russian Paul has put together a video of the Tryweryn trip afew weeks ago.
its abut 14MB and will take awhile to down load. but its pretty cool... ok some of the music ain't great...
http://www.leedscanoeclub.org.uk/video/Tryweryn_small.wmv
Sunday, June 05, 2005Family Weekend
May bank holiday the club travelled up the A1 to Slenningford Mill at West Tanfield near to Rippon for our first Family weekend. Slenningford is on the River Ure and has a large campsite for us all to stay in and a nice set of rapids to paddle and teach upon. Jeanie and I arrived on Saturday lunch time with the Topo Duo after traveling up in the rain. Thankfully when we got there the rain stopped and we managed to get our tent up quickly. The rain managed to hold off for pretty much the rest of the weekend (except at night)> The new club boats were out lots over the weekend.
Friday, June 03, 2005New Club Boat?
This rowing boat has appeared outside the club since Sunday (when I first spotted it anyway)
It says LCC Kirkstall Valley. I don't think its ours but I can't think who else's it could be..
Thursday, June 02, 2005Spring Bank Holiday - Surf
Sunday was a much better day than Saturday. The wind was gone and the sun was shining. Dave and Steve went off to check out what he surf was like... they never came back. A few hours later they were on the waves and so was everyone else. The surf wasn't huge but was good.
I spent most of the day out surfing. There is something very relaxing about surfing. If you can get out behind the waves then you can spend your time waiting for the next big wave. On a slow day it could be 20 minutes to catch a good wave but its nice just bobbing around on swell, having a chat our just quietly resting on the back deck of the boat. Then when the surf comes, turn into shore and paddle like mad to get the speed to catch the wave. I caught some really great waves as well as managing to pull off a few wave wheels,but the best bit was catching one wave and then craving right along the green face as it was sarting to break! Excellent.
The wait was worth it.
At lunch time I went back to get something to drink. Quite a crowd had built on the beach. As I got back in I found Simon emptying his boat again and then going back out. Gill had had a chat with him and it seemed to make the difference as he was on the surf for ages and even managed to roll back upright at one point. This was met with a massive cheer from the crowd of paddlers sat on the beach sunbathing. Jeanie had been having a good morning and had managed to roll 3 times! Excellent, a good white water roll in the making I'm sure.
The ide was turning and I decided I would go out for a last blast. The waves had got bigger but they were alot messier than earlier. When I managed to get out and have a look where I was I saw that I had drifted down the bay alot and was on my own. I tried surfing back in but the tide was starting to get the better of me and was starting to take me back out to sea. Eventually I got back to sure to find most people had gone back to the campsite.
Armed with some beef burgers, buns and a few cans of beer I joined the others sitting in the evening sun having a BBQ. Forgetting to reapply my sun cream I managed to get a bit burnt, but not nearly as bad as some other people over the weekend.
Monday the surf was completely flat so we took a leisurely drive home to leeds.
More Pictures
Spring Bank Holiday - Tryweryn
For the last couple of years the club has been away for the Spring bank holiday weekend. This year again we have been off traveling. The exodus for the weekend started as early as Wednesday this year but we made an early start on Thursday evening to catch up with the family on the way. Friday we spent some time looking at the upper sections of the river Conwy to check access for a trip this winter. This looks to be a good river however I think Fairy Glen is a little beyond us at the moment.
Friday evening we arrived to find Dave and Steve already on the surf. Reports of small but good surf we encouraging and the weather was pretty good as well all was looking good as we sat in the pub waiting for everyone else to make it over from Leeds. By 10 only Mark had made it to the Pud so Jeanie and I went back to the Campsite leaving Dave and Steve in charge of people turning up to the pub. Here we found lots of tents had sprung up and most people were heading to bed after the travel down. The weekend was looking promising..
Saturday I woke up to howling winds and heavy cloud cover. Curly's gazeebo had been taken down over night as it was looking as though it would blow away. I drove down to Hell's mouth to check the surf out. Seeing the Wind and Waves it was becoming apparent how the name came about. All the surfers seems to be tucked up in their little vans as we walked down to the beach. The waves were big! but the wind was stronger. After being sand blasted for 2 minutes we decided that surfing was a non starter. So we loaded up the cars and headed over to Bala and to the Tryweryn.
The Tryweryn is a dam release river which has been modified to provide a grade 4 river. This is typically where we go in the summer when there is no water else where. Bala was equally windy but the trees gave a bit of shelter. We all headed up to the top of the river and put in beneath the Chipper. This was the first trip on the Tryweryn for Dave, Steve, Gill and Bob.
We started out just practising Eddy hopping at the top of the grave yard all seemed to be going well. Everyone made the eddies that they needed to and we decided to go on to the next section over the large drop. I went off first to watch people coming down the drop and Bob followed me. Sitting at the bottom Bob came storming down the drops but went over near to the bottom when things easied off abit after the worst of the run. Once I was sure Bob was to the side I started off after his paddle and boat. Eventually I met up with the boat at the bottom of the Ski Slope and got it empty with the help of a near by paddler. A slightly battered Bob met up with me and his boat.
Andy and Gill had made there way down the river on their own after Bob and I had left them. the rest of the river was reasonably straight forward, although I did take quiet along time to roll after the elbow wave under the bridge. I'm looking forward to seeing Paul's video of the trip. The next trip down was a little less eventful, although Andy and Paul managed to get the small eddy in the middle of the Ski Slope. I think i've got to get this nailed when we go next.
More Pictures
© Leeds Canoe Club