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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.
Friday, July 29, 2005Austria
Leeds Canoe Club are currently in Austria canoeing. We've had alot of fun getting here with broken down cars, missed ferries etc. but its worth it the rivers are excellent and the paddling in fun and challenging! There have been many epics along the way with swim and pins for all.
When I get back there will be lots of photos on the website and proper blog account!
Wednesday, July 27, 2005Bavairian Munching Water
With overnight rain and much thumbing through the guide book we headed off to Bavaria to paddle the Loisach. Traveling over the Green Pass we came into Germany and to thestart of the Loisach. The start was meant to have a bridge and a water guide, however both were washed away. We all got on at the large shingle beach and paddled off in small groups of 3. From the very start this was a stunningingly beautiful river. The crystal clear water washed over the brilliant white limestone rocks in the gorge.
Every section of the river was eddy hopping. Tight and technical from start to finish. Leading was slow but rewarding. At one point I slipped away from my group as I explored around some rocks with just enough room to get a boat through in one section. This is possibly one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever paddled, well worth each of the 3 stars in the guide book..
Swims
Loisach - Steve 4x
Tuesday, July 26, 2005SawMill Cateract..
Rosanna
After the first great days of paddling we went off to discover the Rosanna and the Trisanna which form the Sanna which flows past our campsite. We drove up to St Anton to get on to the Rosanna. As we got on to the Rosanna the King Fishers canoe club from Oxford turned up on mass to paddle the river. As it was first thing in the morning the mist was still thick on the river. Sections of it were canalised as well so it got a bit spooky in places. A nasty weir with lots of metal half way down it was walked around and the rest of the river was very pleasant. We spent ages looking for the get out and some railings which seemed to take for ever to appear...
Trisanna
The runs down the valley from Ischgl were Justin, Andy and Myself have been snowboarding and snow sculpting the last couple of years. Its seemed only fit to paddle this river. We stopped at the falls of See to have a look at the 4+ section on the river.. Much debate was had on the best line and what was going to be tricky. I think in the end most people decided that it was a bit much and that we should try the upper section of the river instead. We drove up to the Chain Saw cateract and got on here. As the cars were shuttled Nick, Owen, Andy and Myself got on to paddle this section of the river. I lead and Andy was at the back.. Quickly the river steepened as we turned the corner to enter the 4+ section. Jonathan,Rachel and Kelvin were on the bank watching us go down. I was checking the line out as I went down and was sat in an eddy planningmy next move. Nick came down to get in to my eddy so I moved off in to the main river flow. All of a sudden I found myself purched on top of a drop pinned up against a falled tree. Andy past by me followed by Owen and Nick (nick was apparently pinned as well but not so spectacularly) The tree had lots of small branches sticking out was going to make a mess of anything that came into contact.
Kelvin came over to check if I was ok... I wasn't.I could slowly feel the boat moving from under me and I was going to be dropped into the stopper and pushed against the tree. When the moment came I went over and pulled my deck and pushed out for all I was worth. Thankfully I missed the tree and swam down to pool were Nick and Andy were waiting for me. The insides of my boat had pretty much all come out and my paddles arrived 5 minutes later once they had been released from the stopper. By this point I was quite shaken but thankfully managed the rest of the river which dropped a grade and made life a lot easier.
Swims
Trisanna - Gavin
Monday, July 25, 2005Big Water, Big Swims
So first the full day of paddling. First river of the day the Sanna, soon to become a favourite of the holiday. Grade 4 and down hill all the way.. The first corner was the nemesis of many on the holiday. not quiet blind but if you didn't inspect then you would either be pushed up against the roofed corners to pushed on to a rather nice under cut rock... I think a few paniced and ended up swimming. Steve rolled on the corner but eneded up taking a swim down the Sanna. The rest of the river was excellent. A nice little play wave, even for big boats! The get out for the Sanna is just at the campsite. Just climb up the steps and there were the tents. Excellent for the end of day Sanna Blast..
When we got back to the campsite Nick and Owen were waiting for us. We headed off to Imst to go and paddle the Imst Gorge on the river Inn. Once a grade 5 river due to its 250cumecs' of flow. Now a big and bouncy grade 3. Finding the river was the hardest bit and took about 2 hours as people got lost in tunnels, had rubbish maps etc. Eventually we found the Oxford lot under the fly over paddling down a ditch. Not the 250C that I was expecting..We all met up on the river and preceded to paddle down under the bridge. An emence roar could be heard and Kelvin was first over and seen to roll almost imediately. The river consisted of massive wave trains with some flat sections now and again. In amongst this some how Gill managed to swim. Jonathan went to her rescue and clawed the boat out to the side.
Shuttled the cars around and then got back to the campsite intime for another Sanna Blast. Everyone jumped in the cars and headed back up the road to the get in. Now everyone was getting more comfortable with this run. I went down first followed by the others. Steve was close behind but after the swim in the morning I think he was nervous about it all. His boat ended up washed up against the undercut rock. Kelvin divedin on a line to clip on to it and pull it free. It took 4 of us to pull it free. The boat still has a bite mark from its run in. The rest of the river was pretty hassel free. Bouncing through big stopper, grinding off rocks as we went. Got to the get out by the tents with the sun still shining and some cool beers ready to be drunk. Then off to the bar for more beer and a pizza as we hadn't eaten much during the day.. It was going to be a good paddling holiday.
Swims
Sanna - Steve Henderson x 2
Imst Gorge - Gill Arnet
Sunday, July 24, 2005Smokin...
Up early and with any luck we'll get a paddle in this afternoon..
We sat around the front of the formula 1 waiting for Nick and family to appear. After awhile we started to wonder where they were and eventually found out they had got up early and left as they needed to get a key for their appartment.
Setting off to have breakfast at the first service area we go to we noticed alot of black smoke coming from out the back of Jonny's car. Over breakfast we decided that its probably been like that all night and that we had best get recoveredagain.. A few phone calls later and we had a tow arranged and a hire car to get us to Landeck. we waited around in the service area after we had arranged for our boats to be taken to Austria by Andy and Gill, Steve and Wendy. Jonathan D also went with them so he could get a paddle in..
The second tow of the holiday arrived the car was put on the back and we jumped in the back of the lorry. Between me and Jonny our German was limited... well non exsistant really and the recovery man didn't speak a great deal of english either. We were taken to the Opal dealer in Lhar and awaited our hire car..
Eventually we found out that the hire car wasn't coming to us, we had to get to it. Freiburg was our destination but we had no car. So we were sent a Taxi to take us there. Finally we meet someone who could speak pretty good english. As we got in we were asked if we were from Manchester to which we said no, but we are from Leeds. The Taxi driver was an Iraqi who fled the country about 12 years ago but before that he was an oil engineer and had sutidied at Leeds. This man was our saviour he got us to the hire car depot and brought us back again! Finally we had a car that worked again. We started to load all of our kit into the Volvo S50 which we were given. For an estate it was pretty small, we filled it up completely. Luck jonthan had gone on ahead. Back on the road again we were on the autobahns and heading for Austria. No sat nav meant we were map reading for a bit but that was soon fixed. On the Autobahns there are no speed limits so we took the car as fast as it went. We got to Landeck at about 11pm. On the way we had heard that a some paddling had been done and that someone had been swimming... We got to the campsite bar and had a few beers and caught up with Andy's swmming on the Sanna..
Swims
Sanna - Andy Hall
Saturday, July 23, 2005The Road to no where....
6am my alarm clock goes off... Not a natural time to be getting up on a saturday but I get up all the same. Today we are off to the alps! Some breakfast, last minute packing and a string coffee and the two jonathans have arrived to drive down to Dover to get the ferry, meet up with the others and drive to Austria. Or so we thought. I kissed Jeanie goodbye and got into the car. Jonthan started the engine.. nothing.. and again... nothing. We managed to limp down the hill on Wyther lane but no further we seemed to be out of fuel... Topping the car up made no difference so we called the rescue people out and got towed to Morrisons to get some more fuel. We were in luck and the car was on the road again.. A quick call to let the others know we were on our way and on the later ferry and we stormed off towards Dover.
A quick pop into see Customs and Security and we made our way across to France and then on to Strasbourg. All was going well. I got some sleep as it was going to be a long drive and I needed the sleep. All of a sudden I woke up with a jolt to find that we were pulling into a dark service area off the motor way. Jonny told me we had lost power in the engine. We looked at the engine and drove it around abit and it seemed fine again. It was my turn to drive but the power didn't last at all.. Eventually we limped to the hotel to find Andy waiting for us at around 1am. Apparently Steve's car had been having a few issues as well.. We went to sleep ready for the drive the next day....
Saturday, July 16, 20057 days till the alps!
Just 7 days till the club makes its annual trip away to find sun and big water.. This year we are off to Austria and Landeck.
Sunday, July 10, 2005Kirkstall Festival
The Kirkstall festival takes place each year in thr grounds of Kirkstall Abbey. Lots of shops and businesses from around the area as well as schools and clubs have stalls to promote themselves. Leeds Canoe Club holds a come and try it session to that people can have a go at paddling using the club boats. We set up a landing stage (provided by Curly and BJ Scaffolding) to get people on and off the river. We also set up a display of pictures of the trips that the club has been on. Nick and Tanya printed out alot of photos which made a really great display and allowed alot of people to see what the club gets up to. We had lots of people interested in paddling and had some large queues of people trying to get on the water at one point. I spent a lot of time handing out kit and talking to people about what the club does. Hopefully some new people will come and join the club.Afterwards we all went around to Christine and Eddie's house for a BBQ and a chance to unwind after all the fun of the day...
