Aire Waves: July 2006

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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.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Nottingham last Sunday

In the absence of a blog from any one who was actually there, this blog is created to record the following fact.

Russian Paul swam, lots of people cheered.

Barge boy, apparently swapped his large boat for a smaller boat, and lost control. Eventually pulling his deck after only one or two rolls (not the ten or eleven of his usual stories).

Other stuff that happened at Nottingham, but I wasn't a party too. But I did overhear in the pub, and feel that this kind of information needs sharing.

Sarah Dempsey's swim.
Off the side, where she was about to sit and watch the fun, she slipped and fell in, taking her boat with her (separately). Eventually ending up in the looping pool, where she was rescued by a member of the England free style team.

# posted by MT @ Wednesday, July 26, 2006 2 comments

Monday, July 24, 2006
Extreme paddler in trouble

As part of this weekends Level 2 coaching course, which was attended by a large group of the Leeds Canoe Club, we were asked to teach a class of ourselves some basic strokes. To enable us to do this we would break down the strokes and exercises into understandable chunks. The aid to teaching we were given, used the acronym I.D.E.A.S. which stands for Introduction, Demonstration, Explanation, Activity (the wording here could be wrong, I didn't have my notes, trust me on this it began with an A), Summary

Introduction
3 star skills check - The X rescue
Demonstration
No need we are all three star we can manage any thing from the syllabus
Explanation
We know what it's for, you don't need to explain it anymore, just let us get on with it
Activity
I shouldn't go into this bit, it all got a bit messy, the following are items are not required in a smooth x-rescue.
Loosing your paddle, Rolling and failing due to being left handed with a right handed paddle (having already lost yours), run hands along side of boat and await rescue, whilst bubbles rise either side of the boat because the rescuer is giggling (under water), Being rescued by the person in the water
Summary
Let's not discuss this ever again

Introduction
1 star skills check - The get out at the jetty
Demonstration
Pull along side the jetty, get out
Explanation
We know what it's for, you don't need to explain it anymore, just let us get on with it
Activity
Again I shouldn't go into this, as it all got a little messy, the following items are not required in a smooth boat exit.
Mangle: for ringing out an extreme paddlers wet kit, swear box: for depositing several coins, make up: for covering up the extreme paddlers red face, International rescue, I don't need to explain any further.
Summary
Let's not discuss this ever again

Thanks to our tutors for the weekend, Martin Wilby (who appears to have recorded over his new babies birth tape, with Leeds Canoe club members attempting to scull on their worst sides, oops) And Dick Constable (who wasn't aware that we have a mixed shower policy, until it was too late)

One more point to note, the winner of any future award for best presentation, should go to Nigel who brought all his certificates in for checking, still in their highly polished picture frames. (nearly forgot, thanks Nigel for organizing the weekend and eventually correcting his mistake of bringing chocolateless Hobb Nobbs on the first day)

# posted by MT @ Monday, July 24, 2006 0 comments

Saturday, July 22, 2006
Guil - Extreme Rafting

I could write about all the fun and bizarre things that happened in the alps, like people loosing paddles, spray decks or chasing a boat 6KM down stream. But I will tell you about the Guil.

Towards the end of the holiday we went up to Chateux Quaras to go Extreme Rafting! The Gorges on the Guil are grade 4+ to 5 and can be paddled and rafted. 6 decided that the rafting would be great fun. The mini raft (which we later found was only partly inflated) is just small enough to squeeze down the gorge under the Chateux. The gorge didn't seem to bad and the drop at the end seemed harmless enough..

We then we on down to Guardian Angle gorge which next time I come to france I would like to spend a day paddling. The gorge was full of little drops and big drops which seemed to be easy enough to inspect. At one point we were mena to dive to one side of the raft to put it on one side to slide over a rock, abit like in James Bond movies, how the car drives on its side on 2 wheels.... It didn't really work and we had to get out and move the raft.

The end of the run was down the Rapid 2000 as the rapid was created during the floods of 2000 and then the tripple steps. I have a video of us going down a few of these rapids. Excellent rush going down here. Also a grade 5 so propably the only chance I'll get to do it for a while.

After the rafting Jonathan and myself decided to run the 900-1000 metres of the Chateux Quaras Gorge. Getting on we were joined by a few guys from Taunton. They went first and we followed them down. We broke out under the bridge and it was at this point I started to see how much the river dropped around the Chateux. Jonathan led of first to the next eddy and then I followed him. When I got in to the gorge Jonathan was no where to be seen so I just concentrated on keeping upright. The paddling in Slovenia had stood me in good stead as the stoppers and waves in the gorge we hard work. Getting around the final corner before things calmed down I cam acorss jonathans boat upside down and jonathan being helped by the guys from Taunton. It took a while to sort out the boat and then we followed the others down the final drop. the advice was the go for the rock. I'm not sure if this was correct but the guide book discription of it feeling like being flushed down a toilet was spot on! I rolled up a little down stream and then jonathan came down after me. Jonathan rolled as well i think. We got off as soon as we could and was very glad of the help from the other guys.
An excellent bit of short sharp paddling!

# posted by Gavin @ Saturday, July 22, 2006 0 comments

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Rinse and repeat

The water level was a low 0.8, which meant that the acid drop, went from being as dangerous as a nibble from a gummy chicken to a full on drop with a huge stopper that bit at every one and caused carnage , perhaps this explains the new name, HELL'S TEETH. For what ever reason, the good people at Teesside have changed the name of the acid drop to Hell's Teeth. I looked this up on the internet and came up with this line from a book.

"Hells teeth, how can I explain the wretched despair I felt, except to say that my heart was banjaxed ... Dear God, it was a gobaloon!"

I felt that this summed up the drop formally known as the Acid drop rather nicely, even though I haven't got a clue what a gobaloon is, but it could be just a hellish big hole in the water with teeth in it, as easy as it could be anything else.

First we were rescuing Steve Donovan, then we were fishing out one of Aldwark's finest trainers's boats (the one who was poisoned by a rat, rats are sneaky and their knowledge of apothecary is greater than any other vole). Then Steve Donovan was fishing me out. Note: This was in preparation for the level 2 course coming up next weekend, I threw myself into the pool and allowed some of the lesser able paddlers a chance to practice the Teesside rescue. This involves getting what purchase you can on the slime cover banks, and casting out a line to the next wet head that bobs by. Once the catch is on the line, stay still whilst the fish lands itself.

Valentines was also in full force, this is where we spent a lot time attempting to run it without it getting us, unsuccessful for the most part, we were got and given a watery beating, swims were regular in the first few runs, we persisted and towards the end we were rolling up in the pools around the sides, by the end of the day we had all had a few good semi-dry runs, lots of playing and all told a great day out, even though the top half of the course was hosting a BCU freestyle event, so we just kept getting out and doing the two drops again and again.

Oh also Rolly Mark didn't swim at all, everyone else swam lots.

# posted by MT @ Sunday, July 16, 2006 1 comments

Marple slalom - div3/4 July 06

8 members of the club took part, and once again we came home with plenty of trophies!
Congratulations to the following:
Aimee Neale - 1st div4 K1 ladies
Emma Neale - 3rd div4 K1 ladies
Jonathan Dempsey - 3rd div3 K1M

# posted by andy @ Sunday, July 16, 2006 0 comments

Sunday, July 02, 2006
Hull international canoe polo competition - July 2006

After the jubilation of getting promoted to yorkshire division 2 earlier this year, the canoe polo team thought they'd compete at the annual canoe polo competition at hull (featuring most of the best teams in the coutry and the odd one or two from abroad).
The team for this competition was: Andy H, Andy R, Jonathan, Sarah, Curly, Graeme, Mick & A-P (also acting as referree).

Although we were in division 3 for the competition the teams we played against were mainly at yorkshire div1 standard! so we were a little out classed:

Saturdays group match scores were:
Leeds 0 - 5 Braintree Mixed
Leeds 0 - 6 Humber Hawks
Leeds 0 - 4 Letchworth

After these results (and Andy H's swim against Letchworh!) it was time to hit the bar and sink a few beers to watch Englands poor showing on the big screen at the rugby club campsite

Coming last in our mini group went we had an early 8:30 playing start on sunday, for the play-offs for the bottom 4 teams in each of the div3 mini leagues. First match was:
Leeds 0 - 4 RAF 'A'

So now we're in the play-off for last place. Our team work had started to improve over the last few matches, so we went into it feeling confident!!
And what a performance!
Leeds 2 - 1 Glanford Dragons
Goals from Andy H & Andy R meant we came 15th out of 16! No wooden spoon for us!

Overall a very enjoyable weekend, and now we look forward to div 2 & div 3 polo next season.
If anyone else is interested in playing canoe polo let me know

Cheers
Andy

# posted by andy @ Sunday, July 02, 2006 0 comments

France 2006

Leeds canoe club's trip to France - June 2006
Hot sun, a bit of rain, excellent water levels and fantastic rivers, a lot of paddling, a campsite by the river, lots of beer, red wine & pain au chocolat.
I could go on forever... but you'll just have to make do with a short summary. In depth commentary can be got in person from Andy, Gill, Steve, Jonathan, Julie, Jeanie & Gavin (and occasionally Ben E):

Rivers (in kayak):
Sunshine Run (III)
Middle (IV) & Lower (III) Claree
Upper Ubaye (III) & Ubaye Racecourse (IV)
Upper (III/IV) & Lower (IV) Guisane
Onde (III+)
Gyronde (III)
Briancon gorge (III)
Upper Guil (III)
Guil Chateau Queyras gorge (IV+)

Rivers (in a raft)
Guil - Chateau Queyras gorge, Guardian Angel gorge, Tripple steps (IV+/V)

And a bit of Via Ferrata

Pins:
Andy 1 on lower claree
Ben 1 on Onde (very impressive against a tree!)

Swims:
Steve 6
Gill 5
Ben 2 ( a swim on a grade 2!!!)
Jeanie 2
Andy 1
Jonathan 1 (requiring deep water rescue in middle of chateau queyras gorge!)

Broken boats
Jonathan's Inazone broke again... so gavin provided spare boat for 2nd week after we ran out of boat repair kit & duct tape to cover the break!

Boat chases & rescues:
Tree climbing to pull Gill's boat off a tree on middle claree
Help from another club, lots of rope & pulleys to get ben's boat off a tree (see pin above)
Steve's boat & paddles ran down the Onde for about a km.
more boat chasing on briancon gorge (see swim tally for usual suspects!)

And a 5km boat chase along the gyronde for Gill's boat. Thanks to the national slalom teams for pulling it out at the slalom sight by the campsite (apparently Steve's earlier swim and rogue boat were to blame...)

And if anyone finds Steve's paddles on the gyronde, he'd like them back...

More overseas fun & games next year...

Cheers
Andy

# posted by andy @ Sunday, July 02, 2006 0 comments

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