Aire Waves: North Wales 16th-18th Feb (or "The Valentines Paddle" as referred to by Martin)

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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.

Monday, February 19, 2007
North Wales 16th-18th Feb (or "The Valentines Paddle" as referred to by Martin) - Day 1

As a fair few of the club headed over to the lakes for a day on the Sunday, some of the club members went for a weekend down in North Wales. The intrepid explorers were:
Jonathan Dempsey + Jess Johnson (Couple 1)
Greg Parsons + Esme Errington (Couple 2)
Sarah Dempsey, Drew Bennett, Dave Kenyon (couple 3??!!)

With Greg and Esme going to arrive a little later than the rest of us, the rest of us tried to squeeze in a river before they arrived. Since Llangollen was on the way, it seemed like a good plan to do the Serpents Tail to Town Falls

We got out to look at Town Falls before we got changed, just to show Sarah, Jess and Dave what they were letting themselves in for. The level looked a little higher than on our Intro to White Water weekend (IWW), but not a lot diffrerent (that judgement was wrong. see later!!)

Mucho faff was in order as we tried to do the shuttle run. With Llangollen having a Steam Train event that day, every single car park was full, leaving nowhere to park. We must have drove round nearly 20 mins trying to find a space, but to no avail. Ended up parking a 10min walk from the get-out in a hospital car park with the chance we might get clamped (thank god we didnt)

Anyhoo, onto the river. It was definately higher than the IWW weekend looking at serpents tail!! Instead of a constriction at the bottom, it was a 7-8ft wide stopper. The waves in the middle were a lot bigger, and the area in the middle was very "swirly".
Everyone was running this in their own boats, and all did really well, with everyone making it to the bottom upright and with what appeared to be some degree of control.
Although, as sarah made it through the stopper at the bottom into a tiny eddy just to the left of it, she slowly got sucked into the stopper, and eventaully swam. The cries of "help me!" to me on the bank were to no avail. She got sucked in, given a spanking, and exited the boat.

Next up was Town Falls, and what carnage this turned out to be!!
We decided to go with a buddy system similar to that employed on the IWW weekend. I would go first, with Jess following behind. Then Drew would go with Dave following, and Sarah brining up the rear.
So off i go, trying to get the line that i reckoned was doable. Obviously it wasn't!! I could just feel how much more water was going down this compared to last time. I clipped the side of the "mini horshoe" cut-out and fell into the mass of messy water off balance, eventually sending me over. Not the view that a (relative) beginner following your line wants to see!! I gave my head a good crack on the river bed, nearly knocking my camera off . I rolled up to see Jess behind me, also upside down, but thankfully managed to roll up at the bottom too. Just as she did roll up, she hit the bridge stanchion and went over again, but pulled off another roll (its all down to quality tuition if you ask me :P )

Then a minute later, all we can see is Drew and Dave come floating through the bridge, side by site, both out of their boats!! Drew seemed to have hit alsorts of rocks as he went into the Falls itself, eventually running the thing backwards. When he went over and got held in the stopper, Dave wasnt too far behind and they hit each other, sending Dave over. Since both upside down boats were impeding each others rolls, both then exited their boats.

Sarah was soon to follow, and also ended up having to take a roll. Thankfully she was able to roll up, as she was needed for the following rescue!

It was now a real chase to try and get the boats out before they hit the Town Weir!! Me, with the aid of Dave in the water managed to divert his boat down the safe left shoot of the weir. Once we had both got out onto the bank with all the kit, we saw Drew floating down the safe shoot too, and a quick line from Dave brough hime into the bank.
Drews boat had thankfully got held up somewhere, so his boat had been got the bank with the aid of the others before we had rescued him.

Time was now getting on, and we rushed over to the Conwy to meet Greg and Esme. To our disappointment, the Upper Conwy was really low, just below 2 on the gauge. We eventaully decided, along with the soon to fade light, that its probably not worth running it. We would try and come back tomorrow morning to do it, if it hasnt got any lower.

So we all headed over to our cosy little £6.50 a night bunkhouse, where we dumped our stuff, then headed right to the pub next door for good food, drink, a chance to tell the stories of the day, decide on next days plan, and to watch the footage from my camera!! (Which will appear shortly)

# posted by jh_dempsey @ Monday, February 19, 2007

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