Aire Waves

FREE Foundation Safety and rescue courses

2012-01-30T12:32:00.001Z

Free foundation safety and rescue courses available for club members who are prepared to give up some time to assist with safety marshaling at either the Wetherby triathlon (Sunday 27th May, we are usually finished by 10am) or Coniston Grizedale mountain bike triathlon (Sunday 10th June, this one comes with FREE weekend camping and FREE entry to the pre-race pasta party, we try to do something on the Saturday, paddle or mountain bike, we usually finish on the Sunday around 3pm).

The course is open for anyone who is over 16 and of a two star standard, you do not need to have a two star) the course usually costs around £50 per person and will probably be held locally.

All applicants must have access to transport, to get them too and from the venues.

FSRT cover the basics of safety and rescue, throw lines boat and bank based rescues etc. a fuller syllabus is available on the club website under the training section.

Alternatively if you already hold an FSRT qualification (or suitable alternative) and would like to come along and give a hand, the organizers offer a free entry into one of their other events as a thank you for your efforts. (There are some sprint distance events, which take about one and a half to two hours, usual entry fee is around £50, several club members are already taking part in these)

Oh and there's FREE T-SHIRTS too

If you're interested let me know ( martin@mntdesign.co.uk )

2010 annual awards

2010-12-30T18:46:00.002Z

At this years christmas party we announced the winners of the 2010 awards

Club captain - Mick Liversidge
Bernard Chapman Award - Dave Daykin
Coach of the year = Kelvin Horner
Most improved adult - Hugh O'Donnel
Most improved junior - Callum Hird
Best swim - Mark Osborne (on Chateaux queyras gorge in the french alps)
Best pin [ Martin Thornton (wrapping an open boat around a rock on the Wharfe)
Duck award for consistent swimming - Hugh O'Donnel (the price paid for improvement!)
Dick of the year - Jonathan Dempsey (you would have thought he would remember to take his paddle kit with him to the river, instead of leaving it in his car at the club house!)
Fashion victim of the year - Kelvin's beard
Fancy dress - Cat Donaghan

Ampleforth Triathlon

2010-04-12T19:25:00.004+01:00

Leeds Canoe club, Ampleforth Triathlon team plus additional ringers, all in an attempt to make me look good.

Photo to right appears to be the only evidence that I took part at all.

Gits 1, 2 and 3 are termed gits as the didn't git out of the way. Though they may be the only excuse I have, the only thing that stopped me shooting off and stealing the glory from other club members.

Maybe I haven't explained fully

Last year I entered the Ampleforth triathlon and came last, no training, usual amounts of sofa time, you know how it is when you're busy.

This year I had a plan, offer the sport up to the club, a club that consists of people who enjoy a sitting down sport. Encourage a few additional people along, do lots of training, don't come last. That was the plan. As well as the club members I brought a couple of ringers who I could depend upon to be make me look good, thanks guys.

Git 4 (above Left) and Ringer 1 (above right). Git 4 , because he beat me, as did all the other club members, gits 5, 6, 7 and 8 (sorry no pictures as I only had Jonathan's gallery to pick from, which only has pictures of him in it)(sorry no names, you were there to do a job, you failed, you only had to be a bit slower, take a bit longer on the bike ride, saunter alnong some bits of the run, no you couldn't do it could you, the one thing I asked you to do, nope)

I did improve on last years half hearted attempt, a 3/4's hearted attempt, a little more training, I came third from last, a new personal best , thank god for ringers 1 and 2, without their help all my effort would have been in vain (Owen [ringer 1 above]and Jimmy, last and second to last respectively)

Martin (possibly the worst triathlete in the club) Thornton.

Just you wait until next year, or the year after, or ten years time, or another life, one day I'll beat you all.

Cover stars

2010-01-08T13:19:00.001Z

Steve & Nick made front page news from the Liffey Descent!

Annual awards 2009

2009-12-13T19:51:00.002Z

This year's xmas party saw the annual leeds canoe club awards handed out:

Services to Leeds Canoe Club - Kelvin Horner
Club captain - Andy Hall
Coach/trainer of the year - Julie Gill
Bernard Chapman award - some say his new hip is fashioned from recycled kayak plastic, but all we know is he's called Eddie Gray
Most improved adult - Sophie Marceron
Most improved junior - Alex Wilkinson
Best pin - Lisa Cookson on the upper upper Wharfe
Best swim - Mick Liversidge, for swimming the entire length of the Soca gorge in Solvenia(amongst others)
Duck award - Katie McGrath, for so many swims in so many rivers
Fashion victim award - our very own santa's elf - Dave Daykin and his christmassy paddlekit of red dry suit & green helmet
Dick of the year award - when a rescuer offered help to Sue in her hour of need on Bala Mill Falls, she was rather surprised when she grabbed hold of the rope and took her rescuer into the river with her - well done to Scott Hodgeson
Best fancy dress award - as Dave didn't turn up as the paddling elf, the award went to Sophie "the Fish" Marceron

Thanks to Mick for organising a great xmas party, and to Jonny for pointing out the error in peoples ways for not turning up in fancy dress!

Loch Tay to Perth, Openboat, at one with Nature

2009-07-10T14:35:00.012+01:00

This week I've been mainly paddling the river Tay in Scotland, in an open boat at one with nature.

During the many hours of paddling we came across various birds and wildlife that make being in the wild as good as it is, on this occasion none of the following tried to sink me (except for the fish, item 13)

1) Oyster chasers, looks like the offspring of a penguin and a stork.

2) Seagulls

3) Some pigeons.

4) A bird that looks a bit like a wag tail but no tail waggling

5) A small grey river bird

6) An owl

7) That bird that's not a stork

8) Some big flying killing birds that were too fast to get better descriptions other than triangular tails.

9) A finch.

10) Duck Jesus.

11) Some wild deer on the water side, that had gone, by the time I’d gained fellow paddlers Dave Joy's attention. Dave...... DAVE...... DAVE..... DAVE.................. DAVE DEER........oh it's gone.

12) Six million hungry baby leeches.

13) A trout or a salmon (not both).

The after effects of being covered in six million baby leeches

One injury occurred (following a nasty Thistle incident).

To avoid a rumoured Grade 3 rapid which had no portage potential, we took to a mill Leat, this dried up, following a breach in the wall.

The above was taken seconds after creature 13's failed attempt at scuppering my line.

More later when I get some time, hope you can wait that long.

Sowerby Bridge - Photos

2009-06-01T19:17:00.003+01:00

Highlights from my photos from the beginners trip to Sowerby Bridge on the 31st May are now up on the club gallery. Click here to see them

You can see all the photos I took on the day over on Flickr by clicking here

All the images you see on these sites have been compressed down for viewing on the web. If anyone wants the full size file of any of the pictures, just let me know. A link to my email address is on the Contacts page

Wagon lane slalom results

2009-05-18T22:24:00.002+01:00

LCC's results from last weekends division 3/4 slalom

Saturday 16th
1st div 4 K1w - Lisa Cookson
2nd div4 K1m - Leigh Andrews
1st div3 C1 - Andy Hall

Sunday 17th
1st div4 K1m - Daniel Sykes
1st div4 C1 - Mick Liversidge

Video - Soca Slalom Site

2009-05-17T21:25:00.001+01:00

Heres a short video made from our footage taken at the slalom course section of the River Soca in Slovenia. A mixture of photos, video, and the Headcam. Enjoy!

Click here to open video

PS - A few of my photos are now on our gallery. Take a look at some of the things we got up to!

Mr Anonymous swims

2009-03-17T12:16:00.019Z

A new competitor has entered the race for swimmer of the year, Mr Anonymous (there's a picture of him below).

" It was those river trolls. They pushed me over, pulled my deck and pulled me out of my boat. Those trolls also put a spell on the other paddlers, paralyzing them, preventing them rescuing me. They could only watch, whilst I bounced down the second drop, before swimming to the side" said an anonymous swimmer.

Dear Churchill

2009-03-04T09:22:00.008Z

Churchill insurance

Accident House

probably in Norwich

Dear Churchill

Where the fluff, does a duck get a solicitor? There is no way whiplash was even possible, that duck did not look both ways and possibly was drunk and is definitely a charlatan.

The weir in question is more of trip hazard, than an actual drop and my chosen vehicle no longer had any forward momentum, in fact had the plaintiff claimed to have been squashed as my boat rolled very slowly over the ford, I may have had to conceed early.

The main cause of the event was the ineffectiveness of a reversed high brace, due to the paddle hitting the ford and not any lack of ability as claimed. (reversed high brace may not be the correct wording here, its probably a jam or a wedgie in open boating terminology).

Had the boat or paddle come in to contact with a duck, it would have been considerable flatter, I suggest that your customer is winging it.

Regards

Martin

(who swims less than the award winning Steve Henderson)

Re: last Sunday's Beginner's Trip (or: Paddling de Nile)

2009-03-04T08:09:00.006Z

Hi All,
Following the Martin's recent blog entry, I feel that as chairman I should make the club's position clear on this sorry situation.
These problems first began a few years ago when Martin Thornton purported to have had a life-threatening encounter with a small vole. Now we all know that none but the most athletic water vole is likely to create enough of a bow-wave to upset a grown man, but at the time we were willing to suspend our disbelief. And Martin was certainly upset.
Things went largely quiet (apart from the odd hangnail - Airwaves August 31st 2005) until earlier this year, when during the Lakes Weekend, Martin bizarrely announced that he had been interfered with by a rock troll on the Duddon (Airwaves January 27th 2009). He even produced photographic evidence to support this wild allegation, which may have taken in more than a few of you at the time, but the photo has since been confirmed by experts from Kodak to be a very professional forgery. Suffice to say, the police have now dropped their enquiries, especially as the troll in question had a cast iron alibi - being out of the country at the time.
And now this latest incident - 'ducks who don't want to get their knees wet'! Well, something has obviously finally tipped Martin over the edge.
As Martin is now beginning to present a very real danger (and navigation hazard) to both himself and indeed other paddlers, I have taken it upon myself to arrange a consultation for him at the Yorkshire Centre for Paddling Disorders (based at the renowned Vesper Gate Clinic for the Terminally Knackered in Leeds). In order to not upset Martin unduly, I will tell him that it is a coach mentoring session - please back me up in this small white lie should Martin mention it to you.
Thank you for your continued patience in this matter.
Regards,
Steve Henderson, Chairman, Leeds Canoe Club
P.S. following informal discussion of the case with consultants at the YCPD, the experts believe that Martin is suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Swimming Syndrome, a rare but serious condition, possibly brought on by extreme swim envy when Martin subconsciously realised he was unable to compete with Your Chairman in the annual swim count. Everyone please observe Richard Gatehouse closely in the coming months in case a similar pattern of symptoms should manifest.

2009-03-02T18:57:00.004Z

Guiness book of records

The office under the worlds largest pint of Guiness

Guiness brewery yard

Ireland

Dear Mr McQuirter

Don't believe a word that anyone says, my swim on Sunday can't be a new world record there must be a smaller weir some where in the world.

Technically this isn't even a weir, more a crossing for ducks who don't want to get their knees wet and in my defence I was driving a 16ft Canadian at great speed (though not excessive), which jack knifed in an attempt to avoid one of the afore mentioned dry ducks, in fact it was more of selfless act of aquatic kindness than a swim from a tiny weir.

I'm sure there are others more deserving of this accolade, I'll keep my eye out and let you know.

Regards

Martin

(if I don't put my second name, you'll never be able to trace me, ha ha ha)

Shuttle runs

2009-02-28T16:30:00.002Z

What's your preference:

- run

- cycle

- drive

- fly?

Swim on the Duddon

2009-01-27T16:28:00.004Z

24th January 2008

The Duddon (middle and Lower)

Its time to share, what happened on the Duddon on Saturday, how did this swim occur and why, what threw the otherwise un-tip-able balance master.

Hopefully the picture to the left, caught on camera by an independent photographer (not me), unravels the mystery.

In no way was it anything to do with a lapse in kayaking ability, or a lack of it.

LCC annual awards & xmas party 2008

2009-01-05T18:57:00.005Z

Here's the winners of this year's annual awards

Adult most improved - Lisa Cookson

Junior most improved - Alex Wilkinson

Best swim - Andy Renwick (the saftey guy who went for a swim)

Best pin - Steve Henderson (on s-bends on the Tees)

Pool officer - Mick Liversidge (for sitting on his backside on thursday nights)

Services to Leeds Canoe club - Eddy Gray (for fire works, pie & peas and haggling at RoHo)

Club Captain - Andy Hall (it always pays to keep the treasurer happy)

Bernard Chapman award - Nick Clements (for his sense of humour, or his CostCo photo!)

Best Fancy dress - the stormtrooper (Arran Stephenson)

Fashion disaster award - Kiwi Steve's teddy bear suit

Fancydress photos from the night are above

Grand Canyon, May 08

2008-06-20T08:44:00.002+01:00

Having done numerous kayaking trips in the UK and Europe, and mainly in low volume creeks, it was about time to broaden our horizons and see what other parts of the world have to offer. So in May, me & Gill, joined the WaterByNature trip on the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon to find out what big volume paddling is all about..
We paddled 226 miles over 14 days, and hiked through many of the side canyons to explore the tributaries, waterfalls and absolutely amazing scenery.
A typical day was to get up when the sun came up, have a big American breakfast, paddle about 10 miles, stop for a 2 hour hike, have lunch, paddle another 10 miles, put up camp eat the fantastic fresh food cooked by the guides, have a few beers, margaritas, wine in the evening and crash out under the stars on a beach by the river when the sun has gone down.
There is a lot of flat water, but there are also a lot of rapids ranging from grade II to grade IV+. If you didn't fancy a rapid you could always portage or climb onto one of the gear rafts (similarly if you didn't fancy the flat water!). Some days you could float for hours without rapids, other days you were getting big, and I mean really BIG, volume wave trains every half a mile. 20ft waves, rafting eating holes, big boils, whirlpools, and rafts were the main hazards on the water. Rattlesnakes, scorpions, red ants and the sun, where the hazards off the water
Travelling with our own boats couldn’t have been easier. No problems on the BMI flight from Manchester to Las Vegas, or on the shuttle bus from las vegas airport to the hire car centre, and our hire a car was big enough to fit 2 creek boats in the back!

Sowerby Bridge slalom 8 june results

2008-06-13T08:06:00.002+01:00

LCC members picked up the following trophies from sunday's division 3/4 slalom
1st Div4 - K1M - Scott
3rd Div4 - K1W - Lisa
1st Div4 - C2 - Cat & Mick
1st Div3 - C1 - Andy
!st Prem/1 Judge - Gill

Allt a Chaorrain - Video

2008-04-03T14:26:00.005+01:00

Hey All

I've put together a quick video of some of the footage taken from us (and a few of Leeds Uni people) running the Allt a Chaorrain, a tributary to the Etive.
Its a great little section, requiring more balls than skill to do some of the drops (especially 'Speed' and 'Chasm')

Watch and Enjoy!!

And if you didnt do it this year, we will mark it on our diaries for the Scotland Trip next year!!!

Upper Tees - In Spate

2007-11-05T02:01:00.000Z

As the beginners learned their kayaking basics down at Sowerby Bridge, a handful of more advanced members set off to the Upper Tees. We thought the water level would be just above "low", a nice level that means no scraping but plenty of potential adrenaline.
What we found was a water level anything but low!! S-Bends was underwater!! Water flowing faster than you could sprint!!

So we decided that we would give this a go...

The first drop didnt cause too many problems. A line down river left, just avoiding the tree, gave a nice easy run down the drop.
After this, it was a nice bounce down to the S-Bends...

"Its a bit different!"
The usual rock face on river right was now forming a huge pourover into a bus-eating stopper, and numerous other smaller stoppers lined the path from top to bottom.
It was decided that the "usual" route down the bends provided the best option, so off went Nick to show us how it was done. Nick gets a nice run down, bar for heading a bit too far left and almost running aground, causing a couple of 360 spins on his line down. Next up was me, in my tiny playboat. All i remember is the back of my boat feeling like it was being stamped on as i passed through each stopper. It felt like i took half the rapid vertical.
Next up was Gavin. The start was good, but all went a bit wrong about half way down. The roll up was successful, but no sooner was he up, he was back under again. After failing the next roll and fearing a rock near the bottom, the deck was duely pulled, and the boat chasing began...

The boat eventually grounded itself on one of the few areas of rock in the river, and from there followed a whole series of throwlines to swing both paddler and boat back to the side to be reunited. Sadly, Gavin and his paddles were not to be reunited. They had gone floating off downstream, and were never to be found...

So along comes Low Force.
At usual levels, most of us in the group wouldnt have to think twice about giving it a go, but at this level, most of us were a bit nervous to say the least!! After much deliberation, we plucked up the courage and decided to give it a go.
Mark offered to be the first to go, and made it without too many problems. Everyone else then followed, taming what seemed to be a monstrous waterfall.

With the water levels so high, a usually unrunnable channel appeared, with a good 10 foot drop to finish off. With most people in high confidence after low force, it was decided to give it a go.
Ben E was first down, choosing to run the drop on the right. Everything looked good, even the landing of the drop, but the water had other ideas and decided to try and drag him back. He fell to the right, using his fingernails on the rock to keep him upright. With much persistance, and a little relief, he managed to claw himself away to safety.
Along followed Mark, who went for a line just a little more to the left than Ben E. Seemed like this didnt help too much, as he too fell onto the rocks, and had to claw himself out.
Next up was Nick, who then decided he would go even further to the left than the previous two. For this one, i was above the falls ready to jump in, so never actually saw what happened. All i do know is that he got a good thrashing in the stopper, causing the deck to be pulled.
Full of confidence from Nicks swim, it was now my turn. Didnt want to be too far right, and didnt want to be left either, so decided all i could do was to run it at an angle from left to right. Looking back, i hit it at too much of an angle, causing a frantic splashing of paddles to escape the stoppers clutches. Just about got away with that one!!

From here on in, it was relativley easy going down to our usual get-out

Various video was taken on the day, some from Gavins camera, and some from my Head-Cam. These have now been put together into a short video, which can be found below. (Alternativley, right click the link below and select "Save Target As.." to save the video to your hard disk)

Video: LCC on the Upper Tees in Spate

Bird watching with Ian Young

2007-10-29T18:38:00.000Z

Sunday 28th October - Sowerby Bridge site of Halifax canoe club.

I spotted a bird on the bank, it was unusual as it was yellow and wagged its tail. I asked Ian if he new anything about bird watching, he claimed to be an expert and I was reliably informed that it was a grey wagtail. A little off the mark, I thought but was reliably informed that the Yellow wagtail was rare, so it couldn't have been one of those. Ok so the guy's probably an expert, with a passion for the wildlife. I didn't realize how much this passion had absorbed him until after we did the first drop down the weir. He paddled the drop no problem until he spotted a rare breed of duck, apparently only differentiated from a standard duck by a small mark on its underside. Its must have been rare as further investigation seemed important and a speedy eject was required. Sadly it was just a common duck.

His misses, Sylvia also swam, but not due to wildlife, this time the lucky nose clip had become detached and the back up hand brace also proved unsuccessful.

Other swims were abundant I believe that amongst this days group we have a new title holder in the making, some one to take my lead and become the club swim champion. Go Hugh.

A good day, none of the swims would have happened if the group hadn't been pushing themselves, so although the group left wet they also left better kayakers. The only thing missing now is the ability to find a good excuse, enhance it and broadcast it before anyone else does.

Canoe polo - Hull sept 07

2007-09-30T19:30:00.000+01:00

Ist matches of the yorkshire division 2 season
Leeds 1 - 3 SWAT (goal from Curly)
Leeds 0 - 3 Green Star
Leeds 0 - 1 Green Star X
Leeds 2 - 3 Steel City (goals from Curly & Andy Renwick)
Leeds 0 - 2 Leeds Uni

Next matches are in January. Some more polo training might be necessary....

Sleningford Slalom september 07

2007-09-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

Leeds canoe club had another very successfull sleningford slalom. Congratulations go to the following trophy collectors.

Saturday:
Div3 K1M - 2nd Andy Renwick
Div3 K1M - 3rd A-P

Div4 K1M - 2nd - Mark Osborne (promoted to div3)
Div4 K1M - 3rd - Leigh Andrews (promoted to div3)
Div4 K1M - 5th + best J16 - Daniel Sykes (promoted to div3)

Div4 C2 - 1st A-P & Ryan Gair

Div4 C1 - 1st Andy Hall (promoted to div3)

Sunday
Div3 K1M - 1st A-P
Div3 K1M - 2nd Andy Renwick
Div3 K1M - 3rd Paul Dochray

Div4 K1M - 3rd - Nick Clements (promoted to div3)

Div4 C2 - 1st A-P & Ryan Gair (promoted to div3)
Div4 C2 - 2nd James Gray & Jonathan Dempsey
Div4 C2 - 3rd Lee Fisher & Paul Dochray

Liffey Descent 2007

2007-09-14T15:06:00.000+01:00

This year's Liffey Descent kicked off at 3am Friday morning. Not a great start you'll agree, but still, one must sacrifice some beauty sleep for such adventures. Sleep in the car was an absolute necessity or, heaven forbid, you may affect your paddling (or more importantly partying) ability for the next day.

We made the ferry with plenty of time to spare, and the crossing was smooth. Some diehard drinkers (mentioning no names...Dave) took the opportunity for a first pint of Guinness, an early start to a weekend of drunken tomfoolery.

We arrived at the campsite to a display of masculinity, the guys showing off their footballing ability and their man boobs. Chris took the first opportunity to injure his paddling partner Nick by kicking the football into his head. We all laughed.

The afternoon featured a trip into Dublin, where the group took their first chance to lose Drew, leaving him behind in the outdoors shop. Alas, after a quick phone call the group were reunited and heading to the Ark for race registration and a bit of 'light' drinking. Several pints later and we set off to The Laurels for food, and more Guinness.

Saturday, the day of the race. The pre-race drink and Dutch courage was left at the campsite, and the pie shop was closed. The omens were bad. Some hopes were raised when inspecting Straffan. 'Oh it doesn't look too bad' I thought, 'even the fish ladder looks ok'. (Four eyes and I still can't see!)

After the walk to the start and the long paddle upstream, confidence was low and hopes were lower. What have I let myself in for? And to cap it all off, a closer inspection revealed that Straffan really was quite bad, and the fish ladder was certainly not the best option.

Straffan passed in a blur. If I had to give a blow-by-blow account it would probably go something like this:
Paddle! Panic! Where's the line?! Paddle! Squeal! Is this the line?! Oh well...Lean! Shriek! *Strong language* We're over! Swim!
But after a quick self-rescue we were on our way, noting that Mick and Steve, Jonathan and Jess, and Mr Henderson himself had also swam, which made us feel a bit better.

The Jungle, aptly named, was a test of quick wits and fast reactions, with a generous dollop of luck not going amiss. Two close calls, but no swims for us. However, the treacherous trees and man-eating tigers claimed Eddie and Andi. A few more weirs, but these were a piece of cake compared to the carnage that was Straffan.

After the Lake of Despair and the portage, nerves were truly setting in. The practice was over, the harder weirs were ahead, and everyone was mentally preparing for another swim. Many took the harder line down Lucan, taking the steep weir face sideways. Mick and Steve swam here. We took the chicken shoot, thinking of the boat, but still there was an ominous crunch. We would inspect the damage later.

The first of the V weirs, Wren's Nest looms ahead. With a meaty stopper and a huge standing wave all to be conquered, it claimed many of Leeds Canoe Club. Still, it was child's play in comparison to the wrath of Palmerstown. Some folks descended the main chute, just to be caught by the stoppers and took for a swim. Jonathan and Jess surfed the stoppers all the way down, a notable achievement, but unfortunately were so full of water that a wrongly timed lean 50 yards downstream resulted in a swim. Nick and Chris capsized, and Nick rolled up only to discover that he had lost his paddling partner to the mighty torrent. Us, we lasted not one second in the weir, and were quickly flipped onto the weir face, a jumble of flailing limbs and canoe.

I'll never forget the humiliation of Drew and I standing neck deep in the water at the bottom, scanning the river for James and the boat, whilst Steve and Dave, then Curly, Andy, Mick and Steve sailed past, grinning like Cheshire cats, all unscathed.
"Quick, turn around so they can't see us", I said to Drew, before noting that Drew's choice of headwear and my bright orange helmet meant anonymity was impossible.

After rejoining with James, we learnt the boat had suffered a severe blow and had a sizable hole under the back seat, most probably from Lucan. We were sinking fast, and had lost our bailer at Palmerstown. Things were not looking good. With the steep bank at either side of us and no place to empty, we used the back yard of some friendly Irish folk for a last minute empty before the next weir. They also supplied us with a new bailer, for which we are eternally grateful.

And so the race to the finish line began, with the water flooding into the boat as fast as I could bail it out. We arrived upright, with as much dignity as we could muster. Ok, so we were beaten by Curly and Andy, Mick and Steve, but Jonathan and Jess were nowhere to be seen, and came in at an embarrassing second to last on the results table. Our pride could be salvaged.

Top of the swims charts was Mr Henderson himself, with a mighty five out-of-boat experiences. Andy Hall had three swims, but it should be noted that Steve and Andy were in Wavehoppers, and it was a minor miracle in itself that the boats remained intact for the duration of the race.

Now for the party! Everyone kitted out in the Liffey t-shirts, we spent the first part of the night recruiting new members by selling our surplus stock. Leeds Canoe Club ruled the dance floor, with the moshpit claiming many a victim. Everyone it seemed wanted to be a part of Leeds Canoe Club, the master drinkers and master dancers!

All in all, the weekend can be summed up, in my opinion, by the comment of one rescue diver after seeing us in action at the party:

"Leeds Canoe Club may have had a few swimmers, but they certainly have more dancers!"

Skooks

2007-09-08T10:36:00.001+01:00

Well our time in Canada has come to an end. Before we left we made one last trip out on the Ferry to Skookumchuck.

Skooks as its known locally is a tidal rapid which creates an amazing surf wave. People come from all over the world to surf the wave. It runs everyday with the tide but some days are better than others.

At slack time there is no wave and at high tide the wave is glassy green. I got a chance to surf it before it got really big. I also went on tour a few times. The tour is the wave after the wave. there are more waves, boils and whirl pools for the next mile or so. Power boats have trouble with the whirlpools so being on tour in a kayak and be a interesting.

Towards the end of the day the locals turned up...

Well we're back home now and hopefully we'll see everyone soon.

Gavin and Jeanie

The Doon (Glan Ness section) 05-08-07 another club first

2007-08-06T08:07:00.000+01:00

"We're all Dooned"

Where did you say??

After what I believe to be a new world faf record (see note about first rapid) we finally arrived at the Doon. A long way past Carlisle and a lot further than I expected.
This river feeds off the Loch Doon which means that it can be run almost all year round, and there is a path that runs along side, which enabled us to walk the full length of the gorge and see just how severe the rapids were.
This section of the river was around 1.5Km long, with the exception of 25 yards of flattish water which fed into the first rapid, there isn't a break until the get out. Each drop, feature and fall has just enough flat to regroup in.
We assessed the river, perhaps worrying our selves a little more than we should, but rather safe than sorry. After we had walked the whole length, we thought that we should do it again, this time without the 1.5Km portage. (only joking).
At 1pm we neared the first rapid had a tricky entrance to a twisting and GNARLY water course, with the possibility of a pin and a face height rock that would disfigure the prettier paddlers (enhance some of you others) and a low bridge to duck under which was only half a stroke above the committed point. Portage time already, we got back on just after this rock, (no more than 10 feet of river were wasted).
This was followed by more continuous rapid-y-ness until a second suggested portage point was reached. Three off the four got out, the fourth and perhaps most foolish, me, ran this. I had made the portage part of drop look easy, but the lesser rapid below it was another matter, only finding a stopping point about 75 meters further down stream, I can't really call lodged on a rock eddying out. I was still not at the bottom of this rapid. A complicated series of hand signals with the banked safety crew, were used to determine whether the rapid I was blindly lodged above could be ran safely, not much the wiser (but trusting my earlier memory of the walk) I ran what turned out to be the easiest stretch of this long rapid. My turn to provide safety, whilst the others ran the shortened route. One swimmer (self rescued) following a non-threatening rock pin.
Not much to play on, but a great river to test your metal. At the get out we debated another river, then finished the day off by running the next much flatter section of the Doon (possibly a future Flatliners trip).
A great trip, a little far away for a day run, but still worth the effort. Next time I might camp with the others.

We ate Pizza from a Scottish Indian Take away, with a fridge full of Iron Brew.

French alps July 2007

2007-08-02T14:33:00.000+01:00

2 weeks in the sunny french alps (actually the cold and sometimes very wet french alps!). We did paddle lots, and for some swim lots.
Here's a quick summary of the rivers we paddled/swam during the trip
Argentiere slalom site
Sunshine run (Lower durance)
Lower guil
Upper guil
Middle guil
Guil chateau queyras gorge
Upper ubaye
Ubaye racecourse
Onde
Gyronde
Gyronde (above the gradeVI)
Upper guisane
Lower guisane
Severaise

And there was also the durance gorge via ferata...

The Onde of my paddles

2007-07-13T17:50:00.000+01:00

A few of you have suggested that perhaps I had lost my paddles in a bar in the Alps, this is not true, the paddles were left inadvertently in a river in the Alps.

I think it was called the river of death, or the Onde, one of those two.

Our second day in the Alps, the instructor thought that we were better than we were, so he took us to the Onde, 3Km a 20 minute paddle, if your good enough, I wasn't.

Imagine the Washburn, then tilt it to about 30 degrees. Apparently you can hear the rocks being rolled down the river by the force of the water. I wasn't on it long enough to appreciate this phenomenon. Of the 3km I was in my boat for less than 100m, I then swam the next 300m and refused to get back on, on grounds that I might die. So I walked 6km with my boat instead (this figure increases as the time goes on, as does the size and severity of the bruises).

We set off as we were told to, very quickly after each other, as the speed of the river would spread us out, if we didn't try to get the seal launch right. Don't mess about, keep close, keep tight. We did this too well, all setting off at the same time, all on the hundred mile an hour river along side each other, quickly we organized ourselves, changing the order to get every one in line, fantastic.

The guide hits a rock (apparently on purpose so that he can get a brief look at the group to see that we are all on the water safely), as he turns to look, I'm on top of him with the others ploughing down towards me. I produced some panicked moves to avoid the river leader, success, but there was a bigger rock in front of me now, which for some reason I decide to go over head first, still in my boat at this stage, but not for long. I start the self rescue, get on my back, feet first, get to the side, I spot my paddle, which I grasp and struggle to the side with, to find that it wasn't my paddle at all, but some one else's that had come to the same fate as I had.

My paddle is probably in the same slot awaiting the failure of another paddler on another day. My boat was rescued further down the river, and I began the walk to the get out at the bottom of the river. This proved to be impossible as the path had collapsed. The guide, who for some reason was on the footpath looking for the rest of the group, advised me to take a second path.

The second path was more over grown but had a slight worn path up the middle of it, turned out it led up to the top of the mountain, then back down again and ended at the get in, 3km away from where I was expected to be. i suspect that the path had been worn by goats, possibly just two very fit goats who walked it once then refused to ever take that path again, then climbed a tree instead. I walked a long way with some one else's paddle and carrying / moaning about / dragging my boat.

When I finally found the group again, several hours had past, and still I had to wait longer as another incident had happened in my wake, which resulted in a trapped boat and a long and event filled boat recovery.

Two days two swims, a third by the end of the week. Though this is the only one that mattered, we can forget about the others, they were just incidental.

The Onde

The Greta - a club first

2007-07-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

Sunday 1st July 2007

A small group of kayakers headed north to discover that "The Greta" was full to the brim. At these water levels, this is possibly the best river in the Tee's area, maybe even the best river in England.

Those of you unfortunate enough to have been in the relatively dry Alps, you missed a classic.

Never mind, maybe it'll be available for you too, one day (perhaps after another 3 years of looking at it)

Fairnilee slalom 16/17 June

2007-06-18T08:25:00.000+01:00

And more slalom success for Leeds CC members:

saturday 16th
Div4 C1 - 1st Andy Hall

sunday 17th
Div2 K1L - 2nd Gill Arnett
Div4 C1 - 1st Andy Hall

Sowerby Bridge slalom - 9/10 june

2007-06-12T13:28:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to the following for last weekends slalom successes:

Saturday 9th
div3 C1 - 1st A-P
div4 C1 - 1st Andy Hall (I'll admit that i was the only competitor!)
div4 K1M - 2nd Steve Donegan
Judges K1F - 1st Gill Arnett

Sunday 10th
div3 C1 - 1st A-P
div4 K1M - 1st Lee 'Curly' Fisher
div4 K1M - 2nd Daniel Sykes
div2 C2 - 1st A-P & Ryan Gair

The following people will also have been promoted:
A-P to div2 C1
Andy Hall to div2 K1
Steven Donegan to div3 K1
Curly to div3 K1
Daniel Sykes to div3 K1

Wagon Lane slalom - 12/13 May 07

2007-05-13T17:54:00.000+01:00

At this years division 3/4 slalom at Wagon Lane (home of bradford & Bingley canoe club), congratulations go to the following Leeds CC members for their success.

Saturday:
K1 div4 men - Mick Leversidge - 3rd place & promotion back to div3
C1 div3 - A-P - joint 1st place

Sunday
K1 div4 ladies - Emma Neale - 2nd place & promotion to div3
C1 div4 - Andy Hall - 2nd place
K1 div3 men - Andy Hall - joint 1st place
C1 div3 - A-P - 1st place
topo duo - Lee 'Curly' Fisher & Emma Neale - 1st place

My life in the stopper

2007-04-30T21:16:00.000+01:00

Dateline Saturday 28 April. Four of us decided to head off to Wales to paddle the notorious Triiiiyywyrrenninin (or something like that). The party consisted of Drevil, Crouchy, Tim, and Mark.

The weather was glorious, and when we arrived it seemed everyone had similar ideas - 13 rafts were running. The levels were not especially high (9 cumec relaese I think).

We pootled along in our usual way, trying for as many eddies as possible, and making (most of) them, including the one half way down the ski jump. In fact, all seemed well - until Crouchy fluffed an eddy at the top of a section and pinballed backwards down it. He he he I thought, and smirked and gave a sarcastic thumbs up. Then I set off. Fluffed the eddy, and dropped backwards, pencil style, into the nasty little holding eddy that some of us (eg Smokey Dave) know so well. So there I was, sculling hard, and thinking hard. Cut backwards and out of it? Nope. Cut forwards and out of it? Nope. Turn and paddle out of it? Nope. Now it flips me in revenge. Sit underwater and think a bit - not too long 'cause I'm a bit out of puff now (age). Hooray! Something's happened - roll up and I'm facing downstream with the tail in the stopper. Paddle like fury and pop out to a look from Crouchy that said it all - Jammy sod!

I was! Somehow the rest of the day was a slight anticlimax.

I think I'll try again next weekend.

Andy Hall: Diving video

2007-04-11T19:31:00.000+01:00

The video of Andy Hall performing 2 mid-air somersaults whilst diving into the waterfall at the end of the Etive is now on-line here

Where was the water?

2007-04-10T18:35:00.000+01:00

It wasn't in the rivers near Fort William for the 24 people on the club's annual trip to the rivers around Fort William. After the long drive on thursday, and rumours that the Garry was releasing from the dam on friday, it made an obvious choice, and we were rewarded with a fun grade 3 river that in its short length has many more features than the washburn, and saw us trying to playboat in our creek boats. Paul clements took the first swim of the trip.
Saturday we went to look at an extremely low Etive. the main drops all looked ok, but in between the river looked very scrapey...people were walking in places. After a park n play session on triple steps we headed down the river, steve swam on crack of doom. Right angle falls was the main event - 6m water fall (almost double the hight of low force on the tees). Hopefully there'll be plenty of photos on the gallery sometime soon, as for many it was their first big waterfall. For some they prefered jumping/diving in off the cliff face rather than repeating the drop in their boats!
Sunday was the Spean gorge, again in extremely low water. Once we'd scraped to the gorge the gorge itself was fine, though less boily than normal. Martin had many swims, and phil also.
The afternoon was the Arkaig for 5 of us, where Gill ended the trip by breaking her paddles by dropping her boat on them!, and fort william leisure pool for the rest.
Monday saw the group split in 2, with half prefering an earlier drive home, and the rest repeating the Etive (a swim for Mark this time).
We'll be back there again next year... hopefully with some rain!

When you get stuck amongst the Lune and two rocks, sh1ty

2007-03-27T08:16:00.000+01:00

Sunday 25th March 2005 - The Lune

Turned out nice again, water level was a little low, but runnable. Blah blah blah blah blah
You don't want to hear about that, you want to hear the exciting stuff .
Constriction River right, pull into the pool several eddies up, get out and inspect, check there are no log jams, or other problems, look at the safety aspects. The Constriction had a very low, but powerful water level, with possible pinning positions at the top.
There were five of us, which would leave four for the rescue, should there be one. One man live bated up, second anchoring him from above, a third on the end of another line. This additional line has a karabina on the end and is for hooking onto the boat by the first person, then the third person and the spare people pull on the rope to free the pinned boat. That's the theory.
Of the five, two have been watching too many reruns of bulls eye and state that they had a great day so far thanks Jim, but would like to give their other contestants a chance. A big round of applause for the Sensibles. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
I should have joined them, but I've done this twice before, remember the snake like hips, and my impression of Elvis the slaloming pole cat (see previous blogs). I'd just watch two top level coaches do this with little effort, ok one did it with little effort the other one needed a little more effort to stop his playboat going up the wall.
I had my instructions, eddy out above the entrance to the drop, slow it down, enter the feature via the river right slot (not left as previously told, this is where the main flow is going and the least chance of pinning). Slow the rapid down, make it easy. I hurry back to the boat, which is still a small feature away from the constriction. I get in, I paddle off, I drop down the first small drop, which grabs me and forces a roll, a roll which works although brings me up wondering, how I'd gone over and how I'd come up and why was I pointing down stream, eddy make the eddy, back on track I make the eddy, what's going on, I'm perplexed or good, too damn good, my abilities are better than I remembered, I'm paddling with the awesome potential of the two coaches that had preceded me, only wetter. I break into the flow, it all goes wrong the angle of entry the wobble, the direction I'm heading, left shoot (the LCC way) right shoot (the main flow way), I hit the rock in the middle. I fall into the right hand shoot, where I'm caught by the fleshy bit under my arms, by John Lucas, he attempts to right me, flinging me back up right, I'd lost it by this point, my struggle to regain control was over. If my name was Roger the headline could have read "ROGER OVER AND OUT". I'll stop the story a moment and point out that up to now I've not managed to squeeze in the word extreme. Brace your selves, here it comes. EXTREME PIN, known as a broach. My newly acquired big boat wasn't just pinned it was broached at a jaunty 45 degree rotational angle, me on the upstream side of it, force of the water pushing us together, like I'd been stuck to the dish using cornflake juice. After a little soaking I washed under and away, intact but cursing. Disappointed comments are a good clue to as to your state of health, for the other rescuers, don't be afraid to let one sneak out. I eddied out river right, on the gravel beach. I sat for a moment, my water bottle had obediently left the boat with its master and eddied into the same pool, sitting by my feet staring up at me, its little black lid all shiny and wet, must remember to take the little fella for a long walk when we get back.
We got to use the tying a karabiner to your paddle trick, we also used the rope rescue that had been set up so considerately by the team. Ten minutes later we were off again.
The course was excellent and we should now have at least two new river leaders ready and keen to build up some river experiences, perhaps leading down the gentler stuff at first.
Thanks to John and Martin for the time and effort put in to teach and keep us safe.

Today's river snacks were the hastily bought cheese and tomato garage sandwich.
I bet you're glad I kept the 8hr trip tales to a minimum.

Kings of Linton

2007-03-26T12:56:00.000+01:00

Well possibly a slight exaggeration but as I sit here listening to Molly's Chambers it seems an appropriate title.

The day starts as a gentle beginners trip on the Wharf. Only one actual beginner Andy, yes another Andy in the club we're going to have to start limiting the numbers soon or just calling everyone Andy. Water levels are ok, A little scrapey in sections but not too bad. Time to set off and after telling Andy not to follow my line down anything just to be safe off we all go.

Coniston falls and the first test for our beginner and me as I needed T rescuing last time. Eddie goes down the centre to start to show how it should be done and Steve takes the Horseshoe to show off. After the Canadian is lowered down it's my turn. Lean forward and keep paddling all the way this time no problems. John follows with our beginner next, first drop complete and no swimmers. Andy is sat at the side in his boat with a big grin on his face.

Approaching Ghaistrill Strid and the decision is made to run the first part without inspection so as not to put off Andy. Steve and Eddie go ahead and get ready for any swimmers but everyone does fine. An inspection of the next section and today Simon's not put off and nobody takes the chicken shoot. The Canadian goes first piloted by Don and Rob. A bad start as they run aground almost straight away and Eddie has to push them free. It looks a bit bumpy down the right in such a big boat. As they go over the rock on the right and drop down Don at the back is sent up as if on a see saw and the boat is pinned. They both abandon boat and drag/swim it away the first swimmers I've seen from a Canadian.

Canadian clear, Russian Paul heads down the right channel I attempt to follow Steve and Eddie's line. Start right and cut left just after the tree branch and go down the centre. Clearly I'm in two minds as I approach the turning point and don't get a positive turn early enough. A moment's panic as it looks like I might end up going down the right hand side before my frantic back paddling gets me into safety and all is well as I turn round and head down the last bit. Two rapids run and no kayak swims only Canadian.

More paddling and scraping and we're approaching the end the weir as usual proves no problem we head on down to the get out and to have a look at Linton Falls. The beginner has made his first river trip with no swims, nice one Andy.

Eddie and I stand by the bridge looking at the falls. The last few trips to the Wharfe the waters looked high enough for it to be run able but neither of us has had the confidence to give it a go.
"Looks run able".
"Yes it does!".
"I'm tempted to give it a go. What about you?"
"Yes I might do it if you're doing it."
The conversation goes on for a few minutes back and forth. Finally Eddie cracks, "Right I'm doing it." and we both head back to our boats while the two Steves and Paul grab their throw lines. Of course we're not mad we're talking about the chicken shoot drop on the left not the main channel on the right.

The approach is a bit scrapey giving us both chance to get a little nervous and regret our decision. By the time we're in position what had been a group of 3 or 4 paddlers watching has now built up to a bridge full of on looking spectators this could be embarrassing if it all goes wrong. Thankfully no one from the club has a camera with them.

Eddie goes first and disappears around the corner and out of my sight. A few moments later I get a signal from the bridge to wait as Eddies swimming. Apparently he got down the drop fine but went right at the bottom instead of left. Got through all the boily stuff ok then swam just as he was about to raise his paddles in celebration, of course at this point I'm not to know that. I get the signal to go and I run through a boof in my head. As I approach the drop I mess up the boof and pencil in but keep paddling, (I think I'm finally getting it but keep shouting at me anyway) and I head left down the last bit then right to pick up Eddies paddles. A big smile on my face, my first thought now damn no one had a camera.

After some level of success on the Washburn followed Abbey Rapids, Linton Lock the other week and now Linton falls my confidence is up. I may be in danger of a little too much bravado so if anyone sees me thinking of attempting anything beyond my limited ability just wag your finger at me and say "No don't be silly Richard".

Canoe polo div2 24-03-07

2007-03-25T20:21:00.000+01:00

Last match of the season for Leeds Panthers A, the club's yorkshire divison 2 team:
Leeds 2-1 Swat A, goals from Andy Hall, Pyro
Leeds 2-1 Kingston Kaos, goals from Paul Dockray, Pyro
Leeds 2-2 Yorkies, goals from Pyro, Andy Renwick
Leeds 1-1 Green Star, goal from Curly
Leeds 1-4 Kingston B, goal from Andy Hall

I think this means we finished 6th out of 10 for our first season in division 2.
Next matches will be at the Hull International competition in July.

The gap between swims seems to have gotten a little shorter

2007-03-07T09:10:00.000Z

Salmon leap falls (AKA Dog leg falls) (AKA The S bends) Sunday 4th March 2007
I provided a little safety for a number of paddlers, at the top end of the rapid, this was for very selfish reasons, as it was to allow me to look at the entry into the feature and work out what I was going to do. My turn eventually came. I set off, ready for this, armed with the knowledge.
I'd seen numerous paddlers, take an array of different lines. The drop in, run far left a 3 foot drop puts you into the flow without the need to react to the change of direction later down the flow. The slide in, run far right which requires quite a big physical change in direction, and the near right, which seems to be the better line for me, longer slide, edge on and paddle.
I chose the latter, the near right slide. Positioned myself at the top of the rapid perfectly, hit the slope exactly where I wanted to be, slid the slide, edge on. My boat spun over with such speed that I don't remember which way, or how I ended up upside down. I had obviously hit a time line, a line where time is distorted. Not only had the spin over been so fast that I hadn't had time to see what I did wrong or where my paddle had gone, but now I'm under water I seem to be in slow motion.
I reach forward to grab my deck, whack helmet takes the first of many blows, I was laid over my back deck, with water too shallow to straighten up without hitting rocks, I try again, Whack, Whack. Its definitely too shallow to get forward enough to reach my deck. One more go for luck, Whaccccck. This isn't working. Time stops and I think that maybe its time to learn how to hand roll, I think I'll ask some one about this on Thursday, maybe take this huge boat of mine, even though it might be a bit of a bind to clean in the showers.
I decide that in the light of my lack of a hand rolling skill from my kayaking repertoire, I decide to contort my body, into the shape of a corkscrew, a mean feat for some one of my size. This doesn't work, maybe I just needed to do a left hand thread, being right handed I'd scuppered myself.
Where was I, upside down, unable to straighten, unable to roll (no paddle), unable to hand roll (no ability), contorted. It was time to do something, other than try and dig a furrow with my helmet. One thing that you're taught to do as a kayaker is to dislocate the lower half of your body from the top, not like worms, just for balance purposes, it helps if the bottom half of your body becomes boat and the top half of your body becomes the kayaker. I decided to take back my legs, to reattach them and kick like mad. This resulted in the breaking of my knee grip and the ejecting of the now semi-frantic paddler. I had travelled down the rapid a distance of about 10 feet.
I emerged just in time to spot the first drop. (At this point I should stop the description process, and hand over to Bobs video footage, which might hit the website one day, just after they invent internet telekinesis, and the footage puts its self there).
Needless to say, I survived, I thought that I'd broken my ankle, but after the chocolate on a high shelf jump test, this seems not to have been the case.

Don't let this put you off, this is one of the best thrills I have as a kayaker, plus there is always sympathy chocolate at the end. Todays river snack was the Mars bar.

Between Swims

2007-03-01T13:14:00.000Z

I read recently that all kayakers are simply between swims. They may get better so the gaps between swims grow longer or they may be starting out, in which case the gaps between swims may blend into one larger swim, either way don't be put off paddling by the inevitable, this really is just a sign that you are making an effort.

I like to think that I make a regular effort, unlike some of the others in the club who don't appear to be taking this seriously at all. Some members of the club have been seen placing things loosely into their kayaks or taking expensive photographic equipment or attaching things to their heads that could be detached should an opportunity to apply them selves occur. Do you not realize that you are missing your chance to become extreme?

From extreme
beginnings,
extreme paddlers
are made........
................
................
................
....extremely wet

Pin on the Tees

2007-02-28T17:41:00.000Z

Feb 25th, 4 of us had an enjoyable paddle on the Tees (high force to low force) no incidents to report until the very last drop before the get out. Instead of taking the last drop over the weir, Steve decided to try the more challenging and very narrow L-shaped drop on river right... only he forgot to turn in time... hence broach pinned between 2 rocks. Only way out was to pull his deck. Mark Osborne jumped in to rescue his boat, and the bright yellow stickers showed up where his paddles had drifted to.
Morals of the story (1) inspection is often advisable (2) bright yellow stickers on paddles really do work! (3) take a camera on trips to record such events (4) bribe the other paddlers in the group to forget such events occurred.

3 Washburn cherries popped

2007-02-27T14:17:00.000Z

A beautiful February morning I arrive with John
somehow managing to get here before the rest of the
group even though we we’re not quite sure of the
route. The water had already been release and some
paddlers were already on the water, we take a look at
the water, far faster than anything I’d paddled
before, feeling a bit nervous but the worst that’s
going to happen is a swim and I’m getting used to
those at the moment. At least I’m not the only
Washburn virgin in the group today we have Cat, John
and myself.

First run of the day the intention is just to run it
straight and not try to make any eddies. We set off,
my the water is quick, nerves are still showing I go
through the river wide stopper and feel the gabbiness
and paddle through starting to relax a bit.

Just when you think you’re out they pull you back in.

As I round the corner before the main drop I see the
others disappearing over the drop I get across to the
leftish and try to follow their line but clearly I’ve
gone too centrally and end up in the messy white
stuff. I try to paddle hard and almost managed to get
out but as I go for another stroke I feel the boat
going backwards and I’m pulled back in and turned
over. There followed a long chase with James and
others trying to get my boat into an eddy with me
jogging down the bank. Eventually they managed to get
my boat just after the s bends. As I’m pulling my boat
out with the help of Daniel a calls goes out swimmer
and Tanya swims by with a smile on her face, she’d got
boxed in at the drop by a white water racer when every
one had been chasing my boat, and the chase for boat
and paddler is on again. A few others get out at this
point and walk back to the top to prepare for another
run.

This time we’re in smaller groups and I’m told we’ll
be trying to make eddies as we go down, oh dear.
However despite my apprehension this run goes far
better. Taking the drop further to the left this time
I get through no problems. And manage to get a few
eddies without disaster although I probably missed
more than I got. Sat in an eddy I see Cat coming down
about to go for the eddy behind me. She miss judges it
and hits the back of my boat wobbling me but Cat comes
off worst as she goes over against a tree. With little
chance of rolling with her boat stuck against the tree
she swims. Unfortunately for both of us on the third
run the same thing would happen only that time both of
us swam.

Another lesson learned, don't leave your lunch and
money in someone else’s car and then get split into
separate groups. Normally I keep a couple of quid in
the pocket of my cag but as we’d be coming back to the
car park after each run I didn’t bother this time.
Thankfully Simon’s there to bail me out and I tuck
into a nice helping of grilled meat, Bacon and burger
combined mmmm.

Richard and Daniel Sykes had fun being taken down in
the Topos by Eddie and James Gray.

Swimmers of the day we’re Cat, Tanya, Simon and of
course myself.

Washburn virgin stats:

My personal record 3 runs, 2 swims not too bad for a
Washburn virgin.

Cat managed 3 runs with 2 swims as well. Lesson for
Cat don't try and get in an eddy next to me at least
one of us is likely to swim. As can be proven by Cats
3rd run of the day in a separate group from me where
she didn't swim.

John did great at least 2 runs and no swims although a
refusal to try and make any eddy's helped ;)

Thanks to Rescuers and baby sitters who took us down
safely and gave great advice as usual. I often forget
to thank people at the time what with the swimming and
adrenaline flowing.

Richard.

Canoe Polo div - 24.02.07

2007-02-25T17:06:00.000Z

Last matches of the season in division 3:
Leeds CC 1-4 SWAT
Leeds CC 7-0 Glanford B
Leeds CC 3-0 Green Star
Leeds CC 2-1 Malton & Norton

This probably puts the team 8th out of 12 for this season. And for most of the team it was their first season of canoe polo.

Wales Weekend Video

2007-02-19T16:37:00.000Z

Heres the video from the Wales Weekend. Sadly there is only footage from the first day as my battereies had run out...

http://www.coastervideosonline.co.uk/Wales%20-%20Feb%2007.wmv

North Wales 16th-18th Feb (or "The Valentines Paddle" as referred to by Martin) - Day 2

2007-02-19T14:17:00.000Z

So, onto Day 2

With not much water in any of the valleys near to us, we decided we would go to the Conwy and run it, assuming it hadnt dropped any more.
Sadly, on arrivial, it had dropped even further to just 1 on the gauge. Knowing it was just about paddleable at 2, we decided we should maybe try something else.

That something else was the Ogwen. We had no idea if any of the Ogwen went at this level, but we thought we would just give it a go anyway.

This time there was some Duo action, with me and Jess the occupants. The two of us, along with Greg Drew and Sarah started off by running the "Gunbarrel". It looks very different at this level, but still looked runnable, although very tight in some places. We all managed to get down this upright, although us in the duo ended up hitting a rock and turning round just above the main drop at the end, thus taking a very bouncy route down the main fall backwards. Was still fun though, if not a little scary at the time!!

From here, the river then got really scrapey, with barely enough water to float. Thankfully, the river did start to narrow down a bit after this, enough to not keep running aground on the riverbed. Most of the drops were runnable, although very rocky, and all involved some sort of rock bouncing to get down.

We eventually reached the bridge at the start of Fishermans Gorge, deciding if its worth continuing down or not.
Esme had just took a swim before the bridge, and we got her out river left. We were then approached by someone on the bank who appeared to be a member of conversation group looking after the land on that bank. Greg managed to talk and diffuse the situation, and we eventaully decided we would give Fishermans Gorge a go, including me and jess in the topo!!
The thinking was that at this level, the worse that could happen is that you get pinned. With not much water, this wouldn't be dangerous, just annoying!! So off we went...

Sadly, Esme took another swim soon after starting, and decided it was probably best that she got out and jumped in the car that we had left at the bridge. The rest of us continued, on what turned out to be a very fun and interesting paddle!!

In any decent flow, the Fishermans gorge is a very continuous and technical grade IV paddle, one of the best in the country (My favourite section of river in the UK). With very little water going down this, we though it might get a bit easier, with more time to make the directional moves needed.

Not as easy as we thought.....

Moves were quick, gaps were tight, and pins were aplenty!! Getting down the river took a lot of concentration, and a lot of rock bashing. It sounds like an absolute nightmare, but in some strage way it was really good fun!!

It was especially fun for me and jess in the topo. With no manouvrability at all, direction was difficult. Our main plan was try and pick a straight line through rocks, and just paddle over any that were in the way. After all, we had the momentum to do this unlike those in their own boats.

There were a number of times where we in the duo got pinned, and some of them were bloody difficult to get out of. We were leaning so far upstram on some of them, that it took some guts and staying power to get ourselves out of the sitaution.
Everyone got pinned at some point, but everyone got themselves out of it evetually, with Sarah only needing outside help once.

We eventually reached the bottom of Fishermans Gorge, and everyone was so happy that we had decided to run it.
However, the river wasn't over yet, and we still had the lower section to do yet.

The lower turned out to be a real scrape, and made for really hard work. The gorge had took all the energy out of most of us, so this section seemed really long and never ending. We eventaully reached the end at what must have been nearly 5pm, as there wasnt much light left.
Everyone looked completely shattered, but still glad they did the trip. It was just the drivers who really didnt want a 3h drive home after doing that!!

If you are ever in North Wales, and there is no water about, we can recommend doing the Fishermans Gorge section if you dont mind some bouncing. The upper and lower we decided just weren't worth the effort.

With that conclusion, everyone headed off home, some straight home, while some detoured into Mold to grab some well earned food, under the guidance of Jess (since its her home town, she knows where everything is!!)

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

2007-02-19T13:47:00.000Z

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)

The Kent and The Lune 18th Feb. 2007

2007-02-19T09:50:00.000Z

This weekend brought about two trips, The Valentines paddle, which saw a group of couple heading into Wales to paddle some rivers, in the Kayaking equivalent of a Gondola (the topo duo). The second trip was a two river, extreme trip, only hardened paddlers need apply. (Bring your own biscuits, not a picnic, and no Hoers derv's.)

The Kent (am)
A great river, fantastic drops, a couple of early swimmers, but overall a happy ending for all bar one. She doesn't normally swim and was very annoyed with herself for this one, Gill (She never mention's her second name, so I've used my initiative to come up with one, so that you'll all know who I mean) Hall, Gill swam after the last drop (Force falls) on the Kent. One person who was very pleased with this was Richard Gatehouse, not because he's nasty, but because he didn't swim (on this drop on this occasion)

Basic stuff: Water levels were Good, on the water snack was the milk chocolate Rocky bar.

Short interlude
The observation test - Was that some members of our group on the other side of the motor way, heading at high speed, in the opposite direction. No it wasn't, this was a delusion, and we hadn't forgotten to pick up Bob's van from the lay-by at the top of the Kent before setting off to the Lune.
(Three things to remember here, when hinting to the driver about not forgetting a vehicle, don't just say "Don't forget the car", especially if your driver is good natured enough to not say aloud "Der, we are in the car". The second thing not to do is, do not then distract the driver by eating all his chocolate Hobb Nobbs, at a critical point on the round-a-bout)

The Lune (pm)
We arrived a little late, few extra miles under our belts. The Lune was at a low level, which meant a lot of the rock shuffling.

The Magnetic rock proved a little tricky for one person in particular, Kelvin, swam and no more was said. For my self, a clean run, missing the rock and taking the score up to 4 to 1 to me. Kelvin probably claims a score of 100 to 1, but it's the one that happened on this trip that matters.

The constriction on the Lune, we did this again with very little water in it, by wiggling our hips. A few notable walk arounds, I won’t mention them here, you know who you are. I yet again impressed all with my snake like hip wiggling abilities, drawing such compliments as "you spawny git" and "lucky B'stard". This became the preamble to a long debate from the likes of the Russian Paul and Dangerous Dave Dakin. They were no match for my expert debating techniques in which I pointed out that I had done this twice now and still not taken the easy line that they had both done, they finally conceded that it must be the abilities of the new boat, rather than my own Kayaking capabilities.

Water levels - scrapie, very, very scrapie
On the water snack was Mint Kit Kats

Canoe Polo - yorkshire div3 - 17.02.07

2007-02-18T19:25:00.000Z

Latest results from the canoe polo matches on saturday for which Andy Renwick was playing in on his 18th birthday!
Leeds CC 0-4 Forward Slash
Leeds CC 0-0 Penine Zimmers
Leeds CC 2-1 Viking (Goals from Mick & Curly)
Leeds CC 2-0 Sheffield Uni (Goals from Curly & Graeme)

Last matches of the season for this team are on 24th march

The Lakes trip 27th and 28th Jan 2007

2007-02-07T07:55:00.000Z

Dangerous Dave Dakins Drunken Door Deliberations (26th Jan Ambleside youth hostel)
Whilst paddling a choppy room, with a sharp right bend, Dave failed to negotiate the grade 4 door, twice, eventually capsizing and portaging across to the sofa.

There were also other incidents including a Drunken sports injury, 3.30am Cannelloni and Lasagna, Snoring and what appeared to be a description contest where participants took turns in telling tales of how bad the snoring was in their rooms, Wilderbeast was mentioned. This finally culminated in many hangovers, lasting well into the next day

2007-02-07T07:54:00.000Z

The Leven 27th Jan 2007 (The Lakes part 2)

Hungover we put on above the brick shoot weir just below Newby Bridge, dropped through the mill force, through the graveyard section, down the two tier drop and past last years egress point (almost seems like I'm taking these details straight out of a book). I'm trying to speed through to the new and exciting stuff.

The lower section, dum dum dum. (Menacing music, not stupid, stupid, stupid).
The first thing we came across was the large weir (Water close weir), Bob picked the line and went for it, plummeting over the edge, with a thud. He disappeared from view, we waited anxiously whilst he reappeared and gave us the signal to follow his line. A few of us did, landing nose first on big rock. Stephan and the others picked a much nicer line about 10 feet to the left.

I've put this in as a cautionary note not to follow Bob's line.

The next drop was the Eagerly awaited grade 4 rapid,Backbarrow Bridge. We had stopped on the way up to look at this feature, and assess our lines, at least one portaged (perhaps to save his "not swimming since he started" record, you'll work out who this was later). The rest of us ran it. A few swimmers, myself included (although I did have a good reason) the others I fear just lacked the skills, and one or two fluked it.

We eddied out river right above the drop and awaited the all clear signal. Ferry glided across into the flow, sweep stoke picked our line and paddled for it. As I neared the bottom of the Grade 4, still upright it occured to me that I was in an unfamiliar boat, and hadn't done my capsize drill, if there were to be an issue how do I know if I would have gotten out alive. I wouldn't. There was no time like the present, if your going to do a test capsize, you may as well make it an extreme test capsize at the bottom of a GRADE FOUR rapid. I had a quick go at rolling in the aerated water, just for effect, fluffed it, swam. Sat on the side with the others eating biscuits and drinking from varoius flasks.

(If your interested in seeing the drop, professionally photographed, its on the inside of the back cover of the "White water Lake district")

The next weir was a compulsory Portage around Grade 5+ Weir, although there was some speculation that it could have been done on that day without a problem, but as no one would lend anyone else there boats to do it in, the question will have to remain unanswered, or taken as No.

This was followed by a second weir, with a couple of easy eddies immediately above to sit in, nice.

Then another little weir, was followed by what the book describes as an entertaining rapid. This proved a little too entertaining for some, with at least two swimmers here.

Then another big weir with an long slide.

Then fisherman's island go left for grade three, go right for grade four. There was a debate after, whether this was the wrong way around, but everyone survived, some better than others.

The following are all true and took place at The Low wood egress point.
1) Jonathan through Bob's bung in the river.
2) Bob through his own car key's in the river in an attempt to demonstrate how Jonathan had lost his boat bung.
3) I forgot my car key, and didn't discover this until I was at the other end of the shuttle, bugger.

Just the facts:
1) Weather was ok, a little cold for the swimmers.
2) Water level was nice, a little scrapy in places, but ok.
3) On the water snacks were Caremel Rockey's and hot fruit juice.

2007-02-07T07:50:00.000Z

The Kent - 28th Jan 2007 am (The Lakes part 3)
We got on after a little kerfuffle, at the top and proceeded to the bottom. (This could be written up a little better, maybe later when I have time).

Notable swims form Dave Kenyon, who claims these as his first since he started paddling again.

Easy corner into a cross current, knocked him over and out he came. He then attempted to empty his boat, slipped and ended up on his back, boat balanced on all fours, head on extended neck just out of the water. Bob made him remain in this position claiming that it would be safer to finish emptying his boat like that, than risk another a third embarrassing swim.

He managed a third swim on one of the constrictions, this time for good reasons, and finally a technical swim getting out of his boat at the get out. For some one who hasn't swam since taking up kayaking again, he certainly made up for it on this river.

A bit short but I've got three rivers to do.

Oh, and the water level was pretty good, not too high or too low, just right.
Today's swimmers biscuits were Rocky's the one's with the Robin in the advert (I can't remember if they were caramel or not)

Please feel free to add on any other swimmers from this river trip to the comments page and I'll be sure to add them into the main blog for all to see.

2007-02-07T07:44:00.000Z

The Lune - 28th Jan 20007 pm (The Lakes part 4)

This was a Ninja run, just four of us. Its was at the lowest level I've ever seen it, still it was do able, and other groups were paddling it too.
The first time I ran this river, I was in Steve Henderson's group. Stop the blog. Every one stare into space whilst I reminis, wiggly lines appear as we travel back in time. We are at the top of the first drop, with mustaches and kipper ties (this isn't true, but I wanted the image to be a little dated), Steve eddied us out, and advised us to watch how he handled the first feature, thus seeing how easy it would be. He paddled off, eager novice kayakers watching for line. He hit a rock, hit the island, went under a tree, capsized, then rolled up and signaled for us all to follow. OK back to the future. We are at the drop, I've just finished repeating this story for any one on the trip that hadn't already heard it, my turn to do the drop.
I hit the stone, hit the island, went under a tree, capsized, then rolled up. But here's the twist and the mark of my improvement over the year. I did it backwards.

Magnetic rock, the only mistake I made was saying that it hadn't managed to get me the previous three trips down the lune. Lets just say that the scores no longer three to nil.

The Constriction, river right. We got out and had a look at this. There was just enough water to get the boat down, but not enough for paddles as well. So the whole drop was done by edging and hip flickery. It has to be said that my hip wiggling was on form, imagine if you will Elvis the slaloming polecat, he would have come second, that's how good I was.

The entire river was run at stealth speed on to off in less than one and a half hours.

Time for beans on toast.

The Lune - 14th Jan 2007

2007-02-06T18:08:00.000Z

We headed off to do the Hindburn, in the usual Leeds Canoe Club stile, which means we get close then decide not to waste any more time and go and do the Lune (again, third week on the trot)
Water levels were high, higher than two weeks ago. I didn't swim again, seems like I'm getting better.
Nice big Wave trains, rolly mark had a long swim, and a short swim.
Other than the experience of doing a river with a lot of water in it, it isn't a good river to do when there's too much rain. The eddy's disappear as do a lot of the features and the water gets very boily.
The Magnetic rock was about 6 inch under water, first time we did it was between 4 and 6 feet tall (from my aging memory)
The second constriction, was almost a wash through, the only trouble was the stopper at the bottom which spun the unwary over, me included. The river usually flows onward between three rocks, creating two shoots to hit, these had gone and a large hill of water (a pour over) had replaced it. This spooked me a little, as I had just rolled and was only a few feet from it. After the initial panicking face, it wasn't too hard to avoid and the smile returned.
The first constriction / gorge was just big and bouncy. No problem for a man of my capabilities, what was, was the tree at the side at the bottom of the gorge. Nice little eddy, I'll wait there, ferry glide across, in the eddy hold the branch, easy grab just hook my elbow over and sit a waaaaiiiiittt. I had let go of my paddle with my right arm whilst I hooked on, the boat was washed under the branch, my left hand and paddle down stream. Trapped, bad edge, bad paddle position, unable to pull my self up without letting go of my paddle. Panic face again, small girly scream almost kitten like (drowned out by the noise of the water, thanks water). What am I to do......I threw my paddle in the air, grabbed the branch with my left arm, hip flicked, pulled my self up straight, pushed away from the branch, caught the paddle and continued on, unnoticed by anyone. Another sign that I must be getting better.
I was going to apologize for the rushed blog, but its taken me three weeks to finish it.

Lakes Weekend - Helmet Cam

2007-01-30T23:19:00.000Z

Those of you on the Lakes Weekend in January will have noticed that i was wearing a headcam for most of the weekend. Below is the results of wearing it!!
The footage contains POV shots of me running all the major rapids on the Leven and Kent, with a few shots of other people running them too. Ive still to play about with the camera a little bit to try and get the best angle, but for a first attempt, its turned out alright

http://www.coastervideosonline.co.uk/LCC%20Lakes%2007.wmv

For those of you interested in the helmet cam i was using, see the previous post.....

Helmet Cam

2007-01-30T20:30:00.000Z

Quite a few of you have been asking me about the helmet cam i was wearing, so below i have listed everything i know about it, how to get one yourself, and how much it costs.

The camera itself is a complete unit. Everything is contained within the unit on my head.
(There are no wires going down into the boat, no dv camera strapped into my boat etc...)

The camera contains an SD memory card slot inside onto which you record the movies. With a 2GB card you can get about an hours footage (full quality)

Full quality video is 640 x 480 pixels and 30fps.
(The quality can be reduced if you wish down to 320x240 or even 160 x 120 if you wish. You can also change the framrate to 15fps)

Sound is also recorded (although you can turn it off if you wish)

You can transfer your videos either by the standard digital camera usb cable, or by putting the SD card into a memory card reader.

If you really want to know, the footage is recorded in MJPEG format (which has a .avi extenstion). Some video editing programs wont accept this format of video (like my Adobe Premiere Pro), but Wondows Movie Maker, which everyone with windows will have, will edit it fine.

As for where to get one from, and the cost....

To buy one from a UK online shop would cost you about £160 + P&P
http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/ATC-2000.html

To buy exactly the same camera from an American website will cost you £60
No, that is not a typo, it really is £100 cheaper in the US!!
http://www.rei.com/product/48074212.htm

If you really do want to buy one, then i suggest you buy from a US website. If you know someone who lives in america, then get them to order it for you, then get them to ship it over to you. Yes, it will take longer for it to get to you, but your saving youself almost £100!!
If anyone is really stuck for knowing people in america, then my mums company has an office in the US. Thats how mine was ordered.

Thats pretty much everything i know about the camera, although if you have any more questions on it, ill do my best to answer it.

LCC annual awards for 2006

2007-01-28T17:19:00.000Z

At the xmas / new year party earlier this month the following people were the recipients of the annual LCC awards:

Adult most improved paddler - Cat Baxter
Junior most improved paddler - Rachael Sykes
Adult best swim - Eddie Gray & Mick Leversidge (capsizing, swimming & breaking the c2 at sleningford slalom)
Junior best swim - Sarah Demspey (slipping in from the bank at HPP and grabbing her boat for support which also came into the water with her, and then having to be rescued by the GB freestyle team)
Best Pin - James Gray (vertical pin on aberglasyn gorge, we tried for 1.5 hours to rescue it and had to leave it over night to continue the boat resue the next day)
Pool Officer - Steve Henderson
Club captain - Steve Henderson
Services to leeds canoe club - Jo Kilburn
Bernard Chapman award - Martin Thornton
Dick of the year - Greg Parsons (for dropping £40 down a drain at scotch corner cafe, and having to get fishermen to rescue the two £20 notes)
Duck award - for some reason not awarded this year (I can only assume because steve had already won too many prizes?)

Swimming Burns

2007-01-04T23:15:00.000Z

The river Sprint is near Kendal. An excellent grade IV river with plently of interesting rapids, and a couple of unlikely swims from Paul Crouch & Curly (both paddling pyranha burns, so was it the paddler or boat at fault!). Fortunately no CATastrophe was had as they were reunited with boats & paddles, with BEARly any extra scratches on them. Near the end of the river was a weir with an excellent sufing wave, and then it was time to limb out of the boats, get changed and then consume sandwiches, coffee, hot souP AND A chocolate bar.

Canoe Polo - div3 - 9 dec 06

2006-12-10T19:21:00.000Z

Results from saturdays yorkshire division 3 matches were:
Leeds CC 1-6 Leeds Uni (goal from jonny grayson, we should also acknowledge that jonathan dempsey both played and scored for the uni team)
Leeds CC 0-5 Newcastle
Leeds CC 3-0 Glanford 'B' (goal from Dave Kenyon & 2 from jonny grayson)
Leeds CC 1-3 Glanford 'A' (goal from jonny grayson)
Leeds CC 0-2 Malton & Norton

Tees: Part II: Monday morning bot recovery

2006-12-09T11:56:00.000Z

Monday 4th saw Andy , Mark, Steve & Cat take time of work to drive back to the tees with the hope the
that the 2 boats were still there. An early start, but the closing of the a1 delayed us by an hour.
I knew the boats were just down stream of the greta confluence so we walked along the oposite bank to locate the boats - my bright orange boat was easy to spot. we decided the safest approach was to recover them from the bank they were on, so we drove up to abbey bridge and walked in for the 2km. Steve climbed round on the river bank to locate the boats whilst the rest of us climbed down through the wood and using ropes we managed to pull my boat and paddle up to safety. Unfortunately mark's boat wasn't there so we can only assume the river rose over night and washed one of the boats away. We continued searching for a while and mark walked along both sides of the bank but it wasn't found.
So only a semi-successful boat recovery on monday morning.

Tees: Part I: Mis-communication

2006-12-09T11:41:00.000Z

Sunday 3rd saw 10 people head towards the river Tees to paddle, the barnard castle to winston section. We hoped for little bit of water in the river, but when we arrived at the get in, the tees looked like it could have been an austrian alpine river! Surf waves in the middle of the river at the get in, and abbey rapids tranformed into a giant wave train.
The swim count was 5 out of 9 at abbey rapids, and the boat chases were many.
Having rescued mark's boat about 2km from the abbey rapids, I left mine & his boats on some rocks and climbed up the steep muddy bank to find out where everyone else was. After a while i found simon, paul & gill on the water. they said they were going down stream to find nick who was in the next eddy down from the rescued boat. They told me to walk up to abbey bridge to pass on the car keys i was carrying to those waiting for me as 5 people decided that paddling any further wasn't for them. I agreed and expected them to wait for me where i'd left the boats. I arived at the bridge to find that everyone else had driven off to the get out to find dry clothes leaving me with 2 sets of car keys. So i walked back to the boats, to find the group on the water had disappeared down stream, and struggled to find boats due to them being hidden in an undercut, so having spent ages searching for them I realised it was about to get dark and decided the safest option was to head for abbey bridge as that was the last place anyone knew i was heading for.
On arrival at winston bridge the car group & the paddling group soon realised i was with neither group and that they'd left me behind! they did find me at about 4pm near abbey bridge. As people were still in wet kit (as their dry kit was in my car) & given the wet & dark conditions we decided to leave the boats behind, as getting warm & dry was more important. The end results was 2 boats left overnight on the banks of the tees.
The moral of this story - communication is very important so that everyone knows where everyone is either on or off the water, and so we don't leave people behind!

Canoe Polo - div2 - 2 dec 06

2006-12-09T11:36:00.000Z

Results from last weekends yorkshire division 2 competion:

Leeds 1-4 Forward Slash (goal from Paul Dochray)
Leeds 3-0 Penine Zimmers (3 goals from Andy Hall)
Leeds 0-1 Viking
Leeds 2-1 Sheffield Uni (goals from Andy Hall & Ian Needham)

Wales - advance trip Nov06

2006-11-27T21:43:00.000Z

Friday - those that arrived early in wales decided that the Aberglaslyn gorge would be a suitable warm up paddle. very short & good grade IV paddling with quite a bit more water in the river than last year. It should have been a short trip but, 10 minutes of paddling was followed by around 1.5 hours of attempting to rescue James Gray's pinned boat. Day light ended, so we left the boat in the gorge, and finished the last half km either walking out or paddling in the dark. Mobile phone reception was then sought to arrange for a spare boat to be brought up from leeds so james could paddle for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday - a pre-breakfast group went back to the aberglaslyn gorge to try again and rescue the boat. Fortunately for james the rising river had forced the boat free from its pin and made the salavage of it very easy.
The rest of the day the group split into 2.
One group ran the upper conwy, llugwy & aberglaslyn gorge.
The other half of the group wanted to find some new rivers so headed towards dolgellau to paddle the Eden (1st 2km was paddling through trees and portaging wire fences, rest of the river was fairly continuous technical grade III/IV rapids) & Lower Mawddach (including the public toilet falls!). There were a couple of swims, and Gill re-ignited an old shoulder injury so walked out of the last 2km.

Sunday - everyone went to the Ogwen. Half the group did the lower ogwen, which is mainly pool drop in nature. The rest did the upper, middle & lower ogwen, with just 4 of us running the gun barrell section. The biggest swim of the weekend occurred with simultaneous swims of steve, mark & dave (1st swim from his burn!), so i had 3 boats to rescue in the middle of a grade IV gorge!

Add to that the usual LCC post river pastimes of drinking and poker.

Canoe polo div 2 - 11 nov

2006-11-13T07:06:00.000Z

Results from saturday's matches in yorkshire div 2
Leeds CC 0-1 SWAT 'A'
Leeds CC 3-1 Kingston Kaos, goals from Curly and 2 from A-P
Leeds CC 0-3 Yorkies
Leeds CC 0-1 Green Star
Leeds CC 0-5 Kingston 'B'

2006-11-08T05:17:00.000Z

LCC - Vancouver Branch - Seymour River

Hello from Vancouver eh? After a month of amazing weather Autumn and Winter seem to have arrived at the same time. There has been snow in the Ineterior of Canada but this weekend in Vancouver it rained and it rained. The local rivers all came up and up. The Seymour in this video is normally a grade 2 and the lesser of the local rivers in North Vancouver. The two other rivers to run in North Vancouver are the Capilano and the Lynn. On saturday we met up with a few of the local paddlers as they paddled on the Seymour Pipeline wave. The pipe line is a wave that comes up when the Seymour floods and when the tide is low. I got to paddle down the Seymour once it had dropped a few feet on the Sunday. The get on was a large pool just beneath the booming grade 5 canyon above. Trees line the run much like the Sanna in Austria, its an amazing run considering how close to the city you are. The paddle was pretty fast about 30 minutes to cover 4 miles or so. Apparently the white water season doesn't actually start till the spring when the snow melts and the dams release but we are in the process of buying boats now that our kit from the UK has arrived. Hopefully we'll be able to paddle through the winter. If not then I expect we'll be off snowboarding!
Hope everyone is well and we'll let you know what paddling in BC is all a'boot.
Gavin and Jeanie

Top tips from coaches

2006-10-18T07:40:00.000+01:00

The pocket of your buoyancy aid is one of the most important items of kit you posses.

In here you can keep a selection of the following items.
Knife (to cut your self, or others free, from river strewn debris)
Carabina
Sling
Water proof paper
Pencil (that writes in zero gravity and wet conditions)
Small amount of electrical tape, wound around top of pencil (for use a dressing in case of emergencies)
Whistle
Training aids (one, two, and three star)
Chocolate (chocolate is not the only snack other snacks are available)
Skull cap (helps prevent hypothermia, when head gets submersed under freezing cold water)

If anyone finds any of this kit can they please return it to Nigel. He forgot to zip up his pocket, before attempting town falls.

A beginners view of Llangollen

2006-10-17T22:15:00.000+01:00

James split paddles here! What a weekend at Llangollen!! Everyone was so supportive and what excellent fun we had. Seriously fun introduction to white water.

The star of the weekend, for me, was Michelle my partner. She did not want to come, did not want to paddle and only agreed to come to protect me from myself. However, with everyone’s help particularly John Lucas (thanks) Michelle managed to paddle in a straight line and remain dry and upright the whole of Saturday – not something I can claim for myself.

For me, Saturday turned out to be a great day. My first roll up on a river – and in anger. Some could argue that there should be no need to roll particularly when it was a small drop but you all know how much I like swimming!!

Serpents Tail is amazing. Leaders took us towards it without first allowing us to inspect it. Normally, we would all get out, have a look, then decide how best to tackle it. However, for the newbies this was not the way – “it will be all right”, “it’s safe”. What that means is, it is scary to look at, and best encountered before fear sets in. Of course there is enough space to put a lot of safety on, so when you end up, upside down in or out of the boat there are people able to rescue. By the second run, all had experienced it and were afraid. 2/2 swims for me. In my defence, I did try to roll on my first attempt but aerated water = no purchase and I swam. Jonathan saved me with a perfect line (memo to self - owe him a pint).

The highlight of the spectacular Saturday Town Falls run was a pinned Andrew Hall lurking until Nigel Moore passed him and then riding over the top of Nige’s up-turned boat while Nige continued to feel it would be better to do the falls upside down. Everyone on the bridge went Ohh! in unison. Andrew just smiled and kept going or was that a smirk.

So, to the split paddles. Three weeks old carbon paddles, that it turns out were the only reason I was able to roll up on Saturday. First thing Sunday morning, Serpents tail. Having already swam once, I was eager!! for another go. Had agreed line I was to take having watched others and set off; to the left of the vee; straight over the wave; to the right of the haystack… Oops – that didn’t go right. Upside down against the rock with the wave bashing me against the wall. Not absolutely sure how my ‘roll up’ paddles were broken but guess they sacrificed themselves for me. Had to pull deck but was immediately washed backwards down small shoot with boat coming quickly after me. Decided to place myself between wall and boat to break the boats impact (not really but have bruise to prove that’s what happened). Curly threw a line – very welcome if only he had not thrown it clear over the gorge and it landed on the rock at the other side, three feet above my head. As I floated down stream, as if to add injury to insult, I spied the broken ends of my now split paddle teasingly sticking out of the water making their way down.

Andy lent me his splits, although top quality they were not my beloved (and now in two pieces) Carbon ‘roll up’ paddles, so much swimming to be had for the rest of the day. Final excitement of day was the better or more energy filled paddlers conquering Town falls. With only one swimmer (see Martins own blogg about himself).

I have gone on a bit but finally, I would just like to thank organisers Nige and Andy together with all the experienced coaches and paddlers who made this such a great weekend, but also to everyone who went – what a great bunch of people.

James Mckeeman

If your not getting wet your not doing it properly.

2006-10-17T08:47:00.000+01:00

Five swims. Sounds like a high figure, from someone as good as I am, unexpected perhaps? The majority of these were purely to help make the beginners confident that swimming isn't just because your crap, sometimes its just unavoidable.

In order to help lesser paddlers understand I've attempted to break down some of my swims as a valuable learning experience, read it take note, apply to the rest of your paddling career.

First swim: in 18 inches of slow moving water.
What happened: Fell off a small surf wave, when a rock troll grabbed my paddle, pulled me over held my boat down. Granted its a rare occurrence but it does happen from time to time.

Second, Third and Forth from the serpents tail: First and only photographed run more than successfully, prooving that I did have the ability to do this and keep dry and that all following swims were just demonstrational
What happened: Following three were from the practice makes perfect learning regime. My white water skills have now moved me up a notch or two, I can know swim down grade 4 rapids.

Fifth: An awesome display of paddling abilities from my second run at town falls.
What happened: Several rolls and a vertical, aerial dismount, whilst keeping my head underwater. Beating Nigel and Andy's roll and splat from the day before hands down. A rare treat for the onlookers.

Watch and learn.

In my defense, I was in a small boat with insufficient lung capacity, helmet thickness, troll repellent or paddling ability.

Llangollen weekend a beginners perspective.

2006-10-17T07:54:00.000+01:00

Saturday, after paddling in the morning over some drops to warm up and let people get over the copious amounts of beer that was consumed Friday night. It's onto the Serpent's tail. Carrying to the put-in and I see the reason for carrying sponge padding as my boat starts cutting into my shoulder.

After some safety advice and splitting up into small groups it's time to get onto the water. John predicts that the beginners have a 50/50 chance of making it, a statistic that will prove to be very accurate for me at least. A gentle paddle over some rocks and I prepare to follow Martin's line over a drop, which instantly proves a bad idea as he goes over and rolls back up. Thankfully I avoid the same fate, as I've not yet learnt to roll it could have led to the first swim of my weekend. As we approach the Serpent's tail anticipation is building I still haven't seen the rapid so I have no idea what to expect and the reassurances that it'll be alright and the worst that'll happen is a swim only serve to worry me more.

Preparing for the first run and the last time my shiny new Lil' Joe will be seen without a nice selection of scratches and gouges. I see the signal to go and I get my first sight of the Serpent's tail. Everything seems to be going ok. I just have time to think this isn't so bad and my first swim of the day is here. First thought's on getting out, bugger and Again!!! So off I go down the rocks to retrieve my boat and carry it back to the top. This time I'm determined it's not gonna get me. Head down and paddling away I see the calmer waters ahead and a cheer goes up. I made it somehow, a big smile breaks out on my face and I raise my paddles in the air in celebration, foolishly as I'm not yet in the eddie. Thankfully the waters calm enough at this point to continue down to the next eddie without swimming.

Day 2 and this time we're straight up to the Serpent's tail to start the day. This time I'm a little worse for wear and obviously not fully awake, (Never mind smokers Snorers really should be forced to sleep outside where they have less chance of disturbing the rest of us), until that is the cold water at the Serpent's tail engulfs me, swim number two of the weekend. So I grab the line that's been thrown for me and after I've got my breath back off I go to get my boat for another run. Just like Saturday the second times the charm as I make it down in one piece proving to myself that yesterday wasn't just a fluke.

Thanks to all at Leeds canoe club for organising the weekend and all the good advice and safety put on, it was a great weekend.

Has to be mentioned just in case he doesn't write his own blog. Sympathies must go out to James who swam on day 2 on the serpent's tail. The call rang out, Boat... Paddles... only to be corrected with a call of Splits... One paddle enters two paddles leave, an expensive way to get a pair of splits.

Richard

Canoe Polo div3 - 7 october

2006-10-09T21:21:00.000+01:00

1st competition in div3 for the Leeds 'B' team this season. The team this time was Mick, Curly, Paul D, Gerry, Cat, Dave K, Simon S, Richard And the results were:
Leeds 0 -4 Leeds Uni
Leeds 0-3 Newcastle
Leeds 3-1 Glanford 'A' (goals from Curly, Mick, Paul)
Leeds 2-1 Glanford 'B' (goals from Simon S, Dave)
Leeds 2-1 Malton & Norton (goals from Curly & Paul)

filthy lucre

2006-10-09T18:04:00.000+01:00

Q1) How do you get two brand spanking crisp twenty pound notes through a slot a inch wide from 2 feet away.
ans) give them to Greg. He managed this on his first attempt, and left handed, and both thrown at the same time. Through a grate at the back of car.

Q2) How many people does it take to rescue two damp twenty pound notes for a grate near Scotch corner
ans) About 37, judging by the crowd that had gathered to watch Greg hammer the grate, use a crow bar on the grate, attach a wagon strap to the grate and line up all the crowd and pull together, still no use.

Q3) How do you heal the rift between anglers and Kayakers.
ans) Get one of the anglers to use his fishing rod as chopsticks and rescue wet cash from bottom of pit. Then pat him on the back, and offer him food.

Q4) Who could be a nominee for Dick of the year this year.
ans) Mr Gregory Parsons

West Tanfield Slalom 23&24/9/06

2006-09-24T20:23:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to all those that took part, and in particular to:

Sat 23rd
Div3 K1 mens - Andy Renwick 3rd
div3 K1 Women - Gill Arnett 2nd (& promotion to div2)
div4 k1 men - Greg Parsons 2nd (& promotion to div3)
div4 k1 men - Eddie Gray - best divisional veteran (& promotion to div3)
div 4 k1 women - Catherine Baxter - 1st (& promotion to div 3)
div 4 c1 - Andy Hall 3rd

Sat 24th
Div3 K1 men - Andy Renwick 1st (& we think promoted to div2)
div4 k1 men - Dave Kenyon (promoted to div3)
div4 k1 men - Simon Fraser (promoted to div3)
div3 c2 - Jonathan Dempsey & James Gray 3rd
topo duo - Justin Scott & James Gray 3rd

The swims from the entertaining c2 runs
Eddie & Mick - twice & breaking one of the boats
Jonathan & James (good job they got a good scoe in their first run)
Justin & Gill

There were a couple of swims in div4 (but to be kind i'll leave them nameless) though i should also mention that i swam at gate 2 in the c1 on sunday.

Liffey Descent 06

2006-09-10T19:37:00.000+01:00

The river Liffey in Dublin is 18 miles of mainly flat water paddling with 11 weirs, 2 long portages and a mile of upstream paddling at the start! 12 of us from LCC where there.
For some it was their 4th liffey, and for some their first. This years trip started at 3am for some to get the early ferry on thursday to maximise drinking time, for the rest it was the afternoon ferry on thusday or one on friday.

As can be seen from the photos there was considerably more drinking than paddling.

A few highlights from the trip:
Guiness
The much in demand LCC liffey t-shirts
Guiness
The 11 weirs, supportive crowds and safety divers!
Andy & Jonathan getting recognition from the race starter for being one of the very few canadians taking the risky (and more fun) left line on straffan wier at the start in front of the large crowds
Guiness
Dave being 1st LCC member to reach finishline
Steve H continuing his quest for another swimmer of the year award with 3 swims from the wavehopper (we had predicted so many more!)
A few more guiness
Jonathan losing his orange wig in the trees
Andy losing the canadian paddle while bailing out the canoe
Another round of guiness
Lots of electric shocks for the enforced portage over the electric fences in the jungle section
After race party t-shirt swapping competition
4 more guiness barman
The live band's singer dueting with Eddie for a version of Oasis's don't look back in anger was unforgetable (or should that be unforgivable?)
After that performance more guiness was in desperate need
The mysterious disappearence of all the topo drain bungs
Andy & Jonathan in the canadian surviving all 11 weirs and not swimming! Unbelievable but true!
And some more guiness to celebrate completing the race.

Race photos can be found at
www.macphoto.net
and look out for race numbers
625 Andy & Jonathan - canadian doubles
636 Dr.evil & unsteady old Eddie - topo duo
617 Curly and Andy - topo duo
618 Mick & Steve - topo duo
344 Gill - yellow long pointy boat
346 Steve - wavehopper
347 Dave - mountainbat
337 Drew - idaho

Will you be there next year?

Another slalom another success for LCC

2006-09-03T18:14:00.000+01:00

It had rained a bit south of manchester, so the river Goyt was flowing at a good level making the Marple slalom course a bit more challenging on saturday than it was back in july.
But this didn't stop LCC winning more slalom medals, with Gill taking 2nd place in div3 ladies.

Nottingham last Sunday

2006-07-26T07:35:00.000+01:00

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.

Extreme paddler in trouble

2006-07-24T19:07:00.000+01:00

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)

Guil - Extreme Rafting

2006-07-22T18:10:00.000+01:00

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!

Rinse and repeat

2006-07-16T21:51:00.000+01:00

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.

Marple slalom - div3/4 July 06

2006-07-16T21:47:00.000+01:00

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

Hull international canoe polo competition - July 2006

2006-07-02T18:47:00.000+01:00

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

France 2006

2006-07-02T18:21:00.000+01:00

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

Contact details

2006-06-27T15:26:00.000+01:00

Andy Smith's Email address has now changed to extremepaddler@ntlworld.com

Liffey Descent > Competition Time!

2006-06-04T00:00:00.000+01:00

Liffey Descent > Home

I was just looking at the Liffey Web site and noticed the picture they are using on the site for this year. So on this picture are a number of Leeds Canoe Club paddlers. There will be a prize* to the first person that emails me with names and locations on the picture of the paddlers.

Here is a link to the picture just incase they move it off the main site..

guess_Liffey.jpg

*Prize might not be worth anything, could be a pint of Guiness at the end of the race, and its just for fun anyway...

Slovenia - may 2006

2006-05-21T21:57:00.000+01:00

Day -1: after months of talking and planning it was almost time to head of to Bovec in Slovenia for a week of paddling the river Soca. Boats were packed full of kit, and taped into plastic bags and mark's van was loaded up in wait of the 5am start the next day.

Day 0: drive to stanstead airport. No problems at all checking boats in. they weren't interested in how much they weighed! Though the guys at the xray machines complained about us taking photos! Trieste airport saw us queueing up at passport control whilst watching all 6 boats going past us on the luggage conveyor belts! A very welcome sight!! Hire cars were got. It rained heavily on route through italy & slovenia. Who else could be happy that it was raining on holiday! a few stops to check the boats were ok on the inflatable roofracks, and then we arrived in the apartment for a quick unload of kit and then beers and pizza.

Day 1: Warm up paddle! Raining heavily. River level high, boats fell off one of the cars! One off the back & 2 onto the bonnet of the hire car! Paddled the soca from bunkerji to cezsoca. River was very fast, and a mix of grades II - IV. With a fantastic very narrow and long grade 4 gorge with very boily water. Gill swam early on, Andy & Mark swam near the end of the gorge, Mark self rescued but Andy's boat disappeared down the river with Jonny (rescue ranger) & Nick (Dr.Evil) in chase. After crossing the river once on a line, and 10min walk down the bank. we found nick & jonny on other side saying boat was just a bit further down stream. It was decided that I would go acriss the river on a zip line (gavin was desperate to test out his safety & rescue skills form the previous weekend's course). After a nearly drowning i was over and then a short walk to my boat revealed that round the next corner was a bridge (the b*******!). All in all an epic first day.

Day 2: The tributary to the soca, the Koritnica was high so we paddled that. An extremely fast river that was mainly grade II with a short grade IV gorge by the get in. We finished the trip so quickly that we also re-did yesterdays paddle without any epics. Though it should be noted that those that didn't swim on the gorge (gavin, nick & jonny) all had to roll after/through the main drop in the gorge) but the swimmers (andy & mark) but got perfect lines this time!

Day 3: warm and sunny, no more rain. Paddled srpenica 1, 2 and Trnovo 1 sections which started off gently, before getting progressively harder, grade III/Iv big boulder eddy hopping. before arrival at the grade IV/V slalom site. Excellent paddling. Mark had the day's only swim just below the slalom site. Jonny chased after his boat but had to stop at last chance eddy above syphon canyon. we picked his boat out of the grade V/VI syphon canyon. It got stuck just above a syphon filled with wood and luckily was on the same side of the river as the rest of it.

Day 4: Otona section. the best section on the river. grade 4 gorge paddling, with 100m vertical descent to carry boats in (well boats were lowered on ropes for part of it).
Gill had 2 swims. Andy had a symphathy swim leading to jonny somehow rescueing gill & boat and then having to rescue mine. Nick also managed a swim ... he forgot to pay the river gods today.

Day 5: Nick's birthday. Re-did the Otona section. No swims but the river gods kept nibbling at dr.evil leading to a double figure roll tally. after a stop for pizza we also did the srpenica 1 to slalom site section. again no swims.

Day 6: redid the top section of bunkerji to cezsoca. very enjoyable last days paddle. Gill did a final swim from the gorge that ate a few of us earlier in the week.
The day ended with an attempt to hide the scratches on the hire cars and a trip to the source of the soca.

Day 7: pack up, drive back to italy. fly back to stanstead, drive back to leeds.

Overally an excellent trip, and a recommended place for a week of boating.

Andy (on behalf of Gavin, Nick, Jonny, Mark, Gill & Andy)

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

2006-04-26T07:43:00.000+01:00

After last years dick of the year award came in my direction, I have been trying hard to ensure that I don't get it this year too. Now I can stop worrying, a true mate has stepped in to save me. This is the story of how Rolly Mark rescued Bob's throw line. Told by someone who wasn't there (although I was in spirit)

The tale begins with several hours of hard rope training, specifically in the use of the throw line to rescue out of boat paddlers, This was followed by Rolly Marks brave rescue simulation, to allow the newly trained to put in to practice what they had learnt.

Attempt one...
Mark drifts past as Bob shouts, hang on I wasn't ready.

A quick sprint down the side of the river (about half a mile before catching up with Mark and getting a little ahead)

Attempt two...
Throw bag ready, plenty of time, relax, take aim, throw. Oops forgot to hang on to the other end of the line.
Statement form Bob himself "as I threw him the rope I could feel the last few feet of the line, slip through my hands. I yelped like a puppy dog, not because I might loose my rope but knowing I was loosing what little pride I had"

Mark rescues both himself and Bob's rescue equipment. (Late info seems to point at Steve as being the rescuer of both Mark and the Throw line, although the rope took a lot more rescuing than the original paddler)

I his defense Bob stated "if Mark had waited for me to get in to position , we might not be having this conversation "

Excellent, one nominee for the dick of the year trophy, just 4 more peoples mistakes to highlight and I home and dry and award free this Christmas.

Scotland Trip

2006-04-14T12:21:00.000+01:00

I started writing this while stuck at an airport and it got pretty long winded 3 pages in word and I wasn't really going anywhere with it. Rather than heavy editing I'm just going to focus on some highlights.
These are the rivers we did,
The Roy (upper, gorge and lower)
The Pattack
Fecklin
Lower Gloy
The Etive
Spean Gorge.

There was an awlful lot of water around. It rained on and off all the time we were there. This made some of the rivers runable when they usually weren't and it also made some of them may be a little bigger than we could reasonably deal with.

The Roy Gorge was as usual excellent. I love the enclosed nature of the Gorge. The feeling that you are really somewhere you couldn't get to by any other means. And also the problems that an incident could cause you. Gill hurt her hand on the upper section of the Roy and I can't help thinking how different a story it would have been trying to evacuate someone from such a place. There was plenty of rolling and swims for all on the Roy.

The Fecklin has recently been dammed and a lot of water taken away from the main rapids. Still it was an excellent paddle. Something for everyone from complex rapids, huge cushion waves to large wave trains. A few people tried split decision, No two people had the same experience. Some people rolled, some swam, Jonny was even pinned upside down in his boat for a while.

The Lower Gloy runs down the side of the A82 and was decribed as an industrial paddle. A torturously narrow gorge with very steep sides and more than a couple of trees thrown in for good measure. 6 of us decided to paddle it on the way back from the Fecklin. I was glad we did. As we paddled we could see the tree line dropping away infront of us very quickly. Most sections of the gorge couldn't have been much than 5 meters wide. Andy had a luck escape from a pinning on a tree. He was intending to miss the tree but ended up getting swept backwards into the tree. Thankfully Jonathan and Jonny were on hand to get him free. The rest of us stuck with our decision to walk around that one.

Etive
Really looking back at this we should have gone somewhere else to paddle. Triple falls had a lot of water going over it. We have some videos of people running these and I will try and get them on the website somehow. I had a minor epic on triple falls, but not as much as Jonny had on the crack of doom. I’m not sure if Jonny got out of his boat to have a look at the drop or not. He ran the 90 degree corner but got slowed down a lot, he then paddled the last drop but didn’t get clear of the stopper and eventually got dragged back in. Because it was so aerated he couldn’t roll and ended up out of his boat. He was then trapped in the stopper unable to get out. Paul threw a throwline for him which did get to him ok but he was unable to see it because of the stopper. All of a sudden he disappeared ( he tucked into a small ball and sank) and thankfully reappeared a few meters away from the stopper and got out ok.
Undetered by his previous swim we got out to look at Right angle falls. A massive waterfall which is about 7 meters in height. Although it wasn’t actually raining (for once) the amount of spray coming off the water fall was amazing down below in the plunge pool were boils rising about a foot clear of the normal water level! Jonny ran the water fall and landed in the aerated water at the bottom. Trying to roll in the mess of water was proving hard as he couldn't get any grip on the water. Eventually he swam, the speed at which he was swept away from his boat into a near by eddy was fast indeed.

Spean Gorge.

Last day of the trip and we head down to spean bridge to paddle spean gorge. Most people have paddled this river at one time or another. Today the level was 1.4 on the SEPA guage. http://www.wheresthewater.com/wtw/ which is nearly medium flows. This made the river very different. Much of the rock banks were covered with water. Much of the fairy steps were covered over but a river wide diagonal wave had appeared which unsettled a few people before either dropping into the large hole on the river or pushing people over to the rocks. Paddling the rest of the river I was looking for sections from last time such as the witches cauldron. I think I missed it or swam in it I'm not sure. But it was certainly up. The 8 foot seal launch from last time much have only been a foot.. if that. The constriction was gone and was replaced with a big poor over. I think Julie had a problem here but I'm not sure what happened as I paddled down after her.

Overall it was an excellent weekend and really upped our game just that little bit more.

canoe polo - march 2006

2006-03-28T21:26:00.000+01:00

On saturday it was the last match for this season. We went into it with confidence after 10 wins out of 10 in our earlier matches.
1st game was a 4-1 victory over Kingston Kaos, with goals scored by Ian, Andy R, Curly and Paul
2nd game was yet another victory over the uni (though not as emphatic as previous wins!) with Paul and Ian scoring in the 2-1 win over Leeds Uni
3rd mach was a 0-0 draw with sheffield uni, which was slightly disappoining as we had beaten them twice before earlier in the season.
4th match was our first taste of defeat this season with Andy R scoring our concelation goal, after a quickly taken corner meant he was unmarked at the far post, in the 1-2 loss to Kinston Carnitors.
As sheffield uni had lossed 9-0 to the carnitors it meant that we would be ahead on goal difference in 2nd place if we won our final match over malton & norton. And we won it in style wit a 4-0 victory with goals from Andy R, Curly, Ian & Paul.
So second place in division 3 and promotion to division 2. so well done to this years polo team - Ian, Paul, Andy R, Curly, Sarah, James, Sam, Mick, Graeme, and Andy H.
Next season we're looking at entering 2 polo teams -1 in division 2 and 1 in division 3 - open to anyone who's interested.

Upper Upper Wharfe

2006-03-26T21:55:00.000+01:00

After what seems like months of waiting finally it rains! A tough choice was made between going to the Washburn or going and seeing what actually rivers are actually running. The clocks also changed this weekend which could explain why a few people were late getting to the club house.

We headed off up the Wharfe as it was apparently huge in Otley. Looking at Wharfe at Conistone we decided to head further up stream. We go to Hubberholme and started looking at the river with great delight! It was full, not bank full but certainly runable. We got on and it was flowing fast but the river was very shallow. As we went down stream more and more side becks joined and the river got deeper and wider. The first major drop which needed a bit of inspection was a tounge with a deep slot next to it. I jumped out to put on safety as Paul dropped squarely down the slot. Nick boofed it perfectly while Greg and Silke flew off the tongue with ease. As we paddled down the river a few fimilar faces appeared on the water. Nick Elder and Mark Leeming showed up after already running the river. John Bradshaw and John Lucas appeared and blasted past us.

Once we pasted the pack horse bridge the river eased off alot more. In future we may get off this bridge but it was good to run the section in full. Letting my concentration slip (possibly just taking a photo) I dropped in to a narrow stopper sideways and get flipped. I could get my paddles around the roll so managed to T rescue off the back of Paul's boat. Back at the cars we looked to see what else could be done, but people were faultering after being up early and many people had been playing Polo till late. So we packed up and went to see if Linton Falls was runable. As we parked the cars we could hear the falls behind the houses. Looking over the bridge it was clear that there was a lot of water. Most of it would be runnable, except for the massive munching stopper at the bottom. So we took so pictures, talked a good paddle and went home for a nice cup of tea and to call our Mothers.

Leeds Conoe Club Lego

2006-03-21T18:31:00.000Z

Is this guy one of oursWhat about these block heads

Even snowmen like to canoe!

2006-03-17T14:52:00.000Z

With a fair amount of snow about on Sunday a few of us went to the park to play. Something I've always wanted to do since buying my first kayak was to take it out in the snow and see how fast it'll go! So that was exactly what we did!!

After tying the kayak to the car, and nearly loosing it along the way, we finally got to the park, and tried out the smaller slopes. It didn't go too fast at first, and we discovered that the more people we piled on, the faster it would go. After 3 of us on climbing on the kayak, we managed to get quite a bit of speed and were ready to hit the big slopes!

After our mini practice we were all up for tying out the big slop and me and Gib decided the be brave and give it a go first... We got up so much speed I couldn't stop screaming, and all I could see was the pavement at the bottom which we were flying towards at what felt like vertically down hill - A very scary moment! Gib managed to put his feet down and stop us before we hit the bottom, to which I own him my life - thank you! We decided that this slope was FAR too steep, and moved across to a section which didn't have the near vertical drop at the bottom, but still involved us taking off near the end! We took it in turns in 2's and 3's and had a great laugh! We even made a snowman, who wanted to join in the fun (see pic) so we sent him down the slopes to his tragic death - sorry snowy!. A fantastic day out in the snow :o)

Tanya

Lakes - New Non-Water Roll

2006-02-23T11:54:00.000Z

After the first day paddling in the lakes, Julie decided to perform a new kind of roll, which most of us have never tried. It was very skilful, and involved rolling down the bank towards the lake with her knickers round her ankles and trying (not too well) to hide inside her towel as she fell.

This came of some surprise to Jeanie, who was in mid conversation Julie at the time, and turned around to wonder where she had disappeared!

Julie was very lucky to only have two other spectators to this event - myself and Dave! She was even more lucky to find that neither of us had a camera handy! I thought she had got off too lightly of this rather amusing event, so thought I'd share it with the rest of Leeds Canoe Club and other visitors to the site.

Sorry Julie but it just had to be said!

A Dry Weekend in the Lakes

2006-02-06T21:45:00.000Z

Yet again another dry trip to the lakes. But not to worry Leeds Canoe Club manages to run a great trip yet again. Around 40 people attended the weekend, one of our biggest trips yet. The Crake was the main river for Saturday. This gave a few people their first experince of proper rivers and got them to play on waves and run small drops. While the Crake was pretty low it provided enough fun on the way down to the sea. Greg and Glen took to playing on the waves with easy.
At the end of the run was the last good rapid in Spark Bridge. Everyone was waiting for us there. The more keen in the group bundled their boats onto a couple of cars and headed off to the Kent. As we were short on time we got on at Natland cutting out the scrape up stream. The Kent was low but didn't disapoint, we rattled down force falls just as it was getting dark. Off into town for a curry and a few beers.

Sunday still no rain.. No real suprise. However we were off to the Leven to paddle on the section which was open for the agreement. It had been pretty cold over night and alot of boats had ice in them and anyone unlucky enough to leave kit in the boats found it to be frozen. About 30 of us got on a low looking Leven. However the waves were at a great level for everyone to play on. Greg swam on one of the waves but was straight back on again once the boat was empty.
After we had run the Leven a few of us went to have a look at BackBarrow bridge jsut down stream. I think this will be a project for another day when there are less people and more water and the large rock at the bottom of the drop looked a little worrying.
Off to the Kent again after lunch. As we had checked it out on Saturday alot more people went on the river as we knew it going to be ok. Andy had told me about a channel which ran down the side of the Kent which had a small drop at the bottom. I had seen this in the past but wasn't sure if it was runable. Andy assured me it was so I had a go on the way down to the falls at Natland bridge. Everyone else had a go but Greg managed to get his boat pinned.

We paddled the broken weir without any incident. Then on to the last few drops. As things were low it made picking lines a bit easier in places. Force falls just took you regardless of what you actually wanted to do. I think Nick however got to the right a bit more than he expected an landed with a bump. The people who were new to running the Kent all came off with a smile. I think after this a few of our beginners are no longer beginners.

Mick Swims

2006-01-23T07:20:00.000Z

He may be wearing the latest in dry pants, but it didn't stop him getting wet this weekend.

Leeds and Liverpool canal, beginners trip.

Mick Liversidge swam.

Must have been some kind of turbulence near the bank? Perhaps a disruptive vole? A sudden and unexpected wave?

We still await a suitable excuse.

New Year's Eve - Rawthey

2006-01-02T00:17:00.000Z

Alright, finally there was a bit of water around, so off we went paddling in the Lakes!
Nice little run (four hours, to be precise). A few remarkable moments to mention:

A spraydeck left at home
A nice little drop with a stopper just after the get-in - in fact, so nice that Andy H. decided to stay there after shooting it. Paul C. even had to insist on Andy leaving the stopper and threaten him with a rope ('Andy!!! Rope!!!')
A rather spectacular demonstration of Three Different Ways To Get The Loop Falls Wrong done by the senior part of the group. While the reasonable part of the group was portaging the Falls, we've observed boats getting stuck straight, backwards and upside down. Paul C. has even shown an amazing jump from under the water onto the rocks (some people still claim they've heard him saying something like 'If a salmon can do it, I can'). Only Julian got it right, but he's using a pink spraydeck with a green boat.
A nose scratched against the rocks in the Gorge section (or vise versa)

Otherwise a really nice relaxed trip!

Bob Swims

2005-12-15T08:47:00.000Z

December 11th - Upper tees

Bob Elliot (two new boats) swam at the bottom of the low force falls. Although he may wish to explain this away, it doesn't alter the fact that Bob swam.

Other swimmers include, Nick (Dr evil) on the S bends (failing to paddle?) and Ben also on the S bends (failing to acknowledge that S bends involves bends and going straight on?).

There was at least one other swimmer, who only swam to make the rest of us look good, selfless to the end. Thanks Jeannie.

Christmas Party Awards

2005-12-04T14:41:00.000Z

Last Night was the Club's Christmas Party. The highlight of the night is the Annual Awards. Here are the Nominations and Winners for 2005

Pool Trainer :
Nominations are Nick, Gavin, Steve, and Jonathan.
Although every nominee deserves this award. We have to make a choice and it seems to get harder every year, so here goes. Since joining the club as a complete novice, he has dedicated himself to become a better paddler joining in on most of our activities and training sessions. Over the last couple of yrs he has developed his coaching skills and is always in the pool. He seems to be able to coach Adults/juniors, sometimes both at the same time. He is generally a very quiet person until like most of us he gets a pint or two of Guinness inside him, then the party animal comes out to play. So a very big thank you from all your fans out there WELL DONE STEVE

Most Improved Adult :
The Nominations are: Mick Liversidge, Tanya, Jo, and Jeanie.
The Winner is : This person started out just like the rest of us Crap but has quickly gained loads of confidence. Came in the top three at Slenningford slalom and seems to have gone through an amazing change since. Wish they would give us all some tips.
Well Done Mick

PIN AWARD :
Nominees are

Jeanie for her fantastic Pin on Gastrill Strid early this year. Having done the first half well got ready to go on the second and just after setting off got wedged in between two rocks. Ropes had to be set up and a rescue was made.
Gavin : stuck against a tree on the Trisanna when he's supposed to river leading, and had already pointed out the tree as a potential hazard!!!
Also Nick getting pinned on the same river, while busy watching Gavin to notice the rocks in front of him, And we put our trust in these two WHY!!!!!!!!
And the winner is Gavin

Adult Swim:
Nominees are

Paul Crouch: on the river Dee, intro to white water, swam after he got caught in a stopper. And His second swim in 5mins after seal launching on the Etive and failing to roll. And we thought you had a solid roll but it's nice to know you are human after all.
Martin Thornton: For numerous entertaining swims all year.
Jonathan and Alice: For the good entertainment, while competing at Slenningford and giving the best swim of the day in the Topo event.
Andy Hall: for Roofs corner on the Sanna
Gavin: for some good swims in the Alps

And the winner is Paul Crouch

Most Improved Junior
Lee Andrews
Can't find the Nominations card..

Club Captain:
This award goes to someone who joined Leeds Canoe Club as a Teenager a very quiet person. He has progressed! developed within the club. All ways willing to take beginners trips and now has started to organise/lead the more advanced trips. He joined the committee this year, His major role was developing the web site, and we all have to say it is really user friendly, appealing and seems to attract a lot of interest from new members. So Congratulations you have done a really great job and perhaps in the New Year we night find a photo on site of you coming down Linton Falls up right and forwards. Well Done Jonathan

Junior Swim:
Nominees Are

Paul Clements: had three swims on the Tyne tour. And for his fantastic attempt on wardens Gorge this year. Hitting a 6ft wall of water and loosing his paddles, he attempted to hand roll, but unfortunately didn't quite make it, in the end had to pop his deck and swim.
Sarah Dempsey also for her swim on Wardens gorge
Beck hood: She too swam on Wardens gorge. Think it wasn't our junior's day
Sam Brown: For finally pulling his deck after hand rolling numerous times in the stopper below happy eater at Teesside.

AND THE WINNER IS Paul Clements

BERNARD CHAPMAN AWARD.
This award is in the memory of Bernard who was the backbone of the club for many years, and sadly died several years ago. I know a lot of people won't even know who he was, but if he could see the club now he would he would be so impressed. This award goes to some one who has behind the scenes just getting with the job in hand. It has meant a lot of long hours. His Dedication, organisation, Time, and especially his fantastic letter writing skills were all used. These are jobs no one is ever seen to be doing, on behalf of the Club I would like to thank you and we all appreciate the hard work. With out this person's efforts we may not have had a legal contract with the Leeds Rugby club Securing our position and future as a club. He is one of our many hard working Coaches/volunteers that makes Leeds Canoe Club What it is. We really do appreciate all the hard work and I know Bernard and his family would be proud for you accept this award. WELL DONE NICK.

DUCK AWARD: this is for the most consistent swimmer.
NOMINEES ARE:

Martin,
Jeanie,
Richard but we thought it a bit crewel as his 10 swims came from the south Tyne, which was only his second time on moving water.
plus all the nominees from both adult + junior swims
There can only be one winner this year, he has given us some fantastic swims and if you notice just seems to take it in his stride. And it goes to Steve Henderson: for the Inn in Switzerland and the Loissach Germany where I believe he lost his boat, Swam three times on the first day and on his second trip swam 6 times this must be his all-time record. Just when you thought there were no more, he swam again in Dublin on the Life! Not sure though if this was down to too much Guinness the night before or his partner Dave. I'm sure he will enlighten us later. Just to amuse you all he had another good swim last weekend in Wales on the Aberglas llyn Gorge. The only good thing is the rivers are getting bigger. WHAT NEXT Steve?

DICK OF THE YEAR: This award is for the individual who has caused more self-humiliation than the next person.
NOMINEES are

Justin : for his strange e-mails
Steve: for his car continuously breaking down in the Alps and giving up completely on a Washburn trip.
James and Eddie - for well timed breaking of Leg and thumb, so they could avoid the challenge of the LIFFEY descent this year
Paul Crouch—Breaking his Paddles on the Etive at Easter, and having a heated debate with Rachael on where the splits are before eventually realising they didn’t have any.
Andy Renwick—for disabling the most paddlers in one event.
Jonathan Dempsey—for head first on, Linton falls.
Ben—- Need I say more!!!!!!
And then there is Martin where do I start. While staying at Ogre Stella’s Place in Bala. Martin decided to phone home (must have thought he was ET) about midnight, Why midnight I don’t know. Having no reception inside Martin had to go out side into the car park 5Oyds away. Unbeknown to him "STELLA The OGRE'S" Drawbridge went up at 12 with an electric timer, which didn’t get released again until 6am. So on his return found he was locked out. So he decided to phone anyone who might answer, but remember the car park is 5Oyds away!! So he had to keep running backwards and forwards to see if any lights went on after each call. But everyone had gone to bed. Bob had left his phone in the kitchen, and Nigel sleeping like a baby never heard his. The following morning Andy said to Nigel YOUR BLOODY PHONE WAS GOING ALL NIGHT AND NEARLY threw it out of the window. If he had it might of hit Martin on the head, Anyway Martin spent the night in the car Frozen And P----d off. As soon as “Stella the Ogre’s draw bridge went down Martin went in, climbed into bed, but not for long as by 7am everyone was getting up ready for a good day’s paddle. The following night the snoring was so bad everyone wished he were back outside. So did some one do it on purpose!!! !! We will never know. Congratulations Martin you are the Dick of the year. We did ask Stella the ogre to present you with your award but unfortunately the drawbridge is still up.

Wales

2005-12-01T17:15:00.000Z

As we drove into Snowdonia we could see the snow on the side of the roads. Driving up the Llanberis pass to Pen Y Pass youth hostel we could see more and more snow and could hear streams running in the dark. getting up early next morning we could see more water than we expected as we drove down to Aberglaslyn Gorge. Streams were running white from Snowdon through Cwm Dyli.
I've looked at Aberglaslyn a number of time but its only recently that I have felt good enough to seriously attempt this paddle. http://www.canoewales.com/framesX.html?porthmadog/glaslyn_frame.htm
Its looks hard and is hard. Although most of it can be seen from the road the crux of the gorge is tucked away from view and needs some good inspection. We paddled down to the river and got out to have a better look and set up safety. Water levels were good for us as it was our first time down. the levels were medium, low only a few bits looked as though they had pinning potential and we had people with lines on them. So off we went. Rachel, Paul, Steve and myself went on the first run down. Paul andRachel disappeared off and Steve went down the drop in front of me. Next thing I see is Steve's paddles in the air and his boat going over. I paddle down to see what's happen but I was too late. I paddled down the gorge passing Steve's boat which has now lodged itself on the next drop. I break out above the next drop to check my line. I didn't see Paul and Rachel go over had no idea which line was best. As I sit there I recon I can make the line on the right but Dave assures me that the middle line is the one to go for. Nick nods the same and I boff and clatter down the drop. Big sigh of relief as I finish at the bottom.
The next group walks up to the start. Dave paddling his little play boat had been the subject of much winding up and was abit worried but the paddle stepped up to the mark. Not least because Steve had already gone to have a go. No (peer) pressure. Andy Hall and Dave paddled with Nick. Nick breezed the run and Dave followed him also making it look pretty easy. Andy followed Dave. there is a great bit of video of Andy crashing into one of the rocks and getting completely back looped. Last 2 down were Andy Renwick and Julian. Andy had a clkean run down more or less but Julian looked glad to be at the end of the run.

By the time we finished the Glasllyn it was mid day and we wanted to get another river in. We headed off to the upper conwy. We had called the guage early in the morning and the level was low. Now it was at a medium level. Much easier than the glasllyn it finished saturday off nicely.

Sunday was another early start and we did the Cobden falls on the Llugwy as a warm up with the main aim of doing the Ogwen.
the Ogwen valley and the area around Tryfan is a great place to go climbing or walking and the Ogwen river from below Bethesda is a great river to paddle. Due to time we got on at the Scout hut bridge and paddled down to the old A55 bridge. A pin ball run all the way to the A5 bridge. I think the only down side to the Ogwen is the amount of rubbish in the river. However the paddling is great. Chris Scullen whoc we meat int he alps 2 years ago came out paddling with us and led us down the Ogwen. He made everything look easy. Mark took one of the earlier drops on his shoulder or head and took a bit of a swim. Home in about 3 hours makes this a potential for a long day trip...?

Pictures from the Weekend http://www.leedscanoeclub.org.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=48

Tyne Tour

2005-11-10T22:29:00.000Z

Sunday on the Tyne Tour. Lots and lots of rain all week and then a bit more over night made parking at Barasford a right nightmare. My Car was covered in mud and I had to get Andy and James to push me out so I could complete the shuttle run. When I came back I had another look at Barasford Rapids on the left hand side. In the 30 minutes it took to move the cars around the water had risen a couple of inches, a quick look again and the nasty rock at the bottom was covered with water and pretty much everyone was hitting it. I hit it but not the way I expected to. Jonathan, Ben and Andy all had to roll up after hitting the rocks..

Heading off down the Tyne was pretty fast compared to previous years, we arrived at the weir about 30 minutes quicker than I expected but found Leeds Uni club sorting out pinned boats and swimmers. Which wasn't too big a suprise once you headed down the weir. The wave at the side was huge and flipped a few people over but thankfully they all rolled

At the top of Warden Gorge we broke into a couple of different groups. As my group broke out to head down the gorge a massive tree floated past us. We held on for as long as we could but eventually we had to follow it down. Heading down the right hand side was a roller coaster of a ride and no mistake. Quickly we climbed up the face of one wave and then rolled down the back of the next as waves came in from all sides. I wanted to look behind to check on my group but couldn't for fear of missing the next wave. As I approached the bottom I could see the rescue team on the side and a massive wave infront of me as I headed towards it I could see throw lines pulling bodies and boat out past it.

When I got off I started to find my group and the rest of the club. People were scattered everywhere. I walked up to the rescuers to see if any was up there. I was as if there had been a big accident, people seemed to be in shock looking for equipment and friends. Boats were being washed up in trees. The rescue team told me the water had gone up 2 foot during the day. They were stood deep ankle deep in water next to the trees the water had gone up so much. When I came back to my boat I found Julie and Nigel live baiting boats out of the main flow of the north tyne. How we didn't loose any equipement I will never know..

With everyone back to Tyne Green a body count was made, most people didn't make it through un touched. Everyone had a story, lot of people surfed the wave for a bit. I'm not entirely sure who actually meant to surf it mind... I don't think I have seen waves that big before not even in the alps. It will certainly be one to remeber or forget depending on your point of view..

It must be great to have such good mates......

2005-10-18T08:48:00.000+01:00

Due to problems incurred whilst away this weekend I feel the need to insist that all future participants on overnight trips must achieve a minimum standard of matiness I propose the following as a minimum standard.

3 star mates test

After a trip to the pub, If you should notice that one of your companions is missing, do you?
a) Roll over and go back to sleep.
b) Assume that the landlady has got him and thank your lucky stars that its not you.
c) From this point on don't answer the phone again, infact start cursing every ones phones for being too popular tonight and you wish someone would answer them or you may have to throw them all out of the window.
d) Pass out
e) All of the above
f) None of the above, Infact wake every one up and start a search party, don't worry you might not have to go too far.

Correct answer would have been f).

3 star stranded without mates test
If you should find yourself stranded on the wrong side of a Fort Knox stile door with you bed on the other side. Do you?
a) Ring round your friends to get one of them to come down and let you in. Even though to do this involves running to the car park to get a signal, ringing every one, then running back to see if anyone got the call or the texts. Then repeat until 3am
b) Thank your lucky stars your not trapped on the other side of the door with the Landlady.
c) Due to landlady restrictions and the possibility of losing the deposit, whisper a selection of the following.
1) paddler in distress
2) You B****rds
3) Help
4) Name everyone, except Paul Crouch who could have possible rescued me with the aid of his throw line. He rescued everyone else this weekend (oh and me) (Thanks Paul)
d) Run to car park and return with kayak, sit in boat , capsize, bang on bottom of boat three times.
Correct answer seems to have been d) as I tried all the others and none of them worked.

3 star mate test part 2
Upon the return of stranded mate, how should you console tired mate.
a) Ooh your up early
b) You'll be glad you weren't here the phones never stopped ringing it was driving me mad.
c) Sorry i didn't hear you I was a sleep, these beds are great
d) Come on, time to get up, you don't want to be late for breakfast.
e) We thought the landlady had got you, and thought we were best not getting involved
f) Inform everyone you meet, what a prat he's made of himself, since our return this is now happening by email.
g) Pretend this didn't happen

Correct answer should have been g) So you've all failed

Signed
Billy No Mates

Sleningford Slalom

2005-10-17T19:25:00.000+01:00

Sleningford Slalom was yet another great success for Leeds Canoe Club, and we walked away with a grand total of 8 prizes! Here's a 'brief' overview of what happened:

Some of us die-hard party goers turned up early on the Friday night (i.e. the ones with nothing better to do - or in our case the ones who thought it might take more than a few hours to put up the tent). Tent erect before nightfall befell us (success!), and then it was fun and frolics around Curly's van till around half past 3. Needless to say the next morning was a morning of regret, with the 'Walk of Shame' to the toilet block to scrub off the marker pen that had somehow appeared all over our face and body.

After sobering up a bit it was time to get kit on and wait our turns for the slalom. There were many people taking part in the individual events as well as the popular Topo Dup competition; Gavin & Jeanie, Mick & Andy R (Bambi!), Becki & Curly, Jonathan & Alice, AP & Andrea (Halifax CC). Unfortunately nobody won a prize....although Alice and Jonathan Dempsey (tall, blonde hair, smells - make sure you harass him in the bar) SWAM!!

Saturday night was hog roast - 6 foot of pure pig (minus the apple), followed by a more relaxed evening and early nights for many.

Overall the winners were:

Paul Clements - 1st mens Div 4 K1 (J14)
Becki Hood - 2nd ladies Div 4 K1 (promoted)

Gill - 1st ladies Div 4 K1 (promoted)
Sarah - 3rd ladies Div 4 K1 (promoted)
Jeanie - 4th ladies Div 4 K1 (promoted)

Andy R - 1st mens Div 3 K1 (J18)
Leigh Andrews (Girly Leigh) - 2nd junior Div 4 K1
Mick - 3rd mens Div 4 K1 (promoted)
Andy Hall - 2nd mens Div 4 C1 (not bad to say he'd never even sat in one of those boats before)

So a big well done to all. However we would like to give some awards of our own to certain individuals, whose 'talents' lie outside of paddling...

Lazy Sod Award - awarded Sam, who sat on his backside and played on the playstation all weekend.

Arthritic Old Man Award - awarded to Nick Clements, who went home on Saturday to avoid camping in the cold weather.

Mother Goose Award - awarded to Curly, for cooking us all breakfast on both days (bless his cotton socks)

Social Bunny Award - awarded to Ben, who, concerned with the lack of drunken idiots in the LCC camp, went on a quest to find new people he could annoy in other camps (and then couldnt find his way back to his tent).

Drunken Fool Award - awarded to Sam, again, who tripped over the guide ropes twice, upon the second time failed to get up again and slept where he lay (and was consequently attacked with felt tip pen).

Clumsy Oaf Award- awarded to Mick, who tripped over the BBQ (?) and spilt Becki's drink all over her sleeping bag.

Finally, we'd like to say we cant wait for next year, where all those who got a promotion can paddle Div 3...and win more prizes!!!

Thanks for reading, Sarah and Becki ~xXx~

Wharfe AppleTreewick..

2005-10-02T21:57:00.000+01:00

After the Wild Water Race on Saturday it was nice to actually get out paddling with the club as a club. So its 10am and the club has all made it up to Burnsall on the River Wharfe. Is a cold crisp morning and everyone is looking forward to getting on the river. I think there must have been about 24 of us. We all gathered around for a quick kit check to ensue that everyone was going to be warm on the day and for the trip to Llangollen in a few weeks. We split in to 2 groups and set off down the river. my group was second to leave. Its been a few years since I paddled the river and it didn't have a much water as it did today. We had a number of beginners on the river today, all who did really well. We had a few swims along the way but nothing major or out of the ordinary for a beginners trip.. When we got to Appletreewick falls the first group was there waiting for us. We all had a look at the falls and put on safety for everyone. Everyone got down ok wih only 1 swim.