MK Freestyle

New pics of Jackson AllStar

2010-02-18T02:37:00.000-08:00

Front View, some very slight scratches

Kayaking Cags for Sale

2010-02-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Get ready for the summer

Immersion Research

http://www.immersionresearch.com

Men’s Competition Short Sleeve Cag – Large (very good condition)

I am a 17inch neck and 44 inch chest – but you can get new seals fitted from

http://www.rubberman.co.uk

£40 ONO

Keep very warm in the winter

Whirly Bird Mens Cag – Large ( needs new neck seal )

I am a 17inch neck and 44 inch chest – but you can get new seals fitted from

http://www.rubberman.co.uk

£40 ONO

email:- grahamdclay(at)hotmail(dot)com

Jackson 2008 Allstar for sale

2010-02-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Jackson All-star 2008 model for sale in Orange

£550 ONO

Had since new, great boat, usual scratches from the Thames Weirs and rivers in Wales. No big scratches or chunks missing as per pictures.

Complete with Happy Feet and Happy Cheeks as well as hip pads.

Reason for sale is I need a bigger size after all that winter food

Email:- grahamdclay(at)hotmail(dot)com

Riot Astro 54 for sale

2009-04-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

An immaculate Riot AStro 54 for sale.

Have been used a handleful of times, hardly any scratches - no major ones.

Has a power seat in. Also have a new '54' badge on front (missing in photos) fell off the first time I paddled it but got a new one from the PeakUK shop, just havnt got round to putting it on.

Has hardly been used as ive moved upto the Lake District and my creek boat is seeming to gather up lots and lots of river miles!

£550 ono

Can be picked up or dropped off in the Lakes (uni) or around Milton Keynes and Northampton area (proper home).

Give me an e-mail on :
mad_miles@hotmail.com

or phone me on :
07841488081

Melvin

Rain Dancing and Plunge Pools

2009-04-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

After an interesting week of rain dancing, giving up and chasing steep low volume canyons to jump off, im sitting in my mates living room packing up stuff and getting ready to drive back home to Milton Keynes with the girlfriend for a few days.

The week started off with a few days in North Wales and staying in Betws-y-coed. The idea was to go paddling and meet up with a friend who lives in Mid Wales for a few days. However, the weather had a different idea and the rivers were dirt low, we had some drizzle and patchy rain over night but it didnt seem to do anything to the levels. So we decided to go canyoning, we brought the canyoning gear just in case and if we fancied it, but we didnt think that we would be doing it this early in the week!

After driving around for 40 mintues looking for the Afon Prysor without an OS map (the guidebook was giving grid references) we gave up and went to the river Llugwy at Capel Curig. By the time we got there it was about 6 and already starting to get dark, this didnt stop us however and we had a great time jumping off the drops and floating down in the falls.

That evening was spent in the pub with a girlfriend surrounded by 30 DofE students from a posh looking school who we laughing and joking about the next few days of their lives ... they didnt know what hardship and pain they were going to have to put their bodies through.

The following day, after a bit of rain over night, we decided to hit the Lower Wnion, we knew that it was going to be low, but I thought atleast we would get a low bump and scrape run. This time Callum was not joining us so I had to do the car shuttle with my bike. Im not the worlds best biker in the world nor do I pretend to like it, so biking just over 6km up hill from dropping the car off at the bottom was not the highlight of my day.

Once on the river, we could tell that it was very low, lower than I though but we were still able to float down the sections and only bump and scrape a few rocks. We got down have to river when Becs went over on a particularly narrow and constant section of the river. After her head got a bit of a bashing she swam and I picked her up at the bottom of the rapid. From on her confidence was shattered and after a few pins and one more swim, we decided to call it a day.

We sat by the river on a small beach eating sandwiches, choco bars and a packet a crisps as we watched a balck ferret like animal run around the other bank looking for food. After lunch, we made the great effort to carry our boats up a very steep hill about a hundred metres up to the road. The hike out took about 30 minutes because we had to set up an anchor and pulley on a tree and manage to get boats, gear and ourselves over the fence without snagging ourselves on the barbed wire. Once over the fence, all that was left to do was walk about 3km to the car, go pick up Becs and all the gear and get changed.

The rest of the day was taken up with walking up and down the Mawddach looking at all the big falls and drop dreaming of the next winter season and the big rains.

The following day we were off to Mid Wales to Callum's house and the chance to going canyoning again, this time in Pontrydygroes Gorge. After getting to Callums and a quick cup of tea and bacon sandwich we were off to the gorge. He had done this gorge many times before and knew exactly where to go. Well atleast we thought this until we got there and he didnt know where to get on the river, after a few spots we looked at we finally got on the river and we were told that this was the correct get in.

The beginning of the gorge consisted of a swallow float over some boulders and down some rapids. This was a great little start because it got us used to the water temperature and was also in sun so was nice and warm. Further down there were a few more rapids, some of which had to be walked around because they either flowed into undercuts, walls or was just clogged up with trees and branches. Further down the river we came to the big jump. The jump was about 25ft high with a deep plunge pool which we couldnt hit the bottom of even if we tried, and we did. After a few jumps we floated back down the river, came to a few more drops and rapids came the next big jump. Callum told us that it has a log sticking out of it which we have to slide down which sounded pretty cool. As we turned the corner and saw the next drop we found that along with the log already in the fall, it had been joined by loads more from the winter water levels and floods including a huge tree which was about 3ft in diametre and about 30ft long. We had to back track a bit and climb out of the gorge, this was easier said than done. The side of the gorge was wet, mossy and very slippery, we made it however, made our way past the obstruction and back down into the river, just in time for the lazy river section of the trip and the get out.

After a few pints down the local pub and a kip on the lounge floor, we were up again and once again thirsty for another canyon trip. Callum told us about a section higher up the gorge we did the day before which he did a few years ago. Again we didnt really know where we were going, what the water would be like or what we would find, its felt like a really little adventure. We got to the car parked, got changed and started to make our way down to the river. Once we got there, we found that the gorge needed a lot of water to make it work, all the slides were basically dry and all the pools were really shallow. After a good 20 mintutes inspection of the river, we decided that it was not a good idea, and it would also not be that much fun. The rest of the day was spent driving around on country lanes that only 4x4s would get, in the pub getting lunch and haivng a chilled session on the beach and in the sand dunes. A great end to a good week away, although we didnt really get much paddling done.

After a few canyon trips in the lakes and now in Wales, myself and Callum have decided to start to compile a guide for these rivers and evenutally make a canyoning guide for the UK. We are already starting to think of a trip to Scotland ...

West Coast Winter Mountaineering

2009-04-05T05:44:00.001-07:00

I have just spent the last week on the west coast of Scotland on a winter mountaineering course with Glenmore Lodge.

There was not much snow around after the warm snap that we have had, but what we did have was brilliant! The first we days were taken up my scrambling and doing some 'classic' ridges. On thursday we went onto the north face of Ben Nevis where there was still lots of snow and ice. This was a very long day but one of the best days of my life. It felt so much like the alps! Here are a few pictures of my week, im counting down the days now until winter again and the snow again starts to fall!

Stay tuned as the Easter holiday adventures continue and I will be in North Wales for a week canyoning and paddling :).

Wet Play

2009-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Since moving to the Lake District, I have done many new activities, however there is only one new activity that I have really taken too and that is canyoning.

Since a lot of the rivers have been dry over the winter period, I have resorted to instead of throwing myself off waterfalls in a boat to throwing myself off a waterfall anyway.

Me and a friend called Callum have been on a few canyon trips together now, each one strating at the bottom, scrambling up, checking the pool depths that back down and doing all the jumps and slides we could do.

Friday was the last time we had a little canyoning adventure. We planned to go canyoning in Church Beck in the South Lakes, we had been told previously that this was a great little river to go canyoning in and many groups are taken here. Below are a few photos from our little adventure.

When we were inspecting a large slide we decided that it was not a good idea to slide down it, so I scrambed up the side of the gorge and set up a hand line for us to practise moving up and down waterfalls. Then a couple came past and started to walk towards us. Thoughts were going through my mind of this guy being a ranger and telling us that we were standing on a SSSI or something and was gonna hand us a fine or something. It turned out that he was an instructor at a local centre and was seeing how we set up the hand rail, he liked our idea and he said that he was going to use that idea because they had have been having trouble with getting groups up this particular drop.

All in all we had a great day and cant wait for our next little adventure, especially because the weather is starting to improve, I will soon be in my canyon boots, shorts and bouyancy aid ... cant wait!

River Leven

2009-03-13T03:12:00.000-07:00

After my park n' huck session on Monday, I wanted get back in my boat as soon as possible! Then chance to go paddling on Wednesday came up, I would have been stupid to pass it up!

We went to the River Leven in the South Lakes. The River Leven flows out of Windermere so it is usually quite reliable for water level. This was my first down the Leven, and wow! What a river! Was really nice and chilled, only grade 3 with some 4/5 rapids on, but some of the rapids were constant and hundreds of metres long - great!

The group consisted of me, 3 mates from uni and a canadian that I just met, crazy I know! Was a really nice river and trip. Here are a few pics from that day.

Photo by Sim Davies

Photo by Sim Davies

Photo by Sim Davies

Photo by Sim Davies

Park n' Huck

2009-03-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

After a very dry and cold winter in the Lakes, none of the rivers were running, even the bigger ones which were fed by lakes - still too dry.

That was until we had a good dumping of rain over the weekend just gone. It was a shame really that I was in North Yorkshire when this happened and without my boat. However when I got back, the rivers were still up and I decided that I was going to have a park n' huck session on Aira Beck just around the corner.

I was the only one paddling, and armed with 5 media students and their cameras we headed off straight after lectures to the beck. The section I will be running consists of a double drop at the beginning and a final drop about 3/4 metres high. I ran these 3 drops over and over again, and time and time again the second drop on the double drop gave me trouble and I walked away with scraped knuckles, hurt wrist, scratched paddles and a dent in the nose of my boat.

All in all I had a great time, here is a picture of me on the final drop.

Photo by Rob Atkinson

The Cold Cold North

2009-02-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

After a few months of really settling into uni life now, I think I have a equal balance on my uni work and social/adventure life. About 3 days work and 4 day weekend ... its a hard life really.

After the recent cold snap (which im sure you all would have experienced) the rivers in Cumbria became all frozen up, some even freezing all the way through, not just the top. This left me with a major problem, after snow boating became boring (mainly due to the hard work of dragging it to the top of the hill and the spine compressions) I decided that I would get more into walking, climbing and ice climbing.

After many days spent ice climbing in the lakes, I decided to venture up into Scotland where there is climbing mecca! Here are just a few photos to keep you all at home ammused. Enjoy!

Aira Beck

2008-11-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

After settling into uni life at Penrith, I have finally sat down, got off the river, off the mountain, out of the bar and started to get some work done. I got bored of that so I thought I would update the blog with some paddling exploits.

A week ago or so me and some uni mates paddled Aira Beck. This is a short run (about 3km) of pure boulder bash with some class drops. The get on is a little village called Dockway, and the get out is on Ullswater. The get on started with a river which is about 10ft wide, and about 2ft deep in the deepest places. On the way down you come to some small rapids and drops which you basically grind down on the rock.

You then come to the first drop, a great little drop going into a slide, this drop is brilliant, you can get out and go and do it many times!

Just after this little drop was a continuous slide of about 50ft which was almost flat, it was very wierd, but very cool, especially when you do it backwards like I did. After this there were some more drops, until we came to a 30ft drop which looked sweet, the only problem was that it slammed into a wall, had a step which would over rotate you half way down and funneled into something the size of a tea cup! We walked this, further down there was also another rapid which was unrunnable, it was a very deep gorge which looked very cool from above, but the run in was also again about a grade 7!

We then came to Aira Force. We did not run this, for anyone who does know what Aira Force is, google it, it is very famous and def unrunnable! However we did run the drops just below Aira Force. The first was a drop double which was too narrow to boof, so you had to pencil, however this led you to being pinned by a rock in the middle of the plunge pool, when the water pushed down on the stern of the boat it popped you out of the pin and could run the second drop, again too narrow to boof so you penciled again.

The drop just below that was a slide into a drop, no matter how you landed you got sucked back, d****d a little and then spat out.

The rest of the paddle was a gentle grade 2 onto Ullswater where we paddled along to find where we parked the car, easier said than done as we couldn't remember where we parked the car. We ended up finshing in the dark, still had a great day though.

Bliss-Stick Mystic Creeker for sale

2008-10-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

Pics of boat as per UK Rivers web site

Who Needs Rain

2008-08-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

OK so it is summertime and we have been lucky again this year with the raining falling into late May / June so plenty of kayaking but it has all now all but stopped and the good weirs have dried up leaving only a handful of choices for a UK kayaker based just south of the midlands:-

Boulters – however the Thames is still a little high
Nene – some would say costly for a small man made course
HPP - a drive, but one of the better options
Tryweryn – the better UK option but 6 hours in a car in total – but it is now free
Europe – this simple won’t happen with a little one on the way
Surfing – all ready in the diary
Another sport perhaps?

Wakeboarding ???????????????

Ok its not quiet kayaking but the kit is same for summer months so no extra cost there plus it keeps the upper body working.

Taking tips from a good friend Mr Richard Fearn who is into his wakeboarding and plus the fact that a whole group of us where off to Corfu of Jamie’s and Jaynes ( now Mr and Mrs Fearn ) wedding in July we thought we would all get some Wakeboarding lesions in prior to Corfu to give us something to do during the day other than drinking, sunbathing, eating and sleeping.

We headed off to Boxend Park near Bedford to get lesions off the back of a boat rather than a cable tow, this was a wise move by Richard now referred to as Scout Leader.

Off the boat you first use a beam, then a short line beam off beam then the long line – I have to say the chaps at Boxend are extremely good and within 15 mins most of us where off the long line.

After a couple more lesions it was off to Corfu to pose on the beach and look cool – well an attempt at it anyway.

We added to the cool look by hiring some buggies and quad bikes for a few days – Scout Leader went for the Brokeback Mountain look.

A big thanks to Level Six for suppling the boardshorts, t-shirts, hats and rash vets to all the wakeboarders plus some summer kayaking kit to me - check out

http://www.levelsixinc.com

Next step convince Box End to tow me in my kayak

Check out

http://www.boxendpark.com

Hurley Weir - 3 gates

2008-06-03T02:33:00.001-07:00

After the rain dances have been successful, Hurley Weir was back upto a 3 gater. It wasnt the classic 3 gater, the water level was quite high. This meant that the wave wasnt as high and there was no shoulder on the left - but we had fun anyway.

After a few phone calls to Jack and Ben, we all jumped into Bens van at the Nene Whitewater Centre at 9am. Once getting into Hurley Villiage, we had the visions of zillions of paddlers in the car park all getting changed. After going around the corner into the car park, it was about 3/4 empty!! Do people know something we dont?

We got on, had loads of fun for a few hours, and made our exit. When getting back to the car park - it was bursting with paddlers, caterers and people in nice clothes, there was a wedding happening in one of the big expensive houses. Paddlers and people in white dresses and big hats do not mix!

Here is a little video of the fun we had that day. Take a look and leave a comment on what you think.

The raging rapid that is the Nene

2008-06-03T02:25:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday saw myself and Paul assend once again on the class 5 whitewater of the Nene Whitewater Centre. However, this time saw the arrival of a good friend of mine, James Webber, a semi-pro photographer looking to branch out.

Here are some of the pictures he has taken.

Back surfing the wave between Pool B and Pool C.

Pool A split wheels.

Pool A phoenix monkeys.

Both of us had a real good session. James got some good pictures, need to be tweaked a bit so more will follow.

Melvin

Pink is Punk?

2008-05-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.immersionresearch.com/2008/05/02/pink-is-punk/

Melvin

Old Dogs New Tricks

2008-04-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

April 13^th – some time in the afternoon….location Hurley Weir on a lovely 3.

Sometimes no matter how good or bad you think you are it is worth while getting a professional opinion or so my therapist tells me.

I do not confess to be a top freestyle paddler or even a fairly good freestyle paddler, simply someone who likes to get in a boat at least once a week and living in the middle of UK in Buckinghamshire quiet often means a morning paddle on the Thames – especially if I am out of credits with the wife for weekends breaks to go river paddling.

However I am always looking for the next thrill or pushing myself that little further. My aim this winter was to nail the Blunt. However this so far has resulted in limited success.

After getting some tips from various people the chance came up to get some hints and tips on how best to stick a freestyle move that has been bugging me all winter. This came in format of a Kayakojacko Old Dogs New Tricks session with coaches Tim Ward, Tom and Jacko.

The days was as expected an excellent group, good coaches, different approaches, good fun, anger at my paddling but by the end of the day most defiantly rewarding as the move was beginning to finally come together, more importantly since the session I have been back and it is getting better – so far so good J

As an additional bonus and considering the new summer session for my local club is starting up it gave me the opportunity to catch up the current coaching techniques and coaching styles.

Officially Summer Time

2008-04-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

It was April 2008 and the clocks had already gone forward, it was meant to be officially summer time however the snow gods thought otherwise.

Despite there being snow on the ground, the roads where clear this meant one thing to time for my regular Sunday AM paddle ( I mean AM as it is 7am when I leave not 11.59am J )

No pics of us actually paddling, but trust me it did happen and despite the snow it was very warm and more importantly quiet out which meant a quick journey and even more time to paddle.

Happy days……………..

MK Paddler Makes GB Team 08 & Hurley 07

2008-02-10T02:24:00.000-08:00

Paul King a member of Milton Keynes Canoe Club finished off an outstanding 2007 by making the GB Team for 2008 in two disciplines OC1 (Open Canoe) and C1 (Kayak), this was on top of him becoming British OC1 Champion early on in the year. Paul will now be packing his bags and heading off to the European Championships in Spain later this year, if you fancy helping Paul fulfil his dream of becoming European and World Champion please get in touch with Milton Keynes Canoe Club (http://www.mkcc.co.uk ) regarding sponsor to aid his development.

Paul’s selection tops off a very successful year for Milton Keynes Canoe club outside of Paul’s achievements Kim Aldred won the Your Freestlyle Series for Ladies under 12’s, Ben Aldred came 3^rd overall in the Men’s under 18’s. Ben also won the Junior Mens Hurley Rodeo event which is one of the mostly highly contested and longest running European freestyle events attracting Kayakers from all over Europe, Graham OC also finished 5th in the master events at the Rodeo.

We wish Paul all the best for 2008 and all the other MK Kaykers, keep an eye on www.mkfreestyle.co.uk for the latest info. Paul, Ben, Graham and Kim would like to thank MK Sports Council, Jackson Kayaks, LevelSix, SQ Esquif, MK Canoe Club, mkfreestyle.co.uk and the Milton Keynes Citizen for their continued support.

If you fancy coming along and trying Kayaking or Canoeing why not pop along and bring the whole family to one of the clubs free open days, the first of which is in May 08 –keep an eye on www.mkcc.co.uk for more info - we cater for all aspects of the sports including lake, sea, river, surf and of course freestlye.

Chilly Weekend on the Tees

2008-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

I along with other MK paddler, Pete King have just returned from the land of Teeside.

As you may have heard on the news that it was going to be chilly 'up north' over the weekend with the chance of snow, well ...

To say it was a bit chilly would be an under-statement.

Once meeting up with Ben, Paul and Kim in a car park, Brian and Gary pulled up. As Ben drove down to the village to pick up supplies, me, Pete and Paul Tully followed Brian and Gary upto the Hostel, we were 20/25ft away and could not see the break lights (white-out, oops)

So we are sitting in the youth hostel for about an hour, TV doesnt work, DVD player doesnt work, hmm what to do ...

At that point Chris, Laura, Gemma and Paul Mills came in with 'whos going paddling on their lips'. You got the usually 'f**k off' and 'are you nuts?' but d**k head hear said 'OK'.

Right, got changed at the hostel, still snowing, blowing a gale and freezing. It was me, Chris Chapman, Ben Stone and Paul Chapman brave (or stupid) enough to brave it.

The section was going to be the Upper Tees. Got out in the car park, Laura and Gemma came down to give support (while laughing) and to see us off.

Got on the river, luckily the wind was behind us so we wernt paddling blind. First rapids fine, cold but fine. The dog leg was good, middle force good. Then came low force, its a sloping drop so boofs can sometimes be tricky. Chris went - boof, great, Paul went - boof, great, I went - boof, great, Ben went - melt down, went back into falls, got d**ked a little, washing machined then came out, the look on his face explained everything -COLD!

After a good giggle, we noticed the drop just round the corner of low force, it looked run-able so we did. All good on that except I went a bit too far left and hit my tail on a rock half-way down - oops!

Paddled down the next few rapids as fast as we could to warm up. Got to the get-out, still snowing and windy. On the hike out, we couldnt help ourselves doing a bit of sledging on the hills.

That night a few (many) beers were had, and a good time all round while we waited for the rest to turn up.

Next day, the boys in big blue inflatables (rafts) were coming out to play. They were rafting the middel section and we were paddling the upper and middle section. This turned out to be a VERY long day.

Sunday, fun day, the rafts were rafting the upper. I thought to myself we were gonna have some fun with this!!

Us paddlers set off first, running the dog leg, missing middle force and running low force. Saturday night it had been raining causing most of the snow to melt and the river to rise by about 2ft. The dog leg had completely changed and was a chunky fun grade 4/5. Middle force was a b***h of a closed stopper, so walked round that. Low force was nearly one big drop now, really nice, really soft landing - but had to boof!

After walking back up to the dog leg to wait for the rafts, myself, Chris, Paul and Jamie (Burbeck who had joined us for the day) kept running the rapids taking different lines. Me and Chris took about 4 in the end. Jamie only took 1 due to him getting a side surf in a VERY big hole and not enjoying it much.

Then the rafts came, after lots of saferty preperation and atleat 10 throw lines, not 1 person swam! Pretty good lines were had by all, some not so good by some. After a few hours of tarting around we paddled down. They, like us, walked middle force and were going to run low force.

We had already run it in the kayaks atleast 6 times now. Then it was the raft's turn. After watch Ben Stone and Paul Mills run it well (Ben just fell out but they got him on the end of a line) I wanted a go. The next raft went, perfect line, no one swam, great. I was on the last raft down with Gemma. I was told to brace myself going over the fall and hold onto the rope.

Just going over the lip, we both did this, but, we landed a bit wonky. I was flung out of the raft up into the air a few feet and so did Gemma. Gemma was caught on a line pretty quick as she got flung forward. I was flung back into the falls. Lots of down time was then had. I could feel myself running along the bottom, thinking in the back of my mind - s**t this is deep and I shouldn't be here! I pushed off the bottom and swam for as hard and long as I could. Finanlly I surfaced, about 20ft away from where I should have come up. I was down for 10/11 seconds, and starting to think to myself - panic! A throw line was thrown to me but it was only a 10 metre so did not reach me! I was stuck on the line between 2 rather large boils and could not move anywhere.

Then I saw my knight in shining armour - Paul Chapman. He was paddling as hard as he could to come and get me - and I was swimming as hard as I could to get him.

He finally reached me, got to the side and people flooded around me 'are you alright?' ' that was some downtime!' The pressure of the depth water had given me a b***h of a head ache and had popped my ears, apart from that I was fine.

After getting back on the horse (so to speak) we were paddling down the rest of the river we quite ease. The get out was the same as the first day, so it wasnt a long paddle.

Over all I had a really good weekend, and would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian and Gary for organising the trip and accomodation etc.

North Wales Adventures

2007-11-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend I have been in North Wales on a creeking course hosted by Matt Cooke. We met outside cafe at the Tryweryn at 9:30am, this meant a semi early rising of 6am. I arrived at the cafe at 9:20 to find Matt and Gary already waiting for me. The original plan was to have the morning on the Tryweryn but it was not running due to the lack of water, so we headed 30 minutes down the road to Betws-y-coed.

Over a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich in the cafe at Betws-y-coed, we met the two other guys helping Matt, Daz and Dave. We discussed our options. As there was not a lot of water, we decided to head to the River Llugwy. Before we set off we were shown a video made by Matt, Daz and Dave of what North Wales has to offer, and their recent adventure in Italy.

Arrived at the car park and started to get changed, at this moment I did have second thoughts, what did I let myself into? Once changed went across the road to check out the falls, and wow. This was a little bigger than I was expecting, but I felt confident. After making our way to the river, warming up, and practising the basic strokes such as forward paddling and with help from Matt and Daz, going through the stroke of the boof, the time came to making our way to the first drop. Before the first drop there was a short, narrow S-bend rapid, this was a good warm up.

After inspecting the fall, Pont Cyfyng, I was feeling very nervous. For some reason I said that I would go next. After seeing Dave go over the lip and disappear, I just wanted to get it over and done with. The drop is a 5ft slide into a 15ft drop, with a semi auto-boof, but you did need to put some effort into it otherwise you would pencil.

Got to the lip, looked down and though s**t this is quite high.

Going off the lip was the best feeling, the feeling of being weightless for the first time in the creek boat is unexplainable.

Then came the landing. I was very eager not to pencil the boat, so I put in a very powerful boof, too powerful, I lander flat on my hull. As I hit the water you can feel the shock go all the way up your back, and it is like getting kicked in the nuts, but I still had a massive grin on my face.

Gary was next, he was like me, a too powerful boof, so landed flat, but he also landed at an angle.

After the first drop, the adrenaline was pumping, and we were raring for the next drop. The second drop was a 8ft slide into a 6ft drop, this drop was one of my favourites as it was just wide enought for a boat and you picked up a lot of speed and shot out the end.

Me

Matt

Dave

After a spot of lunch, slice of bread and squeezy marmite, the decision was to paddle Swallow Falls, we would just about get it in before it started to get dark.

Swallow Falls is a series of slides, we were only going to do the first 2. The first slide, we had to portage down to the put in, due to a blockage by some logs, we couldnt paddle to it. The portage itself was one of the most exciting part of the day.

Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of the first slide because of the poor access by the photographer (dad). But we have pictures of the second slide. It was so large that we only have pictures of people in the middle, at the top or at the bottom.

Gary

Me

Daz

The second day started in the same cafe as the day before. There we decided what rivers to run. As there had been no rain the night before, we were at the same place. This time, we would be running other, more difficult lines on the first drop.

Once navigating the little S-bend rapid, and noticing that the water had dropped we had a look at the new lines. This picture shows the lines run by myself a Daz.

The last drop, far left in the picture, was only about 3 inches deep. This required us to punt towards the edge, get ready, and just push off the end. This was quite a fun drop, different. In higher water 4 drops are available, but at these levels only 3 were available.

Next up was the second drop. I was told by Matt and Daz who had just agreed that I should go first and be safety. This was a good moment for me. I had a sense of responsibilty. Everyone came down safely, with no swims. Once getting out of our boats, we went though rescue techniques. What to do if someone swam in a gorge and other topics like that.

The weekend then ended with a refreshing swim with a 40ft cliff jump and a 35ft rope swing.

Hope you have enjoyed my report of my North Wales Adventures. I have certainly enjoyed making it.

Many thanks to Matt, Daz and Dave. Video of the whole weekend to follow, keep your eyes and ears open.

Melvin

MK Paddler becomes British Champ

2007-10-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend it was the last and final Alpakit competition and British Champs at HPP (and the weather held). Not sure on all the action but we do know that Paul King became British OC1 Champion and also finished 4th overall in the C1 class - excellent result.