MK Paddler Makes GB Team 08 & Hurley 07

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

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

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

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.