A Kayaking Blog

It's been a while hasn't it! What with uni and my other blog, http://lifeofascotsman.wordpress.com (shameless plug!) I haven't been putting much time into updating this blog, or even doing much in terms of river paddling. Most of my paddling this year has involved losing at Scottish division 1 polo, I mean erm, having fun at division 1. Last week I went to the Middle Etive again and it was fairly uneventful from my point of view, though I did manage to do Letterbox and Crack of Doom this time and rolled at the bottom of Ski Jump and Crack of Doom. Thanks as always to the people who took me out and basically held my hand the entire way down (the Etive still scares me for some reason, sorry!).

Today's trip was once again with our old friend Paul “Great Plans” Walker who decided that, to keep things interesting, I would be leading the trip. Of course, more as a figure head than anything else but it still meant me running down every rapid first and basically making sure I didn't take any crap lines. What a great start I had in this endeavour! The first ripple of the river I paddle in to turns out to be a rock that I get stuck on, so I have to tell the two other paddlers, two freshers of GUCC who have just placed their faith in me to lead them down this river which, I remind you, has grade 4 rapids on it, that they shouldn't follow my line. Down something that one could probably be described as grade 1. I tell you this embarrassing tale of my failure because it will no doubt feature prominently in an amateur movie by Paul “Thinks he's Directing the Next Star Wars” Walker or even the two freshers who now both have GoPro cameras. Three separate angles of pure failure.

Luckily, the bad omen didn't live up to expectations (much to the disappointment of a certain evil person who shall remain unnamed but I can say that his name rhymes with “small stalker”) since I led the rest of the trip with relative ease and comfort, occasionally taking a slightly tentative approach around corners or near the odd horizon line but better safe than sorry, eh. The level was fairly low so most of the grade 2s were scrapey and not too much fun for the others, being in high volume boats, I on the other hand was having a blast in a Pyranha InaZone. I've come to the decision that I'm not a fan of high-volume since the most fun I've had on rivers has been in low volume ones like the Dagger RPM and this one so I'll leave the creek boats to the people who do much much trickier stuff than me.

The real tests were at S-Bends (or Z-bends, they're the same thing) and the Lynn. I got out of my kayak for both, explained the lines to the two freshers (with Paul “I Trust You, Really” Walker breathing down my neck), then demonstrated the “correct” line down both. On S-Bends, this wasn't a problem and I was very happy with my line and everyone followed easily enough. The Lynn was much the same, the explanation I gave included something along these lines:

“All I can say is, middle or right is fine, do not go river left. I cannot stress this enough, do not go river left.”

So I paddled down the first drop and CRAP, ok so I had to brace no big de- wait I'm river left... SHIIIII- and thus began some furious paddling towards the right of the next drop before I ended up doing a Mark Brims. Over the ridge I saw my inevitable fate and the crunch of kayak against rock as its nose collided with the rock I was so desperately trying to avoid, but then I simply skimmed over the top of it, and came out the other side completely unharmed. Even the boat was fine! I realised on reflection I must have put a boof stroke in or something but I was lucky to have all my teeth at that point! With an ashamed smile on my face I returned to the others, I explained that what I had just done was a demonstration of what NOT to do, of course, as a point of reference... Yeah, even I didn't buy it.

Paul “Barely Ever Swims” Walker set up some safety on the other side as one of the freshers made an attempt at the rapid, the attempt was a good one apart from clipping the rock I had just hit in such a way as to make him capsize and unfortunately, swim. He didn't need rescued and we had a bit of a laugh, then Paul tried to get back in his boat, put one foot in, and slid off the rock he was leaning on, causing him to take home the wooden spoon for the most silly swim of the trip. I'm sure he'll have a rebuttal on his blog soon enough!

I'm a bit late writing this one for various reasons including an university assignment but never mind here it goes!

So GUCC held an advanced-level trip to Fort William which left a lot of the club feeling a similar weekend for intermediate-level paddlers would be good too since this is the level that most paddlers in the club are at. With that in mind the current trip secretary, Gregor Taylor, set up this “intermediate” weekend to rivers in the Fort William area. The plan was to hit two rivers on the first day and three on the second, though we all know how easily plans can go straight out the window.

The first problem was the lack of any decent water levels on some of the planned rivers. The second was the broad range of paddlers that make up “intermediate” skill level. The “official” definition laid out by Gregor was, “Intermediate level paddlers should be comfortable on grade 3 rivers and are looking to up their game”. However, that appeared to go straight out the window with one paddler who hadn't paddled a river before and one who had been on just one, with others who weren't comfortable on grade 3. So much for intermediate.

Eventually we managed to get on the Spean Gorge after an 8am wake up (ugh). I had been ordered to wear a wetsuit for this trip since it was still winter, and we all know how well that went last time. Admittedly last time it was in combination with cotton clothing but I had an association with wetsuits and extreme cold so I wasn't exactly happy with the decision by both the current commodore, Tom Jenkins, and trip secretary. My argument was that I knew my kit had kept me warm on all the rivers after the North Esk without needing a wetsuit but it was quickly ignored and I wasn't about to argue with the lead safety on the trip so I went along with it.

At the get in, Tom initiated the “Paul Walker Warm-up”, something I and many others hadn't experienced but had heard of in conversation as a hilarious way to warm up. I would tell you what it involved but that's just no fun, join GUCC if you want to experience it.

The get in wasn't anything spectacular but it did give me a chance to test the boat I was going to be using for the weekend. A boat which Dagger claim (yes I picked another Dagger, are you honestly that surprised?) is the best-selling white-water boat of all time, the Dagger RPM. In drastic contrast to the Mamba and H:3, the tail of the RPM pretty much stays flush with the water at all times, brilliant for taily practice, not so great when you're not used to how it handles rapids.

To be honest the trip was only really memorable for me in two ways, one was the sheer amount of faff, even by GUCC standards and second was the main rapid, Fairy Steps. Basically this was a series of small drops with a lot of boily water all the way down. One safety stayed at the top, one stopped about half way to catch any swimmers from the top and there were a few small eddys to get into at the bottom. I went down fairly late (I think there were only two paddlers left at the top not including the safety) and managed the first couple of drops fine, went around a corner, out of sight of both safety members, and got flipped upside down by the sheer amount of water piling onto the tail of my kayak. Upside down and in boily, moving water I tried a roll, which failed and could feel myself go over the next drop. Swimming isn't that big of a deal and a lot of people forget that especially beginners. Swimming means you get out of your boat and get picked up by a safety member, there's nothing to be worried about on a logical level. To me, if I swim I swim, I don't I don't, it's not a big deal, especially since if you're upside down you're cold anyway. Fortunately my roll, as it turns out, is actually quite good since I managed to roll up and continue down the rapid, and then past Tom. Frankly, I was gutted that no-one had seen me roll up again in that boily water, especially since my status on a river is still under question despite the fact that since the North Esk I have only swam once and that was on right angle falls on the Etive! Oh well, I now have the satisfaction of knowing what I did and at the end of the day I don't need anyone's approval since I know what I can and can't do.

All in all there were actually sixteen swims on the river. Happily, none from me. Kieran, winner of Best Fresher at this year's GUCC AGM, was pretty unlucky with his four swims. Using club kit, he didn't really have a chance against the cold and it was snowing the entire time we were on the river, about four hours in total. He was doing well until his first swim where he experienced the same hypothermia I did on the North Esk, an unwelcome reminder of just how powerless people are against the cold. I was trying to encourage him and talk him through what he should be doing but with safety also telling him this, I decided not to say any more apart from words of encouragement. It's confusing enough having people tell you different things without the added irritability caused by hypothermia. At the get out Kieran was ordered to get in the minibus and to get warm as quickly as possible, everyone else was tying kayaks on to the trailer and since I wasn't much use at this, was sent away in the second minibus with Kieran and some other paddlers.

So that was the Spean Gorge, which I imagine is actually a fun river without the snow, rain and cold to ruin everyone's day. With it still snowing and having spent so much time on this river it was impossible to get on another one before dark, so we called it a day.

Nothing much happened on the second day, with only a few people, me not included, wanting to get on a river since it was yet another cold day.

In conclusion, the Spean Gorge would have been a fun river if it wasn't for the snow, cold and faff, and that was the only river the vast majority of us paddled despite the five-river plan before the weekend. The Dagger RPM could take some getting used to but it's still a fun boat and I'm quite enjoying paddling different styles of boat. I'd actually love to try out some decent paddles at some stage instead of the club “AB's” but that isn't likely to happen until I get my own. Plan for next purchase is paddles, then BA, then kayak, then spraydeck. Unlikcly to happen for a good couple of years yet I think though.