Recent Posts
- Rinse and repeat
- Marple slalom - div3/4 July 06
- Hull international canoe polo competition - July 2...
- France 2006
- Contact details
- Liffey Descent > Competition Time!
- Slovenia - may 2006
- A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
- Scotland Trip
- canoe polo - march 2006
archives
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- April 2008
- June 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- May 2009
Aire Waves
Leeds Canoe Club Blog. We paddle... lots!
Airewaves used to be Leeds Canoe Club's magazine letting people know what the club was upto. Its quite hard work pulling together a publication letting people know what the club is doing and publishing dates in advance is always hard as things tend to change. Step forth the blog.. Push button publishing for the masses. So here is the idea a few people in the club take it in turns to write up trips and talk about things in the club.
Saturday, July 22, 2006Guil - Extreme Rafting
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 ChateuxQuaras 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!
© Leeds Canoe Club 2010