Aire Waves: February 2007

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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.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Pin on the Tees

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.

# posted by andy @ Wednesday, February 28, 2007 0 comments

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
3 Washburn cherries popped

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.

# posted by jh_dempsey @ Tuesday, February 27, 2007 0 comments

Sunday, February 25, 2007
Canoe Polo div - 24.02.07

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.

# posted by andy @ Sunday, February 25, 2007 0 comments

Monday, February 19, 2007
Wales Weekend Video

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

# posted by jh_dempsey @ Monday, February 19, 2007 1 comments

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

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!!)

# posted by jh_dempsey @ Monday, February 19, 2007 0 comments

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

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)

# posted by jh_dempsey @ Monday, February 19, 2007 0 comments

The Kent and The Lune 18th Feb. 2007

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

# posted by Martin @ Monday, February 19, 2007 0 comments

Sunday, February 18, 2007
Canoe Polo - yorkshire div3 - 17.02.07

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

# posted by andy @ Sunday, February 18, 2007 0 comments

Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The Lakes trip 27th and 28th Jan 2007

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

# posted by Martin @ Wednesday, February 07, 2007 0 comments

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.

# posted by Martin @ Wednesday, February 07, 2007 0 comments

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.

# posted by Martin @ Wednesday, February 07, 2007 0 comments

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.

# posted by Martin @ Wednesday, February 07, 2007 0 comments

Tuesday, February 06, 2007
The Lune - 14th Jan 2007

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.

# posted by Martin @ Tuesday, February 06, 2007 0 comments

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