Two evenings ago, I was looking at river levels and saw that the Swale amongst other things had been dancing around a nice level. Jack said he'd get me down the Swale before Christmas, I was having kayaking withdrawal... I made the proposal.
The next morning Jack called to say it was too low, a no go. I was somewhat relieved. Then Jamie called saying it would go, so we went.
We got to the Swale.. it was low.. we jumped on, got to Rainby and decided it was too dangerous. Now.. Rainby when too low looked horrible.. the 'normal' line was pointed out, and things were put into a little perspective as regards height and consequences on the Swale. In some respects i'm happy it was too low.
We ended up running the upper tees (standard) which was surprisingly good fun. I got down everything, stayed in my boat, and got to experience low force with a tow back. I need to work on my boof.
I learned that taking your time and looking at stuff, back paddling etc is actually really good.. no point rushing and messing it up.
After we got off, the fun really started. I politely made the point that we were getting off in a field full of bulls. Jamie quite rudely informed me that i was wrong as they did not have horns. Turns out bulls do not always have horns.
I was a little behind the others having practised a few rolls. Shouting across the field I jested that the 'cows' were plotting something. Then they started charging. A dramatic few seconds, and a good adrenaline pump saw four grown men run across a field and over a wall, having decided that boats were not suitable 'cover'. The result five angry bulls surrounding a Jackson hero in the middle of a field, with no intention of leaving.
Fast forward twenty minutes, a series of staring competitions, some throw bag handy work, some childish jokes, and a lack of appreciation for the danger of the situation, the boat was recovered, and everyone survived.
It was so surreal it was incredibly amusing. Matt did not believe us when we got back to the car.. Just as well Bryn got photos :) All in all good end to a bad day.. and maybe i won't be so eager to run the Swale so soon.
This Sunday the club headed to the Wharfe for a beginners club trip. I popped along to have a play with my new Werner carbon cranked Sherpas. They work.
So we paddled the Wharfe - the bit with Conniston falls on it. It is reasonably flat with a few bumps, then there is Conniston, and i believe what is called Ghastrills strid.
The beginners were awesome. They all ran the left hand line on Conniston without any problems. I had a play running every line 1,000,000 times and enjoyed a little side surf at the bottom of the right hand drop.
Ghastrills strid was a nice bit/rapid/thing to practice. I took a left hand line, and then did a grade 5 inverse portage to run the right hand line. I didn't run the far right slot.. because.. well.. I pussied out.
At the end a few of us ran Linton Falls. I got out and had a look. It was a lot higher than the last time I'd run it. I ran it 4 times or so.. a few goes on each line. The right hand line was easier IMO. My final attempt of the boof line went a little wrong. I have attached an image of where I ended up. Please note that it was much higher water, and i was being surfed. Please also note everyone except for Raffan had gone back to the car, and he looked more scared by the situation than me.
In general my lines on Linton Falls were good ish on the right hand line, and less than good on the left hand line. There is room for improvement.. mainly technically - actually hitting my lines, but i stayed in my boats although I rolled after the bottom drop at least a few times.
Good day in all. The freshers were awesome, my paddles were nice. Bon !
Our group was: Harry; Big Rob; Charley; Jack; Jamie; Tom (me)
Wednesday. 8am. The chapel.
Wednesday. 8:15am. The road (with all the correct kit).
After an insanely early start, we headed to the lakes. The night before rumors of everything being in spate were heard. We had intended to run the Mint and Sprint, but overnight they had dropped off. We changed to plan B - the Clough from as high up as there was water. On arrival we were bitterly disappointed. The Clough was down as was the Rawthey.
Having driven around for a ridiculous length of time we headed to the Leven which being fed from Windermere had retained its level. Having never run the river, once again... I was apprehensive :)It was a nice run, at a nice level which (once again) for me was slightly spoiled by my lack of confidence. I portaged backbarrow falls because it looked pretty intimidating, and I was definitely not in the zone. Although i stayed in my boat, my lines weren't as good as they should have been.. but meh.. shit happens.. one day.
We got off the Leven at 2pm, legged it to the Kent, ran the shuttle, and were on the water by 3.15pm. By 3.40pm we were off the water. The first time i ran the Kent i was led down touching cloth, inspecting everything for months. The second time I lead but we inspected everything. This time we read and ran in 25 minutes. Boss.
Apart from the 5+ hours on the road, the petrol catastrophe on the return leg, and the early start,the day was pretty good. Lets just say it could have been worse :)
I'm not really sure where to go with my kayaking at the moment because this confidence/uber fear is less than ideal..
Over the weekend, I headed up to Scotland with a few good friends. Here begun my first Scottish paddling adventure...
I'd heard a lot about the white water in Scotland and was really looking forward to paddling the Etive. That is not to say that I was not *insert expletive here* myself.
We based ourselves out near Aberfeldy (where we were fortunate enough to be able to stay in a friends cottage - Thanks Beth !)
On the first day I paddled the Upper Lyon, and the Upper Braan. At the start of the day I was pretty aprehensive as to what the other - significantly better- paddlers had in store for me. The day involved a variety of drops, some nice sticky holes, and some technical boulder dodging. Although challenging, and damn scary, it was amazing to get out at the end of the day having kept my head dry with the associated massive sense of achievement.
On the Sunday we spent the morning on the Falloch. The aforementioned better paddlers did the falls of falloch - 30ft of beautiful fall. I felt that I could have run the falls on a good day, but given that I was not 100% and that I have the rest of my life ahead of me I skipped this one. We ran the start of the Falloch, but it was lower than expected and as such we decided to cut our losses and run the Orchy.
We ran the Kinglass, a tributary of the Orchy, and then carried on down the middle section. After the first rapid I was reminded of the Racecourse section of the Ubaye in the french Alps. I then realised that it was the racecourse and more - high volume, massive holes, lots of fun. Did not quite manage to keep my head dry, but stayed in my boat, and ran some pretty impressive rapids. At this point in the weekend 'buzzing' is not a suitable adjective to describe how I was feeling. Scouting one of the rapids on the Orchy I felt more scared than I ever have before. As Beth M said, "This is why we kayak".
The third day ticked the adventure box. Having not been sure of water levels there was no definitive plan. We ended up running the tilt after a six kilometre walk in - my first ever real walk in. Again, aprehensive would be an understatement. My feelings were then emphasized after a pin on one of the first drops led to my deck imploding and we swimming. Fortunately it was probably the safest place on the river to swim, but it did not do the world of good for my paddling. Over the rest of the river my mind was not focussed, but although some of my lines were less than good, and i did take a couple of rolls, I did survive the rest of the river. There was one particular incident with a hole in a constriction. I thought that I had punched through said hole, but when I felt the back of my boat being pulled back my gut wrenched. Fast forward ten minutes and I was being pulled out of a nicely placed eddy with a throwline attached to my boat, nearly in tears. Once again, thanks a lot Beth H :P. The tilt, by all accounts is an awesome river - i'd love to run it again in slightly higher water - beat my demons and all that.
The best thing about the weekend was the approach to boating. So many times I've been led down rivers by better paddlers, not understanding what I am doing and why. This weekend I had to look after myself. On some occasions (some of) the others were just as scared as I was. I learned a lot about reading rivers, and got a lot of practice reading and running. It was an opportunity to man up and do some real boating, and I am really glad that I did it.
From a boating point of view, the weekend was amazing. The final day stopped me from getting cocky, and showed me exactly what I need to work on. From a confidence point of view, I have a lot more, and have a little more faith in my ability. I'll continue to push myself, and hopefully have many more amazing paddling experiences.
Is it worth doing something if you do not aim to be the best at it? You may never realise the ambition, but a 'be the best' attitude towards life is good motivation to say the least.
I was browsing the web, and thought I'd post some brilliant quotes I found. Quotes like these motivate me. Maybe they will motivate you.
"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate." - George Burns
"Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else." - Les Brown
In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high. - Henry David Thoreau
…by stretching yourself beyond your perceived level of confidence you accelerate your development of competence. - Tony Buzan
Today, having not done much productive in terms of academic work this year, I decided to get on with my dissertation research outline.
The domain name industry is one of those hidden gems - not much is known about it outside the industry, and there is not much literature relating to it. This is somewhat shocking given the prominence of the internet in the modern day. I have sought to rectify this.
In two and a half hours I have managed to piece together an outline of my intentions - essentially an analysis of domain name valuation from a qualitative angle.
I don't want to spoil the fun, but look out for updates on this blog, and rest assured that it will be published here when complete.
On Sunday I was manipulated into driving on a beginners/freshers trip with the club to the middle tees.
Having never run the middle tees I was somewhat intrigued, and as it was a nice enough day it seemed like a great opportunity to get a little more practice in.
I was put in charge of leading two freshers down, and I feel as though I met the challenge pretty well. No-one complained at least, and there was only one swim during the day.
On a personal level, my lines were not great. Definitely not up to par. I definitely need to work on my on the water river reading, because although i stayed upright, I doubt that would have been the case on anything more gnarly.
The only other problem was the fact that my ankles got destroyed in my boat because of my excessively rigid palm gradient boots. I need to sort that.. take the foam block out or something. I'll go do that now...
None the less, pretty good day, and the car banter was top notch. I wouldn't have done anything more productive at home, and I got to practice my surfing..
On Wednesday (19/10/2011) Jack, Jamie, Bryn and I headed out to Linton Falls on the River Wharfe for a bit of park and play fun.
This was our second Wednesday trip as part of our Wonderful Wednesdays format :)
The falls weren't particularly high, nor particularly low, none the less a lot of fun was had by all.
Over the course of the afternoon I styled both the left boof line, and the right line (first run paddling backwards). Bryn was kind enough to show us how not to run the boof line :)
I got to try out my new Palm gradient boots - they are really nice, and make clambering around on rocks significantly less hassle.
On Sunday a group of us headed up to the lakes with the university club. The intention was to run the Leven (which i'd never run before), but sadly the river dropped massively overnight.
In the end we decided to run the Kent twice - the first time as a refresher for the intermediate paddlers, the second run for us to get some practice in leading.
It was a great day out - there were no swims, and lots of styled lines. Turns out that force falls is quite a powerful bit of water.
We tried to send Jamie down force falls unawares (club policy), but he was too observant, and spotted it a mile off.
The rapid before L-shaped weir has now been named/renamed to 'The tonguemaster' because of the clean and obvious tongue running straight down it :)
It was also noted that Devils Bridge burgers are quite sickly, and not particularly nice..
As an economics student, I am having to come to grips with various definitions, and explanations for a variety of complex terminology.
Everything I thought I understood (from a general 'life-knowledge' perspective) has now got an additional layer of complexity associated with it.
University, and independent learning means that I am left searching Google at ridiculous hours for in depths explanations. This is less than ideal.
It seems that economics is considered some sort of ridiculously evil subject that one should leave others to do, yet in reality it is not that hard. An appreciation of the basics of economic theory for example can go a long way in widening horizons when doing something as simple as watching the news. It's not tough to pick up the basics, if you're good with maths and pay attention to the way in which a company behaves in a certain economic climate. Whether you run a free poker company or you're just an everyday office worker, the recent economic issues of the West have drawn everyone into more economically-fuelled discussions.
No-one on the web seems to go back to basics. I will, and I will start with the pound.
The pound is the currency of the United Kingdom (for now). It is referred to as GBP, Sterling, Pound and so on. Relative to other currencies it is one of the most highly valued (read on).
Essentially, the strength of a currency refers to its value relative to another currency (typically the USD). If £1GBP is worth $1.50, it is weaker than if £1GBP were worth $1.75. Simple right?
Assuming the price of an apple in America were $0.25, a stronger pound would allow the consumer to purchase more. On a larger scale, a strong pound is great for importing (buying commodities from elsewhere).
On the flip side, if you are selling apples at $0.25, a weaker pound is better as you need to sell less to get the same equivalent GBP value. On a large scale this means exporting is better if the pound is weaker.
Example
With the crash of the British economy over the last year and a half, the pound has lost a lot of its value. At one point it was worth less than the Euro... it was extremely weak.
For a consumer to get EUR to spend abroad, they had to pay significantly more GBP than they would have one year ago for example.
Why
Currency works like any other market. It is bought and sold (exchanged with other currencies). The GBP will get stronger if people demand more of it, and weaker if people demand less of it. It is basic 'Supply and Demand' !
My interest in currency strength arose from my interest in domain investing: an online business for which most transactions are conducted in USD. At numerous points in time I have had to weigh up whether a purchase was a good or bad deal. In the past i sold a domain for a 5% loss, but in 'real' terms sold the domain for more GBP. When I withdrew, and converted my USD balance, I had more pounds to spend.
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