Last Friday, bright and early Jamie, Paddy, Bryn, and I set off for Fort William, Scotland for a five day paddling adventure. We were staying in a caravan from 'Cuilcheanna Cottages' based in Onich. The caravan was lovely and the owners very hospitable. They even gave us Easter eggs on Easter Sunday.

The Saturday and the Sunday were dedicated to the student safety course run by Tom Parker, Chris Easterbrook, and Dave Hollins. Jamie, Bryn and I did the advanced course while Paddy did the intermediate one.

The course was awesome.

On the Saturday we paddled the Garry taking a look at efficient paddling technique, picking lines, looking at dangers, general leadership, and rescuing boats. It was an awesome day - very informative. Unfortunately however I was pretty ill (food poisoning..?) and was not in any state to put my all into the day. In addition to that I was paddling a demo Stomper - a boat which I am really not a fan of. I did however learn a lot.

On the Sunday we headed to the Etive. I had always wanted to paddle the Etive, but it was not to be. It was dog low and we merely used a few of its features for practicing safety techniques. We learned about z-rigs, mechanical advantage, food entrapments, rescuing swimmers, holes, live baiting and much much more.

Bryn and I were with Dave Hollins who was awesome. Awesome guy, awesome coach. I would definitely recommend everyone do the course, as It cemented and confirmed a lot of my knowledge/was generally very interesting.

Having finished the course we began our three day hunt for a 'brown stoat'. I am not sure exactly how this came about, but during the journey up Bryn and I were live tweeting. Conversation flowed from topic to topic, jokes were made, and all of a sudden the brown stoat was born. I believe it was in reference to the ridiculous over use of the brown claw by the Americans. I am personally fed up of people who take themselves way too seriously. As such we formed the aptly named 'Team GUA', an extension of the initial 'Wonderful Wednesdays' team, a team of super serious, super good, gnar bashing stoat hunters who will paddle super hard shit like the Upper Tees in medium flows ! (On a serious note, it is a bit of fun which might get the brand out there a bit more, so why not - boats and helmet vinyls as well as embroided badges are on order, and the design team are working on a series of kayaking related logo redesigns :)).

So.. on the Monday we went to run the Etive - a river that has been on my bucket list since the day I begun paddling. It was huge. Some of the better paddlers were up for running it, but after much wet deliberation we left and ran the Spean gorge. It was an interesting run - quite scenic. It did not however compare to the Roy Gorge which me and Jamie ran in the afternoon. I found it pretty intimidating, being the weakest in the group, but I feel that I handled the challenge well. I do not know the names of the rapids, nor will I attempt to describe them.. BUT the Roy Gorge is an awesome Grade 4 run.. probably the best river I have personally kayaked with an awesome variety of drops/rapids, and beautiful views. I hit the best line on one particular rapid (a curling wave around a rock which piles into the left hand wall) - I was pretty chuffed. Then there was that time I went into a nicely positioned tree branch strainer two metres before a siphon infested flare around a rock.. I rolled rather promptly. Peoples facial expressions suggested that they had been rather concerned. Then I hit the line too. Boom :)

The views at the get on for the Roy Gorge

On the Tuesday we headed back to the Etive - I was super pumped to run it. It was higher than the previous days huge. There was no deliberation, we left and hit up the Kinglass and the Orchy. We were not sure if it would be running, but during the day, with the snow melt (yes - there was a ridiculous amount of snow during the night) the river filled up as we paddled, and ended up bigger than the first time I ran it. Unfortunately for me, the night before we had ended up with Barney and Swansea university at their bunkhouse and a little too much alcohol was consumed by me (we ended up singing Enrique Eglesias' Hero on the walk back home - THAT is how much alcohol was consumed). Three and a half hours sleep combined with the effects of the alcohol affected my paddling. Given the time constraints of the others I was not in a position/state to give the two grade fives the thought/skill that they required. Next time. The moral is, if you want to paddle well/hard stuff do not drink too much the night before, and get more than 7 hours sleep. I got down the river upright.. it just wasn't my best performance in a boat.. and I am easily angered.

On the Wednesday, we headed home. Paddy having hurt his back did not want to paddle but said we could stop somewhere on the way and do a quick run. We decided on the Leny, but given we were passing the Etive on the way we thought we would have a quick look, knowing that it would be too high still. We were pleasantly surprised - it was at a perfect medium level. Hell, who am I kidding.. I shat myself - I knew it was a level where I could and would run it, but it was going to push me.

We hopped on with a group of three awesome Scottish guys we met on the river bank. Having just done a safety course it seemed suitable to be extra safe.. especially given our small group size. I warmed up (did two bad ferry glides) then ran 'triple step' - I ended up upside down at the bottom of 1, did 2 on my head, rolled in the hole, and that owned 3. This is why I hate rapids at the start of runs :P In between running 2 and 3, i had the honour of using my safety skills live baiting a particular mamba belonging to a particular friend of ours out of two. tut tut.

The rest of the river was awesome. I ran everything, chose all my own lines. Hit them on near all occasions, whipped out some cracking boofs, chase boated blind down ski jump, and ran my bucket drop - right angle falls - twice. Jamie had a little incident on his second run whereby.. well.. he was backwards. He threw his paddles away to save his shoulders, and then swam. Sadly no-one was at the bottom to save his paddles from floating into siphon land downstream. Fortunately since some kind soul has found the paddles :)

Tom running 'Letterbox' on the Etive

Overall the final day was awesome - at least for me :P I was super stoked to have run the Etive at a good level, and run it well. I also did my first serious waterfall.

We then headed home. Long journey, sleepy heads. We slept. Till next time.

On Thursday evening, Jack, Jamie, Vanessa, and I got in the car and headed down south to the illustrious Cheshire. Having spent the night at my house, and witnessing Jamie getting a Mawwdach-esque beatdown from my mother we headed off bright and early Friday morning to the Dee.

Vanessa, being reasonably new to kayaking and being a virgin to our high quality banterfest trips was our main consideration when choosing rivers. There was also a severe lack of water to consider.

We got onto the Dee at a 9 on the gauge and headed down to Serpents' tail. I was in my demo Stomper (THANKS ROHO !!). I ran it quite a few times down both lines with no problems. I have not however got to the Jamie/Jack level of hitting all the eddies on the lead in. Meh.. oh well. Vanessa got down Serpents' tail, and then swam in an eddy :P Typical. There was another little fiasco which involved Vanessa temporarily losing her paddles, but everything came together and Vanessa was a star for continuously trying/not complaining.

The rest of the river was pretty cool - I practiced my surfing (I am getting there), I practiced hitting eddies, and paddling in a straight line (always important :)). At the end we ran Town Falls with resounding success.. ok.. that is a lie. Vanessa did not hit her line and ended up with a little scratch on her chin but as far as I am concerned, that is simply because Jack picked a bad line ;)

After quite a bit of faff, an hour in Cotswolds looking at sleeping bags that we did not own, and some awesome food in Betws-y-coed we headed to the get off of the infamous Fairy Glen to kip in the layby with a beer or four and some lambrini (classy group). We were met by Mute and Franca, and the festivities commenced. I vaguely remember being chased down the road by Matt and Jack wielding lighters excaliming "Burn the witch!". Dont ask.

We got up at 8.30am - a little later than Matt's overly ambitious 6.30, and headed to Swallow Falls. We were met by a lovely couple who were very polite and helpful. Unfortunately an evil heathen came along and said something about access but I was not really listening because he looked like an idiot. In the end we walked away from running the falls such that we could keep up the good reputation of kayakers.

We then headed over to the big T, Where we had an hour or two on the upper graveyard before running Vanessa down the lower section. I hit every eddy that I tried to hit at least once :) Next time i want to hit every eddy every time.

I also ran NRA wave and Chapel falls for the first time. I made the mistake of following Matt (on his instruction) down NRA, and then missing his line - i ended up hitting a nice boof line instead :P. Note to self - pick and follow own lines as I tend not to f**k up my own lines.

On the lower section Vanessa did really well. There was only one swim, and she ran Bala Mill well - I was impressed.

After some chips we got in the car and headed back to Leeds. Jack and I navigated home with no problems, and no wrong turns. Turns out we are exceptionally good navigators who are unappreciated due a lack of confidence in ones own abilities. We got back home in time for a few hours sleep before heading out on the club trip...

The boys (& Vanessa) being generally great.

The club trip was a beginner/intermediate trip to the Lune. We had about 18 people, and it turned out to be an awesome trip (apart from my shock absorber on my car disintegrating). On a personal level, i once again aimed to hit eddies on the way down. I did - hitting near enough every eddy I tried to hit. A few little panics in micro eddies saw me back in the flow quite quickly, but I now know what I need to work on. Magnetic rock turned out to be particularly underwhelming - well trying to spot the huge rock that scared the living daylights out of me a year previously, I actually hit the magnetic rock and curled around it pondering as to why it had attained the status of 'rapid'.

All the people in our group put in an awesome effort, and did really well. Particular props to Aidan and Paddy who did not swim, and styled some lines. Zero probs to Jamie for pushing Sean in and making him swim :) I hear the other group did really well too - notably Becky.

LUUCC styling the Lune.

Arriving home we headed for a nice curry at 7 Spices, and then retired for a well deserved early night. Overall it was an incredible weekend in all respects. As Jamie noted however, it would be good to get back running some limit pushing stuff. Beth will be back in the world after NSR, so I imagine/hope we will be hitting some decent runs in the near future. Dart?!

As regards my quest to find a boat. The Stomper is in my opinion way better than the Burn, but in my non-technical lingo is quite slow, and likes to turn for absolutely no reason. By the end of the weekend I felt at one with the Stomper (how sad), but I don't know if it is for me. I really like the Liquidlogic outfitting, so after I have tried a Mamba I may try the remix, diesel, jefe and the like.

Over the past month or two I have been actively working on the National Student Rodeo.

I have been working on the online registration system, and the scoring system for the event.

In November I was asked to create the website for the event. I did this, as can be seen here.

At the time I asked for details on what else the team would need me to design such that I could get it done while I had no work on. Needless to say I got the details in the middle of January :)

I designed the online registration system in near enough 3 days, then optimized it after it had gone live. It worked flawlessly, was a really good learning experience, and is easily expandable as well as being significantly more efficient than the last system. There was one small period of downtime based on me pushing a broken edit (oops), but no-one really noticed. Apart from that, my logs state it worked flawlessly. I am pretty happy.

The online scoring system is now complete in its most basic form. It also works really well. The hope is that by making the systems extremely efficient we will be able to massively reduce the workload of the technical team at the event.

When I mentioned that I was going to redesign the system, a few people with little knowledge of the area chastised me for making an informed decision. Needless to say, I think I have proved them wrong.

NSR 2012 will be awesome. Using this system the only organizational problem will now be actually getting people on the course :)

This weekend Jack, Jamie, Reuben, and myself headed to North Wales.

Roo very kindly let us stay at his home, and his parents/sister were very hospitable. Given that the other option was to camp in below freezing temperatures, I think it is fair to say that we all appreciated it.

Sadly over the weekend there was not that much water. As such we ended up running the Aberglaslyn gorge on the Friday, and the Cwm Llan on the Saturday. On the Sunday even the Aberglaslyn was too low, so we headed home early.

On the Aberglaslyn, Roo helped me out with my technical stuff - breaking out efficiently, and perfecting my ferry glide. It is a little worrying that at this point I still have not perfected these basic moves. I guess practising and perfecting never hurts.

At the end of the day I had a swim.. I went over the first drop and braced on a rock - it was a trivial very minor injury, but I decided that I was going to whine and complain about it, in the process not paddling. A few moments later, a couple of failed roll attempts on an eddy line and I was swimming.

I don't really like the burn because i got my foot trapped behind the central pillar. It was very scary at the time, and could have ended very badly. Fortunately i slipped out, and the boys were very on the ball with sorting out the situation. I know how to swim, they know how to save - It worked well :)

The Cwm Llan was really fun. Lots of pool drops. I really enjoyed it, although I once again noticed my problem reading white water. Looking at it, it scared me senseless, but in reality it was harmless. There was no real technique to it - it was mainly a fun run. The walk up to it was an absolute killer, but it was well worth it.

All in all an awesome weekend, and definitely worthwhile. The only downside - it was really physically and mentally tiring.. My kayaking preference is more laid back and casual, but then again life is never easy.

On that note.. 7am starts, large amounts of driving, and the fact that kayaking is physical activity annoy me. At the end of days boating I am always really really happy/exhilarated, but I wish it were less work :P

Yesterday Jack, Jamie, Mute, and myself headed down/across to North Wales to drop in on the Upper Tryweryn.

Last year at the clubs 'Alps Training' I ran the upper graveyard section. Max didn't want us to run the rest of the graveyard because we had had a good day, and he did not want us to ruin it.

I still have a massive fear of the unknown. Running the Tryweryn for the first time scared me as much as running the Orchy, the Lyon etc etc. I'm still and probably always will be a confidence boater, but meh.. I am improving.

Jamie is a pretty decent coach - he had me eddy hopping down, and although at first I was hitting the bottom of every eddy, by the end of the day I was hitting some pretty awesome lines. I still don't have the consistency, but it is a start.

The Tryweryn is an awesome place to practice, and now I don't have the fear factor, I'll be sure to go back there to continue my technical development such that in the near future my technical ability will match my ability to get down things :)

I feel like I am getting good. I am going to carry on.

Lakes weekend 2012 was over the weekend of the 20th-22nd of January.

This is a weekend organized by LUUCC each year.

Usually around 60-80 members of the club head up to the lake district and enjoy the whitewater that the area has to offer.

I am not sure if it is intentional, but we usually paddle something a little different to normal over the course of this weekend.

We catered for all ability levels by running an advanced session (Upper Duddon) in the morning of the Saturday followed by an intermediate session (Middle/Lower Duddon). On the Sunday we ran an Intermediate river (Leven) in the morning and a beginners river in the afternoon (Lune).

On a personal level, it was once again a great weekend. On the Upper Duddon I was involved in a widely discussed incident - I ran the top of Wallowbarrow gorge, messed it up and ended up with a gash to the top of my eyelid. I managed to get back up pushing off a rock, and was pretty much pulled off the water (kudos Beth/Matt). Even though I injured myself I was pretty chuffed that I managed to stay in my boat, and not panic.

The discussion was over the question as to whether the trip had been run in a 'non-safe' manner because there had been an injury. So as to avoid having to type it again, I'm just going to publicly post my 'incident report'. I'm posting it publicly - I stand by it.

"Having discussed the river at length prior to getting on, and noting my ability level I personally decided that I was suitably skilled to run the river. I was aware of the two harder sections on the river. The first gorge was portaged by all, the second (Wallowbarrow) was scouted by all, and people made their own decisions as to if they could run in.

I felt that there was a line that I could hit on the first few rapids on the gorge, but that I could not hit the final grade 5 drop. As such I decided to run the top of the gorge, and then portage the final drop.

On the first drop I missed my line ever so slightly, and ended up upside down. The drop was more rocky than i had initially anticipated, and I ended up with a small laceration to my left eyelid.

I rolled back up using a rock, and got myself into an eddy. I then got off the river, and Beth (Morgan) administered suitable first aid.

I am fully aware of the dangers of kayaking - it is the reason I do the sport. I enjoy an adrenaline rush, and the challenge of hitting my planned lines. That being said, I am not an idiot and am fully aware of my ability level. Some people portaged the rapid, I didn't. I thought I could do it, and I still believe I could. It was an unfortunate incident, needless to say, I am glad I was wearing my helmet. Further to the above, I cannot see any way the situation could have been dealt with better."

Because of the incident I ended up not running the Middle and Lower sections in the afternoon. I was a little disappointed, but i will get around to doing them at some point !

On the Sunday I ran everything. The Leven was awesome - I finally got around to running everything. Backbarrow falls is surprisingly powerful, yet such an odd rapid - it is intimidating, but technically not difficult.

The Lune in the afternoon was one of the hardest rivers that I have ever got on - because we were leading. Well.. Jack and Jamie were leading our group, but I like to think that they were appreciative of my presence as well as that of Paddy and Lee. We had quite a few swims, but the beginners were awesome. Every time they swam, they got back in and battled on. They showed some awesome progression over the day and were really keen to improve. My highlight was Megan's awesome line on 'unnamed v-shape into mini-not-really-a-gorge' rapid, mainly because she followed my line, and i think it was my most technically perfect line on anything in my paddling career (if you can call it that).

Overall, an amazing weekend. Everyone was amazing. Ruth and Sean did an amazing job with the organization - the hall was amazing, and everyone had a lot of fun.

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.

Thanks a lot guys !

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..