My first paddle with the club on the sea was a short trip across the Severn and back organised by Wayne. Meeting under the old bridge we raced to get the car shutle competed and launched before the tide turned. Before we knew it, we'd paddled across the river making the crossing just souh of the old bridge.

The tides in the Severn can be very powerful but by paddling across just before high tide, the worst of their power was avoided and we actually arrived much more quickly than we expected. So we paddled gently up river enjoying the views and improving weather until someone pointed out the pub was open.

Suddenly there was a rush of paddles as everyone raced for the beach at Beachley. The pub was very understanding about the collection of damp paddlers and soggy neoprene and we all enjoyed a refreshing pint. After lunch, we returned to the boats, and with the tide turned, paddled to Severn Beach under the new bridge.

The trip was a great introduction to sea kayaking ‐ relatively short, but with lots of interest. Thanks to Wayne and Ralph for organising and their invaluable guidance - I'm hooked.

Nigel

(Thats me far right in the picture above!)

Happy Birthday Stuart

I really love the River Barle - it's always such a sociable trip. The steady grade 2 and beautiful scenery make this one of the most popular trips in the club's calendar. It was therefore rather worrying that we'd had no significant rain for weeks and it looked like I'd have to call the trip off and disappoint about 25 enthusiastic paddlers.

As Steve Rayner had signed up for the trip, I rang him in mild desperation. I'd already re-scheduled the trip from a Sunday to a Saturday to coincide with Stuart Williams' 50^th Birthday and with so many looking forward to a paddle I was very relieved to hear that levels in the Usk were holding up, thanks to some rain earlier in the week.

Because many had paddled the Talybont stretch of the Usk just two weeks earlier (Club training weekend) we decided to risk the Sennibridge run.