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Pyranha Fest - Tryweryn Weekend

Anna has booked the Bala bunkhouse ready for the Pyranaha Fest on 16-17 October

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NACC White Water Training weekend 5th/6th Nov

The NACC white water training weekend will be Friday 5th Nov to Sunday 7th Nov in Brecon. The total cost for weekend is £60. This includes 2 night accommodation, food and all white water coaching*.

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Syndication

WW weekend - Open Canoeing - Nov 09 PDF Print E-mail
Trip Reports - Whitewater Kayaking Trips
Sunday, 03 January 2010 18:38

Being of sound mind..... or something like that, I booked on the open canoe beginners course on the white water weekend.

Taking the plunge...

After the compulsory purchase of a thermal rash vest and the borrowing of a decent kag from Steph (thanks!), I was as ready as I was ever going to be.  With Nigel leading, Richard, Brian and I got in from a muddy (did I mention it had rained a lot?) Sennybridge field.

Will he... won't he...?I was loving getting in and out of eddies (cross-bow was my favourite move Cool) and playing with the water a little.  Our first drop caused a little bother for Brian and me, although Brian actually recovered from his tip (see photo).  Me however - I was so pleased that I had performed the line-up and descent well that I forgot to steer once I was down!  The inevitable swim was fortunately not too long and I managed to get the line around a tree before it took the weight of the boat (very proud of myself for even managing to remember to try to do that!).

Richard headed for a dunking.The second drop was straightforward, unless you took the shoot on the far bank - Richard had a short swim here (see photo)!  The third drop was fun.  We inspected it while another group were riding it.  One of their kayakers got his boat stuck in a hole, which took ages to free, and he himself was thrown about a bit - I distinctly remember seeing nothing but his lower legs sticking up vertically out of the white water!  Of course, Nigel then got us talking about what we'd seen people doing wrong and right.  So, I decided I was focusing on a good line and forward momentum.... "line.... line.... line.... ok, I'm here, what now?  Oh, I'm meant to be balancing and....." I was in!  (See photo.)  Thanks to some handy bag work from Richard and boat recovery from Brian, all that was lost was one knee pad.

In the drink...On the remaining stretch, we played a game to see who could ride the most waves while taking on the least water, which Nigel promptly lost!  Although I think he'd claim something about his boat Wink.

I had a great day and staying in the bunkhouse, meeting lots of people, was great!

Canadian is definitely the way to roll..... see you on the water!

Rachael

 

Check out all photos by clicking here.