River Bann - 20/21 November

I seemed to spend all of this weekend on the Bann, from Banbridge down to Tullylish.

On Saturday I headed out with a couple of guys from LCP, with 2 MUCK impostors. The river was a very high level with all the recent rain, with most of the usual playspots too flushy, but a lot of new ones came into play. This was the first time myself and Eddie had been out since getting our 4star leadership award last weekend and we were put to the test a few times.

With the water level so high, and fast flowing we had to be on the ball as few in the group had much experience of a river this high or fast flowing. There were only 1 or 2 minor incidents, but were all handled quickly to allow everyone to get back to the fun.

On Sunday I returned with a group from UUJCC. The water level had dropped from the previous day, and most of the weirs were stickier than the previous day, with 1 or 2 particularly retentive. I was the crash-test dummy testing just how sticky things were. This was lots of fun, and resulted in a few fights to get back out.

A good weekend paddling - now where has that rain gone.

Owenkillew - Sunday 7-Nov-2010

Yesterday saw an early start - making my way over to Gortin for 10am to meet a few guys from MUCK to run the Owenkillew.

It had been a few years since I had run this river, but held many early paddling memories for me, including my first river roll and taking Sonya as a beginner down the gorge in a topo duo.

My weapon of choice for the day was my trad open boat - Qiqi hadn't been out in a while so I brought her for some company.

We had a few novices with us, but was a small and tight group so it was all run quite relaxed - especially since Eddie had borrowed my armchair called Peapod.

The river is a nice grade 2 with a short grade3 section towards the end. It was perfect for people in the group to get to grips with whitewater, and most people even made it down the gorge.

The only downside to the trip was Qiqi stealing my kitkat when we stopped for lunch.

Crana Weekend 2010

This weekend saw the return of the Crana Canoe weekend.

I headed up on Saturday morning for the first day of the dam release. There was slalom and freestyle on today. I was only taking part in the freestyle, which wasnt the most exciting event due to the shallow feature, but was lots of fun which resulted in a party wave and high-5s during the competition.

However, it was Sunday most people were looking forward with the return of the carnage fest which was the boaterx.

This year there was an intermediate event held only on the grade 3 section. I entered this paddling the c! gyramax. My first run started slowly, but I soon built up speed, and rammed the other competitors in my heat out of the way to be in the lead by a few lengths by the final weir. Unfortunatly I took it a bit too cautiously and ended up at the far side from the finish and lost places as I made my way across.

My second run saw me running against Sonya who had commandeered Peapod - and promptly disappeared into the distance to come 3rd in the ladies event.
I punched so hard through the first weir I popped my left strap, and like the idiot I am continued on without fixing it. Just as I came to the most continuous and rocky section I rode up on a rock - which isn't normally an issue, but in trying to raise my left edge my knee came out through the spraydeck. This resulted in a very painful beating as my right foot was jammed in the boat and took quite some time to free myself.

Not to worry - the advanced boaterx was to come next, and I was doing away with the skirt and hopping into the spanish fly for the grade4 fun. I have only done 1 river run in the OC-1 so far, and that was mostly grade2 - so I had a lot to be worried about.

My first run went ok, I got the line I wanted, but had no momentum and capsized in the stopper at the bottom. Although it didn't feel like it, video evidence showed I half rolled the boat up - but was still in the stopper so I bailed.

More determined now, I nailed the second attempt, got a big launch off a rock leading into the top of the section, which gave me enough speed and momentum to steer down through the stopper at the bottom and come away with only 2 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. Success!!!

What next year - tandom canoe?