Ode to Prijon

By Sonya

Everyone has seen them at the back of the club store lurking and refusing to die and of course they're too practical to dump as they still have that annual novice distance race use, they must have been really popular here at some stage! Made form serious HTP plastic these are the strongest boats on the market. The fact they need no structural pillar means that you have enough room in the back for all the rescue gear and everyone's sandwiches (a great incentive to rescue your boat first should you happen to swim!)

When did we fall out of love with them then? Especially in Ireland I've seen no recent models other than my own imported ones and generally we tend to stick with the popular models we've been exposed to by our instructors etc. The time has come to admit they get a lot right. I agree that yes, generally they're not always as pretty as the other boats (with tears in my eyes) and having a hatch in the front of your river boat for your mittens can be seen as far short of hard core cool but if I'm on a river I don't know then that's the boat that I want to be in! All those alpine paddlers can't be wrong, the boats seem to be breeding on popular runs out there and as far as rental centers go having a pretty much indestructible straightforward boat has got to be a major asset.

I recently tried another boat, shiny, new, popular with the other kids etc and well recommended, I thought I'd have a one night stand just to see t, the guilt was too much! As a replacement it would fall far short providing less stability, requiring serious aggression to put it anywhere and I found that generally it needed beaten to stay on a line. On handing it back the rep agreed with all of my complaints but didn't seem to have considered a world where you can waggle a carrot in front of your boat and it will stick fast to where you want to go and take you there on 1 good power stroke, why must we be aggressive to get down a river, have they realised that technical stretches of whitewater can be a calming experience similar to yogic chanting? My conclusion to the whole affair was a fresh bunch of flowers for the faithful mitten warmer before a nice wee stretch of grade 3 boulder garden to say sorry. I shan't be straying again for a while as there's no need, it's not like she'll be out on injury time or anything.... In short, there is a certain type of person buys prijon in these modern climes, they may not be totally sane but they have practical attributes, such as a strong sense of preservation and economics as well as finding the beauty in the use and realising that handsome is as handsome does...


Footnote by Kevin

Any boat that can pull off a 4 ender cartwheel, into a double pirouette phonics monkey-mcnasty combo ..... at 60mph on a country road and still be perfect to paddle - is alright in my book.

Thanks to the handling of my prijon cross, I have changed my style completely and now go into a calm, relaxing trance on grade 4 instead of the fitting stick insect of the past.

Tyne Tour 2011

This year 16 fellow twits from LCP headed to Hexham for the Tyne Tour. This the largest recreation whitewater paddle in the UK.



Early on Thursday we met up for a breakfast fry in the Docks area before starting the long journey to Hexham via the ferry to Stranraer.

Thursday night - Blank

On Friday we met up with former LCP member, and Tyne area local Dave Draper who took us down the Lower Tees. This was a nice run, mostly grade2, with a bit of grade 3 with Abbey Rapids being the main feature on the run.

 

I paddled this in my C1 Cross, which handled everything nicely with no problems.

Friday Night - Blank

Saturday saw the actual Tyne Tour on the Tyne River as far as Hexham. In the morning before we went he annoyed the various vendors at the camp at Hexham Green. I accidentally bought a new c1 paddle, and temporarily stole a prototype Big Dog Force OC1.

The river itself was pretty flat and boring, but there were moments of interest where I got to test the Force OC1. The boat is so comfy, spins like a playboat, but boofs like a dream with the power to match - I instantly fell in love. There was even space for sandwiches.

The most fun part of the river was Warden Gorge, which on the Tour information was described as grade4, but I think that was just to scare the beginners away as I would have rated it as grade3. This was fun, if shortlived, but gave me plenty of chance to test the edges on the boat.

After a quick game of king-of-the-wave, we finished the float slog to the finish where I had to reluctantly give back the boat.

Saturday night - Blank

Up bright and early Sunday morning, we headed to the Upper Tees from High Force to Low Force.

This was more like it - solid continuous rapids, grade 4 sections, and a drop at the end - barely any flatwater in sight.

Somehow the group managed to make it to the last drop without any swims, although most people did portage the grade 4 section in the middle. Dave, and his paddling buddy Phil showed us the way down it, and Shug was up next with one of his first grade4 runs. He made one minor mistake, but recovered like a pro only to get beached on some rocks at the end - where he was unceremoniously dumped over by some locals - but rolled up with a smile.

I was the only remaining one in the group to run it - and I was back in the C1 creeker. I dropped into the section, and 4 strokes later was out the far end. I was extremely happy with my run down, especially as the last drop was a slot hard left - on my offside. I cant wait to see the video (coming soon) as I feel this is possible the best line I've take down a section like this.

At the end of the run is a nice 10foot drop, which most of the club ran - multiple times. I only managed 1 run, which resulted in a missed boof, a splat, and a roll resulting in a partially popped deck. Only realised about the deck when I found it difficult crossing the eddy line - must have been the extra water in the boat.

I did go off the falls one last time - but this was jumping in, with Sonya the only other from LCP to jump in.

Fun weekend, very tiring - now waiting for the video to appear

Busy Month - October 2011

This October was a very busy month for me, with a major event every weekend.

The month started with the postponed Liffey Descent. The race had been put of for a month due to lack of rain all summer, which would have resulted in no flood for the traditional September race.

This year we finally managed a full race with no swims. We had a few close calls at the bottom of Lucan (pictured above) and another at Palmerstown.

 

Before the race started we were told about a tree in the normaly line at Palmerstown, and that we would have to run river left, but by the time we got the the lip we were told the normal line was clear. We didnt get across properly and got sucked into the left hand stopper of doom. Myself and Sonya held on and surfed the now fully swamped boat clear to the surprise of all onlookers.

A quick bail and we finished the race in a best yet of 9th place, but outside the 3 hour mark.

Next for me was the Sluice rodeo the following weekend. Lack of water, with what little there was being released for the descent the previous weekend resulted in a relocation to Stackallen wave on the Boyne.

A number of Team GB paddlers had come over for this, including double world champion Claire O'Hara, who not surprisingly cleaned up in the womans comp.

Myself and Orky had extra competition inthe form of Paul King who put up a good show, but not good enough for Orky and his shiny, McNasty throwing Gui-Gui.

Next up was the Crana BoaterX. This year I decided to convert my creeker to C1 to continue the tradition of paddling a different boat every year. My first run down was pretty good, although I dropped the wrong edge as i resurfaced from the stopper at the bottom, but managed to hang in for a nice roll and continued on my way.

I wouldn't be as fortunate with my second run. Even before dropping in I knew I had the wrong line. I held on the whole way down with an ever deepening low brace, but as soon as I hit the stopper my no-strap system let me down and I was sucked out of the boat. I would love to blame the lack of straps for the swim - but I am man enough to admit I simply messed up my line due to no straps.
 
The  final weekend of the year was the UUJCC fresher trip to Gortin. This year there were over 30 people in attendance, with many novices.

Saturday we headed for the Owenkillew. The water level wasn't too high to start with, and nice and friendly for the first timers. Myself and Sonya were paddling a Jackson Dynamic Duo - which was lots of fun - and proved extremly useful in rescues - 2 pairs of hands are much better than 1.

 
My group powered on down the river, quickly moving from eddy to eddy and minimising swims. A heavy downpour early in the day caught up with us while waiting near the end for the other groups to run the gorge section. Quick rising water surprised many, but we finished the river without any major catastrophes.

Sunday we headed to the Mourne, which was at a quite high level. There were fewer eddies, and we decided on running the freshers straight through to the end of the fisheries section.

For this section I was joined by Zara, one of the freshers who didnt think she would be able to paddle it. Lucky for my should could, as pretty soon her deck imploded and the entire boat swamped, resulting in me practising my squirt boating skills while she paddled us through the remaining rapids safely reaching the bottom.

To say I was tired would be an understatement. Time for a rest? I think not - only 4 days until the Tyne Tour.

Upper Bann with 9 Year Old - 17-Sep-2011

Its been a long time waiting - but finally there has been enough wet stuff to get back to the rivers.

Today, with a group from UUJ we were planning to paddle the Benburb, but having got there early it was obvious that it was actually too high to run with the group we had. Time for a quick jaunt over to run the Upper Bann from Banbridge instead.

The river wasn't huge - but at least had enough water to paddle down it with almost no scrapey bits at all - which is definitely a bonus.

For this trip I paddled the open boat, joined with India (age 9) on her first river run. She was great paddling through the rapids and stoppers, and soon was begging to start surfing the weirs. Luckily there were a few very good surf spots today.

The only slight mis-hap was on one of the slides near the end of the river. We ran down it fine, but at the bottom hit a rock which threw us forward into the boat, putting me into the thwart and India into the front seat. Despite the pain, both of us landed in a low brace and managed to right the almost capsized boat. Very impressive for her first time down a river.


The unbelievable highlight of the day was to go to Sonya. Somehow, she worked her magic at the bottom of a weir, chatted to a fisherman about his flies (or some other fishing mumbo jumbo) - and came away with a free brown trout. And who said paddlers and fishermen don't get along?

River Roe - 12 March 2011

Today I had planned to go surfing.

Then unfortunately it rained last night, so instead I wanted some proper paddling and went to the Roe with some of the guys from LCP.

On the drive up, we started to pass lots of snow on the ground around the Glenshane pass. At the get in, the beach was half covered which meant it was going to be a nice average level. This didn't account for the snow that was melting. The river level rose quite a bit while we were on which made for a very fun trip.

We didn't actually spend too much time playing at any of the weirs, there was too much exciting stuff around the corner.

Halfway down the river we came to the Dogs Leap. After having a quick look, most of us decided to run it. This is normally a tricky run in through a narrow constriction, but the high water levels removed this hazard, but still left a big and bouncy run through.

From this point down things just got better. Most of the river from this point is all natural, with big water and boulders providing lots of fun.

The last man-made weir was different to any other time I had paddled it. Two big holes were protecting the only lines of interest, which just meant it would be more challenging.

I decided on the most difficult line, which was tricky in the Spanish Fly due to my lack of speed and inability to correct the 2 paddle strokes I had time for through it. This just mde it even more fun.

A good clean run down one of my favourite rivers in the north. I really need to paddle this more often.

Shaws Slalom - 6 March 2011

Sunday saw one of the first slalom competition since the redevelopment of the Shaws Bridge site. I entered in C1 and C2 with Niall Cockbill from WWKC.

The course set up had a few tricky gates set-up, with one of the most annoying ones, gate 5, at the first weir not quite in the eddy or the flow, and very close to the weir itself.

In my first run in the c1 I attacked this gate a bit too hard and caught an edge causing me to capsize. As I rolled back up my strap popped, which meant I wasn't able to commit to any of the turns on the rest of the course as I wanted to. I got back up and through the gate and finished the run in a respectable enough time clipping only 1 gate at the end.

Next up was my first c2 run with Niall. For once I was able to paddle on my strong side at the front, and we put in a decent time hitting 3 gates. We probably lost time due to my natural tendency to do cross bow strokes.

After the break it was time for second runs. Since I already had a decent time time in c1 (beating some actual slalom paddlers) I went all out to do the fastest run I could manage. I was dipping under the gates and hitting them all very high, and everything was going well until I was surfing back across the third weir. My srap popped again, causing me to capsize, and since I was in the stopper I was pulled straight out of the boat. Not to worry, there was a local news crew there to record the whole thing. Good to know my swims are news worthy.

When it came to the second run in the c2, I was concentrating on not doing cross bow strokes, and it worked really well. Myself and Niall really worked well together and we got a very good line through all the gates hitting just one. We were dipping the boat comfortably which was unexpected due to the heavier paddler being in the front.

We finished 4th out of 7 crews, which I was very happy with especially considering I was the only non slalom paddler in c2.

I still managed 7th (out of 9) in C1 despite only 1 run which had a roll in it. Next time I will outfit the boat myself and try and get even closer to the full time slalom paddlers.

Thanks to Navarat Turner for the photos.

River Lagan with LCP

Today a large group from LCP headed for a ran down the Lagan from Lambeg to Shaws Bridge. This is quite a long run, about 4-5miles, so I wimped out and took the big boat and dog.

Whilst most of the river is flat, there are a number of wiers to keep yourself interested. There was a decent enough water level, with very few scrapey parts, which is weird for this river.

The first of the bigger weirs was Church Hill weir, which had a nice, yet retentive wave at the bottom. I only got stuck in it twice whilst surfing. Not too bad the first time as I got out with only a foot of water, but the second time I ended up having to swamp fully to get out. Didnt help much that Brian was pushing down on the back of my boat when I was trying to surf out of it backwards.

The weir at Drumbeg had quite a large towback on it, so Graeme lined his boat into it to demonstrate to the group exactly what it looks like when a boat is stuck in a stopper - something we never want to see with a person still in it.

Eels Weir at Edenderry was a very nice level, and I was very impressed at managing a completly dry line through it.

Not to much of a paddle left until we finished up at Shaws bridge. Unfortunately I had left my wheels at home so had to carry the boat back up to the carpark, much easier with the wheels - at least the dog can pull it then.

Thanks to Derek for the photos.

Mourne Race - 23-Jan-2011

With weather and car problems conspiring against me, I havnt got much paddling done recently. Today saw the Mourne race which was rescheduled from its usual December date due to a frozen river.

Today still wasn't the warmest, but at least we got into positive temperature figures.. just.

A large group from Lisburn headed over to Newtownstewart for the race which was on a low water river Mourne. Unfortunatley Sonya was unable to come today, so instead of racing the open boat completly alone I brought Qiqi with me for company.

There was quite a large turnout, with 8 open boats in total, 5 of which (including me) were put in a separate category for solo paddlers.

At the start the tandems, as expected, took the lead. However, both myself and Paul Strawbridge managed to keep fairly close to them for the first 1km or so. I pulled very slightly ahead of Paul coming into the fisheries, which was the first, and most challenging whitewater section of the 7mile race. I was right behind the last of the tandems, who took a spill at the top, but recovered quickly, but allowed me to cut through the inside of the main wave of the section.

I made it through all the whitewater sections of the race without any problem, but had Paul within sight for most of the race. I couldn't let up and kept pushing for the entire race.

I came in a minute or two ahead of Paul to win the solo category, and apparently was only about 4minutes behind the winning tandem boat.

 

Congratulations to Mary who took second place in Womens GP for Lisburn