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.