New blog address

I've shifted my blog across to a different address. It can now be found at http://davidfairweather.wordpress.com.

Thanks

David

Sunny times in Bangor

Hurrah for Thomas Telford - A fine example of British bridge building

Another eventful weekend in Wales. I aquired a new creek boat (thank you Pyranha) and then a new squirt boat, gatecrashed Bangor Uni Canoe Club's Christmas Dinner (why not?), spent some time relaxing and squirtboating under Menai Bridge, had tea and cake on the bowling green on a suprisingly sunny Sunday afternoon, and then spent a day repairing my car's latest ailment. Good fun all round. I also spent some time trying to work out what all the buttons on my new camera do.

A new toy and some coaching

Second slide of Swallow Falls (Photo: Tom Laws - on my camera!)

Everyone knows that the most important part of whitewater kayaking is the photos that make you look gnarly to all your mates and more attractive to the opposite sex. Bearing this in mind I recently purchased a digital SLR (Pentax *Ist if you're interested) and aquired a variety of lenses. This is all well and good, and hopefully, in time, my photography will start to show some improvement, however, everyone also knows that being the photographer means that you get no good photos of yourself. Bearing this in mind, I took my expensive new toy across to North Wales this weekend where I was coaching on a Steep Creekin' course with Tom Parker and gave it to Sarah and Tom Laws to play with and take photos of me while I got on with the coaching.

(Photo: Sarah Nash)

The coaching was great fun and immensley satisfying, finishing off the course on Swallow Falls was a fantastic way to end the weekend.

(Photo: Tom Laws)

I'll probably take the camera out this week and try and get some decent shots around Manchester, then take it out for a proper play at the weekend, provided there's some rain.

Wales via Birmingham

Tom isn't tired, he's just remembered spending £6 on a Gin Martini...

The gear box in my car appeared to implode this week, gutted.

Ho Hum, these things happen and thanks to the great British railway network, boat loans from Sarah, and lifts from Chris, I was still able to manage posh drinks in Birmingham for Chris Eastabrook's 21st, an evening run of the Ogwen, a big night out in Bangor and a day on the Cwm Llan.

(Photo: Chris Eastabrook)

After a few days of partying a little too hard, a day spent chilling out in the sunshine on the side of Snowdon was the perfect extended hangover cure. we spent a few hours on the paddlers playground that is the Cwm Llan looking for new lines and moves and generally messing around with rock spins, grinds, hammers and cross deck grabs. Jolly good fun all round.

A Day in the Lakes: River Clough

I didn't get many photos of the River Clough, so here's one of Brian Clough instead

Today was the first time that I've ever paddled in the Lake District, a few of us drove up to the Clough this morning to find it at a superb level. It was most enjoyable. There were some drops with some sticky holes which had a habit of stopping and backlooping the guys in playboats. I was happy to be in my creek boat. Just after the Clough joins the Rawthy, a broken weir forms a nice, fast play wave, which made me wish that I'd taken a play boat. Stupidly I left all the memory cards for my camera at my desk and was left with just a 16 meg card that allowed me to take a grand total of five photos over the day.

Little Pete just getting away with it

I was surprised to realise when I got on the water that last week's silly swim at a familiar spot had left me feeling quite insecure about my ability on the river. A good day on the river with some great clean lines was just what I needed to get my head straight again, shame I missed my boof by a mile on the final ledge drop of the river and got a good shoeing in the hole below. Ho Hum.

Bob: stylin'

It's still raining and there is a plan to head across for a blast down the Etherow tomorrow afternoon, one day I'll get around to finishing this PhD.....

Festive Fun all over the country

Tea boy at Hurley weir on two gates

It’s been a pretty hectic week or so over the Christmas period with plenty of partying, paddling and catching up with friends from around the country. There was also a fair bit of driving involved.

It all started with a drive down south to the family home, this involved stopping by Hurley weir on the Thames which was in a big three gates and enveloped in the same thick grey fog that was stopping planes from landing at Heathrow. I hadn't been to any of the Thames weirs since last season so it was good to get back down there and see some familiar faces (not that visibility was optimal).

Hurley - it was good to be back (Photo: Tom Parker)

Back in London there was a few days of meeting up with old friends and people that I haven't seen in the last 12 months and wont see for 12 more, seeing family, exchanging presents and taking in plenty of Christmas cheer. I had a particularly pleasant Christmas eve which started at 12 noon meeting some old school friends for a few beers and ended up seeing in Christmas looking out over the Thames in Greenwich with some good friends and a can of export.

Hiking up to the top of the ditch

There was time for a couple more trips across to Hurley before nipping across to visit Jemma and her family in the Rhonda valley in South Wales for a couple of days. Whilst there it was raining pretty heavily and the local rivers were all up. There wasn't much time to get across to any of the South Wales classics, however there is a drainage ditch from one of the old coal mines in the Rhonda that looked like it would be steep and fun with enough water. There was enough water.

First descent?? A great little ditch

Although the run lasted for all of a minute, it was great fun and had a few good boofs to make. I'm not sure if anyone has done this before, if you're in the area and it's wet enough then it's certainly worth the walk up. Hike up as far as you can be bothered, launch in, hold on tight and make sure you boof the drops as there are plenty of rocks in there. There are a couple of photos, but a combination of low light and me putting my camera on the wrong setting mean they are very grainy.

From Wales Jemma and I headed to Somerset for a couple of days of celebrating the new year in a barn full of paddlers and associates at Tom Law's farm home in the Mendip hills. After a Saturday night pub crawl around the charming town of Cheddar we headed across to Devon for a New Year's Eve run down the Upper Dart. The previous night's drinking was in evidence with some "interesting" lines, not least myself who managed to take a swim on Euthanasia, a rapid I have paddled at least 30 times without ever falling over. Somehow I found myself upside down in a hole full of boulders and had to bail. Very silly. Luckily I was on camera duty so none of this muppetry was captured on film.

Chris Eastabrook: not swimming on Euthanasia

Back at Tom's there was quite a party in the barn, helped along by the 5 gallons of Somerset cider that were laid on for us. If you weren't there, you missed it.

(Photo: Tom Laws)

On New Year's day we all dressed as cowboys and ran around in front of video cameras.

Happy new year.

Thanks to Chris for lending me a playboat.

Adventure Paddlers Weekend, Dartmoor

Walking into the Erme (Photo: Tom Laws)

The Gene 17 Adventure Paddlers weekend at the River Dart Country Park has been getting bigger and better over the past few years and is now a firm fixture in the diaries of many paddlers. At last year’s event, inspired by beer and some fantastic talks, I agreed to a trip to India and subsequently found myself on the Tsarap and Zanskar gorges this summer. Being somewhat financially challenged I was a little worried that I would wake up this year with a headache and a plane ticket to somewhere far off, thankfully I only had a headache come Sunrday morning (I’m never drinking with Pat Clissold ever again).

River Erme at a low, but fun level (Photo: Tom Laws)

The talks on Saturday night were inspirational, Venezuela in particular looks like a destination that could be incredibly rewarding. Rob Coffey’s presentation about an epic walk out from the Tsarap due to flash flooding was a sobering reminder that expedition paddling has the potential to become very epic very quickly. After the talks it all became a bit of a blur of chatting to people I hadn’t seen for ages, people I’d just met and people who I see all too often. After the bar closed the party went on in the car park until the wee hours with more chat and alcohol.

Graham on the first of the drops on Horoak Water on the lead in to the East Lynn

On top of the talks and socialising, the water wasn’t too bad either. I’d not paddled in Devon since moving up North so I was excited to get runs of the Erme, Upper Dart and East Lynn in over the weekend. The East Lynn was at a surprisingly good level on Sunday and busier than I’ve ever seen it. The Dart was made interesting by a mass race from Lucky Tor to the pool below Surprise Surprise, “organised” by Simon Westgarth. The 20 + paddlers racing en-mass for a mile must have been quite a sight and certainly seemed to surprise the groups in front of us.

East Lynn Gorge (Photo: Tom :Laws - being artistic)

I don’t know what made me think that a litre of coffee from Burger King was a good idea on the drive home, but I couldn’t sleep for hours after I got back.