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DaveS · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 122 Location: Urmston

Firstly I want to thank Carl and Steve for inviting us to join them on the river.
I don't know how to start this thread off really so I had best just get on with it......

The Facts!
I swam.....

The Story
The sun was shining brightly just managing to burn off the mornings fog. We set off down the Dee from the Tombstones, after due consideration we decided it would be best to avoid the big hole on the river left and take the run on the right side, Steve ran the drop first and Jon followed him, I was third. Jon took the drop a little too far to the right and while I was setting up for my run I just ran out of river and ended up going down side ways (not a good idea really), the small stopper at the bottm then decided to seal my fate and get me wet. After a quick attempt at a roll, well I set up to roll but as the rocks on the river bed were busy introducing themselves to my helmet I decided that descretion was the better part of valour and bailed! I managed to swim my boat and paddle to the side (crossing the eddy-line was interesting). Steve, having checked I was OK, had to paddle off to give assistance to others in the party who were also having fun at the time!

The Excuses!
The River was pretty high......

The sun was shining and I couldn't see the drop.....(honest -

)
I wanted to try out my dry cag on a river anyway......

hopefully anyone having a read of this can have a chuckle and anyone wanting to ridicule me for my foolishness, feel free to join in!!!!

BUT just remember, this maybe the one of the first confession threads on this forum - but I am sure it won't be the last.

_________________
DaveS

"A bad day on the water is better than a good day in the office!"

Steve T · Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:14 pm Post subject:

Your honesty is admirable Dave. I think the roots of this incident go back slightly earlier to when we were all stood on the bank, looking at the rapid. We were on river left, and the chute was on river right, so it was hard to get a good view of the best line. A classic downstream triangular tongue of water was the obvious route, and someone (not sure who, he said turning away and whistling …) said “it’ll be obvious when you get there”.

I was first down, and the whole right hand side of the river was one horizon line, without any obvious chute until I was pretty close. The only clue was that the water was moving much faster towards the chute. The sun was low and directly in front, so there was a lot of glare.

Once I was down, Jon was close behind, he also missed the chute but dropped over the small weir OK, You came down next, I was pointing to get you to go across to the left, but by then I think you were already committed to dropping over the diagonal weir sideways, the rest was inevitable as events unfolded before my eyes.

As you swam, I noticed that another of our team was …err… a long way from where I expected to see them … so once you were near the bank I crossed over for a spot of boat chasing (I like boat chasing!).

Lessons learnt? Don’t paddle when it’s sunny, but then that’s not generally a problem on club events! (and don’t believe me when I say the line will be obvious).

However, it's all part of learning, we've all been there, and we'll all be there again.

Steve

_________________
Steve Thomas
Secretary & Website Editor

www.westhoughtoncanoeclub.org.uk
website@westhoughtoncanoeclub.org.uk