Wasburn 23rd August 2009

CarlS · Wasburn 23rd August 2009

This was another fantastic day out for the club with eight members on the water.

We arrived at a cafe highly recommended by Paul which did excellent bacon butties but was shut, so we went to another one instead, where we went through (what is becoming a club ritural) of eating unhealthy food whilst winding each other up about the terrifiying nature of the river we were going to paddle.

We finally arrived at the Washburn:

despite the warning notice we got on the river. We paddled down to the 'get out' prior to big drop and than met up again in the eddy upstream of it:

One or two adventures occurred from this point onwards but it is only fair to let the participants write these up themselves. For my part I made the first big drop and landed in the eddy, I then broke in for the second drop but capsized, I have done this twice before on previous trips, the first time I tried to roll straight away, hit a rock and broke my nose and loosened a few teeth as a result, the second time I bailed and swam, but today I got my face against my deck in a protected position, waited until I had run the second drop upside down and was then able to roll (this should all be on YouTube as I had my headcam on at the time), when I got upright I was facing the wrong way and had to do a few more drops backwards (great fun!).

We finished the day by doing a complete run of the river, there is a new get out at the end but no room for Adrian and myself so we got out in the old spot and then did a grade 6 crossing of the A59 (terrifying!)

For me the best part of the day was seeing 4 newer members of the club go through the transition of being able to describe themselves as intermediate paddlers (bring on the Tryweryn!)

LALA

yes i would also agree it was fantastic day, although i did not paddle, gutted i was, when i heard the sound of the water.

However i feel that i was a team player even though i didnt paddle as i shuttled everyone back to the get in. Myself, caroline and liam also helped lookin after peoples cameras, butties and throw lines. We took some photos whilst looking atfer the kids. Thanks caroline for ur help.

I believe there were a few injuries, including our youngest paddler to be (liam). Dont worry guys he only fell over and grazed his knee. His 1st club trip injury.

Well done to all intermediate paddlers, and well done to coaches for looking after the guys. Without u today would have been impossiable.

Well done to liam for being good.

Lisa

Dave W

Where do I start
Great day out and can I ask for a round of applause for Phil Darren Adrian and myself.
I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to go along as I had been looking forward to it for a long time.
But there was a few challenging moments.
The first when we were flagged down by a passing motorbike who informed us that andy's boat was falling off the roof. then Phil decided it would be a good idea to try and shake a porterloo whilst Chris was in it and blamed me.
Then to the river which looked faster than I had expected but was actually alright when you got on it. We started our first run down which was going well, I was missing most of my first eddys but at least I was able to get the second, then disaster no1 struck. I got into an eddy in between 2 trees easy enough but the flow of the water slowly pushed me back into the tree behind me and somehow my boat ended up stuck in its roots and when I tried to get out it would not let go and turned me over.
I ended up swimming and was like a pinball bouncing from rock to rock.
We all met up again just before the big drop and for some daft reason decided to go back to the beginning and do it all again.
This time I went down much better feeling a lot more confident, Myself and Paul got to the eddy just above the 2 big drops and he talked me through what I had to do, I took the line he suggested and went down the first drop and even made the eddy at the top of the second, then broke back out into the river to go down the second drop unfortunatly clipping the large rock on the left which turned me over, this time I was determined to stay in my boat so I thrust my paddle down hard to try and roll back up, this is when it got stuck between 2 rocks and snapped in half.
At this point I got re-aquainted with some of my rock friends and unfortunatly it was the end of my paddling for the day.

I am a very bruised but very happy Kayaker.

Dave

Phil

CarlS

The 'Carlcam' video is now on YouTube. There is the extended version covering the entire day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYBUvUOXsvk

and a shorter one featuring Darren's swim:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEEbjeFzf18

From these videos you can see just how fast the water was flowing and how small the eddies were. As we have discussed many times, this river is generally fairly safe, but the speed of the water and difficulty of carrying out rescues does make it one in which you may swim for a while.

Incidently, in watching the first video there is one part where I roll and a few seconds later it looks like I roll a second time. All I remember was that it took a while to gain complete control after the roll, but I don't recall capsizing a second time. Does anyone know?

Bradshaws · Darren ,s swim

Hi Carl
I can't tell you are not in work having all that time to do that, but very well done. But watch out I have been going over my footage of you at Windermere and Ripon.

Ps Thanks to you Paul,Chris & Andy for a great time and a safe paddle

Steve T

Steve T

I've just watched the videos and it's great to see everyone doing so well. I was probably a bit over-cautious but I hadn't realised that there would be so many "competent" paddlers on the river. With Carl, Paul, Chris and "Mad" Andy it was a good ratio.

I thought the bit of video where you casually sail past Phil nursing his ankle was particularly good.

Steve

CarlS

Phil

Adrian · Washburn - a scary river

Hi all,

I've not had much of a chance to post since the Washburn trip but wanted to thank all the club members who went (plus some from other clubs on the river) for a very memorable experience.

Just when you think you're getting the hang of it all, you hit a curler and bosh! you're over. (I really must get the hang of that roll thingy).

It was very exciting (and scary) and I was sure glad I had some competent (yes, competent) paddlers around me. Although I swam 3 times and made the bank very quicky (unaided), it was reassuring to know that the rest of the team were there to collect the debris.

So a special thanks to Chris, (mad) Andy, Carl and Paul (and of course the members from other clubs) who cleared up the mess. Also thanks to Darren for transport.

I'm not sure I can say I "enjoyed" it but I was sure glad when I survived it! I'll be glad to pick up some safety tips on the Tryweryn next week (shouldn't we have done that first?) and having another go on a fast river.

Some memorable moments for me:

Paul: "Get out of that f****** tree". (As if I was trying to be in the trees).

Seeing Darren's Kayak go vertical into a tree and hang there with him still in it (good job Paul didn't see him).

Hitting a rock and being spun so that I then had to navigate backwards (now that was scary) (Paul screaming "paddle, paddle" but I'm thinking "which way?")

Overall top notch entertainment.

CarlS · Re: Washburn - a scary river

Wasburn 23rd August 2009

Darren ,s swim

Washburn - a scary river

Re: Washburn - a scary river