Weather: Raining!

Finally this dry spell has moved on and the Lake District's rivers have been filled up again almost to flood level which has been great for getting out. On my days off this week i've been out on the Kent, Greta and Rothay. The water levels have been great on the different rivers for testing my ability in my playboat. The highlight was getting a substantial beating in a hole on the Greta that I recovered from well. So excited for this winter and the potential boating that could happen in-between work. Below is a photo from each of the rivers above snapped on my GoPro HD HERO.

L Shape on the  Kent

Beating on the Greta

Stepping Stones on the Rothay

 In the above photo, taken with my GoPro mounted on my helmet, you can make out the stepping stones that due to the high water level of the river have been washed over to create a small surfable standing wave to play on. The wave on this day was only small however with more water the wave becomes bigger, steeper and more exciting for surfing however the rest of the river becomes more threatening due to large sections of overhanging trees (strainers). Keep and eye out for this photo in Canoe Focus.

Weather: Showers

So the past month has again been pretty dry in general with rain falling but not enough to keep the rivers at a substantial level. Therefore this month I have been checking out the surf again on the West coast of Cumbria. I've been quite lucky with the conditions and predicted when the bigger surf was coming through, with the help of Mike who has been accompanying me on his board. The sea waves have provided a great force to practice my surfing on and with the size and less predictable nature when surfing them it will hopefully have helped to improve my surfing when it comes to the standing waves of the rivers when the water comes back.

 

Above are two video snapshots from some video (GoPro HD Hero, 720p) that I took of our first venture to an area called Silecroft which turned out to be a fantastic. The swell was quite messy but manageable with waves ranging in steepness and height. Some steep easily 3ft faces at times which were great to watch roll past and even better for surfing and blasting across even getting some bounce.