HIGH

Having moved from Japan to Nepal to see out the end of the season, although the water level is dropping, high, could be used to describe many aspects of my current paddling life. Here are a few snaps I've managed to get whilst photo boating for Paddle Nepal, Pokhara.

MEDIUM

I admit the blog has been neglected for the past two months. In Japan water levels finally came up for about 4weeks of high/medium flows. I didnt get any photos as I was often assisting in rafts or had to concentrate on the whitewater rather then photos. Here is a few snaps from my time in this strange and wonderful land.

I love my job

If only we were infact team Pyranha

Boat Pin, Mukawa River

Boat Rescue, Mukawa River, M/H flows.

Pat peaking for the line on Red Bridge Rapid, Mukawa River

Raji ready for high water rafting on the Saru River

Kishor, Ganesh, Ben

LOW

Month three has come to a close. Hopefully this will bring rain, as we need it badly. My personal paddling time in Japan for the past month has been pretty poor due to low water levels. This is a massive tease as there is a few great venues that I could really do with a session. Plenty of park and huck man-made waterfalls with deep pools, surf waves, holes all that would be a great for pushing my ability.

Biei Creek, Hokkaido

So far the best time I've had, as ever, has been visiting the ocean. The day I had surfing the waves on the Pacific was a real blast. Like normal, at first we got a few strange looks as were foreign and then when I got the kayak out the car the eyebrows and gasps increased. But like usual the Japanese people were friendly and I even got a few "Tsegois" from the surfers I would cruise past. "Tsegois" basically politelly means "Fucking Awesome". Bring on the rain!

Pacific Ocean, Hamaastuma, Hokkaido

HOA Extreme Whitewater Challenge

The weekend of the 6th June saw a collection of thrity-one spirited local and international boaters congregate at Hokkaido Outdoor Adventure's base for the annual HOA Extreme Whitewater Challenge. There were four paddling events that took place on the Saru River and a non stop party atmosphere to keep competitors and spectators glowing.

photo credit: Lance PZ

Whitewater Slalom and Down River Race took place on the Saturday.  The Slalom was based on the rapid named First Drop with the main gates hung at the base of the river right shoot making a tricky short ferry glide across the main flow the course was fun for all but the creekboaters dominated. Personally I was given one chance on the course setting a time of 2:31 putting me in 13th place.

The next event, the Down River race, had a mass start of 29 paddlers go all out for roughly 1km this section went through a number of rapids including the Slalom section which lead to some great carnage that smashed my chances of being in the top 10 finishers, again I fought into 13th place at the last rapid. 

Following a night of heavy partying from all, peoples hangovers were washed away by the excitement that was created by the mornings Raft Race. This event allowed anyone to get on the water by borrowing kit from HOA.

 After a cracking lunch of Wazza Burgers the Freestyle Comp took place again on the Saru in the town of Hidaka where Ex-Freestyle champion Eric Southwick built a hole specially for the competition allowing easy access and viewing for all. Being in a creekboat my position for this event was pretty poor and I only scored 10points for a spin... Overall this put my overall standing for the comp at 13th. Thanks to all the new friends I made at the event maybe see you in the future.

Current Location: Hidaka, Hokkaido, Japan

Ohiyo Gozimas! Ive been in Japan a month so the initial shocks of Japanese life have worn off. I am learning to guide whitewater rafts surprisingly quickly and am loving safety kayaking and coaching in my adopted retro Pyranha Micro Bat 230 kayak.

Mukawa, Photo by Hokkaido Rafting

The rivers in the area I am paddling, regularly include the Saru River (Monkey River, there are no monkeys) and the Mukawa. Both are currently at a low water level leading to some super strong eddy lines. The rivers at their lower level are generally grade three runs then with an increase in water there are a number of rapids where the consequence of dodgy lines vastly increases.

Currently my favorite rapid on the River Saru is called First Drop. There are two lines, right, a boof over a retentive hole. Or left, punch through a hole to then boof another retentive hole with your next stroke. If you miss your boof on the left line prepare for a solid beatdown and have your mates get a rope ready, your going to need it. At present I've nailed this move each day, spurred on by being chased by rafts full of screaming Japanese.

All this water time is great for training for my first proper attempt at a whitewater competition. The HOA Extreme Whitewater Challenge, organised by my employer, it sounds like I stand a reasonable chance at winning some shinny kit. It would be great to meet any boating Brits that are in the area, get here for the party!

The Suns Origin

First of all I quickly put together a post together that has been posted on RohanTime.com This is Rohan's social page for customers, events and news. I have worked for Rohan for the past 8 months and has helped me to continue to live in the Lake District and now move onto my next adventure...

JAPAN, so if blog posts totally drop off over the next six months its because I am working hard as a trainee Raft Guide for a company called Hokkaido Outdoor Adventure. Wish me luck.

Freedom

The last month seems to have sped no doubt this was because off of the boating the team has been doing. To start off the North West saw a superb amount of swell come its way so we had a few sessions at Northshore and St.Bees. mostly were very windy but good waves to be had especially by Mike who was on his new long board which due to its size had no trouble catching any wave he wanted as if he had an engine.

Photo of Alex by Bob, Trib into the Rawthey.

 Next the rain came and saw us going a spate run of the Lune where actually most of the rapids were washed out however this lead to the formation of some pretty sweet wave chains and huge areas of boil which is always entertaining. On this day we also did for the first time as a team the middle section of the Rawthey. Now this run was pretty poor in our opinion. It needs a ton more water then guidebook suggests as it was very scrappy in places even though we were paddling it at a "high" level. Look out for a river wide tree that must be portaged about an hour into the river.

Bob running End of the World Rapid, Scottish Leven.

This poor experience was soon forgot about though as we nipped upto Glencoe for the 10th, 11th, 12th to see what Scotland had to offer. This was the first time for me paddling in Scotland and I can easily say it was some of the most challenging, scary, exciting, technical boating I have ever done. We had a great crew of people, Pete, George, Bob, Fiona, James, Sam and myself all were able to push ourselves on the rivers and we all saw our own bit of carnage. Luckily everyone came off easy and managed to only aquire a few solid bumps and bruises which we are all grateful for.

In the super stout SUNNY three days we got on the Orchy, Etive, Alt A'Chaorainn and Scottish Leven all of which I hope to repeat in the future. Anyone that is looking to get up paddling in Scotland I highly recommend getting in touch with a local boating crew as it saves on having to inspect every run and allows you to crack on at a good pace allowing for more rivers!!

Instagram

For the last fortnight the crews days off and water levels havent matched up and this prevented us from getting on the water as often as I would have liked to. We did make the effort to try and get on Stonethwaite Beck however we arrived to late and the water had dissippated over the pebble riverbed. So we went and smashed every eddy on the Greta again, this time at a medium level (1m).

I've been using Instagram for the past few months and am causally building up a presence on the platform. Spread the love and tag your quality whitewater shots with @whitewateraptitude . Also check out my followers and following lists for whitewater instagramers.

East

The last fortnight has seen some pretty high water levels in the North and the pleasure of being employed full time has lead to our group having to pick and choose our rivers to make the most of it. I made the bad decision to run the River Greta (Keswick, Cumbria) one day which turned out to be a bad choice as levels ended up dropping off by the time we got there and with this so did the play-waves and friendly stoppers disappear. This lead to me being band from picking rivers for the next few trips.

Upper Kisdon Force, River Swale

On the 1st of February we travelled out East to the North Yorkshire Dales initially wanting to get on the River Swale however this ended up being too low to we continued over to the River Tees where we decided to run the section Middleton-on-Tees to Winston Bridge. The section is normally a grade three section but due to the river being on the higher side of high this cranked up the grade with some deadly sized stoppers and the biggest wave chains I have ever paddled the choice of river this time was superb for our group.

Unfortunately no photos from me as I was concentrating on controlling my new boat but I expect to see some content from George. Y as he negotiated the river in his new Wavesport Mobius throwing down freestyle moves on the features that reminded him of Uganda. Jack. C was determined to style every line on every rapid whilst implementing his best practice in leading the team down the river. Bob. A was keen to get in amongst the large moving water too to remind himself of his recent trip to Nepal.

At roughly 26km! the section of river was a great blast and I'd love to do it again in a few weeks time to see how well the control of my new boat has improved and also I intend on having the camera with me as I've set myself the goal now of getting at least on photo of the river we paddle on each trip. The photo above is of Bob on dropping Upper Kisdon Force on the River Swale, he chose to do the river that day and it turned out to be mega low, guess I'm choosing the next river.

New Year - New Boat

For the past few weeks boating has been slim due to cold weather, work and water levels. The majority of my time has been spent on the River Leven adjusting to my newly purchased new/old boat a Liquid Logic Remix 69. A state of the art specialist river runner the boat has taken me a few weeks to tame having never really paddled a boat with such a rounded hull.

River Sprint

Last Wednesday I was especially pleased with my own performance in the boat when running the Sprint and then on into the Kent with Fiona W and Pete R. Slightly different to usual we paddled a low level Sprint for the first time which was a very cool. The river is quite enclosed with moss covering all rocks and trees making it feel like a proper adventure. After successfully negotiating the rapids the Sprint had to offer we continued to paddle the river which turns relatively flat. The Sprint then joins the Kent. A long flat-water section again sees the river head straight through the centre of Kendal where there are number of small play waves and weirs to inspect. Flat-water is rarely a enjoyable experience and after paddling the flat for roughly and hour this made seeing the normal get on for the Kent a great relief. During the time we had been paddling the flat the river had been rising due to rain and when arriving at Natland Bridge the river is at a healthy medium level (0.74m). This made the final whitewater section to Force Falls a brilliant level for our groups ability. We all made great lines. I was mega pleased with my line off of Force Falls where I'm sure the volume of the Remix in comparison to my Detox was a definite plus and I cannot wait to see where I can get to with this boat.