Norway Kajaking

So after having spent far too long in Italy due to a faulty car we ventured to Norway. Here we were met by high water levels, 24hour daylight and even more new paddling friends to talk to.

Phil dropping Penny Drop

Our first region was Voss for the Extreme Sports Week which was easily the best combined sports and music festival I have been to. I cant wait to get to the event again hopefully with more kayak skills and confidence to be a stronger competitor in the weeks two main competitions. I missed out  The Brandseth downhill race, which looked rather intimidating but gave it my all competing in the Strondal BoaterX however I only placed 4th out of 5 in my heat, not enough to advance to the next heats unfortunately. It was an incredible experience to paddle next to some of the top athletes in the world and make a load of new contacts hopefully for some UK paddling.

Driving to Telemark

Laser Vision

On February the 9th I went under the laser and had corrective surgery to my eyes. The operation was a complete success and I now have better then 20/20 vision which is going to be super great for paddling and exploring. No more flaf and worry over losing contacts and the high risk of infection.

Unknown paddler - Kimmeridge Bay

 Since having the operation I have been unable to paddle which has been super frustrating. This has given me plenty of time to doddle and surf the net leading to the creation of the River God above. Inspired by the statues seen in temples and shrines I visited in Japan. I created the image using Photoshop and a drawing tablet.

The past weekend I snapped a few shots of some of the waves at Kbay and thankfully today I was given the all clear and am allowed to get back on the water myself. I'll most likely be looking at getting out on the waves of the south coast and if my days off of permit i'll be zooming over to North Devon or possibly even Scotland in early April.

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

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!!

Weather: DRY

This past month the weather has been pretty dry with only small light showers hitting the Lake District meaning very little whitewater boating for myself and others however I have been utilizing my new home to its advantage, being that I live roughly 20m from Lake Windermere. So I have been getting out in the long evenings and practicing techniques such as my C to C roll, Back-Deck roll, Double Pump and from the double pump have been attempting to bow or stern stall which is proving tricky.

The photo above was captured by myself. It shows Pete K and myself in front practicing on the flat water. This was taken along with many other photos from a static camera on the bank of the lake set to capture images with the intention of creating a timelapse however the idea did not turn out as planned.

Travel Writing #3 - Conquering Liza Beck

Mike's brainchild, the first descent of Liza Beck had been in the planning for the past 5 weeks. Mike had been up and down Gasgale Gill scouting the beck, moving rocks and spotting the best lines down the rocky riverbed. All we needed was water.

Mike and Tom

On the day Mike was determined to paddle the beck, the amount of water just wasn't enough for me but for Mike who was intent on his quest to paddle the “previously un-paddled” it was a great confidence building experience. For me, although I hardly paddled and lugged my boat all the way up the Beck to then not paddle down, it was still a great adventure. We were also joined as ever by Tom who is the most experienced boater of the group and his knowledge of whitewater safety and rescue was used to safely anticipate the most daring section of the descent, Double Drop. A set of two reasonable sized drops in a narrow channel with interesting landings. 

To get ourselves and our kayaks to the top of the beck we used rucksack like straps attached to our kayaks, constructed by Mike. These proved great for Mike and Tom however mine needed some further development to be made more comfy for long steep hauls, so I had to shoulder my boat and endure the strain. Whilst moving up the gill we inspected interesting features whilst having breaks from carrying the boats a few times. After we reached the starting point, distinguishable by the flow of water uphill of us dispersing into smaller and smaller tributaries like branches of a tree, Mike and Tom adjusted their boats and packed away their carry straps whilst I readied my cameras.

We were off very slowly and bumping rather then paddling down the Beck. This wasn't what I was expecting. After enduring five minutes of hearing the rocks of the riverbed gouge new scrapes into the hull of my boat I opted from then on to get out and just film and be safety officer. So again I shouldered by boat and hastily skipped back down the path we had just come up, to a position below Mike and Tom to film them bouncing down. The Beck surprisingly, has a number of good features that if there was more water would be fantastic. The most noticeable Mike has come up with names for, like the most memorable one Double Drop. As Mike continued to bump down the Beck I continued to do my best to carry my stuff and film his efforts. After arriving back at the most paddle-able point at the foot of Gasgale Gill the sun came out and beamed down as if to praise Mike for his effort.

I think more water is a key factor if this descent is to be achieved by us or anyone else wanting a challenge. But, Mike has achieved what he set out to do, complete the first descent of the Liza proving it can be done. When we had packed away our stuff back into Tom's van I presented Mike and Tom with my first pieces of Whitewater Aptitude apparel. T-shirts I had printed with my logo on. Tomorrow I'm off down to Mike and Tom's house to go paddling again and show them the footage I took on the day and hopefully help Mike piece together a short video to Mike's specifications.

  

Below is also a snapshot of me taken from a video, captured from my GoPro mounted on my rear kayak mount whilst I was carrying the kayak. I rotated the image and made it black and white for dramatic effect.

 

Dark Nights Week

Autumn is definitely here as I'm having to clear my cars window before I use it each time to get out on adventures. Managed to paddle a rocky low Upper Derwent and good level Greta on Friday. The Upper Derwent was ok, mainly very scrappy however had one good areawith a strong eddy line to play on that flushed out into a pool. I managed to swap into my friends older Pyranha Inazone it has a really slicey stern to it allowing me to throw down some pirouettes on the eddy line which helped practicing my support strokes. After doing the Upper Derwent the Greta ended up being quite challenging. Having already been paddling half the day to then go onto paddle a fast pushy grade III. Whilst also having to lead my friend Mike down the rapids. This was made harder as he was in a faster boat then me so I was having to blast it in the amrs to keep in front of him.

Last night I spent on the west side of Ulswater sleeping under the stars with just our cameras and sleeping bags. This was super fun and I had my frist attempt at getting a picture of star trails. A picture that shows the path of the stars across the sky in one image. The night was fairly clear and constellations were easily visible with the help of an App on Carrie's smartphone. The was also the planet Jupiter visible (white stream to the right of the picture).

Photo Boating

My boating is finally getting up to scratch. Yesterday I spent half the day on the river kayaking with friends Tom and Mike. We paddled the River Greta, a river i have paddled a number of times now and voted in the top 50 rivers to paddle in the UK. Having paddled the river a number of time I have now grown the confidence to take my camera along for the ride. I used my waterproof Peli-case to transport my camera between my legs as we traveled down the river. I would then descend the rapids, staying in line of sight, to a point where I could take photos of Mike and Tom coming down the rapid. This was very interesting as this would be Mike's first real taste of white water kayaking and has taken a steep learning curve to get to the level the river required that day. Luckily Mike was very determined and if he capsized he would wait for Tom or myself to quickly assist him preforming a eskimo rescue.

Below is a sequence of a time Mike went over.

That evening I attended a university residential teaching the first year students on Adventure & Wildlife Media the basics of how to use and look after the equipment they would be using throughout their course. After this had finished Carrie, Ross and I stayed up till 2.30am trying our hands at capturing a time lapse of the stars that went quite well. Below is one photo from the sequence that shows a shooting star. 

Like to full timelapse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKP4ZneihSg

Before returning to Uni

After having returned home from America I spent a short time at home where I actually managed to get out kayaking once at Bournemouth Pier surf kayaking, it was very strange and the first time in a long while I had been paddling on the sea, it was awesome. The waves at the pier ranged between 3-5ft. Mat and I had picked a great day to go out. Managed to catch some good waves and then usually ended up getting whipped out which was great for practicing my roll in moving water in a relatively safe environment I.e where I'm not going to smash my face in... again. However I did manage break one of my GoPro attachments, how I do not know.

Following my time at home I then ventured forth In my expensive go-kart to West Snowdonia, Wales. To again meet Mat and spend the next two days camping and walking based out of the Ogwen Valley. The third day was spent climbing in the morning then kayaking in the afternoon. We paddled a section of the River Dee. I did well on this grade III descent no swims, one roll, at Town Falls when everyone was watching. That afternoon got me reacquainted to wearing clothes again whilst paddling as had spent the last fourteen weeks paddling in just boardshorts, BA and lid.

The next two days were what our trip was all about, Pyranha Fest 2012! From last year i have definitely improved my boating. This year again on the Tryweryn, I felt a lot more comfortable giving it a good effort and making a lot more eddies then last year, a few rolls and only one swim on the last quick run of the weekend. Now I've got my car I should be able to also keep getting out (whilst doing my work, dad) and keep my ability up and hopefully get some more footage of my adventures. Looking forward to the uni year ahead.

Rheged Exhibition

Had a bit of luck with some more photos in a competition this week. My photos were selected to be shown in the Rheged Centre along with other photos from students studying on either the Adventure and Media or Wildlife and Media courses across all years. Students were allowed to enter one photo into each of the three categories which were available. I entered three photos and had all three selected to be shown, must be doing something right.

The three categories and my photos were...

 Adventure

Landscape

Wildlife