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.

Air Time

This past week it has been wet in the North. The storms and tides I previously blogged about have changed our favourite surf beach, Silecroft. Masses of sand and pebbles have been moved changing how the waves form and tide surges in an out. This left Tom and I very puzzled the other week when experiencing the new tidal flow as we found ourselves at one point surfing small waves away from shore only to collide with the normal onshore swell. These strange less predictable conditions left us looking back towards the rivers for comfort and luckily its been chucking it down.

Low Force, Upper Tees

To get on the rivers we ventured further afield heading out to the Upper Tees and Upper Swale both known for their waterfalls. Luckily the river gods delivered superb river levels on both days that matched our groups ability. My GoPro accompanied me on both trips and as ever I set it to photo every second mode and left it to do its thing. I'm definitely going to be taking my DSLR to the Swale next time its at a similar level, roughly 0.70m, I'll also have to summon the courage to run the drops first then too to get the shots.

Lower Kisdon Force, Upper Swale

From our later trip to the Swale our return jounrey was also very exciting as we had to negotiate our way back across the Dales in the sudden snow that had fallen.

I Ran the River Swale

This week last year I took photos and video of friends on the River Swale, North Yorkshire.

This week I paddled the River Swale and had friends video me for once!

On Tuesday of this week I joined four other friends all from UCLAN university and had a day of anxiousness, adrenaline, waterfalls, success and vocal celebrations. The feeling of accomplishment I felt that day, I have not felt in a long time and I had a permanent smile for the rest of the day. The waterfalls we were going over ranged from roughly 8ft to 15ft and were graded IV and V.

The rapid/river grading system in whitewater kayaking is based on skill required to negotiate the rapid, the hazards of a rapid and risk and outcomes of the rapids. The scale goes from I-VI. At the top of the scale, grade VI, a rapid that is grade VI is seen as not passable or if so only in very specific conditions. Upon this if you get the line wrong on the rapid or mess up your going to end up either dead or severely injured in hospital. A description of all the grades can be found here on UK river guidebook.

Hopefully in the future I can post a link to the video my friends took.

To show what we were paddling you can watch some videos of my firends from last year on my youtube channel. Click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WhitewaterAptitude