Spin 'til you're dizzy

Went down to Burton CC to see their shiny new clubhouse and went out for a play on Burton weir; nice little stopper giving the chance to spin and spin and spin and spin and spin and spin and spin. Awesome fun.

Pictures taken from the stopper, hence the water on the lense...

Mark Brian above, the wave below

Eye eye

Travel chaos my arse

Spent Thursday at work being warned of doom, gloom and impending apocalypse if I dared to venture out on the roads by various different news sources...

...what a load of tosh; left work at the usual time, and before long was in Lancaster for tea and medals* with Craig and Becky.

Continuing with the theme of not doing the same old rivers over and over again, we paddled the Crake, which most of us hadn't done, and then the first bit of the Levens; the Crake was a good level, and the Levens was a bit low, but a good testing level for those who hadn't paddled it before, and with some good waves.

Loz looking gnarly

Craig trying not to get his head wet

Becky and Phil

Travel chaos and monsters again failed to materialise and I was safely tucked up in my Warwickshire country mansion by 2am.

(*beer and pizza)

Thank [insert deity of choice here] I'm off tomorrow...

...and I get to go paddling. Christmas-fuelled retail-mania-rage is doing my head in.

WAVE WARS

Queen of the wave (matt) on the Wenning

Wennington weir bites back...[or] why I now feel justified in my choice of an expensive helmet

My neck hurt for quite a while after doing this:

Identities have been disguised to protect the innocent and your innocence

Catching up

Despite paddling a fair bit these past few weeks, I keep forgetting to put stuff on here, partly due to being busy, and partly because I'm lazy.

Anway, last weekend we (Craig, Becky, Loz, Rick and myself) paddled the Kent in the morning, which was at a reasonable level;

Above: Becky on one of the rapids in the middle
Below: Craig sporting this years must-have orange gear

In the afternoon, Loz and Rik had to go home and be responsible parents, so Craig, Becky and me went to the lower Duddon with some people we met in a car park.

The Duddon was pretty high, and once we got past the falling-over-in-the-field-at-the-get-in stage, and resigned ourselves to the wind and rain, was a good run. Most of the river was bouldery and constant, with a bigger rapid under a bridge near the bottom, which had some huge waves leading into it. One of the group had a bit of a swim here, but everything worked out ok, so we retired to the pub for tea and medals.

Didn't take any pictures on the Duddon as there was no way my hands were coming out of my pogies, but we did get name-checked on someone else's blog. How exciting.

Last Saturday

I went to Halton rapids in Lancaster with Fear, part-time part timer from UKCanoes in Lancaster. For once, Halton was a good level with some decent waves.

(Above: Me, Below: Fear)

The Fear took a swim later on, which was funny.
Once he was out of the stopper.
It stopped being funny when I had to repack my throwline.

The beginning...

No Big Grades began in November when two mild mannered shopkeepers managed to score the same day off work; we met in the Lakes to paddle anything except the Kent or the Leven.

So far so good, except that Lady Luck is a right cow, so we ended up on the Kent and Leven due to lack of water and imagination.

Interesting get in after portaging Backbarrow weir on the Leven (above)
Looking back up to Backbarrow weir in medium levels in the sunshine (below)

Easy grade three, that's the life for me...

Coming soon...

I'd like to say that we will regularly update this, but lets face it, we probably won't.

In the mean time, here is a picture of something we didn't paddle.