A dry spell over the last few days left me with no excuse but to get on with some work, fortunately I was reminded about the Moriston, which is releasing every tuesday afternoon throughout the summer. Bumping into a group from Sheffield Uni at the put in, it’s quite apparent that this reliable run is a pot of gold between downfalls in the west.
The fun rapids are split between two sections, the upper and the lower, doing laps of both is the best way to go about the afternoon as it only takes ten minutes to walk back to the top… please don’t paddle between the sections as it’s longer than you think! Here’s a quick look at the rapids…
Trying hard not to get slotted on the first drop of the upper, river left of the island. The middle of the V shaped drop is quite shallow so best to avoid it by pushing left or boofing off the right.
River right of the island at the top of the upper is much cleaner with a short but sweet lead-in to a ledge, it has given out a few kickings over the years but offers a great boof and anyone who’s a bit nervous can have plenty of saftey cover right next to them.
Half way down the upper this ledge creates a sticky hole against an undercut on the right. Without a half decent boof you take a chance on this one, I’ve seen it just spit people out after a quick backloop and I’ve also seen it recirculate swimmers.
After the ledge a short continuous section leads to a shallow playhole right next to the take out. Load up the boats and head down to the lower!
Again you have two options at the start of this section. Put in river left for the trickier drop (above) which has a slow lead in, making a clean line a little bit harder than you first think… I’ve done my best rock splat ever, totally accidental, against the undercut wall at the bottom of the drop in a Nomad! Also since it’s summer and there’s a bridge right below the drop, count on a coach full of carnage hungry tourists having cameras at the ready, (Below), to escape potential embarrassment go for the cleaner river right put in.
The main event of the lower section is the slide, just around the corner from the bridge. Keep left and hold on, it’ll put a huge smile on your face.
Don’t forget your playboat! At the bottom of the lower a little hole which is awesome for working on your ends, loops and blunts.
All in all, not a bad guarantee when everything else is dried up! Looks wet this weekend though, speaking with Dave and Rich it’s going to be an exciting one!
After our first successful mission in the North west, we decided to focus on the Central Highlands and on the possibility of some bigger drops and bigger volume. So, it was back onto the train ready for a 28 hour journey to the city of Nah Trang, followed by an invigorating 5 hours in a minibus to the town of Da Lat.
An exciting early morning portage
With our base set up, the team headed out to collect as much information about the surrounding area as possible employing scooters, taxis and mini-rafts to check out the flows. All signs seemed to point North to the Yok Don National Park.
Yet another lengthy drive delivered us, in darkness, to the Dray Sap Waterfall. Although the team couldn’t yet see the fall it sounded thoroughly promising, and as morning broke it became obvious we weren’t going to be disappointed.
Andy looks up at the mighty Dray-Sap Falls
Whilst chatting to the locals it became apparent that there were some more falls about 5km further up the river, a short tractor ride delivered us and the kit to another set of sweet looking drops.
Andy hitting his line
The guys ran various different lines on the top falls and then headed downstream, with some intrepidation and anticipation of Dray Sap Falls themselves. On reaching the falls, the team split up and explored the full width of the river. A couple of lines were decided upon and the rest of the afternoon was spent on various descents.
Luke on Dray Sap Left
Another mission completed, the team are heading back to the coast for a couple of days before beginning the lengthy journey back through Vietnam and China to Hong Kong.
At 6pm the other night when I answered the phone to Dave Martin, a fellow weegee boater, the best we were hoping for the following day was a nice mid level blast down the Etive and tribs. However, driving up the A82 we were delighted with the monsoon conditions which hit us as we rounded the point of Loch Lomond. Our aspirations for the day were instantly upgraded to a nice mid level blast down down the Falloch… until we pulled over to look at the gorge which had gone beyond unrunable and seemed to be entering apocolyptic levels. And so I felt the need to keep positive as Dave’s concerns of a day chasing unpredictable levels grew.
To kick off we opted for a high level Connonish, and as we started the walk in, rain stopped causing us to pick up pace and arrive at the put in to a slightly calmed, but never the less awesome level.
The first drop, always a menace due to the stream which enters from river right just above the drop and tries to push seemingly good lines astray although the considerable undercut and tow back below the drop on river right were enough to keep me online.
Some nice continuous read and run class three leads to a more ominous view above this drop, where first timers down the run should certainly have a look. The drop above, a fun little boof on river left, has a nasty sump two feet to the left of where you run it so keep an eye out.
Some great read and run makes it an amazing wee run. Don’t be put off by very high levels as when rain stops it’s as if someone has pulled the plug and the river looses volume very very quickly.
To keep our day on a roll we decided to take a gander at the Etive, which despite blue sky and fluffy clouds was very high indeed with very little room for error, although the lip of most drops cleaned up with no rock showing to catch you out.
The nicest surprise was the turbo boof which letter box seemed to give you, great fun!
Right angle had a more intimidating look than usual but some power and a late stroke gave a nice angle and satisfying kick through the towback.
Dave on a solid heading, but in for a fairly hefty beat down due to the kick at the bottom. Fair play he held on and made it out of the river left hand side and rolled up against the wall which is pretty much unheard of at good levels.
From the Etive we had hoped to fire up the Nevis but brilliant sunshine and a text from Dave Biggin informed us the extra drive wasn’t worth it, and so we hit the road home… with one quick stop for a run down the Falloch which had calmed to nice medium levels.
One of my favourite rapids due to the short but nippy lead in. I think the Falloch has also become one of my favourite rivers due to it having numerous sections, all of which hold some great rapids, and in all the times I’ve run it, the sun has been out for all but one!
The run in to ‘Twist and shout’.
All in all, an awesome day, I hope a lot of people are getting so jammy with the levels!
This summer, tomorrow in fact, I’m off to Canada to become a Keener at Ottawa Kayak school! For those of you who don’t know, this is a really great teen kayaking school on all the BIG waves on the ottawa river and it’s focused on teenagers really wanting to improve their paddling. As the website says it “combines old school values with new school boating”.
For three weeks I’ll be paddling with some of the best coaches and learning loads more tricks. I’m really going to use this opportunity to learn new tricks and improve on the ones I can already do. I’m especially looking forward to paddling all the big waves such as Buseater.
Not only that I’ll also have training for swift water rescue and safety, which is always useful as a paddler.
I’ll be posting on the Palm blog to keep everyone updated about my adventures in Canada
After 4 years away, racing returned to the Ula Valley in Norway this weekend for the Ula Extreme Race 09. With perfect levels, 40 of Europe’s finest turned out to battle it out for the title.
Full report and results coming soon but in the meantime check out this video:
I have just arrived back in NZ for two weeks downtime before jumping back on the plane and heading to North America for more adventures. My return coincided with one of NZ’s frequent winter storms so not one to miss the chance to huck some drops I loaded up the truck and headed for the hills. A TV channel here in NZ is running a feature of our recent Iceland mission so I dragged them along for the ride. They were very stoked at the awesome interview location and the chance to check out some waterfall hucking first hand! Tempratures are less than tropical down here in the antipedes at present but as per usual the Sidewinder dry top kept me toasty warm – keep it up Palm! Check out more on our NZ A-Day at Red Bull Special Op’s.
The British Universities Kayak Expedition 2009 is well underway. A long, and somewhat convoluted journey across China (which turns out to be quite big), into Vietnam and ended with the team plus boats in Hanoi.
Chinese border crossing
After a few days of arranging logistics and acquiring information, the team headed north towards Ba Be Lake in search of ‘gnar’. Unfortunately the area turned out to be lacking in white water as well as being very densely vegetated, which made scouting almost impossible.
The team soon decided to head West to the area around Sapa, where the terrain seemed more conducive to white water. Unexpectedly the area revealed a collection of steep and technical granite based runs. Feeling more like the Italian Alps than South East Asia.
checking out a rapid on the ngoi Dum
Hitting the choss
Finding some world class rapids and super sweet moves, the team were finally satisfied on the choice of Vietnam as a destination.
luke on "broken dog leg"
After 10 days on the road, the team are back in Hanoi for a couple of days to prepare for the second trip down South to the area around Da Lat.
Tim on "blind leading the blind"
Read more about the Team’s adventures at kayaknam.com
I have just returned from an awesome expedition in Iceland where we were filming for Rush Sturges and Tyler Bradts upcoming feature ‘Dream Result’. Along with Rush, Tyler and Patrick Camblin we headed to the Land of Fire and Ice in search of big waterfall adventures!
We spent three weeks circumnavigating the entire Island and found some amazing drops. As well as dropping a few of Iceland’s more postcard drops we also knocked of several sweet first descents.
Camping in Iceland during the summer months is always a challenge due to the 24 hour sunlight and the extremely changeable weather. Luckily for us Iceland has a constant stream of natural hotsprings offering welcome refuge to the weary kayaker! Luckily for me on the water I was wearing the Sidewinder Top and Pant Combo as well as the new SIS Immersion Suit which both performed exceedingly well keeping me warm and dry in all conditions.
This was one of the most enjoyable trips I have been on for a long time. The combination of an awesome crew, unique location and epic paddling made for a memorable adventure. We filmed a great segment for Dream Result and got a ton of amazing images so be sure to check back here and on www.benbrown.co.nz for more tales as well as a video blog from the adventure.
I’ve been meaning to put this post up for a bit, but am just now getting my mind around what I wanted to write down. This year I decided to spend two weeks in May kayaking in the Sierras of California. After a couple of years of trying to time some of the more famous runs in Cali I’ve decided that the best way to go is just to show up without an agenda and get whatever’s there! After testing that this year and possibly having the best 10 days of kayaking I’ve had in quite some time I think I’ll stick to that theory for future trips to that granite wonderland. While this trip had numerous spectacular (often a bit scary) I feel like it was highlighted by a couple of runs on the South Feather. Every once in a while you get to paddle a river that just makes you flat out appreciate being able to kayak. For me the South Feather was one of those runs. Even now after a month to think about it I still have trouble putting it into words. The best I can do is say that its the whole package, the whitewater, the place, the group, and so much more. Rather than attempt to write it down I’ll just put up a couple pictures and say that its one of the most incredible places I’ve ever been! To get to places like this is why I kayak. Enjoy
Not all paddling on the Thames is recreational during the summer. The whitewater crowd are still out and about.
From the Tuesday night squirt boat sessions at Chertsey weir run by the guys from WWTCC, to the Boulters Youth Freestyle event and slalom competitions, its all happening.
Its been a while since any of us from Palm did slalom but inspired by the recent, and spectacular, European Championships we decided to get the race boats out and give it a go at theShepperton Canoe Club division Three and Four race.
The event was entry level , which basically means you can rock up in any old tub and get your race head on. With summer river levels prevailing there wasn’t much flow to tackle, but none-the-less the organisers had set a devious course that got you working hard throughout.
It was a fun event and you’ve got to hand it to the BCU, the development of paddlesport at youth level is inclusive and encompassing. At Shepperton the majority of the paddlers were under sixteen and many from clubs from inner city areas – nice one.
