So…here it is and what an experience – race day on Dajue Mountain in China!
It seemed the entire population of Zixi had turned out to watch the excitement of us foreigners and many local teams enduring the whitewater knuckle ride, dropping over 200m in 3.6km.
Two giant blow up gold dragons, many red Chinese lanterns and decorative banners floating in the breeze flanked the ceremony area which was full of very (and I really mean VERY!) exited locals with cameras. Athletes making the mistake of venturing from the safety of the foreigners enclosure were instantly swallowed up by the crowd amongst cries of ‘Photo! Photo! Photo!
Opening ceremony at Dajue Mountain, Zixi Province, Eastern China
A weird giant mechanical wasp buzzed overhead, filming the proceedings as speeches were made by Zixi government officials, the head of the Chinese Watersports Administration and the head judge. Before long the race was declared open to huge green and purple smoking fireworks and a shower of pink confetti; totally surreal but pretty cool!!
Although no one really knew exactly what was going on we were lined in our rafting gear up on a wooden platform at the very top of the river, overlooked by an enormous dam. With no time for a warm up teams were ushered into their rafts, with 30 seconds time between each boat.
Last Goodbyes before the Race
Before we knew it the head judge bellowed down a megaphone….‘Three, Two, One, Attention, GO!’
China China here we come!
Approaching the first of over 30 drops and slides
Suze and I set off at a good pace, somehow managing to keep the twitchy two-man raft straight on the flat approach to the first slide.
Hello Rapidy Rapid!
And then to be honest I’m not really sure what happened; a blur of massive slides, spinning, water, boat filling up, almost flipping, high side left, phew, right, up into our seats again, ready for the next drop just around the corner.
‘Uh Oh!'
Boat full of water with no time to bail before the next drop
Pulling up the nose for a monster boof
‘YEEE HAAAA!' – GBR being spat out of the dragons mouth at top speed
Within a couple of minutes we spotted the first raft ahead of us – passing was really difficult as the river was so narrow. So as soon as the opportunity arises it’s power down UP UP UP, ping-ponging from rock to rock until the other raft is safely out of sight.
New Zealand hot on our heels and lining up for a pass
More than a couple of times rafts were bunched up unable to pass at the top of the drops, resulting in quite a few disgruntled teams pinned for valuable seconds, and with four teams finishing just 30 seconds apart this definitely affected final race positions.
Nearing the end and charging for the biggest drop of the race
Getting Owned!
27 minutes, 43 seconds and 74 milliseconds of chaos and it’s all over – the mixed New Zealand team won the race with the Men’s Czech Republic team following closely behind. Overall we placed 7th out of 18 teams and came first in the Women’s Category.
Thanks Palm Equipment for keeping us safe on the water!
After a quick shower and change we headed down to the awards ceremony flying our Union Jack with pride. Again the whole of Zixi turned up to the ceremony, which is was an surreal concoction of drumming, fireworks and traditional Chinese music.
Flying the flag with pride at the closing ceremony
With aching cheeks from many many many more photos (‘Photo, Photo!’) we headed over for the closing ceremony lunch. Unaccustomed to Chinese traditions we were unaware that a celebratory lunch would involve continuous toasts (everyone must empty their glass each time) with government officials, and the compulsory downing of 60% rice wine from incredibly beautiful decorative bottles. There was no get out clause here as top officials splashed more of the searing liquid into our cups – down the hatch it goes!
A trip in a cable car over the majestic Dajue Mountain followed before the next party that evening, this time held in our luxurious hotel.
The Dajue Mountain Range
Much hilarity followed as the top bread of the local government took to the Karaoke machine, break-dancing, waltzing to Auld Lang Syne and making each country in turn sing or dance in front of the audience. Thank goodness for our new made friends from the other international teams as Suze and I were made to sing ‘Hey Jude’ to the world – only a minute in (it was clear we needed help!) and the other teams rushed in to support us – thanks guys!
Ganbei! Feichang Ganxie! (Cheers! Thanks very much!)
A massive thank you to the organising committee namely the China Watersports administration and the Zixi County government for being so welcoming and inviting us to such a fantastic rafting competition. A huge thanks to Palm Equipment for keeping Suze and I kitted out and safe in top notch gear. A truly unforgettable experience.
Aghast that facebook is not allowed and struggling with internet speed Rosie has sent us this great post from China, read on…
We have arrived in China!
Flown over on an all expenses paid trip by the local Chinese government, Suzie and I have arrived in Zixi County in Eastern China to represent GBR in the Dajue Mountain Natural Water International Rafting Competition 2012.
'What the river looks like in the tourist catalogue'
We actually felt pretty lucky to arrive in one piece as it seems drivers in China are all boy racers – and there was a lot of water on the road! It’s been raining since we got here – first days training was today so we were bussed up high into the mountains with the other international teams – Czech, Hungary, Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and America.
And the river was like nothing any of us (despite rafting and kayaking all over the world) had ever seen! In Suzie Jackson’s words ‘I love China! Big river pimped up with maaaasive slides! Safety = bedraggled man in poncho with bamboo stick. I Love CHINA!’
'Raft coral at the top of the river'
'Those that didn't make it...'
Early night tonight for race day tomorrow – and who knows what that might bring, with the mini two person rafts nigh impossible to keep straight down huge 10m slides, spinning out of control at every opportunity!
'We Love Rafting In China!'
Exciting! Will be posting up how we get on very soon.
Once again our training weekend was set for North Wales. Spirits were high as were the water levels! But so was the strength of the wind. We were minus our coach for this weekend but he had done his home work and left us with a gruelling weekend plan to follow. Session one was a flat water session on Bala Lake doing sustained speed sprints. It was really hard to sustain anything with the wind that we were having to battle against, but we are ‘in it to win it’ so we soldiered on! After about an hour morale was pretty low when we realised we wern’t even half way through the session, but at least we were all still dry thanks to our Palm cags and dry trousers!! With an almighty roar from Suzie of “I am NOT TIRED” we put our heads down and finished what we had started! Then we quickly made a run for a lovely warm café in Bala for a cuppa, chat and re-coup.
Session 2 was spent on The Mighty Tryweryn practising our slalom skills. If only sometimes the water could flow a bit slower…and annoying rocks weren’t always in the way…
Most people might go home after a full day rafting like that, put their feet up, have a well earned cup of tea and watch Antiques Roadshow or re-runs of The Good Life. Not us. Nerys was ready to Body-Rock us with half an hour of pain with a Capital P! We set up in Debs living room and did a pretty immense core/plyometric workout which had the bonus effect of giving the floor a good polish too! I’m not sure what was harder, a day full of rafting or that evening session.
We didnt' think it was appropriate to show you a photo of us looking sweaty in Nezza's workout so have one of us doing handstands instead!
Sunday brought us much nicer weather and a day spent in Llangollen. We once again worked ourselves hard in the morning using the canal as our flat water venue this time doing endurance style sets, then we moved onto the Dee in the afternoon running down from Chainbridge to Town Falls for some more endurance based training. It was fab running the river with water in it and was great preparation for the European Championships in August – our next major competition!
Our formations for the Europeans are:
Sprint: Front – Deb, Rosie
Middle – Suzie, Alli
Back – Bryony, Nerys
Slalom: Front – Deb, Rosie
Middle – Fran, Alli
Back – Bryony, Nerys
Endurance: Front – Deb, Rosie
Middle – Fran, Suzie
Back – Bryony, Nerys
So watch out for us and cheer us on!!
We all trailed off home on Sunday sad for another weekend to be over, but Fran and Suzie, being gluttens for punishment, couldn’t wait to get out again. So two days later they were on the Menai Straights this time in Sea Kayaks doing sprints once again…maybe they should hook us up to the mains power supply.
It’s wet, cold and a strong freezing wind is blowing the raft off course – again.
It’s our 584th hour of training this year, and despite the mechanical repetitive drills and boat still veering off to the right it feels good. Spending this much time in a boat with 5 other determined and competitive girls puts you in some stressful situations but has great rewards when it all comes together.
On our 12th and final training session of the year we are focussing on maximising the efficiency of the blade and torso rotation, key skills for kayaking that you can directly transfer to whitewater rafting. With two sessions a day; two hours on flat water and two hours on whitewater with 10 minute off the water warm ups it’s an intense day. With no coach at present we spend time providing constructive criticism to each other on the flat, trying to create a balanced boat where everyone moves in symmetry with perfect vertical paddle shafts, matching torso rotation and sinking the blade to the same degree.
Timing is key to maintaining momentum and making moves on powerful water, and with two new squad members in the boat we spent a significant portion of the weekend working on synchronising all paddlers.
Over the next year we will be working on this and other skills, using video feedback and intense coaching in the hope that it might just give us that extra edge. In this game every second counts, and minute adjustments to the boat can make that difference between a medal placing, or nothing.
We’ll be bringing you updates from our training weekends over the next year as we prepare for the European Championships to be held on the River Vltava, in Czech Republic. We’ll be bringing you training tips and showing you what lengths we go to in order to stay fit and healthy and build up our fitness – it’s a real challenge! Follow our monthly blog to see how we’re getting on.
I know the gear can stand up to it – whether I can or not remains to be seen!
Myself and some of the Palm crew have just returned from a fantastic weekend at Simon Westgarth’s Gene 17 Adventure Paddlers weekend on the river Dart.
I’m sure the rest of the team will update on the events of the weekend soon, but I couldn’t resist getting in there first to tell you about the most fun thing I have done for ages!!
I’m not even really sure how it came about, but I’m sure it was something to do with the combination of my own withdrawal symptoms from rafting in Costa Rica and a team of adventurers freshly returned from the jungles of Indonesian Papua. The result was a fair band of pirates (Pete Wood, Chris Easterbrook, Dave Fairweather and myself) at the put in to Dart Meet with one borrowed raft and a broken pump. Without even trying we somehow managed to get some friendly paddlers to help fix the pump and inflate the whole raft such was their desire to watch us descend the river, and no doubt provide them with hours of guaranteed entertainment! On the 50m walk to the put in we picked up two more heroic, but, as became apparent later on, rather disobedient crew members. They went by the names Luke Farrington and Tim Burne and had spotted the fun a mile away, immediately ditching their kayaks to join in!
I’m not sure what happened to the kayak race down the mad mile that was roughly planned for 2.30pm (did we hijack it?!) but we ended up being lead down the section by Simon Westgarth and being surrounded flotilla of around 40 curious kayakers, who I’m certain were hanging around to see a pin, a flip or a swim.
For some reason I decided that where the raft was going was my responsibility and turned into a surprisingly bossy assertive guide. But with such a dream team there was no way we could fail! We all turned into children again, the whole experience was a fantastic emotional rollercoaster of adrenaline, uncontrollable laughter, whoops and shrieks as we whirled down the river over holes and ledges. Wicked rumours were flying around the kayak flotilla that there were expressions of pure terror etched into the faces of those in the front of the raft on the precarious lip of Euthanasia and Surprise Surprise, however we all know that rumours are never true…
We managed to descend the whole river successfully, with only a few pins and swims. The aforementioned Tim Burne soon became the most unintentionally disobedient crew member by perfecting the art of tumbling from the raft disconcertingly slowly, and in such a way that we still just couldn’t seem to grab him in time.
Luckily pictures of the fun, courtesy of photographer Kev Winsor (who can be found at Paddle Photos on facebook) were taken, so enjoy. Check out the awesome splat at Lovers Leap – they boys were very happy with that! I hope it inspires you to try rafting – just because it is so ridiculously fun!
A big weekend coming up for WW warriors here in the UK.
Sarting on Friday night team paddler Chris Eastabrook will be at CIWW in Cardiff explaining why, amoungst other things, Palm Gradient boots are so popular in Papua New Guinea. He kicks off at 8pm, but don’t forget the course is on the monthly 12 cumec release, so worth a bit of freeride action beforehand.
Further South West at about the same time, the one and only Big O, Olaf Obsommer will be opening this years Gene 17 Adventure Paddlers Weekender. This years show is a refreshing step away from the all action format covered so widely in WW kayaking. Instead it highlights how Olafs skill as a camerman, editor and veretan kayak adventuere have developed to recognise that whilst the purpose is kayaking, the desinations afforded by this means of travel are sublime in themselves.
Oh, and needless to say, there will be some boating. Water is falling from the skies and we will be bringing as many new Dagger Mamba’s as we can squeeze into the van with team paddlers Rosie cripps, Finn Burrows, Nick Horwood and Lowri Davies on hand to give you the lowdown. For those wanting to check kit we’ll have the sample Spark suit, Luna ladies PfD and of course prizes for the Saturday night raffle.
Wherever and whatever your paddling this weekend – have a cracker!
We’ve got 7 new exciting additions to the Palm fold this autumn in the form of the Senior Women’s GB Rafting Team and they’ve just arrived in Costa Rica for the World Rafting Championships. With nearly 80 years experience between them they’re strong contenders for the gold medal. Stay tuned here for updates during the competition.
For now though, here’s long time Palm paddler Rosie Cripps with a run down of the team and the competition.
We have arrived in Costa Rica – Pura Vida!
As a team of 7 from Wales, England and Scotland together we make up the GB ladies whitewater rafting team. Having been rafting or kayaking for most of our lives we are passionate about rivers and paddlesports, and have travelled to Costa Rica to compete in the World Rafting Championships. We’re proud to be sponsored by Palm, who have been incredible in kitting us out at short notice in matching kit just before we flew out – most importantly a set of super comfortable Helix PFDs, grippy neoprene Cartwheel Pants (don’t want to slip out of the raft!) and throwlines which are most definitely a must on the Pacuare river where the competition will be held.
We’ve already been here a week and have spent 5 days on the river, training and acclimatising to the intense heat and humidity before the competition begins. Over 30 countries will compete over three days and 3 disciplines for the title of World Champions.
Getting to the river is an endurance test in itself – and very exciting! Every day we leave camp around 7.30am for the first stage; a half hour bus ride through where we are deposited high above the Pacuare, just about able to glimpse its glistening brown form snaking though the dense jungle clad gorge below. An hour’s trek down to the river follows with discarded spider skins and bright green and red poison frogs underfoot. Yesterday there was an enormous tarantula on the track; it must have been special as even the local Tico’s stopped to look at this one.
Once at the river we’re surrounded by an intricate system of cables, pulleys and zip lines that criss-cross the river to transport the rafts upstream to the top of the sprint and slalom course. The rafts are loaded up onto the zip lines and fly across the river. We then clip it onto a series of other cables and hoist it a further around a km upriver through the jungle to the top of the sprint and slalom course. I think the first day it took us around 3.5 hours to get from the camp to on the water.
Once on the water the river is awesome! Huge boulder gardens in a tropical jungle set the scene with lanky vines and spider webs hanging overhead. Tight lines and numerous horizon lines maintain a super focussed and powerful boat. Never thought we would get so much boofing practise in a 16 foot raft. Ah well, Pura Vida as they say! The gorge section is big 4+ water, which will easily become class 5 with a bit more rain. And in Costa Rica it appears to rain like few other places on earth!
Return to the bull ring/camp where we’re staying after a full day on the river takes around 40minutes. Most of the teams taking part in the competition are staying at the camp, the Tico’s are super friendly and amazing hosts. Last night we were all treated to a bull riding show/rodeo. The skill and bravery of the cowboys, whilst riding incredibly well muscled bulls with enormous horns, along with their horsemanship was incredible to watch. Mike the owner of the bull ring was able to, without fail, lasso a full sized bull right around the horns whilst galloping at top speed past it on his Appoloosa stallion. Impressive indeed!
Finishing a day usually ends with a wildlife show starring the cleaner of the ladies loos at the camp – the top three items extracted from the toilets so far have been:
1. Enormous puffed up toad/frog as big as two fists that spits a milky substance into your eyes which may blind you
2. Huge beetle that looked very like a stag beetle but was around the size of a can of baked beans
3. Giant grasshopper/stick insect, masquerading very well as a leaf.
We’ll be posting more updates from training and the competition as much as we can, although rather like getting to the river, getting to the internet is more complicated than it first appears!
