Gene 17 Adventure Paddlers’ Weekend, River Dart

Vast amounts of paddlers rocked up at the River Dart Country Park this weekend for Gene 17′s Adventure Paddlers Weekend, and what a weekend it was! 

The lack of rain and subzero temperatures certainly didn’t put anyone off – the bunkhouse was booked out and all three carparks were rammed all weekend. Saturday started early for team Palm with a dawn raid on the Upper Dart in the Dagger Greens (we had to make sure we’d be able to manage the race course without getting too nailed!).

With the number of pins in single figures we decided an extra metre of boat over the competition probably wasn’t cheating too much and, after a speed run of the Loop with good uni friends, we headed back to Dartmeet. Luckily the race went well and the long boats sailed to victory. Definitely cheating!

That evening we were treated to showings of 80′s German classic Family Mad and an awe inspiring documentary following Ben Brown (check out his new site below) and Steve Fisher’s trip to Iceland. After the films Graham Milton did his best to disuade anyone from visiting Greenland in a fantastic presentation about his summer kayaking-come-hiking trip.

With bleary eyes Sunday was another early start with a mad dash down the Upper to get to ‘the mad mile’ to catch the light and do a photoshoot for the new Immersion Suits. The light was incredible and we got some great shots, thanks Paul! Watch this space but until then here’s a taster….

Many thanks to Simon Westgarth for organising yet another successful weekend, to Ewart from AS Watersports, to our pap Paul Wilkinson for keeping up with us running down the footpath loaded with camera kit and to everyone else who helped us out over the weekend.

As always the Mamba and Nomad demos were extremely popular; the winner of the Palm paddle top will be announced on the Gene 17 site in a few days.

Tim