Bristol Canoe Club Magazine – Summer 1999
In This Issue
* From the editor
* Pool Games Night
* The Gower, by Jules
* A warning for polo players
* Marathon
* Bristol Marathon
* Boat hire fees
* Grand Canyon – Colorado River ’99
* Dagger’s new range of boats
* Club Dinner
* Marketplace
* Multi-disciplinary events
* North Wales weekend
* Photo Gallery
* Programme
* Membership list
From the Editor
Many thanks to all who have contributed to this issue – lots of articles from people who have never contributed before. Please keep them all coming in.
Thanks – Conor (editor)
Pool Games night
(This took place some time in March, 1999.)
Results
1st. Beth Hewer, Tony Barrass, Tom Gibbs(?), Paul Niblett – 6 pts
2nd. Conor, Chris Hewer, Stuart Balkwill, Lisa Gunton – 8 pts
3rd. Clare Hinchliffe, Harvey Lyons, Jacques Roziers, Steve Bennett – 8 pts
4th. Murray Torrible, Crispin Waddy, Paul Coyne, Lee Nichols (?) – 10 pts
Many thanks to Lisa and Paula for running this.
Conor
The Gower, by Jules
Well, even the journey there had brought tears to my eyes, with Kerry (from New Zealand) trying to come to terms with both toll bridges and Welsh so which direction are we going then, Coin-ed or Mann-ed (think about it). We crossed our fingers in the hope that the kayaks would stay on the roof and kept looking up though the sunroof to see if they were still on. We felt like Thelma and Louise.
We had a good feeling about this one and we were very excited. Sand, surf and sun always adds to a perfect Bank Holiday and this was no exception. The campsite at The Gower was as cool as Park Street in Bristol and the sun was as hot as a grill. A mini festival with tents formed the surf village with a mixture of surfboards and kayaks lining the streets. Serious sound systems, pumping out mellow drum and bass and laid back happy techno punctuated the day from all directions, the air was clean and pure with the occasional smell of cooked food. But this was better than Glastonbury.
We carried the kayaks for an eternity to the sea and then tried to surf. I found the boat a rather nice Dagger RPM, very heavy and a real endurance test. When I was in the sea it was great to be bobbing the waves, studying other kayaks and surfboarders and how they navigated the rather intimidating waves.
Paul gave a quick lesson and it was a case of well, Im here now, got to try it. I was nervous, but hey, we were Thelma and Louise. We were all waiting for the waves that were going to do the serious business, Kerry, Paula, Pete, Clive, Simon, Tom..er ..Ben..er..Tom (looking very cool and mischievous as always but everyone had their revenge back as Tom was left gasping for breath, when he was held under as each waved rolled in!), Chris, Paul. and Im sure there were others! Everyone was great to watch and brilliant to be with.
When THE wave came along, I was told just to paddle with it and then use the blade to steer the boat so that the waves didnt tip you sideways. When I went sideways I also went over. Paul then told me to put the paddle out and lean on it as a support stroke. I still kept going over, but the frequency got less and less. The speed of surfing was such an adrenaline rush.
The evening came along and after we got cleaned up and Kerry and I cooked our dinner on the camp stove, then we were introduced to some of Chriss 98% vodka (rather similar to paint stripper) and also the local pub. I was seriously sunburnt, like Id just returned from Chernobyl, and Simon wasnt much better with blisters on his forehead.
Then there were rumours of the ravers carrying massive sound systems onto the beach yepeee a beach party, the perfect end to a perfect day. We all meandered along the beach, following the distant sound of the bass line, not really knowing where we were going. The sand dunes were almost impossible yet hysterical to negotiate after the vodka and beer, but noone seemed to care, it was just more fun to be had. It was like The Pied Piper meets Lara Croft.
The rave itself when we finally got there was a disappointment, with the ravers mostly too stoned to dance. but we showed them. Paula and Clive were on the floor, lying down and doing some canoe manoeuvre which actually made quite a trendy ravey dance and fitted the music, then we had a show of Tales of The Unexpected as the shadows of Bristol Canoe Club grooved around and in, the bonfire (Pete decided to take up firewalking!). We were in heaven. The hangover the next day was awful and God did my face peel!
Julie Taylor
A warning for polo players
And something for the Polo Players. Did you know:
a) It’s illegal to purchase a canoe helmet that’s not been CE approved?
b) It’s illegal to make and sell canoe helmets without CE approval?
c) It’s also technically illegal for an individual to fit a face-guard to a helmet!
d) It will be a recommendation from the BCU that the Polo players in the UK will only be able to participate in polo matches wearing approved equipment?
That’s all for now.
Bob Slee
Marathon
Marathon Results
Dart Circuit
K2 8 Miles 1st Amy Brookes / Steve Bennett
K2 4 Miles 1st Lee Taylor / Chris Hewer 4th Austin Watkins / Ruth Bishop
K1 8 Miles (?) Colin Chudley
Tamar Circuit
K1 12 Miles Steve Bennett
K1 8 Miles 2nd Colin Chudley
K1 4 Miles 5th Beth Hewer
K2 8 Miles 1st Ron Stinchcombe / Stuart Balkwill
K2 4 Miles 2nd Chris Hewer / Lee Taylor 4th Amy Brookes / Ruth Bishop
Griffon
K2 8 Miles 1st Steve Bennet / Nick Howard
K2 4 Miles 2nd Pete James / Sarah
K1 8 Miles 2nd Colin Chudley
K1 4 Miles (?) Ruth Bishop
Wednesday night improvers sessions going very well 6pm – 7.30pm
Steve B.
Bristol Marathon
Bristol CC Marathon Race June 16th River Avon, Chequers Inn.
Results
12 Miles Steve Bennet Div 3, 3rd (plus swim!)
8 Miles
Alan Moore Div 4, 3rd
Mark Davis Div 4, 2nd
Pete James Div 6, 1st – well done!
Nick Pagon Div 6, 4th
Austin Watkins ‘couldn’t get me head round it boss!’
8 Miles Div 5/6 K2
Stuart Balkwill & Colin Chudley 1st
Nick Howard & ‘The lovely’ Anita C from Exeter 3rd
4 Miles
Paul Coyne Div 8, 1st (I’ll give it a go!)
‘The very sexy’ Amy Brookes Div 8, 2nd (bug babe)
The star of Odyssey – ‘Dancing Queen’ – Ruth Bishop Div 9, 3rd
‘California Girl’ Beth Hewer Div 9, 5th (all the way from LA)
Lee ‘the terminator’ Taylor Div 9, 7th (I’ll be back to deal with them)
A brilliant performance by all competitors – especially the juniors in very fast & tricky currents – the weir was flat and there were dozens of boils and eddies all the way. Some good competition from other clubs – the Div 5/6 K2 had a large entry and made for some good racing with the lead chaging several times throughout the race. The entertainment ratings were 100% up with a spectacular swim by ‘yours truly’ 30 yards after the start in race 1 – never give up! Most excellent performances from Pete James, Paul Coyne, Amy Brookes and Ruth B. Next race Fal (Truro) June 20th the national championships at St. Neots. Many thanks to Chris G, Nicky B for organising and to Eppy, Conor, Lisa, Quent and Nobby – safety cover and support.
A most excellent day
Steve Bennett.
Boat hire fees
Could I please remind all members that if you ever take a club boat away from Bristol that you must pay a seat fee of £5, or £4 for concessionary members.
This applies to booked out general purpose boats, but it also applies to polo boats taken to competitions, and to marathon boats taken to competitions, with the exception of Club competitions (ie those we organise ourself).
Conor – with my Treasurer’s hat on.
Grand Canyon – Colorado River ’99
See Quentin’s write-up here .
Dagger’s new range of boats
Daggers commitment to providing the complete range of playboating kayaks for all shapes and sizes takes another step forward with the launch this month of a smaller version of the ‘Medieval’ for the not so large guys and the increasing number of female paddlers with their new boat the Vengeance’. It’s geometry is a scaled down version of the Dagger Medieval measuring in at 2.34 Metres, a little under 17kgs and a Volume of 195 Litres suitable for a paddler weight range of 40- 70kgs.
The Vengeance will be available in the UK from dealers around mid-July 99.
Bob Slee
Club Dinner
Having been an ex-member of the Bristol Canoe Club for a number of years I recently returned to the fold. It is pleasing to see that despite the fact that many of the old paddlers like myself (Quent, Avis and a few others excluded) are no longer actively paddling, the club is surviving well, still active and still well supported. Whilst Jane & myself knew few of the attending participants at the club dinner last Friday evening, we did have a great meal, it was a very good social event and would sincerely like to pass on our thanks to the organiser Paula.
Bob & Jane Slee.
Marketplace
Avis says Free to a good home… Halfords roofrack for Fiesta, probably fit similar car too.
Multi-disciplinary events
Pete goes Adventure Racing, again.
So how does a respectable kayaker end up in the middle of Lake Roosevelt in Arizona, in the dark, paddling a kids inflatable canoe with an ex-special forces sergeant major, and a German model?
For those of you who don’t know me, I have just come back from a year or so living in Seattle, USA. In between doing some contracting for a certain large aircraft manufacturing company, I managed to fit in a number of “Adventure Races”. The term isn’t tightly defined, but these generally involve a mixed team of 3-5 people racing non-stop through the outdoors on foot, by mountain bike and – last but not least – by canoe/kayak. Additional activities have been known to include horse (and camel) riding, climbing on fixed ropes, caving and white-water rafting. Apart from trips to Colorado, Arizona (twice) and Vancouver, I also managed to escape to Morocco and New Zealand. They were obviously paying me too much.
Back to Lake Roosevelt. The race in question was a weekend affair – and as such was about 36 hours long. Sleep was optional, and therefore forgone. Paddling several miles in such a tiny, fragile boat is certainly a challenge. In order to get two adult males and two rucsacs in our bright yellow “Seyvlor” we ended up with me in the back, and my feet in my friend’s lap. Not really the ideal position for power paddling, but once we’d got used to keeping the thing in a straight line, we found that lots of short fast strokes did the job.
We had managed to presuade Andrea Spitzer (twice world Quadrathlon champion) to be the sole female in our 5 person team, and decided that if anyone could paddle her own canoe (and keep up) it was her. This she managed to do, even when a leak left her sitting up to her navel in water. Emerging from the boats in the middle of the night we were all frozen to the core. By midday, we were out of water to drink, and in danger of suffering from heat exhaustion.
Most race organisers supply the boats, which – given the multi-disciplinary nature of the events – generally means that they come into the recreational, or at least the mega-stable categories. On the bright side I have now done races involving flat water, down-river racing, ocean kayaking, and white water. I’ve used K1s, unlimited class high performance kayaks, single and double sea kayaks, OC3s and inflatable canoes (including some actually more suitable for white-water than the bath tub at home).
At the other end of the excitement spectrum, I managed to get on an Australian team competing in the “Eco Challenge”, a 7-10 day non-stop “expedition” race. Last year it was in Morocco and started with camel riding. A great leveller, as there weren’t more than half a dozen people in the race who had any idea at all about the beasts.
200 camels lined up for a dawn start on the beach was a memorable sight. When the gun went off, things rapidly descended into anarchy with teams scattered all over the place. 20 kms down the coast “Fred” my camel, was seemingly on his last legs. There were plenty of beasts there before me, but not many complete teams. After a few miles of “coasteering” (running aong beaches, and swimming around rocky peninsulas) we were up in the top 6 teams, ready for the kayak.
In most teams I’ve raced with, I rate as an “experienced” paddler (yes, really), but not this time. Between John (4 times world marathon champion), team captain Jane (3 times winner of the Molokai’i crossing – the most prestigious ocean kayak race in the world?) and Tim Smallwood (who had also won a few races) I was the paddling puppy. Just as well really, as we were paddling an unforgiving rocky coastline, where the occasional beach was the only place to land. As these were all compulsory checkpoints, we went in and out of a lot of surf. We had an over-night stop after about 30km. When Jane and Tim swam on the way in (we were in doubles) I concluded that this must be reasonably challenging stuff.
We had already lost a number of bike bottles (and all Tim’s food) paddling out through the first lot of surf before settling in, and stowing everything below decks before leaving any beaches. Blessed with a following wind out on the ocean, John taught me a lot more than I had previously picked up about surfing the breaks that came our way.
On the dawn of the second day everybody seemed to be waiting for us to lead the way out through the breakers. The first wave woke me up pretty effectively. The second left me sprawled over the deck behind me, and the third one burst our decks and left us surfing backwards into the beach again. We did make it out the next time, after a bit of boat draining. After another 30kms we had reclamied the lead, and negotiated some big fat 10′ breakers on our way into the last water checkpoint.
After that all that was left was 4 days of trekking, 30km of riding scary Barbary-Arab stallions, canyoning, abseiling, and a 100 mile mountain bike ride. We got lost, got stuck, found our way out again and came out second overall. Next time I’ll take my own spraydeck, or at least get some braces.
Next stop? Patagonia, Argentina, and some grade IV white-water.
Pete James
North Wales weekend
22-23rd May 1999
A dozen or so people gathered near Canaerfon at a nice campsite chosen by Nick, along the banks of the river Seiont. We appeared at various times of the evening, but by about midnight all had arrived, including Chris and Richard via some local hostelries (apparently all the local girls are ‘grannies’).
Nick had been to this area only a month before, and had paddled the ‘swellies’ – some whirlpools etc which form around the pillars of the Menai Straits bridges. We therefore decided that our first paddling would be on the low tide at the swellies at about 4pm Saturday. Steve was ever so keen to do something, so he went off mountain-biking up and down Snowdon (yes – all the way, apparently!) Some of the rest of us went to have a look at a surf beach on the Lleyn Peninsular called Hell’s Mouth, however the surf was only about a foot high, so lunch was deemed more appropriate in a local pub.
Saturday evening, and we were so keen that we got on the water at least an hour too early. So we landed at one of the bridge pillars and waited. And waited. And Steve fell asleep, proven by the fact that he was snoring! And waited. Eventually we got on the water, and played in some small eddies, waiting for them to become large eddies. And waited. And eventually gave up. For some reason, the tide just wasn’t playing today. Never mind, more paddling tomorrow.
On Sunday, we decided to go over to the Tryweyn. Nick stayed at the campsite with most of his family, leaving us as baby-sitters for Ben. Ben had paddled this river once before (albeit as part of a playboating course run by Plas Menai), Richard had swam down much of it once before, Chris had rafted it, Steve had never even seen it, leaving Lisa and I as ‘guides’. However, Ben soon showed us all that he needed no baby-sitting at all, by playing happily on the graveyard section. We spent a nice long time gradually working our way down the river, and after about two hours the score was 1 roll to Ben and 1 to Lisa (both on the ‘ski-jump’), and Steve managed to roll on both the Scaffold bridge fall and Chapel falls. Off for another run, with Chris and Richard in much more confident mood (Steve is always confident anyway!). Another fine run, Chris swam at the ski jump, and again at Scaffold bridge, while Lisa managed two impressive rolls next to the centre’s cafe – just showing off for the spectators, I think. We had an excellent day, and demonstrated that it is nicer to go to the Tryweryn when there isn’t a tour on, because it is relatively quiet.
Sunday evening was rounded off by a sing-song at the campsite, together with large quantities of beer and whisky. Nick and family almost managed to break every rule at the campsite, helped by their dog Nellie wandering off her lead and scavenging food from other people’s tents…
Monday dawned, and we decided to have another go at the swellies, but on the high tide. Again, on the water in plenty of time. Not much happening yet, but it will, cos it did last time that Nick and Ben were there. Only, again, the tide didn’t seem to want to come out to play today. After a couple of hours the water had risen substantially but no magical play spots had appeared. Chris and Richard were first to succumb, and off they went towards a pub. Lisa and I followed sonn afterwards with Ben, leaving Steve looking forlorn (yet confident!) alone on the tide waiting for a whirlpool to form…
Anyway, notwithstanding the behaviour of the tide at the swellies, we all had an excellent weekend, so many thanks to Nick for organising us.
Conor
Scotland (Easter 1999) Photo Gallery
(All Courtesy of Conor & Lisa)
Have a look here