Bristol Canoe Club Magazine – Autumn 1999
In This Issue
* From the editor
* New Committee
* Membership Renewals
* Scotland, Easter 1999
* A warning about Saltford
* SIGG 24hr Adventure Race
* Marathon
* Playboating Course
* E-mail and Web access
* Club Treasure Hunt
* The Old Dukes of the Jedi face the Grand Canyon of the Colorado
* Ramsey Island – The Epic Voyage
* Marketplace
* Programme
* Membership list
* Membership renewal form
From the Editor
Many thanks to all who have contributed to this issue – lots of you have responded to my pleas in the last issue. I have decided to use all these articles in full, even though it makes this issue a bit ‘wordy’!
Please keep all the articles coming in, but they don’t all have to be multi-page epics; a paragraph or two is great too!
Tom Gibbs will be taking over as magazine editor after this issue, so any future articles should be sent to him.
Thanks – Conor (editor)
New Committee
At the club AGM, held on Thursday 14th October, the following were elected onto the club committee:
Chairman: Nick Wainwright
Secretary: Paula Budge
Treasurer: Conor O’Neill
Other committee members: Lisa Gunton, Quentin Nichols, Steve Bennett, Stuart Balkwill, Chris Ashcroft, Tony Barrass.
The ‘other’ committee members will split the various other jobs between them soon.
Membership renewals
A reminder that Membership is due for renewal from 1st November. A renewal form is attached with this magazine. Please fill it in ASAP and return it to any committee member.
Conor
Scotland, Easter 1999
Men & Bike: On A Mission; The Dirty Dozen
Having been on a number of BCC paddling trips it was becoming increasingly obvious that getting up early to go paddling was not high on the list of priorities !! Bearing this in mind Men & Bike were on a mission during Scotland 1999: The unheard of feat of paddling two rivers a day for 6 days !!!
Saturday:
Arrived early enough to cycle up the River Fasfearn; the river that ran through the grounds of the house. This was not a promising start as it really was bony enough to cycle up !! Contented ourselves with our second mission starting to drink our way through the 6 cases of Speckled Hen we’d taken with us.
Sunday
Got up at 7.00 for our warm up paddle. Men & Bike were present as were Harvey and Quent. The warmup was to be the Spean Gorge !! Not my idea but Harvey’s (I think he was trying to impress everyone !!!) Now I’ve heard lots of horrendous tales about this trip so I was slightly nervous having only paddled once since Xmas. Anyway we paddled on down and a had a few rolls between us but nothing to desperate all the time looking out for “Headbanger”,the “Constriction” etc. The next thing I new we were out onto the loch !! So it just goes to prove don’t believe everything you read in guidebooks. A quick change and back to the house in time for brekkie with everyone else. The main trip of the day was the Fechlin. Conor thought this would be a good warm up river so off we bimbled. We spent more time upside down on this river than we did on the entire Spean Gorge!!! Not a good warm up at all !!! The main incident involved a fall which we ran blind down a small slot into a pool below (or so I thought)Crispin went first, followed by Harvey, Ben & me. As I dropped through the slot I was met by the sight of Crispin sat on a big rock in the middle of the fall trying to retrieve his boat, Ben upside down on the left & Harvey upside down on the right. Next thing I know I’m rolling up at the bottom next to Ben & Harvey who have half a paddle each. It transpires Crispin swam, Harvey went over and lost his paddle. Ben snapped his paddle on the way down rolled up with the two halves and then passed one half to Harvey who was having problems trying to hand roll back up. They both went back over again and managed to roll up with their respective halves !! Very impressive and certainly a lot trickier than the Spean Gorge.
Monday
After really heavy rain all Sunday the Fasfearn was flowing so the Insomniacs Club were up and out. We’d lost Quent but were joined by Crispin. What a blast this river was. Absolutely tiny with a strong fast current going at a fair old gradient with no breakouts and the best of it was that the get out was in our garden !!. Next up was the Roy (which seemed to be the destination of every other paddler in Scotland). The level was quite high and the whole river was just a joy to paddle and must rank as one of the best in Scotland.
Tuesday
Still raining so the insomniacs were off to paddle the Loy. Again a small river with a fast current and decent gradient. Highlights were Ben swimming after a severe mauling in a horseshoe stopper which also had a rock ledge in it so once you were side on there was no way out at all and a big fall with a tiny eddy at the base. Credit where credit is due Ben was the only one to make the eddy. Myself Harvey & Crispin appeared in it briefly but apparently upside down didn’t count!! Next up was the Garry which was a lovely little river complete with plenty of nice play spots (even Nick Wainwright was spotted playing in a stopper)Being as we were off the Garry fairly early and the rivers were still running the Insomniacs decided to have a quick blast down a very high Gloy. We lost Crispin after a swim within the first 100 yds (a deceptively tricky little Gorge) Harvey was very diplomatic in asking if he wanted to continue: “If you can’t keep up F**K off !!’ With Ben leading followed by myself and Harvey we proceeded to blast on down. The main incident was coming across an horizon line with a load of paddlers stood on the bank inspecting. We”e peeled into the eddy to ask what was down there and while an answer was given we peeled back out without missing a stroke and ran it blind. Admittedly the lines were crap and we were quite lucky as we bounced off various rocks and did parts backwards but what a buzz !! There was some serious testosterone flowing on the river !!!The next thing we knew we were at the get out and the whole trip had taken just over 45 minutes compared with the two and a half hours it had taken last time BCC did it. A truly awesome paddle and well deserved of a Bohemian Rhapsody Wayne’s World moment on the way back to the house !!!!
Wednesday
Up early again but this time numbers had swelled as Lisa, Dave, Paul & Tim had joined us for another paddle .We paddled the Loy again being as it was close however it was not as good as yesterday as the levels had dropped significantly. The only consistent factors being Dave Brain having his daily swim & Ben getting stuffed in the same stopper again trying to prove that yesterday was a one off. Back for breakfast and then off for the Orchy. I have to admit that I must have remembered the Orchy through rose tinted spectacles as although it was still good I don’t recall there being that many flat bit’s in between falls. We all walked the first grade V as there didn’t seem to be a runnable route ie it was very much luck as to wether you’d make it through the stopper more than anything else. The next grade V although looking horrendous did have some sort of line through it. Men & Bike studied it for a while with Harvey but in the end only Ben decided to go for it. As I said I thought it was doable but the chances were the first 2 metre drop would flip you in the boil by the undercut and you would end up running the rest of the fall upside down as you would not have time to roll. As the rest of the fall was a fairly shallow ramp with upwards facing rocks I didn’t think it was worth the pain of trying. Age does indeed bring wisdom and experience. I may not now have the bottle and general suicidal tendencies I displayed in my youth but my river reading is improving. Ben did indeed run the fall but in exactly the manner described. Flipped in the top pool, not enough space to roll and rattled down the rest upside down. Though respect though as he did run it after all !!. As per tradition I finished the trip with the customary bridge jump. I still haven’t sussed this though as once again I sprained my wrist and ended up with a bruised ass and hands on landing.
Thursday
Men & Bike were up early but Harvey was being a wuss so we were joined by Tim for a trip down the Arkaig. The highlight of this trip was the journey there. In the excitement of seeing a naked woman opening her bedroom curtains I failed to notice the motorcyclist coming towards me !?!? What a funny trip the Arkaig is. Get on paddle over a lake and then it goes flat ,flat, flat huge great tonking big volume rapid flat flat flat..Team paddle of the day was the Upper Spean (get on at the foot of the Dam).We’d looked at it a few days early but with four pipes going it may well have been beyond our groups capabilities (a wise choice in retrospect).Today was only 3 pipes and having done it at this level before we decided to go for it. The start was rather inauspicious with Dave taking his daily swim within the first 10 yards but he decided to carry on down following mine & Bens routes. Flows were very strong & fast but it was quite a nice roller coaster ride until we came to the little gorge just before the get out. As to what unfolded next I’m not too sure but in word it was carnage !!! there just happened to be rather a large stopper at the entrance to the gorge and a bigger one immediately after. I led off as the eddy at the top wasn’t big enough for everyone. I avoided the first hole but narrowly avoided an upside down moment in the next via some manic paddling. As to everyone else…..Janet swam and Dave in his attempts to rescue her also swam. Paul spent rather a long time involuntarily demonstrating the freestyle potential of his boat as to everyone else I’m not sure as at this point me & Quent were paddling like mad to try and get Janet’s boats before it went over Monessie falls. Because of the river speed and flow coupled with Janet’s boat being full of water we weren’t doing very well and the remaining eddies were getting less and less. With the roar of the falls deafening us and the spray from the falls being clearly visible we took a management decision to leave it ie “Quent F**K the boat and make the breakout before we die !! Well the next few hours were spent looking for the boat to no avail and we had to give it up as lost. However spirits undaunted Ben, Harvey, Quent, Lisa, Tim & Dave decided to go for the hat-trick and paddle the Spean Gorge. Paul & Nick went shopping and myself and Conor purchased a quantity of beers and went and sat at the bottom of the river awaiting their return. Apparently the trip was fairly uneventful (apart from Dave’s daily swim) and the most frightening thing was Quent driving my car back to the house.
Friday
Sadly this was the last paddling day and being as we were driving to the Findhorn we could only get the one river in. The weather was absolutely glorious and oddly the river was really high. Men & Bike, Tim & Harvey all ran the Grade V Randolphs leap without to many problems and then we all joined up for the rest.Of the other 3 main falls we ran the first one ok and then Quent led the next big volume one. By leading I meant Quent went off over a large drop and disappeared round a corner and was n’t seen again. I sat at the top for a while weighing up wether to get out & inspect,set up safety cover when the rest arrived or wait for Ben & Harvey to discuss options. In the end I decided “oh F**K it ” and set off. Wow !!!!! big or what. Large holes and large waves all the way down.I did n’t really breakout at the bottom but sort of got spat out by a very pale Quent who was mumbling something about “HHHHHMMMMM that was a bit bigger than expected”. Against our better judgement we decided that perhaps we ought to get out and let everyone else know what was in store otherwise we might not be able to cope with fishing out the bodies at the bottom. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful (apart from a potentially serious pin by Ben that took a bit of getting him out of) and we headed off back to the house in the Sunshine
Friday night was the final night and in celebration Lisa kindly volunteeered to drive us all to the pub & Men & Bike shaved off their Scotland beard growths. The evening in the pub was a very drunken affair with pints of heavy,wee drams, haggis, smoked salmon and Aberdeen Angus and the now legendary Men & Bike awards ceremony (If you don’t know what it is come along on a trip with us !!)
All in all a fabuolus week (and possibly the best trip I’ve been on). Thanks to Conor for sorting it all out, Harvey for his entertainment value (and sensitive nature) and the talents of Men & Bike for picking up the pieces and leading the way.
DIRTY DOZEN THE MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!!!!
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER ACTION ADVENTURES !!!!
Mike Millington
A warning about Saltford
Quentin has been contacted by the British Waterways about the two weirs at Saltford. Apparently, both weirs are in imminent danger of collapse, and should be considered to be very dangerous. They have severe undercuts. BW will be doing some work on them over the winter (if the weirs survive that long!), so you should not paddle on the weirs until this is finished. Hopefully, by next summer all will be OK.
SIGG 24hr Adventure Race
My heart pounded in my chest. Where is it? I said to myself. With trees barring the way, I’d been crawling up the stream-bed for 10 minutes. Cuts and grazes covered my arms and legs. I was up a certain creek and with no paddle in sight. I knew I should have taken that other turning
You’d be forgiven for believing that this is part of a new Hollywood “Indiana Jones” style blockbuster or an Army assault course. It’s not, just a nice weekend out at an Adventure Race. Of course, being lost and crawling up stream-beds is entirely optional and not recommended, yet somehow I seem to end up there all the time.
Adventure racing is growing fast in the UK and ACE Races has established itself as the premier adventure race series within the UK with six events this year. The Sigg 24hr Adventure Race was the 4th ACE Race of the year and would take the form of a 24hr “Stage” Race, the first of it’s kind in the UK.
The weekend race was split into five stages and encompassed paddling, running and biking, with a fair dose of navigating. Three events were to be attempted during the Saturday – Canoeing, Orienteering and Mountain Biking (MTB). The idea was relatively simple, well simple compared to Nuclear Physics. You could do the three events is any order and at any time up until 9pm. A total of 500 points were available in each event, collected by punching a card at various controls, each worth a different amount. They consisted of a punch and a small, sometimes very small, flag. The choice of how much to do and which order to do it was up to the competitors.
This would be followed by the mysteriously named stage The Planets’. The details of which were unknown until 8pm that evening, but it would include biking and orienteering at night. This would continue through the night finishing in the early hours of the morning. The decision to sleep is up to you. The race would finish with a 5 hour MTB Orienteering event, just to make sure that you’d had your money’s worth.
After marking all the controls, my partner Keri James and I decided upon our course of action. We would start with the orienteering course before the day became to hot and while the legs were still fresh. To let our legs recover we would then go canoeing, finishing off with trying to get as many points as we could from the MTB section in whatever time remained. Well it was a plan you always need a plan.
The start line was a somewhat bizarre and unique situation being made up of competitors either on bikes or running kit. In best Ted Rogers style the starter counted down 3-2-1 and the competitors all headed off in seemingly random directions, all with their own plan. We headed off toward an area of forest and moorland for the orienteering stage. The controls were placed at strategic points within the area. Typically controls were placed within ruins, some on junctions of streams others on hill tops. Being slick with the navigating is crucial with these events. Regularly, slower competitors beat seasoned sprint merchants by using their heads and concentrating on navigating. This is especially true on the orienteering sections where the navigation tends to be more technical. As for night navigation, well that takes a special type of sadist.
After the orienteering we headed back to the event centre for my favourite discipline .mid race refuelling. The time you take to stuff your face between stages is up to you. The question is do you stop and rest, then try to make up the time, or do you keep on going? Taking slightly longer than a McLaren pitstop we were on the road within 20 minutes.
Next was the Canoeing stage. An 11km bike ride was required just to get to the lake. Upon arrival the canoes required inflating. Since the pumps didn’t work properly we had to inflate by hand, or rather by mouth. Anyone who has used a Sevylor canoe will know of the lack of space in what is essentially a 7ft inflatable Banana. Luckily for us, neither Keri or I are blessed with height and so managed to fit. We tried to get to grips with paddling a banana and soon found that it had an optimum speed slow. Any attempt to go fast meant a lot of effort. The controls were usually located on spurs and re-entrants, but a couple were actually on islands in the lake. Obviously the organiser had fun putting those out. Upon return to the shore we had to bike back to the event centre.
We were now to learn our next lesson don’t assume you understand the instructions. A misunderstanding of how long we had to finish the canoeing left us with less time than we had planned. Now the race was on. Could we cycle 11km with 250m of climb, half of which was off road in 30 minutes? Well actually no, but we did do it in 32 minutes, which cost us only 4 penalty points. Just to add to the complex organisation, any team back late would be penalised points based on the amount of time over the deadline.
Next was the MTB stage. This is a relatively new pursuit and mixes cycling with navigation, usually around forests. Most people would think that you need the latest kit and fancy full suspension bikes, this is all well and good, but what you really need is a map board. This handy device saves a lot of time, allowing you to keep riding whilst reading the map. Unfortunately it removes the “oh got to stop and look at the map” excuse for a rest.
A Thunderstorm had appeared and was intensifying, rain was belting down and thunder crashed along the valley. It was one of those “Why are we doing this?” moments. Our nadir was whilst collecting a control along a bit of single track. Suddenly the sky turned white and a deafening clap of thunder ringed in our ears. Never one to overstate a situation Keri merely said “Spooky”. I was thinking more of changing my cycle shorts. Back at the event centre, Keri remarked, ” It’s was bit scary, especially when you’ve got 20lbs of metal between your legs.” for some reason he was very popular with the ladies after that.
With the rain continuing, the organiser took the wise decision to postpone the overnight section. The revised schedule would mean starting The Planets’ at 6am and finishing at noon. No fifth stage would be used.
A surprising, but very welcome night of sleep was enjoyed and six am came too soon. So what awaited in the last six hours? A trip around the solar system. Each planet contained controls, with the event centre as Earth. The further the planet from the sun the higher the points value. i.e. Mercury was worth 100 points and Pluto 400 points. You had to choose a planet, mark the controls, plan your route and visit the controls. Then you had to return to Earth, pick another planet and repeat the process, until the time was up or you fell over from fatigue. Some of the planets required a long ride and in it made sense to get all of the controls once there before returning to start the next one. We decided to go for the highest points and so we were off to Pluto.
The thunderstorms had been replaced by that penetrating drizzle only found in Britain, the Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow, we have hundreds for rain, and used most of them during the race. Some of the controls were off the main tracks and so required some running as well as biking. After 2 hours we returned to ACE Base with Pluto done and deciding which planet to do next. Mainly for all the poor jokes it allowed, we plumped for Uranus (it was also worth 350 points).
To get to Uranus (ho ho) we had to slingshot past Mercury (The organiser had come up with all the technical terms and a career at NASA beckons). I can tell you now Uranus is huge, and after an hour and a half we had got the controls and completed re-entry back to Earth.
Saturn was located by the Coed-y-Brenin caf‚ and so promised some technical riding, or for me running with the bike. For those who don’t know this area it is an MTB dedicated forest, where bikers have priority and a number of excellent technical trails have been constructed. After an hour and a half of running with the bike we returned to the event centre. With a few minutes remaining we had a quick trip to Mars. Upon finishing we were shattered after 17 hours competition in a 26-hour period. I wonder what we would have been like doing 24 hours straight?
The last stage was the hardest, the post race massage. Phil Green supports these events with a tremendous massage that will have you screaming in pain on the couch, but reaping the benefits as soon as you get of it.
All in all a brilliant event, enjoyed by all the competitors, despite the weathers best efforts and anyone looking for a fresh challenge and fun, would have to go a long way to beat an ACE Race. In fact they’d have to go out of this solar system .
Tom Gibbs
Marathon
Bath to Bradford Race
14 miles upstream including 5 major weirs and a reverse weir shoot at Limpley Stoke, plenty of eddies, currents and weeds and a very strong flow against you makes this the toughest race in the country over the distance.
Steve B and Mark Davis 2nd place Senior Men K2 Div 1/2/3
Nick Howard and Phil Rydon (Exeter) 1st place Senior Men K2 Div 4/5
Bradford Circuit
The last Hasler race of the series. Bristol did really well as a team and gained enough points to finish second on the day, and second place to Plymouth College overall in the Region – our best achievement for many years.
K1s Colin 6th/14 Div 5
Stuart 4th/8 Div 6
Amy 1st/4 Div 8
Martin Lambourn 1st/14 Div 9
Nobby (Paul Niblett) 2nd/14 Div 9
Laurie Penrose 11th/14 Div 9
K2s Melissa Simons/Steve B 2nd Div 5
Ron/Nick Pagon 3rd Div 5
I would like to thank all those who took part in races this year. Let’s keep it going – we have the basis of a good squad and some of the best training facilities close by – next year, let’s have a realistic stab at the Hasler finals, and bring back some silverware!
Steve B.
Playboating course
Kath wants to organise a playboating course some time in the Spring (probably a whole weekend).
Contact Kath Cotton if you’re interested.
E-mail and Web Access
A reminder that you can use E-mail and the World-Wide-Web to find out about your paddling chums and Bristol Canoe Club. Around half of the club now have an E-mail address. If you get connected to the Internet, please tell me your E-mail address, and I can send you a list of the other members’ E-mail addresses. I often send out updated club programmes, etc, via E-mail, too. I can also forward any message you’d like, to all the club members.
My home E-mail address is: [ old email address now removed ]
My work E-mail address is: [ old email address now removed ]
The club web page is at:http://www.bristolcanoeclub.org.uk/
For a quicker response, it is often better to E-mail me at my work address.
You can also keep up to date with UK and world-wide paddling tales by reading the following newsgroups, but note that the non-UK groups are very busy with Americans chatting about rivers you’ve never heard of!:
Conor O’Neill
Club Treasure Hunt
Held at the docks, in July 1999
1st Julie Taylor
= Karen Fall
= Geoff Scrase
4 Conor O'Neill
5 Quentin
6 Will Bush
= Dave Morgan
8 Mark Colfer
= Marian Colfer
10 Jacques Rozier
11 Chris Jones
12 Steve Venton
= Vivian Le Good
14 Sally Sandercock
15 Peter Carter
16 Peter Gibbs
= Paul Coyne
= John Rogers
Many thanks to Avis for running this.
The Old Dukes of the Jedi face the Grand Canyon of the Colorado
Read Mark Gillett’s write-up here.
Ramsey Island – The Epic Voyage
Having missed last year’s annual St Davids weekend and an idyllic paddle around Ramsey, complete with baby seals, I was determined to get out to Ramsey this year. Some intrepid paddlers ( Nathan, Janet, Chris, Pete & John) set off from Whitesands to do the round-Ramsey trip on the Sunday, but the tides weren’t quite going in the right directions and they ended up unable to either get around the island or back to Whitesands. This meant a long paddle down to the campsite on the other side of St Davids.
I was beginning to think that perhaps I’d better give up on trying to paddle round Ramsey and opt for the œ20 boat trip in one of the large, speedy inflatables. However Monday dawned sunny and reasonably calm and Steve Venton was keen to try to get around the island and back to Whitesands. I remembered my one-star training to always paddle in threes, so was a bit dubious about just two of us setting off. Luckily, Steve persuaded Paul Niblett to come too, so finally the trip was on.
We paddled off from Whitesands at 1pm, Steve armed with a map that looked suspiciously like a road map. We had quite a strenuous paddle across to the island, avoiding some apparently turbulent water around something called horse rock. We paddled down the side of the island to the Bitches where Paul and Steve had a play. I sat gazing around, admiring the view and looking out for seals. Soon my wish came true and seals were bobbing around. I gazed delightedly into their big brown eyes until Steve paddled up and said, ‘You do know never to look them in the eye don’t you.’ Whoops, sorry seals, I meant to be an admirer not an aggressor.
We paddled on merrily, exploring caves along the way and then, with a bit more effort , around the far end of the island. By the time we were paddling down the far side we were becoming quite used to seeing seals bobbing about in the beautiful turquoise and jade green water. Sometimes we would be paddling across a calm idyllic bay and at others we were having to work harder, paddling through much rougher water to get around bits of headland. One rather scary bit involved getting through a narrow space between two rocks. You had to time it so that you got whooshed through on a wave, then you had to paddle like mad to avoid being pulled back.
The scariest bit of all though was paddling round the end of the island and heading back towards Whitesands. The current didn’t seem to be going the way we wanted, in fact it was heading the wrong way – next stop America. Steve went off ahead to investigate and told us to note the time and place in case we needed to report it to the rescue services in case he didn’t return! At this point I realised things were getting a bit serious. Luckily Steve did return and of we went, Paul first, then me, with Steve bringing up the rear. After some incredibly tough paddling we were on our way, ferry gliding back all the way across to the mouth of Whitesands bay. We weren’t sure we would be able to make it, but I was determined, the alternative being to paddle all the way back down to our campsite. The prospect of carrying my boat up that slope from the beach wasn’t one that appealed to me.
Luckily we made it and as we paddled back across the bay we all felt amazed and delighted to have survived. Finally we clambered out of our boats at about 6pm after five hours paddling. Well, at least I saved the œ20 thanks to Steve and Paul and I’d had a brilliant day that I’ll never forget.
Paula Budge
Marketplace
FOR SALE from Mark Gillett 0117 xxx xxxx
1. Thule Gutter-less Roof Rack (Fit most cars) £25
2. Roof Rack for Cars with Gutter £10
3. Large Long John Wetsuit £15
4. Large Spray Deck £10
Also from Mark Gillett 0117 xxx xxxx The only way to surf with a paddle is with a Surf Ski. A Palm Crusader 2.5 Surf Ski with fully adjustable leg length, suitable for beginners or larger intermediates. Belt and Fins included. £75 ono
That’s all folks!