‘Bristol Canoe Club’ and ‘river safety’ are not two phrases that you’d normally expect to appear together – at least not without the words ‘dangerous lack of’ being spoken by Michael Burke on 999 Rescue. However, on the weekend of the 2nd October, a hardy group of 20 BCC paddlers made their way up to the Tryweryn river, near Bala, for one day of paddling on the 1.5 mile section of river and one day of training with the Palm River Safety Course.
The drama began before we even got anywhere near Wales. I’d hitched a lift with Martin, and as we made our way through the traffic jams, accidents and flooded roads (there was about 10 cumecs on the M6), we got a distress call from Teresa who was travelling up with Nick and Matt. Apparently they’d been driving happily along the A5 towards Shrewsbury when there was a nasty snapping noise from the roofrack followed by 3 boats careering across the road. Teresa managed to pull the car onto the hard-shoulder, while Nick and Matt rushed out to retrieve boats. Luckily 2 of the boats had escaped serious damage – and, more importantly, had avoided causing a pile up. Matt’s S6 hadn’t been quite so lucky, however. As it had skidded down the road, an articulated lorry had had a minor disagreement with it, adding some new curves to the S6 and tearing the plastic around the cockpit. Luckily, Martin and myself were only 20 minutes behind and, like knights of the road, arrived to pick up the pieces and load Teresa’s and Nick’s boats onto Martin’s car while, between sobs, Matt attempted to resuscitate his S6 in the back of Teresa’s car.
All this drama meant we didn’t get to the campsite until almost 11pm, so there was just enough time to get the tents up, have a beer and conduct a quick autopsy of the S6… it was pronounced dead at 11:05.
The next day, the first group headed off to do the safety course, while my group went to paddle the river. While most people had a run straight down the river, Lisa G kindly gave me and Kev some instruction on breaking in and out and ferry gliding as this was my first ‘big river’ (not sure if Saltford counts as a river!). As the paddlers from the first run returned for a second go, Lisa decided we should join them on the next run down. If I’d said I was nervous I’d be lying because I was terrified – and it didn’t help that the first section was called The Graveyard. Lisa carefully talked me and Kev through the line to take, pointed out where the major hazards were and how to get into the break out safely. ‘Don’t worry,’ were her final words, ‘simply follow Kath and Mike down to the first break out and I’ll be right behind you in case anything goes wrong.’.
Kev went first and made it into the break out. Miraculously I managed to make it down to the breakout in one piece too. I turned around expecting to see a look of pride on Lisa’s face, but what I actually saw was her boat floating past by itself followed by Lisa. Mike, Paul and Kath charged off after the boat, while Martin leapt out of his boat, grabbed his throwline and managed to get it straight to Lisa who looked in a bad way. We’re still not quite sure what happened to cause the swim, but she had some nasty bruises down her leg and a large bump on the head. Martin deserves credit for reacting so quickly and being so accurate with a throwline… before doing the Palm Course.
The next section was the Ski Jump, which I took one look at and decided to walk around. The rapid consists of a long chute with a wave half way down and a big hole at the bottom… it didn’t look like fun. Kath and Dom both managed to hit the eddy half way down and surf the middle wave for a bit. Jono decided to do the whole thing backwards and then have a play in the hole at the bottom for awhile – not sure if this was intentional or not? Mike also decided to defy convention and go for the tricky left break out next to the huge hole.
Next up, the river bends left and disappears under a bridge known as Fedw’r Gog (try saying that after a few pints of river water). Because I hadn’t had a chance to look at it I decided to run it (if I’d looked, I might have changed my mind). Again I was to follow Kath and take a line from right to left under the bridge, hit the stopper on the left, go over the next small drop and break out left. I was slightly worried by the fact that everybody in the group came over and said whatever happens don’t go down the middle… gulp. Kath went first and took an interesting line that was straight down the middle. Stupidly I followed. I’m not sure what happened next, but according to Jono’s eye witness statement my boat jumped up over the stopper and rolled upside down in mid air (a neat trick if you can do it). I washed out upside down, managed to roll in the nasty eddy on the right only to find myself facing the sky as my boat slid up some rocks. I then got washed backwards over the next fall just in time to see Martin burst out of the stopper below the bridge and hit the same rock sideways, hugging it with both arms for awhile before recovering in the eddy and continuing down river – the jury’s out as to what he did with his paddles during the rock hugging moment! I also just managed to get a glimpse of Dom, stood on the bank with his throwline, looking slightly bemused by both our techniques.
There were no incidents on the rapids down to the café, where we had a 2 minute rest in the eddy while a few people had a play on the wave. The river then turned left and right in an S, becoming steeper past the café into a rocky section called The Fingers. The river then calms down for awhile before you shoot beneath NRA Bridge and through the stopper at the bottom. Kev had a minor swim on this section, giving Dom the chance to use his throwbag at last and the others to chase after some kit. Regrouping again, we headed for the last major section, which is the (in)famous Chapel Falls – a series of bouncy waves which lead into a drop with a large hole at the bottom and a quick breakout on the right. We all made it down safely and then watched two people in an inflatable sausage get spanked in the meaty stopper for awhile – it was made funnier by the fact that their safety boater sat back and watched from an eddy. The girl in the back of the inflatable also invented the scream-loud-enough-and-it’ll-release-you technique of getting out of stoppers.
After grabbing a quick cup of tea and a bite to eat in the café, we trudged the 1.5 miles back to the start and ran it again. The second time I was determined to run the Ski Jump and try and get my line right (or is that left?) under Fedw’r Gog Falls. The Ski Jump was a real thrill – the first wave half way down almost stops you and throws you off line slightly so you have to recover and paddle desperately to the right to hit the smaller side of the second wave and make the breakout. My nemesis, Fedw’r Gog Falls seemed to come up very quickly and looked even more intimidating this time. I started on river right and then as I dipped under the bridge started to point the boat left and paddle like buggery… but nothing happened and I slammed into the middle of the wave again. This time I came out right way and broke out on the right into the nasty swirling eddy with Lisa, who was surprised to see me as I should have been on the left. The right eddy would have been okay, but a Canadian canoe charged in after us and it all got a bit tense as we kept getting re-circulated. Eventually, we both broke out and carried on.
A knackering day, but a fantastic introduction to whitewater paddling.
Back at the campsite we met up with the other group who told us about their day of jumping in and out of the river and chucking throwlines at each other. Prize moments included:
– A victim floating down the river and four (yes, four) throwlines sailing past. Steve, the instructor, summed it up beautifully: ‘Okay, you maniacs, STOP!’
– Steve: ‘These throwlines are extremely strong. You’d need to be as fat as my wife to break one.’
– Steve: ‘Are you cold?’ Teresa: ‘ A little bit.’ Steve: ‘Well here’s 20p, go and phone someone who cares.’
– Having lunch by the café, the entire group on the safety course watched some rafters swim over the falls by the café… and did nothing!
Dom kindly ferried us down to the pub for a few pints and some food. In true BCC fashion there was some beer-fuelled political debate, with Nick kindly providing an update on the New Zealand / Maori river access situation (a word of warning, never say the word Maori around Nick!). Lisa F then drove most of us back. I say most of us because Lisa G and Mike stayed behind until they were thrown out. Mike also wins the lazy camper award for not bothering to put his tent up and sleeping in the boot of his car instead.
The next morning, it had finally stopped raining and we could get the tents down and pack up the car in relative dryness. The group doing the course had an early start and we left the others tucked up in their sleeping bags. The thought of jumping in and out of a cold river was the last thing any of us wanted to do on a cold Welsh Sunday morning, and I think Martin was starting to get a bit worried we were going to lynch him for getting us into this.
Back at the Tryweryn we headed for the training centre to meet Steve, our coach for the day. We were sorted out with dry suits (ha), knives and throwlines and led up to the section of river above The Chipper. No messing around, Steve had us all straight in the river for a warm up swim – apparently the group the day before had two speeds of working, slow and stop, so he wanted to get on with it. After a quick swim Steve tried teaching us how to swim down the rapid using defensive swimming and then break out into an eddy… which most of us missed. Surprisingly this seemed to warm us all up a bit and we started getting a bit enthusiastic. Next up was swimming across a stopper, which felt like the most unnatural thing to do, but once we were in there it was surprisingly easy to surf, in a skydiving-type pose, along the stopper to a point where the current would wash us out.
After a morning of swimming we headed for lunch at the café and a much needed warm cup of tea. We watched Nick, Matt, Tony and the others playing on the café wave for awhile – though it wasn’t so much playing as raft dodging. Apparently there had been a few dramas during their run on the river: Teresa had a few rolls, and Helen had a nasty swim from the S almost all the way down to Chapel Falls – where was John Prescott!?
After lunch it was throwline work. Apparently the first group had only been good at hitting trees, but most of us in the second group seemed pretty good, until we got to practising with our ‘off’ hand that is – cue Kath hitting Martin stood next to her rather than Mike stood opposite. All in all though, Steve seemed pretty impressed and moved us on to live bait rescues. For live baits, someone is attached to the throwline and jumps into the river to rescue an unconscious swimmer. This was a great opportunity to dive bomb some people and let them get mashed in a stopper – the sight of Mike eating river bed beneath a flying Jono was particularly memorable. Great fun! Steve also got us doing it with no time to prepare – as we stood around talking, someone threw themselves into the river and Steve said: ‘Well, bloody rescue them then…’ On my, Martin and Mike’s attempt at this we were so quick Mike managed to jump in before the swimmer was even there… leaving the victim to disappear off down to The Chipper.
Steve then taught us to set up a cross-river belay (or something). This is where a diagonal line is set up across the river to enable kit/people to be transferred from bank to bank – apparently Steve thought this would be useful for BCC because we need to rescue kit so often.
My first river, my first club trip… all in all it was a great weekend and a really interesting course. It was especially useful to know who can throw a good line and who can’t – put it this way, if Matt’s on the bank with a throwline you probably want to think about rescuing yourself.
Learnings from the course:
- River safety priorities: Self – Group – Victim. Not the old BCC priorities: play on the wave – go to the pub – what victim?
- Leg pins can be nasty – simply set up a four way cross-river belay using 8 throwlines and problem solved (are there 8 throwlines in the club?).
- Stoppers can be surfed minus boat – nice 360 by Dylan at one point, and I think Martin did a pop out.
Learnings from running the river:
- Rafts look like they hurt when they hit you.
- Why avoid rocks when you can hug them?
- If trapped in stopper, scream loudly – it will release you.
- Always ensure you have camera and throwline when paddling with Lisa G (sorry Lisa!).
Special thanks to Lisa ‘Gills’ Gunton, Mike and Kath for the free tuition, river guidance and bacon sarny.
Thanks to Lisa F and Dom for providing the pub shuttle service and throwline cover. And a big thanks to Martin for organising a fantastic weekend’s boating and safety course. Remember, if you see anybody in the club with 20 karabinas, 200m of rope and a foot long knife on their buoyancy aid you know they’re certified (that’s certified, not certifiable).
John Kerswell
Addition from Helen Harris: Please mention Tony’s brilliant support during my rather lengthy out of boat experience, when I got lots of opportunity to practice the previous days lessons (I have some great bruises to show for it) and thanks yet again to Kiwi Nick & Mat I still have my boat this was the second time that they rescued it this year and to Lisa F for paddle rescue.