It’s a fest fest

The deviants line up at Squirt Fest

 It seems like festival season has been upon us recently in the UK, and I’m not talking about a bunch of crusty hippies and students having lost weekends in fields (the NSR isn’t until March).   The past month or so has seen a sucession of gatherings of paddlers getting together to padde together, talk about paddling, catch up after summer travels, and generally have a bit of a party. 

The Great British Summer

Hucking on the Fournel (Photo: Hannah Salter)

It’s been an interesting and varied summer for me so far, being stuck (mostly) in the UK. I did manage a brief trip out to France for a sneaky few days of fun on some swollen alpine rivers. But aside from that brief sojourn, I have been getting my summer paddling fix here in Britain. Apart from one or two summer storms topping the rivers up and playboating missions to the Dee, this has generally meant trying a few different areas of paddlesport, from sea kayaking to open boat touring, via polo, and of course sessions in my beloved squirt boat.

Ooh yeah it was the start of the summer…

It must be that summer has arrived in the UK as I have found myself cursing my ineptitude at ever remembering to use sun cream several times over the past few weeks and my shorty cag has been seeing a lot more use than its’ long sleeved counterpart. Low river levels in the North of England and Wales have meant that I have mostly been out playing at the usual summer locations of Nottingham, the Dee, and the Tryweryn.

Dom Brayfield on the way to 2nd in the freestyle event at the Washburn

BUSA Canoe Polo

I used to think that polo players were an odd bunch and a little too keen on their lycra, but then I discovered road cycling and realised that things could be worse. Much worse. While driving around Morocco last week, Chris and I were getting quite fired up for BUSA this week; the blue skies and warm water over there made it seem far more appealing than the reality of a cold weekend in Hatfield.

Morocco

Kayaking has taken me to some amazing places over the past few years, through the pursuit of quality whitewater I have met some incredible people and seen sights that will stay with me forever. The driving force behind that travel has always been the kayaking, the promise of amazing whitewater and phrases like “five days of continuous class 4/5…” are what has driven me to explore new places, and the experiences that I have had were just been icing on the cake. My recent trip to Morocco was almost the opposite, it is the country, scenery, and people that made me put a trip together, and any good kayaking would be the bonus. Thankfully we got all we expected and plenty of bonus action.

NS-arrrgh – Student Rodeo 2008

I’ve been a bit quiet on here of late, either that’s because I have been so engrossed in my PhD work that I haven’t done anything interesting to write about, or I have been so busy on a combination of ski trips, paddling wherever and whenever it rains, talking at canoe shows, and coaching, that I just haven’t found the time. I’ll let you make your own mind up on that…

Squirt Finals (Photo: Paul Wilkinson)

Fast and Clean: BUSA Slalom

It has been exam season in Manchester over the past few weeks, meaning that the usual suspects that I have begging lifts from of late have all been busily pouring over textbooks and spending unhealthy amounts of time swotting up in the library, so apart from a couple of “revision breaks” on the Etherow and Irwell I have been lacking bum-in-boat time and the hard working students of Manchester had been lacking quality party time. The BUSA slalom this past weekend was time to right both of those wrongs.

Winter wanderings

View from Sgurr a’ Bhuic

It’s been a busy, and varied, couple of weeks, ranging from epic levels in the Devonian rivers through to empty and frozen riverbeds in Scotland and various fun, games, and adventures in between.

…and finally it rained.

The Glaslyn at a fun level – always raises a grin (Photo: Rhiannon Walker)

So we all went boating. Here’s hoping that the season, now that it has actually gotten underway, continues as per this weekend, with good water levels and lots of friendly faces on the rivers. The forecast is currently looking good for next weekend’s shindig in Devon…

BUSA WWR 2007

Last year I swam out of a C2, that was embarrassing. This year I swam out of most things, that’ll teach me to be cocky and assume that I can paddle a fast kevlar boat using wings.