River Teith Open Canoe Coaching Practice - 14/3/2009

Trip details coming soon...

Charlie's friend Colin needed some practice coaching ahead of his level 3 coaching assessment so between Charlie and me, we rounded up some guinea pigs.

Stuart and Scott were the first to practice ferry gliding.

Brian and Emily got a few good practices at ferry gliding.

Lunchtime looked almost like summer.

Reverse ferry glides were an interesting challenge.

Scott's budget roof rack was relatively quick to assemble.

Success!

(Mostly Annual) Hair of the Dog Tweed Bimble 7/12/2008

Saturday night was the kayak club's annual Christmas night oot, which meant that Sunday morning(ish) was the annual(ish) hair of the dog bimble down the River Tweed. I missed last year's night oot and I don't know if there was a hair of the dog bimble. This year, we had competing trips with Tom leading a throw yourself off a hillside advanced trip. I think we lost Chris W. to that group but Robin, Charlie, Jean, Ali and I ventured out of our warm, cozy beds for the bimble. Babs was one of a few who were wavering but decided her bed was more tempting than a cold, wet river.

The original plan was for a 10am start from the boatshed, but Ali phoned Charlie to slow it down a bit. The shift to 10.30am meant I could bat my eyelashes at Brian and get him to drop me at the boatshed. He had absolutely no interest in the cold and the wet. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or shaking his head at us as he drove away.

Robin decided that he, too, wanted to paddle an open canoe, so he packed the swimming platform, the club's 9ft Dagger Prelude whose outfitting I still need to fit. Had the weather been about 10 degrees warmer, I would have been sorely temped, but that morning I had no envy of Robin whatsoever.

While Charlie and Robin ran the shuttle, Jean, Ali and I dragged the boats down to the water. We didn't have to wait too long.

Launching from below Manor Bridge, the current was swift enough that Robin wobbled a lot in the Prelude. He managed to stay upright, though, and all of us were impressed. We headed downstream pretty quickly in large part to stay warm. The random forecast generator suggested a high of 5C but we certainly weren't there yet.

Getting back into the spirit of open canoeing, I convinced Jean to help me get into whatever eddies we thought we could fit the club's Old Town into. Some efforts were more successful than others. I explained the two different bow draw strokes and suggested Jean mess around with them as she wanted. Occasionally, the wrong draw made things more interesting, but that's all part of the fun of learning.

It took us no time at all to reach the weir at Peebles, the one place where everybody expected Robin to end up in the drink. I didn't think he would. Two reasons. The first was motivation and the second was momentum. Robin hit the line just fine with not so much as a wobble until the eddies below.

We continued downstream, playing in the eddies a little bit less as the cold wore on. I could tell that Charlie was disappointed for not starting higher up, but knew the tea room waiting at the get out would make up for it. I felt a little disappointed, too, but not by much. On a warmer day, I might have appreciated more distance, but I think that may take a while to find again.

The tea room was perfectly timed. We reached the awkward getout and I could barely move my hands. Teamwork helped get the boats to the cars with reasonable speed. Charlie tried to ban us from the tea room while he and Robin ran the shuttle but that didn't even last until they left the car park. The hot bowl of soup was a perfect end to the trip. It's a shame the boats couldn't load themselves in the meantime.

River Tweed - Manor Bridge to Cardrona

Charlie's hastily organised two star open canoe training coincided with an easy kayak trip I organised for Brian and Scott, a friend of his from work, ahead of the end-of-festival fireworks. Torrential downpours would be considered terrible weather in most other outdoor sports. Kayaking? Not so much.

Graeme, Sheila and Hugh aka Shug rounded out the open canoeists. We the kayakers were late getting started, which made for a confusing shuttle but at least all of us made it to Manor Bridge in one piece with all of the right gear. All, except Charlie had thought to bring an umbrella to use in his canoe but didn't.

As soon as we put in below Manor Bridge, Scott demonstrated that he remembered how to wet exit from a kayak. That he did not intend such a practice bothered him a lot more than it bothered me.

We tottered along, sometimes ahead of the open canoeists but most times playing catch up. Scott got used to the kayak eventually and Brian seemed comfortable in his for a nice change over the last trip. Where I expected rapids, or more specifically, a lone wave where I can park an open canoe, we found just too much fast-moving water for anything interesting.

The normal get out for the Manor Bridge run is Peebles town centre. Especially because of the high flow, we decided to get out at Cardrona. The rapids of the day were the weir fish ladder at Peebles and fast water below. I went first and grabbed an eddy near the top of the island below to watch Scott and Brian run the rapids. I didn't need to do any fishing of my own -- Scott and Brian had clean albeit comical runs of the weir -- but I also missed some prime photos for the day.

We stopped for a soggy lunch break just past the Peebles bridge before continuing to Cardrona. Along the way, we found an old football that made for a great ongoing game of who could make whom wetter than the rain already had. It had the extra benefit of helping both Brian and Scott forget their awkwardness in kayaks.

The group reached the get-out at Cardrona far too soon. It was a bit more awkward than the Peebles get-out and required an awkward trek through tall grass, weeds and squelch, not to mention a little bit of barbed wire. The shuttle was reasonably quick and soon enough, all of us were clean, mostly dry and on our way back to Edinburgh hopeful for clear skies for the fireworks concert. The clouds parted just about perfectly for good fireworks viewing but not early enough to dry any of the lawns at Princes Street Gardens.

Though I am sure Scott wasn't planning to come out of his boat, it did reassure me that he was indeed capable of getting out of it ok. I am not sure that provided him much comfort...

A few minutes later, we were off.

The open canoes were off and provided a good challenge for those of us in the short boats to keep up.

Brian happy in a kayak was a nice change from the last river trip.

Charlie coaches.

Charlie takes a short break from coaching.

Brian weighs the options. Throw the football, splash one of us and then be vulnerable to getting splashed in return... or keep it, avoid being splashed and deal with the awkwardness of carrying it while paddling.

Football in a kayak is a much different sport. Also, it helped to distract the rookies from getting too wound up about paddling in a straight line. Or not as the case may be.

I don't know what Hugh did to get that expression on Sheila's face.

Scott "helped" Brian wriggle out of his splash top... eventually.