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5 star training open canoe training weekend, Wales. By Adam Brewster The weekend in North Wales in the middle of January had a mixture of weather from sunny and almost windless when we wanted wind, too heavy rain and horrendous gusts of wind at other times. Saturday’s venue was Lake Padarn which is near the Dinorvic Hydro Electric power station; unseen but contained within the nearby mountain. The area was also world famous for the high quality Dinorvic Slate quarried from the locality. I saw several fences around fields made up of six inch wide slates buried with four feet length above ground, wired together for additional support; making stock proof fences from the local material. We accessed the Lake about half way down its length on the South side and polished up our paddling skills in a small bay. Each of us took turn in assessing, constructively criticising and coaching an assortment of strokes: Off side pivot turns, compound back stroke, draw strokes, edging the boat and Indian stroke to name a few. Lake Padarn had been chosen because it stood a good chance of being a windy location, on which we could practice setting the trim of the boats to suit direction of travel in relation to wind direction. After a very windy Friday night there was just enough wind to get two or three decent downwind sailing runs but not enough to produce any good waves. I appeared to be the only paddler who had a sailing rig designed for immediate use. It utilises half my canoe pole plus a short extension piece to make a nine foot mast, on-top of which a cap with a hole through across the top takes a line through to draw up the sail. The line when pulled draws the sail up the mast and a knot in the line locates in a slot in the thwart which acts as a cleat; if the sail needs to come down, the line is yanked free from the slot and the sail falls into the boat. My sail is rip-stop nylon, a triangle 9 feet high by 6 feet base with eyelets in each corner. The bottom eyelets are to attach the bottom of sail to the thwart through which the mast passes and the outboard eyelet has a line that is held as taught as needed to catch the wind. All stored in a small plastic container when not in use. After our sailing and lunch stop we journeyed along the lake. Some of us were given instructions to become unwell or too tired to continue at critical points of the trip to assess the response of one of our group who was being assessed for 5*. At 5.45pm after dark we did an “all in rescue” in the middle of the lake It was cold!!! I didn’t recall seeing any mention of “all in” in the syllabus, just awareness of rescue techniques. There were 9 boats capsized; we took 3 minutes to sort and re-board. After paddling back to shore we each made a bivvy camp and some of us changed into warmer clothes before all going back on the water threequarters of an hour later, to do some night navigating. (Paddling on the R. Soar at night is no preparation for this, trying to find little inlets on a wooded shore by torch-light and judging distances travelled on the map [1:25 000] is very difficult.) We got off the water at 8.00pm and headed back to the Centre for a sauna and evening meal. Map Ref. OS SH636640 Sunday morning after a very very wet and windy night breakfasted and on the road (A5) by 10.00; water pouring off the hills and the road awash in places.
Launched at Capel Curig onto the Afon Llugwy, the rain reduced to drizzle and the wind dropped as we set off. 1st capsize in the group within 10 minutes due to difficult to avoid overhanging branches; quickly sorted out we continued. We each took turn leading the group, each in a different style but all aware of safety Knowledge of the river was vital at a couple of key points due to serious falls that none of our opens or occupants would ever wish to challenge, especially with water at the present level. The last decent eddy before the first fall was tree lined shore river right; it caught out someone for their second capsize fortunately paddler hung onto tree but boat continued. My boat was against the bank and I asked the present leader if I should run after the boat. Her immediate response was NO, thinking I meant chase in my boat but yes to my intention to chase on foot. A steep clamber up hill along a muddy path gave good views of the torrent below and the boat’s fast rough progress down the falls under a footbridge and finally catching in trees across the river; from which I was able to retrieve it. (Falls at OS 729577). Boat and paddler unharmed. |
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