Swimming and high water

On Saturday I paddled the Ulster Blackwater. It's a short enough run, consisting of 4 large wiers and a few smaller features. It holds it's water very well and is usually runnable in any level making it a good alternative when nothing else is running.
This was my first time paddling a K1 playboat since July which made it a very interesting experience. After not using one for so long everything felt quite awkward. Was a good opportunity to try out my new paddles though. I got a set of Mitchell Nemesis paddles made up for me. Having had constant tendonitis problems since before the worlds I had gotten cranks for the first time and a lower feather than I usually get. In the past all my K1 paddles had been straight shaft but judging by the new ones I think everything but squirt paddles will me cranks from now on.

When we got to the river we found it running very high thankfully, the first wier was completely unrunnable so we got in below it, there was several tree trunks and footballs just constantly recirculating in it. From then on the river was pretty uneventful till we reached the triple steps. I ran first getting caught in the top stopper for quite a while but getting out eventually and continuing down the drop with no other problems. Then Ian came down, also getting caught by the stopper and backooped, then swimming. Thankfully rescuing him was easy enough, Kevin then getting down easily on the chicken chute.
I decided I would give it another run stupidly taking the line through the hole rather than the chicken line and got stuck badly this time. After recirculating in my boat a few times I swam and then recirculated around another few times without the boat, eventually getting out by going under the stopper. Unfortunately I only resurfaced going over the 2nd wier so did the same thing again on this one. It's the first swim I have had in over 18 months so it was a bit of a shock to say the least!
The rest of the river was uneventful, the last drop which normally makes a very steep hole was producing a nice wave though a little flushy. It was still possible to roundhouse on it but that was about it with other moves being pretty much impossible.

Sunday was a little less eventful with a trip down the Roe. The roe was running at a lower level than I would have expected, being on the low side of medium. Unfortunate because in high water it is an amazing run with several good play features and decent bouncy sections. However in low water it is a lot more scrapey and rocky though still has some fun features such as the dogleap and a few other minor grade 2-3 sections.
The new paddles certainly showed their worth again, the river is very rocky and the blades took a few hits without any damage.


Last wave


Caught in the stopper


Top wier

Too much water!

It's hard to believe but there is actually too much water to paddle! It has been a very frustrating month for paddling so far with 3 weeks of so much snow that it was nearly impossible to get anywhere without the 4X4. This does mean that I have managed to spend the last 3 weeks doing absolutely nothing but snowboarding/snowboating on every slope within about a mile of my house, but I really wanted to go kayaking!
I have a brand new paddle sitting in the shed just waiting to be used and it is impossible to get to the river to use it. There is 2 bridges across the Avonmore river near my house, the only way to get kayaking is to cross them. The one upstream can't be reached as all the roads near it are flooded and the downstream one has water going over the top of it, meaning the Gardai have closed it.
The river itself probably isnt safe to paddle anyway as most of the bridges upstream are impassable, Clara Vale bridge seems to have a tree actually through it which is going to prove interesting when the water goes down I'd say. Lets just hope the water dissipates slowly and that I can get out during the week!

Winter Squirting

After a few weeks of massive amounts of rainfall and amazing paddling we are unfortunately back to the normal low levels. Having decided that the water levels were too low and scrapy to bother running anything I got the squirt boat out as the squirt spots work to a certain extent in most levels. I hadnt paddled it in quite a while with conditions for float boating being so good for a change.
The day was absolutely freezing, about halfway through the session I ended up putting gloves on as I couldn't feel my fingers at all. The level was too low for any decent downtime with mostly just chest or neck deep mysteries at best. Still beats scraping down the upper reaches of the river though!
I figure given an extra foot or 2 of water this spot would be pretty much perfect. In low water the seam is pretty good but is too shallow to take advantage of, in high water the eddys on either side of the seam flush out meaning no way back up to the top of the seam after a mystery! I think i need a bit more exploring before I can see what the best level is for this spot. Still with it only being 10 minutes drive from the house that isnt exactly a big deal.

Day Two

With water levels still high in Wicklow I headed out for another day of boating. I paddled with the same people I had on Saturday plus a few additional paddlers from UCD. The water was still high though a good foot lower than Saturday if not more. There was still fun to be had all the way down but unfortunately once again I had to walk Jacksons. The drop was runnable for those in larger boats but even the shorter creekboats were getting backlooped and recirculated so there was no chance of my tiny C1 playboat making it through.
The river was really busy with at least 5 groups getting on at Lough dan at the same time as us. At times it was impossible to tell where the groups started and finished with a continous line of paddlers down the river as far as you could see.

Unfortunately that is my last session of paddling for a week or two but at least it ended on a high note!

Annamoe, high water

Due to massive amounts of rainfall in Wicklow over the last few days I decided to have a go at the annamoe. We paddled from Lough Dan down to Lynhams in Laragh. I had never started from Lough Dan before but will be doing so from now on as it was a lovely section. Due to the massive amounts of water a lot of the drops were completely different. Guinness's rapid was unrecognisable completely being a very continous train of holes rather than drops, similarly the 2 boulder gardens and trooperstown were very large and bouncy.
Jacksons unfortunately was completely unrunnable. There were several groups on the water and I don't think anyone I talked to even considered running it! I will get some photos up as soon as my internet stops being so rubbish.
I think I need to get myself a larger boat, running stuff in the agent is good fun, but I got badly backlooped in a few holes. A C1 river runner or creekboat is definitely next on the wish list.

Rain at last

In the last week or 2 we have finally had decent rain in Ireland. Last weekend I was up north getting some paddling in. I had never paddled the annacloy before and decided to tag along to a UUJCC trip down it. It's nothing spectacular being a grade 2 run with a single grade 3 section but was perfect for the group we brought down it with some less experienced paddlers in the group. Due to the high water levels anything else would have been pretty dangerous. The river still has some nasty enough wiers. In particular the new one built last year seems to have been designed to kill kayakers! It consists of a double horseshoe wier with the towback from the first horseshoe reaching the 2nd wier. Unfortunately I did'nt manage to get any photos of it but I would not reccommend paddling it under any circumstances. Our test football did not manage to beat the stopper and only got out of the wier after several minutes due to it being forced so deep it came several feet out of the water and flew over the top of the stopper!
The face of the wier itself also has rocks embedded in it for some unknown reason. I really don't know what they were thinking when this wier was built but surely it could have been made so much safer.
On the Sunday a small group of us went to paddle the Roe. It seems it hadn't rained as hard over in Derry as the river was running at a medium level but it was still a good run down. We ran the lower section a couple of times, getting off the river in the dark.

There has been about 60mm of rain in the last 48 hours with more on the way and everything flooded out. Hopefully there will be some excitement this weekend also.

Crana Boater-X photos