Blog
All I can say about this trip is that it was planned as a replacement of the Glasgow Uni Canoe Club pool sessions whilst the Stevenson Building undergoes some upgrades. For myself, Kieran, Ross H, George, Peter and pretty much everyone else who went on it, it was an uneventful trip to the Clyde.
For Stephan, who had shown up forty-five minutes late (owing to a McDonalds food stop while we were all busy packing the bus), he received his much deserved comeuppance in the form of a particularly gimpy swim.
Oh, that and my lack of helmet, so I'm now going to look particularly silly and post up about a missing FnA helmet two weeks after the last time I used it...and with no idea of when it finally went missing. :(
Outdoor kayak polo. Nothing could quite be so miserable in Scotland.
These were my thoughts looking at the weather forecast on the run-up to the most last minute entry to ever occur for a competition. With rain scheduled to be hitting the majority of Scotland, and with a deadline only a few days later this seemed the ideal time to jump on a river or hide indoors, rather than defend goals on an open loch.
I am so glad I decided to go ahead with the competition and get it all organised because it was phenomenal! Our team consisted of Ross Barnie (as captain), myself, Keong, both Georges (proving a bit confusing, particularly on the pitch), Stephan (arriving almost an hour late even with a wakeup text!!!) and Rory Slater (who had never played polo competitively before)....so I could be forgiven for expecting us to place fairly low out of the seven teams finally showed up to P in the Loch.
Arriving there, we found that Louise Cullum (an honourary lifetime member of Glasgow Uni Canoe Club) was there with her new club, Forth, who have just succeeded in earning a promotion to Division 2 at the national league; Gavin from Dundee Uni was there as part of the 'Dundee Ladies' *snigger*; and a bunch of other people who I was hoping to not have to play showed up in the same team as the, appropriately named, Misfits.
By 11am, the sun was out and everyone was having a great time when we saw the amount of food for the included BBQ arriving....nomnomnomnomnom!
Anyway, our first game was against the Misfits, and it was a pretty even game. A star turn from George and Keong saw the first goal of the game, Keong made the second on his own, and a lapse in my keeping ability meant that the final score was 2-1.
Our second game was against Fife B, who were pretty damn strong and just kept pushung us back into our own half, so even losing with a score of 3-1 seemed a reasonable effort.
The next game was against the Dundee Ladies, so I sat this one out and let Ross have a turn in goals. As normal he proved a good replacement and kept a clean sheet (with one particularly good save right at the end). The game ended 1-0 to us.
Lastly, in the group stages, we were to play against Stirling University. If we won, we would be in 3rd place in the competition (competing for the trophy), if we lost, we would be in 5th place (competing for the plate). We won, but for me, the biggest victory was capsizing Fraser - the cheer from his team suggested that they agreed with me on that one too.
Somehow, after all the games had been resolved, every semi-final was a rematch. Our rematch was against the Misfits. We scored the first goal, but they scored the second two. So much for being impenetrable...
The Misfits won the competition overall, but at least we can say that we beat them :)
After the competition was done, we went exploring Bridge of Allan to find somewhere to have a team meal as the day had been good enough to deserve it. The Allanwater Cafe, with it's chip shop menu and amazing ice cream fit the bill rather nicely.
Overall, a spectacular day, made even better by the occational making fun of Ross (Chandler) Henderson and his palace in St. Andrews where he eats swans for lunch and has a chat with queenie before afternoon tea...who still made his presence felt because of George Henders...no HAMILTON!!!
Nothing screams upcoming exams like an unprecedented urge to go kayaking. As such, with the weather in Scotland emulating summer (and for all we know, this may be all we'll end up getting) it was time for a casual trip up to Glen Etive to have fun times and barbecues!
Recruited in this trip were Kieran, Stephan and Ross (I suppose I should specify that it's Ross Barnie, not Ross Henderson who had, at this point, returned to his palace in St Andrews). With this group, and the predelection for one of them to show up late, a suitably early start time was arranged and - surprise, surprise - someone was late.
After collecting BBQ food, we boosted up to the Etive to find it PWL - actually the first time I've seen it like that in a while. Bristol Uni Canoe Club were there, and in the two minutes we spent admiring just how low it was, we witnessed two swimmers at the second drop. Well we weren't going to have any trouble there.....
With a race down Triple Falls planned, the other three decided to have a test run down it while I was doing the shuttle (proving it is possible to be ready and on a river for the driver's return, unlike what happens on so many a club trip). In this period, Kieran's run almost met with tragedy, running the third drop he'd ended up capsizing, and his 'bombproof' roll refused to get him upright three times, only just avoiding swimming on the fourth attempt.
We lined up, backwards, about 10 metres away from the first drop. Everyone was joking about how, with my incredibly slow Mamba, the race wouldn't be about who would win, but about who could be closest in front of me to get the most camera time. Well, with such faith in my paddling ability being presented it was only fair that I took the lead before the first drop and never bothered looking back....and then paid for my arrogance twice by capsizing at the third drop (thankfully rolling up) and then realising after I'd won, that I'd forgotton to put on my GoPro....
While Letterbox technically had enough water to be runnable, it wasn't worth it. We put in above Ski-Jump and all paddled it without difficulty.
Knowing how little hold Crack of Doom has at such low levels, we just paddled it with me sitting in the eddy in the crack 'just in case'. It wasn't needed, but it allowed me to get footage of everyone running the rapid. The other Crack was it's usual portage.
Great Waterslide actually proved a bit more devastating than usual. I ended up going down it backwards, Kieran and Ross went into the wall (I would have provided a picture, but the video is better), meaning that it was Stephan who got the best line out of everyone. To show just how grim a realisation that is....well....
Sometimes the best line just isn't good enough...
So after this heroic display of how to not kayak, we went down to Right Angle. For Stephan, it's old hat. For me, it would normally be even more simple, but since the last time I did the dog-leg was the day I broke my last set of paddles (may the rest in peace) I was pretty nervous too. Kieran was quite up for doing the dog-leg for the first time, and Ross, well, he just likes to be scared.
To cut things short, everyone did it fine, with Ross and I rolling at the bottom, and Kieran getting a great landing for his first run of the full thing.
Kieran on a PWL Right Angle
With the Etive pretty much done, all there was left to do was paddle down to the get-off, snack a bit, and decide what to do with the rest of the day. Allt a’ Chaorainn you say?
Kieran wasn't feeling 100% after the Etive, so he volunteered to be designated camera man while Ross, Stephan and I tackled this famous trib. Ross was petrified but, in a rare and pleasant example of manning up, still took on the challenge.
First up was Speed. Aptly named as most will know. It fired all three of us down it flume style and without any problems.
Next up was Ecstacy. It looks significantly more intimidating but, like Speed, is fairly friendly, particularly at this level.
Pinball proved to be a bit more questionable. Stephan decided to lower himself onto it, and still bounced around with seemingly no control. Ross and I fared little better, running the whole thing. For the third time in a day I found myself running a rapid backwards (though my entry had looked fairly good), and Ross, though his entry looked bad, came as close as you can to styling a rapid that bounces you around like a bucking bronco.
Ross on the scary one!
Finally there's Chasm. Just like Speed, but steeper. Stephan looked like he was caught at the top of it for a bit, but all was well.
The light at the end of the tunnel!
Well, with the paddling done for the day, it was time for our barbecue and for locking Kieran in the boot. He seemed really calm about it for some reason...hopefully Holly (his girlfriend) has not been locking him up too often. After a beautiful day in one of Scotlands most scenic valleys it was finally time to head home and hope that this day of perfect paddling procrastination would provide a productive work ethic for the rest of the examination period.
Probably not.
Well, the titles a good giveaway as to what this is about: I entered the Strathclyde University Canoe Club Film Competition (as I always do), and failed to win anything (as I always do). Even though this time my film did receive a decent amount of applause, it was clear who the three winners were going to be.
Well done to Julia, Callum, Dan and Murray for their respective films. If I get the chance I'll upload them here for people to wonder at, but until then, here's mine:
As I imagine anyone in Glasgow Uni Canoe Club will inform you, my failure to paddle the Leny in my seven years at the club has become something of a joke. Fifty trips, private and otherwise, must have been run there throughout my time at university. Well, today is the day that everything changed - and just like with the Moriston, it took Mark Mulrain and Strathclyde Uni Canoe Club to do it.
Well, with a 12:30 start, I am pleased to say that no-one was late. And seeing as everyone going had as much in the way of common sence as kayakers have, we'd all packed food, cameras, towels (unless you were in a drysuit), meaning that there wasn't even any faff!....until Murray missed the turn off.
I shan't bore you with endless details about the river. Suffice it to say, the upper section (before the Falls of Leny) is a fairly nice and continuous grade 2, maybe 3, bimble.
At the Falls, it was time for me to make the choice that had been plaguing me the entire journey: would I run the Falls of Leny? Could I up the ante, and tackle a grade 5 that was both technical, and with a decent volume?
Challenge Accepted!!
I have it on good authority from Dan that my line wasn't that far off Mark's line (we were the only two to run it)...but anything better than a maiming is a victory as far as I'm concerned.
The lower half of the river caused me some more trouble, with me having to fall back on my brace and even roll (yes, no-one was more surprised than me when it actually worked!) as we got further down.
The Leny's definitely up there with the rivers of that level, and because it's nice and continuous, it feels more challenging than some of the others that I've run that are probably, technically, more difficult. I can certainly see why it's such a popular river, and I look forward to returning their before seven years passes again...otherwise this may end up being my Pon Farr river (that's in here just for you Mark).
