Italian Alps Kayaking Trip

The last weekend in April saw myself and friends Greg, Dom and Paul heading out for the Italian kayaking paradise of Valsesia Piemonte for seven full days of creeking on the world class rivers that this beautiful area is blessed with. Levels were high for the first few days so we enjoyed some big water runs on the Sesia and an upper Sesia run which included some pretty good waterfall drops. Once levels dropped a little we were able to get on the classic runs of the area, although levels were still medium to high and as such a bit on the sporty side. The upper Mastellone was exciting, and a good warm-up run for the superb and steep Gronda and Sorba slides - amazing rivers with loads of steep slides and boof drops. As the levels continued to drop to more normal levels we were able to paddle some of the other classics, such as the Egua, Sermenzina, Sermenza, including many of their various sections. We paddled such varied river conditions during the trip, involving alpine runs, steep and technical runs with loads of boulders, slides and drops, through to some pretty cool gorge paddling on the lower Sermenza and lower Mastellone. A lot of the rivers were pretty full-on grade 5 paddling, but it was all pretty cool being in such a beautiful setting of snow-capped mountains, steep wooded valleys, and quaint rustic villages dotted randomly throughout this amazing landscape. Definitely looking forward to the next trip! :)

April?!?!?

April mainly consisted of lots of climbing training on my home wall, with the odd foray out to the cove and Bonehill rocks on Dartmoor for a spot of bouldering when the weather allowed. Generally it was too wet for much in the way of climbing outdoors, not wet enough for any kayaking on the river, and far too windy for any sea kayaking, so all in all a bit of a rubbish month really. Roll on summer, and hopefully plenty of deep water soloing again!?!

March Madness

The weather this month has been either bitterly cold and dry or slightly milder with heavy doses of rain. This meant that most of my climbing was done on my home wall, just keeping the training going until I can get outdoors on some real rock again. 
What the random and mixed weather did facilitate was a bit of kayaking in the form of both river and sea paddling. Finally after a month of having my new kayak I was able to get it wet and put some scratches on it, with a handful of quality runs on the superb Upper Dart. I had about three trips in lovely medium-plus levels, plus a couple of adrenaline-fuelled runs in quite big water which was a real buzz, one of which was solo. :O This all helped me to tune into the new ZET Raptor really well, and my overall impression is extremely good - it handles like a dream and I'm absolutely loving it! :) I'm in the blue boat in the video. ;)
Upper Dart ZET Raptor paddling big flows
I did also dust the cobwebs off my Tiderace Xcite and get out for a couple of fantastic sea paddles too. The first was an evening trip around Berry Head to Mansands and back in lovelyl warm and sunny conditions. Then a few days later Elisabeth and myself took a trip to the beautiful Bantham bay for a wonderful afternoon of surfing, rockhopping and coastal paddling in glorious sunny conditions. What a magic day we had! :)
Not sure what April has in store for us, but hopefully weather conditions will allow us to get out paddling and/or climbing in some form or other!?! 

French Friends Visit

During the last week of February our French friends came to visit us in Torbay for a few days; Isabelle, children Thomas and Alexandre, and mother Brigitte. It was great to catch up and spend some time with them again. Isabelle used to stay with us when we were both children, and it's wonderful that we have stayed in touch over all these years. 
They spent some time visiting the local sights and attractions with my parents, then on the last day of February I had the pleasure of taking them climbing at the superb Dartrock Climbing Centre nr Buckfastleigh. It has a really good setup for introducing novices to the wonderful world of climbing, with plenty of traverse walls, a bouldering area, some lower height roped climbs, as well as the main roped and lead climbing area, so it caters for novice, intermediates and experts alike. 
We spent a fantastic two hours there and they all did really well, progressing from the traverses, through the bouldering, to the roped climbs, and finally onto the main area where the routes climb a lot higher. Despite having never climbed before they all displayed a very natural climbing ability and good body movement skills (maybe it was all that ballet Isabelle?!?). We all enjoyed ourselves very much, and it was great to see the smiles on their faces when they reached the top of the routes. Allez, allez! Tres bien! :)
Even my parents, who didn't climb, were happy because they were able to partake of Dartrocks excellent tea and cake selection whilst they viewed all the climbing action.
Afterwards we all returned to my parents house to enjoy a delicious meal together, and spent the evening chatting and laughing late into the night. Very happy times! :)
Looking forward to meeting up with them all again soon! ;)

February Update

Quiet would be a good word to describe the first couple of months of 2013 so far. 
The river dried up which put a stop to all the kayaking, so I turned my focus back to my climbing training. This was done mostly on my home wall, with the odd deep water solo at Berry Head when conditions permitted, mainly because the weather wasn't really good enough to get out much. 
However, my aching back, that I was suffering with from Christmas, finally gave out on me and that pretty much put a stop to all the climbing training, which was really frustrating because it had been going really well and I was feeling a lot stronger. 
After a few weeks rest, a two-hour physio session and lots of stretching, I finally started getting better again. By early February I was back to my pull-up routine and some easy-ish climbing routes, and later in that same month I was back to my power-endurance circuits on my steep home wall. Excellent. 
The British weather is continuing to disappoint with the usual run of cold, grey, damp, and generally rubbish conditions. This means no kayaking or outdoor climbing to look forward to in the near future, which is slightly frustrating because I still haven't got to paddle my new ZET Raptor creek boat yet, and the routes I want to climb locally still need more time to dry out properly, but conditions are remaining too damp for that to happen right now. Dammit! 
Oh well, all I can do is keep going with the training in the hope that when conditions come right I might hopefully be fit enough to stand a chance of getting up some of the routes on my tick-list?!? Afterall; pain is temporary, but victory lasts a lifetime. Venga!!! ;)

Christmas and New Year Antics

Well, the weather over the Christmas period was mostly pretty wet, with regular heavy doses of rain over the moors which kept the river levels up nicely for us. Luckily we had the last two weeks of December off and, due to the superb water levels, were out kayaking on the River Dart almost every day during this time. We had some nice Loop runs in our playboats, ranging from medium to high water, and I lost count of the amount of Upper Dart runs I got in; all in perfect medium to high levels. I notched up quite a lot of 'Solo' Upper Dart runs, as well as some with friends and fellow river junkies. The best trip of the holidays for me was an epic paddle down the Upper Dart, in which we started paddling at a 'ledge covered' level and ended up arriving at Newbridge with it on the third step and fully flowing through the third arch of the bridge, having had the river rise three feet in half an hour whilst we were on the water! The rapids were huge and flowing really fast, with big holes everywhere, and despite being in a demo Zet Raptor, I still paddled every section of river, with no portages. In fact the Zet Raptor was so good I felt very comfortable in these conditions in it, and it is now going to be my next creek boat purchase for sure. I was on such a high during and after this trip, it was such a buzz, and I was totally stoked! :) 
I did manage to get a bit of climbing training in during this time, mostly on my home wall, with a couple of outdoor sessions, including a cheeky little Deep Water Solo at Berry Head - good job I didn't fall in though; it woulda been pretty cold! Now with the colder and drier weather coming in, it's time to pick up the climbing training in eager anticipation of the chance to bash out a few outdoor routes on my climbing ticklist. :)

White Water course

Pure Liquid Kayaking ran an improvers white water kayaking course over a four week period through November, working with kayakers who were already paddling the river and who wanted to improve their skills. During the course we really pushed the clients breaking in and out skills, as well as ferrygliding, boofing and playing in stoppers. On top of this we covered some essential WWSR skills and techniques, the entire BCU 3* syllabus, plus some important leadership skills too. 
I would like to thank Tris, Julian and Steve for being such a great bunch of guys to paddle with and coach, it certainly was good fun, cheers!