Liverpool University Canoe Club

UPDATE: More Info Available here.

Dave Manby, famous kayaker, is going to give a talk at lucc, hooray!

What to expect: Stories about different countries and a lot of mad whitewater-themed things. Pictures of gorges through red Turkish granite and Himalayan boulder-strewn torrents. Kayaks folded to fit them into biplanes, land-rovers mended with string, days trecking to high-altitude put-ins etc. Expedition stories from Iran, Nepal, South America, everywhere really. Excerpts of the recently remastered “Relentless river of Everest” footage - the 1976 first descent of the Dudh Kosi by Mike Jones team. Videos of some sort of weirdo “boater cross” extreme experiment on the Coruh river.

In 1976, Dave Manby was part of a team of students and recent graduate aged folk who carried out the first successful descent of the Dudh Kosi, Everest. Amazing stuff, at a time when Later, on the 1978 K2 Braldu trip, Mike Jones tragically lost his life while going to the aid of a friend. Dave Manby and others organised the original Mike Jones memorial Dee Tours. He’s carried on doing trips to new unpaddled areas of Asia, the middle east and South America, and developed a rafting and kayaking business in Turkey. Some amazing expeditions then and now.

Rachel, Aussie Dave and I heard him speak last year in Manchester, and it was tops

The talk will be in the international lounge at the guild, on the 2nd floor. Tell your friends about it, especially anyone who is into outdoor or adventure sports, caving, climbing etc who might like to hear a talk on extreme expeditions. Admission is £3.50 on the door.

If you can offer any help e.g. putting up posters or setting out chairs etc on the day, then that would be great, please get in touch with Rachel.

It may be possible to purchase copies of Dave’s book Many rivers to run and DVD Dudh kosi: Relentless river of Everest on the evening - both definitely recommended.

Gilmore bar, ground floor of Guild, will be open before and after the talk.

This is the first of a series of whitewater talks throughout the spring, more details from Rachel and Martin soon.

By Martin 

The first weekend of December saw the start of rainy season, and a small group of LUCC paddlers took advantage of this to get some training in before the new year.

River leadership was the aim, and that is what we practised.

Friday night saw, Nev, Mary, Kim, Andy, Lloyd, Tammy and myself gather at sheds and load up our kit. We were joined by our newest member, another Andy, whose just moved back to Liverpool from uni.

We set out on our way, but before even leaving town disaster struck as Mary’s car became paralysed in the Tesco petrol station. Half an hour’s cursing and fiddling later and the car leapt back to life and they finally got on their way. Next stop, Hebden water, and a disapoiting level was found. The descision was made to carry on to our next river option, the Wharfe. We arrived late, pitched our tents and slept.

An early start Saturday, saw Nev and Myself inspecting the river, then rousing the troops for the day’s activities. We discovered Tammy had forgotten to pack a helmet, so she sat out the first run, in the warmth of the cars. The rest of us got on the river. We had a short introduction in the top eddy, including some river signalling basics and leading techniques explained by both Andy and Nev. We broke out and Nev took the lead for the first rapid, then we swapped to Mary. We each took turns at leaving the group, deciding on appropriate progression techniques, inspections and lines to follow down rapids. We kept good communications open throughout the day using the river signals agreed upon in the top eddy.

We ran the river a second time, this time i sat out to allow Tammy to paddle with my helmet. This gave me a good chance to grab some photo’s and do the shuttle. We then headed to the nearest pub for a chat and to decide on the next days activities.

After our pint, we headed over towards the Mint to find a place to eat and set up camp. We had a lovely pub meal, then Wild Camped near by. We awoke early next morning, and heading down to find the river a little low and decided the Lune was a better bet. we dropped Tammy in town, and she enjoyed a pub crawl with some locals while we headed off to paddle the Lune. We practice the skills we’d learnt the previous day and had an enjoyable paddle on the lune at the highest level I have ever seen it. We ran everything, and got some good video footage of some parts too.

Thanks for an interestin, if faff-ful trip. I believe those on the trip feel they can now contribute to leading rivers for the club, i know i have gained confidence. I look forward to seeing them leading a club trip soon, and can’t wait to run my own…

Martin