Liverpool University Canoe Club

By: Martin 

AGM on April 10th at 6pm in the Guild (before the pool session)

Please Propose and Second Members over the email list.

Positions Available are;

• *Captain
• Vice Captain
• *Communications - (Rebranded ‘Secretary’ position)
• *Treasurer
• Polo Sec Mens
• Polo Sec Womens
• Gear Sec
• Slalom Secs
• Public Relations
• Social Sec
• OCM - Ordinary Committee Member

By Martin 

LUCC: Liverpool University Canoe Club Committee Meeting Minutes06.03.08 Present: Kim, Andy, Martin, Lloyd, Laura G, Claire, NickApologies: Dom, Laura M, Nev, Tamsin, Phil, Lil NicNext Meeting: TBA

I. Approval of MinutesThe minutes of the previous meeting were unanimously approved as distributed.

II. Announcements

1. AU Updatea. Captain: We missed the meeting but Marin apologised so beautifully we haven’t been charged!

2. Reports

a. Secretary’s Summary • Number of fully paid up members 61• Increase from last meeting 0• Other announcements I haven’t completed the database – sorry it will be done

b. Treasurer’s Summary • Total amount in the club account £1016• Expenditure since last meeting •

Other announcements

c. Polo Christie Cup on Wed 12th March (NEXT WEEK)• Games Played • Games Won • Games Lost • Ranking

d. Slalom -• Events entered • Ranking

e. Whitewater • Events entered • Ranking III. Discussion1.

Open Issues

a. Sessions • Hopefully, cross fingers toes and any other appendages, we will be able to get in the pool next Thursday• Actually pool opened again today (Fri 7th) – Wahoooo! ALL

b. Trips • Sunday day trip MARTIN

c. Socials • Annual Dinner – April 18th LLOYD

d. Equipment • 1st aid Kits• Coat Hangers for wet suits to dry!!• River running paddles – solid basic• Spray decks - £100 worth (LOMOs?)• Airbags - £100 worth• Inzaone 230 - £200 – in Tamworth hopefully to get to us via Pyranha• Microbat £150 MARYMARYLAURA G + MARYANDY ANDY

e. Other

2. New Issues

a. The smushed polo boat • To be flogged at BUSA polo as it has just been sitting there for ages LAURA G

b. AGM • To be held on 10th April, 6pm• Hannah Whitton to be Guild representative• All committee to do brief job descriptions

c. Lowri Davis Talk HELEN• Mon 10th March – Greenbank Halls – ref emails + forum• http://www.liverpoolkayaktalks.info/ 

d. Sell some more Dancers to make space for new boats coming in LLOYD•

IV. Any Other Business

1. 2. 3. 4. V. Dates for the DiaryTrip Time Date Person A Sunday Jaunt Early 9th Mar MARTINSCOTLAND Easter Wknd WILL et alVI. AdjournmentMeeting drew to a close at 21.30pmNext Meeting: TBA Minutes Submitted: Mary

Minutes Approved: Committee

By Andy R 

Easter comes around again, and with it our annual crusade in search of scottish waters…. for me, this year was a little different from the normal however

Easter

Scotland

45 people

and a cubic sh*tload of snow to go with it

After discussing how Mary was going to travel from Devon to meet us in Roybridge on the Thursday, the options included; train, plane, bus, driving and cycling. After we’d established that cycling up to Scotland was ridiculous, train and bus tickets were booked and the matter was sorted….. A short time after this conversation, involving short term memory loss, it was decided that i was going to set off early on sunday morning and cycle to scotland, to meet the minibus at the river get in on thursday morning.

Four days, 323.5 miles and 24 1/2 hours in the saddle later, i arrived at the bottom of glen etive, where a warm bed in Stu’s bunkhouse (the “Smiddy”) awaited me. Thursday morning involved serious bum-ache and a further cycle up the glen in search of signal, to find the others were getting on the river a further east in Glen Orchy. I abandonned, and braved the winds a further thirty miles to wait in Morrison’s for them to show up. (serious bumache by now…) The Orchy from what i gather, was an iconic run featuring swimmage from messers Si and Will, amongst others, in true trip’s first river style. Sad to have missed helping pick up the pieces….

Friday involved the Arkaig and the Spean in miserable cold conditions. After difficulty scouting the only drop of worth on the Arkaig, team safety Lloyd myself and Andy H set our selves up to prepare for the carnage that was about to unfold. Barring the safety team and perhaps 3 or 4 others, of a group of 25, everyone ran the drop on their head, resulting in utter carnage with boats, paddles, bodies, swimming, rolling all over the shot. A picture ingrained in the back of my retinas for a while yet i think. A special shout to Andy Squirrel, who’s whole group ran the full length of the drop following on their bums, being overtaken by all their equipment! Utter Carnage. The Spean proved less eventful, a couple of swims, but all survived (freezing) to the get out, while Team-Shoulder headed on down the gorge. A fair amount of rolling (most notable was Adam’s capsize on the eddy-line above headbanger, in which he ran completely on his head, only managing to correct on 10th attempt in the pool below - lucky boy) and Swims from Penny, Rob and Adam (cough!), resulting in reoccuring shoulder dislocations, a sad end to nice run, and more bother for future medical implications. The Ade-machine ran (litterally) the shuttle for us and we were back at the hut for tea (as ever, cheers Ade). Spean gorge an excelent run, tight and technical.

Saturday - cough, The etive. utter carnage on triple-two, lots of fishing from the Nicholl’s yahoo squirrel combination, as per the norm, and Loonsey (among others from other clubs) doing an excelent washing machine impression in Letterbox (more Nicholl’s yahoo squirrel combination fishing), before heading to hospital. Politics forced a walk out, but crack team chris, myself and dale met Squirrel and Andy H at the bottom to shoot right angle.

Sunday - SNOW and lots of it, on the way to the Findhorn. Ever seen a brown river????? This was brown from snow….. and rather chilly. Excelently run, groups and leadership sorted, and a very nice river. A Captain swim amongst a few others (Si sent to stand in his corner), and extremely cold conditions to arrive for lunch at the church. A few hardy souls further braved the gorge and made a very good job of it in tricky medium levels, but most were content warming up in the front of the van - yes, that would be eleven in the front of the van (dave left brown residue on the gear stick he was enjoying it so much)

Monday - again, the etive. Everyone on the same river at once this time, and everyone progressing and taking less swims and less rolls in the process. The Duo worked well down the whole river, but paddling efficiency is much reduced when you are preparing to hold your deck on down drops, instead of actually putting strokes in. Mixed with going deeper under water than ever in your life, and gaining access to this depth by way of a 7m waterfall is an experience. Having not personally seen it, a highlight must have been Will swimming embarassingly on the dog leg above right angle…… and was it on camera????? Monday afternoon, and the minibus, van and all related cars leave for liverpool, leaving Myself, Mary, Loonsey and Andy H in glen etive to carry on the holiday with stu and other friends in the “smiddy”. (insert chinese poker shots here - drinking marmite, cheese, curry power, sunflower oil, and sweet chilli sauce supirsingly good fun!)

Wednesday, my 21st birthday, and the guys had gone to Argos to buy inflatable swimming pools. A drive up the road to Right Angle falls in borrowed dry cags to plunge down the waterfall in said inflatables, in pairs. Absoultely hilarious fun, theres a whoooosh and a huge thrill running it in a kayak, and a larger crazy head moment running it in a duo, but drop off it in an inflatable mini-copper clutching a can of beer out the window, is jsut something else. Unfortunately this also resulted in Loonsey’s second injury of the week, as Mary headbutted her, and broke her hand. the holiday continued. As for getting home - Loons and Andy set out to meet Warwick Uni CC, Mary and three others left for Bristol/Bath in Nick’s car, leaving me and stu to hitch home via trucker and van BMP van driver. Free trip home, and quite a funny experience, getting back to liverpool at 6:30, before the other guys arrived in Bath. a crazy end.

Top notch trip, Another successful scottish Easter, thankyou all concerned

So its been a while since my last article, been slacking a bit (sorry Helen). This is due to sorting out my new job (yay) and doing lots and lots of paddling. And i mean lots. Last weekend was my 10th consecutive weekend on the water water, with around 8 out of those 10 encompassing two days paddling.

Photos from Andy Squirrel on Facebook

March has been an excellent paddling month for myself, bearing witness to my first ever runs down Fairy Glen on the Conwy and the Upper Lledr, as well as returns to the main section of the Lledr as well as the Upper and Middle sections of the Conwy.

The first weekend in March saw me hooking up with a friend from Nottingham who also provided discount delivery of a new boat for one of Stu’s housemates. We set off saturday morning after a hearty cooked breakfast, but nearly never made our destination. En route along the A55, in the outside lane there was a 4×4 and trailer ahead of us in the inside lane. Next thing we knew the wind caused a wooded pallet loose in the trailer to become airborne, hurtling and rotating through the air like something out of Hollywood blockbuster Twister. We braked and fortunately the pallet came to a halt straddling the lane markings just before we reached it enabling enough room to swerve between it and the central reservation! This definitely woke us up, so we proceeded to the Conwy.

Here myself, Si, Robin, John and Phil jumped onto the Middle Conwy for a warm-up before heading down the Fairy Glen. The second Grade 5 was at a good level, and i fair-ed better than last time down remaining upright though exiting backwards into the pool below.

 So onto the mighty Fairy Glen, know as a test piece of British paddling and one of the best runs at its grade - 2km of Grade 5 comprising two gorges split by Fairy Falls (5+). The phone gauge had read around 1300, and at this level the first drop of note - Sticky Hole - lives up to its reputation. One ran it one portaged and the remainder of our group sneaked down the left. I then proceeded to end up in the hole below against the gorge wall, performing some creekboat freestyle for the rest of the group sat in the eddy below before paddling out along the wall. The run comprised of being explained the line in the eddy above each rapid/drop, followed by everyone paddling off followed by me tentatively following on.

For a first run it is great to have a group that knows the lines, this speeds things up , but can make the run seem more full-on. Inspection is difficult however, and you could spend hours on this inspecting and not really seeing much! A quick inspection at Fairy Falls and it was a goer. This leads into the second gorge, which contains rapids including Pipeline, SpeederBiker and End of the World. Before you know it your at the Lledr confluence and you can pause for breath - what a fantastic section of whitewater.

The following day saw our number cut to three, the phone gauge at 1400, and an even quicker run down as i didn’t need all the lines explaining, just occasional reminders. Sticky hole runs nicely at this level, ride a cushion wave to the left then two stokes to straighten up and boof the drop. Managed to nail the line through the hole i spent time in the previous day, only to end up in the nest one at Monkey Drop - doh. No inspection at Fairy Falls, Robin informed me as the level had risen it definitely ran, however some of my marker rocks from the previous were now underwater! A fantastic sight looking back up the gorge from above End of the World seeing the rapids you have just run bathed in Spring sunshine. Then off to the Middle for a quick blast. Both days paddling were followed by visits to the lovely Conwy Falls cafe for refreshment, very enjoyable.

 The following weekend was Student Rodeo weekend, but rain forecast in Wales saw me and Si van camping near Dolgellau in the hope of paddling the Mawdach, Gamlan,Gain etc. Sadly this was not to be as we checked levels saturday morning whilst heading north towards Betws y Coed. As we drove past the Lledr on the A470 it appeared as through the rain had fallen in this catchment, and we resolved to investigate the Upper Lledr and continuing down the raging lower section. After some faff our group was united with a get-on decided. This section has some enjoyable drops and small rapids before a section of flat above the testing rapid at Ponty y Pant, but allows for a warm up and extends the paddle by some 9km.

The Lledr from Pont y Pant is a excellent run and everything goes at lower levels. We walked the entrance drop to the Rhiw Goch gorge and Viaduct Falls, but everything else went nicely. Some of the guys rounded the day off with a run down the Llugwy from below Swallow Falls to Chip Shop Drop, much to the entertainment of passing tourists. After food we headed to Llanberis for a party at the Boulder Adventure boathouse for some beers and a catch up with old friends.

Sunday saw a lazy start with breakfast at Pete’s Eats followed by another trip down the Glen.

Last weekend i only ventured out for sunday, electing to stay home and watch all three Six Nations rugby matches - the right choice as the rain didn’t come until saturday. Sunday saw me, Joe and Martin hook up with various ex-Nottingham Trent paddlers for a run down the Lledr at a slightly lower level than the previous week. Another great paddle, followed with a run down the Upper and Middle Conwy to round things off.

What a month it has been so far, with Scotland still to come. Enjoy

Squirrel

Big thanks to Lowri Davies for coming over to Liverpool and telling us about Mongolia and Russia. And big thanks to everyone who helped and who came along to this or previous talks and for making the speakers welcome.

Lowri has rather impressive photos of the sweeping landscapes of Mongolia, and the scary, sharp, gorgey geology of Russia.  

Unfortunately the projector I found turned out not to have a “green” on it. (Sorry). Luckily, Russian geology is mainly red, and water is, obviously, always blue, and Lowri managed to make us quickly forget that the pictures were tinted - if you’d like to see the pictures in their proper colours, go to photobucket. 

The four borders expedition is the second of the “British Universities” expeditions to happen - the first was to Kyrgystan in 2005, and the next expedition will be in 2009 - selection this autumn. The project was born out of the realisation that, although lots of Universities have very active canoe clubs with stuff aimed at most beginner and mid levels, there is often little opportunity for the best whitewater paddlers in a university to get out there and do stuff challenging enough to push them at their own level, and push at the edges of the known paddling world.

For the selected team, really everything was up to them, right from choosing and researching destinations,  raising cash to do it, arranging all the logistics, and carrying out their plans. A team of 8 representing every area of the country.

The two main areas they visited were Mongolia and Russia - the Russian part represents really hard multi day gorges. The Mongolian bit is very much unexplored from a paddling perspective - all new.

The visa problems, alcoholic drivers, the families who befriended them, and the officials who confiscated their stuff formed quite a thread through the trip.  Then there was the  water. Lowri’s pics and talk give us a sense of the scale of the place and of the undertaking that venturing out on continuous IV/V through rather sharp rocks presents. Great to hear someone so good at getting across the challenging/uplifting/truly frightening personal experiences involved.

Thanks Lowri for a super talk!