Liverpool University Canoe Club

Video of our trip to Turkey. Also see Ali’s report over on luckyblog.

Here’s the link on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=107889115180

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Hooray! With help from Pete Knowles (Slime) of Rivers publishing, Mary has lined up a series of most exciting speakers for Spring Term 2009

Wed 14th January Gordon Brown  top sea kayak coach, author, and rough water specialist who runs “Skyak Adventures”

Wed 18th February Nicky Pearce student expeditioner, with hair-raising tales of whitewater first descents in Madagascar, and fluffy pictures of lemurs and bush babies.

Wed 11th March Doug Ammons   the most incredibly famous US paddler, author of “Laugh of the water Nymph,” VI gnarl-meister extraordinaire.

We’ve put details on the LiverpoolKayakTalks.info website. Please put the dates in your diary, bookmark it, and tell your friends (paddlers and non paddlers) - click on these facebook events  to help pass the message on, cheers! Social-wise, look out for further info - food then bar before, and pub after.

Here’s the blurb:

Inspiring talks by top personalities from the paddling community 

Talks begin at 8.00pm or join us in the bar (ground floor) beforehand. Tickets are available on the door: adults £4 (children £3). Tickets can be reserved by emailing: mary_hanc@hotmail.com

Talks are held in the The Hub, Guild of Students unless otherwise advertised.

For maps and directions see the Map page.

Everyone welcome, looking forward to seeing you there.

Quotes:

On Doug Ammons: “The helicopter story was hilarious and worth the price of admission by itself” - Will Gadd, (Canadian champion sports climber)

On Doug Ammons: “A guy who solo-ed the Grand Canyon of the StikineHAS got to be worth seeing. He is as good a talker as paddler.” - Dave Manby

On kayaking round Skye with Gordon Brown: “Its very rare that I’m actually speechless that somewhere is so beautiful” - Ben Fogle, Countryfile.

“Can recommend Gordon Brown at Skyak - simply the best coaching I’ve ever had in any sport” - forum poster on UKSeakayakGuidebook

“I was enthralled by Gordon Brown’s Greenland talk which I saw, at the Storm Gathering. His on and off water photos were stunning, particularly those of Duncan Winning wending through the icebergs.” - Douglas Wilcox, sea kayak photographer.

“The first drop was a bony looking fall, We got out on the bank and scouted it, all but Ted Piper decided to walk round, he looked again from the other bank, put his deck on and boofed over the lip, landing safely at the bottom, easy! Edmond, one of our guides decided to follow him, there was no boof, suddenly our guide was vertically pinned in the first drop, in a very difficult position to rescue and miles away from the nearest medical help. For a second we held our breath, had we just killed our river guide on the first drop?” - Nicola Pearce’s 2007 Madagascar article in Kayak Session Online

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Just letting you know about upcoming Polo tournament - its a “warm-up” tournament before BUSA. So sophie is going to put in a ladies team and an open team, cos its an ideal chance for folk to play together as a team before BUSA (BUCS) in April, and to suss out the opposition.

Should we put in more teams?

There are a bunch of freshers who are looking like they enjoy polo, and also of course, there are old-gits and non liv uni students who are not elegible to play in main BUSA teams but might fancy a game. So if you would like to play at Cardiff, then please get in touch with Sophie, and then she’ll know to put more teams in to accomodate folk - novice teams, gits team, or maybe a team made of a mixture of novice and gits, to help folk progress at polo.

The weekend will be pretty relaxed and chill out. Go to Cardiff, play some games on sat, some on sunday, camp in a rugby field, go to a party on the sat night. Cost will be about the same as for usual weekend trip, about £25 or £30 to cover transport, entry fee, camping and party.

If you interested in playin, or if you got questions, get in touch with Sophie, you can email her by fillin in this form xh

cforms contact form by delicious:days

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1. Wear bright colours so that you can easily spot your team.
2. Develop a code system to confuse the opposition: “Dasher, pass to Blitzen and then sleigh ride right.”
3. Careful use of blackmail to ensure we are never be beaten by children again: “So, you’re going to push Santa in then….?”

Photos by HelenJ

Report by HelenH

Pictures by EmS, HelenH, AlisonH, howies

Never been on the West Tanfield trip before, but I knew enough to realise that survival depended on getting a pair of these: Mmmmmm, toastie, merino.

First at the campsite were Will, Cath and me. Pete’s “Mystery Machine” and Ben, Stu, Ade and Dan then arrived and we headed to the Black sheep pub. The minibus and other assorted vehicles got there just in time for the pub to revoke the pub closing time, and we had a very warm and lovely evening.

Saturday: The Ure is mainly a grade II river, with features seperated by calm stretches, all very picturesque. The level was perfect - rain earlier in the week ensured that it was a good mid level. The guidebooks make much of a weir, which is sometimes portaged at higher levels, but was no problem at this level for everyone. AndyR, Stu et al organised us into mini-groups, and everyone, especially the the freshers, did brilliantly. There were maybe 2 swims, just cos they could see that the leaders would be bored with noone to mop up. The last part of the river reaches a good III, with a nice rocky-and-bouncy rapid just level with the campsite. This was repeated by most folk 2 or 3 times, and then the freshers then had a go at safety and rescue swimming and throwline practice with Will and Stu and others, after which everyone was buzzing, cold, and ready for the brilliant hot showers. Other activities of the day: Sara et al did some nice bike rides, and found pretty abbeys and monuments, while those signed up for forthcoming Hellrunner ran the vehicle shuttle for a bit of training.

Off to the pub again, this time with halloween props hand-crafted by Pete. Some heavy drinking followed, all best forgotten really…

Sunday: Overnight, the rain had swelled the Ure to an altogether different kind of river - the last rapid  was just a blur of white froth, quite chilling to look at. Quite some rise of water. During the weekend, the North West of England was experiencing extreme weather conditions, while the North East had its fair share of rain in the night and the rivers were certainly, er, up.

Consulting the guidebook, and considering the high levels, a variety of plans were hatched - Dinny and Alison headed off to the Upper Wharfe:

Sara went off to do more biking, while most of the other folk trecked over to the Upper Tees, north of Barnard castle. BenW, Cath, AndyR, Lloyd, Stu and Ade all did the section from just below High force, exciting IV and happily uneventful. Then we watched while these and others did Low force a few times. Very picturesque stuff. HelenJ styled it, and Lloyd decided to cause amusement by doing the drop fine, and then taking a refreshing dip afterwards, and BenW has a new screensaver for his desktop at work.

Next, Ade, Dan, Ruth and Cath headed down to a lower section, which proved to be a perfect challenge at a good level, not suitable for beginnners though. The better paddlers in the remaining group then settled in to do the top of the section carrying on from Low Force, ready to meet the freshers and intermediate paddlers lower down on the flatter bit. Unfortunately, the river gods were picking a fight that day, and that’s a story that has been told very well elsewhere… Plans were then reshaped into wet and pint-sized refreshment, a nice warm pub, and a happy trip home.

Well, I’m a convert, really looking forward to next year’s West Tanfield trip already. Big thanks to JohnW for organising, AndyR, Stu and all the other river leaders and drivers for a great trip, and everyone for making it a lovely weekend!

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As promised, polo results from the weekend tournament at the weekend, nice one. Actually, not totally sure if the summary tables match the results, I think Liverpool women overall have had some draws, and no losses, but either way, Liverpool Women are currently top toppity top. Well done!!

Many thanks to FOA for organising the tournament. Next one is in February, top stuff.

Spreadsheet: tourn-no-2-results