Washburn River White Water Race – Trip Report
Posted by: Finn in BUSA, Trip Reports, WWRReport by: Finn M and Lois
Following Violet’s advice: bring every piece of clothing you own, we arrived at the sheds a little late with many large bags in tow to see everyone else with the same monumental quantity of necessary bags. Good to see everyone was in the full swing of getting stuff ready very efficiently, however we were shortly joined by Orla and Kieran who helped us slow down our preparations to a stop. They decided winter camping really wasn’t for them and they certainly weren’t going to spend a tenner for the opportunity. Guys, what a mistake!
After a quick trip to The Green Giant and The Big L for tea we got on the road for the short journey to our camp site near Skipton. There was an air of quiet concern towards the rear of the bus and towards the front: The Idiots Guide to The Universities Architecture Course. Tents went up in seconds for some when we got to the camp site, Trucker12 had his awesome pimped out van with integrated insulation. Overflow and DrummerBoy must have been on their 4th by the time their tents were up and the drinking continued on our journey to see RubberDuck. Shocked by his rare clothing addition, a ‘typically RubberDuck yellow’ hat which complemented his all seasons leggings.
No joking a very cold night for some of the single tent occupants, not a huge amount of sleeping to be had. It didn’t rain though which was a bonus. At some point during the night DrummerBoy realised he had forgotten his Cag, not a good trip to be doing that. DrummerBoy was the first person to be racing in the morning and sprung into action sharpish at Mamma D’s call.
We woke up on Saturday ready for a day of racing. It was pretty cold but not raining – unusual for Yorkshire. Mamma D drove us all down to the start with the sound of Christmas songs and the lads all changed into their gear for their early races. DrummerBoy made a grand start to the day on his white water racer, and a solid time of 9min59 from Overflow put him top of the Liverpool boys. Bandit, Beaver and BossMan were also awesome. LilDuck, also at the event took a spare slot and had a great run. RubberDuck then had a little triathlon to be getting on with, time to release the C2!! Mamma D and Sodbuster did amazingly in their C2 to make it down in 11th, only swimming 3 times! RubberDuck (keeping cool on the CB) in sweet contact with Overflow throughout rescued the forsaken craft each time.
The K1 races secured a lot of points for the girls, with Violet coming an overall 5th, closely followed by Sodbuster and Mamma D in 9th and 14th – nice one. FullMoon, NightQueen and CueBall also put in wicked runs. Distructo may have swum!!! The girls team events then got underway. Sodbuster, Mamma D and Violet put in a great time of 10min37 to secure 3rd place for the girls. FullMoon, NightQueen and Distructo lead by DrummerBoy then made it down with no swims to come in a respectable (I think) 10th. Overall it was a good day for BUCS points and a great day for burgers. Huge thanks to Mamma D, Sodbuster, SuicideJockey, DrummerBoy, Overflow and Violet for being amazing safety throughout the day, and Trucker12 for shipping everyone from the finish to the top multiple times!
Once back at the campsite the team prepared to eat dinner with some van-side drinking games, which to be honest I’m not convinced anyone understood. The free dinner was yum. With full stomachs we then headed down to join the party. Pretty good night with much crazy dancing; the like of which I’ve never seen outside Liverpool Canoe Club. I feel we owned this party. We then made our way back up to bed to get some quality sleep before Sunday’s races.
We arrived at the river, just below the Thruscross Reservoir, all singing Christmas songs. Sodbuster reckons this should be a new tradition for club trips….. throughout the year! First team to run in the morning was Overflow, Bandit and DrummerBoy. They bashed through using Dancers, preferred over the wave hoppers for this run, achieving 16th out of 43 teams. Overflow and DrummerBoy had bet Mamma D, Violet and Sodbuster that they would beat their time. The excitement when they did actually beat the time is testament to woman’s power in the club, two men have never been so happy to beat a girl’s time. Time to beat: 10:37.0, Men’s team: 10:23.2.
The sprints followed the last team runs. A very short section of river with fast flowing water no major hazards just one aim, GO DAM FAST!!! The eager beavers from the other Uni’s were all queuing up at the start for quite a while. That’s not Liverpool’s style… We waited along the short stretch till there was no queue at all and they were pleading for us to get on before we showed everyone how to do it. With major logistical preparation, like clockwork, we took over the start line. Mamma D, Sodbuster, FullMoon, NightQueen, Distructo and CueBall all bashed their way through without any hassle and recorded some ace times. Scores: Violet, 6th. Mamma D, 12th. Sodbuster, 13th. After DrummerBoy grabbed Mamma D’s paddles Overflow and DrummerBoy got on to do there runs. Very shaky from DrummerBoy but an awesome run by Overflow. Overflow, 21.81… 24th. SuicideJockey, 24.19… 31st out of 112 men. Just an idea of how close this run is. Trucker12 was excellent grabbing everyone as they crossed the line, legend.
With literally no faff the boats were on the trailer, people changed, everyone but Overflow (who was late and therefore, left behind… and might still be there). On the bus and we’re good to go.
Everyone was well speedy at the sheds, we were away within minutes. Makes me wonder what usually takes so long!!! Mamma D did a great job of not falling asleep at the wheel too often and also missed most of the gates out of the camp site. Thanks for dropping us all off.
We have put in some results here but it makes us a little cross eyed so for full results go to: http://www.bucswwr.org.uk/results.php
Report by:
DrummerBoy & Destructo
Disambiguation
Flic – violet
John – trucker one two
Ade – rubber duck
Mary – mamma D
Sam – over flow
Finn- Drummer Boy
Kat – night queen
Lois – Destructo
Kim – Sodbuster
Mel – Full moon
Jim – Suicide jockey
Rhys – Boss Man
Emily – Cue Ball
Iain – Beaver
James – Bandit
Join the forum discussion on this post here
Entries (RSS)
[...] weekend you’d be letting yourself in for, ask anyone who went on the recent BUCS WWR (see Finn and Lois’s report) – The BUCS slalom is very similar, (camp, race, party, camp, race some more) but at a different [...]