Development Paddle Sunday 15th March

River: Upper Tryweryn
Level: 9 cumic release.
Conditions: Approximately 10°c Air temp. Dry and cloudy.

        Chucky, Dougie, Keith, Jamie and Dill (aka Lomo Man) arranged to go paddling. In normal fashion we all meet at the Club house 8 am ish… We discussed the river options either the Tryweryn, Dee or the lune. Decision with the group was to go to the T and do some skill training and development.
      
        After a much required stop at Dobbies we were all fuelled up and raced across to Bala. Where we made the discovery that the top site is now fenced off!
        For this paddle Keith and Chucky took lead and went through the safety kit talk, swim brief and chat about what we were aiming to do today. Keith Lead the warm up with Chucky interjecting with an exercise to encourage body rotation and loosen up. Once we all felt suitably warm we headed over to the seal launch and joined the ‘Boat soup’.
       
        We worked on the ‘SAP’ principle Speed Angle and Penetration while breaking in and out. We also looked at trunk rotation and positive paddling in the Pre Pre Grave Yard.
       
        We eventually headed down to the Pre Grave Yard were we took eddies, challenged each other forwards and backwards runs, boof rocks etc. Well done to Dill and Jamie they each took the change of hitting 5 eddies in this section and succeeded. We utilised the Plan A,B,C principles. Plan C being the two big Eddies river left before the Grave Yard. We must have taken at least 10 runs through this section alone.

        Keith, Dougie and Chucky decided to have a couple of runs through the Grave Yard. With Dill joining us for the final run.

        The final run was interesting and eventful. Jamie had decided to call it a day. So the four remaining paddlers broke out and picked our way down through the pre gravy yard braking out before the drop for a quick brief Plan A, and B. Chucky took the lead and dropped into the first eddy river left. Dougie tried to catch the eddy river right as you enter the Grave Yard but got swept up on the rocks at the back of the  eddy and ended up rolling. Dill missed the top eddy river left and took a run down through the Grave Yard before tripping over and swimming. Keith followed on down to aid with the boat rescue.

        We got Dill back in his boat, Had a brief discussion about the line for Ski Slope and then continued down. Dill missed the final eddy before ski slope and lead the group down, styling the meaty centre line through Ski slope. We regrouped, briefed about Mary Davis’s bridge and ran it. After this Dill decided that he was going to jump off the river. This now left three of us, but the fun wasn’t over. Dougie decided to surf café wave had a roll just before the lip of fingers, rolling up with what looked a hand roll. Luckily he still had his paddle as he enter fingers backwards on the far right hand line to style it. We regrouped and then headed down through NRA wave, where Keith took an interesting unplanned boof line.

        The run finished with a stylish line down chapel falls and the long way back to the cars. We finished with a debrief at the Gaskell Arms in Much Wenlock. Avoiding the bar with the swear jar and sitting in the lounge.

During the Paddle We Developed
·        4 star river leadership skills
·        ‘SAP’ Speed Angle and Penetration
·        Planning your run using Plan A, B, C where applicable.
·        Reverse ferry glides and ‘S’ turns
·        Rescue Techniques

A great day paddling thank you guys. 





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