Saturday 12th Sept. Leven.
10am at the appropriately named Newby Bridge saw an anxious group of paddlers new to moving water assembled for the first of a series of 4, Introduction to River Paddling, sessions.
The sessions are coached by DaveG under the watchful eye of MarkH. The motley crew had varying amounts of paddling experience in a range of craft but all were relatively new to bumpy rivers. Motley Crew – Cat, Zsusui, Kate, TomR and RobW.
There were a few nervous faces when people looked out to the weir as boats were readied; and the relief was palpable when in the briefing it was pointed out that the start would be upstream to the flat waters towards Windermere.
About 50 metres upstream of the hotel we practised basic strokes and learned safety signals watched by the early day drinkers soaking up the Autumn sunshine on the lawns. No dramas to report so we set off downstream.
Back under the bridge and over the weir – sounds simple, but for many it was a first weir! All over without too much drama and time for a quick stop at the put in to adjust seats and footrests and maybe underwear.
Dave talked us through how to tackle the Brickshoot without overshooting and doing Mill Force at the same time. “Just line up between the two pillars and don’t stop paddling” says he, “and please stop at the little rocky island” – which we did, again without drama. We got out to have a look at Mill Force, talk about a learning curve! – it was starting to feel vertical.
We watched as Dave and Mark made things look easy; same advice as before, just keep paddling! The dilemma, to shoot or to portage, both options were readily available. Some chose to give it a go with differing levels of success ranging from completely dry to extremely wet – but as Dave said it wasn’t a difficult swim. The persistent tried again with more success.
With the difficult bit over we were starting to enjoy the whiter parts and everyone was so disappointed to hear that todays trip was going to stop before the Graveyard. – but there are three weeks left to go.
Dave wrapped up the first session with everyone looking forward to next week on the Leven with an opportunity for skills practice at rugby club midweek thrown in too.
Thanks to Dave and Mark for their patience and guidance, and to everyone for making a great first experience.
Kate
Lakeland Canoe Club 