It's a hard life

Wednesday, paddling, Carbon Copy of Sunday!

Less water than on Sunday, Just tickling the Slab at Newbridge, but the Upper was Great, the Loop was a little on the Low side but there was just about a playwave at Triple. Paddled this time with Leo, Andy, Roger and Ewart. Plus this time I managed to get my Camera out on the Upper as well as the Loop.

Roger, Euthanasia
Leo, Euthanasia
Ewart, Euthanasia
Andy, cheeky grab, Euthanasia


Roger, Suprise Suprise
Ewart, Deck grab, Suprise Suprise
Andy, big deck grab, Suprise Suprise

Leo, Triple Play wave
Andy, Triple Play wave

Leo, The Anvil
Andy, Super clean, The Anvil
Ewart, Triple Play wave
Roger, Triple Play wave

Double up on the Dart

Well its Sunday, there's water in the rivers, must be a double header on the Dart!!. With limited imaginations, and the home run being......Well the home run and totaly brilliant, we set off for the Dart, again. We met up at Newbridge with a few other locals and the mission was on. Ewart, Andy I, Steve from Nookie The Big O, Arthur and Matt (some local young guns!) And I set of for the Upper. The level was Great, the sun shone (occasionally!) and we Blasted on Down. I didn't take my camera, but seeing as the only thing we stopped for was me walking Euthanasia and Suprise Suprise (again, as usual!) there wasn't alot for me to take pictures of!!
Then with a bit of Boat swapping, and quick shuttle running we were back on to the loop for some playing. Ewart, Andy, Matt, Arthur and I headed down to triple to play on the wave, stopping only to see Greg and Dan squirt boating at the Webburn, Dan was hitting huge ten second plus mysterys, and Greg was getting smooth head deep mysterys and great flying fish style exit moves.
The play wave was banging, and we all got some good rides, as well as the usual sillyness! I got the camera out and we even managed to get a few pics. After we'd had our fill of triple we cruised on to the Anvil. Andy got some great rides with loads of some super cleans, and Matt kept on working his loops.

Ewart rips another Blunt

Arthur, stuck in his creeker, makes the most of the wave

Andy launches another big Blunt

Matt sticks a good Loop

Me, Blunting

2 weeks in Malawi

Well I've just got back from 2 weeks in Malawi. Me and my wife, Louise, went out for my Big sister Kathryns' wedding. Kathryn has been living in Malawi for about the last nine years and with her (now) husband, Gary, has set up a fantastic back-packers lodge, Mayoka Village, on the lake shore at Nkhata Bay.
This was my fifth trip to Malawi, and Louises second. It was also a great chance to catch up with the rest of my family who now all live in Malawi. My parents moved out there two years ago, and my little sister moved out there about 8 months ago.
I've seen a fair bit of the country on my travels around, but I've never been to Malawi in the wet season, and so I've never really been aware of the paddling potential, apart from the obvious paddling on the lake. So I also went out with the intention to check out some of the rivers.

Gary and Kathryn, outside the church

The wedding was an incredible event. It also seemed to coincide with the hottest day of the week! Kathryn and Gary had decided to have a traditional Malawian style wedding. Which meant that the service started outside the church with a group of dancers, starting off with young boys and girls dancing in parallel lines, then another group of slightly larger boys and girls, and ending up with a third group of teenagers and adults at the back. The danced very slowly, through the scorching sun, into the church. Eventually everyone got into the church, and the service started. The service then took place in two languages at once! Then after the service they had to dance their way back out in to the scorching sun again!

The families out side the church

Then there was a brief rest bite at Mayoka, before moving onto Chikale beach for the reception. Once again there was more dancing action, with Kathryn and Gary being led in by their dancers again. Then once inside they weren't allowed to sit until the guest had donated enough money to them! The rest of the reception seemed to then follow roughly a 'normal' pattern. But generally very noisy, and confusing for most of the 'Muzungus' (white people!).

Me and Louise take a break from the wedding at Mayoka

I did manage to check out a couple of rivers, and also get my hands on a couple of maps of the appropriate areas. The geography of malawi makes for some very strange rivers. The Lake forms the end of the Great Rift Valley, with the land rising quite steeply from the lake to a number of plateaus, often divided by small ridges. This means rivers often meander across a plateau, quite unexcitingly, before bursting through a ridge in a small gorge, before meandering across the next plateau.
Alot of the plateaus are also covered by vast boggy areas, called Dambos, that are fed by many small rivers and streams, but are eventually drained by one bigger river. Many of the smaller rivers are very much rainfall dependant, but during the wet season when and inch of rain can easily fall in one day it just a matter of follow a rain cloud! It seemed strange to drive over numerous dry looking rivers, that had huge tide lines, to then find a massive volume river running just 10km away. The water either draining from a Dambo, or coming from another heavy downpour further upstream.

The Lower section of the Bua River

One of the better looking rivers on the Map was the Bua river. Unfortunately time constraints meant I didn't get to see as much of the river as I had hoped. But the bottom bit that I saw looked very promising. I was expecting it to be fairly flat, but was surprised to find fairly high volume grade three. My Dad was sure that that section continued for about another 5 to 10 km further upstream. And the section above that looks even steeper on the map. So the chance for some serious whitewater looked pretty high. But it runs through the middle of a game reserve, with limited motor access to the river, and man eating animals!

The road bridge on the south Rukuru

The other river I got to look at properly was the South Rukuru. Slow and meandering for many miles, is gradually picks up massive volume, before punching its way through a short gorge, just below Rumphi, before continuing to meander. For a about 2km the river looked to be a fantastic high volume, fairly technical grade 4 pool-drop. Even better the road runs right along side it for the entire way. It was fairly hard to see all of it due to masses of vegetation growing along the banks. But every now and then you'd be rewarded with a glimpsed of a drop or a chute or a rapid.

Another Drop on the South Rukuru Gorge section

Then after all the excitement it goes back to weaving in and out of marsh and reeds for about another 20km. However once it reaches Phwezi it picks up the gradient again, and charges headlong for about 30km . The road shadows it again for most of this, with occasional glimpses to vast chocolate brown grade 2 wave trains. None of it seemed too hard just big and fast. However before it can get to the lake it has to cut it's way through another ridge, forming another gorge. Unfortunately the road abandons it at this point, but the maps once again mark it as being a fall or a rapid, so something good has to lurk in the gorge!

The South Rukuru at Phwezi

The end result of my river scouting is, that there are some good rivers, but they're either going to be short sections, or fairly remote. There is also the huge Shire river (pronounced Shear-E) which drains lake Malawi. I've seen a number of pictures of the rapids on it and it looks like a real Zambezi style monster, there is also some video footage of it somewhere on one of the Sick-Line kayaking movies. Whether any of us will get there and paddle is unsure but the opportunities are there for the taking.

Double header on the Dart

With yet another great amount of water in the Dart it was time to hit the Double header Home run. A run down the upper in creekers, before swapping to playboats for a session on the loop.
Ewart and I hit the Upper. The level was sweet, some nice lines, great waves and holes and still plenty of opportunities for rock spins and splats.

The meat of Euthanasia.

Ewart tried to get me to run my two Nemesis rapids, Euthanasia and Suprise-Suprise. I've run them in the past, but since dislocating my shoulder for a second time I've been less then keen on them. The water level was great and the lines were fairly clean and but after a spot of head rudder action on the drops above Euthanasia I didn't fancy it!

The classic view of Euthanasia.

When we got to Newbridge Ewart had to get off the river, Because he had to get back to Exeter for Lunch. After a quick bit of shuttle run action I got back on the river for a spot of playboat action.

I had hoped to join Roger for a play on the Dart. But Ewart and I were to late to Newbridge for me to catch up with him. I did however bump into Tom B in his squirt boat, and then down at Triple we met up with Andy, Dom and Sam.

Ewart hitting the line on Suprise-Suprise.

(click the image and be patient, wait for the animation to load)

We had a good session on the playwave a triple, but the clear blue skies of the morning were gone, and the clouds rolled in again. After a full day on the river I was shattered. Time to get back to Exeter and cook some Dinner!

Ewart, catalogue pose below Suprise-Suprise.

More Dart action!

Well we had hoped to go for a paddle somewhere different, but commitments in the morning led to a late start. So it was back to the Dart Loop again!
The level was great, covering most of the slab at Newbridge. So Andy, Louise and I got on for a quick bit of Loop action. Andy and I went for kayaks, as usual! but Louise decided to go Solo in her Open Boat, a first for her on the Loop.

Andy, showing his Old Skool cool!

Louise managed to nail every Rapid, and every line. That was until Triple Two nailed her! She got caught by the river right eddy line and took a quick dip. Mean while Andy and I got stuck into the play wave, and Louise caught a few pictures of us.

Me, lining up for a big Blunt.

Andy and I had great fun on the wave. Even if Andy did Grumble about his 'on loan' boat. His trusty Orbit Fish was stuck at the shop for some repairs, so he had to make do with a Draggo-rossi thruster. Let's just say it was OK but Andy won't be buying one!

Yet another right hand blunt on the shoulder

After a quick play, and a chance for Louise to drip dry, we headed on down the River. It was all fine until Spin dryer, I threw a wave wheel, but got in Louise's way, forcing her to take another swim. Oops! And that was that. Another great Loop trip!

Cross deck grab, and tongue, surely a freestyle winning move!

Agent on the Dart.

Well another reasonable level on the Dart coincided with my day off. So I decided to take the Dagger Agent Proto-type that we have in the shop, out for a spin on the Loop.




I really enjoyed the way it performed, not as loose as the Wavesport project that I've been paddling recently, but better at carving, and better on the green part of the wave than the Project. It seemed to bounce just as well I thought, and was easy to spin.

After a quick session on the Top wave I set off down to Triple 3. The wave there was a reasonable size, fast and surgy, with a sticky pile in the middle and a bit of a shoulder on each side. I had loads of fun charging down the wave, pulling a blunt off of the shoulder, spinning in the hole and setting up to do it all again! I can't wait to see the production model, hopefully they'll be with us soon!

Another 'Pots session

The Exe has been at a great level all week, so we decided to head to the Pots for another session. Tom B, Darren, Ewart and myself made it there, to be joined briefly by a few others. I actually got on and paddled, despite my loathing of the Pots! Although I don't have any pictures of me I do have a few of the others enjoying themselves.

Morning session at the 'Pots

Roger, Ewart and I agreed to go for a quick morning session at the Pots. However when I got there I decided to whimp out for various reasons, including I don't like the Pots!
I did manage to take a few videos with my phone, but I'm still having a few difficulties linking up my you tube account with my blogger account, but once I've solved that I pop a few up here.
However Roger and Ewart enjoyed themselves greatly, the Pots was at a perfect level and the both enjoyed some good runs. Hopefully I'll be able to prove it soon!

Another Upper Dart Run!

Just a quick one. No camera again, so nothing nice to look at.

With a hint of overnight rain there was just enough water for another run down the Upper Dart. Leo, Ewart, A friend of Leos' (sorry I've forgoten your name!) and I set off for a quick trip down the upper Dart. Nothing exciting to tell you I'm affraid, lots of rock spins, grinds, swipes and splats and the like as we cruised our way down the river!

Do I look Bovered: Scouting the Bovey.

Theres Bovey in them Hills!

Well with no water in the rivers it was time to check out Ewarts' latest Tree ditch mission, the Bovey. Draining off of the South East Side of Dartmoor the Bovey Drops quickly through a steep wooded valley.

We'd heard mixed reports about the Bovey, good whitewater, steep bouldery rapids, but once again marred by trees. There was only one thing to do. Check it out on foot, rather than make a repeat of our Teign epic and launch right on into it!

We walked in from the bottom, and right from the start it was obvious that the trees were going to be a problem. The lower half of the run was fairly easy, only grade two-ish, but with trees blocking almost every rapid it would have been very hard work, almost easier to have gotten out and walked the entire section.

But the further up we walked the better the rapids got. Steep Bouldery rapids, with narrow channels, but many oppertunities for pinning.

Just after passing the low foot bridge in the middle, the gradient kicked it up another notch, and we encountered one long steep technical section of whtewater. The rapid seemed to go on for ever as we walked up the bank along side it. But as with most of the river it was ruined by quite a number of trees blocking the river. Some of the quite big, it would be a real epic to try and clear any of them!

Then the gradient eased off a bit again, before reaching the incredibly boulder syphon. The entire river dissapeared through a huge jumble of boulders, only to reappear boiling out the the boulders at the bottom. Then Just above the boulder syphon was one last rapid. An incredible steep, tight and technical boulder garden. Unfortunatly we were on the wrong bank to be able to scout it properly.

But we were left with one overwhelming feeling about the Bovey, the rapids were good, continuous, steep and technical, but totaly ruined by a vast number of trees.

The scenery however is great!

Three days on the Dart

Well, with time off over the Festive period, and a reasonable amount of water in the rivers, it could only mean one thing. Time to get paddling.

It all kick off on the 30th Of December. With a good amount of water in the Dart it was a long awaited top wave session. As Usual all the regulars were there. The Eddy was a bit small, and swirly, but everyone had fun.

James Hawker launches another big one

Sam Anderson looping

Darren 'wheelin' on top wave

Tom Bailey ripping in the pit

Dan Westaway blunting top wave

Then as the river Level started to drop off a few of us paddled down to the Triple Three wave. It was on the high side for the wave, but it provided plenty of fun.

Big smooth ends for Dan

Darren carving on the mighty Triple 3

Tom Bailey sets-up for another Blunt

Dan Finally sticks the Back blunt he was after

Then it was Back to the Dart again for New Years Eve. We had a Mega 13 boat Team for a mass descent of the Upper. The river had dropped off a bit since the Day before, but there was still enough water for a good paddle. We pretty much Freight Trained it down the upper, barely stopping, but having a good laugh along the way. When we got to New Bridge most people got off the river, but some of us weren't satisfied and swapped our creek boats for play boats and charged on down the river to get to The Triple 3 play wave. It wasn't quite as big as the day before, but the wave was still good enough for some great playin'. With a great range of surfing, spinning, bouncing and blunting.

Then on New years day it was back to the Dart again. With many people feeling rough, it was another Play session at Triple. The river had held onto the water well, and there was still enough of a wave for everyone to pull off their favourite moves. The more we paddled the dafter we became. With a captive audiance on the bank the tricks got more and more old skool, with hand paddling, paddle spins, shudder rudders, air guitars and any other daft trick that could be thought of. The guys on the bank took lots of photos, and tried to direct us to a website where we'd find them,but as yet we've been unable to find any. Boo Hoo!