High Water on the Mawddach, North Wales

With another wet weekend forecast I drove up to North Wales. Despite the torrential rain on the drive up levels were pretty low on Saturday. We got a few runs of the Tryweryn in and crossed our fingers for better levels on Sunday.

River levels were still low on Sunday morning but thankfully it was raining and things were rising fast. By the time we got to the Fairy Glen the Conwy was massive. We drove to the Mawddach instead and had a wonderful day with plenty of water. It was the first time I paddled it with only 1 portage (Rhaeadr Mawddach). An easy line over the rocks on the right opened up on the second main drop but was still exciting and I found It hard to put out of my mind the evil rock formations now covered in a torrent of water.

Mapledurham Weir

With all the rain that has plagued the UK in last few months, at least one group of people are happy. With epic levels on the Thames most weirs were washed out but I managed a rare surf on Mapledurham weir. It did involve paddling across a field to get to the river but once I was there it was brilliant.

If you haven't been to Mapledurham I definitely recommend it. It's a really easy wave with a big flat pool behind it, and best of all, it doesn't have the queues of the more popular weirs like Hurley. Don't go though unless everything else is too high.

I don't usually make playboating videos, I find them repetative, but I have just got a new laptop and was keen to try out the new video editing software.