Boating Beginnings

My first 10 ish years kayaking were generally cold and wet, but always fun.  I learned the basics with the Pontypridd Pirates Canoe Club then joined the Cardiff Canoe Club where I got my first taste of "proper" white water.  It wasn't until I went to university at Aberystwyth and paddled with the Aberystwyth University Canoe Club that my boating really took off.  It was there that I got the taste of adrenaline, and the thrill of freefall...

Spending 5 years of my life living by the sea made me almost aquatic.  Wednesday afternoons were spent down at the harbour.  Evenings and breaks between lectures gave enough time to go surfing on the Trap.  We spent weekends on the local rivers.  With so many amazing creeks within a short drive from Aberystwyth I really was spoilt for choice.  I never quite appreciated the scenery as much as I should have.  Having moved to edge of the London I now realise that I was living in paradise.

Every year we spent a cold weekend at Eric's Barn, kayaking the rivers of North Wales.  We also had a big presence at lots of events such as the Teifi Tour (an organised paddle) where we ran the bar resulting in a weekend of chaos, the National Student Rodeo (the biggest kayak freestyle event in the world), Dee Tours and even showed up at a Kayak Polo tournament having never played a game in our lives.

And so, from small beginnings on the Usk and the Wye, I gradually expanded my river repertoire, and with it, the gradient.