Walk out to the road would have been my choice, especially as it was an upper body injury, its a few hundred meters walk from Mill Falls opposed to a 2km paddle/float with a damaged shoulder. Not saying you made the wrong choice as it obviously work, just think the above method would have been quick...

DaveBland wrote:Isn't the first rule of kayak club not to post on social media about kayak club :)

How is everyone else going to know how amazing you are at paddling if you don't post pictures of all your trips???

Those Whetman products look interesting, and might mean that more people have the gear needed to make a Pig rig. Honestly don't see why anyone would get one of the Whetman rigs, there is no need for a designated 'pin kit' (especially if paddling a small kayak) if you carry a throwline (+ krab), an ...

After some interesting points were made in the 'First thing you coach on WW' thread about covering tactics before technical skills it got me thinking... What tactical considerations should be made before paddling a section/performing a move on white water? Anything beyond 'Speed', 'Angle' and 'Edge'...

I'll come back when I have more time to answer the OP's question, but just to add to the discusison, I did 4 star with Bonney from Gene17 in January, and we were taught to keep the boat flat when ferrygliding (but keeping hips loose, applying enough pressure to knee to keep the upstream edge from d...

**late night drunk alert** ... But Bollocks. Eddying out and breaking in flat just don't happen. As Jim says, 'wrong way' edge is often a choice and yeah sure, flat does happen, but stopped clocks are right twice a day. Paddling is all about the edge. Even in minute amounts. The only tjmd you are t...

See the top boys and girls running ww and you will see them all using low brace. Not as a primary technique you wont, and only quite rarely. In other words you will hardly ever see them using such techniques mid rapid. Only as an absolute last resort if they have messed up something and totally los...

Following a point raised in another thread about a lack of guidance for teaching WW skills I am intrigued to see what people think the first thing is that paddlers new to WW should be shown? My thoughts would be to introduce edging and how to hold a stable edge (as edging should ultimately keep you ...

Dave has hit the nail on the head - BC do not provide any central guidance or pathway for developing beginners on moving water, and the coaches (who do have a WW development pathway) do essentially have to make it up for themsleves. There are some great commercial coaches out there who have made up...

When taking people on their first whitewater trip you're not going to be giving them anything more complicated to do than paddle forwards in a straight line and keep pointing downstream. You don't need an L2 MWE for that. I would hope someone being taken out on their first whitewater trip would rec...

....... I would hope that someone with a 4* would realise that taking beginners straight onto moderate water isn't appropriate anyway. It's all relative. You can take a beginner out for the first time on a grade 2 rapid. How else is he / she going to get the experience? It is within the remit of a ...

Obama says definitely not a Baller if you can't land a drop you've assigned as an autoboof. Obama anticipates a retraction, on the autoboof statement also, which is why he is out. The autoboof is what screwed me as it made me land flatter than intended ;) Good effort again Denzil, time well spent! ...

i personally don't believe any paddler getting on the Mellte at those levels should be capsizing above the entry drop That's an awesome statement, to be fair, I don't believe anyone should capsize above any drop, it's sub optimal, unless going for a Baller move. That statement was made to clarify m...

morsey wrote:

jsymonds wrote:I never said anyone should be restricted from paddling rivers

It was your opening response!

I posed a question, that's not the same as making a statement...

I don't think Denzil's post contributed anything worthwhile to this discussion, my personal views and standpoint are irrelevant, I am simply promoting discussion, we could be having a debate about an interesting topic here instead of trying to be clever because we don't have anything useful to add....

Denzil's satirical post was on point, it is not possible to assess someone's paddling ability without seeing them paddle. The opening video doesn't provide that opportunity. I don't think Denzil's post contributed anything worthwhile to this discussion, my personal views and standpoint are irreleva...

Personally I think that anybody that judges others on the internet in the way that jsymonds does, is clearly not a paddler good enough to take on anything harder than Grade 2. I have made this assessment based on the wealth of evidence available in this post and I think it would be massively reckle...

Chalky723 wrote:Best hang that fleet of boats up now then Jim, or book some coaching ;-)

D

More than happy to recommend some L5 seal launch coaches :)

FFS, very occasionally I capsize seal launching less than 1 foot from the flat concrete sides of an artificial white water course, and now I find out that this indicates that I'm not fit to paddle grade 4? So all those times I've hit perfect lines on grade 5 counts for nothing because sometimes, ju...

feel a need to defend them I do actually think the drop itself is also straight forward though and looks far worse than it actually is, it is an auto-boof that kicks you out of the pile at the bottom, all you have to do is go over the middle facing downstream (ideally the right way up...) :) I wasn...

DaveBland wrote:…then you ain't trying hard enough :)

Looks like the paddler has dropped their boat! Nice looking section though :)

Who hasn't flipped after a slide in? Easily done. If there's any criticism to be levelled, it's not rolling up at either attempt. But then who's never missed a roll in a 'must make' place? Glad he's okay, and... of course keep filming! How else can the rest of the World participate in vicarious bea...

It's not really a simple seal launch and the complications are clear for all to see, it has a fall directly below it. It's a class four level entry with a class four level maneuver and a fall that requires holding a boof. None of which is simple and all of which have cumulative effect. If it was si...

Simple seal launch? Its a 1m slide in from a slightly unbalanced position, I wouldn't describe it as hard or complication and I certainly wouldn't expect it to cause any issues for paddlers capable of paddling solid grade 4 river in good flows... You could argue that if someone is likely to make th...

You should get one of those cameras that sticks to your head, I bet paddling with that in your hand all day was a nightmare! I would question if a paddler who capsizes from a simple seal launch (or on an eddy line) a few metres above the first drop should be on the Mellte at those levels though (or ...

you left the car at the get-out on a different river...

No offensive taken Mike, I was just throwing out a few points based on the initial quote of yours, basically just being a bit pedantic, continuing this trend would you care to answer the more important questions i posed? 3) Should coaches that use the term 'punching' be banned from all UK rivers? 6...

DaveBland wrote:Seriously??

Yes Dave, I am being serious.

jsymonds - I don't know you so what follows isn't about your paddling specifically, please don't take personal offence - but you did ask some questions....... 1) Should larger paddlers not use their advantages to help them where necessary? Whoever you are you use your attributes but no matter how b...

There are 2 sides to every argument so i'll put up an alternative side :) I really don't see an issue with the terminology we have, if I was a novice I would personally prefer a coach to tell me to 'punch' through a hole or 'break through' an eddy line as this means i would be less likely to get a k...