Shallow ditches and fun times at the Tryweryn

Friday night and Saturday morning looked quite promising with a lot of heavy rain forecast in the South Wales area so after training I arranged to meet Sion Way in Abergavenny and pick Ben Coulton up on the way and see what we could find to paddle. After driving around and stopping a few times to check the weather forecasts we arrived at a little river/ stream called the Dringarth. 

We got changed in the rain quite confident of a descent run. Needless to say, it was a grade 2 tree infested rock fest! Anymore water and it wouldn't have been paddleable (we barely got down it anyway). Obviously this was quite disappointing and by the time we got to look at the Mellte we were a little over it and decided to call it a day as levels weren't exactly fantastic. 

Sunday Morning I got up early and headed to the Malverns to meet Jules and Simon to head up to the mighty Tryweryn! It was raininy, cold and cloudy but plenty of fun to be had and it's all great training. My dad unfortunately snapped his Werners whilst trying to roll after Miss Davies, bummer! Other than that, was a great day! Took plenty of shots with the gopro and got a few interesting shots.... 

Pray for rain and see you on the water! 

 

Gopro times..

For Christmas I got a handlebar mount for my Gopro and for some reasons I haven't really had a play with it yet. So during training yesterday I got a cool shots from my paddle! As for the paddle, loving my new Selects! Super powerful and comfortable to paddle with, love it! Got some new full length Nookie strides and boardies on the way for my birthday, can't wait! 

New toys!

Well we've had some awesome weather and that meant for some warm sunny training! Last few weeks have been super busy between work and working out so I'm pretty knackered, I have a holiday in a week or two thank god!

At the Tryweryn festival I won a voucher for some Select paddles so last week I ordered a set of Select blasts, cranked with large blades. Today they arrived!! Exciting stuff, first off the paddles look and feel great, super comfy to hold and great to paddle with. Obviously I went paddling with them straight away! The paddles are all carbon so they are nice and stiff and I feel I get the maximum power out of them. I can't wait to try them on moving water but so far I'm stoked!

Trainings been going great, runs have been fine and paddling continues to get faster and with more stamina. With a holiday coming up and a weekend at the Tryweryn planned there's some fun times ahead... I love summer!!

Summers finally here!

Just a short and sweet update! As usual there has been no rain :( so paddling whitewater hasn't happened! Praying for some rain in Wales!!! Training on the other hand has been great, the sun has been out and the temperatures perfect. My runs have been great as usual and mixed with cycling to work my cardio feels pretty sweet!

My sprint training is slowly improving and I'm noticing a lot of muscle build in the shoulders and back which is great. I've just ordered a new carbon Select paddle which is built for slalom and white water some I'm hoping it'll be a great paddle for racing, ordered it with large blades for added power! So hopefully that will arrive soon and that'll be my paddle for the Sickline. This will give my foam filled double diamonds a break as they have been getting abused lately on shallow runs.

My old shoulder injury has been playing up occasionally but it's still better than it used to be. Sometimes I have to reduce how much I'm lifting during weights as it hurts too much. I'm hoping over time it will eventually heal but I have a feeling it could be a fairly life long recurring injury.

Let hope for more sun and maybe a little rain for my days off :)