Huntspil River

The best river I have paddled on and it's only 30 mins from home. This has meant Ant and I have been able to go paddling every day to make sure we are staying upright well and truly before winter sets in. I think this river is also a rowers dream. Maybe City of Bristol should have a training day here! No ferries, no barges, no speed boats, only 1 or 2 swans, the odd leaf, the odd fisherman. All that is there is flat wide river - fantastic!

These are photos taken yesterday where we had our longest session in our K1's yet.

A swans nest saved my life! (kind of)

Training as everyone knows has it’s up’s and downs. A couple of weeks ago was a particular low point for me, with the trees shedding leaves like they are in a hurry for winter to come and constantly getting caught on the stern of my boat and an obvious drop in temperature, falling out of our K1’s has become even more unpleasant than it was before.

We were doing a sprint session and for the first four efforts my boat had been picking up leaves like it was designed for it, producing a sluggish pace rather than a flat out one minute sprint, and to top it off Antonia’s boat didn’t appear to be collecting half as much debris. By the fifth effort this was more than testing my patience and a few too many aggressive strokes in my unforgiving Nelo, landed me in the cold water, gasping.

We were on a more flat scenic part of the river rather than the busy docs and there wasn’t anywhere obvious to get out. Luckily I spotted a swans nest and swam over to it. The angry swan to whom we had the delight of meeting earlier was no where to be seen but even so Antonia was on vicious Swan watch while I hauled myself onto the bed of grass. As you might be able to imagine it’s quite hard to boat from a nest and it took 2 attempts to finely leave the unusual landing stage. That was the end of that session even though we had quite a while to paddle home I couldn’t get warm which infuriated me even more as I hate cutting any training session short but made up for it in a weights session later. At the time I was not amused, Antonia was trying to have her concerned voice on but actually thought it was hilarious.

Swans will always be a pain to paddlers because of their territorial nature but for just that session I was extremely grateful.

Endeavour's Canoe Challenge

This weekend Antonia and I competed in our first k2 race in the Endeavour's Canoe Challenge. It’s a grueling 50 mile relay-style competition from Market Drayton to Great Haywood in Shropshire. Twelve teams of consisting of 6-10 people entered the event.

The Canoe Challenge is a fund-raising event, aiming to raise valuable funds for Endeavour's youth development projects throughout the
country.

Teams of all levels of experience take part in this unique team-building event. Each section of the canal is taken in turns by team members to paddle as hard as they can, usually until a portage is reached then have to jump out, run with the boat and hand over to the next canoeists in the team. A vital support crew follow in a mini bus driving as fast as the speed limits allows to ensure they meet the paddlers racing at the decided point and swap team members as quickly as possible.

Not only did Bristol come away with first prize but all the teams together also raised over £13,000 to support Endeavour's work with young people.

First Class Gym/Cider Cellar

Here is a sample of some of our weights!

Chins

Bench Pull

High Pulls
Bench Press