Over the 8 week Mr Gees has been renovating the Royal Canoe Club insignia at his legendary paddle and boat supper work shop! This has come about due to the rebuilding of the new state of the art Club house and boat sheds down at Royal CC in Teddington. Tidy work Mr Gees.
The club was founded in 1866 and has been prominent in UK canoeing and kayaking ever since. The club has owned the freehold of the Trowlock island site for a number of years and in 1993 obtained the freehold to the mainland site that had been previously owned by BP. The mainland site is shared with the skiff, rowing and dragon boat clubs.
With a fast approaching trip to the Pyrenees I decided this week it was time to try and get fit again! So this week I have training hard, Monday finally I found a slalom boat that I fit in, a rather retro Reflex Barcelona (The Barcelona all new seams) it did have a few issues with split seams but at a proper 4M length she rocks, if a little leaky but after a quick glassing session on Tuesday she was all ready to rock and roll. (Did I mention she has history) While the Barcelona was drying we decided to give Sunbury a second chance in the squirt boats. Sunbury is a funny old gaff! But finally we seam to worked out the seam! Mushing into it works pretty well; Mike gets a good 5-6 second head under, the sun was shining will all had a good time! Wednesday the Barcelona was nearly water tight and went well, the water has drop right off now at Shepperton but the side spills are still open so there is something to practice on. By way of a little variety this year we’re also doing a little river swimming, (Mike on the last leg of the lake swim!) Shepperton to the shop was the goal, shop to shop was actually what we did but it’s all good.
So there, enjoy, have a good weekend hope to see you all saturday we've had loads of new things in this week. Still lot's of shiny Sweet hats! If your going to the TVF Party tonight have a good time, Happy Birthday TVF.
It’s been a busy and funny start to the year so far but at long last the sun is shining and the temperature seams to be back into double figures for the time being. With all that in mind squirt season on the Thames has sprung back into action, Mike has been selected to paddle in this year European champs and the boy Evans is in the squad as a reserve, personally I’m just working mostly this year but evening squirt sessions are always a good laugh. The Chertsey squirt collective are all back in action and the summer can start now
The Boy Evans going down and around! Pete & Rich choping ends! Mike leading the way down.
This weekend Mr Ali Marshall, I and Ali who is Ali’s lady friend decided to go down to St David’s in Wales and check out the mighty Bitches. There was a 7 and a 7.4 meter tide predicted and all looked good and well for a spot of soul surfing the legendary top wave.
(Ali & Ali enjoying the Sun) Unfortunately the wind was blowing quite hard from the north and this had quite an affect on the tide race, the top wave did form, but every now and then a house sized wave/hole thing would roll up the wave train and well it was quite big!!!!!! The hole on the far side was quite similar good for a small time but then turned into a rather nasty place to be. On the plus side the Bitches is just stunning and what ever the state of the feature and the weather is simply a magical place to paddle, I did nearly poo myself however as a large seal surfaced in front of me in one of the eddies. On the way back due to the conditions we decided to paddle around the back of horse rock and then nip back into the RNLI station.
We nipped past horse rock but then shi**ng hell the wave’s I kid you not were probably bigger than anything I have ever paddled up and over in my life if I said 15ft faces I don’t think I’m lying, bloody great fun thought. As a result of the conditions on Saturday we didn’t bother with the 4’oclock start on Sunday (probably a little worse than sat) and instead opted for a lovely walk and pub lunch in the Wye valley.
(No not Marijuana, Blue bells in the woods in the wye valley) All in all we learnt that the Bitches are an amazing place to go to what ever the weather although I might be a little more selective with my wind directions next time! And it is a very long way to drive! But the Pub’s, cafés, and restaurants of St David’s are all very nice, as is the beer……….
Roll on next time, Thanks Ali for driving see you soon.
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