« Paddling the Upper Ardeche | Home | My new boat »
Final Day of Paddling the Ardeche
By chris dalby | October 2, 2008
My final day of canoeing was spent on Day 1 of the Ardeche River, in France. When I say Day 1, I’m referring to the section of river you normally do if you just run the river for one day. You get on at Creps and get off at Chame.
The day started off learning to surf a wave backwards in an open canoe. We did this on the rapid called Peachy. A great training venue, we had a good play here.
Learning to surf an open canoe backwards from chris dalby on Vimeo.
After this we paddled down and found a place for lunch with Ollie Van’s group from Bicton College that were all paddling kayaks.
After lunch, we dropped down the river and eddied out top left backwards on the rapid called British Airways.
Eddy left backwards on British Airways from chris dalby on Vimeo.
To finish the day off, Charlemagne never dissapoints. Everyone descended backwards and eddied out to have a play. We had great fun here. Bashing the kayaks out the way and jumping on the wave. Great to see the tandem surfing too. Albeit in slightly small boats. After playing solo on the wave, I decided to surf the wave tandem with Blue and had a swim trying to surf the wave backwards. Shame I didn’t get that on camera, but you do see me swimming while tandem with Danny.
Charlemagne Backwards from chris dalby on Vimeo.
A cracking end to an amazing two weeks. The end of the video sums it up. The last days paddling for the whole of the season for those guys who travelled home the next day.
Thanks to everyone on Blue’s Paddle Training for making me feel welcome and sharing some memorable times. Inspiring me to run out a buy a new boat. Stay tuned for that one and more video footage.
A huge thanks to Blue, Matt Blue and Phil Hadley for putting up with me on the courses and training. Really enjoyed being a trainee in your sessions.
Topics: Culture, Video, boating |