Washburn 3 August 2008

Registered Company No 2612775

For those that don’t know it the Washburn has been described as ‘a canal on speed’ by a certain Stopford – narrow, fast flowing, many eddies of the blink and you miss them kind. So the ideal place to take you’re paddling skills up a notch – we’ll that was the intention of the trip. As there were only going to be five of us Mark, Shamim, Mandy and Anita, plus a jet-lagged Les (note to self – must get some ‘boater’ nicknames!) a chance for some quality water time and coaching.

Having mooched down the top section - harder bit of the river – there was no sign of Mark and Shamim. No sense waiting any longer, time to paddle. With the brief of take it easy and hit some eddies while you get used to the speed of the water off we went – I don’t remember where the first swim was (they tend to blur) but I think it was in the first 100m! Now bear in mind the description of the river above means rescuing a boat turns into wild water racing! I don’t remember where the second swim was, but I think it was almost immediately after we set off again! Gathering the bits by the 2nd footbridge it was time for some intensive coaching – thankfully it worked and we got to the ‘big drop’ without further incident (or I think we did – but my brain was still on mountain standard time). Even the big drop didn’t prove a problem – although 200m downstream can’t really be called a tight break out below the drop – must have been the arrival of Mark and Shamim that put them off.

As the full team was here we got off and wandered back up to the start this time for a decent of the full river – at least there were more of us to chase boats should anyone go in. Or there again, a chance to try synchronised swimming – look back up river and oh great 2 people swimming at once and the dilemma of who to save first (you never have a coin to toss when you need one). Two boat chases latter (thanks to the assistance of Kingston KC) we re-grouped, and found out a third person had managed to roll at the same place.

Now going home might have been an attractive option, but no – time to impart some more coaching wisdom as follows ‘what ever you do, only swim one at a time!’ We’ll it seemed to work, we got all the way to the end of the river with only a few swims, and took in the sun while waiting for the shuttle bus.

Undeterred, we decided to have another run, after all everyone was used to the speed of the water now – cue an action replay at the first bridge! Now earlier I said the swims started to become a blur, but there was definitely carnage at the small weir. Mark capsizing some-one surfing the weir, taking out Shamim, before succumbing to the towback! Fortunately the guy in the stopper didn’t take offence and even headed off to chase his boat! Perhaps Mark and Shamim’s difficulty in finding the place was an omen – maybe they should have kept driving.

So by the end of the second run down we’d had four swimmers out of five. I’m not holding back the details of each swim to spare their blushes – it’s just that I only have a limited number of fingers to count them on! So a great trip all round then!

Les Ford