ThePADDLER 40
WHEN DID YOU FIRST START PADDLING , WHO PROVIDED THE MOTIVATION AND WHO WAS IT WITH ? First time in a kayak : aged four ? In the front of my cousin Rob ’ s kayak , he had made . Vaal River , South Africa .
First started kayaking proper white water at Ellesmere College Shropshire . Our local rivers were the Dee and the Vyrnwy . We could also just walk down to the canal , take a boat out of the shed , and paddle around – hours of fun doing nothing much . My first white water was the Serpent ’ s Tail rapid on the River Dee , Llangollen .
WHAT AND WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST KAYAKING ADVENTURE ? Hard one . What is an adventure ?
Two of us aged 14 , loaded up our kayaks with our gear in plastic bags and headed down the canal for 15-20 or so miles . We camped , cooked on our stoves and then paddled back . Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition with absolutely no supervision . We could have paddled two miles camped and paddled back , and no one would have known any the better .
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Frank Greenslade , the master in charge of canoeing at the school / fellow learner , volunteered to take us on a summer holiday expedition to the Austrian Alps . We paddled at the old Augsburg slalom course , and after watching the international slalom on a Monday , we had to move as they dug it up to build the Olympic course . But the adventure was rounding a bend in the road and seeing this stretch of white water and just getting on and paddling it . Frank was on the bank filming and caught the smile on my face when I made the eddy . Luckily Frank taught German at school , and after a conversation with a local , we didn ’ t paddle on blind down Lofer Gorge . We were 16 / 17 years old !
HOW DID YOU GET TO BE INVITED AS THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE FIRST DESCENT OF THE DUDH KOSI ? Old school boys network !
John Liddell was a fellow Ellesmere College paddler . He had left Ellesmere and paddled with Mike Jones in Birmingham , and we would meet up at Dee weekends . They went out to the Alps in ’ 75 , and I tagged along . Roll on a year , I called up John to see if they were going to the Alps again , and he said to call Mike , and my life changed .