PADDLER
Snookie , myself and Gabi ready for the ramp start ! Photo : Tom Clare
This year , T-Fest was held on the weekend of the 22nd-23rd July at the Tryweryn in North Wales . After work , I headed over from Nottingham with two friends , David and Jack . Jack , an Irish paddler living in Nottingham , had never been to T-fest before , so we spent much of our journey telling him all about the different events . He was , of course , very excited by our tales and eager to start the weekend .
We arrived and found it was already jam-packed with paddlers setting up camp in tents at the campsite and vans at the car park . We headed to the marquee where River Legacy had set up a bar , and Dan Yates was finishing a talk about Save Our Rivers . Luckily , we were just in time for the paddler ’ s quiz , although I confess I didn ’ t know many answers . I think the questions were aimed more at paddlers who had been on the paddling scene for much longer than me ! Once the quiz finished , the party started , and people enjoyed catching up with old friends . A combination of midges and rain made the marquee and the dance floor an appealing place to be !
BOATER-X – MASS START AND RAMP HEATS
Saturday morning arrived , and the events got started . My favourite event of the whole weekend was the mass start Boater-X run by NRS . Once signed up , all paddlers walk up the path by the river to the starting eddy ( just below Ski Slope ). This year , men went first . Around 50 paddlers in a mass start is a sight to behold !
Us women followed shortly after . There were nearly 20 women who took part in the mass start this year , which is awesome ! I had a good starting line and got out towards the front of the pack . As I raced through Cafe Wave , I heard Jack screaming for me from the bank – “ Come on , Del ! You ’ re flying !” I do love a bit of crowd support in a race ! We finished at the rafting steps , and I was pleased with my run , coming well within the top 10 women who go through to the next round .
Following the mass start , the next rounds have a ramp start and are done in groups of three . Starting from a ramp can be intimidating , but I had done it in previous years and knew it was more fun than it looked ! I was lucky to be in the heat with two lovely friends – Alice Snook ‘ Snookie ’ and Gabi Bain . Gabi is insanely fast , and Snookie and I agreed she should go on the end to give her the best start to get ahead of us . Off we went !
Gabi , of course , fired off ahead whilst Snookie and I got very competitive . Having nearly flipped Snookie as we landed off the ramp , I got an excellent chance to try and elbow her out of the way in the rock eddy . I yelled at her , ‘ I love you , Snookie , but I love winning more !’ as I grabbed the nose of her boat to push in front . I looked up to see ‘ Little Dan ’ sitting in the eddy , laughing as he filmed the whole thing ( see video www . instagram . com / reel / CvFoU9vNOMw /). As we finished our race , we were both laughing hysterically .
Some of the ladies who took part in the Boater-X this year . Photo : Del
PADDLER
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