PADDLER 66
“ Having instant feedback from both my body and often from photos / videos that Jamie and Matt were taking was great .”
It ’ s a work in progress ! Photo : Matt Brook
PADDLER 66
WORKING ON BOOFING DROPS
We went down to the main drop of this section , a double drop that Jamie called the ‘ Crux ’. After running it once , we got out and had a very long lunch break / drop running session . This was by far my favourite part of the day . Working on boofing drops is something that is always on my list of goals for river running .
Although I have improved over the years , there are still things about my boof that I know need working on – mainly my top arm ! Having the chance to run this drop repeatedly and have instant feedback from both my body and often from photos / videos that Jamie and Matt were taking was great . Jamie and Matt gave me specific things to work on : punching my top arm forward and twisting , which are the top tips from Jamie . I must have run the drop seven or eight times and felt like I was making some progress , but importantly , I was picking up many ‘ takeaways ’ that I could work on in my kayaking after this .
At the end of this little session , I was beaming and feeling very energised by it all , but the group was definitely feeling tired ! We bumbled our way down to the get-off and sorted the shuttle . Matt and I had another lovely long chat on the way back , and as we were both staying around Betws-y-Coed , we also had dinner there before walking around to see all the Christmas lights . This is one of my absolute favourite times of the year , and it is always magical to end the day with a Christmas light walk and talk about kayaking !
DAY THREE
It rained all night , and as I drove over to Betws-y- Coed early in the morning for our meeting point , it was clear we were going to have lots of kayaking options for our day ahead . I arrived early , and Matt was already there . We had decided to meet by Chip Shop Drop , and it was at the perfect level . Matt wanted to get a couple of laps in as we were early , and I offered to do some media for him .
“ Having instant feedback from both my body and often from photos / videos that Jamie and Matt were taking was great .”
It ’ s a work in progress ! Photo : Matt Brook