Tees Sunday 15th Feb 09

Bit of a change plan at the eleventh hour this morning. The river looked quite high following the quick thaw in the previous 12 hours so Priesty, Jake and I took Wilf up on his offer of some pretty excellent static coaching for a couple of hours.

Dodging logs floating past us in the flood water, we practised eddying in and out, breaking in in various ways, (the only name I can remember is Spangle** - I'm going to have to get a book to learn all the terms) , ferry gliding and reverse ferry gliding - which actually isn't as hard as you think, surfing and a couple of nice bits of bumpy white water which were my favourite bit. Fantastic.

Jake was, well, actually, quite good. He's an absolute natural and surely got a bright paddling future ahead of him. What a star.

What did I learn today? Well, one bit of advice particularly stands out. Not to exit an eddy like a mad woman paddling for her life, when I'm trying to catch a surf wave. LOL! Firstly it's only a bit of cold water so not a lot to worry about, secondly that kind of speed accross an eddy line trying to catch a wave is going to cause me to fall in and not prevent it.

Then off to the Morritt Arms for a well earned shandy. On the way, we took a meandering look at Abbey rapids. Hmm pretty high, not for us today, maybe next time...

Thanks Wilf.