Whitewater Aptitude is an idea in development to highlight Gavin Hart's skills, adventures and accomplishments with an insight into the thoughts and feeling he has throughout his journeys. As well as this blog please visit his Photography Portfolio Website showcasing his best photography. For shorter more regular updates on Whitewater Aptitude adventures Like it on Facebook or Follow on Twitter. Get in contact via email using gavin@whitewateraptitude.co.uk

Wednesday 5 February 2014

East

The last fortnight has seen some pretty high water levels in the North and the pleasure of being employed full time has lead to our group having to pick and choose our rivers to make the most of it. I made the bad decision to run the River Greta (Keswick, Cumbria) one day which turned out to be a bad choice as levels ended up dropping off by the time we got there and with this so did the play-waves and friendly stoppers disappear. This lead to me being band from picking rivers for the next few trips.
Upper Kisdon Force, River Swale

On the 1st of February we travelled out East to the North Yorkshire Dales initially wanting to get on the River Swale however this ended up being too low to we continued over to the River Tees where we decided to run the section Middleton-on-Tees to Winston Bridge. The section is normally a grade three section but due to the river being on the higher side of high this cranked up the grade with some deadly sized stoppers and the biggest wave chains I have ever paddled the choice of river this time was superb for our group.

Unfortunately no photos from me as I was concentrating on controlling my new boat but I expect to see some content from George. Y as he negotiated the river in his new Wavesport Mobius throwing down freestyle moves on the features that reminded him of Uganda. Jack. C was determined to style every line on every rapid whilst implementing his best practice in leading the team down the river. Bob. A was keen to get in amongst the large moving water too to remind himself of his recent trip to Nepal.

At roughly 26km! the section of river was a great blast and I'd love to do it again in a few weeks time to see how well the control of my new boat has improved and also I intend on having the camera with me as I've set myself the goal now of getting at least on photo of the river we paddle on each trip. The photo above is of Bob on dropping Upper Kisdon Force on the River Swale, he chose to do the river that day and it turned out to be mega low, guess I'm choosing the next river.

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