Owner: Rockratrobinson URL:http://rockratrobinson.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:32:34 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: The blog of a young kayaker from the North-West of England. Follow me, Iain Robinson, on my constant search for water, in the hope of discovering a truely unique paddling experience whilst trying to escape the challenges of everyday life. Site statistics:Click here
Boys and there toys... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Last week, after selling my Eskimo Kendo, I mentioned what I was doing with the money and since then I haven't really mentioned what has happened to it. Well on Wednesday the Olympus MJU 725 SW arrived through the door as I was sitting my driving theory test (I passed) and ever since then I've been playing around with it. I have been limited however as I had no memory card for the camera so I've been running it using the internal memory, which was pretty lacking. With the limited memory supply I have only got some snaps of random objects that are of no real importance or interest and have just ended up being deleted. However, after yesterday's morning post I've got a rather large 1GB XD card which allows me to get a large quantity of photos.I have also been playing with a Photoshop like piece of software just for a bit of fun and the results have been quite interesting.A sequential image of one of my paddling chums running the drop after the Brickchute Weir on the Leven.A bla
Should I be worried... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The charred grasses of "the grassy area, off Maude Street, Kendal" where the chair was destroyed.So this morning I got up at my usual early time of 6:15am, after a night spent watching Rainman on Film 4, and headed out to deliver the morning papers and earn a crust to pay for the boat that's on order (it should have left America yesterday[!]). I then got home and settled down to a half-hour or so on the net and then breakfast accompanied by The Times newspaper. I got to the fifth page to be greeted with the headline: "Office chair set on fire - news that made the world sit up..." Obligingly I read on and then once finished with the article I headed back to the Internet to check out what was said in the article.Basically The Times article was an apology to its readers because it failed "to report an earth shattering event in Cumbria last month". I was intrigued. The aforementioned event was the burning of an office chair "in the middle of a grassy area" by a delinquent and this
Back to river stories 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It's been a while since I last posted... well yesterday, but it's been a while since I posted about an actual day out on the water. So let this be it, and it will also be the last post of February I should think.Today the canoe club was running a trip down the River Crake. However after talking to the contact for the trip and hearing who had contacted him about it something else more interesting was definitely on the cards, especially as the past week had been the wettest for a while. So I was dropped off at Fulwood Leisure Centre and from there I scrounged a lift up the motorway to the Kent. Here we looked at the lower stretches of the river and to be honest it looked a medium-low level. I was a bit disappointed that we were going to be getting on this river seen as I have already done it three times this season and it had been at better levels than this tourist level! However, the group had other ideas, so it was back to the M6 and off at the next junction to head for the Up
I've been lumbered... 2007-03-01 19:16:00 I went to the pub last night, and ended up coming away with the huge responsibility of organising a whole beginners course for the canoe club. Not that big a problem, except the first session is tomorrow evening in the pool and a creche has to be booked, hand-outs printed and a talk arranged couple this with a mad hunt for instructors and what you are left with is a boiling pot of anxiety. Add a dash of college work to the mixture and your just left with a bit of a stressfull situation. No need to worry, a quick look through some photo's of some rather nice white water relieves the tension and dreams of the next river trip will get me through it all.The picture in question came about after Sunday's paddlings adventures. The camera was set to sequential shooting, the shot was underexposed by 1 (according to the guages) and I set the light intensity to 'sunny'. Once home the photo editing process began on Ulead Photoimpact.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iai
Last night... 2007-03-04 08:34:00 there was a total lunar eclipse. I took a photo before it happened, it came out blurred because I was shaking with excitement [!] and the pre-set function I was using had a long exposure time.I'm off to the Lakes today to hopefully paddle the Rothay, if there is enough water, from the back of the Eskimo Topolino Duo. If there isn't enough water I may go for a wander through Ambleside instead.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain
I'm back 2007-03-04 20:41:00 I made a quick post today before going out paddling and now here is a post about all of the adventures. Two posts in one day, you don't know you've been born.The plans had been made by the club chairman that we would be meeting at the Waterhead Car Park at half-ten and we did though a detour was made to begin with. This detour was to pick up one of the club members and kit for them from the canoe club's container at the Hand and Dagger pub, near Salwick. Whilst we were there we also picked a boat up for myself. Why not the All-Star? Why not the Rocker? To answer the latter: the Rocker left America on the 23rd February and won't be here until a week before I leave for Scotland at Easter. To answer the former: I had promised someone a ride in the Eskimo Topolino Duo and this was the boat I pulled out of the canoe club's container.We arrived with a few minutes to spare to be greeted by the sight of about a dozen cars loaded with one, two, three or even four boats. It was g
Boys and their toys... 2007-03-07 11:32:00 I've already blogged once about a similar topic, but that time it was how I started to get slightly addicted to image manipulation using Ulead PhotoImpact, a piece of software similar to PhotoShop.This time however I must admit that I have a problem, a problem with video editing. One of my paddling companions, pictured above in the yellow Liquid Logic Vision, sent me a link after I moaned about my fruitless hours spent on the Internet searching unsuccessfully for a free video converter to convert my numerous .mov files to a format, which is compatible with Windows Movie Maker. The link they sent me took me across to this lovely little website and after a couple of minutes I had a fully working free video converter on my computer and the first .mov file was being converted to .avi. Good stuff!!!Now with the video conversion side of things sorted I can spend countless hours in Windows Movie Maker making countless mini-movies from the clips I have collected over the years. So far I h
Lancaster Canal 2007-03-10 16:11:00 I posted nine days a go about being lumbered with the responsibility of organising the canoe club's beginners course and to date my organisational skills must have played off. Today was the half way marker of the course - three sessions are now complete, and three remain - and the first time the pupils paddled on water which is not chlorinated, heated and crystal clear. Instead they are eased in to a canal session where the water is murky, filled with spilt diesel and far from the heat of the swimming pool. All of this happens on the LancasterCanal
- just outside the village of Clifton, a settlement on the rural-urban fringe of Preston - by the Hand and Dagger pub and Bridge 26.Once all the pupils had been kitted out with equipment from the canoe club's vast store they headed down to the water's edge for a demonstration in getting in the boat.Once on the water we headed north, going with the wind, and soon we reached our final destination. Here we did some tuition on 1 Star st Read more:Lancaster Canal
Rumour Mongering 2007-03-12 21:07:00 I'm no different from any other person in the fact that I like a good old rumour. So when I logged into my Pay Per Post account, where it is possible for you to increase site traffic, today and noticed that they were actually asking me to go and create some rumours on what their "big news in the next few weeks" is I kind of jumped on the chance.As far as I can see there is a couple of possibilities to what their "big news" is:They have realised that when my little fingers tap away on the little white keys of my keyboard it inspires so many blog readers that they have designated a special day in the Pay Per Post calendar to me and my blog!!!There payment scheme is changing for the better, making a bloggers life so much nicer and therefore having a great impact on the blogging world. Well those that use Pay Per Post anyway.Pay Per Post is planning to register their interest in my plans for a Gap Year and make me an ambassador for their site as I travel with my kayak spreading the good
Yesterday 2007-03-12 20:17:00 On Saturday I said:"Tomorrow [Sunday] I will hopefully head north to the Lake District for some paddling of my own. Check back tomorrow evening to see what goes down."Well if you checked back yesterday, I am sorry, because I did not post about what had gone down. To put it bluntly I didn't head north to the Lake District, in fact I didn't even go paddling. Instead, I headed south along the M61 to Manchester; the birth place of the computer, the home of the oldest public library in the English speaking world, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and home to over 85,000 students. It was one of these that I went to visit.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain Read more:Yesterday
Lancaster Canal... Again 2007-03-17 17:07:00 Not one of my pictures, but taken from this website, which I just stumbled across through Google. The pub featured in the picture, The Hand and Dagger, is where the canoe club meet every Wednesday night and where we set off from today.
I'll use a bit of Japanese Poetry to narrate the trip...
A Morning on the Canal
Went to the canal
It was a windy day. For
A Beginners Course.
- A Haiku by Read more:Lancaster
, Again
, Lancaster Canal
The Welsh Access Campaign 2007-03-20 19:28:00 Recently the Welsh Canoeing Association has really been pushing their access campaign. What with the release of t-shirts and stickers with the above slogan emblazoned on them as well as the launch of their very own blog they are really trying to improve the situation for the better in Wales. I must commend them on their excellent work even though I have never really paddled in Wales (I've Read more:Access
, Campaign
Finally... It's Over 2007-03-24 16:08:00 Again, this isn't one of my pictures, but taken from this website. I would have had pictures of today, but the small problem of me forgetting to pick my camera up as I left the house put an end to that idea.Today was the assessment for the Beginners Course I have been running for the last couple of weeks and has been mentioned in this post, this post and maybe even in this post. As it was an assessment for the BCU 1 Star and a capsize is needed for the candidate to pass we had to leave the relatively easy to arrange trip down the canal for something a bit more wild and exciting. After much deliberation about venues it was a toss up between a day trip to Coniston and Peel Island or a morning to Garstang where a meander (pictured above) in the River Wyre creates a lovely tranquil stretch of river ideal for an assessment. In the end I made a decision on heading to Garstang as many of the 1 Star candidates were under ten and unable to paddle great distances, which would have been nee Read more:Finally
An Amazing Find 2007-03-25 19:29:00 Just did a Google search for 'Halton Rapids', where I will be next weekend paddling/swimming on a White Water Safety and Rescue course with Tom Parker, and to my surprise when I went to the second page of results shown at the top were the names of two people I know extremely well. In fact it was down to these two individuals that I first got in a boat and got hooked on paddle sport. From here I dutifully clicked the link to find the above picture staring me back in the face.The picture was taken on New Year's Day 2006 and from what I remember the Lune was fairly meaty that day and only a couple of us got on the water. In fact I've just looked back to my logbook and pulled this out for the particular day:Paddled the lower section the most as there was a nice set of waves a short ferry from the only real eddy at the bottom. Managed to spin in these a couple of times. I ran the rapids from half way before heading back to the car. Managed to miss the best wave but got out and wal Read more:Amazing
My Jackson Rocker 2007-03-27 22:10:00 When I ordered my nice new shiny JacksonRocker
a couple of months ago from UK Canoes I had been told that a shipment of Jackson boats, which included a blue Rocker for me, would be leaving state side and arriving in the UK this coming weekend. So on the off chance that the shipment was early I gave UK Canoes a bell on my mobile, whilst stood outside one of the college restaurants, in the hope that I would hear everything but bad news. Unfortunately it wasn't to be; instead they said they would give Square Rock, the UK importer, a call to find out what was going on. I hung up saying I would ring back later.Five hours later I was sat on the bus - after spending an hour-and-a-half working on my 3D Design project, which is coming on rather well - ringing UK Canoes again for an update. I was hoping for everything but bad news. Instead I was greeted with everything but good news. Square Rock had received a blue (the colour I wanted) Rocker however there was a problem. The blue plast
View from my Window 2007-03-30 18:38:00 I should have posted this twelve days ago when the country was littered with snow (BBC news item here), but didn't get around to it. The reason I have posted it now is because of the competition which appeared on Fuel my Blog a couple of days ago.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain
Read more:Window
Counting down the Days 2007-03-30 17:43:00 Just broke up for Easter. Not only does this mean that I have two weeks without college, but also means that there is one college term left before I leave formal education and embark on a gap year, which is in no way planned.Tomorrow I'm on a White Water Safety and Rescue course with Tom Parker and then a week on Saturday I head to Scotland for the rest of my Easter Holidays. At the moment it looks like it could be a week of low water fun[!].Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain
Read more:Counting
I'm all wet Mr. Mainwaring... 2007-03-31 20:30:00 Just finished a weekend of White Water Safety and Rescue training with Tom Parker and felt like dropping into the blog to post up my thoughts because that's what blogging is all about I suppose!!!It all kicked off 'early' Saturday morning with a rendezvous of 9am at Halton Trainstation's car park. It wasn't actually that early as I am up most mornings by 6:15 to deliver the nation (more the local area) with their daily news so anyway we made it in time and soon after our coach pulled in, driving up from Bangor that morning. The course kicked off. A quick talk and a few points jotted down on the white board followed before we got changed and headed, minus boats, to the section of river best known as Halton Rapids.Obviously a WWSR course would not be complete with out a fair amount of time spent in the drink so as soon as we were on the waters edge we all lowered ourselves into the current and set off defensive swimming and then aggressive swimming and then we did it all once more
For the last couple of months... 2007-04-04 15:34:00 At college I have been busying myself in the 3D Design workshops welding, cutting and drilling copious amounts of steel tube for my final piece of coursework in the aforementioned subject. This piece of coursework felt, at times, like it really was going to break me with constant stress caused by design faults, delivery dates of materials and sourcing of money to pay for it all (thank god for EMA). However, yesterday all those hours spent locked away in the grubby workshop came good as I started the last big task; drilling holes in my bedroom wall so that construction could begin. At times, this in itself created more stress and worry than the last couple
of months at college, but after seven hours of just me, a drill, a spanner and a socket set all accompanied by Phantom Planet, Antony and the Johnsons, The Zutons and The Eels the wall was up.Me balanced up a ladder adding a horizontal limb to the structure. The part, which holds this to the wall broke on me, but with some rejiggi
Horses for courses 2007-04-05 11:29:00 In this last half hour I've just organised myself, once again, and got myself on another kayaking course. It was only a couple of months ago that I was saying there were ten more courses I wanted to attend after the WWSR, which was done this weekend. Well that has just been reduced by one as my Five Star Training is now planned for the 2nd and 3rd June at that mighty fine paddling institution just outside Bala, Canolfan Tryweryn. Hopefully, this course will be just as good as the last and maybe I'll be able to use my own creek boat instead of borrowing a demo boat off the coach. In fact, one reason for booking the Five Star Training is to have an excuse to use my Rocker (when it comes) before going to France. I cannot envisage myself using it otherwise.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain
Read more:Horses
My Tartan Adventure 2007-04-14 20:50:00 Just got home after a grand week up in Scotland. We stayed in the chalets at Na Tighean Beaga in Roy Bridge and over the week we bagged the Spean Gorge, Findhorn Gorge and the Garry after finding out it was releasing on Wednesday. The rivers were a bit on the low side so for two days I headed out to sea and explored the islands around Arisaig and paddled on Loch Hourn, which is north of the Knoydart peninsula.More updates, pictures and a feature length video to follow on my tartan adventure.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...Iain
Read more:Tartan
, Adventure
Into the depths of another Gorge 2007-04-16 20:06:00 Looking up Glen Roy. It may just be possible to see the parallel roads half way up the shot.Monday rolled around with little hope of a river paddle. There had still been no real rain meaning all the rivers were dropping off steadily and the list of low water runs I had compiled before the holiday had been thrown out of the window for some reason. In one last desperate attempt I started hatching plans to paddle the Roy Gorge hoping that with it being a gorge it would hold it's level slightly longer than other rivers. However, if the gorge was going to be attempted a long, stressful walk back up the Inca Trail would be needed to avoid a scrape down the lower reaches. Therefore before any firms plans were set a quartet of paddlers, me included, decided to head up Glen Roy to try and scout the gorge from the river bank.Looking upstream at another Head Banger and the drop below it.We eventually parked up by Roosters Tail, hopped over the fence and headed down the sodden fields as a li
Into the depths of a Gorge 2007-04-15 17:45:00 It was the first whole day we had spent in Scotland after travelling up from Preston the day before and with little water in the rivers our options for a Sunday paddle were limited. After sitting around for some time in the chalets watching 'LVM 21: Newlyweds, Newborns and other Big Mistakes' we finally pulled ourselves together and headed off to Spean Bridge and the put in for the gorge section of the Spean. When we pulled into the car park at the Woollen Mill it was apparent that every other kayaker in Scotland had, had the same idea; the car park was packed with plastic and neoprene clad paddlers.It was a god send that we had the bright idea of getting kitted up back at the chalets 3 miles away in Roy Bridge as this meant we could quickly scuttle down to the river and get on ahead of what looked to be an extremely large university group.Four of the group getting into their boats.Once on the water the level did not surprise any of us. It was low, dog low in fact. All of the eas
We're all in between swims 2007-04-18 15:26:00 Today was the day we knew there would be water as during the previous week, whilst drawing up a list of low water runs in Scotland, I pulled a few strings (actually I posted a message on the UK River Guidebook) to find out when the Garry, a lovely Grade 3 dam release, was running. It came back a couple of hours later that it would be Wednesday. So on that day we headed up the Great Glen, turned left at Invergarry and eventually pulled up in the car park at the first take out point for the river. We expected it to be busy because of the lack of water and the sheer number of boats we had seen around the area over the previous few days, but on parking up and milling around the river it all seemed rather quite.Before there was any further chance of the place filling up we hastily got changed and headed up the river left bank on foot: we didn't dare drive up to the put-in in case on our return our parking spaces had been nabbed. It was a pleasant walk anyway and it also allowed us to h
Into the depths of yet another Gorge 2007-04-17 17:55:00 Drive away from Spean Bridge through Roy Bridge on the A86, then north along the A9 before turning right onto the A938 and then left onto the B9007. Drive further north and where do you end up after two hours? The answer is a little bend in the road by a gate which takes you down to Randolph's Leap and the put-in for the lower reaches of the Findhorn where there is yet another gorge section. This for me and the vast majority of the group was a first descent. Last year we had never made the trek this far into Scotland as there had been so much water around the Roy Bridge area to keep us happy, but it was Tuesday and we had only been on one river. We were therefore willing to travel far to get the paddling fix needed to stop us going mad and knowing that the Findhorn would go (thanks to some positive beta from a raft guide in Pitlochry who had paddled it the day before) we made the trek north.Once out of the cars we sauntered down the tourist path to the river to have a look at it.
Biting the bullet 2007-04-19 20:06:00 By the time Thursday had come round I had given up any hope on finding a river with anywhere near enough water in to warrant a paddle and therefore I teamed up with the other section of paddlers I was staying with. This section wasn't the hardcore river paddler or thrill seeking adrenaline junkie, well some of them maybe, but instead they were sea paddlers. Paddlers who went out paddling for enjoyment and to discover new places from a vantage point very few people can say they have experienced. However, I did not have a long, pointy 16ft+ sea boat, instead I had my dad's Diesel. I was told I would be fine in such craft as they were only pottering around the small chain of islands south of Mallaig. We headed off at 10 o'clock and arrived at our destination some 90 minutes later.In good sea kayaking fashion I'll include a map - cheers Ordnance Survey. We launched from that small yellow road north of Gortenachullish and paddled out to the islands nor'-west from here.I don't th Read more:bullet
Biting the bullet once again 2007-04-20 17:53:00 It was Friday and the last opportunity to get out paddling, however there was still no water in the rivers so once again I headed out with the group of sea paddlers that I had ventured out with yesterday. Today, however their trip was something slightly more extravagant to yesterday's jaunts around the islands off Arisaig so I was put in a sea boat (fibre-glass Skerry), which was going spare. I would now be able to keep up with the group on the planned 10.5 mile paddle.The location of the trip was to be Loch Hourn, an isolated sea loch, accessible only by a twenty-five mile single track road, found on the northern tip of the Knoydart peninsula. At first the prospect of this single track road terrified me, but on completing the drive, before we even got on the water and off paddling, the day had very nearly beaten all those that had gone before it. The scenery along this single track road was some of the most spectacular I had seen and something that not every one will see in thei Read more:bullet
It's here... 2007-04-28 16:10:00 Yes, it's true, my Jackson Rocker eventually turned up today. Well actually it has been in the country since Monday and at UK Canoes since Wednesday, but I only just got around to collecting the boat and paying off the final balance. It's been a long time coming and much aggravation has been caused because of it (see post here), but I can say that it has definitely been worth the wait.The boat, at home, in it's giant stocking, ready for a big outfitting session.The Jackson Rocker.Me stood with the boat before starting the outfitting session. It was weird to actually have a boat that towered above me when I've been use to my All Star that is the same height as me.After fitting the boat out I was a bit hot because of the fact that I had my normal boating kit on indoors on a fairly warm spring day.The boat should be on the water tomorrow as I am attending a Coaching Standardisation course at Calder Canoe Centre, which I have organised for the local canoe club.Good lines, stay safe
Kayaking is not a Crime 2007-04-26 18:35:00 Left to right: Me in college with a "Chorley Euxton" sign - amazing; the t-shirt I was wearing in college today.After receiving my WCA Access Campaign t-shirt on Friday and putting off wearing it for a good few days I finally got around to putting it on and heading to college this morning. Wow this is an amazing blog post[!] However, I thought I'd just put down what the simple, emotive slogan on a basic blue t-shirt managed to achieve.From getting on the bus after someone misread it for "Barking is not a crime" to getting off this evening and heading for home I have been bombarded with people asking me why it says "Kayaking
is not a crime"? I dutifully explain the current access problems we face as paddlers and how we only have a crap percentage of rivers we are actually allowed to paddle, and the remaining percentage we can only paddle if we are willing to bow down to the big, bad landowner and do what they say or we piss the land owners and fisherman off and paddle them anyway.
Teva Sunkosi Water Shoes 2007-04-29 21:39:00 Having finally got my hands on Roger the Rocker yesterday I decided that today was the ideal day for taking on board what Tom Parker had said on the White Water Safety and Rescue course about footwear. This means that I now have some very dapper looking Teva's heading my way from the rather nice people at Wiggle. This online shopping site was a gem of a find and was all down to Froggle UK. Froogle found me the cheapest deals and I selected the one I liked the best - £67.49 for some water shoes normally retailing at £75. During checkout I was asked for an e-Voucher number to get £5 off the special offer price. I didn't have one, but another good Goggle search produced the goods and after filling in this form I had a code to get the further reduction. I'm rather pleased with myself now that I have some Teva's for £12.51 less than I should and postage was free. I may just have to have a little jig I am that happy about the whole thing.Good lines, stay safe and see you on the
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