I guess this is something that everyone who plays competitive sports experiences at some point, but I feel this one particularly strongly as it could have been avoided.
I've been thinking for the last year that dropping to Div 2 may have been a good idea as our team is slowly getting weaker as our most experienced players leave university. The part that irks me is the word 'relegation', and that despite our goal difference (one of the better ones throughout the whole tournament) we were being chucked out of the best games we'd played because over half our A-team couldn't make the date.
Either way, what's happened has happened - so now we wait to compete in Div 2 after summer, and try and reclaim some honour.
My one comfort is that in the games which mattered most (the hardest ones) I was playing on form - so that makes up for some of my grief.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Thursday, 8 April 2010
A Bad Easter
In the last few days, the kayaking community has lost a number of paddlers.
It is in these sad times that we remember that this sport, however much we may look away from the consequences, is an extreme sport, and worthy of all the caution given to ski-ing or climbing etc. It is only now that people truely see why someone can't be pressured into getting onto a river - could you live with that on your conscience?
Everyone will be thinking of how the families will be feeling, but I can't imagine what the paddlers who were with these people are going through right now: I hope I never will.
It is in these sad times that we remember that this sport, however much we may look away from the consequences, is an extreme sport, and worthy of all the caution given to ski-ing or climbing etc. It is only now that people truely see why someone can't be pressured into getting onto a river - could you live with that on your conscience?
Everyone will be thinking of how the families will be feeling, but I can't imagine what the paddlers who were with these people are going through right now: I hope I never will.
Strathclyde Film Festival 2010
On March 19th, Strathclyde and Glasgow University Canoe Clubs set aside their partisan opposition and came together for the film night.
Six amateur film makers (and in some cases amateur kayakers too) entered their films with the hope of winning fabulous prizes.
Mark Mulrain, newly elected President of Strathclyde Uni Canoe Club kicked off the night with a few pleasant (if occationally mocking) words, before we witnessed the spectacular "Chaos Across Europe", an Alps-09 video made by Ben and Sean.
There we several other video's in the middle, including a surprisingly good picture show by Becs, and a minute of idiotic carnage entered by Chris Morrison (this was played numerous times and had the assembled crown in histerics!
Then it was time for mine to be played - unfortunately timed, as my video tried to make the Europe Trip seem epic, while Ben and Sean's version made fun of it.
Tim Hamlet's video of kayaking in Vietnam was the last to show, and it was undoubtedly the best.
Six amateur film makers (and in some cases amateur kayakers too) entered their films with the hope of winning fabulous prizes.
Mark Mulrain, newly elected President of Strathclyde Uni Canoe Club kicked off the night with a few pleasant (if occationally mocking) words, before we witnessed the spectacular "Chaos Across Europe", an Alps-09 video made by Ben and Sean.
There we several other video's in the middle, including a surprisingly good picture show by Becs, and a minute of idiotic carnage entered by Chris Morrison (this was played numerous times and had the assembled crown in histerics!
Then it was time for mine to be played - unfortunately timed, as my video tried to make the Europe Trip seem epic, while Ben and Sean's version made fun of it.
Tim Hamlet's video of kayaking in Vietnam was the last to show, and it was undoubtedly the best.
Tim's victory was well earned, and Sean and Ben's video came a respectable second. I suspect mine may have done better had my music been more in line with everyone's taste.
However, it was an excellent night, and Gordon's photo where he's hanging off Crack of Dawn on the Etive made a return, so all was well!
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Canoe Club AGM
It's that time of year again when it's time for clubs to select their leaders for the coming year. The canoe clubs arrived in true style, with everyone showing up in fantastic fancy dress costumes, with everything from a peacock to the Teletubbies!
My costume was Dr Gregory House
The speeches were given and the elections were held. To my disappointment, I did not find myself on the committee this year.
Now that the business of the night was over, it was time to head to the Lansdowne for a meal, and then to Ben and Christine's flat for an afterparty. The meal was an absolute delight, and the nicest that I've had in five years of being in the canoe club - qudos to Paddy and Caity for finding the Lansdowne sponsors and organising the night. It was here that Tom (as the new Commodore) had to live up to his constitutional obligations and down a dirty pint...but actually beat Ben in downing his clean pint too!
The meal over, the drinking was bumped up a notch at the flat, with several people finding themselves on the wrong (or right, depending on your perspective) end of a half-yard dirty pint! By far the most entertaining of these was Anthony, our French fresher:
Anthony's Dirty Half Yard
The North Esk
Canoe Club trips are (almost by definition) going to have delays. These are accepted by all organisers as an inevitable event – but this trip is going to put all others to shame with the insane vastness of hold-ups caused!
8:30am, nothing but a concept to many, and I was still waiting outside Euan R’s flat while he searched for a phantom karabiner, when who should text but the fourth person in our party: Mark Mulrain could no longer come. When Euan finally arrived, having given up his search, we discussed this ‘man-down’ problem, and I suggested we invite Ben. Always up for kayaking, even given only moments notice, Ben agreed. This was going to work out after-all, but Euan then remembered his keys were still in the Stevie…so we went there, only to discover it was locked until 10:00am. This was getting us no-where, so we stopped off at Ben’s flat, collected his keys, then finally collected Fraser (who ironically had actually arrived on time), and headed to the shed to pack. This was done at break-neck pace, Ben was collected, a food stop was had, and we were still out of Glasgow before 10am…good job!!
A long banterous journey, with Ben doing everything he could do to ruin the music stored on Frasers iPod, and Euan trying his hardest to gross the car out, saw us arrive at the get on for the North Esk.
And it was here, at the get-on, where the first beating of the trip happened: when it was discovered that Mr Richardson hadn’t packed spraydecks for him or Ben.
It was eventually, after a long arduous debate that would put even Tolkein to shame, decided that Euan and I would run the river first, with Ben and Fraser running down the bank, and then we would swap over, and they’d get on the river at whatever point dwindling daylight would allow.
Thus began our tale of two halves.
Euan and I had a rather uneventful trip down to Rocks of Solitude, where Euan decided that Gregor’s “Hero line” from previous weeks was the way to do it…unfortunately no beating followed this mess-up. My (somewhat less planned) line worked surprisingly well, and we continued our fun, yet simple paddle down to the get-out at the Fish Ladder.
** change of author here due to Euan's silliness **
The second half of the tale consisted of me (Fraser - note the change in author) and Ben’s fantastic descent of the river. Nothing of any note occurred until we reached Rocks of Solitude, bar the fact that Paul Walker’s deck is tighter than Scrooge and needs the super human powers of at least 2 people to fit on which materially contributed to our impressive amounts of faff.
First real rapid up and our Steve Fisher style “fully trained safety crew” were in position for a heavily anticipated swim from Ben. Alas it did not occur and therefore it was my turn to navigate this grade 6++ rapid. After fitting the deck that must have been designed to fit round a yoghurt tub, not the cockpit of an H3 (or the Mamba for which it was bought), I embarked on this terrifying run. With huge amounts of style and grace/luck and clumsiness I survived all the drops until being cruelly sucked back in by the bottom hole after a short battle/teasing from the river. Unfortunately for Mr Jenkins I must inform him I did not receive a beating, no matter how much it may have been deserved. After being flushed, a spectacular roll attempt/“quack” and a hero dive from Euan I once again decided to bail, gimpy I know. The worst part of this swim meant having to stretch what was basically a swimming cap over the cockpit of my boat, again.
After experiencing the freezing cold water you would think I would be less likely to want to return to it, yet after watching Ben run the infamous President’s corner I decided to come out the eddy and fall over. That was it, no brace, no reason to fall over. (If you are intrigued to find out more about this ridiculous capsize, Mr Walker has attached below the video he took from his newly acquired iPhone – I can think of better ways to spend the money....) Running this rapid on my head resulted in not much really, apart from a knock on the head...my own stupid fault really.
Finally what could be regarded as the most spectacular event of the trip occurred and caused my final swim, although I shall regard as a “technical”. There has been much speculation as to what occurred here but for once and for all I shall lay the matter to rest. Paddling along I heard the cry of baby, looking up I saw it tumbling through the sky. Doing what any self respecting boater would do I reached out and grabbed the baby, moments before a certain death. In doing so I slightly unbalanced myself and due to other imbalances (such as my helmet being squint etc.) I was unable to overcome this and I fell under once again. I held the baby above the surface of the perishingly cold water and then pulled my deck so I could reunite baby with the adoring mother on the riverbank. This all occurred before Ben turned around to see me swimmingly along, this is the truth. Paul’s reaction to this amazingly heroic story was “What was the baby called?”....pillock. We then floated down to the get out at Fish-ladder falls.
Euan descending the final rapid
** back to Paul writing again **
Our tale of two halves complete, we decided to reward ourselves for our kayaking efforts by heading to McDonalds on the route home…meaning Fraser and Ben had been there twice in two days, the fat b****rds.
All-in-all, an excellent day and an excellent river, but next time we should probably take the spraydecks.
8:30am, nothing but a concept to many, and I was still waiting outside Euan R’s flat while he searched for a phantom karabiner, when who should text but the fourth person in our party: Mark Mulrain could no longer come. When Euan finally arrived, having given up his search, we discussed this ‘man-down’ problem, and I suggested we invite Ben. Always up for kayaking, even given only moments notice, Ben agreed. This was going to work out after-all, but Euan then remembered his keys were still in the Stevie…so we went there, only to discover it was locked until 10:00am. This was getting us no-where, so we stopped off at Ben’s flat, collected his keys, then finally collected Fraser (who ironically had actually arrived on time), and headed to the shed to pack. This was done at break-neck pace, Ben was collected, a food stop was had, and we were still out of Glasgow before 10am…good job!!
A long banterous journey, with Ben doing everything he could do to ruin the music stored on Frasers iPod, and Euan trying his hardest to gross the car out, saw us arrive at the get on for the North Esk.
And it was here, at the get-on, where the first beating of the trip happened: when it was discovered that Mr Richardson hadn’t packed spraydecks for him or Ben.
It was eventually, after a long arduous debate that would put even Tolkein to shame, decided that Euan and I would run the river first, with Ben and Fraser running down the bank, and then we would swap over, and they’d get on the river at whatever point dwindling daylight would allow.
Thus began our tale of two halves.
Euan and I had a rather uneventful trip down to Rocks of Solitude, where Euan decided that Gregor’s “Hero line” from previous weeks was the way to do it…unfortunately no beating followed this mess-up. My (somewhat less planned) line worked surprisingly well, and we continued our fun, yet simple paddle down to the get-out at the Fish Ladder.
** change of author here due to Euan's silliness **
The second half of the tale consisted of me (Fraser - note the change in author) and Ben’s fantastic descent of the river. Nothing of any note occurred until we reached Rocks of Solitude, bar the fact that Paul Walker’s deck is tighter than Scrooge and needs the super human powers of at least 2 people to fit on which materially contributed to our impressive amounts of faff.
First real rapid up and our Steve Fisher style “fully trained safety crew” were in position for a heavily anticipated swim from Ben. Alas it did not occur and therefore it was my turn to navigate this grade 6++ rapid. After fitting the deck that must have been designed to fit round a yoghurt tub, not the cockpit of an H3 (or the Mamba for which it was bought), I embarked on this terrifying run. With huge amounts of style and grace/luck and clumsiness I survived all the drops until being cruelly sucked back in by the bottom hole after a short battle/teasing from the river. Unfortunately for Mr Jenkins I must inform him I did not receive a beating, no matter how much it may have been deserved. After being flushed, a spectacular roll attempt/“quack” and a hero dive from Euan I once again decided to bail, gimpy I know. The worst part of this swim meant having to stretch what was basically a swimming cap over the cockpit of my boat, again.
Fraser on Rocks of Solitude
After experiencing the freezing cold water you would think I would be less likely to want to return to it, yet after watching Ben run the infamous President’s corner I decided to come out the eddy and fall over. That was it, no brace, no reason to fall over. (If you are intrigued to find out more about this ridiculous capsize, Mr Walker has attached below the video he took from his newly acquired iPhone – I can think of better ways to spend the money....) Running this rapid on my head resulted in not much really, apart from a knock on the head...my own stupid fault really.
The Infamous Stupidity....
Finally what could be regarded as the most spectacular event of the trip occurred and caused my final swim, although I shall regard as a “technical”. There has been much speculation as to what occurred here but for once and for all I shall lay the matter to rest. Paddling along I heard the cry of baby, looking up I saw it tumbling through the sky. Doing what any self respecting boater would do I reached out and grabbed the baby, moments before a certain death. In doing so I slightly unbalanced myself and due to other imbalances (such as my helmet being squint etc.) I was unable to overcome this and I fell under once again. I held the baby above the surface of the perishingly cold water and then pulled my deck so I could reunite baby with the adoring mother on the riverbank. This all occurred before Ben turned around to see me swimmingly along, this is the truth. Paul’s reaction to this amazingly heroic story was “What was the baby called?”....pillock. We then floated down to the get out at Fish-ladder falls.
Euan descending the final rapid
** back to Paul writing again **
Our tale of two halves complete, we decided to reward ourselves for our kayaking efforts by heading to McDonalds on the route home…meaning Fraser and Ben had been there twice in two days, the fat b****rds.
All-in-all, an excellent day and an excellent river, but next time we should probably take the spraydecks.
The Upper Tummel
The Tummel is one of our clubs most paddled rivers, so I was enthused when I heard that instead of heading to the normal section (the Lower Tummel), we were headed to the Upper Tummel, a section which neither myself, nor most of those on the trip, had ever done.
A surprisingly quick boat loading session (where Ben decided he was leading the river in a play-boat), a slightly mutinous food and music stop, and a pause for a cry of utter dismay when we saw that Loch Tummel was frozen over were our only delays before arriving at a PWL Upper Tummel.
Here we had a first, as Marissa managed to successfully swim before the start of the trip...ominous, considering the recent spate of high carnage trips.
Yet things held together well, with many little drops and chutes leading us down towards one of two notable rapids on the river: Z-bends. This nasty rapid seemed to be in a good mood however, with only two swims, both noteworthy. Anthony’s for his refusal to be beaten by it, returning to style the rapid, and Fraser for the unfortunate way in which he was caught out: despite landing upright, he failed to paddle away quickly enough from the hole at the bottom and was summarily capsized.
This lovely, scenic and bitterly cold river carried on with its shallow rapids for some time before we saw the horizon line to flat water marking the end of our trip.
The last rapids were...interesting. The gradient increased greatly, causing difficulty for Bex, Marissa and Dan as this was either their first river trip, or their first in many years. Bex unfortunately caught a rock, capsizing and hitting her head (though avoiding a swim). As those who had already run the rapid checked to make sure she was OK, Fraser paddled down...and also capsized, though his led to a swim. Now it was my turn to jump on the ‘safety’ bandwagon as I went and rescued Fraser, boat and paddles before they all ran the last (and best and biggest) chute on the river.
Finally, order was restored, and it was time to tackle the final rapid. This is possibly the most fun water slide I have done in a long time!! Unfortunately, here, after all the rapids had been paddled, and the trip was pretty much over, Marissa decided to round off her day as it had begun: with a swim. Bex and Dan joined her as they successfully ran and in succession swam at the chute, joining the ranks of the days swimmers after all the rapids had ended.
A short climb revealed the minibus, and a headcount proved we hadn’t lost anyone. Only eight swims, and we were off the river before five!!!
Whoever said PWL rivers are a bad thing?
A surprisingly quick boat loading session (where Ben decided he was leading the river in a play-boat), a slightly mutinous food and music stop, and a pause for a cry of utter dismay when we saw that Loch Tummel was frozen over were our only delays before arriving at a PWL Upper Tummel.
Here we had a first, as Marissa managed to successfully swim before the start of the trip...ominous, considering the recent spate of high carnage trips.
Yet things held together well, with many little drops and chutes leading us down towards one of two notable rapids on the river: Z-bends. This nasty rapid seemed to be in a good mood however, with only two swims, both noteworthy. Anthony’s for his refusal to be beaten by it, returning to style the rapid, and Fraser for the unfortunate way in which he was caught out: despite landing upright, he failed to paddle away quickly enough from the hole at the bottom and was summarily capsized.
This lovely, scenic and bitterly cold river carried on with its shallow rapids for some time before we saw the horizon line to flat water marking the end of our trip.
The last rapids were...interesting. The gradient increased greatly, causing difficulty for Bex, Marissa and Dan as this was either their first river trip, or their first in many years. Bex unfortunately caught a rock, capsizing and hitting her head (though avoiding a swim). As those who had already run the rapid checked to make sure she was OK, Fraser paddled down...and also capsized, though his led to a swim. Now it was my turn to jump on the ‘safety’ bandwagon as I went and rescued Fraser, boat and paddles before they all ran the last (and best and biggest) chute on the river.
Finally, order was restored, and it was time to tackle the final rapid. This is possibly the most fun water slide I have done in a long time!! Unfortunately, here, after all the rapids had been paddled, and the trip was pretty much over, Marissa decided to round off her day as it had begun: with a swim. Bex and Dan joined her as they successfully ran and in succession swam at the chute, joining the ranks of the days swimmers after all the rapids had ended.
A short climb revealed the minibus, and a headcount proved we hadn’t lost anyone. Only eight swims, and we were off the river before five!!!
Whoever said PWL rivers are a bad thing?
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
SUS Polo Competition
I actually can't believe that my first kayaking mention in this blog is going to be a polo one - so I'm going to keep it brief.
Essentially, this was an awesome weekend with universities from across Scotland competing for the polo prize. Glasgow's A Team won it for the third year in a row, helped by my goal-keeping and John and Keong's goal scoring skills. It was particularly embarassing for Strathclyde's A Team that they lost to us in the final while we were a man down.
Essentially, this was an awesome weekend with universities from across Scotland competing for the polo prize. Glasgow's A Team won it for the third year in a row, helped by my goal-keeping and John and Keong's goal scoring skills. It was particularly embarassing for Strathclyde's A Team that they lost to us in the final while we were a man down.
Me saving a shot from Strathclyde A
Our womens team won their trophy for the ninth successive year, and the plate was scooped up by Aberdeen A.
Most importantly though.....at the end of the competition, all the uni's were getting drunk together and having a fantastic time doing it!
Burns Supper and Ceilidh
The day I'd been planning (and secretly dreading) for months had finally arrived. The tables were set, the piper had arrived, and the guests were filtering in.
Before the broth was served, I stood up and delivered the Selkirk Grace...and to much applause got it wrong. The soup was fantastic. Before long all the plates were cleared, and it was time for Dr Lyndsay Fletcher to deliver the Address to the Haggis. A true performer, she wielded the knife like a professional, slicing and dicing the haggis with ease, whilst terrifying the people standing too near.
Before the broth was served, I stood up and delivered the Selkirk Grace...and to much applause got it wrong. The soup was fantastic. Before long all the plates were cleared, and it was time for Dr Lyndsay Fletcher to deliver the Address to the Haggis. A true performer, she wielded the knife like a professional, slicing and dicing the haggis with ease, whilst terrifying the people standing too near.
Dr. Lyndsay Fletcher presenting the Haggis
Silence filled the hall as the magnificent plates of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties were placed on the tables. The second main course went down just as well as the first, and with the ceilidh soon to start down in the Dining Room, it was time to press on to the speeches.
First up was Martin Black, presenting the Toast to the Lassies. This geeky and surprisingly nice speech was immediately followed by a response in the form of a poem by Becky Douglas - this was appreciably more scathing.
Becky Douglas and Martin Black
Dessert in the form of Cranachan was delivered to the tables, and for the third time that evening, the room quietened as everyone ate.
Next, Professor John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, presented the Ode to the non-Scots. Combining his seasoned public speaking abilities and his fondness of magic, this was a truely spectacular speech to bear witness to, and was going to be a tough act to follow. Fortunately, Doctor Nic Labrosse was up to the challenge of giving the response...and spent the majority of the time making fun of me!!
It was time for the final speech of the evening, and as the ceilidh had already been running for over an hour, it was agreed that this should be the last part of the evening (Steven and Chris leapt for joy when they realised they no longer needed to read the poems). Doctor Martin Hendry, the reason most of those running AstroSoc this year were as interested in astronomy, took to the podium. His delivery of the Immortal Memory sealed the Supper as a strong success for the society, and made what I was going to do next all the more fitting.
It was my honour to present Doctor Lyndsay Fletcher, Doctor Martin Hendry and Professor John Brown with the first Honourary Lifetime Memberships awarded by the Glasgow University Astronomy Society.
The first years with Dr Martin Hendry
With the supper ending, and people heading downstairs to join the ceilidh (now having it's half-way interval), I went round the tables, thanking everyone for joining us for the evening.
By the time I arrived downstairs the ceilidh was in full swing, and it was fantastic!! Not much to say other than the hall was full to bursting with half-cut students and lecturers dancing their worries away. All-in-all an awesome night, and an awesome first date with Elspeth.
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