Scotland... What a week!

Last week I went to Scotland with the Exeter Uni club. We had a truly brilliant time with fantastic water levels and great company! 

This was my first paddling trip to Scotland and I'll be honest I wasn't expecting much. Perhaps this whitewater snobbery had stemmed from a lack of research or having been lucky enough to travel abroad to some magnificent boating. However, by the end of the week I had to eat my words in a big way...

The first day started with some warm up boating on the Arkaig. We had good water levels and so decided to head to the Roy. After an entertaining upper section we continued down the Roy Gorge, a run which I would have to class as one of the best grade 4 runs in the country. A truly committing run with some classic rapids and at least one very large must-run! For many in the group, this was the hardest paddling they had done, but everyone stepped up and had a great day. I couldn't have asked for a better start to the week.

Me entering the tight S-bend rapid on the Roy Gorge - photo by Ben Watts

The following day we had we did some more warming up on the Spean and Roy followed by the

Allt Ionndrain. This is a great little run which gave the chance for many of the crew to test their skills on steeper boating, the likes of which are hard to find on Dartmoor!

After positively monsoonal rainfall over the next day or so we had a fantastic run down the Spean Gorge at epic flows... a fun bit of water with confused boils and eddy lines. In dramatic contrast we went for a paddle on the Gloy gorge later that day; this is a short run which had little water and lots of trees, watch out if you're heading there any time soon.

Later that day came one of the main highlights of the trip... The Abhainn Righ! Well I certainly wasn't expecting this in Scotland. After a long scout of the drops I decided to fire up the two biggest drops. The first is a huge slide, approaching 20m in height. It's very steep and has two large kickers that give you considerable air time on the way down. I was happy with my line although I lost it at the last moment landing all but upside down in the pool. As a result I was ejected from my boat leaving me to walk to the side to empty it (whilst wearing a smile as wide as the river itself).

Having a last minute scout - Lynne Medlock (LM)

The full sequence  (LM)

The second large drop is a sloping slide into a large drop. A total drop of just over 10m I guess... This is quite a spectacular fall with a small line to hit but it is a real beauty! I went first hitting my line just as planned (trying my first paddle throw in the process), Andy went next sending his first waterfall effortlessly. Unfortunately Ben got unlucky on the lead in, resulting in a dislocated shoulder, get well soon mate!

Lining up for the big hit! (LM)

Flying off the lip  (LM)

A great line from Andy C (LM)

Ben W 'Bucking up and Hucking it' (LM)

An overall view of the two drops. This is a stunning river! (Andy C)

On our last day boating we went to Glen Etive where we got to sample the delights of the middle Etive and Alt a' Chaorainn at medium – low levels (I guess). Both of these rivers, as I'm sure you all know, are real gems. The sun was out, the whole crew was paddling well; it was one of those days that I will remember for a long time!

A lovely shot here by Matt Robinson looking down into Glen Etive from the Alt a' Chaorainn... What a place!

So the brilliant week certainly made up for the long journey to and from Exeter and I will without doubt be back again next year to check out some more of the seemingly never ending collection of classics that Scotland has to offer.

Check out this short video from the week's boating. Thanks to everyone for all the footage.

Thanks to: Zet Kayaks

Zat Raptor: Review

First appearances:

I think the boat looks great, simple and not too shiny... It's a bit longer than the large nomad for example and has slightly less rocker than a lot of other creek boats. Digging a little deeper the first thing I did was to check out the hull: It's not all that different from a nomad, slightly more defined edges, probably what some would call a semi displacement hull.

The next obvious thing to do was to jump up and down on the hull (with good reason). In my opinion one of the most important factors in any white water boat is how stiff it is. This will affect how strong the boat is and how quickly it reacts. The results of this scientific test proved the boat to be very stiff. The reason for this is that rather than a single stiffening beam along the centre of the boat, there is a diamond shaped equivalent, under the seat, which joins to straight beams, running the length of the boat.

Outfitting: The outfitting is basic but extremely comfortable. Setting the boat up takes about 3 minutes as all the hard work is done for you. The hip pads are fixed in with velcro and the foot plate padding slopes away from the ankles providing extra comfort and protection when it comes to pitons...

The seat is just a single piece of closed cell foam. It doesn't absorb water and weighs next to nothing.

Weight: This brings us on to how heavy it is... light! It is still a creek boat but unlike others the lightweight outfitting means that the weight goes where it needs to, making the boat tough!

On the water:

So my first trip out was a nice cruise down the upper dart, a bit of grade 3 – 4. Right from the off there are two things that are very clear: It is very fast and it holds a line like nothing else. On the way down the river I found myself hitting lines as I had done before in a nomad but the Raptor just felt more fun! The speed means that boofing, rock spins, grinds and all that free ride lark is effortless! I also dropped the boat into a couple of holes and waves – it surfs well for a creek boat - easy to get out of holes too (a slight difference to other boats may be that the balancing point on the edge is slightly further over so you have edge hard). It's easy to forget that this boat is quite so large...

East Oakment:

So this was my first trip on this river – a brilliant class 4 (5) gem on the North of Dartmoor. We had perfect conditions for it too. The river begins with a continuous series of slides that don't stop for around 1km! As expected the Raptor stepped up and performed brilliantly – it punches holes with ease, and most notably seems to really accelerate off drops and slides, ejecting you through whatever is at the bottom!

Moving down the river there is a 4m drop, the clearest line on the day was landing on a (very) shallow ledge. This seemed like the ideal place to do some plastic testing... All went well and the boat had barely a scratch on it!

South Wales:

I've had a couple of days up in Wales over the last couple of weeks. I managed to get a range of stuff done, high (ish) volume runs on the middle Tawe as well as steep creeks galore on the upper Tawe a Giedd. 

The boat performed well again but I learnt more this time about how the boat reacts in commiting situations. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier the boat tracks brilliantly, but it is key that you set up your line aggressively otherwise pulling the boat back in line late can be challenging. The same aggressive style applies to running drops, it's harder to get away with dropping in to stuff without much speed; this isn't hard to overcome as the boat has such immense acceleration that you can be flying in a matter of metres.

All in all, this is one of the best creek boats I have ever paddled and without a doubt it is the most enjoyable to paddle. It requires a slightly different paddling style to other boats on the market but in my opinion this style is the most effective for paddling hard water. It is definitely worth considering if you're in the market for a creekboat.

see here for a film of our day on the Giedd by Finn Burrows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dov6l32eDk0&feature=player_embedded

Sorry for the lack of action photos, Video coming soon. Thanks to Mike Moxon for the featured shots.

Thanks to: Zet Kayaks