After trying to organise a group paddle with some new faces on the Shoalhaven River, the weather had other plans and sent the gauges high. We had wanted to run some higher volume rapids, or a least technical enough to keep gaining valuable experience.
When the Shoalhaven was scratched, Gus, Craig and I decided to run Pheasants Nest to Maldon on the Nepean river which is graded as 2-3 and around 11km's. The gauge was sitting at around 1 metre which had us talking safety at the put in due to the fast flowing and continuous conveyor belt of water.
It was good day out which saw a few spills, injury, and plenty was learned by all.
This Video was shot and edited by Craig.
The rapids kept us all working together and we started building confidence in some great water. It wasn't long before we hit our first portage on a rapid that despite looking doable (just) we took the safe option and let it go for another day. The top section was just cranking and was marginal at best.
Craig did exceptionally well given his experience level and read the water quite well.
Gus is always cool under pressure and when I watched him flip, I wasn't overly concerned as he still had hold of his paddle when he surfaced. It wasn't until I saw a mild grimace on his face and blood on his hand that I knew we had a slight problem.
Despite completely tearing his fingernail off, Gus paddled on with gauze and Gaffa tape! Very painful.
We all had a great day and as always it was a pleasure paddling with Gus and Craig. Well worth a repeat trip in the future. Good times.
No comments:
Post a Comment