I spent the last 2 days filming with Ray Goodwin, a level 5 coach in Canoeing, river kayaking and sea kayaking, and a very fine paddler and person! On Tuesday we went canoe sailing on a brisk wind on Bala lake. Ray rigged up a big sail on 2 rafted canoes. I did my best to make it more interesting for them by crawling up to the bow of one of the canoes. Apparently the front of the canoe was worryingly close to the bulging bow wave, but we survived it! Thanks a lot to the Glan Llyn outdoor centre for helping us out and lending us a RIB for safety and filming.

Yesterday we visited the river Dee at Llangollen and Ray showed off his slick moves with a bit of surfing, maneuvering and poling. He loves the fluidity and quality of movement in a canoe. He’s a brave man as he again allowed me to flail around in the bow of his canoe with a camera while he surfed the bottom wave! Or perhaps I’m a brave camerawoman?

The real star of the show was actually not Ray, but his trusty dog Dillie! Dillie faithfully – even eagerly – sits in the bow of Ray’s canoe while he floats, carves into micro-eddies, or surfs waves. I’m assured she is the ultimate test of the difficulty of a rapid – if it’s straighforward she remains at the front, if it’s slightly harder then she sits down in the middle. For those “Are you sure you should be doing this?” rapids, she cowers behind Ray!

At the end of the day Ray lent me one of his boats and gave me a few tips on running the lower waves and drops on the river, so thanks Ray! 

Today, I’m back in my office with piles of tapes and memory sticks, wondering where to start with all the editing!

THANKS TO PAUL FULBROOK FOR THIS PHOTO OF ME FROM THE SCOTTISH SYMPOSIUM, Thanks to RAY for the photo of him and Dillie – I was too busy filming to take any pictures yesterday!

Comments are closed.