Kayaking Videos

I had been looking for a middle boat to replace my old Dagger Mamba. Earlier this year, I found a company that offers demos of the rare Jackson Antix 2.0. The Antix 2.0 is a small half-slice boat. It has a thin stern profile suited to tail squirts, and the medium version is just eight feet long. The bow is relatively low-volume. The upshot is that it's manoeuvrable, and allows precision of movement, as long as you keep your wits about you.

The previous half-slice boats I'd demoed were either too long or too wobbly. The Antix 2.0 is short and wide and, like most modern Jacksons, has hard rails that keep it to lines. In between the capsizes during my demo, I liked the boat's combination of nimbleness and predictability, and so now I've bought one.

It has taken me a bit of trial and error to get the seat position right. At first, I moved the backrest forward for maximum stability. The boat tracked well, but the high stern wouldn't engage with the water. So, when I reached eddylines, I'd either career into the bank (if I had enough momentum) or stall and miss the eddy (if I didn't).

For this session, I moved the seat back a notch, and got some proper control. I had to be ready for "tailies", but I had the feeling of something in the water behind me to give me a shove and complete my moves.

Having found a configuration that works, I'm getting comfortable in this boat. There is potential for cheeky moves that my Nirvana is too big for, and I look forward to unlocking this potential!

This video is of my last descent of the Lee Valley Olympic course on a rather gloomy and cool July afternoon. There are a couple of minor trashings, but it was a good session.

I tried a new beach near Teesside. The weather was grim, but the surf good - smooth and 3-4 feet high. The waves weren't barrelling, so paddling out didn't present too many difficulties.

I managed some long surfs, but unfortunately the footage of the best of them is sideways because I had the camera on a chest harness. Next time, it will be back to the helmet mount.

The weather's still mild, but the water is getting too cold for playboating, so it's a return to the stable missile that is the Nirvana. The weeks in the playboat have made the Olympic course seem tamer, and I enjoyed this session.

This video shows two runs, both of which include more eddy-hopping than I would once have attempted. There is a volley of mishaps at 4:33, during which I get munched in the stopper below Boom and, for once, escape in my boat.

I attempt more ambitious moves than in last month's video. Still haven't got the hang of surfing - I go sideways or get flushed off the wave.

This was my most successful playboat-only Olympic session so far, with three full descents and no swims. The video shows the final lap. My biorhythms must have been peaking because the following week I swam twice.

My first full run of the Olympic course in the Rockstar for a few years. My previous attempt had been disastrous and confidence-sapping, but there are now some regular playboaters of a similar vintage to me who aren't ashamed to swim, and this has helped me reshape my own attitude. So, after several months of gingerly poking about on the bottom half of the course - and with the water still warm from the summer - it was time to run the whole gauntlet.

There's a warm-up below Boom, the bottom big drop, followed by the full run. I didn't attempt anything risky (I gave up on sliding into the eddy above Boom when I realised it wasn't going to work), but it went well enough.

With just three minutes of the kayaks-only session left, I had another go. The fourth pump was now switched on, ready for the rafts, and the waves grew by a few inches. There was no time for playing, so I bombed straight down as far as the tongue above Boom, where I capsized and descended the drop upside-down. I couldn't get my paddle out of the water for a roll - I guess I was stuck in the hole - so it was off with the deck and a bit of breast stroke practice.

Still, a satisfying session. It would be nice if I could do some proper surfing in the playboat, but one thing at a time.

I hired a Pyranha Ripper 2 from the on-site shop. It was pretty jumpy, with its slicey stern, but fun. On high crosses over waves, it stayed pointing upstream much more readily than the Nirvana. Given more time, I'd have tried some surfing.

I perform a couple of semi-accidental flat spins that would have been impossible in the Nirvana. Coming down Boom, I must have got nice and vertical, judging by the whoop from another paddler, but I couldn't see much myself.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the way the bow wobbled about - it reminded me of the Machno, which I never got on with. Still, the Ripper 2 is on the list of possible replacements for the Mamba as my "middle boat".

A standard run of this long-familiar stretch. I paddled in the Mamba, which hadn't had an airing for two years. I can't say that I felt I'd missed it. Compared with the Nirvana and even the Rockstar playboat, it seems to have a mind of its own.

I planned to break into the top river-right eddy on the Serpent's Tail, but as you can see I get nowhere near it. I could have lugged the kayak up for another run, but couldn't be bothered.

Two runs of the Olympic course, while it was still configured with tricky features for the Olympic team to practice on. In the following weeks, it reverted to its old symmetrical layout to accommodate the rafts more easily. It's still fab, but I enjoyed this interlude.

There's an interesting capsize on the tongue above the bottom drop. I rolled up just in time to avoid a proper beatering.

Ending the video is a short clip of me managing a flat spin in the playboat on the Legacy course. It all goes Pete Tong afterwards, but it's something to build on :\

A run of the Olympic course, during the period in which it was configured for the UK Olympic team to practise on for the Tokyo Games. The layout was twisty and exciting, and it felt quite like a real river.

Here, I'm a bit more adventurous with the eddy-hopping than usual.

My first white water river trip since the start of the first lockdown, over 16 months ago. It was good to be back on the Tryweryn, and I acquitted myself reasonably well, succeeding in a few challenging moves. There were plenty of cock-ups - see the next video.

This footage is from the second day of the weekend. There's no footage from the first day - that was a warm-up, with nothing challenging attempted!

A kayaks-only session without rafts. On these sessions, the course only runs at three pumps these days, I assume to save money. This makes some of the drops bigger, but apart from that it is less scary than on four pumps, and that makes me a tad more adventurous in which eddies I go for.

On this occasion I was rebuilding my confidence after the multiple lockdown-enforced layoffs during the previous year and a half, so I limited my ambitions to crossing the flow in the big waves. It was a reasonable session, with two successful rolls, although during one of them I knocked over a paddler taking her assessment. I trust the assessors made allowances...

A playboater of limited technical resources survives an hour on the Legacy course without swimming. This is an improvement on the situation immediately after the lockdown, when my roll rate had dropped below 50%.

I don't attempt much of interest in this session. I would like to be good, but I have fun being average.

I was meeting up with friends in the area later in the day, and the normally placid Norfolk coast had some workable surf, so despite the wet and unseasonably cold weather I spent an hour at Sheringham on the small waves. It was a fun afternoon, though I think there were higher waves further east.

An enjoyable 50 minutes on some 3-foot surf a few miles from Filey. The town of Filey is sheltered by the promontory of Filey Brigg, but the south side of the bay can catch some sizeable waves. Unlike most of the North Yorkshire coastline, this area has accessible sandy beaches that don't involve a steep trek from clifftops.

The weather was miserable - but when when everything's wet, you might as well be in the wet yourself. The rain stopped later in the afternoon, and I went a walk along the 100-metre-high Bempton Cliffs. The views were good, and thousands of gannets were breeding.

I was finding my paddling feet again after the long hiatus of the first lockdown, and the summer-long closure of the Olympic course. I must have been feeling on fairly good form on this day, as I went for some of the small eddies above the big drops. I had a swim towards the end of the session (not shown).

I think the Olympic was still consistently running on four pumps at the time of this video. There are remnants of the pre-Tokyo-Olympics layout in the initial 50 metres.

I must have forgotten my GoPro on this trip, as the only footage is of some runs of the "Dog Leg" from my waterproof camera. They show me and a couple of companions. For my own run, I rested the camera on a rock and hoped it would stay upright, which it did.

A week after this weekend came the first lockdown. I was glad to have got a final paddle in just in time, not that it made the lockdown any easier.

The middle stretch of the Tees. There is a lot of flat stuff to slog through early on, but after a few miles it gets more lively. There was enough water, but this stretch of the river is more fun at higher levels than this.

At any level above "Scrape", this short stretch is always a blast. I have mixed feelings about my roll at the top of the "Dog Leg". I shouldn't have capsized, but I was pleased to recover under pressure.

I wasn't sure whether to run this section in the Nirvana or the Rockstar. The decision was made for me when a companion gouged a hole in the front of his boat, and I lent him the Nirvana.

The trip was successful, but staying upright in a boat I was now considerably too heavy for was pretty tiring.

Lee Valley had begun reconfiguring the course for the Olympic slalom team to practise on for the 2020 Tokyo Games, which in the event were postponed to 2021 owing to COVID. In fact, these were just the first alterations, and for a while the middle part of the course changed beyond recognition.

There's lots of action in this video, mostly of the capsizing kind. At 3:05 I collide with another paddler - the overdubbed music is, I confess, to silence my cursing. At 4:35 a paddler does some impressive, albeit accidental, moves in the stopper below Boom.

It's always a gamble whether it will be worth the six-hour trip from East Anglia to Dartmoor, but on this occasion the water gods favoured us. The Upper Dart was between low and medium - a good level for intermediate paddlers, with lots of technical challenges, no scraping, and friendly eddies.

This was my first full run of the Upper Dart - I ran Pandora's Box, and unlike on my first trip I stayed upright the whole time. My concentration gave out on the subsequent run of the Dart Loop, during which I swam. I didn't really mind - an ambition of many years' standing had been fulfilled.

For a classic trip like this, it's worth a double bill of footage. On Euthanasia Falls, I opted for the technically easier drop on river right, rather than the diagonal chute, but at least I stayed upright this time.

Third time in the Alps. We were based near Landeck in Austria, but for our first day we drove over the border into Germany.

The Loisach is a twisting, low-volume Grade 3 run, with lots of rocks to avoid, but none that come upon you too fast. It was a good warm-up for the week, although we could have used a little more water.

A compilation from the first two days of this Alps trip. First up is the Rissbach in Germany, a mostly straightforward Grade 2 run that feels quite remote compared to many rivers in the area. The banks are clear for some stretches, providing good views.

There are two Grade 4 rapids. On the first, the S-Bend, I misinterpreted an instruction to flare a drop, entered the slot diagonally, and tipped over. I avoided a swim with a clumsy lever against the riverbed.

On the second harder rapid, the "Schraege Rippen" ("Diagonal Flutings"), most of the group went river left and tried for the eddy half way up. Like an idiot, I decided I'd ferry from right to left along one of the flutings. However, I misjudged the force of the water, my boat's manoeuvrability, or my skill, and slid straight down the right of the river. The plus is that it all happens so quickly, you can't tell I got it wrong.

The second excerpt is from the Schuls Gorge in Switzerland, a short Grade 4 stretch. While you're running it, you have no real idea what's going on, but there aren't many rocks so it's mostly a matter of staying upright.

Last comes the Toesens Gorge, in Austria downstream from the Schuls. I'd run this two years previously, but this time the dam was releasing, and the waves were full-on. It's not as hard as it looks though, being largely clear of rocks and holes. Unfortunately, my GoPro, held in place by gaffer tape, slipped down my buouyancy aid, so that some of the best bits went unrecorded.

This was the most enjoyable technical run of the week. The Giarsun Gorge is supposedly Grade 4, though at this level it seemed at the easy end of the grade, apart from the "Prussian Spinner", which is hard to come out of with your boat pointing the right way.

This section is twisting and fun, with plenty to keep you on your toes, but nothing to scare the bejeezus out of you.

I so wanted this run to go well. It would have been, on paper, the most difficult section of river I'd tackled. Alas, I was to be disappointed.

It started well enough - there were lots of rocks, but the late-summer flow was quite low, and the water wasn't particularly pushy.

The pain started with the portage. Walking a couple of hundred metres across huge boulders with a 25-kg kayak on your shoulder when a single false step could have your boat, and if you're unlucky, yourself, swept down the Grade 6 rapid a couple of metres to your right towards a certain mashing is not relaxing.

By the end of the portage, the whole group was knackered and out of sorts, but for whatever reason me more than most. Most of us fouled up within a few dozen metres of getting back on the water. Some of us managed technical exits, others swam - I don't know how many, because I was focussed on the fact that I was one of them. The swim itself wasn't scary, but it shows just how exhausting the portage had been that it was on such an easy feature - why did I try to roll up on the same side as the drop? I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that the rest of the afternoon was miserable, as on this of all occasions I'd packed my car and house keys in the kayak rather than my buoyancy aid.

It was a long trek up the steep bank to the road. The path came out next to a chapel, and something in me was praying that my boat would be found, otherwise the rest of the holiday would be hosed and my first day back in the UK very stressful.

Two hours later the tour leader's van drew up and although they milked the suspense, I could tell from their faces that my boat had been found.

As I say, a disappointing afternoon. To have run the whole of the Grade 4+ Ardez Gorge would have given me (in my own eyes) river cred. But it ended as well as it could have done.

We finished the week with a run of the lower Oetztaler Ache ("Oetz" for short, though Oetz is actually a village, not the river).

I'd run this river on my first trip to Austria, so was familiar with what was coming up. Basically it's kilometer after kilometer of bouncy fun. If you have somebody to follow who knows where the holes are, you can relax and enjoy the ride - there are no difficult moves required. You have to portage the huge weir halfway down: the skull and crossbones on a bridge 800 metres upstream give you fair warning.

A trip to the mid-Alps: four days in Italy and two in France. The scenery, around the highest peaks of western Europe, is spectacular. Except for one day, the weather was hot.

The Dora Baltea river in Italy runs down the Aosta Valley from the foot of Mont Blanc. This section is Grade 3, with a shallow gradient but fast flow and big waves. As long as one could stay upright, it didn't call for great technical skills, but it was really fun.

This section is upriver from the one in the previous video, and slightly more narrow and technical, but similar in character. Much of the valley bottom is quite built-up, and you don't exactly feel out in the wilds.

At one point we got a strong whiff of sewage, and during the rest of the week, one by one we all got sick.

Complacent from keeping my head dry the previous day, and slightly hungover, I made a hash of most of this run. In the intervals between being pinned against rocks, my downriver moves were either backwards or barely in control. People were shouting at me to eddy out, but I couldn't see any eddies.

This river is fast and steep (you get no sense of how steep from the GoPro footage), and also shallow - but not shallow enough to be safe from drowning, as I discovered during a swim that wasn't captured on camera. It was certainly the most frightening out-of-boat experience I've had - the only one when an intimation of finality momentarily closed in. All my energy was going into keeping my head out of the water while my limbs were bashed against rocks; turning downstream or swimming to an eddy were out of the question, but somehow I finally made it to the bank, dispirited and assuming my boat was lost.

My breath recovered and my boat found, the worst was over. Sheer relief helped me relax for the rest of the descent. I capsized again but managed a roll.

I'm surprised that most of this stretch is classed as Grade 3+ rather than Grade 4, but it could just be that I was having a bad day.

Continuation of the previous video. Not a great deal of action on this stretch, except for the simple drop of Whorlton Falls.

This is not one of the most popular white water runs, being pretty flat for much of its length, but it is very scenic, with the clear banks offering nice views of the broad valley, quite green even here in the middle of winter.

The main features are, in order, the constriction at the limestone outcrop of Loup Scar (Grade 3-?), and Appletreewick Falls (Grade 3).

I experienced a confidence boost after my trip to Austria, and in the following months my paddling stepped up a notch. I felt ready for the Upper Dart, which was running at a medium level on this weekend.

I ran everything except for Pandora's Box, which the group leader - a cautious chap - advised me to portage. Perhaps his confidence in me was dented by my upside-down descent of Euthanasia Falls, though I did roll at the bottom.

My first Alps trip. I decided cautiously only to spend four days on the water. Unfortunately I forgot my kit one day, and had to sit out the paddling. Still, after this visit I knew I wanted to return. The combination of cool water, hot sun, mountain scenery and endorphin rush is hard to beat.

The dam up the river wasn't releasing on this day, so this normally full-on stretch was lower than ideal, but still, it wasn't exactly boring.

I stayed on in Austria a couple of days to get some walking in, so despite losing a day's white water action, it was a satisfying holiday.

This is a rollercoaster run of continuous rapids that is nominally Grade 4. It's very fast and there are big waves, but most of it is read-and-run, and boats are more forgiving than they ysed to be. Therefore, most paddlers now rate it as Grade 3+ - at least earlier in the day before the glacier melt reaches its peak.

The tour leader said to me afterwards, "You can't still tell me the Lee Valley Olympic is anything like as good as that!", but actually I felt the Olympic course had been excellent practice.

A rare winter paddle of the dam-released Tryweryn. I assume other rivers were too low, which is why we fell back on this one.

This video features lots of playing on the NRA Wave, Chapel Falls, then the start of the Lower Tryweryn proper.

My first video of the Upper Tryweryn, which I had run several times before in summer. A companion gave me tips on "hero eddies" to try for - here I manage the "ledge eddy", which isn't actually that difficult to get into, though getting out of it can be interesting.

The river looks quite different from normal, with the trees bare. The video ends near the bottom of the Graveyard.