Mellte - Late October

So you may have noticed the amount of rain we have been having recently. This has been good to the South Wales rivers (and to the whole of the UK really) in terms of kayaking, however there has been one issue; the rain is coming mid week, and then the weekends are usually drizzly and not providing the swelling torrents that I am after. This isn't an issue for my freeloading (student) chums, but when I am stuck in work on a Wednesday whilst all I receive is boating messages, it makes me a little sad inside. Luckily, not being Amy Winehouse, I'm not gonna drink myself to death trying to numb the pain, but maybe harbouring hatred for all my friend's free time isn't that healthy either.

Luckily this Sunday just been (the 27th) was the weekend I was back in a White Water kayak; I was happier than the children of America were when they read the obituary list for the June 25th 2009. Having been out on the Saturday night, the Sunday morning was seen in with a slight headache. Not being able to boat on Saturday had meant I was chomping at the bit to get out. A cheeky text to Stu (A Procrastinate boater) said that levels were looking low and asking what he thought (later deducing that I may have messaged him in the middle of his breakfast). His attitude seemed similar to mine, tiredness was lowering motivation. Half an hour of non-committal messages the ensued. The information exchanged was about as meaningless as Lib Dem's next election campaign is going to be, so Stu got hold of Fran (Procrastinate's founder) to see what his thoughts on the situation were. With Fran providing the motivation to do it, Stu got hold of Simon (OSBC founder) whilst I got hold of Phil. The plan was set, meet at the Mellte for 10:00.

I picked up Simon, Stu and Fran to set off on our way. I had taken a cheeky shortcut (which in reality ended up being longer, but as a man stuck to the story of it being a shortcut) only to get abuse for the decision. Apparently the scenery of Cardiff is not to the other's taste, but they soon got over this and we met Phil at the Mellte car park in the pouring rain. With Cardiff having been lovely on departure, we were without waterproofs, and getting changed was horrible. Huddled as close to the car as possible, thinking that vehicular proximity would somehow repel rain, we were changed but wet. A quick shuttle saw us at the top:

I took the photo, so wasn't originally in it. However, with the marvels of photoshop, I have subtly added myself back in

With this being Simon's first run of the Mellte, his nerves were apparently running higher than a hipster's turn-ups, and when getting to the 15 ft drop he was now hit with the harsh reality; our get in is straight into a 15ft drop. Phil and I went first, Simon followed with a successful boof, but a bit of a wobble after.

My line 

Phil on the edge

Another group from the South Wales area were also on the water, and we were within seconds of each other for the whole river. We caught them up on the big drop, and whilst people were deciding lines, I decided that one way of seeing the line is to be shown it. Therefore I got in my boat and run a God damn brilliant line. Like, seriously, this line was blooming perfect. A sweet boof on the top, with the line nailed, gave me a huge autoboof which raised my bow high into the air. A majestic landing led to a humbled and dignified 'That's what you get' aimed at the world.

Unfortunately the photographer had a premature flick on the shuttle button for my run

Phil mid drop

Stu also got a sweet line, corkscrewing during the second half to show the ease with which he does things.

The rest of the run was fun, good rapids and solid boating from the five of us. We got to the bottom being elated at our decision to come, and impressed with the boating everyone managed (esp. Simon on a cracking first run on the river).

Hopefully the trend will continue and more boating is to come.

Till then...