Younguns Llangollen

Four o’clock starts and frostbitten mornings have made up the majority of my winter training as I travel the two and a half hour journey to the Thames Valley for coaching off Jacko. During this time, we have paddled many different features including Marsh and Boulters.

Burners selfie before Hurley session

Although I have spent considerable time upside or on my face in arctic rivers, I have found this is valuable as you can only improve by doing the things you can’t already do - essentially failing is all part of progression as long as you always get back up.

And this has shown in my first competition of the season...

The first freestyle competition of the season was hosted by Younguns at Mile End Mill, Llangollen, and with over 30 competitors it promises to be a strong season. Our expectations of a cold, rainy event were proved correct for the majority of the morning as all competitors, coaches and even some parents, descended on the three features that make up this section of the Dee. During the morning, I worked on adapting moves to the shallow features.

It was great fun to be at a new playspot and see so many youngsters being on the water.

As we all launched back onto the river after lunch, we were greeted with sunshine ready for the competition. Every competitor had two 45 second rides on the two lower features: I started off well with my first ride although my second was under average. I refocused to finish with better rides three and four (and even got a loop in my final run despite the low water levels!). 

Overall, I paddled well considering the shallow features and placed 2^nd in the girls - a great result for the first competition of 2014! With upcoming competitions, I hope to build on this success and continue paddling as much as possible!