River Blackwater, Benburb, 5th April 2008

Pete Dew, Davey Killen, Kevin Murray & Roy Doherty.

We met at the Moira Roundabout at 10:45 to leave a car which wasn’t needed and made it into the water at 11:45. We paddled until around 3pm and got out at a wooden jetty with steps and handrail up to the car park.

The start is at a Benburb Heritage Centre just on the edge of the village. There is a sandy beach near a wooden jetty and the lads use the amount of exposed sand here to gauge water levels. The exposed sand reached as far forward as the line of the jetty. I think overall they said it was slightly lower than normal but definitely good enough water.

The weir just above the get-in is a man made “smiling weir”. I think this is one of the worst types of weir. Pete pointed out the draw back along the edges but then showed me where the rising bubbles and upward flow at the tongue (centre) gave an indication as to the length of the drawback at the middle. The length of drawback at the centre was twice as long as the drawback at the sides. The problem is a swimmer might be brought to the centre where the drawback is more severe (long) and their rescue made more difficult. A paddler may be temped to run the centre tongue as normal but as the drawback is worse here, a better option would be to run it at the sides. We did not play in this weir and paddled down.

I can’t really remember the order of the weirs but if you were just running it without playing, it would take about 30 mins.

The first weir was a man made massive weir. I was reluctant to have a close look at it because I was recently sucked over a weir whilst inspecting it. I generally went third out of the four of us. The advice was to get the paddle in as soon as possible after the stopper and paddle away.

On this weir there was quite a flow from the right hand side. Sometimes as I waited my “turn” to play, my attention was so much on the kayakers in the stopper, that I wasn’t paying attention to the flow which was from my left so I got “rocked” a few times. It was quite a strong stopper and I was advised that, instead of a reaching up for a high sculling brace I should lower my paddle and scull with the paddle fairly level. Its crucial that you always show the kayak bottom to the weir so that it is not caught by the descending water. (This lesson was reinforced later).

There was a triple weir. There was room after the first and second drops to pause and pick a better line down the next drop. Of course I picked the rocky option and grounded my kayak probably more than once because I had not followed the best “line”. Its not always easy to see over the drop and, especially because I hadn’t had a good look at some of them, it became even more important to follow the line as closely as possible.

Davey Killen & Pete Dew practiced a rescue technique of drawing someone (who was still in their kayak) out of a stopper. Davey was accused of not sculling enough and very quickly went upside down and choked on some water on the way in. Davey ripped out and one of this booties made its way down to the next drop “rescued” by Roy. Pete followed Davey down and slagged him for coming out too early. They got it right the second time. Then it was my turn to be rescued from a stopper by Pete. I sculled until Pete reached me and then I made the mistake of thinking all I had to do was hold onto the rope at the front of his boat. Eh … no. The other rule is to continue to show the bottom of the kayak to the weir. Of course I forgot this and went straight in on the weir side whilst still holding onto the rope which was downstream. No amount of pulling up on the rope was getting me up because of the force of the water and the fact that the rope was now on the wrong side. I didn’t hear Pete’s shouts of “LET GO” because of the noise of the water. I let go, stayed in, and Pete T rescued me and towed me using his stern to retrieve my paddle. (Note to self:- “ALWAYS show my ass to the weir”).

P.S. There was the most beautiful bright yellow bird with a long bobbing tail. I’m sure someone in our club knows the name of it.

A great day was had by all and Pete, Roy and Davey got some great bow stall photos. Thanks again for putting up with me.

Kevin

Pete

Roy

Davy

by Kevin Murray