DCUCanoe.ie

Minus the 2 emotional breakdowns, 5 swims, the loosing and finding of a set of paddles, and an injury to our noble leader "tripod", I don't really think our trip today could of gone any better!!!

Starting at lucan at a respectable 12:00ish we headed straight for the 1st weir. All the freshers and rescue, and our noble narrator went through it without a hitch. However the great "tripod" decided to impress the ladys with something other than his manhood by taking on the fishboxes!!!! Unfortunetly the fish boxes came out on top and the great one has fucked his shoulder to no end!!!!

Paddling on, our expedition hit its second obstacle, and our trips first, but not last, emotional breakdown!!!! Poor Niamh couldnt understand why on her first river trip and third time in a boat she wasnt an expert paddler!!!! however this problem was quickly overcame as we found our third obstacle standing in our, namely the second weir.

This weir was more hungry for paddlers and took Niamh down to its murky depts!!! Not happy with just the paddler the weir also decided it would take a set of blades with it!!! While Andy searched for the lost blades we took the time to do some flat and moving water training.

Moving on, minus one set of blades and the great "tripod" bieng towed by Andy, we had another tradgedy!! Moving water, and our unsuspecting paddler, Lucinda, took a turn over taking Andy Bounce down with her I might add. However we did gain a profit from this, while sitting in an eddie, your noble narrator(yours truely) spotted our lost paddles in a bush on the other side of the river!!! So with everybody back in thier vessels, and the great "Tripod" now paddling again, we wandered down stream to our next challenge........ The dreaded WRENS NEST(DUM DUM DUUUM)!!

Wrens caused no problems for three of our begginers as they saw off the challenge with no problems, however unfortunetly Niamh took another dip, and, in an act of pure nobility your narrator decided to show the freshers "how not to perform a T-Rescue", and sacrificing himself to the swim Gods in the process!!

Moving on and due to the harsh weather conditions and her coldness in general, Lucinda offered us our second emotional breakdown. However after our expieriences with Niamh we were prepared and dealt with it accordingly!!!

We finished at the club house with some T-rescue practice to ensure everybody was frozen!!! After we hit the shower and put this great expedition to bed!!!

The sucess of this has inspired a "WILD WATER MANIA 2", on the boyne next sunday. Any takers post here or mail me at ciaran"dot"oreilly45"at"gmail.com