Yesterday’s Dee paddle 7th of May by Chris Marsden

Following on from yesterday’s paddle on the Dee.

It ended up with one person joining me yesterday. I’ve paddled with David Keeble a few times on the river now, so I was happy to run from Horseshoe Falls directly to TNR as I knew he was more than capable.

The weather was fantastic, it was great to see the greenery of the trees and birds on the river that had been missing during the winter months.

We put on the river using the slide as the level was a bit bony to come down from the Falls.

We met some friends above Chainbridge falls and had a good chat.

Below Chainbridge we had a good chance to practice ferry, J and S-turns.

We ran Serpents Tail straight through, David followed a few boat lengths behind, and he looked great coming down, really positive with his paddle strokes.

Afterward Dave told me he didn’t feel nervous at all, which is great as I’m always still nervous.  We had a good practice above the railway bridge and then dropped down to the centre.  We had a great session surfing on the bottom wave where we met some more friends. It was great to see David surfing as he looked nervous before.

It was great to see how David has progressed on the river and how his confidence is growing.  He’s going to be an awesome paddler.

Overall, a great day on the river and looking forward to getting out again.

Chris