Gwilym's Adventure Blog

A gentle intro for the new Silverbirch Broadlands 15 supplied by AS Watersports today, a bit of a shakedown to check out how she handles on the River Exe from Bolham to Tiverton. There are a few scratches on the bottom now. So far I have not fitted a kneeling thwart and I am experimenting different kit locations to get some good trim, I may or may not fit one in the future. First opinions are impressive and she is faster (much quicker than my old Mad River 14TT) and handles well. Need to get her out on some bigger water soon to see how dry the ride is in big wave trains. (hopefully this weekend) Thanks to Leon for taking some nice pictures of me in the boat

Today I was at SUP Bristol working with my 2nd Year Outdoor Ed students from Bridgwater College. The aim was to learn some SUP skills and play a few games. Thanks to Kate the instructor who ran a great session for us. As today was the last day for them it all got a bit wet towards the end.  16 x Level 3 Outdoor Education students have now been released into the real world.

I have just got the bike out for the summer and as I have now covered 2500 miles since I picked the bike up in early July (2015) thought I would give my opinion. I had already decided I wanted to get a Triumph Tiger 800 but was unsure as to which of the variations I wanted. This bike was for sale by Riders of Bridgwater with only 626 miles on the clock. The bike was at a good price and ticked all the boxes so that is how I ended up choosing the Tiger 800 XRx Pushing it about: It is very light and easy to push around and probably the easiest bike I have ever had to put on a centre stand. I just step on the stand and up it goes. No lift required.  (unless it has luggage on then it is a different story) Comfort: I have ridden up to 3 hours at a time and stepped off the bike with no aches, pains or num bum. Definitely a reasonably comfortable seat compared with others but after 9 hours it did start to feel like it could have more padding. I experimented using cruise contr...

Out on The Mendip Hills with L2 students from Bridgwater College today looking at navigation skills. We were very lucky and saw an Adder basking in the sun (although most of the other students and the other staff member would disagree with me I think it was a nice thing to see) as well as the usual ponies wandering about.

This weekend I have been out with Haygrove School assisting with a Bronze DofE practice on Exmoor. Great weather for walking but a bit chilly when hanging about waiting for groups. All 10 groups were in on time (probably the first time ever that has happened) and even the packing up and hanging tents went smoothly.

Today I was at Cannington Activity Centre with my L3 Outdoor Students who were running Low Ropes for a group of French Students. All went well with only a few things lost in translation and I had nothing to do but observe them making a very good job of running the sessions.

Today I had to go to Plymouth to pick up a couple of kayaks so met up with Olly on the way for a few routes at The Dewerstone. We decided to go for an enchainment of routes and kept our bags on. We climbed Pinnacle Buttress on the main crag, a 100m or so walk and onto Needle Arete on Needle Buttress and then 50m walk to Raven Face on Upper Raven Buttress. A total of 6 pitches graded at VD (Very Difficult) and all sandwiched in between 2 sets of coffee and cake at Olly's house

This weekend I have been working for True Adventure in The South Downs meeting my team that I will be taking to Tanzania this summer.

A great day afloat being a guinea pig for yet another 4 Star assessment, I might get round to taking it myself soon. Sun and light (bit too light really) winds mixed with spring tides gave a relaxed day out on the estuary between Stoke Gabriel and Dittisham. Whilst the candidates were being assessed in rescues and getting wet, I managed to pop my sail up to play around. This may have been the last time out for this canoe as a new one is coming soon.

Today I was out on The Lower Dart working for Wet and High Adventures coaching White Water Kayak skills. Kate, Hannah and Jo were the clients with Robin observing me work. It was a little low but we still managed to look at loads of skills and find rapids to coach on. Well done to Jo who passed her 3 Star assessment today and thanks to Robin for taking a swim or two for the rescue drills.

  Today I had a quick blast down to see my friends at AS Watersports to try out the new Silverbirch Canoes Broadlands 15 Duralite. I was impressed with both the quality and handling of the canoe and even though it is marginally longer than my current boat is is both lighter and easier to turn. 30 mins was all I needed to make a decision and then it was a 15 min dilemma on what colour combination to order. I also upgraded to the Ash Gunwales which shave another few kg of the weight bring it down to under 30kg. Apparently the boat is going into production on Sunday for me so should be here within the month. Check back here to see the colour scheme I went for ...... Special thanks to my Dad and the photograph of his finger

Today I was down at Haven Banks in Exeter attending a FSRT (Foundation Safety and Rescue) Provider course so I can run these courses in the future. Open Canoes, White Water Kayaks, SUPS, Sea Kayaks and some old school General Purpose boats all came out to play The course was run by Lee Pooley and contained some very good ideas and it was refreshing to see a course run in a very practical and well though out way way but still covering the syllabus required.