While the docs don’t know exactly how I did it, and it might have nothing to do with kayaking, I somehow managed to tear the membrane (the ‘dura’) that holds in the cranial-spinal fluid (CSF). This fluid is what keeps the brain cushioned and if it leaks, it’s bad news. The leak has resulted in debilitating daily headaches (described by some as migraine on steroids – seriously, they’re insanely painful), constant blurred vision, ear pressure, tinnitus, pressure in my head like it was imploding and a whole host of other symptoms.

I wouldn’t wish this on anybody, so please do take care when you’re paddling, lifting, stretching or doing anything involving valsalva maneuvers. It can be cause by sudden twists under pressure (like whiplash movements in a stopper) or straining when lifting (watch out manual handling). It’s even been done swinging a golf club or straining on the toilet! It’s rare, yes, but not as uncommon as you might think. Mainly women get it following epidurals, but because the source of the leak is known, it’s normally easy enough to fix for most folk.

As I’ve found, it’s complex condition, there is very little known about it and very few specialists in Scotland (or the UK); it will take a long time to recover from fully. The main characteristic that differentiates it from so many other ‘headache’ conditions is that the symptoms disappear, or improve significantly, when you lie down, but increase significantly when you sit or stand.

CSF Leaks are not understood by many neurologists, let alone normal doctors, so if any of fellow paddlers ever gets severe headaches that disappear when you lie down, then reoccur when you stand again, go to A&E and insist that they check you for a CSF Leak and Intracranial Hypotension. It can be easier to find the leak the earlier they look. Sadly for me, it took almost three months for them to cotton on to what was going on and the leak had become undetectable (it’s probably begun to heal, but taking a LONG time).

I will not be the only paddler to have been hit with this life-changing condition and I won’t be the last, so here’s a wee bit of blurb about it all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_cerebrospinal_fluid_leak

And here’s a forum where anyone that’s unlucky enough to get this can find help and support: http://www.csfleak.org

Anyhow, I hope to be back kayaking one day, but I cannot say when. So, for now, please enjoy reading about my paddling exploits of old, and hopefully one day I’ll be able to update this blog once more…happy paddling…

Where’s the Water said the river was on high, but the SEPA guage is in the lower reaches and after a couple of confluences, so high on the guage actually meant a medium.

But, that din’t put a dampner on it and given I’d not been out for a proper paddle in almost 2 months, it proved a good way to get back in the saddle and burn off a few Christmas pounds!

After getting onto the river in a bleak, open and wind/rain-swept head of Glen Carron (about 1km south-west of Loch Sgamhain), we headed off. The river starts relatively narrow and shallow, but picks up speed and volume as the side of the glen close in.

The first feature comes immediately after a small footbridge that spans the flows about 1km north-east of Glencarron Lodge (the bridge is marked on the OS map). The sides of the river rise a little and the river becomes narrower. The fall was easy enough at medium levels – with a wee boof and good forward lean – but I recon it could get quite sticky in higher levels.

The river then opens up again and after about 1km or so you come across a large boulder in the middle of the flow. Easiest route at medium levels is to peel right, but check for logs and branches. We got out to inspect.

The first gorge follows not long after, with closed in sides and lots of small/medium stoppers and wee ledges. Easy enough (probably Grade 3) in medium flows, but I reckon i could get a bit fruity with more water! A nice section of river.

After a couple of 1km, the gorge opens up for a few hundred meters. The second gorge then follows, beginning with a right-angle right-hand bend. The most serious feature of the river is about 50m after this, so it’s wise to get out just before hte second gorge starts to check for trapped trees.

As this feature is a slot, with a right-angle lead in, strainers could be a real hazard. We intended to eddy out just above the drop, but a large tree has fallen into the eddie which makes this all-but impossible…Torq and Arran ended up running it backwards and I somehow managed to spin round just in time – lesson learned!

The rest of the second gorge is much the same as the first, although about half way down a wee trib enters from river right via what seems to be a paddleable 2-3m high fall, if someone gets up there to chainsaw out a trunk. Would be good for some funky headcam action!

Then the gorge then ends, after another kilometer the Allt a’ Chonais enters from the south (river left), then after another couple of km’s the get out is river right directly south of the level crossing near Jerry’s Hostel ()best place to park is Forestry Commission Scotland’s Achnashellach car park).

Anyhow, all-in-all it was a good trip. The main thing, however, to remember on the Wester Ross Carron is that it can get chocked with trees, so always check out the tree main features before running them…and watch out for overhanging rhododendron!

Only one photo, sadly, and it’s of me at the fist feature:

I did the training on Saturday and the assessment on Sunday; both on an extremely cold and icy Middle Findhorn.

While the nerves were shaking, each of my sessions went well and I headed home wondering what to do next…BCU 5 Star Leader me thinks!

Well done too to Iain from Inverness Canoe Club who was also one of the successful candidates and braved the wintry conditions with me.

Years of waiting, levels never right, lack of paddle buddies, but today six of us travelled down from Inverness in the glorious Autumn sun to a strangely warm and midge-free Glen Etive.

It was a cracking day and fun was had by all. Some great lines and some, well, lines to forget; I’m thinking Foo rolling at Triple Falls, Stig on (in) Crack of Doom and me on (in) Right Angle. Oh, and Foo breaking a rib on Right Angle…ouch!

Here’s a wee video of our exploits:

Anyhow, the kayaking has continued and I’ve had a few excellent trips to the River Garry over the summer. The dam releases were a bit higher than last year, which made for plenty of fun in the playholes!

Midges have been pretty awful, but my surfing has been coming on leaps and bounds…so it’s been worth the pain!

Another trip to the Garry coming up this week; got to make the best of the daylight while it’s still with us…

While my own design was not selected (boo hoo), the SCA did include my suggested Gaelic version of the event title in the excellent design they chose; really good to see the SCA embracing the language. Last year it was their new bilingual logo, now Wet West!

Fèis Fhliuch Shiar nam Pleadhag; glè math ma-thà!

Also, it seems to be in the runing for a short film award, so if you like it, why not vote for it?! More info here: http://kayaksession.com/best-short-film-awards-2012.php

On a personal note, I’m off to the Garry tomorrow after work for some playtime action…the sun is here, temps are hitting 23 degrees across much of Scotland, so it must be time for dusting down the playboat! Good times…

Glorious sunny weather saw 50 competitors and loads of onlookers take to the River Moriston on Sunday 6th May for the UK’s most hardcore white water paddling event.

This year I decided not to compete - basically I had no chance against some of the best boaters in the country – however I did volunteer to do safety. So, the weekend started for me and the squad of 12 rescuers on the River Spean on Saturday for some white water safety training with Dave Rossetter of www.stirlingcanoes.co.uk.

Little water meant a day stuck swiming up and down Fairy Steps, but despite my fears, the sun did make it into the gorge, so spirits remained high as we ran through a variety of rescue scenarios and tried a few different mechnical advantage set-ups; thankfully none were required on the day, however!

After an unsociable early rise on the Sunday, we arrived in Glen Moriston just as the dam began to release. This had been one of Jim Flemming’s stresses; no water, no race! After the Falkrik stragglers arrive and our team briefing was over, my team bush-whacked along the southern bank to set-up safety beside ‘stick hole’, the boof ledge midway down that has a habit of catching out the unwary paddler…few escape a wrong line on this one!

Before the race kicked-off at 11am, a few folk decided to take their boats for a test run. Sadly, this resulted in the first incident of the day; a dislocated shoulder. But, thankfully, most folk escaped unscathed, ready for the first run.

The race ran really pretty smoothly and their was some great boating action to keep us onlookers entertained for the next few hours. A couple of swims on the top section, but all-in-all, success was on the water in bucket loads.

Inverness Canoe Club was represented by Matt Speke and Torq Fraser. Both had a good first run, while Torq took a wee swim at the top drop on his second run down. Still, they both achived very respectible times, with Matt narrowly missing the cut for the final session.

By the time the top twenty were announced and they’d hit the river, it was clear that fatigue was setting in for some. Aching arms were evident and lines were becoming less precise in some cases. This led to the only real action of the day for me, with one guy plumeting right into the guts of sticky hole, getting an unavoidable working and then catching my line as he swung into the bank. His boat then ran pinball on its own, getting stuck in a number of holes on the way down and getting a dunt in the bow for the effort.

Anyhow, not all runs ended this way, and some of the UK’s top slalom paddlers used their training to maintain their pace and ran in some pretty top-drawer times. In the end, Pete Scutt won the race with a very respectable 3:17:54, second came Matty Nicholas with 3:17:76, and third was Ed Smith (of Canoe and Kayak Magazine fame) with 3:18:48. The top girl was Sandra Hyslop with 3:25:39 and a big thumbs up to Thomas Findlay, fastest of the two Under 16 entrants, with 3:39:29.

A full list of result can be found on the MRR website: www.planetpaddler.com/MRR.html. Or you can check out the Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/169242013135914

Like most who attended the 2012 event, I can’t wait until next year. The Etive River Race, which this one repleaces, was a great event over the past few years, but in my humble opinion, the new venue has been a great move. A compact, testing and, this year at least, midge-free course; great for onlookers and guranteed levels. What more could you ask for?!

A couple of other bloggers have covered the race. You can check them out via the following links:

• Palm Equipment Team: http://www.palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/ww/moriston-river-race
• Team Pyranha: http://www.teampyranha.com/?p=12636

Given the lack of rescuing work required, I managed to snap a few pics of the boats as they passed. Enjoy…

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Now, this is not a guide to a hardcore mountain bike trail, however it’s a sound 20km ride with some off-road forestry tracks, some bushwhacking (if you want), some quiet public roads, some nice single track and some jumps, bridges and switch-backs.

The single track is good craic and suitable for most, while the jumps and switch-backs can be pretty technical and tough; particularly in the wet as there are roots galore and a few deep, water-filled ruts to send you over your handlebars. The bushwhacking section (blue line on the map) is basically 1km of boggy forest and the supposed ‘path’ and ‘track’ shown on the OS is nowhere to be seen…beware!

Oh, and those eagle-eyed bikers out there may well spot other informal biking trails while following this route, for example, there’s a faily hardcore downhill route 1 or 2 km past the sawmill. There are some hidden gems, but they’re not formal and some have been there for some time (i.e. rot), so take care; follow this route at your own risk!

Levels were good; not too scrapy, but not to pushy. A whole lot better than our last visit there in 2011 when the river rose by a few feet within half an hour! And it was sunny to boot with no wind, which is very rare for the Carron when it’s a half decent level for paddling…

Anyhow, only a couple of swims in the first gorge, then after a bit of a slog, we reached Granny’s Hole. Most of us ran the river right route after the bridge, while the others provided safety. Just as well it was well protected, as there were quite a few swimmers and, after doing most of the rapid on its own, a holed Fluid Solo belonging to Foo…cracked from the bow to the cockpit…ouch!!

After the flotsam and jetsam was collected, we pushed on down to the Horseshoe Rapid (not sure if it has a proper name or not). Now, save in high water, this is never the nicest of rapids, but today it was horrible. Not a nice line in sight, but plenty for options for a stiff beating. So, most of us decided to scrape down the river right route; including Matt ‘Super’ Speke, who’s never one to skip a feature unless there’s no option!

Then, after some more flat stuff and minor waves, we reached the gorge at the get-out by the footbridge. Matt, Robert and Me went down the first section to show the rest of the group the lines, and then provided cover. No major incidents at first, then two, sorry, three swims in quick succession; these things are sent to try us!

Anyhow, with all boats emptied and folk ready for the final leg, we pushed down to the last section in the gorge; two stoppers, one narrow and grabby with an overhang and the second steeper with a big tow-back in the right (wrong?!) levels. We spent time checking out the lines and discussing options and scenarios with the group, then cracked on.

Matt, as ever, made it look easy. Robert over-cooked it and forced a roll. I paddled it quite well – even though I say so myself! In fact, everyone gave it a good shot, and we only one swim, which, to be fair, almost resulted in a sideways pin (nasty in that hole), but thankfully all worked out at the 11th hour and Martin manage to wash straight through into the waiting arms of a Palm throwbag.

So, and grand day on the river and great to see so many paddlers out and about, enjoying the fine paddling conditions; roll on the summer!