Ok, now this post doesn’t relate to Scottish white water, but it’s a great story so I thought I’d share it…

After many decades of holding back the waters, Condit Dam in the USA will be blow up in an effort to restore the river to its original state. Word on the street is that it’ll reveal some great white water; and for those with big’uns, no doubt some epic, albeit short-lived, water immediately after the TNT goes off!

It’s not often dams are taken down, so it’ll be interesting to see what state the river is in and what fun it holds for paddlers, as well as the salmon who’ll no doubt also be keen to get back up into the upper reaches!

Now, I’m broadly a supporter of renewable energy (although I know that it can sit a little uncomfortably with the sport at times) and I believe that as a society we do have to move away from our addiction to dirty or finite fuels.

So, while dams and weirs need to be accommodated alongside paddlers’ interests, with hits taken on unpopular stretches on what where possible, sometimes good paddling rivers are lost to the green revolution; thus it’s nice to see something being given back for a change.

Anyhow, soapbox removed…check here for some videos etc. on this exciting event:

http://vimeo.com/29983985

http://whitesalmontimelapse.wordpress.com

Quick scoot down the Lower Findhorn today, with Torq and Mike.

Fairly low levels, but with the leaves turning it was a lovely paddle and good use of a valuable Saturday afternoon!

Not much to write home about, other than me running Corkscrew river-right for the first time and Mike trying to follow suit, but ending up bouncing over the centre roostertail!

Good times…apart from Scotland losing to England in the rugby, which was bad times…

Well, after humming and hawing for a while, I’ve finally decided to add a Dagger Nomad to my fleet…should be arriving next week…can’t wait!

I paddled a Dagger CFS for a wee while and loved it. Then I moved onto a Wavesport Diesel 75, and whilst that’s a great boat, I nonetheless felt I really needed a bigger volume creeker for winter paddling, so I’ve gone back to the Dagger family and joined the Nomad posse!

Watch this space to see it in action…