A brief history of grime...

So a quick catch up... Colin and I met each other avoiding university lectures in Edinburgh. Instead we would chase the worst weather Scotland had to offer and throw ourselves down the resultant swollen rivers. I don't have digital images of our first few runs together, and this is probably for the best.

An early memory of one of the first times I paddled with Colin was piling into a little, red Ford Fiesta and driving to the North Esk. It was the 2nd of January 2002, and it was bloody cold. In fact, paddling the river wasn't really an option, we walked on top of most of it. There was about 4 inches of ice over it. The rapids were runnable, just about. We got about halfway down before our friend broke their nose and we decided this was a stupid idea. On our way back to Edinburgh the boats that we'd attempted to tie down with frozen ropes flew off on the Forth Road Bridge. I pretended to be asleep.

Sometimes we got things a little better....


This Scottish formed friendship lead us to take trips to the Alps in the Summer. We decided that warm weather kayaking really did make things a lot nicer. We enjoyed our first trip to the French Alps so much, the following year (our 2nd of real whitewater), we spent a month touring the rest of the Alps. France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland all got a look in and it was great. We pushed ourselves hard and managed to stay in one piece.

At the end of our 3rd year of paddling, we decided that we should head to British Columbia, Canada. This was a big trip and lots of hard work raising the money was necessary to raise the cash for 6 weeks in the land of bears. It was also a big step up. Meeting a load of folk that clearly decided we were somewhat mentally unstable, we got sent on some mad missions.

The Whathsan River gave us some 'interesting' falls. I provided some 'interesting' lines (see left). The rest of the river was of similar water - flat sections interspersed with downright frightening drops.

Another river that was recommended to us was Blanket Creek and, in particular, Sutherland Falls. This turned out to be a 60 footer. Colin provided the entertaining line on these (see below).



















We also paddled a lot of other rivers (and I promise we did so with a lot more skill than demonstrated here), I merely use these images for your entertainment. I also would like to point out that these imaged are courtesy of Dr Matthew Wilkes, who was along for the ride. He wasn't a doctor then, by the way, so this isn't why he came if that's what you were thinking.

All in all BC was a top destination.. so Col and I plan to return. Oh and it's beautiful too.