Now just to get it out the way yes I have had a pint of Guinness before and I am not the biggest beer drinker so I am not overly fond of it but this was the first full pint I had ever drunk in Ireland.
Now that's out the way onto the Liffey.
The Liffey Descent is an annual canoe and kayak race which this year celebrated its 50th year. The race itself includes 11 or so “obstacles” including various different drops over weirs, rapids and a jungle area complete with rogue logs that like to jump out and surprise unsuspecting paddlers.
Now I was very nervous at the start of the race, even though we where not racing I do not have a huge amount of white water experience and was relying a lot on my team mate to get me down “dry”. Which after all I had head from the members of Staffordshire Canoe Club I was with was something that we should have been able to accomplish.
The race is divided into two with a portage (moving the boats out of the water) in the middle. The first half of the race features a few weirs and finished with “The Lake” which is a huge slog across open water which removes the last traces of energy you have, but after some lucozade, chocolate and a cereal bar I was ready for the second half.
The second half features what I believe to be the harder, or more terrifying, weirs. You start by getting into a boat and immediately trying to get through a set of rapids under a bridge, if you get this slightly wrong not only could you be swimming but you may end up with a boat wrapped round a bridge which isn't very useful to anyone. Once through you move down river dropping down each of the four remaining weirs. The most worrying weir we faced, which according to my team mate was the one on which we where most likely to swim was Parmeston. Once you drop you break through the first standing wave. once trough you can put in about 2 paddles before being thwacked head on by the second, at this point your sinuses are clear and the front man (in this case me) is completely hidden under the wave from the person in the back so if you are not read you are washed straight out of the boat and out of the bottom of the weir. Lucky we survived the waves sinuses clear and continued down the river.
In our Class we came in 55th place with a time of 3:43:26 but more importantly we got down dry! Which for my first Liffey was a brilliant achievement and my heart felt thanks goes out to all those members of Staffordshire Canoe Club that helped me in this endeavour.
There are a couple of photos of me in the boat which can be found here
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