There have been a few club-organized visits to the Holme Pierrepont (HPP) Whitewater Center, usually hosted by Dale Clarke with an assisting leader. I have made two of these trips so far and both have been exceptional. My first trip to ‘the pont’ was organized by Mike Ward with Dale Clarke leading. Fraser Watson and I knocked off early from work and shot up to Nottingham to meet up with Abigail Gurr for our virgin paddle at HPP. Between seeing the size of some of the waves and holes and all of the banter about the legendary Trent-tummy (not improved by the sign informing you that water-quality is deteriorating), it would be fair to say that all of us were pretty nervous.
Dale and Mike took us down to start out on the ‘back channels’ just to get a feel for the water. It was a good start, but nothing too challenging. While easily slipping into each eddy, I couldn’t help looking over the barrier at the roaring white torrent on the other side. Enough already! Get us on that thing. Once we were all acclimatized, Dale led us down the bottom half of the course and finally took us to the very bottom wave where we got to play in the flow a bit and build up some more courage. And then it was time to do the full course.
HPP is an interesting place. Many of those big waves can largely be avoided or you can just punch straight through them without having to play. There are plenty large eddies that make it easy for beginners to find some refuge and take a break. A word of warning for beginners, though: a lot of the eddies recirculate strongly and there is a lot of boil on the eddy lines, making it imperative that you really do paddle through aggressively and learn to relax about being pushed around a bit. With excellent guidance from Dale and Mike, our first descent was pretty easy. On our second descent, we got tighter on making some of the trickier eddies and Dale pushed us a bit more to get out onto some of the easier waves.
Half way down, I took a poor line and landed in ‘the muncher’, a large and rather grabby hole just outside the entrance to the back-channels. I lasted for a millisecond and was over. I held on waiting for the noise to subside before attempting to roll. What I was unaware of was that I was literally surfing the wave upside down and wasn’t coming out of that hole for a while. Eventually I attempted a roll and failed, but it was enough to free me from the clutches of the beast… and launch me into the next wave, where I failed to roll again… and then another stopper. Slowly running out of breath and energy, I accepted the inevitable and pulled my spraydeck to do my first swim at HPP.
I had a load of fun that trip and swore that I would return to play some more. Thanks Mike for setting this all up and getting club members to meet up here.
Fast forward two weeks. Fraser and Nick Topley decided to take the afternoon off and drive up to HPP to meet Dale Clarke and Jonny Bennett. Chatting on Facebook, I was filled with frustration. My back had been giving me trouble and there was no way to get off work that early. I had to watch as some of my best paddling buddies went off without me. At lunch time I made an Ibuprofen sandwich and decided that I would try to get off work earlier. I knew I wouldn’t catch my buddies, but I was definitely going to make sure that I caught up with some paddling. I messaged them on Facebook… I was going to beat ‘the muncher’ and show it that I was boss.
I got to HPP at around 18h00, just in time to catch Fraser packing up. We chatted for a bit and then I noticed that Rob Newitt was getting kitted up for his first paddle at HPP. Dale arrived to greet us and we signed on. Dale wasn’t messing around with the back channels tonight, so Rob was in for a baptism of fire. Dale took us straight in and we made the easy eddies all the way down, without stopping to do any surfing. At the bottom wave we had a bit of a play. I was stiff and rigid, worrying about my back. This is *never* a good thing when you are paddling. Super-loose hips and a relaxed posture allows you to micro-adjust to the movement of the water and protects you from over-reacting and losing your center-of-gravity. Even with this knowledge I could not relax… and within a few minutes, I was over. I tried rolling but was in a poor position for setup and didn’t give myself time to correct. I pulled my spraydeck and went for my second swim at HPP.
Two things happened. Firstly, I was furious that I had swum on what was one of the smallest features on the course. And secondly, I realized that my back felt no different and that there was nothing to worry about any more. The result was that I relaxed and felt more inspired to attack the course fully.
We returned to the top and started a second descent. This time, the focus was on making some of the tighter eddies and on trying to surf some of the waves. My confidence built. For a while, Jonny and I were separated from Dale and Rob and Jonny challenged me to start tackling some bigger waves, like the one under the bridge. I struggled to get onto some of them (largely due to a lack of commitment), but after several tries and lots of psyching myself into them I managed a few awesome, though brief surfs. And several rolls to recover 🙂
Halfway down, we came up to ‘the muncher’. Jonny wasn’t having any of my wussiness and gave me a dose of ‘man-up’. He explained what I needed to do to get into it and then surf to the eddy on the other side and then gave me a quick demo. I followed suite. I entered the wave a bit early but kept my edge up and felt myself moving across it. I was exhilirated. I sort of ‘wooted’ and turned to look at Jonny… and then gave the wrong edge. I went over in a second, but quickly rolled out. That beast was not going to have me. I was going to kill it.
We did another descent and this time I spent a while at the bridge wave regularly alternating between missing the wave by not commiting and catching the wave for quick surfs. I want to get to a point where I don’t wobble around so much and where I relax more, but that will be for another trip. A final visit to ‘the muncher’ had me surf across it and come out on the other side. unscathed. I missed the eddy, because I was too busy whooping and hollering. The last grabby stopper toward the bottom of the course was my final challenge. I went into it side on to attempt the surf and I gave it edge. Maybe too much edge… my paddle was high and I high braced into the foam pile poorly, wrenching my shoulder. Keep your paddle down, kids! All good though, I pulled myself free and paddled to the bottom of the course.
Awesome awesome night. I feel like I am growing as a paddler and taking on challenges that I used to think were well beyond me. Dale Clarke is an exceptional leader. He’s patient and a good guide. Jonny is a great mate and a superb paddler and he’s a great person to push your boundaries and watch your back while you take things on. Thanks guys.
HPP is a good step up from Nene Whitewater Center for anyone trying to improve whitewater paddling technique. I hope to visit a lot more often in the coming months… and I look forward to seeing other club members on the white stuff.
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Ro Puttergill