DROPPING Intomexico BOLIVIAN Firstdescent PACKRAFTS
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Issue 3 Issue TheThe International digitalPaddler magazine for recreational paddlers .co.uk Mexico By Seth Ashworth France of the Rio Coypisa By David Truzzi Franconi BOLIVIAN Bolivia By Simon Chapman first DESCENT Australia By Chris Scott Central Europe By Sandy Robson Nepal By Beth Ettinger Sea Fishing By Simon Everett Recon review By Phil Carr Tracking the PACKRAFTSFitzroy River inAUSTRALIA How to plan a whitewater DROPPINGkayaking expedition into MEXICO Contents November 12 Editor Advertising Sales Front cover: Peter Tranter Anne Egan Seth Ashworth taking a dive by Mathias Fossum. [email protected] Tel: (01480) 465081 Huge thanks to: Tel: (01480) 465081 [email protected] Seth Ashworth, Mathias Fossum, Will Hartman, Mob: 07411 005824 Lukas Strobl, Robert Machacek, www.thepaddler.co.uk Dave Truzzi-Franconi, Simon Chapman, https://www.facebook.com/ Phil Carr, Chris Scott, Sandy Robson, ThePaddlercouk Patrick Kinsella of Paddlemag magazine, http://www.linkedin.com Simon Everett and Andy Grimes. /pub/peter-tranter/36/bb8/134 Not all contributors are professional writers and photographers, so don’t be put off writing because you have no experience! Thepaddler.co.uk magazine is all about paddler to paddler dialogue: a paddler’s magazine written by paddlers. Next issue is December 2012 with a deadline of submissions on November 30th. Technical Information: Contributions preferably as a Microsoft Word file with 1200-2000 words, emailed to [email protected]. Images should be hi-resolution and emailed with the Word file or if preferred, a Dropbox folder will be created for you. ThePaddler.co.uk magazine encourages contributions of any nature but reserves the right to edit to the space available. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publishing parent company, 2b Graphic Design. The publishing of an advertisement in ThePaddler.co.uk magazine does not necessarily mean that the parent company, 2b Graphic Design, endorse the company, item or service advertised. All material in ThePaddler.co.uk magazine is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction without prior permission from the editor is forbidden. Issue 3 Where we’ve been… 6 Mexico Mexico How to access the white waterfall’s paradise 06 that is Mexico. By Seth Ashworth 20 Other Mexico stories One from the archives. By David Ashplant 22 French Riveira Dave and his crew set off for a rendezvous with super yachts and casinos. France 22 By David Truzzi-Franconi 36 Bolivia Simon extols the virtuesofthe pak canoe as he manages to dodge insects and Peccaries on this frist descent of the Rio Coypisa. By Simon Chapman 60 Australia Tracking the remote Fitzroy River in Western Australia - in Packrafts. Bolivia 36 By Chris Scott 71 Other Australian stories Walking with sharks. By Chris Scott 72 Central Europe Tracking the paddle strokes of Oskar Speck’s 1932 expedition from Europe to Australia. Part one. Australia By Sandy Robson 60 80 Nepal Twelve young people from east London make a difference to the local people and find something about themselves. By Beth Ettinger 90 Other Nepal Stories Two from the archives. By Kevin Stainthorpe and Central Europe The Big Banana waterfall, Dave Burne 72 Mexico by Seth Ashworth 92 Sea fishing Getting started.. Simon Everett Regulars… 4 Foreword Access denied. By Peter Tranter Nepal 80 46 Coaching Incident management and safety. By Andy Grimes 48 First paddle Phil Carr puts the Wave Sport Recon through its paces in the first UK review. 54 Testing, testing 123 Top kit reviewed.. ThePaddler 3 ThePaddler 4 Peter Tranter Access denied Editor To the rest of the world, it may seem a little strange that recreational paddlers are denied access on the nation’s rivers throughout England and Wales. It reminds me of Muhammed Ali’s story about his return to the US after winning Olympic Gold in Tokyo 1964 – when he was denied a burger in a restaurant due to his skin colour. Here after a glorious Olympics when Team GB paddlers won two gold medals, a new and enthusiastic group of paddlers heading for the river are told to ‘get off’ by land owners. Amazingly, only two per cent of our rivers are free of restrictions! So paddlers in England and Wales have come together and formed a new campaign to tackle the issue in a more direct way. For all you paddlers out there in the rest of the World, please read on. That by the way includes our Scottish neighbours who do have a statutory public right of navigation! The website invites those that contest the public right of navigation to challenge A new campaign has been launched with the objective November saw the submission of a petition to the these assertions of gaining recognition that there is, and always has been, a House of Commons making similar claims and public right of navigation on all rivers in England and challenging DEFRA’s policy for most unregulated rivers, and in particular Wales subject only to the physical constraints of the river which is that canoe access requires the agreement of to say which and the size and nature of the craft using them. riparian owners. legislation or ‘River Access For All’ has been well received by paddlers “The Petitioners therefore request that the House of and wild swimmers who have welcomed the clarity of Commons urges the Department for Environment, exercise of the campaign’s key assertions which are: Food and Rural Affairs to adopt a policy for navigation on unregulated watercourses which is consistent with statutory 1. “Historically, there was a general public right of current legislation or explain by what authority the authority ended navigation on all rivers subject only to the physical Department holds a contrary policy.” the historic right constraints of the river and the size/nature of the craft using them.” A report on the campaign’s website, commenting on of navigation. 2. Mr Justice Lightman (in the case Josie Rowlands v the petition, says, “It will be interesting to see DEFRA’s No such Environment Agency, 2002) said “Public Right of response. Will they: Navigation may only be extinguished by legislation or • Identify the legislation or exercise of statutory challenge has exercise of statutory powers or by destruction of the authority which extinguished the historic public right been received. subject matter of PRN e.g. through silting up of the of navigation? watercourse.” • Concede that there is no such legislation or exercise 3. Other than specific Navigation Acts, there has been of statutory authority and therefore the public right no legislation or exercise of statutory powers which of navigation still exists? has extinguished the general public right of navigation. • Dodge the question with evasion and obfuscation? 4. Therefore there is a common law public right of • Introduce new legislation like the Land Reform navigation on all rivers where the situation has not (Scotland) Act, 2003 to confirm that there is a public been changed by specific Navigation Act(s). right of navigation which can be responsibly exercised The website invites those that contest the public right of subject to an outdoor access code as in Scotland?” navigation to challenge these assertions and in particular More information on ‘River Access For All’ to be found to say which legislation or exercise of statutory authority at: ended the historic right of navigation. No such challenge has been received. www.riveraccessforall.co.uk ThePaddler 6 Left: Will Hartman dropping in on Twisted Pleasure, Lower Jalacingo Lower Pleasure, Twisted on in dropping Hartman Will Left: You may have seen Mexico depicted in the Rush Sturges film ‘Frontier’ and ‘Source’ as a warm, waterfall paradise. Perhaps you have read about it in magazines and on the internet as well. You may even have looked into organizing a trip of your own but have been a bit stumped by the lack of data available. Well this article is here to help you get your act together and have one of the best and steepest kayaking holidays you can imagine Howto plan a whitewater L fH Will d ii T iPl d L J l i kayaking holiday to the… Right: Seth AshworthSeth Right: paddle huck and tuck TruchasJalacingoon cascada waterfallof paradise By Seth Ashworth Photos by SethMexico Ashworth, Mathias Fossum, f Will Hartman, Lukas Strobl . and Robert Machacek ThePaddler 7 ThePaddler 8 main Thereareas for kayakingare in Mexico,two Veracruz state and Chiapas. While both are beautiful and contain some stunning whitewater, they are not usually paddleable at the same time of year, so realistically you can’t do it all in one trip. The characteristics of each area is different, Chiapas has unique travertine rock which is very grippy, whilst Veracruz has a smoother more slippery rock type. Veracruz has the biggest variety of different runs, concentrated together in a small area, whereas whitewater kayaking in Chiapas is more spread out, usually requiring days of traveling between rivers. The following will help you plan a trip to Veracruz, which is ideal for shorter holidays as you can really make the most of your time. Who should you go with? If you are not too keen on the idea of traveling solo around Mexico then you are going to need to find yourself a killer crew to travel and paddle with. Because of the steep and often committing nature of Mexican Whitewater you and your friends should ideally be comfortable on Grade 4/4+ with a view to paddling on more difficult whitewater or making some tricky portages. Try to keep your group to three or four, or multiples of this, as it will make it easier in terms of vehicles. When should you go? Whitewater in Veracruz is totally dependent on the amount of rain that falls during the rainy season.