Interview: Peter Tranter
‘Many Rivers to Run’ is available for £16.00 Email Dave @: mail@davemanby.com
An interview with the relentless… Dave Manby
Dave Manby is a name that needs little introduction to the vast majority of WW paddlers – a true pioneer of river exploration in the remotest of locations and all well before the modern tech of nowadays. Recently Dave has been inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame in the Advocate category for 2021, but Dave doesn’t feel that he deserves the place as one other certain late paddler of international fame isn’t included within any of the categories.
Dave doesn’t hold back and starts the interview by stating, “The IWHoF. Have a look at the list of honourees! Mike Jones isn’t there! So I shouldn’t be there. It took a while for the ‘mericans to realize that international requires people from outside of the USA to be international. Walt Blakadar (from Idaho, USA) paddled the Turnback Canyon (Alsek, Alaska, USA) and into fame when Mike Jones and Mick Hopkinson were halfway down the Blue Nile. Micks comments to me when he reluctantly accepted his nomination was “We were half way down a river on a different continent and he is awarded as an ‘explorer’ when he didn’t leave his own country! However I’ve been awarded this honour for advocacy not expeditions and I’m honoured to be selected for advocacy – think I’ve done a bit of that!”
Take it away Dave…
When did you first start paddling, who provided the motivation and who was it with?
First time in a kayak: aged four? In the front of my cousin Rob’s kayak, he had made. Vaal River, South Africa.
First started kayaking proper white water at Ellesmere College Shropshire. Our local rivers were the Dee and the Vyrnwy. We could also just walk down to the canal, take a boat out of the shed, and paddle around – hours of fun doing nothing much. My first white water was the Serpent’s Tail rapid on the River Dee, Llangollen.
What and where was your first kayaking adventure?
Hard one. What is an adventure?
Two of us aged 14, loaded up our kayaks with our gear in plastic bags and headed down the canal for 15-20 or so miles. We camped, cooked on our stoves and then paddled back. Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition with absolutely no supervision. We could have paddled two miles camped and paddled back, and no one would have known any the better.
Or
Frank Greenslade, the master in charge of canoeing at the school/fellow learner, volunteered to take us on a summer holiday expedition to the Austrian Alps. We paddled at the old Augsburg slalom course, and after watching the international slalom on a Monday, we had to move as they dug it up to build the Olympic course. But the adventure was rounding a bend in the road and seeing this stretch of white water and just getting on and paddling it. Frank was on the bank filming and caught the smile on my face when I made the eddy. Luckily Frank taught German at school, and after a conversation with a local, we didn’t paddle on blind down Lofer Gorge. We were 16/17 years old!
How did you get to be invited as the youngest member of the first descent of the Dudh Kosi?
Old school boys network!
John Liddell was a fellow Ellesmere College paddler. He had left Ellesmere and paddled with Mike Jones in Birmingham, and we would meet up at Dee weekends. They went out to the Alps in ’75, and I tagged along. Roll on a year, I called up John to see if they were going to the Alps again, and he said to call Mike, and my life changed.
When you prepared for an expedition in remote locations, what qualities did you look for in a fellow teammate kayaker?
I was on the Everest expedition not because I was one of the best paddlers in the UK but because I got on with Mike. I think my 1975 trip round the Alps had been a trial. In ’78, we went around the Alps, and a certain paddler joined us trying to get on the expedition to the Braldu. Mike soon sensed that he was there for the wrong reasons – the phone call never happened!
How do I select companions? I learned from the maestro, Mike ‘In vino veritas,’ if I get on with them after a few nights in a pub, then they may well be good for a trip! I have been on trips where it has gone wrong with people who came on the trip by reputation rather than friendship.
It’s a tough call, I know with all the expeditions you have undertaken throughout the world, but does one stand out?
First descent of the Bakhriaria River, Zagros Mountains, Iran.
Easiest question of the lot!
Tell us about how you managed the risks in such remote locations?
I have carried rapids that I am sure I could have paddled because of the location. If you are four days into a trip and you swim and lose your boat when your only way out is by boat, you assess rapids differently!
People ask me if I take a satellite phone on a trip. No, I don’t because who are you going to call? Where are you? Remember, I made my trips before GPS and the like. However, I also have a great deal of the ‘Suppose it didn’t’ philosophy in my attitude.
(“Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?” said Piglet
“Supposing it didn’t,” said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.)
I have been on Grand Canyon trips where we have had a satellite phone. Why? So John can ring his wife? And what if his wife says little Jimmy has broken his leg or young Suzie has chickenpox, or she’s running off with the milkman. OK, John now knows the situation, but the whole trip is ruined because he can’t get out till the end, and his misery will infect the rest of us. I had a trip in Turkey for a bunch of Americans years ago. Halfway down the Coruh, we got to the town of Yusufeli and being yanks; they had to phone home. One of them discovered his best mate or someone was dying, so he bailed, and so about four others left too. Going home wasn’t going to solve anything!
You must get huge satisfaction from all the paddlers you have helped over the years through the Mike Jones Rally and BCU Expeditions Committee – who are those you remember best and inspired the most?
Biggest satisfaction: Yusufeli Kayak Club. When I was running Coruh River Trips, I left some boats at my friend Birol’s campsite over winter one year. His son and mates’ borrowed’ them over the winter and went to the local lake and learned to paddle, and now they have club members competing at international slaloms; they have a purpose-built slalom course in their village with a pool and clubhouse. They gave me a plaque which I treasure.
Any one piece of advice would you give to a young paddler just starting in WW?
If they are going to go on expeditions, learn languages! OK, English will be the most typical language others will speak, but sometimes French or German etc. will get you out of a jam. I speak a little Turkish, and being able to have a basic conversation opens so many doors!
If you had your career in WW kayaking again, is there anything you would do differently or change?
Gone and paddled in Afghanistan if I could and explored the rivers of Iran more before they dammed them!
What, in your opinion, is the biggest threat to rivers?
Dams. I once composed a list of the top ten rivers that you can’t paddle now.
After travelling all over the planet – which has been the most memorable experience?
When at Project RAFT competition in Turkey, the Californian team handed over their gold medals for the rescue event to the disabled team I had organized to be there.
Which drives you the most – interacting with the various people you meet along the river or the paddle itself?
Now? Interaction with people. In my youth, the paddling.
What’s the one river you haven’t paddled that would be on your bucket list?
Do you mean other than the top ten dammed rivers? Futaleufu in Chile, but I ain’t flying there or the Marron River, Bolivia – similarly requires flying.
Is there any issue that stops you from sleeping at night?
At present, yes! How will this steelwork fit together, and what are we going to do about the sloping ground for the footings!
Name just one thing we can do as paddlers to improve our environment.
Cut down on flying to places quite so often.
Have you ever been scared, and if not – what would it take?
Yes – nearly drowning three times in a year scares you!
Are you still out there kayaking, and if so – where?
Not so much these days, but I was on the Dee a couple of weekends ago.
Any fellow paddler you would like to interview and why?
Erik Boomer. He is such a great modest guy. I would love to try and work out why he paddles up north all the time!
What do you do to relax?
Beer with mates.
If you could paddle with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?
I would love to make a trip with Erik Boomer and Mick Hopkinson in the group.
Which famous person would you most like to see play you in a film?
Michael Sheen – doesn’t he play everyone in bio pics?
Favourite athlete outside of paddling?
Marcus Rashford.
Favourite sport’s team?
Notts Forest.
Favourite film?
Bladerunner.
An ideal night out for you is?
Since this is fantasy land, it would start with a good meal and then either Miles Davis in his Kind of Blue era or the Jimi Hendrix concert in Harlem after the shooting of Martin Luther King. Apparently, he played the blues with such real emotion, but no one recorded it. Followed by a few beers in a dive bar with a band jamming.
What would I find in your refrigerator right now?
No idea. I just heard Milly come back from shopping!
If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?
It would involve rice cooked the Iranian way.
What one luxury item would you take with you on a desert island?
Surfboard.
What’s your biggest turn-off?
‘boris and trump’ (they do not even deserve capital letters).
Who are your kayaking mates?
Long time friends!.
Fill in the blanks: _________
I am getting old.
