WORDS:
Del Clare

PHOTOS:
Jack Grace,
Trevor Wilson,
Matt Brook,
Jamie Greenhalgh,
Tom Clare & Del

https://delkayaks.co.uk
@del_likes_kayaking

Del’s 2024 paddling reflections

I wrote a blog reflecting on my paddling one year, and it has now become an annual tradition for me to do so. I enjoy reviewing the year from a personal perspective as well as from the perspective of the wider paddling community. I try to include the lows and the highs, so here are my reflections on 2024!

Our kayaking wedding elopement!
Of course, I had to start my 2024 blog by reflecting on our kayaking wedding! On Saturday, April 6th, Tom and I got married by the river Etive in Scotland. In the middle of storm Kathleen and in the company of three of our closest friends, we became Mr and Mrs Clare. We then took the opportunity that the rain had provided to get a perfect lap on the river Coe. You can read more at https://delkayaks.co.uk /2024/04/28/our-wet-and-wild-kayaking-wedding-eloping-to-scotland/.

Since April, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on our wedding and speaking about it with many people. Kayaking and non-kayaking friends alike seemed amazed at our ‘adventurousness’, and there appeared to be a lot of awe that we had actually got married in this way. It was a crazy and wild day, but I think it was the perfect wedding day for us. Tom was adamant the only thing he’d wanted at our wedding was ‘no people’, and I had been adamant that the only thing I had wanted was it to be ‘on or in a river!’. Somehow, we found a day that not only met both of those wants but was perfect for us in every way. We did have a family lunch to celebrate a month later to keep our mums happy!

If you haven’t read my whole blog on our wedding, I want to share one perfect memory of the day with you….. The highlight of this lap came just before the gorge. I was at the front, and as I came round the corner on a shallow, flat section, I saw a gigantic stag standing in the middle of the river. He locked eyes with me and stood his ground. I motioned to the others behind me to eddy out, and we watched in awe. The stag was calm and stayed in the river for much longer than I would have expected before running away. I didn’t take a photo but watched and took in everything I could for what I knew would be a lifetime memory.

Eight months later, there isn’t a single thing I would have changed. It was our perfect kayaking wedding.

Losing Bren
It feels like I was writing my 2022 reflections only yesterday, and I included a section on the sad loss of Robert Eggleston. His death in Norway in August of that year greatly impacted the global kayaking community. Someone once told me that the hardest thing about kayaking was that the longer you paddled, the more people you would lose. Every loss on the river is felt acutely by the loved ones of that person and by the communities they belong to. It is not often that the global community feels that loss, but unfortunately, it does happen. In 2022, we lost Rob. In 2024, we lost Bren.

I wrote a blog about my reflections at the time: https://delkayaks.co.uk/2024/05/26/bren-orton-some-personal-reflections-on-his-loss/. In the weeks and months that followed, it was clear that the impact of Bren’s loss was bigger than anyone could have ever imagined. Following that article, countless people messaged me to share their own feelings of grief. There was a strong feeling in the community that people wanted to celebrate him in some way.

At the end of August, the community gathered on the river Dee in North Wales to celebrate Bren. The event was organised by Palm and Pyranha, who invited people to share some ‘class joy’ on a river where Bren spent a lot of time in his younger years. The Dee is a class 2 river with a couple of easy class 3 rapids on it, but it is a river that many of us UK paddlers are very familiar with. Bren was a champion of finding joy on any river class and the organisers wanted to share this with the community.

Both myself and Tom ended up volunteering to help organise the logistics on the day. A sunny bank holiday weekend in Llangollen is always busy, and it was all hands on deck to ensure the day ran as smoothly as possible. By 17:30, hundreds of paddlers from across the UK and the world and Bren’s close friends and family gathered at Horseshoe Falls on the Dee. Words were shared by Bren’s mum, David from Pyranha and Bren’s friend Adrian before paddlers had the opportunity to write a note and share something that Bren had taught them. Everyone then got onto the water to share some class joy from Horseshoe to Mile End Mill. It was incredible to be a part of this event and honour a very special person. Bren’s impact will be felt for years to come, and it was a testament to the person he was that so many people came out to honour him.

Thirty rivers for my 30th birthday and finding my kayaking mojo again!
In June, I turned 30! Eek! I still feel 20 at heart, so I’m not sure where that decade has gone! I decided in January to try and aim to paddle 30 different rivers in the year I turned 30. I didn’t manage it, but I did manage to get on 20 different white water rivers over the year and spend many repeated days on those rivers and more.

More importantly, I found my kayaking mojo again! In 2023, I had been quite ill and needed to take some time off the river to recover. Getting my fitness back and returning to my usual river-running active self was quite a journey in itself, but I got there! I wrote a blog about the journey: https://delkayaks.co.uk/ 2024/04/03/i-am-really-happy-right-now-and-loving-kayaking/. Essentially, I got my fitness back; I focused on experiencing joy days on the water, and in doing so, I found happiness again. I didn’t manage 30 different rivers, but I managed far more than 30 river days, and that meant the world to me!

Kayaking the Great Glen Canoe Trail!
I love a challenge, and in August, I completed a charity challenge kayaking the Great Glen Canoe Trail to raise money for the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. This journey from Fort William to Inverness involves paddling 60 miles of canals and lochs, including the famous Loch Ness. I paddled this challenge solo, although my lovely Tom supported me by picking me up and dropping me off each day. We followed the challenge with a few days of walking adventures together in Scotland.

It was a real adventure and having done very little open-water kayaking before; it was a good experience! I became an expert at portaging a laden sea kayak around locks and no better at estimating the time it would take me to cross open stretches of water. If you want to read more about this adventure, you can do so here.

Events, events and more events!
If lockdown Del could see how many events she would attend and organise in 2024, she would be jumping for joy! In 2020 and 2021, it felt like we would never be able to return to normal life again, but four years later, my kayaking social life is thriving. I love events and encourage paddlers who aren’t regularly attending events to do so if they can because they are brilliant. They are a way to connect with others in the community, enjoy time on the water, and get involved in fun competitions. Over the last couple of years, it’s also been a way to give back to the community.

I won’t go into details of each event here, but you can read about most of them in the various blogs I’ve written. Dee Fest, Tryweryn Fest, European Open, She Paddles weekends at Plas y Brenin and the Tryweryn, the Youth Freestyle League events, the summer GB freestyle academy camp, and the Park Jam series! It’s been a pleasure to attend events run by others and be a part of the organising team for others. What a year it has been!

Last words
So, 2024 was memorable year full of highs and lows. Whatever your personal experiences of 2024, I wish you all the best and to see you on the water in 2025!