By Steffan Meyric Hughes
Well… 2018. As I write this, the future of my nation lies in the balance as Brexit self-destructs like a car crash in slo-mo. The days are getting shorter, Nile Special has fallen flat for the last time, and here in England, the rains have come, and the idea of getting changed in sub-zero temperatures on the hard, wet gravel of the car park at Hurley looms.
The year that was 2018
Now that Hurley Classic – an annual ritual – has moved to March, this means I will have to be on the wave in January and February, in contravention of my rule, that either the air or water temperature should be in double digits. The rest of the time, I seek log fires, warm beer, starry skies… and reflect on another year as a paddler.
Do you do this?
You think – this was the year I hoped to roll/cartwheel/find my confidence again. Did I succeed? For me it was, yet again, the year I hoped to learn to loop in a hole. And I did – twice – by accident as much as design. The only reason I know this happened (it happened too fast to compute consciously) was because a friend called to me from the bank – “nice loop.” Nice loop? Was he serious? “I’m certain” he replied. “I know, because I was so pissed off!” I think there is a little bit in all of us that dies when our friends succeed, the flipside of the joy we feel when we see our friends swim. I think a lot of the time, the stuff we want to do sounds too trivial to relate.
Stuff like looking in control when you punch a stopper, taking fewer strokes on a wave, carving the hull better, keeping your body weight over the boat better, finding the best way to pick up boat and paddle at once. Or, in my case, getting in by flipping the boat over my head – the ‘gorilla launch’ as practised by Shaun Baker back in the day.
the Send collective
I’ve spent a lot more time watching other paddlers on YouTube, and what a year it’s been for that. Bren Orton and Adrian Mattern and others of the Send collective have been upping the game of what a kayak crew should be, with regular YouTube updates, even a fashion tie-in with Dewerstone. And their video, We Are Send, in October was a jaw-dropping clarion call, not just in terms of the paddling… but with the snarling soundtrack from Plan B, it seemed to say, “This is it – this is where state of the art is at now.” Videos like this, with their epic trick sequences on breathtaking waves like Ruins, not to mention the drops over 100ft, make it even more ridiculous that the highest event in freestyle – the ICF Worlds – will be held in a small hole for three consecutive occasions (Argentina 2017, Sort 2019 and Nottingham 2019). But that’s another rant for another day.
Send Teaser 01 by Send It:
And I’ve been enjoying Seth Ashworth’s instructional videos. Here’s a guy who’s been teaching and paddling at the highest level for some time, as lead coach at Wilderness Tours on the Ottawa River in Canada and, while I default to the Jackson MO on most things, it’s nice to have another perspective on things. “Look where you’re going” he says. “Don’t look at your boat – it’s not going to change colour.” I’m using that line myself now to my son in the skate park. Skateboarding is basically the same as kayaking. Look where you’re going; lead with the head, the body will follow; keep your weight over the deck… sound familiar? Even the kickflip, invented by the legend Rodney Mullen, has been adopted by kayaking.
Whitewater Kayak Tutorials by Seth Ashworth
the White Nile
There was a poignant sadness to 2018 in November, when work finally began on the new dam on the White Nile, wiping out some of the great rapids that have become household names over the last 20 years. Uganda’s is almost the archetypal story of a buzzy paddling destination. For years under the rule of Idi Amin, the whole country was a no-go zone. I remember reading Raging Rivers, Stormy Seas (ed Terry Storry) at the age of 14, about a team of British paddlers on a complete descent of the Nile by kayak and canoe, but they missed the first “few miles” in Uganda due to the unrest that followed Amin’s rule. “A few miles of whitewater were thus denied us” read the quote. Little could they have known that those “few miles” would turn out to be the destination of the 21st century for lovers of big-water river-running and playboating. The big, African rivers were just not done back then – you did the Alps in June and dreamed of one day running the Himalayan rivers.
Sam and Emily Ward
The jewel in Uganda’s Nile crown – Nile Special – became, simply, the most famous big-wave spot on Earth. Brits, particularly, went out in their droves to experience the huge, warm, friendly rapids of the White Nile, many of them under the guidance of Sam and Emily Ward of Live it Love it. As footage of the last few Special sessions emerged on social media towards the end of the year, an outpouring of memories ensued, from all the paddlers who were lucky enough to travel out there for the Ugandan magic.
The most poignant picture was from Sam Ward, holding his son by the bank, a silhouette against the backdrop of the river itself, an image that screamed ‘end of an era.’ I think one day we will look back upon the era of free rivers in the developing world and realize how lucky we were to be there, and what a singular era that was to be alive in.
My own experience of the river, in December 2013, was exactly as our guide Colin Wong described: “It’s beyond grades – just forget everything you think you know.” And it was amazing.
Despite the dam, which has, or will do, taken out Nile Special wavetrain (which includes the other ‘beer’ wave – Club), Mu2, Nile Special, Kula Shaker and Hair of the Dog, much of the white water on the classic section remains, including the big boys – Itanda, Hypoxia, Kalagala and Dead Dutchman, the popular Superhole, and many others, including Restrospect, Babooga, Overtime, Pyramids and Jaws. So the story is not over. And don’t think it’s the end of Nile Special either. It might be in our lifetimes, but nothing lasts forever. One day, in just a few human generations, the wave will return. It’s just waiting, you might say!
