Lee Valley

The first time you go to Lee Valley you have to pass an assesment so they can decide what sort of level you are and wether you get to paddle on the legacy or the Olympic course. You start off just paddling around on flat water so they could see that we had the basics. We then took the convayabelt up to the top of the legacy course, which is alot smaller than the Olympic. We did one basic run down then a run where we had to hit slalom gates and do a roll or a "controlled swim". He then told me and Graham we could go to the Olympic course as we had passed that part of the assesment. (Everyone else passed to stay on the legacy course). On the Olympic course we had to surf across a big hole and come back across surfing a wave. Then we had to hit four eddies and then make a must make eddy before one of the big drops. Me and Graham both passed to be able to use the Olympic course in future.

We spent another hour on the course after the assesment. The Olympic course is alot bigger than it looked on the telly, I was pleasently supprised. The only thing that wasnt that great was that there wasnt really any deep holes for playboating. I had one sketchy moment with a raft, when I was surfing the big hole you cant see upriver and all of a sudden the raft was on top of me but I just managed to skim passed it. All in all it was a good day and I will definatly be going back there when the rivers are empty.