Santa Walks on Water
Santa and his helpers were seen walking on water by a group of Martlet paddlers paddling along Brighton Beach on a Sunday morning just before Christmas. It is believed that Santa was on his way to Lapland but was unable to travel by sleigh due to the restrictions on airtravel caused by the severe weather.
Hopefully he will make it to wherever you are in time for Christmas Day.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Photo by Danny
A couple of days of heavy snow at the start of December enabled the Martlet Winter Sports (kayaking) Team to get out on the piste and practise some of their moves. The opportunity doesn’t come along very often so, after trekking in on foot from Fiveways, the kayak sledgers were soon making good use of the sunny conditions out on the slopes of Hollingbury Golf Course.
When kayak sledging, it is always a good tactic to get the local kids involved.
For the price of a ride down the slope, youngsters will lend a willing hand to carry the boat back to the top of the slope. 
Just like on a river, scouting the best route down, between obstacles, is an essential skill.
Crew boats are a popular feature of this sport.
If a little terrifying at times.
And, once again, there are more hands available to carry the boat back up the slope. 
There was some intensive one to one coaching during the session. (A new Level One Coach in action.)
Snow boarding Kayaks was also fun.
But it was a hard job finding the footrest.
The key was firm concentration.
And a good Stern Rudder.
Roll on the next snowfall.
We set off from Brighton with reports coming back that Betws y Coed had a good covering of snow. As we reached Shrewsbury the snow appeared on the ground. With just one closed section of the A5 we arrived at Betws y Coed at about 10.30pm only to find the bar at the Hostel had closed! Tobin and I set off to find a bar and luckily found a bar open. We had a quick couple of pints before meeting up with Andy, Paula, Duncan, Izzy, Sarah and Nikki back at the Hostel. To use Estate Agent speak our room was cosy, luckily as it turned out, as the heating wasn’t the best.
In the morning we slithered down the icy roads to the get for the River Ogwen. River levels were low, but the Ogwen held enough for a run. Although someone had left a load of boulders all along my river lines!
At the put in, close enough to the sea for most of the snow to have thinned out. Air temp a balmy -3 C.
Halfway down we found a handy socket. Unfortunately we’d forgotten the club hairdryer and kettle!
Andy, our illustrious leader, otherwise known as the “short-sighted” “short, middle-aged man” ;o)
Me, Rob, mercifully missing any boulders on this drop.
Nikki running a section with Tobin, Sarah and Nikki looking on.
Izzy running a drop
Sarah making it look easy!
Sarah and Nikki decided to do some snowy hill walking on the Sunday. The rest of us puzzled over where to paddle as there was very little water in the rivers. Eventually Andy made the call for the Tryweryn. As this is dam release it was a good call. There was plenty of water being released.
Unfortunately the centre and showers were closed. The air temperature was between minus 8 and minus 13. The air was so cold the river water was steaming. Weighing it up, we all agreed the consequences of a swim were too serious and reluctantly walked away.
After hot chocolate at Bala we drove home.
Izzy, Andy, Paula, Duncan and Tobin cold just looking at the water.
Thanks to Andy for leading the trip!
Martlet Kayak Club 