Blue Chip SUPer Club Blog

Blue Chip Chill Out Paddle on the Thames  

The weather was fantastic, and the company was also great,

15 of us paddled off from our base at Thames Sailing Club down the Thames for a relaxing paddle

Blue Chip paddles off to the Airport  

The weather was fantastic, the traffic was abysmal and Jules and I arrived 45 minutes late....!

The crew were all ready to go, Terry, Calum, Ali, Mark, Sarah, Richard, Justin, David and Matthew.
no time to waste as we had to get to the Airport and back before the pub stopped serving food...
we pushed off at 19:30

then headed down the the only lock on the paddle

we dropped down onto the lower level and headed upstream

The waters soon narrowed down to our normal width

After a while, we reached the outer Brooklands bridge

Then onto the Airport and Concord:

After a short while, we pushed on upstream for a bit

Before long it was time to turn around and head back

Terry's Plunge Pool...

The weather was great and yet we still hade 4 no show paddlers

Nevertheless Ian, Justin, and myself arrived with Sarah, Ali and Mark
The Plunge Pool was waiting for us, then Sarah, Ali and Mark broke the
news that they would be paddling with us to the Plunge Pool but would
then carry on on the Wey and meet us at the weir. So Ian, Justin and I
were the 3 musketeers taking on the 2 km off road Plunge Pool.....  

We set off on our voyage of discovery

 We were soon paddling under St. Catherin's bridge

Ian relaxes on route to the Plunge Pool

Now we were entering the lion's den

The Plunge Pool strikes but what happens next? check out the video...

We were now at the tail end of the 2 km Plunge Pool off road section

At last, some flat water

Check out this short video of the Plunge Pool

Powered by the Tide...

 The forecast was showing torrential rain but the weather was great

Nevertheless Ian, Justin, James, Steve, Hanno, Jules and myself were there
and ready to take on the predicted elements

The sun was out as we set off from Richmond
we made the most of the incoming tide which was due to change at 8:00
so there was no time to lose

as we pushed on upstream James lost one of his flip flops and Justine
took pity on him and rescued the said flip flop

We pushed on up to the lock

Once over the lock we pushed on up to the pub.

As we approached the pub, the havens' opened and a mighty squall hit us which spit the
 group up and James made a serious error of judgment which left 6 of us on one side of the
river and James on the other side. James's error was that he was now stuck on the side
of the river that didn't have a pub....!

While we were sheltering in the pub, John (who had arrived late) now joined us looking
like the proverbial "drowned rat" (much the same as we looked) then we saw James making a
break for it as he paddled across the river to join us.

After a short interval, we made our bid the paddle back in the rain.

After we pasted the lock and got onto the downhill section the sun started to break through once more

we eventually got back to Richmond and our vehicles

Check out the full video here

The Surrey Amazon beckons...

The Magnificent Seven ride again
Jules and I arrived at the location where James Sarah and
Justin were already getting ready and then we were joined
by Paul and Steve.

We made our way over to the launch site and got ourselves
onto the water we kicked off upstream against the current
which was running at about 2-3 knots

The evening was dry and no wind so great paddling conditions

Justin made maximum speed to get past Mrs Psycho Swan
who was on her nest.

We soon passed the last of the manicured riverside lawns

The first obstacle now appeared which was relatively easy to avoid

We passed the last of the open meadows and left civilization behind us

The river now narrowed and the current increased as we pushed on

The obstacles now came thick and fast, every turn we found a
new and different challenge

Then Jules who was riding point came to a road block

We found our way though and back into open water only
to find that this was just the first of many roadblocks

After pushing our way through countless barrages we reached to our
goal, Burhill Golf Club.

After a short rest, we turned around to paddle back and take advantage
of the fast flowing current

I advised caution and to spread out as it wouldn’t take much to have a
collision if the paddler in front of you got stopped by an underwater
obstruction and there were lots of those. Paddling upstream you could see
them with relative ease, but downstream, you would be on them before
you could identify the safe way through.

 So off we set

Justin was the first to hit the water as his board locked across a fallen tree,

Julian was first and as he slowed to get through the gap, Justine collided with
Jules and Justin’s board mounted Julien’s board, Jules managed to stay on
but Justine took the plunge and then had to wait in the water until Jules could get
Justin’s board free again

Next obstacle claimed James, Steve and Paul

Now we reached some open water as we took advantage of the current

Still more road blocks lay in front of us  

We now negotiated them a tad more efficiently

But still with caution

Once again the river opened up for us and we could see the end of the journey
in the distance.

The 6k Surrey Amazon paddles never disappoints us Sarah, Jules and myself may have
enjoyed the paddle a tad more than  Paul, Justin, Steve and James.

OK, the way we paddled the Wey…

Jules and I turned up at the meeting point to be greeted by
Mark, Hanno, Dave, Terry, Calum, Silvia & Matthew.

We soon got sorted out and assembled by the river bank ready for the off

We headed upstream and soon spread out

A barge pulled out in front of us and Hanno decided to draft out of class
but soon gave that up and left the barge behind.

 Calum also gave chase and soon passed it

We quickly paddled out of the tree lined banks and onto the open vaster
of the Send Meadows

It wasn’t long before we caught our first glimpse of the Priory in the distance

We dismounted at the Newark Lock

Jules and Silvia were bringing up the rear

We re-launched onto the higher level and made our way around
to the weir head. The draw of the weir was quite strong at this point

We landed (literally) one by one on the grass bank above the weir

We walked our boards around and back down to the lower level
to be greeted by quite a strong outflowing from the weir.

We got back onto our boards and decided to paddle off and re-group
about 50 meters downstream away from the main weir pool

Matthew had other ideas and decided to take the plunge

And as much as Terry tried to push him back into the stream,
Matthew managed to climb back on to terra firma

Jules was the last to re-mount and paddled straight into a tree.

Meanwhile, Dave got so hot, he dived off his board to cool down,
(at least that’s what he told us) and decided to walk for a while.

We paddled under the bridge and out onto the Newark meadows

We came across this motely crew at the Priory.

We decided to beat a hasty retreat as the livestock moved towards us

Billy no mates was the last to leave

Hanno with the first sunset image

Matthew looking cool

We all now started to head home to try to beat the fading light


 

It was great to see the pub once more