ron-t kayaking blog
15 November 2015 ............ Cardiff white water course
I have had a couple of fact-finding trips over to the Cardiff white water course, which lies just a paddle throw from the Taff Estuary.
I am not sure of its history, but I wanted to see what it is like - and it looks good.
The pumps can provide flow rates of 4, 6, 8, or 10 cumecs, and on my first visit there they were running at 4 cumecs, and there was some kind of moving water training course going on, with ropes, dummies getting drowned, and real people jumping in and trying not to get drowned.
So here are a few pictures from that day.
The course is a giant U shape, this is looking up the upper section, the course starts at the far end.
Down below the big bend, looking up to the drop on the bend.
Further down the lower section of the course now, and another view of the bend.
Looking back up most of the lower section of the course.
Looking down to the end of the course.
After studying the course for an hour or so, I reckoned I wanted to know what it was like at the higher flows, so I went back a few days later when it was a public opening day, when the flow would start at 4 cumecs, then rise to 6 cumecs after a couple of hours, then after another hour or so, rise to 8 cumecs - so I would get a good view of what it was like at the different flows.
So to start, here are a few more views of what it is like at 4 cumecs - and I had discovered that I could get up on to a balcony above the course - so here is a bird`s eye view of the big U shape.
Here are a few of the drops at 4 cumecs.
After I had been there for an hour or so, the flow rate increased to 6 cumecs - I can`t say that the features changed a lot, the course was generally less boney, and would be a bit more fun.
I didn`t take many pictures at 6 cumecs, as there wasn`t that big a change in the way things looked, but here are a couple of views at 6 cumecs, the top end of the course, and the lower section.
After an hour or so they increased the flow to 8 cumecs - except that they didn`t.
What they did was to stop the flow altogether, then the staff went out onto the course and moved the plastic rocks around a bit to change the course a bit.
It was quite good fun watching them - it must be a fascinating thing to get involved in, working out how to place the plastic rocks to generate specific types of water features.
After they were done the pumps went back on again - this is looking up the top section of the course just as the water flow was starting.
A few minutes later, and it looks like this -
Quite a change !
They had squeezed down the gap between the rocks on either side of the top hole, and it was now quite a meaty hole - the smart guys did a slight diagonal leftwards descent to cut through the pile on its river left side.
Some people bashed straight through it, but some didn`t - they morphed from paddlers to swimmers in a very short time.
I have a unsolved mystery about the rocks in this drop - in the above photograph you can clearly see two blue rocks in the middle of the flow.
In this photgraph of the same drop when it was still dry - the rocks in the middle are red.
I still haven`t worked this out.
Here a few of the drops at 8 cumecs around the course.
Looking up the lower section of the course.
And looking down the end section.
And finally another bird`s eye view of the course, this time at 8 cumecs.
I have to say - this course was designed for higher flows - there was a big difference between the course at 6 cumecs and the course at 8 cumecs - it came alive at 8 cumecs.
At 6 cumecs it is a neat grade 3 pool / drop water flow.
At 8 cumecs there is a lot more continuosity about it, where the flow out of one drop affects the flow into the next drop.
There were some rather good holes / stoppers - as usual photgraphing water features like waves and stoppers just doesn`t do them justice. You get the same problem trying to photograph big waves on the sea - the camera doesn`t show them in the way they are when you are out there in amongst them in a boat.
My opinion would be that at 8 cumecs it would certainly be up to grade 3+, however I think it will have a bit more punch and intensity than the average grade 3 / 4 river.
I wonder what it is like at 10 cumecs !
Google has provided a few pages about kayaking on the course, and some of them have shown the names of rapids, but there isn`t consistency with their names - one page lists Vicarious, Boofarama, and Catapult, another page lists Vicarious ( in a different place ), Dr Cosmetic, and New Wave. So you can take your pick.
I have got to have a go at this - though not having paddled a river boat for n² years I think I`ll start at 4 cumecs and work my way up. I can see myself on 6, not sure about 8.
Which does give me a problem - my river boat is currently taking up space in a container, and has been completely de-personalised, as I have been trying to sell it.
So I`ll have to dig it out and do a bit of work on it.
Finally, if you want to do a bit of cyber surfing to find out more, here is their web address.
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