Lowri Davies » doorstep gnar

Rain, rain and more rain!

Lowri — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:12:05 +0000

For the past couple of weeks we’ve had consistent rain in North Wales which has kept the rivers at lovely levels, but last night’s rain was fairly epic. All across North Wales people woke to find rivers over their banks, towns flooded and roads closed. My Mum was unable to get work and my brother had to use a snorkel to get to Betws (sadly not a facemask and snorkel as I had presumed but the snorkel on his 4×4).

Here’s a few shots from around North Wales earlier today:

Pont-y-Pair aka Chip Shop Drop, Llugwy, Betws

Fun lookin’ boils downstream of Pont-y-Pair in Betws

The postcard image with a twist – Llanrwst

Mincer on the Llugwy

Miner’s Bridge!

More photos can be found in this FB album.

The water has receded a little this evening, but it is still in fields and across roads. Another band of rain is due to arrive tonight… Noah might not be the only one getting his boat out.

And the rain arrives…

Lowri — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:42:03 +0000

I have been back in the UK for 2 months now and have been keeping myself very busy. Here’s a bit of a photo-based summary of what I’ve been up to.

I arrived back just in time for Pyranhafest in the sunshine and was able to catch up with friends and compete in the fun freestyle. I was given a place in the men’s final and finished second to local junior hot-shot Brendan Orton.

After a month of low water and sunshine, the rain finally arrived in North Wales. I’ve been getting plenty of sneaky mid-week runs in:

Top drop on the Gamlan, 10 years since I first ran it in a Topo. Photo: Chris Eastabrook

Top drop on the Goedal. Photo: Tom Parker

Less than a month after the World Championships, it was time for the British Freestyle Championships and the first 2010 Team selection event!

Photo: Tom Laws

A few weeks later and I was at another British Championships, this time for rafting. A gang of us female raft guides from the Tryweryn got together to enter on my 25th birthday weekend and had a superb time. We blitzed the ladies competition in all events and finished 3rd in the open over all. Cheers to all involved for a great weekend.

Team Rafture in action (you can tell by the smile that we’d already won this particular race). Photo: Tom Laws

As well as competitive rafting for the first time, I’ve been getting involved in lots of other disciplines and sports recently including several forays into squirt boating, some fun white water open boating down the Dee, bouncy trampolining and some very muddy mountain biking in Scotland. Fun times.

Photo: Tom Laws

Squirting in Nottingham – extra points for being colour co-ordinated! Photo: Emma Runciman

Sinking – but not how I’d planned! A deck blow gets me wet at selection. Photo: Peter Isaacs

Me and Mum covered in mud after a day on the bikes. Note to self: people who were sponsored for biking are probably still very good even after 10 years of not riding! Photo: Tom Laws

And just cos I like them, here’s a few more photos from the summer:

Upper Rauma. Photo: Dave Fairweather

My Mum watching the finals of the World Freestyle Champs in Thun. Photo: Lowri Davies

Erika and Nina watching me at Skjak. Photo: Tom Laws

But, it’s not all play, play, play. I’ve been busy with FlowFree coaching work and in my new part-time role as coach education co-ordinator for Canoe Wales too! Checkout www.flowfree.co.uk for more information on the coaching courses I offer.

Breaking the silence

Lowri — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:01:28 +0000

I’ve finally got around to transferring this website onto server space provided by Netcase and upgraded my version of WordPress. This has meant I’ve lost a couple of months of posts (mainly due to the slow pace I’ve been doing the transfer); but means I’m back and able to add videos, photos and other multi-media fun for your enjoyment. In the spirit of this, here’s a funny video of Jon, Tom and myself scouting out a fun little river near our house. We’ll go back sometime when the dam is releasing as what we found in the forest (not featured in the video) was pure Welsh creeking class.

I’ve been doing a lot of coaching recently, with a whole variety of people, which has been fantastic. FlowFree is becoming a reality! Check out the FlowFree Website for a bit more info. Not featured in the FF blog is the huge amount of Uni work I’ve done in this final year of my Masters course… but I’ll spare you the details of my robotic sailing boat and it’s dolphin monitoring attempts at this stage!

It’s almost time for me to jet off to play in the snow for Christmas, so I’ll bid you all a happy festive period – I hope you have a lovely time seeing family and friends, and get out to play with any new toys Santa brings.

Lowri on tour…

Lowri — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:56:21 +0000

It’s a busy time in Lowri-land. After last weekend’s UK River Rescue Symposium, I had half a day to catch my breath at my Dad’s house, where I found this on my doorstep:

Photo: Tom Laws

A great Fournel-like weir with a beautiful grade 2 ‘gorge’ afterwards. A splendid way to spend an hour.

I got off the water and into my van, heading straight for Liverpool to give the next? in my series of lectures around the country about the Four Borders Expedition. After dinner on Penny Lane, I was shown to a very grand reading room featuring two pianos? – the venue of my talk. After a bit of stress with the projector, everything ran smoothly and I was flattered at how interested in my stories everybody? seemed.? I’d like to thank the guys in Liverpool who organised and hosted this lecture – their write up of the night? can be found here.

Four days of lectures,? cheeky afternoon river runs? and organising the club Alps Trip leads me today. Tomorrow I’m lucky enough to have tickets to watch THE Grand Slam match of the year: Wales v France in the Millenium Stadium . I’m very excited! Sunday I’m coaching in Nottingham before heading to the Lake District for two more Four Borders Talks (Monday in Keswick, Tuesday in Staveley – details here). I then carry on north to the Fort William area for some paddling (and maybe snowboarding?!) before heading back down through the east side of England to do a talk? in York on? March 27th? for? the club that taught me to paddle? (details).

After all that, it’ll be back to the land of the sheep for work – then back to Uni!

Busy? but lots of fun… just the way I like it!