Lowri Davies » wales

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.

Snow Epics

Lowri — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:25:35 +0000

With Aberystwyth’s sea breeze and salty air we rarely have heavy snow here; and with reports of snow days from all over the country we were starting to get jealous. Sitting in a lecture as a blizzard caked campus in a thick helping of the fun stuff, I began to get excited. I practically skipped home to find myself some playmates…

Soon we were on our way into the hills in search of snowboating and sledging. Some classic miscommunication, a wrong turn and we soon found ourselves on a small white lane.

White on the map and white on the ground.

The road got narrower and steeper…

Oops

Digging her out…

The wiggly path out…

We slowly worked our way up the valley on the snowy road, making it anywhere from 2ft to 200 metres at a time before getting stuck. After about an hour and half; 17 miles on the odometer and only about 1 mile of road actually travelled we found ourselves stuck once more. The top was now in sight, but the steepest bit was yet to come! Luckily, they had decided this part of the road warranted grit buckets: and we all know paddles are fantastic shovels.

The sun began to set; making it darker and colder. We shovelled and shoved with renewed vigour. Still, at least it was pretty…

Finally, we made it out of the valley and to the ‘main road’ along the top. We were shattered!

But having come all this way, it seemed a shame not to go for a play…

We packed up in the dark and headed home having had a great afternoon adventure.

But Tim just wasn’t satisfied. He wanted more action… and decided to practice his flat spins on the way home.

No serious damage done, we returned home for tea and cake!

Surf Breaks

Lowri — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:39:21 +0000

It’s that time of year again: exams and dissertations loom… and as always, the rivers have been stonkin’ and there’s beautiful surf. Over the past week, I’ve been breaking up the hours at the PC with afternoon blasts down the local classics, a spot of climbing (and watching a mate almost break his ankles falling off and missing the matt), dressing up smart to celebrate friends’ birthdays and busting some moves in the surf.

Clean spinning with the pinky up – otherwise it doesn’t count

This evening was a fine evening of surf as the sun set – these photos were close in, before it really picked up. I was the only paddler out with about 15 surfers and got no hassle, just the odd woop as I took on the biggies out back and occasionally caught huge air

It’s cool to live by the sea.

All above photos by Robert Clark - full Flickr album

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.

WCA Freestyle Development

Lowri — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:26:10 +0000

As the WCA’s Freestyle Development Officer I am putting on a series of development weekends with demo freestyle? boats, free coaching and a fun competition. If you or someone you know in Wales? is wanting to get into freestyle, then there’s never been a better time to try it. We’re also looking for budding rodeo stars to make up a squad which will compete at freestyle events nationwide.? Check out the flyer below:

Llandysul: meet 10am @ Llandysul Paddlers – DIRECTIONS
If you need any more info, just drop me an email. Spread the word!

Updates on what I’ve been up to? in the past month? coming soon, but suffice to say I’ve been pretty busy…