For the fourth stop, we travelled down to London to kayak at the Lee Valley Whitewater course. This park was the location used for the 2012 Olympics and as such the whitewater course is exceptional. The location is split into two courses, the Olympic and the Legacy. The Olympic is steep, fast and brilliant fun, if you are confident on that sort of whitewater. The Legacy is slower and the whitewater is easier but it features much better freestyle spots. I love being able to mix in between the two courses and I am especially addicted to the downriver freestyle moves on the Olympic course.
This is usually the busiest stop on our tour around the UK and once again it did not disappoint. There was an awesome mix of ages that came along for this stop and I had an awesome time blasting around the Olympic course with everyone. The local kids showed me a couple of the lines they like to hit, I showed them a few of mine and we even managed to come up with a few new ideas of lines and hit them!
One of my favourite parts of this tour has been getting to encourage people to try moves or lines that they are totally capable of doing but are a little bit scared of trying.
Thaddeus pictured here threw himself into every trick or line I suggested, some he nailed the first time … some he, well, on some he ended up upside down; but still, that’s the learning process…
Later in the afternoon, we got onto the legacy course and I was really excited to see so many rippers on the course! The freestyle spots are good but a little bit tricky to figure out and there is a constant stream of beginners coming down the course, which is awesome but also makes throwing freestyle moves relatively difficult as you struggle to balance between setting up, doing tricks and not getting run over by an equally scared kayaker that doesn’t yet have the skills to avoid you. No matter how much they clearly want to.
All in all, it was another wicked day on the water in the UK and I am stoked for the opportunity to meet and kayak with so many new people!
See you on the water, Bren
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