Jetting to the UK for old friends, paddling, and a wonderful award!

November 23, 2004

My European Distributor, and competitor in the 1997
World Championships on the Ottawa, Simon Edwards asked me if I wanted
to come to the UK for a weekend party. I am the kind of guy who says,
“Sure” first, and asks questions later. So, in my next email,
I asked him when, and he said “this weekend”. That was on
Wednesday. On Thursday, Kristine and I were on a plane to London. All
I knew for sure was that we were going to Playboating Magazine’s
10th Anniversary Party at the Dart River, in one of the most beautiful
places in England, outside of Exeter. Our schedule went like this:

We left Rock Island at 10am on Thursday and drove to
Atlanta (4 hours). We checked in for our 5:30pm flight to London and got
on the plane, with my paddling gear and a weekend bag. At 7am we landed
in London and got through customs and had Simon waiting for us with his
car. We drove to his house to pick up boats so we could paddle at Hurley.
We got a shower and had some coffee with Simon and his lovely wife in
their beautiful house, in a little neighborhood about 1.5 hours from London.
James, who is on Team JK, is 17 years old, and quite an awesome boater,
met us at the house to hook up with us for the weekend.

We headed off first to see George at the Whitewater
Canoe Center, one of England’s premier whitewater kayaking shops.
I didn’t know the shop until I got their and realized that George
was also in the 1992 Olympics with me, and his shop had lots of great
memorabilia from slalom and freestyle’s earlier years. We were offered
tea, and lunch off of their version of the “chuck wagon”,
or “roach coach” as I know it. Instead of hot dogs, we ate
quiche, and it was quite good. After catching up on old times and talking
a little bit about their new whitewater brand, Jackson Kayak, we picked
up another All-Star and headed out to Hurley.

For those of you who are from the UK, you know what
Hurley is, of course. For those of you who are not from the UK, Hurley
is the best playboating the UK has to offer 90% of the time. It is a weir
(dam to us Yankees). It can release one to four gates to create awesome
waves and holes. I was there at two gates which is one less than ideal,
but I was really impressed. See http://www.thamesweirproject.co.uk/ej.htm
for photos of the spot and to see James and Simon paddling. Yes, Simon
is a kayaker, but that is a given, he works with Jackson Kayak, right?!

After a few hours of surfing Hurley, I found that the
only move I could do that the locals couldn’t do was the McNasty.
I wasn’t sticking Lunar Orbits and my Air Screw was nothing likes
Jame’s or Mark Birbeck’s. (Mark won the gold in the Worlds’
as a junior a few years ago, and is an unbelievably good playboater).
I paddled with the Gold Medalist/Junior World Champion Mark Birbeck and
he was kicking my butt. There was both a wave and a hole next to each
other and it made for a really fun playspot. I wore pogies! I am a southern
wimp right now that was shocked by the temperature change from Rock Island
to England.

After Hurley, we went back to Simon’s house to
get changed and grab our clothes for the weekend. We drove (Simon drove)
four hours to Exeter, England. Beautiful town. We got a hotel room, and
then met up with a friend of Simon’s, Paul, at his house. Our group
of 5 walked around town to find an Indian restaurant that had room for
us. All of the restaurants were packed in this college town. The food
and beer were awesome, Guiness, of course. The next stop was a bar, where
we sat and drank more Guiness and talked about a variety of things, like
you do when you don’t really know the people you are with that well
yet.

We finally got to sleep after 36+ hours without a bed,
in the hotel. In the morning, we headed off to A/S Watersports, another
great dealer in England. I met the owner, “Mitch” and his
children Daniel and Louise, as well as his mother, Lucy. OK, here is a
photo of Lucy. Not exactly who you would think would be the one to provide
one of the best quotes on kayaking I have ever heard, but she did! Here
it is:

“Nothing is better than having the open sky overhead,
and the river beneath you.” Lucy

We spent some quality time at the shop with customers,
the staff, and with the owner, Mitch. Mitch took us out to lunch at “Roger’s
Tea House” next to the shop. What an awesome little restaurant!

There was a thread in a newsgroup in England that is
worth checking out. Who would imagine that the subject of what “biscuits”
I like to eat would be the subject of conversation. In England, Bicuits
are cookies, not the Tennessee version, that are typically covered in
sausage gravy. Check it out at:

Meanwhile- kids from England are getting the benefit
of the Fun 1 and Fun 1.5 already. There are only 5 Fun 1.5’s in
Europe, check this one out in action! http://www.thamesweirproject.co.uk/ej.htm

After visiting the shop, Kristine and I walked through
the town of Exeter, doing something Kristine loves to do, go shopping.
It is a great shopping town for those of you who are into such an activity.
I had fun loafing around with her, watching her light up as she bought
gifts for the kids.

Simon picked us up and James, Kristine and I drove
to the party location on the Dart river. We drove in the most incredible
fog, on a single lane road that was guarded by two hedge rows for more
than an hour! I am talking, the most British scene imaginable, we were
living it. We finally found a restaurant/pub in hopes of eating before
the Playboating Magazine party, but it wasn’t open. So, I would
be eating my dinner in one Pint rations in the form of Guinness on draft.
We checked into our bed and breakfast where I saw Jeroen from Playak.com
and met the owner, who was just returning from a fox hunt. She was wearing
everything you would imagine she would be wearing. When I mentioned the
Tony Blair ban on Fox hunting in 14 days, she was furious. (somehow I
don’t think she will stop hunting foxes)

The party was awesome. There was one person after another
that I know for various reasons, a great group. More than I will name
here. I also got to spend some quality time with the owner of Pyranha,
Graham. The owner of Palm/Dagger UK was there too, as were kayakers from
all over. Cheesy was spinning tunes all night, Simon Westgarth was being
Simon, everybody seemed to be having fun.

Playboating UK had their 10th Anniversary Reader Awards,
in which people vote for several categories.
I was very honored to win the “Most Outstanding Paddler of the Decade”
1994-2004. I certainly appreciate the award, and am impressed in Playboating
Magazine’s readers who cast over 5,000 votes in this category.

The rest of the evening was chatting, dancing, and
plenty of drinking my pints of dinner food. Perhaps a little out of control
from time to time, but all clean fun, no harm done. I know that I didn’t
die from “crossing the streams” in the ladies room (it was
empty except for two of us lads who needed to get rid of some recycled
beer.)

Simon picked us up at 5:45 am to head to London for
our 1pm flight out (ouch!). We made it, and survived the flight home.
I had been holding out on buying a new mattress for our new bed (now 6
months old), but the thought of sleeping on a new, really soft mattress
pushed me over the hump and I took Kristine to a store and we arrived
home from Atlanta with a new mattress and box springs for our bed. Worth
it for our first really good night sleep since our weekend tour of England!