Jetting to the UK for old friends, paddling, and a wonderful award! by Will Richardson | Nov 23, 2004 | Whitewater | 0 comments 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! EJ We arrive at Simon’s House Simon Loads boats for Hurley! George and EJ catch up on the old days Top honors go to Whitewater Canoe Center and Staff Simon with Mitch Lucy, quote master Jackson Kayak and AS Kids and Staff Kristine getting ready to party Lets get going EJ Jason from Playboating Mag starting the party Heather Gunn and Kristine chatting Random girl shows off proof of first river run today Cheesy earning his name daily Cheesy getting the crowd going Kristine and one of my favorite people, Debs Simon waiting on another beer I know this guy What is this all about Never did get this guys name, but I did find myself in the ladies room taking a leak with him 100 percent french Simon being Simon, with the man behind Dagger UK Graham from Pyranha Heather giving out the awards Having Fun yet EJ arm wrestling and losing Submit a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ