Jason's Day & PyB Weekend Fun

So Jasons day came around on Friday the 19th October. A very sad day for all but indeed the closure that the family and close friends and relatives so sorely needed. The service itself was based around Jason and what an awesome guy he was, with a bit welcoming committee of hundreds of paddlers, holding their paddles high and standing in ceremony proudly for the cars to arrive at the crem. It was probably the most beautiful thing ive ever seen. It was a tragic, but a wonderful thing that day, the service certainly did him proud. I went along to say good bye and thank you to him, purely because he managed to instill a little bit of his spirit in me and its been a motivation ever since.

Although i only shared a short amount of time with Jason, I will always thank him for the inspiration he gave me...even if i had to sleep in the back of his mondeo with the smelly git...(!)...I had my biggest achievement up until that point that day with him, Sam, Ramadan, Barnesy and Jo, and ill never forget it. It taught me a lot, and I finally took his advice.... 'tuck your skirt in princess and get out there'!  Ill be thinking of him on the river.

Lining the driveway...there were over 100 of us, stunning

Normally wouldnt point it out, but it almost seemed fitting that we had a beautiful red sunset on the way home

Afterwards a group went boating on the tees to say goodbyw and although i couldnt make a weekend of it with the guys boating, i did get away to North Wales with Rich of YUCC, to the student safety seminar weekend at Plas Y Brenin which i thought would be a reasonable call! 
I got my first run in down the Tryweryn with Nick from Dagger, who lent me a demo Mamba 7.6 which I love love loved, and got some good coaching on playboating from Ben the day before. We were also treated to a video of kayaking in Kenya from Spike and Co at the Brenin which was awesome along with a load of really great safety information for everyone to take away, and a pool session on rolling for me with Darren Joy which was very helpful! Nick did a write up of the weekend, and a few photos which i even maneged to stay upright for! Awesome!....

Link to Nicks Write up.....Plas y Brenin Student Seminar

Fresh Start at PyB

Packing up the boats after a hard day!

Spike's Intro with the other coaches

View from the bunkhouse

Chilly mornings on the river at PyB

A sad goodbye to a great guy, followed by a fresh outlook from me on paddling in general, starting with this weekend with some good boating and coaching, let the good times roll....will miss you on the river mate...

Rach