Autumn Site Visit
As with all volunteer based event groups, lots of things are going on in the background that most people never ever see or know about, its a running joke about how many people ask us if this is our full time job!
Anyway, given that we’ve started this blog to give an insight into what goes on between the events, we thought we’d start with our dog walk down at the site to check up on several things that have been happening over the past couple of months.
The Environment Agency have been spending a considerable amount of time on site over the past couple of months, which has caused the track to have even more holes in it. We’re hopeful next year these will be filled in like usual when it gets around to our first event.
The main reason for them being on site was to replace the old sluice gate, repoint the walls of the sluice channel and to clear all the overgrown bushes. However during their time there two of the sleepers failed in the top of the weir. This made it really hard to paddle the left side of the weir without getting pinned against the wall. The repair got added to the list and now site has its two great play spots working perfectly again.
They have also installed a camera to monitor the sluice so only time will tell if we get a call for running it in a kayak. The bottom two waves in the sluice channel are also far more stable now meaning advanced paddlers can surf the channel exit wave. Generally the sluice isn’t open that often when we’re on site though.
Next year before the season starts we’ll need to carry out some repairs to the seal launch, we’re unsure if that’ll mean replacing the sleepers or cleaning out the holes and topping them with marine ply at the minute.
Lastly on our way home, we stopped in at the trailer storage site just to give them a tyre kick and brief check over to confirm we had no leaks for the winter. One of the trailers will need some work before we start up again next year.
Don’t forget we have our eco and vegan friendly t-shirts available in the shop, it’s time to start thinking about christmas presents!
For those winter paddlers out there we also have a WhatsApp chat full of paddlers that just post when and where there paddling for a Pier meetup, this chat is not affiliated with any clubs or groups.