Been helping out with beginner paddling trips over the last couple of weekends, on the Avon and the Wye.  Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and progressing nicely, which is always good to see!

High and fast flowing Wye on Sunday, so instead of stopping at Symonds Yat we paddled all the way down to Monmouth.  The trees are starting to turn - pretty!

It'll be "proper" paddling season soon - currently counting down the days until a week up in Scotland

The last month of 'summer' paddling turned out to be quite varied:

• August bank holiday.  Tryweryn as usual - lower in bouncy high water, then quite randomly a free rafting session on the upper!  The T is far less exciting in a raft..
• Cardiff paddlefest.  My mamba didn't come off the car - lots of demo boats to play with!  Including two absolutely terrifying runs in a duo.  Seems I'm not too comfortable with having someone else in charge of the boat, hah.
  oh, and some stand up paddleboarding on the flat.  wobble, wobble...
• Interclubs slalom.  Cheltenham finished a best ever 13th! I was pretending to be a Div 3 paddler, and finished 8th - beating some actual slalom paddlers in the process (as well as the rest of the numpties).  7th in the team race, despite me being slow...
  But more excitingly, I held an actual Olympic gold medal - which was a lot heavier than I expected.

tags: paddling