Exploring New Rivers

Friends of the Shop Matty Nicholas and Sal Montgomery have sent us their thoughts on exploring new rivers whilst they have been out and about on their travels

Many kayakers will agree that paddling new rivers or sections of rivers is a great feeling. Even when a waterfall or section of river isn’t a first decent, it is still a first descent to the people paddling it for their first time. Exploring new waterfalls and new sections is definitely one of our favourite parts of kayaking. There is sometimes more work involved in this than most people realise however. It requires looking further a field for new runs, and can involve a lot of driving, hiking or flat-water paddling- without really knowing what you’ll find at the end of it all! Sometimes its just picking somewhere on an OS map and going exploring, hoping to find something worth carrying your boat for!

There’s probably thousands of kayaking videos on the Internet these days. Showing first descents of high consequence rapids and big waterfalls. However, what you don’t see on the videos is the hours of research that goes into a decent; and even if you’ve seen the video its still definitely worth doing some exploring and scouting yourself! It’s often helpful to scout drops at low water levels and then return to when it’s run able. This way you get to see what’s below the water and also in the pool below.

After an initial scout it is hard to predict when a decent can be attempted, especially in the UK. This is due to the varied water levels we have here. We like to put the groundwork in early on and then if an opportunity for perfect water levels arises we are ready to go.

On having a few spare days in Scotland, with very little water around, we decided to scout some drops and sections that we have been looking at for a while. I have always found Scotland to be my favourite place to go kayaking. Even after travelling to a lot of other countries over the last ten years, I still enjoy the remoteness and unknown that Scottish exploring has to offer. We will be spending a lot of time in Scotland this winter, and plan on paddling as much as possible!

One of the most desirable parts of kayaking is escaping the crowds and getting out in some of the more remote areas. Where put-ons to rivers may require a several hour hike or paddle in. Although hard work, the result is pretty special!

Photos and report by Matty Nicholas and Sal Montgomery