It’s been a busy weekend of long days on the water in my canoe on a four start canoe leader assessment. To be honest, I should have done this a few years ago. I initially did the training course over two and a half years ago and had every intension of doing the assessment in the following six months. However, there’s always other things taking up time and other things become priorities and it seemed to disappear from the agenda. This year, with renewed determination to get it done, I booked a resit of the training course for October and this assessment with Leo Hoare of Getafix. So it’s a relief to finally get the assessment out of the way, especially with a very positive outcome.

We all met up early on Saturday morning to sort out the paperwork side of things and make a plan for the two days. The assessment requires one day to be spent on the rivers and the other on open water. With the amount of rain we’ve had recently, the river levels are pretty high, so we opted to give the levels an extra 24 hours to drop, whilst taking advantage of the stronger winds expected on Saturday for the open water day.

Bala Lake (or Llyn Tegid) was the obvious choice as it usually funnels the winds over a long distance, making the conditions awkward. With two assessors for the weekend, we split down into two groups of four candidates with a couple of guinea pigs to try our leadership skills out on. I actually ended up leading the first section of the day, which was a good opportunity to have a look at basic paddling technique which would have an impact on the rest of the day’s experience.

As the northerly breeze picked up, we decided to cross the lake to the northern shore in the hope of sail in back. Typically, by the time we finished our crossing, the wind had all but disappeared, so one of the other candidates took the lead and took us poling up Afon Llafar. To be be fair, I haven’t done that much poling, and it probably turned out to be the weakest part of my assessment. I managed everything I was asked to do, but perhaps lacked a little in terms of efficiency and finesse. Note to self – if I want to be a good poler, I’d better go poling.

After a short break for lunch, and an opportunity to put the world to rights, we set up a few improvised sailing rigs in an attempt to catch what wind we could. We were hardly skimming across the water at a rate of knots, but it was very chilled and a good opportunity to talk through the dangers that come with sailing in stronger winds.

We then had a play about with trim in the boats, trying to get them to track straight into wind without the need for correction/steering strokes. There’s a bit of an art to this, and it was almost impossible today due to the lack of breeze – not ideal for an assessment. This was followed by a bit of navigation practice including relocation, transits, timing and the paddling equivalent of pacing (which I’d never actually tried before).

We were expecting the day to be rounded off with a period of getting wet, doing deep water and self rescues. However, I assume due to the extreme cold conditions, the assessors let us off a bit with showing that we could sort out a capsized canoe efficiently, which everyone managed without trouble.

Today saw us heading for the River Dee, which had dropped a little compared to yesterday, but was still well above it’s normal level. Combing that with the temperature hovering just above zero, it was the type of day I would have seriously considered calling off (group dependant) under different circumstances, but there was no hint of that today with everyone eager to complete the assessment.

Our journey started from Glyndyfrdwy and, with the river moving fast, we could probably have made it down to LLangollen in about two and a half hours if you’d really wanted to. However, we had lots of things to demonstrate in terms of leadership and a variety of personal skills along the way. For much of the day, I didn’t find myself in a leadership role, but there was lots of opportunity to demonstrate personal skills such as ferry gliding, breaking in and out of eddies, checking and setting as well as time to talk through various issues and considerations involved in river leadership.

Much of our lunch stop wasn’t exactly chill out time. We were set to work on demonstrating more techniques such as pulley systems for recovering pinned boats, tracking upstream and lining back downstream. Everything seemed to go well and Leo was particularly pleased with his photo of me tracking.

Mid way through the afternoon, we stopped off for a quick leg stretch. As we were stopped anyway, it was the ideal time to run through a theoretical scenario involving an injured paddler unable to continue and in need of hospital treatment. I think everyone in my group was an ‘outdoor professional’, or at least with plenty of outdoor experience, and seemed happy enough to formulate a plan to deal with the casualty and arrange medical assistance.

Then came my turn to take the lead, with several rapids to negotiate the group down. I’ve paddle this stretch of the River Dee several times, but wouldn’t claim to know it. It seems to be at a different level with different dangers every time. So past knowledge was no good, having to rely on what I could actually see, which I guess is more realistic from an assessment point of view. There were a few awkward sections, but I felt happy that I’d acted appropriately for the circumstances.

Then came the part of the assessment I wasn’t looking forward to – the rescues. I’m quite happy about performing rescues but, for others to carry them out, they need someone in the water to rescue. Everyone else on the assessment had a one piece dry suit of various makes and designs. I, on the other hand, had separate dry trousers and semi dry cag. This combination is fine for keeping rain and loads of splashing water out but, when you actually go for a swim, the water comes in over the top of the trousers and then can’t escape again. In the near to freezing temperatures, this was the one bit of the assessment I wasn’t looking forward to. However, I always knew it was coming and, at the end of the day, you just have to get on with it. I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed it, but I’ve never missed anyone with a throw bag, and today’s demonstration was no exception, although Leo has given me something to think about on this. Rescuing a swimmer and upturned boat also went fine, although I was a little disappointed not to have been a bit more efficient on this one.

From here we paddled together as a normal group of peers without a nominated leader, but making sure we were always in a position to help each other out if needed. With the amount of water going over Horseshoe Falls, it was clear that Serpent’s Tail was going to be more than a handful, so we jumped onto the canal for about 2km to take us back into Llangollen and the cars.

With the assessment over after two long days, I think we were all relieved to hear that all eight of us had made the grade. I haven’t been on many assessments where that’s been the case, and it’s hard to enjoy your success alongside someone else you hasn’t got through when you’ve been working so closely with them for a couple of days.

Thanks to everyone in my group who made the weekend such fun, and a special thank you to Leo Hoare and Chris Charlton for a really enjoyable assessment.