Rafting week one

Led by TPP

Rafting day one

Tuesday 5th of March

Morning session lake Brunner, then down Arnold river in afternoon

Tutored by Koryn

westerly winds changing to southwest, high of 20 degrees, 100% cloud cover with light rain

Arnold was relatively low at 38 cumecs

This was the first time many of us (COE group) had been in a raft, so we spent the morning in lake Brunner practicing different strokes and getting a feel for the raft.

When we went down the Arnold in the afternoon the tutors gave us demonstrations on how to position the boat and move it in the river. they gave us turns at guiding the boat

and taught us to read the water.

Rafting day two

06/03/2019 Wednesday 6th march

Started the day in the classroom and had a theory lesson on river reading and the theory on how the river currents will affect the boat.

In the afternoon we paddled down the Arnold and put the theory into practice.

Tutored by Koryn again. Angus, Jacob Drew and I were in the boat

the river had dropped to about 37 cumecs

high of 21, mostly cloudy, drizzle at times, light westerly winds

Rafting day three

Thursday 7th of march 07/03/2019

We did two trips down the Arnold this day, this day was more focused on how a commercial trip would run a river, we went mostly straight down without stopping too much, rather than moving across the river and catching every eddy that we could.

Tutored by Roo, with Angus, Jess, Tim and I in the boat

The river was the same as yesterday sitting at about 37 cumecs

Weather : high of 20 degrees, occasional rain in the morning, becoming fine

Rafting day four

Friday 8th March 08/03/2019

River conditions: increased after a heavy night of rain to 39.8 cumecs

People: Tutored by Koyrn again, with jacob and Abby in the boat

Location: Arnold river

Weather: morning showers then becoming fine, light SE winds swinging to SW and W, high of 21 degrees.

This was the 4th and final day of our first raft week. I felt like I really got the hang of it this day, Koryn explained techniques about using the swinging momentum of the boat to throw the boat around the river. Also,

when doing an eddy turn do the pry in the moving water before the eddy to get the best effect