Each month S.C.C Web site will run a short profile/interview with
one for the clubs members. If you would like to nominate someone please contact the
webmaster.
All Paddle Profiles can be found here.
This months paddler in profile is Dave Walsh, age 52, lives with his wife and two teenage children
(one of each), a cat, a guinea pig and rabbit. Originally from Wigan, Lancashire or Greater Manchester
as they call it now, he now calls Dunblane home.
I first
paddled a friend’s double canvas kayak on holiday when I was 11. It
was on the canal and sea at Bude.
Although I got the chance to paddle with them most holidays, canoeing never really took off for me as my
main passion was climbing. BIG passion but that’s another story.
In 1977 my brother took me out on the sea and taught me to roll. I witnessed some guys surf kayaking
and became hooked. It helped that I had broken my finger climbing and had some enforced time off. I found
out that I could paddle with my fingers taped together. After a year sea kayaking I joined Wigan Canoe
Club and got involved in White Water racing, then Slalom. I paddled kayak to Division 1 and then paddled C1
for a number of years before retiring.
Another enforced leave due to a climbing fall led to me to move to Scotland (another long story) and I
have never looked back - my log book notes “May 2 1984. Flying lessons on Gower. Decide not to paddle for a
few months. It is hard with both arms in plaster!”
I’ve tried my hand at most disciplines but never mastered Polo (sorry guys) I coached for many years until
I officially retired last year. I was a coach Level 4 in Kayak and Canoe and Level 3 coach Sea.
Well I started off in a canvas folding kayak, although I only really learnt properly in a fibreglass kayak,
then onto carbon-fibre, then roto plastic in all its flavours. Nowadays there are many different shapes
which have developed into specialised planning hulls, rails for carving, and so forth. This is a long way
from the ubiquitous cigar shaped Pyranha Rotobat that I had for many years.
In 1983 we decided to go to Austria. We built our own fibreglass large volume kayaks; P&H Phasers.
I built 2 – just in case I broke one practising beforehand!!
I could be described as naturally self-effacing and it is only when I come to write this piece that I
realise my achievements in canoe sport.
My paddling abroad has been fairly limited as travel 20-30 years ago with a kayak was a much more serious
proposition than today, and more recently I prefer to take holidays abroad snowboarding.
However I have paddled extensively in this country and done quite a few first descents, some of which I
think are minor classics - Great Langdale Beck, Crawich, Minnoch to name a few. The first 2 I did solo
as with a number of others as there was no one else locally who I was confident to paddle at this level
with. I then met up with some guys in Dumfries area who were paddling at a high level and we teamed up to
do classics such as the Minnoch. It was this group of paddlers that pushed me to explore further north in
the early 90’s to do classics such as the Nevis. Local to Stirling, there's also been a few firsts;
Duchray, Water of Ruchill and Knaik.
Big changes have been seen in gear such as nice warm Gore-Tex drysuits and particularly in the area of
safety gear.
When I started at Wigan I was influenced by a guy called Harry Evans to try Whitewater racing and slalom.
Harry paddled for the GB team in WWR C2).
When I joined Ribble Canoe Club in 1980 there was a guy called Phil Dean who inspired us young ones to go
out and do the harder rivers, doing my first grade 5’s in the Lakes.
In slalom Richard Fox was the guy who inspired in those days and in dreaming of waterfall kayaking it has to
be Shaun Baker.
Some of the Scottish guys pushing the envelope at present are very inspiring. I also respect all the guys
in Stirling Canoe Club who have continued to inspire others through their coaching and leadership in
the … hmmm well a few years since I set it up.
Always the adventure. That is why I spent a number of years away from whitewater and got into other
adventure activities. I am just as happy canoeing a wilderness river, camping overnight on some remote
island or rock dodging in heavy seas as kayaking down Grrr whitewater.
It has been the adventure element that I used to try and engender in my coaching sessions. Having said
that coming from a slalom background with a fragile craft, I also lay great emphasis on developing skills
to a high level. My original criticism of the plastic generation is that there was a certain dumbing down
of skills. One of the good things to have come out of the explosion of playboating is the skills and high
level of boat awareness that has developed. I think this has been the most important development; coupled
with some exciting boat design ideas to resurrect creek boating and some of the extreme descent we have seen
in recent years.
It certainly has me excited again after all these years.
Surprisingly there are still some rivers left in Scotland that I haven’t paddled, particularly at the harder
end and I would love to tick these off. Perhaps I might even manage to find a new ‘ditch’ to descend.
I don’t ever see myself retiring from canoeing; perhaps the intensity will decrease as I get older. I
certainly don’t take the risks I used to when I was younger!
LEGEND - A legend (Latin, legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that
are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain
qualities.
There are plenty of stories to be told and one medium that many of us use (arguably too much) is the
internet, websites and forums. Along with a few others this year I have developed firstly a website for the
Skatepark in Dunblane (another story) and recently the
River Allan webcam website.
If I have the pleasure to meet you on the river don’t worry that I’m a Legend because all it means is
that as above I’ve got loads of stories to tell!!
So much has happened in the last 30 years, I wonder what the next major development is going to be in canoe
sport.
This could be a massive discussion re old school vs. new school ... but one observation re fitness...
... When I climbed we always trained for specific routes etc by using climbing walls or lifting weights.
Keeping body weight as low as possible and strength up; maximising power to weight ratio. But unlike
climbing, I like most others have always kept canoeing fit by just canoeing. Should we now be fitness
training for harder rivers? A couple of years ago after a week snowboarding in Alps (which just about
killed me) I started at the gym. I now find that cardiovascular work and strength training really benefit
my sport, including canoeing, even if I never get the muscles of a 'Men's Health' cover guy. In 2006 I took
up running again seriously after many years and entered my first 10k race. Sights for 2007 are getting my
respectable 48min 10k time down to around 45min and running a couple of 1/2 marathons.
I just bought a second hand Microbat. I can't wait to have a paddle but guess I’ll have too wait for this
dreaded bug [Dave currently has Man-Flu] to go away anyway I thought the conversation with the guy I bought
it off was class. He realised I had been around for a while due to my age. He was surprised that someone
like me was buying a second-hand kayak like this as he reckoned I would have been just about starting when
the Microbat first came on the scene. I think it is interesting that this 'younger' person's perception of
the extreme whitewater kayak scene was that VERY old school meant old school plastic, in fact Microbat in
global terms isn’t that old school never mind about fibreglass. In other words there seems to be a generation
who have forgotten/ don’t know about their roots... thought that was a wee bit sad.
Dave’s rambles over…
