Tryweryn Festival 2024

Tryweryn Festival (fondly known as T-fest) has to be one of my absolute favourite white water events on the calendar. Quality white water time, fun well organised events and plenty of time to catch up with old friends and make new ones! I’ve just got back from this year’s T-fest and once again am struck by what a brilliant weekend it has been! This article is a summary of the highlights of T-fest 2024!

Friday

On Friday the UK saw a mini heat wave and so there was no better place to be than on the water! I had work on Friday but headed over to North Wales to the Tryweryn as quickly as I could. The first two paddlers I met in the carpark were a friendly father and son duo called Ged and James from Cambridge. After establishing that Ged was not in fact called ‘Jed’ like the playboat, Ged told me he was a fan of this blog so I promised to give them a special shout out on here!

I grabbed some delicious curry for dinner from my cafe and bumped into lots of people also getting food. There were many paddlers who had been making the most of the weather by kayaking that day and there was a really relaxed and happy atmosphere. I managed to catch up with a couple of friends who work at the Tryweryn whilst I ate before heading up to the marquee.

The lovely volunteers at River Legacy has spent 2 days putting up their marquee and setting up the bar in order to support the event. It was lovely to walk in and have somewhere to sit and grab a cold drink! I had a quick catch up with them before also catching up with the lovely Annette (one of the organisers of T-fest) was who sat in the marquee doing sign in. Annette is one of the Tryweryn’s most excitable and happy people and it always lovely to see her smiling face.

The Tryweryn raft guides are some of the nicest friendliest bunch of people you’ll ever meet. They really are top tier level humans and had kindly organised a quiz for some Friday night entertainment. Tegan, the guide who hosted the quiz, was excellent and clearly a natural on the microphone! She led us through the questions and it was all very relaxed. We had a good laugh doing it. We had guessed a lot of the answers and so were extremely surprised when we got joint first place!

Saturday

Saturday started with the NRS mass start race. This is my favourite event of the weekend and one I was not going to miss! I signed up and listened to David Bain give the briefing talk before walking up to starting eddy at the bottom of ski jump. The ladies heat ran first before being followed by two heats for the men. As always, there is a little bit of carnage with a mass start. After a few bumps and knocks, I managed to get out near the front and finished the mass start in fourth place which I was very pleased about! As I touched the banner at the rafting steps, I heard shouting behind me and looked around to see a boat floating past. Myself and 2 others paddled after it but to be honest, I wasn’t needed! The legend Em Davies, who works at the Tryweryn as a raft guide got that boat out pretty much on her. She unpinned and rescued it with the ease of someone who has clearly unpinned and rescued a lot of boats on the Tryweryn before!

We were then placed into heats to compete in the head to head rounds which have a ramp start. I remember doing this for the first time and feeling utterly terrified! Now I have a few T-fest’s under my belt, I know that it is just good fun! Myself and Miriam Morrison (another legend if you don’t know her) had our heat together. Miriam hadn’t done it before so was a little bit nervous and I was trying to encourage and reassure her. Turns out it is me that should have been nervous as she absolutely side rammed me going down the first drop before proceeding to take a firm lead and ultimately destroying me as any kind of competition! ‘Well I know you’d done it before Del so I thought it was okay to not hold back’ she told me afterwards! Well done Miriam – an excellent race!

Whilst I then left the competition, the heats continued, with Em Davies and Jiri Tykal taking the win. What an excellent event! Thank you David Bain and the NRS team for organising.

I then took advantage of the huge number of demos on offer and took the fresh new Pyranha Kayaks ReactR small out for a lap. I had already tried out the medium but was excited to get a chance to try the small. I should say here a massive thank you to all the companies who attend events like T-fest and bring with them demo boats, sample gear and of course their lovely selves with all their wisdom to share. It makes a big difference to events to have the experts there to talk to face to face and I know many paddlers took advantage of this opportunity over the weekend.

As I finished my lap in the ReactR, I went to watch the end of the Radical Rider wave competiton on cafe wave. There were some magical moments during this I hear, including Kelly and Gabi both aiming their boats towards Reece‘s face, some legs out surfing from Sam and Dan, paddle tosses and lots of party moves in general. It was lovely to see so many keen beans giving it their all and sharing their talents with the crowd. Well done to everyone who took part!

Somehow I had allowed myself to be signed up to the Palm epic enduro race which was the next event. This involves paddling the Graveyard section of the river, running back up to the top and then going again. The aim is to do as many laps as you can in 30 minutes. In previous years, I have watched this event with firm resolve that I would never willingly sign up to what can only be considered as a bit of a suffer fest. So it did not escape me as I was sat in the top eddy that I might not be about to enjoy this event. What I also realised (much to late) was that I should have found a different boat to do this event in. In my sleep deprived state, I had just taken my well loved Scorch up to the top of the river with me. Turns out, a relatively heavy creek boat, is not the boat for this race!

Cheesy (another legend and honestly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met) set us off in a mass start and we began! It was slight carnage in that first lap and as I came into the bottom eddy, I watched the lovely Miriam power flip in her playboat in the eddy carnage. A nice man went to grab her up and in doing so dropped his paddles which I retrieved in the next eddy below. So my first half lap started quite slowly and I was firmly at the back to begin with! No matter however! I had told myself it would be fun to take part in, even if I was not serious about doing well. I walked back up to the top and as I got there, Cheesy and the Palm crew were there honking a horn and screaming encouragement at all the competitors.

Lap 2 followed, then lap 3, lap 4 and finally I started lap 5, knowing it would only be a half lap if that given the time left. What was lovely was how encouraging everyone was including the other competitors. Lovely Miriam was screaming my name each time as she was just ahead of me, Harry from Nottingham too. Plus so many nice people cheering from the sides and from the organisers. I know I must have looked quite silly with my big heavy scorch, my slow little legs and my probably red sweaty face, but having people shout your name for you is such a motivating factor!

I somehow got stuck behind a raft on the way down and was 10 seconds off getting 4.5 laps so ended it with just 4! To give some context, David Bain who won the event managed 7! As we all sat on the side at the bottom and cooled off, it made me realise, I would not be a very good person at ultra marathon running! What was very impressive, was the Reece/Ewan duo who took an actual duo for this event! Anyone who has ever carried a duo will know how awkward they are to carry and how awful that would have been! They were both still full of smiles by the end though.

Due to the fact that I was absolutely knackered, I did not make it to Pyranha‘s tailee jam. I did however sign up for the raft racing which was slightly later on! I ended up in a mixed raft with a nice bunch of people. Our raft guide was Jacob who was an absolute ball of positivity and enthusiasm and happened to be the son of one of our team! There was a long wait to get started which coincided with an absolute torrential downpour. I was so cold that I considered dropping out. But the lovely Miriam went and bought us both a hot chocolate to warm us up as I was apparently turning blue. It was exactly what was needed and helped a lot – thanks Miriam! By the time we had finished our drinks, we were ready to go!

Our first training lap was relatively smooth, minus one dropped paddle. Miriam had rafted at the Tryweryn before and I had done lots of rafting just not at the Tryweryn. Our team had fun and me and Miriam were at the front in the splash zone. The racing lap however was a little more carnage filled. We had a great start and at one point, fuelled by how well things were going, Miriam started to shout her enthusiasm at us. I never quite heard what she said however as she took an exit from the raft at the bottom of Graveyard. She managed to get herself into an eddy as we floated downstream. I watched her with concern and didn’t notice a huge rock that our raft hit. As I fell backwards out the raft, I managed to hold onto the rope on the side. With some assistance from one of the team, I got back into the raft. We then retrieved Miriam from the side and we finished our lap in style! Jacob, if you are reading this, myself and Miriam apologise for being so hopeless! You were an excellent guide!

A very welcome hot shower later, we made our way up to the marquee for dinner. A talk from the Dee River Clean Up crew and prize giving followed this before the party got started. Due to how busy it was, my help on the bar was requested. I have always been a bit scared to help out on the bar as I am a bit scatty but between the other River Legacy volunteers and the lovely customers I soon got the swing of things! My first ever pint got poured and it was for Cheesy who offered the same level of encouragement as he had in the Enduro race. I was so pleased with myself and looked up to see Nirvana filming my performance!

It was so busy I spent the night on the bar but was quite happy to do so! Everyone at these events is always so lovely and it was nice to talk to lots of people whilst serving drinks. Although (and I won’t name names here Rob) getting half the tent to chant my name until I did a shot with you was not quite the experience I was hoping for. I’m not a big drinker these days and my ability to do shots is in line with my ability to paddle c1. After proving to everyone at the bar I am no longer young and don’t know how to drink Tequila, I went back to serving drinks! It was a good party. My highlight was watching the lovely Matt Stephenson and Andy Kettlewell tipsily running around the tent with bin bags at 1.30 in the morning to try and help clean up. It made a big difference to clean up times the next day – so thank you very much to those 2 wonderful humans!

Sunday

Sunday was a calmer day. It was quite quiet early in the morning and so I enjoyed some gentle laps to start off with. Half way down a lap, I noticed Matt Stephenson and a group on the side running the Foamie Kayak Mini Race and so got out to take a look. Everyone had made a little kayaker and kayak out of foam and they were setting it off down a stream for it’s own little race. It was really cool to see the foamie kayaks that had been made!

I got off the river just in time for the Palm Throw Bag Olympics – another favourite event of mine. The Palm team set up a course for throw lining moves. First person round the course and then with a fully repacked throw line wins! Of course, getting a big group of people to all throw lines at the same time does get a bit prone to carnage! I imagine for spectators this was a great event to observe!

The last event of the weekend was the beginner boater-x run by Dan at Pyranha. I’m sorry I missed it Dan but I’ve heard great things about it so well done to everyone who took part and to Dan for running it!

When I left the Tryweryn on Sunday afternoon, I felt exhausted. But I also felt hugely fulfilled and happy. Events like T-fest are such a good mix of kayaking, competition, social time and just a lot of fun! I love the opportunity to see so many friends, to talk to so many great people and to be part of such a wonderful weekend. T-fest 2024 was amazing!

Thank you

THANK YOU to everyone who helped run T-fest this year, who came along and took part or who was there as a supporter. It is one of the best events in UK kayaking and I am always so glad that I attended!

Special shout out to people who got fully into the T-fest spirit and took part in everything as well! Top of my head, people that really stood out as being T-fest super stars to me this year included;

• Miriam, the lovely lady who beat me at everything and brought me a hot chocolate.
• Reece and Ewan for being such a fun duo and committing themselves to the competition!
• Dan who is only a kid but absolutely held his own against all the adults!
• Em and Gabi, who are both incredible paddlers and I love loosing to them every year! Watching them in competition mode is an awesome experience!
• Everyone who attended! It was such a nice vibe this year – and that’s all done to what lovely people came along!

And finally a really big thank you to all the amazing photographers who let me use their photos in this blog! Nick and Emma Wilson and Ant Mitchell – you guys are amazing!

See you next year for T-fest 2025!