3, 2, 1...Action!, stairs slide, nice waves, good vibes, awesome people, anticipation, bigger waves, facing fears, Serpents Tail, must make lines, holy shit, fast water, massive waves, catch your breath, feel ALIVE! Highs and Lows and Hot Tubs!!! Welcome reader to a short story of the January 2025 ULKC Epic International kayak trip. Prelude: Rewind to Jan 2013: 5 months into my journey with the ULKC I ventured to Wales for my first international kayak trip. Wales that Winter was an ice planet, we sledged down a snowy hill in our kayaks to the River Dee for an amazing week of whitewater kayaking. On that Maiden voyage the biggest challenge for me was a tricky rapid called Serpents tail! In one day I swam through it 3 times. I was determined to try and get it upright but it got the better of me! My fellow kayakers mentored me, encouraged me and rescued me and at one point created a penguin huddle to try warm me up after a Chilly swim. It was a bonding experience, something much more than any trip I had been on before. It was early on that Id to feel that I loved this club. Fast forward to late 2024 and an opportunity to return to Wales with the ULKC after more than a decade. I remembered those cold Welsh swims but also how alive I felt pushed to the limit on the water surrounded by like minded amazing people. One word popped into and stayed in my mind, YOLO, and that was it I was going back for a second bite of Wales Whitewater Kayaking! Story Time! In mid January 2025, 12 brave souls ventured by car and ferry from Limerick to North Wales. Our home base for the next week was a very nice AiRbnb in a town called Llongollen that is also home to an epic Whitewater river called The Dee! Special mention has to go to our awesome drivers, Eva, Orlagh and Podge for transporting us in un-godly early hours across a longer distance through Pembroke to our destination. Ahead of us lay 5 days of kayaking with one rest day in between. Partnering us on the trip was the adventure company FreeFlow and their professional instructors Lowri, Dave and Ben, all legends of the sport with oceans of experience.  

Day 1 Monday: After a meet and greet with our instructors and a debrief we geared up and split into two groups. In my group for the first day was Calvin, Podge, Orlagh, Eva and Holly with Lowri and Ben leading us. As I approached The Dee if felt a bit surreal to be back but nice. Excitement levels were high among everyone for what lay ahead for the next 6 days. Challenge one - Entering the Dee, there was a steep embankment slope beside the river offering two choices 1: Slide down a steep staircase at speed in your kayak or 2 bring your kayak down first to water level. We all choose the slide!!! #adrenaline-junkies The Dee changes challenge levels depending on the amount of rain and water level and early on for the first two days was at a great level for easing us into the week, nice waves, clean lines and not too many stoppers. We took turns kayaking some of the bigger rapids, catching eddies, practicing S moves and surfing options where available also! Pretty soon we reached The Serpents Tail! A larger more continuous rapid with a 50 meter lead in before you encountered the bigger waves. We got out to scout the rapid from land and I then watched as everyone their way down it. My turn. I felt calm, much calmer than before, I Ferry glided out to the center of the river, passed a rock on the left as Eva suggested before entering Serpents, paddling through it and then catching a re-circulating eddie river left at the end. Few cheers from everyone and I was smiling, felt amazing. Day 1 went perfectly for everyone, lots of nice bouncy waves, surfing opportunities and good vibes all round.

Day 2 another choice, Lap Serpents tail to hone your skills on this or a bit more chilled dayng few kilometers further up on The Dee and then complete the section from Day 1. Still early in the trip I liked the sound of a Chill day and was joined by Cathal, CJ, Eva and Eve with Dave leading us. Dave is a very mindful instructor who had us practice efficient techniques like using as few paddle strokes as possible and also completing challenges like Ferry gliding across the river with your eyes closed!! It may have been a Chilled day but the upper section also had a few very nice strong rapids. On one of the largest rapids Dave set up a Rescue scenario. Eva would be stranded on a rock in middle of rapid without her kayak and it would be up to us to rescue her. To keep Eva from swimming we decided on a "Raft rescue. Myself and Cathal walked upstream with our kayaks, paddled down to Eva through a rocky rapid. After checking how she was "Oscar for being slightly confused" we held on to each others kayaks with Eva at the back and paddled her back to the embankment, All good. Next up we had a very nice Boof off Hourseshoe falls, a 2 or 3 foot drop which everyone and soon after we were back at Serpents Tail for a second go in two days. I decided to take a few videos of everyone first for the "Gram" and for my go paddled down a center line and managed to catch an Eddie on the right where Dave was sitting in a line of sight / safety position. Again Day 2 went smoothly for everyone, all 12 of us were paddling great and we were making Lowri and Daves life very easy Towards the end of the White water section of the Dee is a feature called Town Falls. A 200 meter lead in to a larger more complex rapid that merges from a few angles on the river. The question on our minds was when we were going to run this. Not yet on Day 2 but I would be having some "interesting" encounters with this rapid later in the week!!!

Each international kayak trip we have a trip playlist, trip members submits a song or two in secret and we are then mandated to only listen to this playlist on repeat during the trip especially while driving. We then have a game of "Guess Who" to find out who submitted each song with notable mentions for best and worst song! This year's playlist was mostly very good with a few "lets say non-standard" songs, somehow those bad songs slightly grew on you! With Wednesday as a rest day we had the playlist game Tuesday night and a chance to let loose a bit and to get to know each other a bit more also. For the trip booklet (Eva's awesome creation) I revealed a few things from my past but one thing I did not reveal was that I was almost a professional poker player years back but when it came to that song game my poker face failed me and I had way too many Tells. Our Courageous Captain Isobel was picked to guess the song and she correctly guessed my song, that meant a punishment for me all in good fun. We had a rest day Wednesday and bit more time to explore our immediate surroundings and the town of LLangollen. I had noticed a structure outside our accommodation beside a small wooden building. I had not yet realised there was a large heated Jacuzzi that we had access to with our accommodation, absolute win! It's a bit of a blur but I think it was Wednesday after the town tour I was first time in this Jacuzzi and it felt amazing. Exceptional thanks has to go to Calvin for booking the accommodation with this Hot Tub Jacuzzi, absolute legend.

Day 3: Llyn Dinas Lake and Glaslyn River: To change things up a bit our instructors Lowri and Dave suggested we try another river about an hours drive from our accomodation for Thursday. Everyone was happy to go with this option. We were hearing stories of the extreme weather from back in Ireland, mostly from CJ and when we arrived at the lake let's say it was a bit Windy / Chilly. In true ULKC spirit Podge led an epic round of "Get Loose" warm up game to get our blood flowing before entering the lake, to warm up a bit more we paddled both up and down the lake surrounded by some very picturesque nature, played a game of Kayak Bulldog, I think either Holly or CJ won and then split into two groups when we entered Glaslyn river at the south of the lake. I was in a rowdy group of Podge, Eva, Calvin, Holly, Orlagh and Dave. Surfing play waves quickly turned into Party waves with No mercy given, Holly was full of song and giving us renditions from the trip playlist, Dave was Stern squirting at every opportunity along with valiant efforts from Calvin, Podge in Half Slices and extra valiant efforts in Holly and Orlagh in river runners kayaks. I don't think my Necky Blunt is able to Stern squirt, but she is a lovely boat. On the Glaslyn we had some very cool white water boulder garden sections to eddie hop on, Dave was giving us turns to lead the group and it was an awesome day! Towards the end of the Glaslyn is the most challenging section with some tricky boulder gardens needing perfect lines. Our two best kayakers on the trip Kevin and Calvin took on this part with Lowri and Dave with the rest of us spectating and cheering them on. Never a doubt they there way down the section inspiring the rest of us. Awesome day all round of White Water kayaking!

In evening times our group was bonding more over the days, wed to become more familiar with each others personalities but the thing that stood out was the sheer effort, good will, team work, fun, resiligence and discipline from everyone on the trip. Group Dinner efforts where excellent, paddlers are a hungry bunch including myself, banter was great, Games of Uno where ruthless, we had a chillout room for watching movies, in this case the Pixar Animation Cars Trilogy - A Hero's journey for Lightning McQueen, full of emotional highs and logs, Triumph and Disaster. In many ways this mirrored each of our own journeys on this Wales Kayak trip, we were each on our own Hero's journey and would be tested with challenges both on and off the water, huge highs and lows to overcome. I have been on many kayak trips but this group felt exceptional, it felt great being on this trip with these awesome people.

Day 4: Intense River Dee. After a good bit of rain Thursday evening and Friday river volume raised all around Wales including The Dee. Lowri gave us various river options but we settled on this more challenging Dee andd slightly later in the morning to be a bit more rested. There was a feeling of excitement mixed with anticipation in the air. We first scouted the Dee from a Chain Bridge to plan one of the first lines, a centre to right push to avoid a "munchy" hole before next taking on Serpents tail at a more challenging level than Monday or Tuesday. I was in group two with Dave leading myself, Isobel, Calvin and Holly. We watched group 1 of Lowri, Kevin, Beibhinn, Cathal, Eva and Podge go first before it was our turn. To the average person what we were about to do would be classed as pure terror. Fear is a real and legitimate feeling and facing it and choosing to not let it stop you shows courage, we were about to test our limits. As I walked with Isobel to the start we were both trying to prepare ourselves. Down at water level the water was moving much faster than earlier in the week. A few F@#k Yeahs later I was following Calvin as we went first. I was breathing heavily trying to get as much oxygen / energy in me as possible to paddle hard right to avoid the Munchy hole which I just about did, the wavesd getting taller, and taller, these waves may have been the biggest I was ever on. Serpents tail looked different, churning in front ready to gobble me up, a series of intimidating waves, 5, 6, 7 of them, paddling up and down these until the last one came right over my head and everything went dark. I was eaten alive, one roll later I could see again and paddled into the eddie river left gasping.

After we regrouped emotions where high. Kayaking is a sport of the heart as well as the body and mind. We love this sport and go through highs and lows and everything in between. As we continued on, numerous challenging large wave trains lay ahead to kayak through. This was turning into an awesome day kayaking, it felt like the best I have paddled, as we neared the end towards Town Falls rapids we got out for a quick scout from the Bridge overlooking it. Dave, Calvin and Myself decided to run it with other members watching and cheering us on. On the water I followed Dave as best I could in the lead in, the waves where pretty huge, I disappeared under one on the lead in but braced and popped up, continued on, spun on an eddie line just above the Balcony of Town falls, spun back to face the rapid, paddled down, caught a good line and made it through. Felt frickin awesome! Few High fives from my Wales buddies off the water. What an epic day with the ULKC. To celebrate I had an hour in the Jacuzzi while trying to hide from the dinner crew, it was our turn to cook on Friday evening and to finish the evening off we completed the Cars Trilogy movies before getting some much needed sleep.

Day 5: Highs and Lows. The final day of paddling with the ULKC in Wales had arrived. The Dee had dropped down a little bit to a "friendlier" level and we would complete the trip on The Dee. I was in Group one with Lowri leading Calvin, Pidge, Eva, Holly and myself. Stairs slide in, nice waves and plenty of wave surfing opportunities! Serpents Tail was still stronger, bigger than earlier in the week but more calmer than the previous day. All went good. I took the chance to take some footage of Calvin, Podge and Holly style some wave surfing along the way. It was a lot busier on the river on Saturday with lots of local paddlers out enjoying the water also. As we got to Town Falls, we stopped for a scout before we all decided to run it. The lead in was a bit milder than before but you still had to paddle hard through some rapids. As I got close to the "Balcony" above the main rapid I took a much further right line before descending into the rapid right to left and getting demolished in the wave. Under the water I tried to set up for a roll, gassed out, and went for a nice refreshing swim, cheers to Podge for letting me hitch a lift on the back of his kayak as the adrenaline was finally wearing off! As the saying goes Everyone Swims, it was just my turn. I also parted ways from a true love of mine, my awesome Werner Powerhouse paddle, the Dee had claimed her as a sacrifice to the River Gods. After such an Epic week of paddling with awesome people its a sacrifice I was willing to make, may you see whitewater paddling again at a future time.

Final Thoughts: There are things in life I love: Family, Friends, The Soca river and my trusty Necky Blunt kayak but I am lucky to have found and been part of something special for the better part of 12 years. More than a group of cool people or just a club, something more, something exceptional, in this case the amazing ULKC. Many of my best memories, greatest achievements, true feeling of living and feeling alive have revolved around the many epic adventures I have been on with this club and its awesome members. The people on this Wales trip were especially lovely, I had such a great time and it was a privilege to be part of this trip. Heroes all of ye! Cheers to our amazing Captain Isobel and all the other ULKC committee members for putting such an Epic trip together. Thanks for sticking around to read my story.

Until the next adventure, Peace, Richie.

ULKC Wales Class of 2025: Isobel, Calvin, Orlagh, Eva, Kevin, Podge, Eve, Beibhinn, Cathal, Conor, Holly, Richie