Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

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BigdummySteve
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by BigdummySteve »

Bearbonesnorm wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:26 pm Thanks to John and everyone else who had a hand in the weekend. Good company, lovely weather and proof that when you put community before commercial interest, nice things can happen.
Image
Yes many thanks to all, very enjoyable weekend, my son loved it and had a great time topped of with a visit to blaenau ffestiniog for some under ground trampoline action!

Image

Really enjoyed Dave’s divide talk as well, it’s really opened my eyes to what’s possible.
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Dave Barter
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by Dave Barter »

Well done to John for organising a brilliant weekend. I hope this happens again and everyone who wasn't there will soon wish they were as they hear how we got fed baked bread, craft beer and lots of great pack rafting information. Also, it sun shined and even Stu was smiling.
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by middleagedmadness »

Looking forward to hearing some stories , and now I'm swapping jobs I get the weekends free so hopefully there's another one
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summittoppler
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by summittoppler »

Yep full on respect to John for putting the odd post on social media to get people from all over and from different outdoor disciplines to make this a real success. Everyone who provided advice and support were fantastic too :-bd

Highlights for me were:
Image20190921_201713 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Image20190921_193823 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Image20190922_135920 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

And they are so stable, my fear of being out on the water were put to one side!
ImagePIC_0034 by Jeff Price, on Flickr
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barney
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by barney »

Yup, had a brilliant weekend great to meet people and catch up with others

Cheers John... definitely gave Stu a lesson in how to officially run a raffle! 😋
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by 99percentchimp »

Cheers. Great to meet new faces and catch up with others. Great weekend... well done John.... and echo Stu’s comments about community and light touch commercial.
Learnt loads today too.
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

definitely gave Stu a lesson in how to officially run a raffle!
You wil recall who actually drew the raffle and just how entertaining it was. It would have being even more entertaining if I'd had sharp pointy things to throw out as prizes :wink:
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by BigdummySteve »

Just to expand on my previous post, messing about on the rafts was great fun, especially the two man ones with my son, but the little pack raft trip was very educational. I’d seen John’s videos and imagined a lot of knobbing about would be required. The reality was that it’s easy, packed raft, buoyancy aid and paddle in my Brompton bag and 10 minutes the other end to set up, they are also far more stable than you think.
Even with a bike on the front you would have to try hard to fall in, highly recommend, I can possibly see one in my future :-bd
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by JohnClimber »

Thanks for all you kind comments above.

It was 3 months of one hell of a lot of behind the scenes communications, and quite a few hours of lost sleep worrying about what might happen.

I'm so pleased that it went exactly to plan.

Thanks to Stuart and Dave B from these parts for there talks and demo's, you made a great difference to our evening entertainment even though not everyone was a cyclist or camper, but as I'd hoped it really put it over to the rest that cycling and camping can be used in association with pack rafting.

Although they won't see this I couldn't have done any of this weekend without the following

Jason Taylor from Tirio with his team of expert trainers and range of Kokopelli pack rafts https://www.tirio.co.uk/

Andy Toop from https://backcountry.scot/ with his range of Aplaca pack rafts
And to be honest after looking at all the different brands and rafts on show the best pack raft IHMO to carry bikes and loads is still the Alpaca Caribou https://backcountry.scot/product/alpacka-raft-caribou/

Tim Clark from Longshore International https://www.longshoreinternational.com/packrafts

Sven and Thomas who came over from German from https://www.packrafting.de/ with their range of Anfibio packrafts.

Gordon Stoving for his Sourdough baking talk and his very entertaining and high alcoholic content beer tasting session.

I didn't have much chance to take my normal amount of photos but here's a quick clip to show the set up of the pack rafts at the bike pack rafting session ran by Andy and helped be me a little
https://youtu.be/5oS0gu25XPA

Oh yeh I also shook hands while drunk with Sven from Packrafting.de for a really silly deal on a couple of pack rafts and some accessories

Image

If anyone is interested in my pile of pack rafts, like bikes they all have different jobs.
Top pack raft - Anfibio Nano SL which with it's seat backrest and new lightweight paddle weighs in at just 1729 grams.
Blue packraft - Kokopelli Recon is a super tough heavy duty and large pack sized white water self bailing pack raft.
Grey packraft - My first and still the best bike carrying packraft, the Alpaca Caribou from Andy at Backcountry*.
Green packraft - MRS Nomad S1 for longer faster paddles and calm(ish) sea crossings

Image
The same pack rafts from left to right is the same as the above photo from top to bottom.
Left pack raft - Anfibio Nano SL
2nd left pack raft - Kokopelli Recon
3rd left packraft - Alpaca Caribou
Right hand packraft - MRS Nomad S1

It just shows the different types and jobs that pack rafts do

Yes I'm now a pack raft nerd

The 3 things I got out of this
1) Getting 65 like minded people from different hobbies together and all getting on together.
2) Getting Jeff Price on his first packraft and seeing his face light up when he realised how stable they were (Jeff can't swim and is scared of water)
3) When getting home the wife saying to me "I really want to have a go on a pack raft"


* If you want an Alpaca bike carrying Caribou but can't afford it, please message me and I'll ask Andy to give you the same 6 month interest free deal that he gave me. He does not advertise this on his website.
Last edited by JohnClimber on Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ScotRoutes
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by ScotRoutes »

JohnClimber wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:30 pm
2) Getting Jeff Price on his first packraft and seeing his face light up when he realised how stable they were (Jeff can't swim and is scared of water)
3) When getting home the wife saying to me "I really want to have a go on a pack raft"
This, and this. Folk are really quite surprised when they have a shot in one. My Mrs has one too now!
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by JohnClimber »

ScotRoutes wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:54 pm This, and this. Folk are really quite surprised when they have a shot in one. My Mrs has one too now!
At least I have a spare or two that she can use now as well :wink:
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by summittoppler »

JohnClimber wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:30 pm 2) Getting Jeff Price on his first packraft and seeing his face light up when he realised how stable they were (Jeff can't swim and is scared of water)

Yes they really are that stable, even with a shire horse of a bike on the front!
Cheers mate :-bd
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

It was 3 months of one hell of a lot of behind the scenes communications, and quite a few hours of lost sleep worrying about what might happen.
Don't worry John, it'll start to feel easier once you get to the fifth one and almost natural by the time you've done ten :wink:
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by Borderer »

It sounds great. Do one in Scotland next time?
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by whitestone »

At least, unlike bikes, they pack up small :lol:

Thanks for all that you did John. Cath and I enjoyed it, hell we even managed to stay up past our bedtime both nights :roll:

It's been twenty years since I did any sort of paddling and even then it was only very occasional, probably half a dozen trips out on the water in the twenty years before that. So it surprised me as the complete novice I am just how different in handling the two packrafts I used in the taster/training sessions were.

Image

We did the "packrafting 101" and the "openwater wizard" sessions. The first was by necessity very much about the basics and of course because it was all new, just inflating the rafts took a while, etc., etc. The second session went much smoother and while we didn't inflate the rafts in the claimed five minutes it was much quicker than in the morning just because we'd learnt the faffing in the morning. The second session was much more interesting as it covered how to read and use the wind and terrain.
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by ScotRoutes »

Borderer wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:53 am It sounds great. Do one in Scotland next time?
Andy Toop had a packraft/adventure biking event last year on Speyside. Might be worth promoting him to repeat it? Lots of potential in the Borders too.
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by ScotRoutes »

Andy is the man at backcountry.scot.
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by JohnClimber »

I've just edited my post above showing the different sizes of pack rafts to show that one size does not fit all

Image

Can't wait for see Jeff's mini movie from the weekend
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by summittoppler »

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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by 99percentchimp »

Yes please :-bd :grin:
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Re: Pack rafting Sept 20/21/22 in North Wales - 5 ranges of pack rafts to test for free

Post by JohnClimber »

99percentchimp wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 11:43 am
Yes please :-bd :grin:
Gonna try and extend this trip up to do some bits that I want to do on and around Skye
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