Alex Walls Paddling: New Years Eve Paddle

Religiously we go up to my Uncles house near Barnard Castle for New Years every year, and we take the boats of course as the Tees is only 10 minutes away from his house. The Tees is what I call my 'local' run, although its over 250 miles away from my house in London, my second home is basically my Uncles and of which is not much over 1 mile from there so.

So we spent the last day of 2014 paddling. 2014 was a fantastic year, I would say the year when my paddling got serious. I ran my first class IV rivers, the highlights being running the upper Dart for the first time and it was in a huge level, disappearing to the French Alps for just over a week and doing my biggest paddling ever out there, and then the month i spent out in Southern France in the Ardeche and Allier running some easy stuff and having a blast.

So before getting a little too drunk (and suffering with the worst hangover ever on New Years Day), me and my Dad had an easy day on the Tees, running the Cotherstone to Barnard Castle section, and we followed down to Abbey Rapids and Gorge and getting out just after. Was a decent level, not too low despite the lack of rain at the time. But more importantly it was my first time paddling with my new GoPro Hero 4 Silver. Now i had dodgy settings on it, so the footage isn't the best quality. But I have edited them now so next time (either Lee Valley or the Dart in feb) it should look a bit better.

anyway here it is

A New Years Eve Paddle on the Tees