White Nile Update

Air-time at Nile Special - can't beat it!

I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to the White Nile. We had a bit of a girly training trip going on, as I was joined by fellow GB-team ladies: Lynsey Evans, Jenny Chrimes and Claire O'Hara, for 3 weeks of surfing. This was just long enough to learn the basics of some new moves and refine some old ones, but by the end of the trip I wished I'd had longer to do even more.

When I was on the Nile last year the water levels dropped, this was towards the end of my trip, meaning I only surfed Nile Special at those levels. So, when I returned this year I was able to discover some of the other low-water waves, such as Ugly Sisters wave on the usual short-day section (parallel channel to Silverback).

Jen blunting on Ugly Sisters

This is a relatively smooth wave (slower and less bounce than Nile Special) which can provide big air on both shoulders. Unfortunately there is a pourover just a little downstream, which you don't want to end up in, and an eddy which can be hard to catch if you don't power in straight after flushing. Missing the first eddy just involves a short walk over rocks but missing the second eddy as well is very hard to get back up from and could result in a long wait for the boda-drivers if this were to happen near the beginning of a session. This was always in the back of our minds whilst surfing there and put us off trying moves which could potentially involve long upside-down times/head-surfs.

Unlike when the water levels were initially dropped, the levels rose throughout each day which meant some waves worked at different times of day. This was most noticable at Hairy Lemon where morning levels were extremely low - too low for Nile Special, but good for 'club wave', the third wave of the Nile Special wave train.

Lynsey works the shoulder on Club wave

Club wave has a nice surfers-left shoulder, which can green-out, and is good for throwing right-hand moves. As it is easy to get onto (unlike Nile Special) and has an easy eddy to get back into (unlike Ugly Sisters) it makes a great wave for any beginner-surfers, something which the river lacks at some other water levels.

An alternative to Club wave for a morning session is the 'Mutts Nutts', on the 'Hair of the Dog' rapid (on the day 2 section), which worked best between 12 and 2.oopm. This wave is FAST! Really good fun; arguably the best wave on the river at low low water. It is great for big air and also out of control moves - we all perfected the 'nose-dive into mystery-move' manoeuvre on this wave. We also perfected our flatwater paddling, with over an hour of flatwater paddling involved when doing the whole section - this could be reduced by getting bodas direct to the wave (and potentially back again) but I think I'd take the flatwater paddling over 45 minutes on a boda!

By the afternoon Nile Special would come in. Which, is fast at these levels, but flushy (although still really good for some big moves) and the tow-rope is needed to get onto it.

All of the above info could be irrelevant for the time being though, as last Thursday (and was still happening the day I left) the river was high enough for Nile Special to work during the morning (although it is even flushier when the river is on its way down) and then rose each afternoon/evening to Jan 06 levels - i.e Nile Special could be surfed onto (just about) without the rope, although the rope made it far easier. This made it bigger and more retentive than it had been the previous week - just about a perfect level for big air!

More air-time at Nile Special.

I'm not sure what happens to Ugly Sisters at these slightly higher levels, I've heard the wave is still good, but the eddy just a bit pushier to get into.

At the moment nobody knows if these levels are to stay or whether they will drop back down again. But it's always good to know, whatever the level there are some big, fast waves to surf.

My trip this year was all about the surfing so, this time, I didn't run any of the back channels or, shamefully, not even the whole of the day 1 section. It seems the river-running lines are similar whatever the water-levels, however some of the lines open up at low water and become less pushy (Cuban on Itanda, Kalagala, left line Bujagali) whilst others get harder/size of the holes get bigger e.g bad place on itanda or widowmaker (which hasn't yet been run at these levels, apparently the hole is fairly large). For anyone who has been out before and is planning another trip out there, I'd suggest finding out/inspecting which lines are working before you confidently say 'I know this one, I've done it before'.

A low-water, morning level at Kalagala - spot the rocks! A far cry from the high-water waterfall. But could still produce some downtime at its afternoon levels.

It looks like I may have just about timed things right: it sounds like the Nile is about to get busy with plenty of people turning up to train for the worlds (I hate sitting in line, so thankfully there were only a few days where there were more than 5 or 6 of us on the water); and, I missed Britain's 'Cold Spell' (I heard it snowed - twice). It rained at the weekend - and looks like Shepperton and/or Sunbury could be a goer this week, although I'm not sure I'm too enthusiastic about cold water paddling just yet....

Thanks to Claire OHara for the photos of me.