{"id":4998,"date":"2026-06-06T08:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/?p=4998"},"modified":"2026-06-06T09:26:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:26:31","slug":"old-dogs-new-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/?p=4998","title":{"rendered":"Old Dogs, New Tricks."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’m sat in the eddy below Mollia watching as Brian floats over to me, both of us feeling pretty overwhelmed it seems, smiles of relief or happiness? Mollia, on the Sesia river, Valsesia, a rapid of significance, so significant it was never on my radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Until, this year, video clips started appearing on various social media feeds, low levels, so far. Um, I can see the line, from a thousand miles away, sat on my sofa, in a different country! We’ve been on the Sesia 4 days and have spent the last two with Tommy from Riversoul. Tommy has been showing us the river and coaching us to make better lines, to make use of the water and its features. The ‘we’ is myself and Brian, we’re sponsored paddlers these days, not cos of our ability, cos of our age, pensioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mollia has been mentioned in conversations over the past weeks, Today, not a word, not a murmur or any reference, it doesn’t exist, until…. We have just finished our second lap on the sprint, shouldered our boats and walked up the bank to the car park, dumped our boats and de brief the run. We’ve been making lines and the sun is shining in our world, when, the mood shifts as Tommy asks, Mollia? Gulp! I answer first, after a couple of moments of thought, “yea” Brian moments later nods in agreement. It’s been a good bit of kidology on Tommy’s part, carry our boats away from the river, alleviating any pressure that could have been created by leaving them riverside, assuming we were going run it. Tommy reaches for his phone, he needs to speak to Davide, we passed him and his group on the river earlier, the groups need to merge to set safety and line of sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long 20 minutes later Davide’s group come into sight. There’s a bit of the usual river faff, we’re not the only ones to be running the rapid for the first time. I am asked a couple of times by people carrying their boats away from the river if I am running ‘it’, I mumble a response. I have already told Tommy if I go quiet there’s nothing wrong, I’m just processing. There’s a lot of processing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the water we float downstream to inspect from rocks river left, immediately above the rapid. We are told it’s difficult to see the line we have seen from the road at river level. I exit my boat, walk down the rocks, note my marker on the water, a riffle on the surface as it approaches the first drop. I don’t speak to anyone, nothing to say, it’s yes or no, and I have already made my decision I just walk back to the Zet, climb in, adjust the ratchets and snap my deck in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A signal from Tommy, now perched atop a rock, he has line of sight to Davide at the bottom of the rapid, river right, with a throwline, for the last stopper move, just in case, although at this level it’s not much of a keeper as it is when the river is higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I break our into the slow moving water, I see my marker and drop into the first feature, landing, I draw myself to the right and set my line for the crucial second drop, I need to land that one ok so I can be ready for the main event, a ramp of white water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ramp of whiter water, from Brian’s view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now I’m not known for smiling much, but, I am happy on the inside, I just don’t always show it. Davide tells me later he saw me smiling as I emerged from the maw of white water the ramp creates, I knew I had the line, I wasn’t going to make the flare, but I was stable and knew I could hit the stopper straight and punch it. I hear shouts and whoops of approval from the river bank as I float through a melee of boats. Turning round I look back up stream and watch as Brian pilots the DRS down a similar route to my own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Later in the week a friends’ son, Jacob Laing runs the rapid at higher levels, he’s 14, one of the young pups and is charging into his boating career. Brian and I, older, by a considerable number of years are more strolling, meandering through ours. Jacob tells me he wants to run it higher, I have no doubt, he will. I want to run it higher, I might. Jacobs skills are surpassing mine and his dads Mike, but we can still grow better beards than him, for now! There’s life in the old dogs yet!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Tommy Fasoli, Davide Longoni, Elena Luciotti, Riversoul, Robinhood Watersports and Tim Moors for pictures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RIVERSOUL – Centro di canoa e rafting in Valsesia<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist Watersports Equipment | Robin Hood Watersports<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m sat in the eddy below Mollia watching as Brian floats over to me, both of us feeling pretty overwhelmed it seems, smiles of relief or happiness? Mollia, on the Sesia river, Valsesia, a rapid of significance, so significant it was never on my radar. Until, this year, video clips started appearing on various social … <\/p>\n

Read more “Old Dogs, New Tricks.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canoeing-kayaking"],"featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4998"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5048,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998\/revisions\/5048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsonlyahill.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}