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Tim at an early age in the alps. He looks very similar today...
Name: Tim Burne
Age: 23
University: University College London
Subject: Biochemical Engineering
Year of Study: Final year of a 4 year MEng. Spending this final year at uni in Lyon next to the one and only Hawaii Sur Rhone.
Paddling Experience...?
The first photo I remember seeing of myself in a kayak is in about 1987. We used to go on family holidays to the Ardeche and Allier rivers in France where
I remember paddling borrowed fibreglass kayaks and breaking wooden paddles. Aged 10 I went on my first Alps trip with Sheffield based Broomhall Canoeclub.
I only did the easy grade II rivers and remember being terrified by the size of the Durance. I’m now a member of Imperial Canoe Club (despite being from neighbouring
UCL) and for the past three years, most of my trips have been with them, or other members of the club. I’ve tried to make the most of university summer holidays,
earning money in the first half then going kayaking for the second. I’ve been to a fair few countries now, short trips (<10 days) to France, Pyrenees, Norway/Sweden
and all over the UK, and longer ones to the Zambezi, White Nile (inc. Kenya), British Columbia, and Peru.
What's your favourite river?
For me Peru is a trip that really stands out as being different. I paddled with two good friends on expeditions down the Colca and Cotahuasi Canyons. These were the first self supported
multiday trips I’d ever done and I absolutely loved them. The feeling of complete isolation, the scenery, the atmosphere.
On the Nile trip I was lucky enough to meet some fellow kayakers as I flew into Kenya. One of them worked for a rafting company and after a few
days paddling invited me to join them on a first descent. Although much less isolated than the Peruvian Canyons, it was intimidating all
the same as the horizon line of a rapid would appear and you had no idea what lay below.
I’m looking forward participating in an expedition that will hopefully capture both of these elements of expedition kayaking.
What was your first boat?
The first boat I paddled regularly was a Dancer XS my dad bought. Even so I needed huge hip pads to stop me rattling around. The first boat
I bought myself was an Inazone 230 in 1999. I had this until I wrote it off with my first (and last) ever swim from it four years later. I
still have it in my garage though in an entertainingly modified form.
I still maintain that the Inazone is one of the best kayak designs of all time.
So, when was your last swim?
As alluded to above, this was an embarrassing incident involving overenthusiasm too much of a casual approach (and of course a little bad luck)?! The Aberglasyn
Gorge was tonking, the three of us had just completed the Colwyn in playboats and were on a high. As we'd all run the gorge a million and one times
before we bombed on down. Halfway down I caught an edge and failed every attempt at rolling. I don't remember much of the swim, but I somehow managed to
clamber out by myself and my buddies rescued the boat at the bottom. It had large holes in both the bow and stern. Still, we all learn from our mistakes
and I guess its good to swim once in a while to remind you that at the end of the day its the river that is in control.