Here you go just back from Iran and another descent of the Sezar and
Bakhtyaria rivers more on another thread and my web page will be updated
soon as I get the films back from being developed.
Donald Bean this is from my introduction to Donald in my book buy the
book if you want to read Donald's account of his life in kayaking
It is written in the present as Donald was alive when the book was
published. HE has a surviving nephew but no other family and most of his
estate was left to the BCU for youth and disability projects I think
DONALD BEAN.
Where to start? For anyone who has met Donald, he needs no introduction
- money changers in Kathmandu recognise him four years on. He stands out
in the world of canoeing. (Though he paddles a kayak he will have none
of this Americanisation of the English language). I first met Donald
way back when he must have been a mere youth, in 1979 at the first Mike
Jones Rally I organised in North Wales. He was one of the 200 hardy
souls who turned up on that cold January weekend to paddle the Dee. On
the Saturday night we had a film show in the Town Hall and at the end of
the show, after I had thanked everyone for coming and was packing up,
this slightly built man came up to me and offered his thanks to me for
running the event and hoped that I could make it an annual event. You
remember people like that, dressed in a suit and tie with his trademark
trilby hat on his head; he stood out from all the others’ jeans
jerseys and trainers. He was the one paddler who came and said
“Thanks”. Four years later, when Pete Knowles and I were running
our first “Çoruh River Trips” in Turkey, Donald approached us
saying that he could not take two weeks off work concurrently but would
like to come for one week. This did not fit with our plans and so it
had to wait until 1985 for Donald, now retired, to come on a trip down
the Çoruh. I met the group at Erzurum airport, where Donald saw me in
the waiting crowd, doffed his trilby at the guard - oblivious of the uzi
machine gun he toted - walked over, and explained that he had to go back
in (past the uzi) to collect his luggage. The guard - dressed in full
combat gear, helmet and flak jacket and standing in the full heat of the
sun when it must have been at least 35°C in the shade - shrugged his
shoulders and allowed him back in. Twenty minutes later when we were
safely in my minibus driving down the tarmac airport road to Erzurum and
Donald remarked,
“This is exciting!”
“Not really,” I replied thinking of the road (if you could call it a
road) alongside the river that we would drive later that week.
“Oh it is. You see I've never been out of Britain before, except in
the army and that was not going abroad - that was just moving Britain
abroad. The tents were arranged the same as in Stafford and the food
was the same. It was just hotter and more flies.”
This was when Donald was 65. A few years later on another Çoruh River
trip I saw Donald get swept into one of those micro eddies that form at
the top of a headwall. Donald, never the most aggressive of paddlers,
was never going to paddle out of this eddy. I was sitting in my kayak
in an eddy on the opposite side of the river and watched the situation
develop. Donald, true to form gave it a go; you could see all the
patient coaching from Sammy Crymble and others come to the fore as
Donald paddled up the eddy, leaned downstream on his paddle and was
immediately swept back to where he had come from: he did not have the
speed to exit the eddy. Not to worry, Donald repeated the manoeuvre
with the same result. Several attempts later, Donald, tiring now, tried
again; this time he capsized but was far enough out into the stream not
to return to the eddy. Donald has much practice in swimming, an almost
daily occurrence on the Çoruh in my experience. He has it down to a
fine art: given the choice of two people to rescue I’d choose Donald
every time. He is organised. He will exit his boat, after an attempt
at a roll, allegedly 100% reliable in the pool but seldom seen in anger;
then, holding on to his paddle, he will make it to the rear of his kayak
and await assistance in the handbook-approved manner. This is what he
did on this occasion. We watched as the bow of Donald's vertical boat
bounced down the long head wall.
“Where’s Donald?” asked one of the other customers, not au fait
with Donald's habits.
“He’s at the other end of his boat” I replied. Just then Donald's
Boat lurched upwards about 3m as it/Donald hit a submerged obstacle and
Donald appeared, just, still holding the kayak and paddle. Later, after
he had been rescued, Donald came up with another of his gems.
“Gosh, that was exciting!”
“You had us worried there", was all I could reply.
“No, sometimes I think swimming down the rapid is more exciting than
paddling it - you should try it some time Dave,” Donald, totally
unfazed, commented.
“Weren’t you scared at all down in there Donald?” asked one of
the party.
“Oh no! You see I do yoga every week and it is the Yogic philosophy
of life that my mortal body may die but my Yogic soul is immortal and
will live forever! So don't worry.”
“It worries me! If you should die, Donald, think of the newspaper and
media flak I would get, taking a 69 year old down a grade IV-V river.”
Logical as ever, in his own way, Donald replied, “ Oh don't worry
about that, I want to carry on paddling as long as I can and I will
write explaining this and exonerate you from all responsibility.” (He
duly did and I will continue taking him on trips.)
Donald, before he retired, was deputy Treasurer of Staffordshire County
Council, an accountant from the Old School where his word is his bond.
I am sure Donald cannot tell a lie. His accounts of events,
particularly the size of rapids, may be economical with the veracity,
but this is not deliberate; it will be the way he will have seen the
event; that hole he went through was the biggest hole he went through
though perhaps not the biggest on the rapid as reported. In 1992 he
received a MBE from the Queen for “services to the community", and
also accompanied some of the Duke of Edinburgh Award students, whose
canoeing expedition in France he had assessed, to St James's Palace to
receive their Gold awards. The same year, despite being 71, Donald was
on the British Youth Expedition to the Grand Canyon (see below). Whilst
waiting in Flagstaff we were in a cafe having breakfast and after
serving Donald coffee the waitress remarked that she loved his accent.
“Where are you from?”
“Great Britain,” replied Donald, explaining at length and with great
pride about the British Youth Expedition.
“Gee and I bet you've met the Queen!”
“Yes, I did earlier this year” was Donald's reply, oblivious of the
waitress's mocking tone which quietened her attitude!
This inability to lie, no, that's the wrong word, this inability to tell
you something that he is not sure of, means that I could not get Donald
to tell me more about the three big trips he did in the 1930’s. He
cannot remember the detail and without his lost note books/diaries he
cannot confirm what he thinks he remembers of these trips over sixty
years ago. A pity, since, from what I have pieced together from little
anecdotes from around camp fires on river banks over the years, they
seem to have been much more than just a long paddle. But then, what
seems exceptional to me now was commonplace to Donald. He gives a
unique view into the past. Donald has no prejudice. Either the status
quo or change as it happens are accepted with Candide-like equanimity.
His accounts of the past are told as they were; seldom with a judgement
of the past or the present implied or stated. He seldom gives an
editorial comment.
In message <2j6bruFu2fe3U1.DeleteThis@uni-berlin.de>, David Kemper
<david.kemper.DeleteThis@ntlworld.com> writes
>
>
>"Ce Dallaway" <cdallawa.DeleteThis@ttsonline.net> wrote in message
>news:b098ef80.0406140438.736e4f36@posting.google.com...
>> For part of my coach 3 assessment I need to find out who Donald Bean
>> was. Can anyone help?
>
>I knew Don Bean fairly well as we both belonged to Stafford Canoe &
>Watersports Club. Don passed away about 2 years ago in his 80s. He was
>still an active paddler and had recently been to Nepal again. Don had no
>family AFAIK and had been the County Treasurer for Staffordshire until
>he retired. He helped many local groups by providing them with boats and
>other canoeing gear. Locally we still see boats with DB stickers on the
>bows (using licence plate letters). As far as I could tell Don lived for
>canoeing. Sadly missed.
>
>David
>
>
--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk" target="_blank">http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Who was Donald Bean? 
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