With all the rain that was coming down early last week I had high hopes for my first Scotland creeking trip of the season, especially as I was to give my Mafia its first real outing!
After a long drive up to Fort William on Friday night it was straight to the pub to sample the local delight, whiskey, and some fine ones there are in Scotland too! Then after a quick chat to the other guys about what we would do on the Saturday it was off to bed!
Saturday greeted us with fine weather, unfortunately! This meant that despite the rain that had fallen during the week the rivers were dry 
and what do you do in Scotland when the rivers are empty? The Etive of course!
The Etive is one of my favorite rivers and one I know really well. It runs at a variety of levels (empty to full) and can be anything from a fun paddle to scary as hell! At this low level though it was pretty friendly, so we were able to run some of the falls several times and in different ways, just what i wanted really so that I could get used to the Mafia!
I have to say that the Mafia performed very well on this run, it’s everything you want it to be when you need it as long as its paddled it proactively, which I do! I found it fast and responsive and very controlable in descent off a fall! All in all, an excellent first outing! I’m looking forward to getting it on a river that has a little more water in it! 
The Sunday brought us even less water so unfortunately we had to resort to a walk up the banks of the Leven, now theres a run for the future!
Check out the gallery for more images of the trip!
Laters,
Dan