Canolfan Tryweryn (now officially re-named as the National White Water Centre) was established in 1972 to provide whitewater facilities for kayakers and canoeists. Over the last 20 years the centre has expanded and developed and is now the UK's leading whitewater centre welcoming thousands of canoeists and kayakers every year.

Located on the banks of the Tryweryn River, the centre offers 7.5km (4.7 miles) of classic Welsh whitewater. The elevation at the Chipper is 250m dropping to 167m in Bala. Because the Tryweryn is a dam-controlled river (rather than rain-fed), there is often water available here when all the other rivers are dry. The average dam release is 9 or 10 cumecs. A cumec is short-hand for one cubic metre of water released every second; also cms or m3/s (m3s-1). A 9 or 10 cumec release makes the upper/centre section a grade 3/4 river with both technical sections (Graveyard) and steep drops (Ski Jump, Chapel Falls), and the lower section (from the centre to Bala), continuous grade 2/3 with one grade 4 drop.