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Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Rapids

Anyone who has had the pleasure of my company, while enjoy a few brews, over the years has heard me rant about "The Rapids" on the Corrib in Galway.

My rants usually include claims of the best river wave in the country, where any move is possible in any boat, where you could roll up with a tampon on your deck and cornflakes up your nose and only works when the tides, moon, rain, water levels, air pressure and stars align.

Thankfully, the sewage plant has cleaned the water a bit, but I have never had any proof of my other lofty claims.

Until now . . . .

Last weekend the Corrib was on full release of 16 gates, there was high pressure and there were minus low tides, this meant one thing, the rapids would be working.

And fortunately Chris was there to record the occasion and provide proof that . . .

"The Rapids" do exist ! ! !

Here is the video Chris put together, i'm sure you agree the quality is great. Enjoy.



Chris's post on the session is here


Here are a few stills from my footage

Pierce testing the Molan.

Conor Allen surfing it up.

John Staunton bouncing high.

Me flopping.

Daragh Croc launching for a blunt.


Joe Ryan getting vertical.


Steve Hynes going clean in the PX56.


Smoother surfing




Monday, February 21, 2011

The Irish Kayak Intervarsities 2011

This year it was over to UCC and CIT to host the Irish Kayaking Intervarsity’s. The varsities are a hotly contested battle over 3 days with competitions in four disciplines of kayaking: polo, whitewater, freestyle and the long distance. The competition is a well known event among young kayakers in Ireland for the paddling and the epic parties that follow. This year 12 colleges participated with somewhere in the area of 2-300 paddlers. UL were the favourites and they did not disappoint taking home the overall trophy for the second year in a row.
This year I was representing a strong contingent from G.M.I.T kayak club with about 60 paddlers making themselves noticed on the water as well as at the party!

The weekend kicked off with a polo competition at the National Rowing Centre where the Castlebar team took home gold with four strong wins.

-the winning team-
On Saturday morning at the early hour of 8am nice water levels were experienced on the Upper Bandon for the team whitewater race. The Upper Bandon is a class 3 run with several small rapids and one class 3+ drop towards the end. The race culminated at the finish line just below the main drop. This drop provided a make or break location for the teams with several swims experienced metres away from the finish. Here the home team from Cork took home gold.

-teamUCD-
In the afternoon students pitted their endurance against each other on a long distance race course also at the National Rowing Centre. K boats and high performance kayaks raced on a course of 8 k with the G.P.s and Canadian canoes having to paddle 4k. The long distance has no limit on the number of paddlers each college can enter and here G.M.I.T entered a strong team of about 30 paddlers. And received a notable amount of medals; first place in the K1, second in the Topo-duo, second + third in women’s HP and second in men’s HP.
I finished second in the men’s HP class with a tough battle against a paddler from UL kayak club. Sprinting against him for the last kilometre it was anyone’s race and I finished inches ahead of him in front of a massive crowd of vocal supporters from G.M.I.T on the bank.

-Some long distance action-
The Sunday saw the freestyle event being run on the sluice on the river Lee just outside of Cork city. Sadly the water level was not very favourable producing a very flushy hole on the day. The event was run in a ‘round robin’ format with each team of 4 having 8 minutes to freestyle it up! The 2 highest scoring runs from each competitor were then counted towards the college’s total score.

-a top secret location in the heart of Cork city-

It was then back to UCC campus for the prize giving where GMIT provided the entertainment-


Overall results:
UL 1ST, UCC 2nd and GMIT 3rd.
Big thank you to UCC and all the varsities team for producing a fantastic event. Next year will hopefully see G.M.I.T. hosting the event for the first time in Castlebar.
Photos by Nigel and Barbra honourary members of G.M.I.T.K.C.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Paddy’s New Expedition Kayak

SANY0130

Earlier this week, Paddy’s lovely, shiny, new Northshore Polar HV Kayak arrived for his forthcoming Round Ireland Expedition.

SANY0131  Paddy’s still in his last year of Outdoor Eduction at GMIT in Castlebar, Co Mayo so he dropped everything, hit the road and arrived up to Dublin to pick up his new baby.

SANY0137The Northshore Polar HV is one of the biggest composite sea kayaks we could source and is sure to be big enough to carry Paddy and his gear on his trip around Ireland.

Paddy is undertaking the trip in May/June this year and is up against some stiff competition from a couple of other groups looking to break the current record.  He will be paddling with Danny Egan and they are currently training hard.

Both Paddy and Dan are supported by I-CANOE and Kokatat Waterwear and we all wish them a safe journey.

Keep an eye on the I-CANOE blog for further updates and progress and please donate what you can to their chosen charity Irish Hospice Foundation:

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/timpeall_na_tire

For more details on the Northshore Polar HV see here:

http://www.i-canoe.com/Kayaks/Touring%25252FSea+Kayaks/Northshore+Polar+HV.html