Clare Glens Sunday 18th September 2011

Clare Glens 50cm-42cm

Kanumesse Update 2

1. Wai Har models a new paddle wheel boat

2. Zets new carbon playboat with insane leg lock system

3. The new H2O Nano blade. Super stiff, light and strong

4. Full swing at the all you can eat/drink buffet

Kanumesse Update 1

Well we've just finished attending a very busy Kanumesse in Germany. There are lots of new and exciting products to come but this is just a brief flavor of what we saw:

1. New Zen rescue PFD from NRS based on their popular Ninja vest.

Kayaking Slovenia

So This September 8 Irish outdoor instructors and 1 Kiwi decided that they would round off the summer with a trip over to the Soca valley in Slovenia!!! After a long low summer on the barrow it was nice to get on some quality moving water

3 of us would drive from Ireland with all the kayaks and gear and the rest would Fly to munich and rent a car. The drive itself is a big ould spin taking in 9 countries and roughly 2200km from Waterford to Bovec in the soca valley! all in the drive including breaks, tunnel and ferry took about 30hrs.

Once we arrived we found the river at a very low level even for September locals told us it was particularly low afetr over a month of High temperatures and no rain, luckly our first night and day it bucketed down rain causing the river to rise slightly.

We started on the Slalom course which in the guide we had was graded at 4/4+ however we would give it a solid 3+ tight and technical! As we expected the river lived up to its rep of being S turn city with Boofs, Flares and rock spins to be made all over the place!!

Once off the river Slovenia is an amazing place with great people and amazing food and best of all its all dirt cheap we ate out every night and the cost was usually about €10-15 ahead for food & drinks (It was a big feed).

The season on the Soca starts in April and runs till October and judging by the amount of people there in September id say it gets very busy in the peak summer season!!

While out there we managed to get a day with the New Liquid Logic Stomper 80 whilst one of the girls paddled it for most of the day she loved it and then I took it for a spin and wow it is smooth, holds edge so well and moves on command I cant wait to take the 90 for a spin!!

All in all Slovenia is a great place to take a weeks kayaking with even enough to entertain in Low water!! The Perfect place for aspiring level 4 skills kayakers to go and get some practice!

Boat rental out on the river is also a cheap option if you only want to make a quick dash over Alpin action charge €18 a day and have a great stock of brand new kayaks, Fly into Venice or Munich and rent a car it really can be a cheap ass trip!!

Bliss Stick Mystic Lightening

In preparation for the Sick line extreme race I've been looking for a new boat something fast something shiny and something light!, fortunately I kept coming back to my trusty Bliss Stick Mystic which is now over 4 years old but sill love it, The rivers we've paddled or the good times we've had I have a kind of sentimental attachment surely its not really that heavy….

At first look she tips the scales at a mega 25kg’s ouch yes she really is that heavy so I set to work weight saving,

After removing the seat, footrest, front and rear pillars, airbags, throw line, bit of water, random foam pads, Due to the big water I decided to keep the original thigh braces with cup and the backrest system as standard,

and back on the scales at 16.38 kg, right. now to keep the weight down

Firstly The Seat

So out with the old seat,

 

at 2.38KG she is a big plastic beast! So working with I-Canoe has its bonuses with some hunting we manage to find “here's one we prepared earlier” lightweight Bliss Stick Seat weighing in at only 0.68kg’s

Then I chopped down the Pillars

 

Starting at 1.14kg for the two I managed to take 0.16kg off the rear pillar and another 0.34kg from the front pillar saving 0.5kg

Next was the footrest,

Removing the standard Bliss stick footrest with its wide plastic and metal bars weighed in at a healthy 1.32kg this was replaced by foam blocks after making myself a template

Then cutting foam to fit

The footrest alone is now down to a tantalising 0.3kg

so with the boat back on the scales here is the moment of truth has the Mystic diet actually worked,

minus all of this stuff

 

she's down to…….

Just 18.6KG

 

Test

To obviously check how this was I rounded up some of I-Canoe’s Stock boats to test there weights

Lightened Bliss Stick Mystic	18.6KG
Liquid Logic Stomper 80	21KG
Wave Sport Habitat 74	20.55KG
Jackson Villain S	21.8KG
2011 Jackson Hero SL	18.8KG
2010 Jackson Hero SL	19.34KG
Riot Magnum 74	23.4KG

A successful days outfitting,

British National Marathon Championships, Worcester, UK. 27-28th August

The weekend started with an early morning start leaving Dublin port on a long and slow moving path for Worcester, UK

Once we arrived we set up the tents on a quiet corner of the Worcester Race Course. This was followed by a quick paddle to learn the course and to practise the portage. As the night closed in we headed for a hearty dinner and early night before the Saturday races.

Saturday was upon us bright and early with clear skies and warm sun showering the tents. As competitors and coaches arrived and the course filled up their was a buzz off excitement around the place.

The venue was Worcester Canoe Club a large clib house located on the banks of the magnificent River Seven. The course ran from just downstream of the club heading upstream in a lap based course with different distances for each group. The portage was a tight beach in and beach out set up with tough hill to get up from the river. The track was grass and tarmac with lots of spectator space. The finish line was then back outside the club house for all to see.

With Wave upon wave of starts heading up the course all under strict instructions from the started giving the commands, The constant show of coloured boats and determined faces leading off into the distance, With different classes and distances set for each group some were off to achieve just a single lap, whilst others the tough 7 lap course encompassing 6 portages.

As a team Salmon Leap were one of the biggest clubs in attendance and with the addition of Neil Fleming the Irish were among the most successful,

with Neil Sweeping the honours both senior men's K1 and with the help of trusty partner Peter Egan taking the Senior men's K2 title as well.

Also in the Senior men we saw some excellent performances from Dermot Hudson (6th) and Pedro Lopez (9th)

In the under 18 junior men saw Sean McCarthy continue his excellent season with a 10th Place finished closely by Iomhar Macgiolla Phadraig with a noble performance paddling the last lap and a half without his rudder. Following them up was Dan Grimes (16th) Donal Devenney (18th) Kevin Croc (19th) and Brian Mcguinness (20th) once again the curse of the Zedtech continued one lost rudder earlier and Bearach then taking a spill early on leaving him out of contention. This was followed by Brady dropping out halfway through to record his first DNF of the season.

Through to the under 16 and Jack O Hagan who has been in flying form all season coming back from a bad injury to just go faster and faster with every session took a well deserved 15th in a very competitive class. Down the field Jack Seery took an unlucky spill off the start line got himself back into contention with an excellent performance pushing himself up into 24th Place just in front of Michael Croc in 26th. Unfortunately Fiachra ran out of steam clocking up his first DNF.

Down to the U12 category with Kate McCarthy steaming off the start line with an excellent start pushing her right up into contention and coming in a very good third place this was followed on the Sunday by an excellent K2 performance with Kieran Kilbane taking a well deserved 5th place these are 2 of Salmon Leaps youngest athletes and definitely have strong bright careers ahead of them.

In the U14s Brian, Mark and Osin have been making a splash all season training daily with huge improvements and strong performances this was their first international race with a tough field Mark came home in 29th just in front of Brian who took a spill just metres from the line and Osin in 35th Place a great achievement in their first attempt.

Into the veteran classes with some very strong performance Tadgh de Barra took a strong 2nd place staying with the lead group from the start in the over 34’s this was followed by Liam McCarthy continuing his fine form in the over 49’s with a 5th place.

Then the one man who like a wine just gets better with age, Deaglan O’ Drisceoil (Digger) taking the win on the over 44’s category by over 2 minutes in his distinct bright orange Nelo he is sure to reek havoc in the coming season giving many of the seniors a run for there money

The Sunday was followed with K2 racing again with some very strong performances and some just blowing up after 2 hard races. Needless to say the bus journey home was a quiet affair!

Well done to all and here's some videos of the weekend

K1

K2

New Gear

This week we received delivery of a number of new products.

1. Astral Willis 500: A lightweight version of the popular Willis PFD designed primarily for racing.

2. Liquid Logic Stomper: The Stomper is Liquid Logic's new flat hulled Creeker featuring the new flip up backrest.

3. Hurricane Tracer 165: A 23kg plastic sea kayak??? Yep that's right. Book a spin in our demo now!!