Dagger Katana Cross Over Kayak

Earlier this week we received our first ever delivery of the new Dagger Katana kayak. 

I took some quick photos of it and the Wavesport Ethos side by side, just to give you an idea of how similar/different the two kayaks are.

Katana hull - very rounded with no sharp edges.

Ethos hull - flatter hull with that edge running towards the tail.

Both 10ft long.

You can really see the differences in the rail here.

Both have similar amounts of rocker.

Conor Macken 2013 Paddling

2013 was a pretty big year for myself in Irish paddling, It marked the year were I made the switch to the senior Irish Freestyle Team.

The year kicked off with Team trials at the national water-sports centre in Nottingham.
The venue was decided to make it as fair as possible.
At team trials it was a tough fight but I managed to come out Joint first with fellow IFT members Barry Loughnane and Tom Dunphy.

Space Godzilla Inlet wave, Nottingham

After team trials there was a lack of freestyle competitions due to the water and "unusable features" such as Sluice in Dublin, not my words ha but there was however a few training days used to boost Irish paddling and try and make some funds for the Team at the same time. I carried on padddling most weekends up at sluice or a few days down running some stuff in Wicklow to try best to keep my paddling levels up, I even managed to get a quick session in on Slane castle weir at flood levels which was a welcome change.

Everything from there then led to the world championships at the Nantahala Outdoor Centre in North Carolina U.S.A.
Thanks to some fundraising with Irish freestyle training days, Irish Freestyle calender sales, support from canoeing Ireland and the "deap" pockets of the team member we ended up having a full Junior mens and mens team.

2013 Team before the Opening ceremony in Bryson City, NC

My personal paddling didn't go too great with a finish I wasn't happy with it but we had some excellent results from two of our Juniors Billy Brett and David McClure taking 9th and 10th place respectively.

Training in My Custom PeakUK Speedskin cagdeck

Late night composite repairs

Overall the worlds was still a great trip and a new experience all the same. We were living practically wild for the few weeks we were there and yes I would do it all over again. 

Next seasons big trip Ill be off to Uganda to stay on the hair lemon and experience some of the worlds biggest whitewater in hopefully some new custom peak UK gear.

want to thanks my various sponsors from the year namely Watershed Dry bags, Surfplugs, Jones engineering group, The DIT Sports and recreation service and of course I-Canoe.

Here is a short video I put together of my year the way I see it best and Heres to an even better 2014 for paddling!

New Canoe For Barretstown

It was with great pleasure that we were able to deliver a new Old Town Saranac 146 XP Canoe to the Barretstown Camp in Co. Wicklow yesterday.  Our resident canoeing expert, Mark Coleman even had time for a quick paddle to test out the new canoe.

Barretstown is located on a 400 acre estate complete with it’s own private lake – perfect for canoeing in a safe environment!  Barretstown chose the Old Town Saranac 146 XP model due it’s stability, but also due to the fact that it has padded seats and adjustable back support.

We look forward to continue supporting Barretstown in 2014 with equipment support, advice and fundraising efforts.

Barretstown was founded by Hollywood actor Paul Newman in 1994 and modelled on his renowned Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut, USA.  Barretstown serves children affected by serious illnesses – primarily cancer and serious blood diseases – from Ireland, Britain and throughout Europe, and their families.  Barretstown is supported by donations and the fundraising efforts of corporate supporters, individuals and community groups.

Paddle Expo 2013 - Report 2

Mmmm, shiny composite playboat.

New Plastic Valley Gemini

Nice new racing PFD range from Hiko (will be in stock in time for Christmas)

New Dagger Katana river touring kayak

Core Paddles, due in stock in 2014

Rear of the Liquid Logic Stinger XP

New Shred Ready helmet for 2014

Camo Werner Paddles anybody??

New Wavesport Kayaks colours for 2014.

New leprechaun sized spray decks from Seals Skirts (they are actually really detailed display models)

Hello 2014, You’re Looking More Expensive Than Last Year!

Right, at this stage you’ve probably seen/heard what most of the bright and shiny new gear for 2014 is going to look like.

What you may not have heard is that (nearly) all of it is going up in price!  Recession or not, the price of raw materials, labour, transport, etc.. are all still increasing.  Some of the increases below happened a full 12 months ago but either our distributor or us subsidised the true price, until now.

Price changes typically occur between October and December of any given year.

The List below is a summary of the biggest movers and shakers for 2014.  N.B. 2014 pricing for Wilderness, Mad River, Dagger and Wavesport is already in effect.  2014 pricing for Liquid Logic becomes active at the start of December.

Our advice to you, our customers, would be if there is a canoe or kayak you are considering purchasing in the near future, contact us know as we may still be able to source it for you at the 2013 price.

So in no particular order:

Liquid Logic Stomper White Water Kayak

2013 RRP 1100e

2014 RRP 1200e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Whitewater_Kayaks.112/Steep_Creekers.158/Liquid_Logic_Kayaks.24/LL-STOMP-80/Liquid_Logic_Stomper_80.1533.html

Wilderness Systems Tempest 165 & 170 Sea Kayak

2013 RRP 1200e

2014 RRP 1300e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Touring_Sea_Kayaks.113/Wilderness_Systems.33/TEMP170/Wilderness_Systems_Tempest_170.430.html

Mad River Journey 156 Canoe

2013 RRP 950e

2014 RRP 1000e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Canoes.32/Mad_River_Canoe.39/MR-JOURNEY-156/Mad_River_Journey_156.1535.html

Wavesport Recon 70/83/93 Creek Kayak

2013 RRP 1200e

2014 RRP 1250e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Whitewater_Kayaks.112/Steep_Creekers.158/Wavesport_Kayaks.29/WS-RECON-83/Wavesport_Recon_83___Medium.1924.html

Wavesport D65/D75 River Running Kayak

2013 RRP 700e

2014 RRP 750e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Whitewater_Kayaks.112/River_Running_Kayaks.159/Wavesport_Kayaks.29/WSD65CLUB/Wavesport_D65_Diesel_-_Club_Spec.2079.html

Dagger MX 7.5/8.0/8.5 River Running Kayak

2013 RRP 700e

2014 RRP 800e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Whitewater_Kayaks.112/River_Running_Kayaks.159/+/DAGGER_MX_8.5/DAG-MX-8.5.1918.html

Dagger Jitsu 5.5/5.9/6.0 Playboat

2013 RRP 1050e

2014 RRP 1100e

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Kayaks.21/Whitewater_Kayaks.112/Freestyle_Kayaks.157/Dagger.66/Dagger_Jitsu/Dagger_Jitsu.2006.html

This is just a small selection of the price increases that are due to come through and only includes price increases we are currently aware of.

If you are considering purchasing any canoe/kayak in the near future, contact us know as we may still be able to source it for you at the 2013 price.  Phone 01-6205666.

Paddle Expo, Part 1, Peak

Peak custom lineup

New Peak Freestyle PFD.

New Peak River Runner PFD.

New Peak River Guide PFD.

Peak Custom Drysuit.

Peak Custom Drysuit-Deck.

All coming in early 2014.

Odhrán McNally’s Wild Water Road-Trip, 2013

This year I was very happy to be selected along with three other juniors to represent Ireland on the Junior National team travelling to the ICF WWR World Championships held in July in Lofer, Austria.

I have been training and competing at Wild Water racing for two years, I am interested in most kayaking disciplines but I train and compete in WWR most of all. When I started out paddling with my older brothers at the age of eight, I’d no idea that this challenging, exciting, sometimes sketchy sport would become such an important part of my life.

All those Saturdays of getting up early, winter and summer, driving across to Strawberry beds (thanks, mam!) when staying in a warm bed would have been a lot nicer. But it all paid off over a weekend last ­­­­­­­­feburary at national selections on the river Inny where I was selected for the irish team.

Getting to the championships was an adventure in itself going overland in a campervan with my parents and one of my brothers; we travelled through quite a few countries over a few days, although it has to be said I probably slept and ate my way through quite a few of them 

When we arrived in Lofer ( a really nice alpine town), it was just recovering from the flooding that had occurred in June across Europe. Some of the bridges over the river had been washed away and there had been a few landslides. I wondered how it would be ready for the Championships but incredibly it was, paths were built, bridges appeared almost overnight and the flags went up and all was good. This is when the excitement really started - I couldn’t wait to get on the water.

I trained on the river as much as possible and it was a real challenge at times when the levels both rose and dropped before the competition days. It’s incredible to have the opportunity to train and race on a river like the Saalach with its levels changing so often, and I really hope to go back there again.

When the rest of the team arrived we trained with our coaches, reading the river and getting the lines right. Each day the water was different and this presented lots of challenges. We were so used to the Liffey and it’s usually flat and fairly predictable. This river offered a totally new experience.

The Opening, Closing and Medal ceremonies are pretty cool, with lots of formality, local bands parading through the town and all the teams walking behind, waving their own National flags and wearing their team gear. After the Opening on the 9^th, the competition got going on July 10^th with racing in the Individual Classic. I achieved 22^nd in this and in the individual sprint race 29^th place.

In the team events we gained a lot of experience and though they didn’t go as well for us as we’d hoped we realised that we have a lot of work to do to compete against the other athletes at World Championship level. We had some down time too and tried out our Golf skills on the crazy golf course, ate a whole lot of Pizza, carried out running repairs on the boats and made a lot of friends with Juniors from all over the world.

Back in Ireland, it was back to the old Liffey, flat and predictable . I took a two-week break, relaxed, didn’t do much, just let my body recover from the 3 week paddling adventure.

In my spare time when I’m not training or I have a day off I can usually be found down at the local trails in the Park where we have a pretty sweet setup and I’m either digging or riding the jumps with some friends and my brother Cian.

I listen to music too – I can’t narrow it down to just one type I like lots of stuff.

Now I’m back training again, working to a new programme. I am hopeful that I will qualify for selection again next year and get a chance to improve on this year’s results at the WWR Junior Europeans to be held in Bosnia-Herzegovina. For the moment I’m happy to be training, back to normal, making the trip across to WWKC every Monday Wednesday and Saturday.

Hopefully it rains soon……and I can get the dust off the raptor 

Thanks for reading

Odhrán

New Gear For July

New shoes from Astral?  Yes that’s right, Astral previously only known for their awesome buoyancy aids have now entered the footwear market with the Astral Brewer watershoe.  It uses the same sticky Stealth rubber sole as the Five Tens with a lightweight self draining mesh upper AND two different colours of shoe lace!!!

Details and specs here:

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Foot-wear.46/Astral+Buoyancy.40/ASTRAL-BREWER/aSTRAL+bREWER.2261.html

 

          

New spraydecks from HF.  We have both the Polo and Racer decks in stock:

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Competition+Kayaking.183/Slalom.185/HF.46/HF-RACER-PLUS/HF+Racer+Plus.2260.html

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/Competition+Kayaking.183/Canoe+Polo.184/HF.46/HF-POLO-PLUS/hf+pOLO+pLUS.2259.html

The nice guys from Natasha’s Living Foods called in during the week and persuaded us to stock their Mighty Energy and Protein Munch Crunch Bars.  These are great, healthy snacks full of raw ingredients, natural energy and they are made right around the corner from our shop in Parkwest so they are fresh too!

http://www.i-canoe.com/en/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=natasha&x=-255&y=-343

Where’s The Water?? Part 1.

That’s the same question we were asking ourselves a week and a half ago.  Being short on time and money, we figured the best bet was to book a cheap ferry and head to Cardiff International White Water Centre for a couple of days.

 

THE GOLDEN RULE: JUST BECAUSE THE CENTRE IS ADVERTISED AS OPEN 9AM TO 8PM DOESN’T MEAN THE COURSE IS!

So with return ferries booked, 2 nights stay in a plush hotel in central Cardiff (breakfast included!), we arrived at the course to find out the water was flowing but it had been block booked for SRT training and was only open to paddlers from 6pm to 8pm!

Over a quick coffee/hot-chocolate we devised an alternate plan that involved driving 3.5 hrs from Cardiff to North London, around the dreaded M25 to reach the Holy Grail of Lee Valley Whitewater Course.

Uh Oh, flat water…

Uh Oh, no water!!!

Don’t worry, Walshy’ll sort it out

Time to get ready.

Well not so fast.  First we had to book an assessor to make sure we could actually paddle (no ICU/BCU qualifications recognised here!).  Luckily I had one contact in the area, all-round Mr nice guy Aaron from Squarerock who popped down to make sure we knew our sweep strokes from our ferry glides (It’s also thanks to Aaron that there are 16 shiny Jackson Kayaks available for rent at the course).  But first we had to fill out a 2 page disclaimer/indemnity form, pay £5 for registration, have our photos taken and pay £10 for the first hour/assessment.  Once we had the correct colour bib (with bib number logged) we could finally head down towards the lower lake for a short health and safety briefing!  To say this place has rules is an understatement.  I was waiting for them to bring out a hi-vis jacket and steel toe boots!!

Bernie dropping in.

Ferry assessment.

Hee Hee.

Lee Valley has some pretty big drops for an artificial WW course.  With a height drop of 5 metres and average flow rate of 20+ cumecs it can certainly pack a punch.

While there are a couple of playspots on the course, it is definitely more river-play style than park’n’play (and it is a tad shallow for lanky gits).

Window Licking Good.

There is of course a smaller, secondary course in Lee Valley (about 2/3rds the length of Cardiff) which we were dead curious to explore but due to the reams of red tape, form filling and the fact it was fully booked meant we’d have to leave it for another day.

Stay tuned for Part 2.