CANI Paddlefest 2011

Once again Paddlefest time of year was upon us in recent years this was a chance to load up the shop and go and show the world what was on offer but with the dates being the Paddy’s day weekend meant a low take up of participant that along with having to work meant we could not travel until after the England Ireland Rugby game on the saturday night,

This Years Paddlefest was due to take place at the newly redeveloped Tollymore Outdoor Centre in The Mournes and WOW it is truly remarkable!

We arrived with talks and lectures in full swing with showings from Richard Lineham and Jeff Allen as well as Lowri Davies on the Friday kept everyone entertained,

This years theme was Journeying and expedition with many sessions looking at skill needed for these situations,

The sunday activities of both river and sea skills was taking place at a small tidal flow in Dundrum Bay so with the I-Canoe wagon loaded we  set our selves up with a selection of Demo river and sea kayaks for all to try. With a lot of interest in the new Project 56X and the old Favourite 2010 Allstar we had a small freestyle workshop  right in front of us.

Back to the centre for catch up and debrief with familier faces and we leave paddlefest for another year.

Well done to CANI Paddlefest has a great attraction for all even with lower number the event was a  huge hit.

Hooked Live 27-28th Feb 2010

Over the weekend of 27th-28th of Feb Team I-Canoe put their days fishing experience in at the deep end, talking the talk and swimming like fish we did it!

The Event was the first Hooked event to be run at Citywest, Dublin. A new venue for a event of his nature with a large exhibition hall as well as beautiful golf course with lakes the organisers did a great job getting the best fisherman around to do demonstrations and presentations of their experiences and their skill.

Then their was us a bunch of more than able whitewater kayakers showing how great sit on top fishing could be!

And ..........

It was suprisingly successful!

Over the weekend we had a lot of interest of all the boats with demos out on the lake as well as stand we had pretty much a full line up including a fully kitted out Wilderness systems Commander

and probably a first for both Ireland and I-Canoe a Gigbob From NRS

The boats were looked at, sat in, commented on. by just about every person through the door. They provide a safe secure platform to reach secluded areas and are a fraction of the cost some were paying for lake boats.

with more and more people taking advantage of water activities it makes sense to buy something for every purpose weather its a toy for the beach with the kids that you simply add a rod holder to head out fishing or a out and out fishing boat you head out in using a kayak to fish from is environmentally a much better solution.

As well as showing off boats many of our suppliers have added a range of angling specific accessories to their 2010 line ups including

Rod holders and accessories for all boats

Including GigBob, Boundary Boots, Boundary Socks,

Including Nomad boots, and the SuperNova Angler Drysuit

For your chance to win this fantastic angling suit come and see us at CANI Paddlefest on the 12th-14th March

With all these products available fishing from a kayak goes from a wicked idea to reality in only a few minutes.

For more information on any products please contact us shop@i-canoe.com

As part of the event we sponsored a prize of our Demo Ride 135 used in the last blog post this competition was run in the Irish Star one of Ireland's most popular newspapers.

the prizes was collected at the show well done!!

Thanks to

Kokatat, for the Supernova Prize

Bennett at NRS for getting us the Gigbob sorted

Ant and team at System X for all our accessories and Manta Ray help

Shane at progressive distribution for demo wilderness equipment and accessories help

Mark at rough Stuff for his beautiful Stand

The rest of Team I-Canoe for help with build, set up and manning the stand and demo lake on a very bitter weekend!

Kanumesse 2009, Part Deux

Ty Warp have a new foam core paddle "The Fire". Finish is nice and looks a lot better than before. Production facility has changed so that has something to do with it and assembly technique is more normal than in the past. They have also lost the destinctive "nose" on the tip of the blade and the graphics have matured (slightly).

The new Native Mariner comes with either the pedal-drive or electro-drive and judging by the size of it, it'll need more than a paddle to power it. Also available for either the Mariner or Ultimate is the new sailing rig so it looks like they're attempting to give Hobie a run for their money. As usual, all the bells and whistles are available to add on - deck covers, deck bags, cooler bags, etc... Bi-Hull should give extreme stability while fishing.

New Commander from Wilderness Systems (another of the new boat style Sit On Tops) with tracks to bolt on as many accessories as you can shake a stick at and a rather funky style sliding seat to allow a low paddling position and a high angling position.

Possibly THE most comfortable sea kayak in the world - the New Native Inuit with Bad Ass Outfitting (yes it is comfier than it looks and sounds!).

Liquid Logic are re-entering the sit on top market with the Coupe which features a similar hull and lines to the Remix but in an easy to use sit on top design. Optional drop-skeg, hatch and Bad-Ass style seating round out a package that could finally bridge the gap between sit-in and sit-on-top whitewater. Also available in a 2 person version.

Das Neuer Robson Funky Paddels mit ein Super Cool Grafix. Made in four standard prints but the limits are endless. Blade material is similar to laminate sandwich (Mmmm) found in snowboard industry).

The Pyranha Fusion series with new Small Size in hot pink colour in Angling(?) spec! Also includes detachable bow pod.

Folding canoe anyone? Great idea, shame about the 3000 euro price tag!

New brand Duemstuff - bringing the street to da river. Yes these guys have more attitude than sense but you have to admit they're probably THE most original thing in kayaking-wear at the moment. Pornstar imagery and marketing mixed with some innovative ideas and a non conformist attitude - or something like that.

Kanumesse 2009

Well Kanumesse 2009 kicked off last Thursday (18th Sept) to showcase what's new and innovative in the world of paddlesports. As it turned out there were few major, big name product launches although there were a few unexpected surprises (a new Jackson Fun anyone?), stand up paddleboards coming out of every angle, pedal-drives and electric engines, kayaks that look more like a small boat, and folding or sectional or 2-piece surfboards, sit on tops and sea kayaks.

Composite is IN for 2009 (especially from some notable experts):

From left, Prijon Pure Creekboat (prototype), Pyranha "PDX" (rumoured to be going to production in composite), the Lettmann "?" (prototype) and lastly new kid on the block, Titan Kayaks "?" in close to production spec and rumoured to be available in both composite and plastic in time for next summer - along with more sizes, more models, incl. a creekboat.

Riot came back out of the woodwork after a year in hiding showcasing their "new" range of Chinese produced kayaks - well as far as whitewater is concerned, it was just the Astro, Magnum and Thunder (and no sign of the elusive composite playboat - as you can see from above, they were one of the few company's without a composite kayak on display). They had a full line of sea kayaks and sit on tops on show too which are now embraced under the Riot brand as they had previously been marketed under Azul in the past.

PFD's were also hot to trot with new offerings from Stohlquist, Sandiline and NRS.

It's been a while since Stohlquist have released a new WW PFD on the market (esp. a rescue equipped one - think X-Tract circa 2000) so now they have a replacement which is available as a river-runner/playvest and a rescue jacket (i.e. with or without QR belt). They have also developed possibly THE most complicated adjustment system in the world with 6!, yes 6 webbed adjustments on EACH side - so that's a whopping 12 in total! It's a zip entry so once you get the fit initially dialled in it shouldn't be a problem but it still leaves a lot of webbing tails flapping around.

Sandiline came up with a reasonably well looking PFD but I can't help but feel if the basic cut and shape has been borrowed from someone else - any suggestions???

And last, but by no means least we had NRS's new Ninja PFD which should give the Astral Willis/Bella and Kokatat Orbit a good run for their money in the river-runner/freestyle section. It's a side entry style with good adjustment webbing where needed and an unrestrictive fit. It has a dual front plate (similar to Newton, Willis, Green, etc...) which doubles as a hand warmer and a front lash-tab. Tiny, tiny pocket and lack of reflective striping let down what is otherwise one of the best looking PFDs of this year. All NRS PFD's will be CE approved for 2010 which means these babies will be readily available on this side of the pond from March/April onwards.

More to follow in the sit on, stand up and sea kayak ranges later...