Club Freestyle Day–Rockhoppers

 

Today I took out rockhoppers as part of my push to introduce freestyle basics to clubs and groups.

We headed up to Templemills Weir Affectionately known as Bernies Hole after its discovery by the famous Tricky Woo of www.walshyway.blogspot.com

The group arrived 11in total we spent the first part of the session discussing boat outfitting before getting everyone snug in their boats

bum- hips- feet- thighs- backrest…

we then worked together to float test the boats and look at trim.

 

Once on the water we went through basic skills and techniques to develop including, spins, Stern squirt, supercleans, bobbing the boat, edge control and looking at the fun scoresheet, before dropping down the weir to have a play in the stopper

in the stopper we used what had previously been learnt to have fun and use the feature.

heres the video and a few photos.

Rockhoppers Freestyle

more photos here!

The Galway Bay Sea Kayak Race 2011

Yesterday afternoon and the docks in Galway city played host to the third annual Galway Bay Sea Kayak Race. The sun shone (in between the downpours of rain and force 5-6 gusts)and the race went on with a strong field of about 50 kayakers. Race classes included a short course for beginners 2k, an intermediate race for touring sea kayaks 8k and a long course of 12k for the racing skis.

registration and home to the 'Green Dragon' boat


getting ready for the start

The race begun at Spanish Arch in the city centre in an effort to draw in some local spectators. And we then sprinted off on a two lap downwind course across the bay. The racers flew downwind riding a small swell, then had to battle straight into the wind only to know you'd have to do it all again in a few minutes. I paddled in the 8 k class competing against Wongy, JP and many other quick sea paddlers to finish up in fourth place.

the uber quick skis


Sea kayak races are relatively young in Ireland, yet over the last few years a bunch of them have popped up across the country. Now Dublin, Galway, Cork, Donegal and soon Mayo will have their own sea kayak race.
The next race is on the 25th of June in Killala Bay Co. Mayo: http://www.runireland.com/events/atlantic-challenge-sea-kayak-race

It was a great location, a really enjoyable day and a well run event by Jim from kayak mór. The event caters for every level of paddler and I'd highly recommend competing in it next year! Full results will be up soon on: http://www.galwaybayseakayakrace.com/

Folding kayak

Some pics of folding kayak assembly

Push pins

Another commonly requested item now readily available - push pins to make DIY split paddles!!

Details will be up on our website shortly...

Ad tests the new weeniwave

Pol an easa Waterfall, Co. Leitrim 1st Descent?!

Since finding this drop whilst visiting the area every visit means a trip to have a look.

This day was different all set to walk the river to see what was upstream. As we arrived we noticed a little more water than expected so today was the day!

A little more water would of been nice!

1st video was not saved (Camera girl still training)

Heres the 2nd Attempt!

Top Drop

Top Drop

Bottom Drop

Bottom Drop

Thanks to Fiona, the Camera girl in training!

Happy Paddling.

 .Adrian Durrant

NRS Ninja PFD Review

I’ve had my Ninja for almost a year and the great news is they are finally ISO approved so we can now stock them in the shop!

This has to be one of the best low(est) profile, PFDs on the market today!  It could be closely compared to the Kokatat Orbit in terms of overall shape and cut but the Orbit is not ISO/CE approved and the Ninja has two quick release clips on the RHS which makes getting on over bulky drysuits, etc.. a piece of cake. 

The quick release clips also reduce the need to loosen and readjust the side straps after each outing meaning less fiddling once you have it set up the way you like it.  There’s also a neat handwarmer pocket in the chest which I use for storing my camera.  While black may not seem a totally practical colour to weather, the reflective piping makes it stand out even in minimal light and most importantly, it looks cool!!!

OK so lastly the one major point I would improve is the tiny, tiny front pocket.  It’s barely large enough to fit my keys which live there while I’m on the water – at least there’s a handy clip to fix them to – but not much else! There’s enough space to fit a decent sized pocket so hopefully that can be remedied in the near future.

One other suggestion I’d have would be to fit some webbing loops for a QR Chest Belt.  If that were done I wouldn’t bother with a seperate River Vest and would be totally happy to use this as my one-stop, do-it-all PFD.

Technorati Tags: NRS,Ninja,PFD,i-canoe,Paddle,Kayak,Canoe,Freestyle,River,Whitewater

Nottingham April Sprint Regatta,

News from sunny Nottingham 16/17th April where temperatures reached 22 degrees and for once the wind blew the right way (on Sunday only).

Salmon Leap was the biggest club at the regatta, represented by 17 juniors and 5 seniors.

Well done to Fergus and Tadhg McTiernan, Kate McCarthy, Juliet Sweeney, Adam Kenny, Brian McGuinness, Míceál Cróc, Jack Seery and (a late starter) Sean O Casaide, who were all competing in their first Nottingham regatta and represented the club extremely well. Indeed, everyone who competed for SLCC were a credit to the club.

Many thanks to all those who helped out over the weekend: A Durrant, A Egan, S Sweeney, S O Casaide, A McGuinness, B Devenney, P Grimes, C O Reilly, G O Hagan, F McTiernan S McCarthy and I McCarthy.

Results: Saturday’s Finals

Boys D K4 1000m Final:

1^st. C Cróc/R Brady/F and D Devenney.

2^nd. J Seery/A Kenny/B McGuinness/M Cróc

Girls D K1 1000m B Final:

8^th Juliet Sweeney

Boys C K2 1000m Final:

2^nd. J O Hagan/D O Reilly.

Boys B K1 1000m B Final.

3^rd Iomhar Mac Giolla Phádraig.

Boys D K2 1000m A Final

1^st C Cróc/D Devenney

2^nd. F Devenney/R Brady

3^rd. M Cróc/J Seery

5^th. B McGuinness/K O Neill

Womens A/B K1 500m Final 1

7^th J Egan

Boys C K1 1000m Final

1^st B O Casaide

3^rd D O Reilly

7^th D Grimes

Masters K4 1000m Final

2^nd Sean O Casaide/V Pierce/B Buggy/L McCarthy

Boys B K2 1000m Final

4th I Mac Giolla Phádraig/A Forristal

Mens A/B 200m B Final

2^nd P Egan

9^th A Strevens

Boys D K1 1000m Final 1

1^st D Devenney

2^nd C Cróc

5^th F Devenney

6^th R Brady

8^th A Kenny

Boys D K1 1000m Final 2

3^rd M Cróc

5^th J Seery

8^th B McGuinness

Womens A/B 200m Final 1

9^th J Egan

Boys B/C K4 1000m Final

2^nd I MacGiolla Phádraig/D Mitchell/A Forristal/S McCarthy

5^th D Grimes/J O Hagan/D O Reilly/B O Casaide

Mens A/B K2 200m Final

4^th P Egan/T Brennan

Results: Sunday’s Finals

Mens A/B K1 200 Final 2

3^rd P Egan

5^th T Brennan

9^thA Strevens

Boys D K1 500m Final 1

1^st D Devenney

2^nd F Devenney

4^th R Brady

7^th C Cróc

Boys D K1 500m Final 2

1^st M Cróc

3^rd A Kenny

8^th B McGuinness

Boys D K1 500m Final 3

1^st J Seery

Boys B K2 500m Final

4^th I Mac Giolla Phadraig /A Forristal

Boys C K1 500m Final

1^st B O Casaide

6^th D Grimes

8^th J O Hagan

Womens A/B 200m Final 1

7^th J Egan

Mens A/B K2 200m Final 1

6^th P Egan/T Brennan

Boys B/C K4 500m Final

2^nd S McCarthy/J O Hagan/D Grimes/D O Reilly

Mens B K1 500m Final 1

2^nd T Brennan

Boys D K4 500m Final

1^st. C Cróc/R Brady/F and D Devenney.

2^nd. J Seery/A Kenny/B McGuinness/M Cróc

Girls D K1 500m Final 2

3^rd J Sweeney

Hero Verses Hero

So earlier this month we received our first shipment of 2011 Jackson Hero’s.  “So what’s big the difference?” you may ask and indeed we wondered ourselves.

Time for a little side by side comparison – I’ll let the photos do the talking:

More specs on the 2011 Hero and purchasing info can be found here:

http://www.i-canoe.com/Kayaks/Whitewater/River+Running+Kayaks/Jackson+Kayak+Hero+2011+-+S%25252FL.html

For a great deal on a 2010 Hero see here (while stocks last):

http://www.i-canoe.com/Kayaks/Whitewater/River+Running+Kayaks/Jackson+Kayak+Hero+2008.html

For the official 2011 Hero Promo Video, see below:

Jackson Rockstars are here!

So after months of hype and speculation followed by a week of camping out waiting for the delivery they finally arrive!

shorter than the all star with more volume this boat is definately going to be special, so with that in mind we found our special friend to take a seat in the small size.

I luckily having been their all week managed to take first pick and decided on a beautiful blue/white colour

So with a new boat I headed to the WWKC pool session with both my boat and the demo to give the juniors a taste of the new toy!

heres the video put together by Conor Macken showing the first session out, Il happily say theirs plenty more to come when the water returns,

Rockstar first pool session

along with the Rockstars came the new 2011 Hero in funky Rasta colours heres colm giving it the thumbs up.

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.

Toome Training 27 March 2011

With the lack of water over the past few weeks has seen people start to get itchy feet looking for water, A post popped up last week saying Toome wave (Northern Ireland) was back working,

Toome only works in low water when everything is dry the fish pass to the side of the weir gates forms a retentive wave the only problem are the steel girders which are in position as an Anti Poaching measure. this makes the feature shallow and means boats get very beaten up if not careful.

Heres a quick video put together by Conor Macken from Sluice Crew.

Toome Training, Spin to win or Die.

Wacko On the Jacko weekend

Over the weekend 26th / 27th February came the much anticipated return of Irelands classic boater X event, in previous years it be run under many names but now it was back as Wacko on The Jacko, run by Kipper and Keoghser of Total Experience with the help of a Local Outdoor Education Centre.

Everyone arrived early Saturday to a low but runnable Jacksons where the event kicked off with the individual race, 4 at a time would race from the Jacksons lead in over the falls and hit the eddy above little Jacksons with the top placed progressing through to the next round.

The heats were full of carnage and beatings with a busy rescue team jumping on anything that tumbled. Up came the Expert men of which I had myself a tough heat with Colm (I-Canoe), Paddy and Ger. (WWKC) getting myself boxed in at the beginning and finding myself at the back of the pack a last sprint into Jacksons just in front of colm and a cheeky roll at the bottom before he landed on me left me in third place and out of the competition,

Individual Heat Wacko

The individual final was a case of same old faces with Mr Paddy McGovern and YIanni fighting it out in their age old battle once again paddy came out on top.

The Saturday afternoon saw the team race over the short course where a team of three would race against the clock with 3 challenges, one would roll, one would pass their paddle through a hoop and the third must make the energiser eddy, on my team me colm and mark Coleman, colm rolled successfully mark (C1) passed his paddle through the hoop and I made the energiser, but I miss timed my exit and fell left into the pit where luckily rescue ranger Paul Williamson saved me from an almost certain swim. the team race was won by the joint team this time of Paddy Yianni and Steve

Wacko on the Jacko 2011, Team I-CANOE from Colm Healy on Vimeo.

the Saturday night party and drinks was a social affair with big crowds descending on Lynhams for a fun filed night of live music and socialising.

Sunday morning dreary eyed and rather hungover saw the team race over the long course from trooperstown to the same eddy at Jacksons. this would take somewhere between 11-15 mins we had a last minute substitution due to technical issues swapping C1 mark for Big Water Mack the only man who has never rushed for anything let alone a race!

give him his dues he got down without stopping to light up!

Team I-Canoe Long Race

The long race was won by Benny, John and Tom in their maximum length choppers!

overall a great weekend good craic and a great showing by all proving paddling is not dead!

thanks to Total experience for a great event!