So, yesterday saw the start of the festival thats on here in Campertogno for the weekend. It kicked off with a freeride competition on the top drop on the Egua, which is maybe a 6ft slide into a 10ft drop. It was savage craic! It started off with everyone going for real moves and finished with everyone doing the most ridiculus things they could think of on their way down the ramp, from paddle spin freewheels to going down the drop lying on top of their boat. I landed front and back freewheels and then started on the stupid stuff like jumping out of my boat half way down the drop and sliding down it standing up! I got the whole thing on video too so I'll try to upload a clip soon!
There's a movie night tonight in the theatre in the village and then the rest of the weekend mainly consists of races and parties. There's two separate competitions going on, both starting out with time trial qualification rounds and finals, with the top 32 paddlers overall going into one combined BoaterX final. One of the competitions is mostly filled with local Italian paddlers, Exo and Adidas team boaters and slalom paddlers so it's going to be super competitive. The other is less competitive but is super expensive so choosing which one to enter is tricky. I think we'll probably end up entering the cheaper one tho so fingers crossed that it goes well!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Update
Ok, its been a few days since I put anything up on this so heres whats been happening;
The water levels have come up a bit again thanks to warm weather and the occasional rain shower so that has opened up a few rivers that weren't really worth running before. The first thing we did when levels came up was head to the Sermenzino. There still wasn't really enough water to make the first few km of bouldergardens fun but everything cleaned up once we hit the main rapids and we ended up having a great day on it.
The next day we decided to take it easy and not paddle any rivers. So we headed out to Landwasser, a 25ft or so waterfall on the upper Mastellone. I had a few sweet lines on it, and got to test out a go-pro mount that I made for the back of my boat. The footage I got from it was class, I'm delighted with how well it worked!
After Landwasser we headed back up to the Sorba Slides, which were at a much better level than a few days before, when you could have ridden a mountain bike down the top slide! We ran it a good few times and had some really sweet lines on it.
Yesterday we went looking for a 35ft drop that we had heard whispers going around the camp about. We found it, after a bit of difficulty, and even though it's definatly not 35ft, more like 20-25, it looks like a sweet drop with an 'interesting' lead in. We decided that we didnt have enough people to run it safetly so hopefully we'll go back in the next few days with a few more bodies.
After that we ran down the lower Gironde and into the Sorba Slides, since it was the first time that we'd seen the Gironde at a level worth running. The Sorba Slides were at a brilliant level, much higher than the last time we ran them so we ran them once or twice and then started looking for new lines on them. Unfortunatly one of those new lines was centre line on the bottom slide, which I thought would bring me over the big cushion wave at the bottom, styling the drop. What actually happened was I crashed into the cushion wave and got thrown upsidedown against the rock wall on river left, bashing most of my knuckles and badly cutting my thumb. A pretty sickening end to the day, and I should probably stay off the water for a day or two to let it heal up a bit but hopefully it will sort itself out quickly.
The water levels have come up a bit again thanks to warm weather and the occasional rain shower so that has opened up a few rivers that weren't really worth running before. The first thing we did when levels came up was head to the Sermenzino. There still wasn't really enough water to make the first few km of bouldergardens fun but everything cleaned up once we hit the main rapids and we ended up having a great day on it.
The next day we decided to take it easy and not paddle any rivers. So we headed out to Landwasser, a 25ft or so waterfall on the upper Mastellone. I had a few sweet lines on it, and got to test out a go-pro mount that I made for the back of my boat. The footage I got from it was class, I'm delighted with how well it worked!
After Landwasser we headed back up to the Sorba Slides, which were at a much better level than a few days before, when you could have ridden a mountain bike down the top slide! We ran it a good few times and had some really sweet lines on it.
Yesterday we went looking for a 35ft drop that we had heard whispers going around the camp about. We found it, after a bit of difficulty, and even though it's definatly not 35ft, more like 20-25, it looks like a sweet drop with an 'interesting' lead in. We decided that we didnt have enough people to run it safetly so hopefully we'll go back in the next few days with a few more bodies.
After that we ran down the lower Gironde and into the Sorba Slides, since it was the first time that we'd seen the Gironde at a level worth running. The Sorba Slides were at a brilliant level, much higher than the last time we ran them so we ran them once or twice and then started looking for new lines on them. Unfortunatly one of those new lines was centre line on the bottom slide, which I thought would bring me over the big cushion wave at the bottom, styling the drop. What actually happened was I crashed into the cushion wave and got thrown upsidedown against the rock wall on river left, bashing most of my knuckles and badly cutting my thumb. A pretty sickening end to the day, and I should probably stay off the water for a day or two to let it heal up a bit but hopefully it will sort itself out quickly.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Egua
Another quick one from the Egua:
Getting loads of footage out here but uploading anything longer just isnt going to happen!
Getting loads of footage out here but uploading anything longer just isnt going to happen!
Egua
The weather has finally changed here in Italy and all the levels are up again. Loads of snow fell on the mountains the day before yesterday while we were getting rained on and now that the weathers warm again thats all melting and giving us some sweet rivers to play on.
We got out on the Egua yesterday which is the classic run in the area, between Neil styling top drop and cylinder drop and me landing front and back freewheels off the autoboof it was a really good day! We got lots of footage too so we're happy out!
Hopefully the next few days stay the same. The plan for this morning is to head to the Egua again and then check out the Sermenzino in the afternoon when the levels come up a bit. The forecast is pretty good for the next few days so everything should be running well!
We got out on the Egua yesterday which is the classic run in the area, between Neil styling top drop and cylinder drop and me landing front and back freewheels off the autoboof it was a really good day! We got lots of footage too so we're happy out!
Hopefully the next few days stay the same. The plan for this morning is to head to the Egua again and then check out the Sermenzino in the afternoon when the levels come up a bit. The forecast is pretty good for the next few days so everything should be running well!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Italy!!
So, for the last few days myself and Neil Slevin have been cruising around Val Sesia in Piemonte, Italy running some sweet rivers! So far the weathers been fairly chilly here so the levels are low enough but hopefully they'll come up again in the next few days before the festival.
So far we've hit the lower Sesia, the Sermenza and the upper Sesia, all without major incident but we did have some interesting moments on Mollia rapid on the Upper Sesia earlier on today! No swims but I did spend about 15 seconds pinned upside down at the bottom of a drop before I managed to push off from the rock; great way to set up for the second half of the rapid! ULKC are out here too so we've done a good bit of paddling and coaching with them. We did a pretty decent boof coaching session with them on the lower Sermenza yesterday which was some craic.
The internet connection here is pretty rubbish so uploading any decent length videos is out of question but here's a quick teaser:
The plan for the next few days depends on water levels but we're hoping to move onto some of the steep bedrock classics like the Egua and the Sermenzino. They havnt really been running over the last few days tho so fingers crossed!
So far we've hit the lower Sesia, the Sermenza and the upper Sesia, all without major incident but we did have some interesting moments on Mollia rapid on the Upper Sesia earlier on today! No swims but I did spend about 15 seconds pinned upside down at the bottom of a drop before I managed to push off from the rock; great way to set up for the second half of the rapid! ULKC are out here too so we've done a good bit of paddling and coaching with them. We did a pretty decent boof coaching session with them on the lower Sermenza yesterday which was some craic.
The internet connection here is pretty rubbish so uploading any decent length videos is out of question but here's a quick teaser:
The plan for the next few days depends on water levels but we're hoping to move onto some of the steep bedrock classics like the Egua and the Sermenzino. They havnt really been running over the last few days tho so fingers crossed!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Winter Collection Vid
Had a sweet day on the Glens there on Thursday with ULKC, spent a lot of time working on new stuff off Top Drop and that kind of thing. I'm in the middle of putting together a video of the run which I'll put up as soon as it's finished. In the meantime here's one I put together from all the footage I've got over the winter:
Monday, April 2, 2012
Slalom Irish Open and Team Trials
I've been saying to myself for years that I want to try slalom sometime so when the Irish open and team trials came around I said I'd give it a shot. Over christmas I acquired the ULKC plastic slalom boat, set up 'gates' on Castleconnel using rubber ducks and pieces of string and got to work trying to figure out how the new type of boat worked. Somewhere along the way most of my ducks got lost/stolen so I went even more ghetto with pieces of sticks hung at the side of the river. I got some footage of myself when I was practising to help me figure out where I was going wrong. I think this helped my paddling in general, even though improving ingrained bad habits is easier said than done! Manuvering a slalom boat through gates is a lot more difficult than it looks to a whitewater boater too but eventually felt like I was getting the hang of it.
Fast forward to competition day and when I got there I found out that I would be the first competitor on the water and that practise runs arent allowed, completly ruining my plan to get lots of time on the water in before the timed runs! When you're standing on the bank of the Sluice looking at all these gates in the water it all looks very do-able but once you get on the water you realise a few things very quickly; that the water's moving a lot faster than it does on Castleconnel, and that a few isolated gates on Castleconnel are no training for offset downstream gates on a slalom course! With that kind of a lack of preparation my first run was always heading towards disaster and I ended up missing the majority of the gates on the first half of the course, leaving me with a time of something like 5 minutes once all the penalties were added up! Still, it was something to build on and I knew that I was able to make all the gates on the second half of the course meaning that I could concentrate on that first section in the lead-in to the Sluice.
My next few runs all improved as I figured out the best way to negotiate that section and by the end of the day I was down to just missing one gate on the entire course. This meant that my goal for the Irish Open on Sunday was to have a run where I made it down the whole course with no 50 second penalties. The 2 second touches could be worried about some other day! I also got a loan of a composite boat off Niall Cockbill for the day which made everything a whole lot easier! On my first run I managed to get through every gate on the course, which made the whole weekend a success as far as I was concerned! On my second run I was deemed to have missed the same gate as I was having trouble with the day before which I disagree with since I'm full sure I did get my head around the pole but what can you do! On that run I only touched 2 gates so there's still something positive that I can take from it. Even with my 'clean' run I was still way off the pace of the other lads in the mens expert class so I still have lots of work to do but that run got me 1st in the under 23 category, and I would have won the novice category by miles if I was in it so I think I entered the right one. I really enjoyed the weekend and hopefully I can get some practise in before the next slalom event comes along. It really will take a huge amount of work if I ever want to become properly competitive in it tho, the lads and girls who are training full time for it were something else to watch, crazy boat control!
Colm Healy put a good video from Sunday up earlier, check it out;
Fast forward to competition day and when I got there I found out that I would be the first competitor on the water and that practise runs arent allowed, completly ruining my plan to get lots of time on the water in before the timed runs! When you're standing on the bank of the Sluice looking at all these gates in the water it all looks very do-able but once you get on the water you realise a few things very quickly; that the water's moving a lot faster than it does on Castleconnel, and that a few isolated gates on Castleconnel are no training for offset downstream gates on a slalom course! With that kind of a lack of preparation my first run was always heading towards disaster and I ended up missing the majority of the gates on the first half of the course, leaving me with a time of something like 5 minutes once all the penalties were added up! Still, it was something to build on and I knew that I was able to make all the gates on the second half of the course meaning that I could concentrate on that first section in the lead-in to the Sluice.
My next few runs all improved as I figured out the best way to negotiate that section and by the end of the day I was down to just missing one gate on the entire course. This meant that my goal for the Irish Open on Sunday was to have a run where I made it down the whole course with no 50 second penalties. The 2 second touches could be worried about some other day! I also got a loan of a composite boat off Niall Cockbill for the day which made everything a whole lot easier! On my first run I managed to get through every gate on the course, which made the whole weekend a success as far as I was concerned! On my second run I was deemed to have missed the same gate as I was having trouble with the day before which I disagree with since I'm full sure I did get my head around the pole but what can you do! On that run I only touched 2 gates so there's still something positive that I can take from it. Even with my 'clean' run I was still way off the pace of the other lads in the mens expert class so I still have lots of work to do but that run got me 1st in the under 23 category, and I would have won the novice category by miles if I was in it so I think I entered the right one. I really enjoyed the weekend and hopefully I can get some practise in before the next slalom event comes along. It really will take a huge amount of work if I ever want to become properly competitive in it tho, the lads and girls who are training full time for it were something else to watch, crazy boat control!
Colm Healy put a good video from Sunday up earlier, check it out;
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Here comes summer?
Weather warmer than the canaries, 4ft swell, light offshore winds... the only place to be is at the beach! Dougmore was firing on Sunday at about 4ft and very hollow and heavy, the kind of waves that when you're on them their savage but one mistake and you're going to feel it for quite a while afterwards!! Heres a quick video of a few waves from the session, all going well we'll be out there again tomorrow!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Gower Freestyle Comp
Last Sunday the Curragower round of the Irish Freestyle league was held on one of the best days we've got in the last few months. Its great to finally be able to hang around and watch a competition without getting frostbite at the side of the river!
The competition went well, I've been paddling Gower a good bit recently and I'm finally managing to consistantly put together a few decent moves in a competition run. Theres still lots of room for improvement obviously but its a start. In the end the runs I managed were enough to put me in third behind Moe Kelleher and Dave O'Sullivan. Not too bad but theres still room for improvement before the next competition!
Heres a full list of results from the day:
The competition went well, I've been paddling Gower a good bit recently and I'm finally managing to consistantly put together a few decent moves in a competition run. Theres still lots of room for improvement obviously but its a start. In the end the runs I managed were enough to put me in third behind Moe Kelleher and Dave O'Sullivan. Not too bad but theres still room for improvement before the next competition!
Heres a full list of results from the day:
Sport:
1 - Roseanne, 100
2 - Mairead, 70
2 - Maria, 70
4 - Bernard Walsh, 20
Womens:
1 - Aisling Griffin, 220
2 - Caoimhe Farrell, 120
3 - Muireann Lynch, 90
4 - Emer Farrell, 50
Juniors:
1 - Billy Brett, 835
2 - Shane Little, 345
3 - Conor Macken, 310
4 - Robbie O'Shea, 290
5 - Alan Murphy, 220
6 - David McClure, 135
7 - Tom, 85
8 - Cian, 55
9 - Matt, 30
10 - Craig, 20
11 - Calvin, 10
Senior Men:
1 - Moe, 670
2 - Dave O'Sullivan, 470
3 - Eoin Keyes, 295
4 - Orky, 210
5 - Ronnie, 135
5 - Eoin Farrell, 135
7 - Colm, 115
1 - Roseanne, 100
2 - Mairead, 70
2 - Maria, 70
4 - Bernard Walsh, 20
Womens:
1 - Aisling Griffin, 220
2 - Caoimhe Farrell, 120
3 - Muireann Lynch, 90
4 - Emer Farrell, 50
Juniors:
1 - Billy Brett, 835
2 - Shane Little, 345
3 - Conor Macken, 310
4 - Robbie O'Shea, 290
5 - Alan Murphy, 220
6 - David McClure, 135
7 - Tom, 85
8 - Cian, 55
9 - Matt, 30
10 - Craig, 20
11 - Calvin, 10
Senior Men:
1 - Moe, 670
2 - Dave O'Sullivan, 470
3 - Eoin Keyes, 295
4 - Orky, 210
5 - Ronnie, 135
5 - Eoin Farrell, 135
7 - Colm, 115
Monday, March 5, 2012
First surf competition of the year
Last weekend saw the first Paddlesurf Ireland competition of the year take place in Clare. There was a sweet swell forecast for the weekend but the wind was always going to be a problem at about 20 knots onshore. We weren't sure where the best waves were going to be so we all met up in Spanish Point on Saturday morning and went looking for surf.
After checking out Cregg and stopping in O'Looney's for a coffee while we were waiting for the tide to rise and the wind to drop off a bit we ended up holding the competition in Hegarty's, which is a sweet point break there on the Clare coast. The waves were big and powerful, with a bit of chop and wedgy sections in them because of the wind, always good craic and it adds to the entertainment factor on the beach! I was up first in the mens HP. The waves that came in were nice but there was a very long time between sets because of the wave period. I got one savage wave in the middle of the heat but I couldnt get a decent second wave to back it up before the heat ended so I finished in second behind Mick Barry.
The IC competition went better. I got lots of waves and managed to pull some cool stuff on them, including an attempted end move which I think turned into an exit-air-barrel roll thing and another attempted end move which turned into a huge slash/top turn thing off the close-out section! Happy out! I ended up winning the IC class, and a few of the lads that I brougt up got to see a surf kayak comp for the first time so it was a good day overall!
Results:
HP Class
1st Mick Barry, 2nd Eoin Keyes, 3rd Anthony Coyne.
IC:
1st Eoin Keyes, 2nd Mick Barry, 3rd Anthony Coyne.
After checking out Cregg and stopping in O'Looney's for a coffee while we were waiting for the tide to rise and the wind to drop off a bit we ended up holding the competition in Hegarty's, which is a sweet point break there on the Clare coast. The waves were big and powerful, with a bit of chop and wedgy sections in them because of the wind, always good craic and it adds to the entertainment factor on the beach! I was up first in the mens HP. The waves that came in were nice but there was a very long time between sets because of the wave period. I got one savage wave in the middle of the heat but I couldnt get a decent second wave to back it up before the heat ended so I finished in second behind Mick Barry.
The IC competition went better. I got lots of waves and managed to pull some cool stuff on them, including an attempted end move which I think turned into an exit-air-barrel roll thing and another attempted end move which turned into a huge slash/top turn thing off the close-out section! Happy out! I ended up winning the IC class, and a few of the lads that I brougt up got to see a surf kayak comp for the first time so it was a good day overall!
Results:
HP Class
1st Mick Barry, 2nd Eoin Keyes, 3rd Anthony Coyne.
IC:
1st Eoin Keyes, 2nd Mick Barry, 3rd Anthony Coyne.
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