Upper Flesk

Since we had a bit of rain over the last few days yesterday we ran the upper Flesk with the scouts. Water level was very low but all the decent sections like the main slide and the gates were still runnable. It was slow going on the way down and we had a lot of swims from the scouts getting broached on rocks but at least the weathers not that cold yet! We had a camera with us too so should get the footage off that soon enough. ...a few clips of us rock hopping down the main slide anyway!

Off to Portrush for the week for the home internationals and the british open tomorrow. Theres surf due over the next few days and all, cant wait!!

Sluice Rodeo

This competition is different from all the others since the format is a jam session where 6 paddlers at a time get 15 minutes on the water and your top 5 moves count. Since you can to into the hole as many times as you like it encourages you to go for big moves. And since fun moves like paddle spins, waving at the judges and doing an air guitar all get points anyone can show up and go home with a decent score! This year it was also round one of a wavesport sponsored Irish whitwater league, with lots of whispers going around as to what the prize at the end might be!

We got a good while before the competition to try and get used to the feature again which is a big issue at Sluice. Different parts of the wave are good for different tricks which gives the local lads a big advantage. I thought I was getting the hang of it by the time my heat came around but since I spent the whole heat struggling to stick a loop obviously not! I did manage all the usual spins and blunts and stuff but it wasnt enough to get me through to the final. The final was at a really high standard with Robbie O Shea, Shane Murphy, Niall Cockbill and Billy Brett all making the cut but the locals took it in the end with Robbie and Shabe taking 1st and 2nd. The mens final between Tom Dunphy, Ronnie, Colin Wong, Moogie and Barry Loughnane was also great to watch, with all of them scoring some big moves.

I'm looking forward to the next competition now, which is the surf kayaking home internationals followed by the british open in Portrush over the mid term. ...Starting to think its time for a weekend off sometime soon too, after something like 5 or 6 weekends of competitions in a row!

Robbie going for a blunt

Me going for a blunt

Ronnie plugging deep for a loop

Me going for a clean blunt

Irish Open

Just back from a great weekend up north at the Irish surf kayak open in Tullan Strand, Bundoran. Originally the competition was supposed to be on at Easky right in Sligo only the swell didnt play ball and it had to be moved. Since the event had to be finished in one day due to the swell only three classes were run, open short boat, long boat and wave ski. I was competing in both kayak classes so I was busy enough for the day, with a few heats back to back.

I made the semis in both classes, happy out with it when you look at the standard of competition there, with 1st and 2nd juniors in the world and more top class paddlers coming from northern Ireland and making the trip over from england! The winners in the end were James Hawker in HP, Dessie Mc Glinchy in IC and Matthieu Babarit in waveski. (sorry about the spellings there, i'll fix them in a while!) Babarit especially was something else to watch, getting some savage waves even in those conditions.



After the prize giving we drove back to Strandhill and hit the town for the evening, starting with dinner, then onto the pub and finally finishing up in the countrys dodgiest night club at three in the morning! Two of the lads who have been paddling a bit with the scouts, Dozy Ryan and Oisin Mc Hugh, made the trip up to get some experience in competition. They did really well, both of them making the second round. Look out for them again at the Sluice rodeo next weekend!

Scout Liffey Descent

Last weekend saw the scout liffey descent up in Dublin, which we were hoping to win overall for the third year running. And since I won my class last year I was hoping to defend that title too.




When we got to the race start at Lucan the water level was low enough but thanks to the ESB by the time the race started there was a good flow on the river. The plastic class was up first and our scouts all got off to a good start, some of them were the first few boats over Lucan weir.



After the carnage from the plastic boats was cleared it was time for us to get going. I made it to Lucan first of the bunch and got a clean line down it. I stayed in front for the next few kilometers and got clean, fast lines over all the other weirs too and almost from the start it was obvious it was going to be a two horse race between me and the guy that I had just beaten to the finish last year. He was determined to win it out this year and stuck with me for the whole race, just beating me to the line at the final sprint at the end. Sicked to come in second after all that work but what can you do! Thankfully most of the scouts went one better and won their individual classes, bringing home the overall trophy for three in a row!



This was the first time out with a savage bit of kit I just got from the guys at http://www.h2oaudio.com/ Its a waterproof case and earphones for an mp3 player/ ipod or whatever and its the job!! Its brilliant being able to listen to music on the water for those long distance races, and it should be good for between heats at the Irish Open next weekend too when a normal mp3 would just get wet or destroyed with salt and sand.

Dougmore training event

Heres a video from the training and development weekend that was on during the summer. The waves were perfect for what we wanted and theres definatly some potential there! Two of the lads that started out there are going up to the Irish Open this weekend, have to wait and see how it goes!