Sunday, December 25, 2016

Dream Tour Part 5: Moving Further Afield!

So, it's been a while since I checked in here! Those who have been following me on Instagram (keyes_92 if you're interested!) will know that's not because I have been sitting around doing nothing for the past month or so! The next couple of posts here will tell the story of an epic road trip down the west coast of Europe with surfboards on the roof, searching out all the legendary waves along the way. As well as waves we found awesome scenery, beautiful towns and villages, great people and lived a rollercoaster couple of weeks as we negotiated hurdles ranging from thieving bastards in the Basque country to storms in the Algarve. If you would like to know more, stay tuned and I'll eventually get around to putting the whole experience into words!

The Irish boys on tour...the sun comes out, the tops come off and locals and camera sensors alike get blinded by the pasty white flesh on show! You wouldn't get that in Ireland in November!

To start off, how did we come up with the idea of a surf trip in the first place? Which is a big question considering that none of us surf all that much! The whole idea started out with us looking for a destination which would have water for kayaking in late autumn and would be reasonably cheap to get to. The Pyrenees were the obvious answer, however the more we looked into that plan the more cumbersome it became. Since the only vehicles we owned were myself and Adam's Fiestas and doing such a long trip in one of those would be a ridiculous idea we talked about getting a van or large estate car for the trip. Bringing kayaks would mean bringing heavy and bulky kayaking gear plus a bike or ideally a mini-moto style bike for shuttles, so we looked into adding a trailer. The trailer would then have allowed us to bring surf boards and possibly even mountain bikes. However although doing a combined surfing, kayaking and biking trip sounds like amazing fun when you first think of it, the practicalities and cost of dragging all of that gear the length of Europe and then constantly driving from the sea up into the mountains and back means that it doesn't really make sense. Since we were going to be camping all the way, the idea of a destination with sunshine and surf was much more appealing than chasing rain for kayaking. So, after months of discussion on the topic it was decided that we would be doing a surf trip down the coast of Europe, essentially driving south until we found sunny weather and warm water!

In the end, after much talk of buying estate cars and vans, we took the cheap and lazy way out and decided to take one of the cars we had to hand. Adam's Fiesta is a 1.4 auto while mine is a 1.2 manual which can barely haul me and my own kit up some of the steeper hills in Kerry! Even with the 1.4 it was well tested on some of the roads we found ourselves driving during the trip.

So we ended up packing up Adam's car with enough camping gear, cooking gear and toys to let us survive out of it pretty much indefinitely. With the roof box, it all just about fitted in. The food and cooking gear took up pretty much the whole boot, the three pop-up tents went behind the passenger seat and all the clothes bags went behind them. Adding a guitar, ukelele and drum filled up the rest of the space we had inside the car! ...because on a surf trip you obviously have to be prepared for the inevitable flat days! The roof box was reserved for the wet or bulky bits like camping chairs, wetsuits, skateboards, snorkeling gear, gas bottle and spear gun. It took a bit of persuasion to get it closed before we figured out a system for fitting everything in there!

Campsite number one in La Sauzaie, France! After we got off the ferry in Cherbourg we decided to give Brittany a skip since the climate is too similar to Ireland's and hit the road south. We made it as far as La Sauzaie before throwing out the tents for the first time, hoping to wake up to perfect waves breaking on the A-frame reef right in front of the tents!

Unfortunately, our holiday didn't start out exactly according to plan. Rather than of pumping surf we woke up to strong onshore winds, no waves and lashing rain. Instead of cooking breakfast in the rain and getting soaked, we threw the tents back into the car as fast as possible and went looking for somewhere more sheltered. We ended up at this carwash outside a Lidl down the road which did the job perfectly! Thankfully it was unattended and we were able to cook up our first pot of porridge in relative shelter, while getting some queer looks off the locals going in and out of Lidl!

Useful information for anyone planning a similar trip: it is virtually impossible to find porridge in France! (by which I mean Lidl don't have it and we weren't prepared to go looking in too many more expensive shops for it) After cooking breakfast we decided that the most productive way to use the rainy weather was to spend it driving south. We spent the day driving, getting used to being on the wrong side of the road and experimenting with drafting behind trucks to save fuel. We got as far as Hossegor before deciding to pull in for the night and set a course for the nearest beach, hoping to find shelter from the rain and wind.

We lucked out big time when we went looking for shelter at Les Estangots beach just north of Hossegor! This three-walled shelter was angled perfectly to shelter us from the weather, and allowed us to spend a couple of days in peace while we waited for the conditions to improve enough for us to sample the renowned beach breaks in the area. The mixture of racist, anarchist and anti-xenophobic graffiti was also pretty interesting!

On the opposite side of of a large sand dune from our luxory accommodation was this world war two bunker, one of many in the area. It was possible to climb in the door in the picture and out onto the roof, giving a great view over the endless beach that the area is famous for. We were here around the time of the 'supermoon', which was indeed incredibly bright given the beautifully clear skies overhead and the bunker provided an awesome platform for stargazing at night!

After one cold, wet day spent fishing and sampling locally made pastries in Hossegor, the next morning dawned bright and clear and we were finally able to go searching for our first waves of the trip. The banks at Les Estangots didn't look great so we moved down the coast before settling on a peak where we saw two surfers in the water, casually tucking into chest high barrels just north of the world famous peak at La Graviere. They got off the water just as we were getting on, which was our first clue that everything might not be hunky dory on the water! We hit the water confident and full of enthusiasm after our couple of days cooped up in the car, jumping into the water and paddling out without a second thought. After all, this was a beach break and what could possibly go wrong?! The next hint that the day might not totally go to plan came when we reached the impact zone and discovered that the waves here had slightly more power to them than your average Irish beach break! After several not-quite-deep-enough duck dives and the associated gentle poundings, we convened out back and went hunting for waves. Which is when we discovered that take-offs on chest high barreling waves are much steeper and trickier than on similarly sized waves at your average Irish beach! After several more poundings following failed take-off attempts, Adam finally took off on a wave and made the drop, surfing all the way to the inside. Around this time, we discovered why the other surfers had got off the water when the mother of all long-shore rips started moving, meaning that non-stop paddling was required to stay in position and that when you finally found yourself in position for a wave, we were too knackered to put a meaningful effort in to catching them. Leading to more poundings. So we headed for the beach to catch our breath and make a new plan. Which ended up being identical to the old plan; ignorantly paddling straight out in the general direction of a channel leading to a good-looking peak. We immediately found ourselves being dragged down the beach faster than we were moving out, leaving us directly in front of the peak we were hoping to surf and getting pounded a few more times! By the time we finally admitted defeat we had drifted a solid couple of hundred metres down the beach, and decided to study the other surfers on the water for a while before starting the long walk back to the car.

It turns out that we are spoiled rotten here in Ireland with our uber-mellow beach breaks and nearly as mellow reefs. Most of which back off into deep water with a dry paddle back rather than closing out. Of course we have higher quality waves on offer if you go looking for them but it's very easy to spend your time surfing easy breaks and fool yourself into thinking that you're a competent surfer! As I certainly did before starting this trip. After watching the vastly more competent surfers on the water at La Graviere a pattern emerged, which seemed blindingly obvious as soon as we saw it. The secret to paddling out here was to be just inside the impact zone, at a channel, at the time a lull started. Which meant wading as far as possible off the beach during the previous set, far enough along the beach that the cross-shore drift would leave you in the right place when the lull came. Which if the rip was strong enough would be well in front of the next peak. Once you get out back and catching waves, make sure to peel off them before they close unless you want some serious duck dive practice and are feeling very fit! Mis-timing this whole routine would leave you with a set wave landing on your head, and these had so much water behind them that they would push you so far down the beach that you might as well head in and start again! It's all simple, basic stuff which makes it easier to paddle out anywhere, but just how critical it was to paddling out in France was certainly an eye-opener for me! 

With our tails firmly between our legs we headed back to the car to cook a pot of scrambled eggs and make a plan for the afternoon. In the guidebook we found a break nicknamed 'Kiddies Corner' just down the road in Capbreton which sounded perfect for us considering what we had just been through! At 'Kiddies Corner' we found a beautiful, small, mellow high tide shore break, which had an easy take-off followed by a short ride before closing out pretty much on the beach. We surfed there until dark, trying to wipe the memories of the morning from the system. The layout of the beach looked like it would have waves at low tide in the morning so we cooked dinner in the carpark, went for a wander around the town and waited until most people would have gone to bed before throwing up our tents directly on the beach, in the hope of not being disturbed at least until we had a good nights sleep! The last screw-up of the day came when we called into a local bar to grab some wi-fi and were charged €21.50 for three beers, which felt like a final punch from a day whose main priority was beating the daylights out of us! 
 
Waking up in Capbreton the next morning to this view was pretty special! Glorious sunshine, warm water, warm air, and beautiful small, clean, mellow surf. We threw down a quick breakfast and then spent most of the day on the water, just cruising around and chilling out in some of the most relaxed waves imaginable, just what was needed after the utterly demoralising time we had the day before!

That's where I'm going to leave the story for the moment because if I tried to fit this trip into one post it would start to resemble a book, and if I thought people were interested in reading a novel that's what I'd create instead! Check back over the next couple of days for the next portion of the journey, when shit really hits the fan and we're left wondering if some higher power really doesn't want us to go surfing at all! Happy Christmas, happy New Year to you and your family, and if you enjoyed reading this post and are looking forwards to the next update give it a share around the internet so that other people can have a chuckle at our progress!

Friday, November 4, 2016

Dream Tour Part 4: Let's Kick Things Up A Gear!

So, this Dream Tour rubbish, what's the craic? A couple of weeks in north west Ireland, what's the big deal? It is cool and everything, but not exactly exotic? I would argue that the west coast of Ireland is what the best dreams are made of, but that's slightly beside the point! The point is that around the age of twelve, before I ever got involved in kayaking and shortly after joining the Limerick Scout Group which kicked off all this outdoor malarkey for me in the first place, I had the opportunity to try out a friend's surfboard in Lahinch. I had spent years bodyboarding on family holidays to west Cork, loving the waves and the water but always feeling a little bit jealous of the guys out back on the surf boards. So finally getting a go on a board was a big deal! I vividly remember the feeling of flying along in front of the whitewater that first time I stood up, and totally falling in love with a new sport, and indeed a new way of life! Over the next couple of years the hurling, football and rugby that I was playing at the time fell by the wayside, the Sunday Game lost out to surf movies and the walls of my room became plastered in photos of people tucking in to emerald green barrels in remote corners of the world.

Ireland's west coast on fire a few weeks ago. It's definitely the stuff dreams are made of but I feel like travelling slightly further afield and hopefully finding some warmer water to play in! 

 Over the next couple of years I surfed as often as I could get a lift to the beach, built boards for myself in the back garden, and dreamed up various plans for surfing perfect waves in warm water. Eventually I got involved in kayaking which totally took over from surfing when I started building up for my first international surf kayak competitions, but the dreams of surfing perfect waves were still tucked away in a corner of my brain somewhere. Those are the dreams that this 'Dream Tour' is about! One of the more achievable ones is the classic Eurosurf road trip down west coast of France and into Spain and Portugal, surfing on every working peak along the way. Luckily, Mark Scanlon and Adam McEvoy happen to be free at the moment and up for the same kind of antics that I am, so on the 10th of November we're loading up Adam's Fiesta with surfing and camping gear and catching a ferry to France! Fingers crossed we'll score some epic surf as the north Atlantic winter starts churning out swell, and the weather will be a whole lot warmer than Ireland at this time of year! The eventual target of this road trip is somewhere near Lagos in Portugal, where we hope to stay for a short while and catch some consistent surf while minimising the spend on petrol. The whole plan is pretty flexible though, and who really knows where we'll end up! Keep an eye on this blog and follow keyes_92 on Instagram to keep up to date with progress, at the very least I'm sure we'll come home with some funny stories to tell!

The time since Cranafest hasn't exactly been spent relaxing! I've been surfing almost every day, did a club trip to Donegal, climbed Ben Bulben and did a multi-day sea kayaking expedition in Clare, where we saw whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals pretty much simultaneously!

"After Portugal" is a pretty distant thought at the moment. There are a couple of ideas floating around, including kayaking in Morocco in spring, snowboarding in Norway or possibly passing the whole winter in Portugal, picking up a job and relaxing in the sunshine! Only time will tell, if anyone hears of any jobs going that involve working on or around boats, or outdoor brands looking for people to test out kit it would be great to hear of them! Regardless of what happens in the meantime though, next summer will hopefully be spent surf kayaking in Ireland, preparing for the world Championships in Northern Ireland in October. My thinking is that the breaks are quiet, will be relatively consistent and I can surf spots which are similar to the competition sites in Portrush, so after a summer preparing I should be set up to perform pretty well up there! The next post here will contain the secret to fitting three guys, surfing gear, camping gear and a bunch of other toys in to the back of a Ford Fiesta... it should be pretty entertaining; stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Dream Tour Stop 3: Crana Kayak Fest

 
First of all, check out this great video put together by James O'Donnell of the finals at the Irish Open. There's some seriously impressive surfing in there, particularly by Dessie in the black long boat and Pablo in the green short boat!

Starting from where I left off last week; after the Irish Open finished up and everyone else started on their journey home the weather took a turn for the worse and the swell started to drop. A few brave and hardy souls took to the water at Tra Bui on Sunday morning before hitting the road but most decided to call it a weekend and get the drive over and done with. After a couple of days hiding from the wind and the rain, by Wednesday conditions were starting to look up. I met up with Jordan Collins and we did a bit of exploring, hunting out spots which were likely to be able to handle the 17/18 second swell which was due to arrive for Thursday morning! We got a few great waves at inside left in Bundoran in the afternoon, and then set up camp on a cliff overlooking the ocean for the night. Dragging ourselves out of the cars at first light the next mornning, we found a sight worth getting up for! A series of reef breaks, with maybe head and a half faces on the sets and perfect shape, ranging in temperment from relatively mellow and forgiving to fast, hollow and punishing! We got geared up pretty much as soon as it was bright enough to pick our way down the cliff face and into the water, and warmed up with a couple of waves on the most mellow peak on offer. Which was still pretty special; a fast, head high wall with unpredictible sections and dry reef pretty close to the finish! 

Pablo Arrouays, killing it as always on the outside reef! Photo by Jack Pearson.

After spending a while on the easy stuff, I followed the waveskiiers over to the outside reef 'for a look'. The wave out there was hollow, heavy, fast, shallow and in the sunshine looked like it belonged on a magazine cover! With no immediate intentions of actually catching a wave, I sat out wide on the shoulder watching Dessie in the IC boat and the waveskiiers Marty McCann, Mark Taylor and Pablo Arrouays making some great take offs and taking some horrible looking wipeouts! Pretty soon though a wide set swung through, peaked just where I was sitting and instinct took over, taking me into the wave and safely down the line with no drama. That was the start of an epic session and I slowly got more and more confident on the wave, eventually getting some of the best waves and heaviest wipeouts of my life! We surfed from eight that morning until nearly one in the afternoon, and did another session in the evening just before dusk. By the end of the day everyone was buzzing, swapping stories of their wipeouts and making plans for the next day. Most of the others headed for home or other breaks that night, while I hung around hoping for a similar session the next morning. However Friday turned out to be one of those days where the ocean wins. Rising at first light in the morning, the waves turned out to be significantly bigger than the day before, with guys heading for the outside reef fully kitted up with big wave guns and inflatable buoyancy vests! There was an unmanageable looking crowd on the main peak, and the previous morning's warm-up wave wasn't working at all, so I stuck my tail between my legs and headed for Buncrana!

No Thanks! This is the smaller, mellower of the two peaks on Friday morning. The other was too far away for taking photos with the phone. There are over twenty people on the water there, probably mostly all underwater after being steamrolled by this cleanup set!

For anyone who doesn't know; Crana Fest is a kayaking event in Buncrana, Co. Donegal organised by Adrian Harkin and his team at Inish Adventures. It brings together paddlers from all disciplines for a weekend of coaching, competition and socialising and is one of the few events around which really caters for paddlers of all levels. The 500m or so of river (dam released, for guaranteed water levels!) plays host to different classes of competition and training in freestyle, slalom, whitewater, boaterX and rafting, from absoloute beginner right up to a night time race down the grade IV 'Claw' rapid which will test even the best paddlers! The list of coaches attending always reads like a 'who's who' of Ireland's most well known instructors, and this year I had the honour of being asked to run 2/3 star training sessions for the weekend. Although struggling from time to time with the sheer volume of traffic on the river, I had some incredibly enthusiastic groups and really enjoyed the day, working through the fundamentals of river running with the Skerries sea scouts and anyone else who was looking to progress their skills. I'm hoping to see a lot of the same faces back next year, tearing it up in the intermediate boaterX!

Ground zero for Cranafest; Swan Park in Buncrana, Co. Donegal. The shops are here, most of Ireland's top paddlers and instructors are here; if you're not around then you really need to find out what you're missing next year! Photo by the Great Outdoors.

When the coaching sessions finish up each day, it's the advanced paddler's turn to strut their stuff. The highlight of the weekend is the midnight time trial down the Claw, and this year the organisers stepped things up a level with a series of obstacles on the way down! After sliding down a ramp into the river and avoiding touching the timing system which would mean immediate disqualification, we had to touch a ball hanging over the entrance ramp, duck under a limbo pole at the exit to the rapid, pass our paddles through a hoop in the pool below, round a slalom pole and then sprint back upstream to the finish gate. The standard is high with lots of top level whitewater and slalom paddlers intent on taking the win, and a completely flawless run is always needed to finish high in the results table at these events. I haven't seen any rankings yet but I clipped a rock and lost speed on my way back upstream towards the finish line, which I'm pretty sure will be enough to drop me well down the field! Thankfully, after the coaching sessions finish on Sunday afternoon the boaterX competition on the Claw gives another opportunity to go for some silverware. These races are always chaotic, and the spectators only get to see a fraction of the action as the competitors go over the Claw four or six at a time! The contest starts long before the go command is given as people jostle for their preferred position on the starting line, and continues all the way down the river with barging other boats and taking paddle strokes off other people's boats, bodies or heads all totally part of the game! After lots of tough racing against all the usual suspects and multiple lead changes all the way down the river in the final, I lucked out and took the overall win! Thankfully, after spending an hour or two effectively trying to kill each other, everyone was able to shake hands afterwards and laugh about all the carnage. It'll be all smiles and good times on the river together, until the next head to head when the game faces will go on again!

Nailing the line on the Claw in one of the boaterX races in the Exo Six. It's slightly easier when you can see where you're going! Photo by Sean Lynn.

So where next after Crana? Good question! There are plans in the works, there are other people involved, and there are tickets booked! I'll go into the details soon, stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Dream Tour Part 2 - A Day of Two Halves

As soon as the surf kayak British Open was cancelled last weekend due to the dismal surf forecast, the focus turned to the upcoming Irish Open in Easky. Hoping that the west coast was getting more surf than the north, I headed for Bundoran and set up camp there for a few days to get some solid training done before moving on to Easky. The move paid off and I was treated to a fresh swell in Tullan on Sunday, with waves approaching head and a half high and heavy enough that getting caught in front of them in a boat really wasn't fun! Watching the boardies pulling into closeout cover ups really kicked off the excitement for the next leg of my travels, which I'll go into more detail about sometime soon! The swell slowly dropped over the next few days and I had lots of great sessions; all at Tullan with a chilled out crowd of French and German travelling surfers. By Wednesday it was small enough and I was tired enough that it was time to take some time off, do a bit of a tour around the North West coast and slowly start making my way down to Easky.

The north coast of Donegal is stunning, and the weather on Wednesday showed it off at it's best! 

I arrived in Easky on Thursday evening, with just enough of a wave on the reef make it worth getting in for a quick session. The waves were less than two feet but nice and fast and steep, and myself and Aisling Griffin surfed into the night hoping to get a head start on the crowd that we expected would be on the water in the morning. Unfortunately though, not for the first time on this trip, the waves decided not to play ball. We woke up on Friday to find Easky as flat as a pancake, and were forced to travel to Tullan and fight for 2ft waves with the other 40 people who ended up in the same situation.

Beautiful? Yes. Surfable? Definitely not!

After this we weren't very hopeful that we would have waves at Easky for the competition the next day. Various alternative venues were discussed and a 7.20 meeting time was announced to give us time to move the whole circus if needed. It was pitch black out when we arrived at Easky on Saturday but pretty soon a bit of light started to appear in the sky and it was clear that there were small but contestable waves for us to play with. Unfortunately the wind was strong and blowing the complete wrong direction for Easky, blowing a horrible side chop into the wave and making it incredibly difficult to pick out a decent wave and link a couple of turns on it. I came off the water after the first round IC heat expecting a last place finish after blowing a bunch of take offs and not really putting together any decent rides, but it turned out that everyone else was struggling just as much out there and I had made it through in first place. I also made it through my first round HP heat which meant I could change out of the wet gear and shelter from the weather while waiting for the semis and finals in the afternoon.

These are the waves you spend hours in the office dreaming about. Long, rippable walls with nobody else out! Photo by Paddlesurf Ireland. 

After a couple of hours wearing as much clothes as I possibly could and watching people struggling in fairly big but downright dirty surf, things slowly started to change for the better. As if our prayers were being answered, over the course of an hour or two the rain stopped, the wind dropped and turned southerly, and the sun started to show a face through the clouds that had remained unbroken all morning! The chop that had been destroying any chance  of a good wave slowly disappeared, and the gentle offshore breeze caused the waves to stand up and take on  that classic Easky shape. All of a sudden it was game on for the finals, and I got more and more excited as I watched the juniors, masters and waveskis ripping on picture perfect waves!

Pushing the Paddlesurf Ireland Equinox nice and high into the lip of one of the set waves.

The finals were what all surf kayak competitions should be like. Shredding perfect waves in the sunshine with good friends around you and and an enthusiastic crowd on the shore loudly encouraging all of the competitors to surf harder and harder! In conditions like that it's impossible not to have fun, the competition takes second stage as you get to surf incredible waves with only three other people on the water, getting a front row seat to watch some amazing surfing and using that as motivation to up your own game. After a couple of great heats in the semis and finals, the arms were running out of juice and by the end of the HP final the mind was starting to wander towards the well deserved bottle of beer waiting in car park!

Hitting the lip on the last section, slightly too close for comfort to Johnny McBride! Photo by Paddlesurf Ireland. 

Coming off the water I had no idea what to expect results wise. Everyone had caught some amazing waves and surfed them beautifully, and from what I had seen the judges must have had a tough time picking between them. Special mention has to go to Pablo Airways from France, waveskiier extraordinaire who hopped into a kayak for the first time to see what it was like. He opened my mind as to what's possible in a boat and has really inspired me to try to push my own surfing up to another level. In the end, huge congratulations are due to Andy McClelland and Matthew Lamont for taking first place in IC and HP respectively. I came away with third place in both categories, not quite equal to last year's haul of double firsts but a respectable result none the less! I don't think any competitor is ever totally happy with their own performance but at the same time I definitely surfed better than I could when I left on this road trip a couple of weeks ago, which at the end of the day is what this whole road trip is all about!

Happy out collecting the silverware at the end of the day! 

The next stop on this tour (check out #dreamtour posts by keyes_92 on Instagram if you like landscape and sunset photos!) is Cranafest next weekend. I'm going to be teaching level 2/3 whitewater skills for the weekend so that's you and if you want to hear more of what I have to say then you know what to do! Most of the country's top instructors and competitors will be there so if you haven't got your tickets yet get booking, it's going to be epic! If you're not familiar with the event go and check out the website, there's something for everyone over the course of the weekend, regardless of age or kayaking ability! 

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Starting the Dream Tour - Surf Kayak Home Internationals

Waking up to a beautiful sunrise over Brandon Bay and the Maharees. 

The first big destination after finishing work a month ago was the surf kayak home internationals and British open in Portrush, Northern Ireland this week. I spent the last couple of weeks surfing my ass off in County Kerry and training as hard as possible, taking the occasional break to do some windsurfing and rescue boat work. We got a fairly consistent run of surf during the month and by the end of it things were starting to come together. I camped out in some really cool places, had some great surf sessions at various spots around Brandon bay and put a lot of work into more aggressive lip turns and more consistent end moves. I was really looking forward to the journey north and surfing heats against some tough competition. 

Looking up at the Cliffs of Moher from the bottom of the goat track at Ail na Searrach.

On my way north I visited the UL kayak club on their annual migration to Lahinch. It was great to do some surfing at a different spot, meet a lot of old friends and visit the Cliffs of Moher again. Most importantly, a party like that is not to be missed! After a crazy weekend of surfing, partying and generally having the craic, the drive up to Antrim on Sunday felt like it took forever!

The surf kayak home internationals at Portrush. Not much surf but at least the sun is shining! 

The surf kayak home internationals is a bi-annual team competition between Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This year's competition was held in Portrush by the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland as a practice run for next year's world championships, and when I arrived last Sunday the surf was small and dropping. We had a few nice freesurf  sessions at a couple of breaks around the area but by Wednesday and the start of the event there was barely a ripple around. Since that was the best we were going to get it was decided to run off as much of the team competition as possible while the waves were just about contestable, which meant doing a full 12 hour plus day on the bench. 

Despite the generally terrible waves, there were occasional opportunities to build a bit of speed and hit oncoming sections. This end move was by far the most fun moment of the day, the boat came around effortlessly! Photo by Donie McLoughlin.

Competing in marginal surf is infuriating to say the least but at the end of the day everyone has to make the most of the same waves, and the same surfers will generally come out on top regardless of the conditions. As a team we were consistent, with a couple of standout heats from Sheelagh,  Alan and others helping to hold us up the leader board. Unfortunately consistency wasn't enough to beat England who were surfing very strongly all day. Still,  second place in any international competition isn't a bad result, we'll just have to keep working on it and come back stronger next year! Despite the surf, Ashley and his team put on a great event and I'm sure that next year's world championships here will be a cracker. Unfortunately the British Open competition had to be cancelled due to the surf forecast so the next event on the calender is now the surf kayak Irish Open in Easky next weekend. We have been very lucky with conditions for that one for the last few years so hopefully that will continue. Fingers crossed! 

The plan for the next week is to leisurely travel over to Easky, via as many surf spots as possible and aiming to get there for Thursday or so to get a few days on the water there before the competition starts. It should be a great week, there's a lot of surfing to be done between Portrush and Easky!

Monday, September 12, 2016

What's this Life Thing Anyway?

Where to start...

I'm sure they had such high hopes for us at the time of the school graduation! Some of those faces aren't looking so fresh any more...
 
I finished secondary school in 2011 in probably the same confused state of mind about what to do next as most other people. I had a natural ability in applied maths and physics, a passion for the outdoors, and was torn between studying some form of engineering or the likes of the 'outdoor' courses in GMIT or IT Tralee. Fast forward four years; I'm graduating from UL with an engineering degree, proficiency in a whole pile of new outdoor sports, and not a whole lot has changed. The question of  'is office work really for me' rose it's head again, but when you're in final year of university and flat out with assignments and project work you don't really have time for inconvenient issues like that. So I fired off a couple of job applications for jobs in places with rivers nearby, and before the snow had melted from the ground that winter I had signed a year long contract with Liebherr Container Cranes in Killarney, County Kerry.

"Work"? Hardly! Fresh out of secondary school and getting paid to drive a bus around, chat to people and get a tan... Little me had things figured out back in the day!

After repeatedly changing the start date of that contract to make space for the freestyle and surf kayak world championships, I finally started work in September and started a year of kayaking, surfing and climbing as much as possible while sitting in an office for eight hours every day. Despite having what may seem like the ideal work - life balance and getting out on the water virtually every evening and weekend, all was not quite perfect. After a summer of adapting to training and competing full-time, sitting for eight hours every day felt very unnatural; looking around at the same four walls became monotonous very quickly and as soon as the clocks went forward for the winter sitting in an office seemed like a very poor way to spend the limited number of daylight hours. Additionally, driving for an hour or so each evening to go and play in the sea didn't sit very well with the concience for environmental reasons. Having said all that, the work I was doing was interesting and the colleagues were relaxed and easy to get along with. I was learning loads about engineering and grown-up life; and having hours every evening free from assignments and project work was a novelty that I wasn't used to after years spent studying!
 
It was a great year of getting out on the water on whatever craft suited the conditions! 

So, turning down the offer of a permanant contract certainly wasn't the easiest decision I have ever made but now I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to happen next! The main goal for the future is to use the time I have until the savings run out to come up with some kind of long term plan, or else get so used to winging things that I realise I don't need a long term plan! Short term, I'm going back to last summer's schedule since I enjoyed that one so much. Training, competing and travelling is the plan for the next couple of months; starting with the surf kayak home internationals at the start of October, and then moving on to a surfing road trip to Portugal with a couple UL heads. I'll do my best to keep this blog updated along the way, it's going to be epic! A couple of short term jobs in between trips would be handy to keep the bank balance ticking over, and all the better if it's something outside. If anyone needs a body over the next couple of months and the work involves kayaking/ sailing/ surfing/ climbing/ freediving/ biking/ snowboarding/ skiing/ boat driving, or pretty much anything like that get in touch for a chat, the email is eoinkeyes at yahoo.com. Portfolios/ logbooks/ references/ whatever can be supplied if needed!

The culmination of two years of training and summers spent living in tents in order to spend as much time as possible on the water. And loving every minute of it!

Whatever happens over the next few months or years, it's going to be an exciting time! Free for the first time from the tyranny of classes, exams, timetables and work schedules; it's scary stuff! Worst case scenario I'll be running back to Liebherr a few months down the line looking for my old desk back but if so at least I'll know I tried. I'm sure there will be ups and downs, but that has to be more fun than cruising along at a happy medium. As a wise man once said; "I took the road less travelled, and that has made all the difference". If that quote is relevant or not will become clear as time moves on, but using it makes all the time spent in English classes feel slightly more productive!

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Easy DIY Latex Wrist and Neck Seal Repair

Because what kayaking blog would be complete without a wrist/neck seal repair guide...

It's that time of year when it's time to start looking forward to the cooler, wetter months ahead, and realise that the trickle/ flood of water down the back of your neck every time you roll which has been increasing in volume all summer is going to get a whole lot harder to ignore over the next couple of weeks! So grab a beer, sit back and I'll take you step by step through what I did this evening. This is the cheapest, quickest and easiest way of replacing seals that I've come across, if you have any suggestions for making it easier let me know!

What you need:

A knackered cag/drysuit. Hopefully the source of all that water is torn/ gummy/ worn out seals and not the stitching or the material itself. A solid cag from the likes of PeakUK or Kokatat which is looked after reasonably well can be expected to outlast several sets of seals before wearing out and turning porous. Cheaper, less durable kit maybe not so much. The cag in these pictures is from the upper end of the Kokatat range and is on it's third neck seal and second set of wrist seals. It's been used regularly in salt water, only washed occasionally, never re-waterproofed and is over three years old. So pretty much not looked after at all, and I've done a whole lot of paddling in those three years. It's worth buying decent kit if you're going to be paddling a lot! (I use PeakUK and Kokatat as examples because they're the only manufacturers I have experience of, and I have been very impressed with the durability of the kit from both. I'm sure there are other brands on the market which are just as good, ask around to find out what has been working well for other people.) 

A spare set of seals. SeaSkin have them for super cheap compared to some alternative sources. I have bought plenty from them, they're decent quality. Otherwise, most paddling shops will have them.

Glue. I use Evostick contact adhesive. The advantage of this is that there's no fiddling with a slippery, gluey cag, seals, cardboard, clothespegs, footballs, bottles or traffic cones, trying to get everything clamped together with the seals lined up right. And then praying that nothing moves while you're asleep. The disadvantage is that you had better be damn sure you can get it lined up right first time cos the seal ain't coming off again once it's stuck! (...sort of. It'll kind of peel off if you really need it to but it's difficult and best avoided!) Close enough = good enough here, if it's not lined up perfectly or there's a minor wrinkle somewhere don't worry about it. If you're worried a wrinkle is big enough to leak water you can always seal it with Aquasure afterwards. The alternative to impact glue is a urethane adhesive such as Aquaseal/ Aquasure. Bernard Walsh put together an excellent video showing this method which you can find here. I like the instant results of the impact glue and the simplicity of not having to find something to use as a jig but if you have more patience than I do then the Walshy Way works very well.

Sandpaper. There's not a lot to say here, use whatever you have to hand. I used wet and dry, all you're doing is roughening the surface of the rubber a little.

On to the How-To:

Start by cutting the old seal off the cag. I cut the rubber a few millimeters away from the end of the cag material itself using a sissors.

Sand the surface of the remaining rubber until the shiny surface of the material has been taken off, and then repeat for the areas on the seals which are going to be glued. I find it easiest to do the whole job with the cag turned inside out.


Squeeze glue onto the surfaces to be glued, and then spread it out with your finger. If you're doing this regularly and don't want to get cancer you should probably wear a glove or use a scraper, but there's something really satisfying about peeling impact glue off your fingers afterwards! Leave the glue to sit until it's dry to the touch, making sure that the cag and seal don't fold up and make contact with themselves. If two glued surfaces even touch each other it's a bit of a nightmare, the stuff isn't called contact adhesive for no reason! 

Now for the trickiest bit. Stick the seal inside the sleeve of the cag, without touching either itself or the inside of the cag, line them up and stick them together. I find that by holding the seal as shown it's pretty easy, you can touch the two parts together in one place and work your way around the joint, making sure that there are no wrinkles in either of the bits as you go. Do a couple of dry-runs before you add the glue if you're not sure how it'll work. Give the seal and the cag a good push together all the way around the joint and that's it, you're done! If you have any wrinkles just force the two sides of the joint together, hold them flat for a second and the glue and the elasticity of the rubber should look after the rest.

Ta-Daa... Time to go kayaking! Total time taken; about 30 minutes. A neck seal takes a little bit longer but the process is the same. The seals will probably need to be trimmed afterwards to fit your wrists. Use a sharp sissors or stanley blade, and try not to leave any little nicks which will create a weak point in the seal. Cut off a little at a time until you're happy with the fit, and remember that the rubber will stretch a little after you take it on the water a few times. Happy paddling!






Monday, August 22, 2016

An Unexpected Day Out!

When the weather forecast predicts substantial amounts of rain over the summer, it's hard to react to it with any amount of enthusiasm. All too often the forecasted downpour doesn't show up, or else it falls on dry ground and is instantly soaked up by the soil and plants which have been crying out for moisture for weeks. So when the long range forecast started showing some pretty colours at the start of last week it was hard to say anything more committing than "we'll see"... Nonetheless, the diarys were kept empty, the fingers crossed, and deities of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds promised personal favours in return for one of those days that you dream of every time you're standing on the bank of a river with hypothermia in the depths of winter! Going to bed on Friday night, with a distinct lack of any hint of rain hitting the roof, I don't think anyone was too optimistic that there would be water around the next day.

I woke up the next morning in the spare room of a student house in Limerick after a couple of cans the night before, to the sound of lashing rain and one of the lads roaring that the Glens was up! Quickly the phone calls went out towards Cork and Galway, a plan was hatched, and we spent the next couple of hours running around, brushing cobwebs off the creekboats and constantly hitting refresh on the Clare Glens Riverspy page, watching it rise and rise with the same feeling that you get when watching the big wheel go round on winning streak, wondering is it ever going to stop! I think the thoughts that everyone was having that morning went something like: woohoo; summer Glens runs -- wow; medium level summer Glens runs -- what the hell; high level summer Glens runs -- Oh. This is going to be interesting...  

We arrived at the Glens to find levels higher than I've seen in a long long time, and a hungover, rusty and slightly apprehensive crew of paddlers dawdling in the carpark, not in any rush to get on the water and find out what effect the months of no creek boating had done to the paddling skills! We eventually got our act together, hopped on the river and had one of those days... Warm water, warm weather, sunshine, and epic water levels! And everyone's paddling was pretty much in one piece, with only minor moments of entertainment on the way down. Generally the lines were clean, and everyone agreed on the water that this was one of the days that you spend the rest of your time dreaming of. We caught the river at it's peak; between runs one and three it dropped between a foot and a half and two feet and was still at the high side of medium when we were getting off! Dave Glasswell put together a nice little video of runs two and three, check it out!

 

In other news, the blogging hiatus is very nearly over. I have neglected the blog for the last year since I decided constant updates about surfing, sailing and spearfishing would get way too repetitive to be worth sharing with the world but all is about to change. Notice has been handed in with the office job and plans for the winter are in the works. Watch this space!


Monday, January 4, 2016

Flesk Race Results

Because I don't like facebook for things like this, here are the results of the Flesk race. The weather has been way too good for writing blog posts, hence the awful long break since the last one, but I'm sure I'll get around to writing up some bits and pieces about the last few weeks eventually!


Name
Start Finish Elapsed
Barry Loughnane
00:00:00 00:00:00 0:09:56
Colin Wong
00:55:00 01:05:15 0:10:15
Kev Cahill
00:13:00 00:23:39 0:10:39
Dave Higgins
00:00:00 00:00:00 0:10:40
Eoin Keyes
00:22:00 00:32:41 0:10:41
Eoin Farrell
00:51:00 01:01:45 0:10:45
Mark Scanlon
00:12:00 00:22:47 0:10:47
David Doyle
00:50:00 01:00:48 0:10:48
Lucien Scrieber
00:53:00 01:03:54 0:10:54
Cathal Kelly
00:54:00 01:05:03 0:11:03
Mac Skelly
00:15:00 00:26:06 0:11:06
Jack Duffy 
00:49:00 01:00:14 0:11:14
Aran Kilroy 
00:48:00 0:59:20 0:11:20
Dave Pierce 
00:17:00 00:28:22 0:11:22
Sean Cahill
00:52:00 01:03:28 0:11:28
Luke Whelan
00:57:00 01:08:30 0:11:30
Conor Bredin
00:58:00 01:09:42 0:11:42
Brian Cahill
00:14:00 00:25:45 0:11:45
Artur Staszek
00:20:00 00:31:53 0:11:53
Nathaniel Laplaud
00:18:00 00:29:56 0:11:56
Simon Cadek
00:59:00 01:11:00 0:12:00
Cian Twohig
00:56:00 01:08:07 0:12:07
Aoife Hanrahan
00:23:00 00:35:22 0:12:22
Dave Glasswell
01:00:00 01:13:07 0:13:07
Des Ronan
00:16:00 00:45:00 0:29:00
Gildas Laplaud
00:19:00 00:48:00 0:29:00
Mick Murphy
00:21:00 00:50 0:29:00