It's that time of year! I've had a bit of free time over the last few
days so I put together a video of the highlights from the past months. Between 9 months in Ireland and a road trip around Europe it's been a good year! All that's left now is to eat lots over Christmas, get out paddling where possible and pray for a wet new year! Happy christmas and see you on the river!
A log of a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation of the island of Ireland in a 22ft sailboat departing in June 2020.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Autumn Update, Christmas Plans and Clare Glens Race 2013 info
I know it's been awful quiet on here recently but I've had a seriously
hectic semester in college. I've still been getting out kayaking pretty
often, Gower's been working well for the last few weeks and we've had
some savage sessions sessions! Even some of the first years from UL are getting the bug, everyones having a savage time and there's some serious progress being made, keep an eye out for them over the next few years!
Here's a video I put together a few weeks ago, of one of the quieter sessions we've had:
Unfortunatly we had to postpone the Clare Glens Race a few weeks due to the lack of rain. We weren't completly skunked tho, there was plenty of wet weather a week or two before the race was meant to be on which meant it was time to ignore college work for a morning and go for a quick blast. We managed to borrow the UL students union van and when we got there the river was at a savage level, something like .7 on the old gauge! ( .4, just runnable, on the old gauge is around .7 on the new OPW gauge, for anyone who's interested. The site, riverlevels.ie, isn't updating at the moment but hopefully it'll be back online soon!) We had a savage run anyway and I even made it back in time for my afternoon lecture. Happy days!
The plan for the next few days is Castleconnel tomorrow, surf kayaking on Thursday ( the forecast is looking class, check it out if you're going to be free! ) and hopefully the next few weeks will be just as busy! Unfortunatly all this is happening at the cost of delaying Christmas shopping by another few days, hopefully I'll find some time to fit that in before the 25th! I've got a video of the highlights from the past year in the works too, keep an eye on here and I should have it up shortly. Anyway, merry Christmas, happy New Year and clean lines everyone!
P.S. The Clare Glens Race has been rescheduled to the 5th or 6th of January, with a freestyle competition on Gower on whichever day the race isnt on. Mark the dates and keep it free, it's going to be an epic weekend!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Paddlesurf Ireland Waveski Trip
I spent my last few days before college started back surf kayaking and waveskiing up in Sligo and Donegal on the Paddlesurf Ireland NW freesurf trip. We got lucky with the surf for the few days with Easky left breaking well for all the time we were there, except for one morning when we went up to Tullan Strand in Donegal.
It was pretty much my first time back in the surf kayak in about 6 months so things were a bit rusty to start off but I got the hang of it again pretty quick and had some really fun surfs over the few days. The highlight was probably when I went for an air and somehow got kicked upwards by the breaking lip, I got a few feet of air and landed off the back of the wave.
It was also my first time trying out the beginner waveskis that Paddlesurf Ireland bought recently. They go really nice, they're nice and easy to paddle and catch waves on and they surf really well too. Obviously not as high performance as a custom waveski but definatly on a par with a surf kayak. If anyone wants to demo it just give me a shout, that's what it's there for!
It was pretty much my first time back in the surf kayak in about 6 months so things were a bit rusty to start off but I got the hang of it again pretty quick and had some really fun surfs over the few days. The highlight was probably when I went for an air and somehow got kicked upwards by the breaking lip, I got a few feet of air and landed off the back of the wave.
It was also my first time trying out the beginner waveskis that Paddlesurf Ireland bought recently. They go really nice, they're nice and easy to paddle and catch waves on and they surf really well too. Obviously not as high performance as a custom waveski but definatly on a par with a surf kayak. If anyone wants to demo it just give me a shout, that's what it's there for!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Current Affairs
I finally got the movie that I've put together from the summer uploaded, it took a while! I've called the movie Current Affairs, check it out:
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but let me know what you think!
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but let me know what you think!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
News from Wildalpen
Having a great time here in Wildalpen at the moment, lots of work broken up with the odd day off due to the water level being too high to run trips. Up untill yesterday the highest most of the guides had run the river was 250cm. Then yesterday morning we woke up and the level was at 330cm and nearly over-flowing into the campsite! There was no way any commercial trips were going ahead at that level so we called around all the guides and headed out paddling! The trip was made up of one raft full of guides from Liquid Lifestyle and a load of kayak instructors from all the different companies; it was savage craic! The Salsa at that level is definatly the biggest volume river I've ever run, full of massive waves and holes that you really want to steer clear of! A few of the waves were big enough to get massive bounce in the playboat and the rest were savage for wave wheels, kick flips and macho move attempts!
Whenever the river gets a good bit lower, about 160cm, the local play hole, the Helli Welle, comes into it's own. We've had a few sweet sessions there recently, heres a video I put together from last week:
The footage is a bit blurry but you get the general idea. The best footage is being saved for a movie that I'm working on, 'Current Affairs'. Keep an eye out for it September sometime!
Whenever the river gets a good bit lower, about 160cm, the local play hole, the Helli Welle, comes into it's own. We've had a few sweet sessions there recently, heres a video I put together from last week:
The footage is a bit blurry but you get the general idea. The best footage is being saved for a movie that I'm working on, 'Current Affairs'. Keep an eye out for it September sometime!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Settling into Austria
Since the last post we've pretty much spent our time going looking for rivers to paddle, chilling out and doing a bit of work here and there.
After the first nice day or two the weather turned pretty shite. We went on a few missions looking for steep creeks to paddle but somehow everything we've travelled to so far has been too high and we actually havnt got on any decent rivers here yet. We have scoped out a few rivers that we want to paddle when the levels are right tho, there definatly are some sweet ones to be found around here if you're on the ball with levels and stuff.
In the last few days the sun has come back and we've done a good bit of work painting and stuff, getting the place looking shiny for when the busy times start. I've had a few good freestyle sessions too. They started off pretty woeful thanks to not paddling the playboat for around two months but things are improving pretty quick. At the moment my goal is to get McNasties down reasonably solid in the next few weeks.
The real work starts in the morning. We've got 90 people coming in to go rafting so every raft that floats is getting onto the river and we've even had to borrow a few. Sunday should be something similar and next week I'm going working in a different company around two and a half hours away from here since they're short staff. I've got 5 days guaranteed work out of it so I'm happy out :)
After the first nice day or two the weather turned pretty shite. We went on a few missions looking for steep creeks to paddle but somehow everything we've travelled to so far has been too high and we actually havnt got on any decent rivers here yet. We have scoped out a few rivers that we want to paddle when the levels are right tho, there definatly are some sweet ones to be found around here if you're on the ball with levels and stuff.
In the last few days the sun has come back and we've done a good bit of work painting and stuff, getting the place looking shiny for when the busy times start. I've had a few good freestyle sessions too. They started off pretty woeful thanks to not paddling the playboat for around two months but things are improving pretty quick. At the moment my goal is to get McNasties down reasonably solid in the next few weeks.
The real work starts in the morning. We've got 90 people coming in to go rafting so every raft that floats is getting onto the river and we've even had to borrow a few. Sunday should be something similar and next week I'm going working in a different company around two and a half hours away from here since they're short staff. I've got 5 days guaranteed work out of it so I'm happy out :)
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Austria Part 1
After a 16 hour drive across Europe minus GPS and a day paddling 35km along the Salza to get to know the river again we had our first days work with Liquid Lifesyle in Wildalpen today. I was raft guiding and Neil took a beginners kayak course; a good few more days like that and the budget will start to look a lot healthier! We're living in a room/shed/shack thing thats warm, dry and about a 30 second walk from work and 5 minutes away from a few sweet play holes. Hopefully we'll get to explore all the local creeks over the next few weeks as well as working and freestyle paddling. Good times!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Finishing Up
After a few savage weeks things are starting to wrap up here in Italy. Most of the people who were here for the festival have already left and we're getting ready to head away from here in the morning. The festival went really well. I came second in the Freeride competition and Neil qualified for the Sweet Rumble boatercross, really good going since the rest of the field was basically made up of pro's and Italian slalom paddlers! The party on Saturday night was pretty epic too, there was a big crew of Irish lads out for the weekend and as a nation we definatly won that event! Even the main prize of the competition, a creek boat that was raffeled off, went to Willie, one of the lads that came over from Wicklow for the week!
The last few days have mainly been spent hanging around with the lads from ULKC. I guided a group of their most advanced paddlers down the Egua the other day which was pretty stressfull since there was 10 of them and I was the only person on the water who knew the lines but it went really well in the end. Everyone paddled really well and we got down it with no drama at all. They all loved it too which is always good to see. I've done a few of the sections of the Sesia over the last few days with the full group which is always good craic. We had a little incident yesterday where one of the girls had to be evacuated off the river and brought to hospital with an injured shoulder but she's recovering from that now and apart from that it's all been plain sailing. Everyones having a great time and paddling really well so it's a pity that they have to head back home in the morning.
We're off to Austria in the morning to work for a few months to pay for this whole trip. Hopefully the drive will go smoothly and we'll get lots of work while we're there. Fingers crossed!
The last few days have mainly been spent hanging around with the lads from ULKC. I guided a group of their most advanced paddlers down the Egua the other day which was pretty stressfull since there was 10 of them and I was the only person on the water who knew the lines but it went really well in the end. Everyone paddled really well and we got down it with no drama at all. They all loved it too which is always good to see. I've done a few of the sections of the Sesia over the last few days with the full group which is always good craic. We had a little incident yesterday where one of the girls had to be evacuated off the river and brought to hospital with an injured shoulder but she's recovering from that now and apart from that it's all been plain sailing. Everyones having a great time and paddling really well so it's a pity that they have to head back home in the morning.
We're off to Austria in the morning to work for a few months to pay for this whole trip. Hopefully the drive will go smoothly and we'll get lots of work while we're there. Fingers crossed!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Festival Start
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!
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!
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.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Tuam Session
We headed out to Tuam last weekend and afterwards about two hours of footage became this:
The water level was a bit low, loops just about worked if you were really gentle with plugging the nose. I'm pretty happy with how the video looks, just need to get out there at a better level to get some proper moves down.
The water level was a bit low, loops just about worked if you were really gentle with plugging the nose. I'm pretty happy with how the video looks, just need to get out there at a better level to get some proper moves down.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Varsities
Now that I've got all the work that I should have done at the weekend finished I might as well throw in a few details about what actually went down! Since the Polo was on Saturday we had to leave Limerick as crazy O'Clock in the morning, which meant meeting up on Thursday night to pack up everything. I've never seen such a variety of gear being loaded up for one trip before in my life! 2 trailers, 30-40 odd boats and lord knows how much paddles and other gear! I guess it doesnt help when you've got teams competing in Polo, Freestyle, Whitewater and something like 8 different classes in Long Distance.
For some reason this year they changed the format of the Polo competition. In the past it was run as a league to start off and then moved into semi finals and finals. This year it was a knock-out all the way, meaning that if you got a tough draw in the first round it could screw you over for the rest of the entire competition. Thats what happened to the team who were regarded as being the second best team in the competition, they came up against GMIT in the first round and that was the end of their polo competition. We didnt do as badly as that, we only came up against them in the second round, and lost miserably. We weren't too happy that we went out that early in the comptition but what can you do, we just had to do better in all the other events to make up for it!
The next morning the Whitewater event was run on the Clydagh, again at stupid o'clock in the morning. I stayed in bed and had a lie-in since I was competing in the Freestyle in the afternoon and this was my only event off but the lads came back saying that they weren't sure how they'd done but they thought they were pretty quick. They had one swim towards the end of the race, but so did every other team and since they had swam over the finish line that can only have been another advantage!
The freestyle that morning went really well! The water level at Tuam was awful but this was probably an advantage to us since none of us can stick moves like McNastys and Phonixes consistantly. As it was we played the score-sheet and went through all the fun moves before going for real moves, including attempting to stand up in our boats at the end for 50 points! As soon as we got off the water we knew that we'd scored well, and thanks to Adrian putting the results up on Irish Freestyle we found out that we'd come first in the event not long after. What surprised us was the margin we won by. We were 200 points clear of the next team, NUIG! I put together a video of the heat there in the last few days, check it out:
After the Freestyle the only competition that was left was long distance.This was supposed to be a 6km marathon but after problems with locations it got shortened to a 2km sprint. The classes for this were similar enough to the liffey descent. To get the most points overall we had people entered in every class but the specialist classes were very competitive with lots of people who paddle for Ireland in Wildwater and Marathon in them so we didn't really get any points from them. The less specialist classes were a different story tho! Barry and Niall were paddling the Duo, and Ethan and Oisin were in the Canadian and they won both of them! I was paddling in mens GP which was a huge class, with somewhere between 60 and 100 people racing. The race went really well and I was up around the front of the field for the whole race but was kind of disappointed to only come 3rd in the end after a good battle in the sprint to the finish.
At the awards sunday evening we found out that we had won the whitewater and fancy dress, as well as the freestyle that we already knew about. All this gave us 1st overall and a nice shiney new Molan to bring back in the back of the van! Delighted! Thanks to the lads that were in the club before us this is the 3rd year in a row that we've won the event so the drive back to Limerick was spent planning parties to celebrate the occasion and plotting world domination i.e. 4 in a row!
For some reason this year they changed the format of the Polo competition. In the past it was run as a league to start off and then moved into semi finals and finals. This year it was a knock-out all the way, meaning that if you got a tough draw in the first round it could screw you over for the rest of the entire competition. Thats what happened to the team who were regarded as being the second best team in the competition, they came up against GMIT in the first round and that was the end of their polo competition. We didnt do as badly as that, we only came up against them in the second round, and lost miserably. We weren't too happy that we went out that early in the comptition but what can you do, we just had to do better in all the other events to make up for it!
The freestyle that morning went really well! The water level at Tuam was awful but this was probably an advantage to us since none of us can stick moves like McNastys and Phonixes consistantly. As it was we played the score-sheet and went through all the fun moves before going for real moves, including attempting to stand up in our boats at the end for 50 points! As soon as we got off the water we knew that we'd scored well, and thanks to Adrian putting the results up on Irish Freestyle we found out that we'd come first in the event not long after. What surprised us was the margin we won by. We were 200 points clear of the next team, NUIG! I put together a video of the heat there in the last few days, check it out:
After the Freestyle the only competition that was left was long distance.This was supposed to be a 6km marathon but after problems with locations it got shortened to a 2km sprint. The classes for this were similar enough to the liffey descent. To get the most points overall we had people entered in every class but the specialist classes were very competitive with lots of people who paddle for Ireland in Wildwater and Marathon in them so we didn't really get any points from them. The less specialist classes were a different story tho! Barry and Niall were paddling the Duo, and Ethan and Oisin were in the Canadian and they won both of them! I was paddling in mens GP which was a huge class, with somewhere between 60 and 100 people racing. The race went really well and I was up around the front of the field for the whole race but was kind of disappointed to only come 3rd in the end after a good battle in the sprint to the finish.
At the awards sunday evening we found out that we had won the whitewater and fancy dress, as well as the freestyle that we already knew about. All this gave us 1st overall and a nice shiney new Molan to bring back in the back of the van! Delighted! Thanks to the lads that were in the club before us this is the 3rd year in a row that we've won the event so the drive back to Limerick was spent planning parties to celebrate the occasion and plotting world domination i.e. 4 in a row!
Monday, February 20, 2012
1st in Varsitys!
News just in, ULKC finished 1st in varsitys for the 3rd year in a row! We had a savage weekend, won freestyle and whitewater and had some epic parties along the way! Full report and video coming soon!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Gower Sessions
We got two sweet Gower sessions in the last 12 hours or so. Its not too often that the conditions and the motivation required show up together, since one or both of them are going to happen at a ridiculus hour of the day! Unfortunatly the way the tides worked out this time it meant that the first session was yesterday night/this morning from 12 untill about 2am! Apart from the lack of daylight tho everything else worked out perfect. The wave was working really well, high paddle-on level and there was plenty of light coming from the council offices on the far side of the river to see what you were doing. It wasnt even cold at all, pretty surprising for 2am on a February morning!
Luckily since the wave was only working in the afternoon the next morning we were able to have a pretty decent lie in. We headed out to Gower at about 12.30 expecting to find a perfect wave only to be greeted with a water level lower than I've ever paddled Gower at and all the islands in the middle of the river at least a foot out of the water. Luckily since we had nothing better to be doing we decided to get on anyway to see what the small wave that was there was like to paddle.
Almost as soon as we got on the water the level started to rise, going from dirt low at the start of the session to high and paddle-on at the end! Trufst the ESB to be screwing around with the water but I guess its better than having them turn off the water as soon as we get there! In the end we had a class session on it, I spent a while practising competition runs for the next round of the national league thats on here in a few weeks time which went pretty well, really looking forward to that competition now.
There was even a photographer there who got a few sweet shots, talk about all the stars aligning!
Luckily since the wave was only working in the afternoon the next morning we were able to have a pretty decent lie in. We headed out to Gower at about 12.30 expecting to find a perfect wave only to be greeted with a water level lower than I've ever paddled Gower at and all the islands in the middle of the river at least a foot out of the water. Luckily since we had nothing better to be doing we decided to get on anyway to see what the small wave that was there was like to paddle.
Almost as soon as we got on the water the level started to rise, going from dirt low at the start of the session to high and paddle-on at the end! Trufst the ESB to be screwing around with the water but I guess its better than having them turn off the water as soon as we get there! In the end we had a class session on it, I spent a while practising competition runs for the next round of the national league thats on here in a few weeks time which went pretty well, really looking forward to that competition now.
There was even a photographer there who got a few sweet shots, talk about all the stars aligning!
I got some footage of Dave there too, I'll throw that together and put it up here when I'm done.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Sluice Rodeo
Last weekend another freestyle competition was held at Sluice in Dublin. Its a long drive up so myself and Ethan O'Brien headed up on Saturday and the plan was to meet up with Niamh Cleary, the Farrels and Dave Holden for a paddle. We were hoping that the Glenmacnass or something like that would be working since apart from the Annamoe I havnt paddled any rivers up in Wicklow. Unfortunatly the water levels didnt play ball but the Annamoe was running as always so we had a fun run down that instead. That evening we went to Lacken Kayak Clubs pool session in Clondalkin, apparently it was a quiet one with "only" about 30 kids in the pool compared with the 50 that they sometimes have but the ones that were there were flying. If they all keep it up then Lacken Kayak Club is going to be one to watch out for in the nest few years!
The Sluice rodeo the next day was some craic, despite the baltic weather. Its been ages since I paddled in Sluice so we headed up fairly early to have some time to get used to the feature again before the competition started. Its no Gower but by the time the competition I started I was getting the hang of the place again and blunts and stuff were starting to feel pretty smooth. The competition was run in a 15 minute jam session format with everyones top 5 moves counting, which is great because it allows people to risk going for big moves without worrying about flushing off the wave. My heat went pretty good. I got a few spins, blunts and roundhouses out of the way at the start, and then spent the rest of the heat going for back blunts and loops. In the end I managed to land enough to put me in 5th place, only 20 points behind the winner, Moe Kelleher. I'm happy enough with the result, since its a really tricky feature and the top three places were all taken by locals who know the place like the back of their hands!
Huge thanks to Gerry and Tom Cleary for giving me and Ethan food and floor space for the weekend, much appreciated! The next competition thats coming up is a big one, the kayaking intervarsities in Castlebar in two weeks time. Cant wait to have a fair go at defending last years title at this one, we've been putting a lot of work into training for it recently! Its going to be epic! Full results from Sluice are below.
Results:
Junior Men
Alan Murphy 135
Billy Brett 105
Conor Macken 90
Shane Little 90
Robbie O' Shea 90
Mathew Cassin 85
Conal Murphy 80
David Mclure 80
Tom Gallione 70
Craig Cummins 60
Daniel Burke 40
Sport Men
Niall Power 80
Kevin Niland 40
Sport Women
Maria 65
Rosseane 55
Expert Women
Niamh Cleary 115
Aisling Griffin 105
Muireann Lynch 95
Expert Men
Moe Kelleher 160
Neill Gibson 155
Adrian Durrant 150
Barry Loughnane 145
Tom Dunphy 140
Eoin Keyes 140
John O' Rourke 115
Ronnie Brennan 110
Colm Healy 100
Daniel O' Broin 60
Conor Mathews 50
Kevin McCabe 0
Heres a pretty sweet video from the day by Conor Macken, looking good!
The Sluice rodeo the next day was some craic, despite the baltic weather. Its been ages since I paddled in Sluice so we headed up fairly early to have some time to get used to the feature again before the competition started. Its no Gower but by the time the competition I started I was getting the hang of the place again and blunts and stuff were starting to feel pretty smooth. The competition was run in a 15 minute jam session format with everyones top 5 moves counting, which is great because it allows people to risk going for big moves without worrying about flushing off the wave. My heat went pretty good. I got a few spins, blunts and roundhouses out of the way at the start, and then spent the rest of the heat going for back blunts and loops. In the end I managed to land enough to put me in 5th place, only 20 points behind the winner, Moe Kelleher. I'm happy enough with the result, since its a really tricky feature and the top three places were all taken by locals who know the place like the back of their hands!
Huge thanks to Gerry and Tom Cleary for giving me and Ethan food and floor space for the weekend, much appreciated! The next competition thats coming up is a big one, the kayaking intervarsities in Castlebar in two weeks time. Cant wait to have a fair go at defending last years title at this one, we've been putting a lot of work into training for it recently! Its going to be epic! Full results from Sluice are below.
Results:
Junior Men
Alan Murphy 135
Billy Brett 105
Conor Macken 90
Shane Little 90
Robbie O' Shea 90
Mathew Cassin 85
Conal Murphy 80
David Mclure 80
Tom Gallione 70
Craig Cummins 60
Daniel Burke 40
Sport Men
Niall Power 80
Kevin Niland 40
Sport Women
Maria 65
Rosseane 55
Expert Women
Niamh Cleary 115
Aisling Griffin 105
Muireann Lynch 95
Expert Men
Moe Kelleher 160
Neill Gibson 155
Adrian Durrant 150
Barry Loughnane 145
Tom Dunphy 140
Eoin Keyes 140
John O' Rourke 115
Ronnie Brennan 110
Colm Healy 100
Daniel O' Broin 60
Conor Mathews 50
Kevin McCabe 0
Heres a pretty sweet video from the day by Conor Macken, looking good!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
GalwayFest 2012
Last weekend the NUIG crew, led by Barry Loughnane and Andrew Regan, ran a savage event on their local spots, Tuam hole and the Boluisce. Unfortunatly I missed the freestyle since I just got back from Wales the day before but by all accounts it was a great competition, despite relativly low water levels.
The whitewater the next day was a great event, with nearly 70 people paddling! It was really well run, with timing and rescue and the rest of it all set up perfectly. I had never run the Boluisce before so the first thing I did when I got there was head off for a quick blast with Dave Holden and Laura Griffin. Its a sweet river, with a few nice technical rapids on it. The last feature, the hole at Poll Gorm, is class since its possible to do a really sweet flare move off the right hand bank and go straight over the hole.
The race went really well, I got through everything pretty cleanly and ended up with the joint 4th fastest time with Paddy McGovern. The top 6 paddlers went through to a boatercross style final which started with everyone sitting backwards on their boats and then turning around and jumping in when it was time to go. I screwed up the start which left me in 6th place for a good part of the race but in the end I managed to make up two places and finished in 4th. Afterwards we all headed up to one of the pubs in the village for the results and some banter. The soup, sandwiches, sausages and wedges just kept on coming fair play to whoever organised it!
Thanks to Ultan O'Byrne and Shane Cronin of Wavesport Ireland for the photos.
The next event thats coming up is the Wacko on the Jacko, a boatercross on the Avonmore in Wicklow. Its not exactly a spectacular river and the entry fee is ridiculus at €40 per head so we'll have to see how the funds are looking coming up to it to see if I'll be there or not
The whitewater the next day was a great event, with nearly 70 people paddling! It was really well run, with timing and rescue and the rest of it all set up perfectly. I had never run the Boluisce before so the first thing I did when I got there was head off for a quick blast with Dave Holden and Laura Griffin. Its a sweet river, with a few nice technical rapids on it. The last feature, the hole at Poll Gorm, is class since its possible to do a really sweet flare move off the right hand bank and go straight over the hole.
The race went really well, I got through everything pretty cleanly and ended up with the joint 4th fastest time with Paddy McGovern. The top 6 paddlers went through to a boatercross style final which started with everyone sitting backwards on their boats and then turning around and jumping in when it was time to go. I screwed up the start which left me in 6th place for a good part of the race but in the end I managed to make up two places and finished in 4th. Afterwards we all headed up to one of the pubs in the village for the results and some banter. The soup, sandwiches, sausages and wedges just kept on coming fair play to whoever organised it!
Thanks to Ultan O'Byrne and Shane Cronin of Wavesport Ireland for the photos.
The next event thats coming up is the Wacko on the Jacko, a boatercross on the Avonmore in Wicklow. Its not exactly a spectacular river and the entry fee is ridiculus at €40 per head so we'll have to see how the funds are looking coming up to it to see if I'll be there or not
Sunday, January 22, 2012
ULKC Wales Trip
I spent the last week in Wales paddling with ULKC on the Tryweren in North Wales and at the International Whitewater Centre in Cardiff. It was savage craic! We left at stupid o'clock in the morning last friday and then paddled virtually every day on a few sweet rivers. And we found time for a few parties in the evenings too! We spent most of our time on the Tryweren, a sweet grade 3+ run which is dam controlled meaning that its virtually always working and you always know exactly what level its running at. This river is perfect for anyone whos level 3-4ish ability wise and theres loads of stuff on it. We spent quite a lot of time here working with throwropes and other rescue skills, as well as the usual paddling skills.
The last two days of the trip were spent on the international whitewater centre in Cardiff. Since rescue was provided here we were able to simply show up and paddle as much as possible in the time we were on the water. This course was a bit of a step up in difficulty from the Tryweren so a few of the beginners felt a bit out of their depth here, and none of the features were deep enough for freestyle so I could have been happier but for the people at level 3-4 standard who were just settling into the Tryweren when we left it was perfect, they had savage craic and improved loads.
Photo credits go to Micheal Howard, Caolin Doran, Niamh Hanrahan and Orla Tuffy.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Clare Glens Race 2012
The race yesterday ran off perfectly. Even though there was rain forecast I was terrified the night before and even that morning that we wouldnt get enough water to run the race or that it would drop off to nothing before we could get everyones timed runs finished. In the end tho I needn't have worried. The level was just runnable at .4 when we got there and pretty miraculously stayed at that level for the whole day, meaning that although a few sections of the river were pretty slow and rocky, nothing was that difficult and everyone got through sections like Little Ass no bother. That definitly wouldnt have been the case if we had got high levels for the race. The week before when we were running the river at .85 I was having visions of 90% of the racers dissappearing into the hole under Little Ass and not coming out again! Since we had a massive turn-out at the event, nearly 35 competitors, this would not have been a good thing! As it was we had a few swimmers on Big Ass and that was it, pretty good going for a race on the Glens and better than the 'elitist' invitational event that was run two years ago. As an experiment the open format couldnt have gone any better so I think thats the one we'll be sticking to over the next few years.
My own timed run went pretty well. At the last race on the Flesk I sprinted through all the flat parts, leaving me with no strength to hit the lines on the more technical sections and that meant that I hit what seemed like every rock on the river, slowing down my time loads and leaving me well down the field at the end. This time I took it handier on the flat sections, concentrating on my stroke and breathing to try to go as fast as possible without tiring out my arms or going out of breath. This meant that I was in good shape when I got to the harder sections and hit all the lines I was aiming for. It nearly worked. I finished in 3rd place behind Paddy and Wongy, just 6 seconds behind the winner so happy out! The prize money paid for the party afterwards with a decent bit left over to pay for petrol for the next paddling mission, cant complain! I'm starting to like these events where as well as bragging rights the winners get to split the entry fees. Hopefully with a bit of work I'll be able to make up those last two places in the future and earn even more pocket money!
Here are the results from the race. Hopefully the formatting comes out right, it wouldnt over on the Irishfreestyle site...
I have to mention all the people who helped out and did rescue and other jobs for us on the day, without them it wouldnt have been possible to run the race. They were a mixture of people from ULKC, Limerick Canoe Club and a few individuals who were press-ganged into helping on the day, they all did their work perfectly so theres a huge thanks owed to everyone involved!
There are a few videos and pics from the day starting to filter onto the web, I'll put up a few myself in the next few days when I get time. It wont be tomorrow anyway since the wind at the coast has eventually swung around to offshore. Delighted, I havnt been out kayak surfing in way too long!
My own timed run went pretty well. At the last race on the Flesk I sprinted through all the flat parts, leaving me with no strength to hit the lines on the more technical sections and that meant that I hit what seemed like every rock on the river, slowing down my time loads and leaving me well down the field at the end. This time I took it handier on the flat sections, concentrating on my stroke and breathing to try to go as fast as possible without tiring out my arms or going out of breath. This meant that I was in good shape when I got to the harder sections and hit all the lines I was aiming for. It nearly worked. I finished in 3rd place behind Paddy and Wongy, just 6 seconds behind the winner so happy out! The prize money paid for the party afterwards with a decent bit left over to pay for petrol for the next paddling mission, cant complain! I'm starting to like these events where as well as bragging rights the winners get to split the entry fees. Hopefully with a bit of work I'll be able to make up those last two places in the future and earn even more pocket money!
Here are the results from the race. Hopefully the formatting comes out right, it wouldnt over on the Irishfreestyle site...
| 1 | Colin Wong | 17.56 | ||
| 2 | Paddy (Senile) Mc Govern | 18 | ||
| 3 | Eoin Keyes | 18.02 | ||
| 4 | Barry L | 18.07 | ||
| 5 | Neil (Flesk God) Slevin | 18.15 | ||
| 6 | Eoin Farell | 18.32 | ||
| 7 | Seán (Adonis) Mc Ternan | 18.34 | ||
| 8 | Joe Ryan | 18.35 | ||
| 9 | Blackout Dave | 18.43 | ||
| 10 | Paul B | 18.43 | ||
| 11 | André | 19.09 | ||
| 12 | Dave H | 19.09 | ||
| 13 | Dave Pearse | 19.1 | ||
| 14 | Francis | 19.13 | ||
| 15 | Simon H | 19.18 | ||
| 16 | Gearóid K | 19.25 | ||
| 17 | CJ | 19.27 | ||
| 18 | Ken Heinz | 19.29 | ||
| 19 | Conor Mc Comb | 19.58 | ||
| 20 | Barry | 20.12 | ||
| 21 | Kevin C | 20.3 | ||
| 22 | John J | 21.03 | ||
| 23 | Tilly | 22.44 | ||
| 24 | Stephan Quinn | 22.57 | ||
| 1 | Billy B | 18.34 | ||
| 2 | Dave Mc | 18.37 | ||
| 3 | Dozy R | 19.3 | ||
| 4 | OisÃn M | 27.23 | ||
| 1 | Nuala | 20.23 | ||
| 2 | Caoimhe F | 21.15 | ||
| 3 | Eimear F | 21.53 | ||
| 4 | Niamh | 22.07 | ||
I have to mention all the people who helped out and did rescue and other jobs for us on the day, without them it wouldnt have been possible to run the race. They were a mixture of people from ULKC, Limerick Canoe Club and a few individuals who were press-ganged into helping on the day, they all did their work perfectly so theres a huge thanks owed to everyone involved!
There are a few videos and pics from the day starting to filter onto the web, I'll put up a few myself in the next few days when I get time. It wont be tomorrow anyway since the wind at the coast has eventually swung around to offshore. Delighted, I havnt been out kayak surfing in way too long!
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