Galwayfest

Last weekend saw the NUIG crew put together a phenomenal event for the second year in a row! Galwayfest was a great event last year and the lads managed to make it bigger and better the second time round.With 120 people entered in whitewater it was definatly the biggest event of the whitewater racing calender and with those kind of numbers the Boluisce was the perfect location for it. It's even dam controlled, which makes it one of the few Irish events that you can be certain won't be called off at the last minute! The standard of the competition was extremily high, with virtually everyone who competes in whitewater races in Ireland at it. Unfortunatly I only came in joint 7th place which I was slightly dissappointed with and just missed out on the boaterX final, which was meant to be an 8 man event, but was changed to a 6 person race since there were 3 of us tied for 7th. Oh well, I'll just have to paddle faster next time!

 

Dropping into Poll Gorm in the WW race

The party on Saturday night was pretty epic! Many paddlers, started in a hotel bar, migrated to a night club; your imagination can fill in the rest! One thing that was great to see at the weekend was the amount of college clubs who were represented. Loads of people that I'd ony recognise from varsities were there, people that I've never seen at a freestyle comp or whitewater race. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend, with college clubs coming along to other kayaking events besides varsities. I think college clubs are some of the most active in the country and have huge numbers of people paddling regularly; but they often tend to do their own thing and not interact with other paddlers outside of the intervarsities every year. It would be really cool to see all those people get to know each other at some of the other events and possibly start cooperating and paddling together a bit more.

 Unfortunatly the we weren't as lucky with water levels for freestyle on Sunday as we were for whitewater. Dry weather for a week or two before the competition meant that everything had to be moved from Tuam to Clifden, which although it's good as a training spot isnt great for competitions because the hole is constantly changing as the tide comes in. I had really been looking forward to getting some practise runs in Tuam, since I havn't paddled in a hole since I got back from the summer. All the hole boating I did over the summer definatly counted for something tho, in the competition I did the best I've ever done in a comp in a hole. I was particularly pleased with the entry move I landed, since that was something I put a bit of work into when I was training in Austria over the Summer. The hole was working at it's best for my heat which can only have helped and I ended up coming 5th in the competition; happy out :) Just to top it all off after the competition there was some great food handed out while we were waiting for the results! At the prizegiving there was some great swag given out courtesy of the likes of I-Canoe, Great outdoors and Palm Ireland. Fair play to all the winners, after that scale of competition anyone who came out on top well deserved everything they got! Full results are up here; Galwayfest Results.

Warming up before freestyle

This weekend the plan is to head up to a slalom competition on the Inny. I'm bringing a few of the lads from UL up to it too, my new role as disciplines officer for ULKC. I'm looking forward to it now, hopefully it'll all go well!