January 26th. Freestyle Team Trials - Tuam
Baltic cold, rainy, biting wind, sheltered by trees from any hint of warming sunlight ...it could only be a winter competition at Tuam. The day saw ok water levels and a solid enough turn out of competitors, despite the miserable conditions. My freestyle boating obviously needs work, I came 7th on the day, not exactly where I want to be at. Congrats to all the guys who managed to do well, trying to throw down freestyle moves while suffering from mild hypothermia is not pleasant!
A bit of messing at Tuam while training for team trials. Photo by Caolinn Doran.
Febuary 15th. Ennistymon Race - 2nd behind Colin Wong.
After a scheduled race on the Glens was called off due to trees and unsuitable water levels, we moved the whole circus to the Ennistymon Falls in Clare. Ideal water levels and brilliant weather made for a great day on the water. With a big turnout, including a lot of paddlers who made the trip down from Wicklow for the day, and a short, intense race course that was ideal for a boatercross the craic on the water was mighty.
Great waterlevels, great turnout, great weather, great river, what more can you ask for?!
Photo by Willie Doyle.
Febuary 21st - 23rd. Kayaking Intervarsities - 2nd in Freestyle behind David Higgins.
A medium length book could be written about this one but suffice to say it was epic! Fair play to the organising colleges for putting on such a great event. The weekend lived up to all the trash talk that went on facebook before hand. To the dismay of all the spectators, the most anticipated polo match in recent history, which would result in the losing team going swimming in the middle of the pitch, resulted in a draw between ourselves and DIT. Unfortunatly this put us out of the polo competition on goal difference, a bit disappointing considering the amount of work we had put into preparing for it. There was no time to get too upset about it tho, there was still three events and two massive nights out to get through before the weekend was out.
In action against DIT
The Friday night party in the Maynooth SU was deadly craic but I had obviously picked up something dodgy at polo in the canal earlier that day. I started feeling like shite that evening and was completely wiped out for the next two days. That took me out of the whitewater and long distance competitions but fortunatly the UL guys were well able to survive without me. Simon McCormac subbed in for me and I slept while the lads did great in both competitions. Even worse, I had to miss the main event of the weekend, the Saturday night party. Disappointing but shit happens, what can you do.
The next day, I decided I would be able to pull a few freestyle rides together, despite still feeling like utter crap. Especially since the competition had been moved to flatwater at the Canoeing Ireland training centre due to unsuitable levels at Sluice. In the end it worked, I got to use the flatwater Phonixes and Tricky-Woos which I had spent the winter working on in the pool. I got the highest scoring ride of the competition and came in second behind David Higgins of NUIG. Delighted. The work that the lads had put in the day before meant that we won the event for the fifth year running!
March 1st & 2nd. Galwayfest - 4th overall, behind Barry Loughnane, Bren Orton and Andrew Regan.
Another event that could well have a book written about it! I'll sum it up by saying savage whitewater race, epic night out followed by the best freestyle competition I've ever seen in Ireland! Fair play to Barry Loughnane Andrew Regan and the rest of the Galway crew, they really have things figured out and the event rightfully grows bigger year after year. This year they even got the weather and the water levels right, both of which were perfect for the weekend! The only thing that needs improving is the competition, this year Bren Orton and George Heyworth-Hill made the trip over from the UK for the weekend but wasn't enough to knock Barry off the top of the podium at the end of the weekend. It looks like we're going to have to look harder for next year but it's going to be tough, the list of better paddlers in the world is pretty small!
Mid Space Godzilla at Tuam, photo by Emer O'Brien
Koray McGowan put together a sweet video from the event, which can be seen here: video. As you can see, the feaure and the jam session format meant that paddlers could really let fly at the freestyle event. I've never seen moves that big thrown in Ireland, and not just the ones done by Bren and George. I really hope it's a sign of things to come for Irish Freestyle!
March 8th & 9th. Surf training weekend.
One of the cool things about the inaugeral inter-club championships was the raft of training events put on by the different disciplines in the weeks leading up to the event. Although the conditions for the surf event weren't great, a lot of people got the opportunity to try out surf specific boats for the first time and a lot of fun was had by all.
March 15th & 16th. Freestyle Training Weekend.
Same story as the weekend before, with most of the same people only in a different place with different boats. Almost 60 people showed up to be shown the basics of freestyle and with two friendly holes with easy eddy access the location was ideal. By the end of the day lots of people were left spinning to their hearts content. It was also obvious that the competition itself would come down fun moves, as trying to land any moves other than left spins in the 6 inch deep, flushy holes at Greensbride weir is extremily difficult! Unless you're Dave McClure of course, then phonixes and mcnastys are also possible. How they're possible when the water isn't even deep enough to get a full paddle blade in I still have no idea!
March 29th & 30th. Windsurfing Intervarsities - 1st in bronze fleet.
So I took up windsurfing last summer when I was stuck in Ireland with no water in the rivers and no surf on the beaches and ended up competing for the University of Limerick clup at the intervarsities. It made an interesting contrast to a kayak varsities. Numbers were much smaller and with only one discipline there was no hectic rushing around between multiple locations, making for a much more chilled out weekend. So much so that I even got in a lovely surf on Saturday evening before the party. Unfortunatly there was also far more guys running around in lingerie on Saturday night, thanks to the rocky horror theme to the party. I don't think the mental scars have quite healed fully yet...
Beautiful fun surf at the windsurfing intervarsities.
April 6th. Dougy surf trip
Every so often, when the weather, wind and waves align perfectly we throw all the sea related toys we can find into the van and make for the beach. This day we got perfect 4-5ft waves, light offshore winds and glorious sunshine so off went a gang of us from ULKC. In one day I was able to go body surfing, surf boarding, body boarding, wave skiing, surf kayaking and freestyle kayaking! And we played some rugby on the beach. I can't think of a better way to spend a day!
Unfortunatly we don't always get it right. This photo is from an earlier surf trip in the semester. I think everyone is just delighted to be off the water; lashing rain, howling onshore winds and big waves meant that paddling out was interesting and all the beginners got a bit battered! The waves were fun tho, lots of big air!
April 12th & 13th. Club Champs - 1st in Freestyle, 1st in Surf, 2nd in BoaterX but got disqualified for not wearing a bib in round 1.
Another savage event, and one that I really hope turns into an annual or biannual thing over the next few years. The recipe, taking the intervarsities and enlarging them to include all clubs and all disciplines is an excellent one, but it takes a complex event to organise and turns it into a monster. Thankfully Benny, Shane, Kris and everyone else up in the Canoeing Ireland office were well up to the task and the coordination of all eight events went perfectly. Too much went on to try and write about it all here but UL entered all disciplines and did respectably in all of them. In the end we came third, behind Galway kayak club and Wildwater kayak club which we're delighted with. Its a pretty savage result for a club with no juniors and no masters. The plan for next year is to refine how we enter people in each discipline, get more people into more disciplines and possibly go one better in the final rankings. Wildwater kayak club look almost untouchable in the top spot, with world class paddlers in juniors, seniors and masters categories in almost every discipline.
A delighted looking crew at the prizegiving for the Club Championships.
April 26th - Clare Surf Comp & AGM
Yeah, it happened, the surf was rubbish, my boat was leaking, I think the less said about this one the better! I did come 1st in IC tho, which is some consolation. There were a few new faces there which is great to see, all paddling impressively well. A few east coast Sluice rats even showed up. Much to their surprise, the salt water didn't burn them and the people don't bite, so hopefully we might start seeing them at a few more events in this part of the world. ...Ye hear that Bernie and Adrian? Ye should bring some friends next time too, it has to be good to wash that Liffey water off the skin every so often!
May 7th - Exams Start
After the surf comp it was time to knuckle down and get come college work done. Exams started on the 7th and lasted for three weeks. I think they went pretty well but I'll find out just how well in a few weeks time.
Finally the day that sometimes felt like it would never come arrived. Exams ended and we headed down to the river to drink a few beers, say goodbye to some friends who were leaving after their time studying in Ireland and look forward to what the summer promised to bring. Photo by Eoin Farrel.
Thanks for reading!
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