Winter is Coming!

Back at ULKC HQ the time has come to wind down from the summer and start preparing for the next few months. We are in the middle of getting everything ready for the huge influx of enthusiastic beginners that we get at the start of every September, planning pool sessions, organising weekend trips and generally trying to make things as fun as possible for everyone. Nearly all of our existing members are back from their travels to various parts of the world so in the meantime there are lots of people to catch up with and entertaining stories to listen to.

Of course kayaking has to be done too, the surf has finally picked up so yesterday we started off by heading to Spanish Point for some freestyle and surf kayaking, then we met up with the guys who are on work placement and did an evening run on Castleconnel. For the craic, we decided to do a retro trip. Squirt boats, dancers, and ancient club kit were the order of the day, which resulted in me being vertically pinned in a squirt boat while Gav got horizontally pinned behind me in a Dancer. Fortunatly we both escaped in one piece, and it was all captured on video, which of course is the most important thing! After that excitement it was time to head to the pool for our first pool session of the year, to see how much the flatwater freestyle skills had deteriorated over the summer. All in all, not a bad days paddling!

The Clubs & Societies set up here in UL is pretty unbelievable. There are over 70 to choose from, and the bigger, better organised ones are extrordinarily well equipped and funded. This means that while in UL students can try sports that they would never get the opportunity to try otherwise, and especially not without paying far higher prices somewhere else. I spent the last week camping in Kerry with the windsurfing club, fishing, surfing, windsurfing and generally having the craic. Over the last year or two the whole set-up has gone through a very American style branding and promotional exersize, like it or not they have put together some kick-ass promo videos such as this: UL Wolves Promo. So that's pretty much going to be the next few months, teaching beginner sessions, praying for rain, windsurfing and mountain biking occasionally and finding time to do some college work too. It's no Uganda but it turns out Ireland's not such a bad place to be after all!

 

Getting the hang of water starting down in Scraggaun bay