Two Wins in One Weekend!

So last weekend took a while to come together. First Steve Fahey's Biking/Boating GoaterX extravaganza was due to be held in Wicklow along with Wacko on the Jacko. At the same time, there was a surf competition, training day and Irish team meeting scheduled to be held in Clare. When it turned out that there wasn't enough rain to make the Annamoe run, I thought I was going to be able to spend the weekend having the craic in Clare, chilling out in Wayne's beatiful B&B (http://www.bluehorizons.ie/, highly recommended if you're looking for somewhere to spend a weekend away!) and doing a little bit of surf kayaking. And then the Clare Glens race was organised; which meant it was going to be yet another hectic hectic couple of days!

Despite the wind, the surf comp on Saturday was great craic. There was a great turnout, good banter on and off the water, and the waves were pretty decent once you managed to paddle far enough against the wind to get to them! After a long day of competition, I came first in HP with Mick Barry in second, with those results reversed in the long boat. The wind had been picking up all day and by the IC final was almost impossible to paddle against. So the best thing about the finals was that directly afterwards we could go to the pub, get food and a pint and chill out for the evening! Afterwards, we were able to get pretty much the whole World's team together and talk about who is paddling in what and make plans for getting to Spain and back. At the moment it looks like the plan is to drive a van down with everyone's boats and gear, and fly everyone else over. So if anyone knows where we might be able to get good value on ferries, van rental or flights please get in touch!

After spending the night in the B&B with the rest of the surf kayakers, I woke up on Sunday morning, took one look out the window and decided that it was a day that would be better spent on a river instead of in the surf! It looked even windier out than the day before, and although the lads did manage to get out surfing in the afternoon I think I made the right call! I arrived at the Glens just as Barry was getting things started and gathering everyone together for a race briefing. Not bad timing! Water levels were perfect for a race; around .5 in old money, bringing the water up off most of the rocks and cleaning up the run without making anything too difficult. We ended up running the race from the lead in to Big Ass down to the bottom bridge which is a pretty sick race course! In the end I finished first, two seconds ahead of Barry Loughnane in second and Neil Slevin in third, happy out!