Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Dream Tour Stop 3: Crana Kayak Fest

 
First of all, check out this great video put together by James O'Donnell of the finals at the Irish Open. There's some seriously impressive surfing in there, particularly by Dessie in the black long boat and Pablo in the green short boat!

Starting from where I left off last week; after the Irish Open finished up and everyone else started on their journey home the weather took a turn for the worse and the swell started to drop. A few brave and hardy souls took to the water at Tra Bui on Sunday morning before hitting the road but most decided to call it a weekend and get the drive over and done with. After a couple of days hiding from the wind and the rain, by Wednesday conditions were starting to look up. I met up with Jordan Collins and we did a bit of exploring, hunting out spots which were likely to be able to handle the 17/18 second swell which was due to arrive for Thursday morning! We got a few great waves at inside left in Bundoran in the afternoon, and then set up camp on a cliff overlooking the ocean for the night. Dragging ourselves out of the cars at first light the next mornning, we found a sight worth getting up for! A series of reef breaks, with maybe head and a half faces on the sets and perfect shape, ranging in temperment from relatively mellow and forgiving to fast, hollow and punishing! We got geared up pretty much as soon as it was bright enough to pick our way down the cliff face and into the water, and warmed up with a couple of waves on the most mellow peak on offer. Which was still pretty special; a fast, head high wall with unpredictible sections and dry reef pretty close to the finish! 

Pablo Arrouays, killing it as always on the outside reef! Photo by Jack Pearson.

After spending a while on the easy stuff, I followed the waveskiiers over to the outside reef 'for a look'. The wave out there was hollow, heavy, fast, shallow and in the sunshine looked like it belonged on a magazine cover! With no immediate intentions of actually catching a wave, I sat out wide on the shoulder watching Dessie in the IC boat and the waveskiiers Marty McCann, Mark Taylor and Pablo Arrouays making some great take offs and taking some horrible looking wipeouts! Pretty soon though a wide set swung through, peaked just where I was sitting and instinct took over, taking me into the wave and safely down the line with no drama. That was the start of an epic session and I slowly got more and more confident on the wave, eventually getting some of the best waves and heaviest wipeouts of my life! We surfed from eight that morning until nearly one in the afternoon, and did another session in the evening just before dusk. By the end of the day everyone was buzzing, swapping stories of their wipeouts and making plans for the next day. Most of the others headed for home or other breaks that night, while I hung around hoping for a similar session the next morning. However Friday turned out to be one of those days where the ocean wins. Rising at first light in the morning, the waves turned out to be significantly bigger than the day before, with guys heading for the outside reef fully kitted up with big wave guns and inflatable buoyancy vests! There was an unmanageable looking crowd on the main peak, and the previous morning's warm-up wave wasn't working at all, so I stuck my tail between my legs and headed for Buncrana!

No Thanks! This is the smaller, mellower of the two peaks on Friday morning. The other was too far away for taking photos with the phone. There are over twenty people on the water there, probably mostly all underwater after being steamrolled by this cleanup set!

For anyone who doesn't know; Crana Fest is a kayaking event in Buncrana, Co. Donegal organised by Adrian Harkin and his team at Inish Adventures. It brings together paddlers from all disciplines for a weekend of coaching, competition and socialising and is one of the few events around which really caters for paddlers of all levels. The 500m or so of river (dam released, for guaranteed water levels!) plays host to different classes of competition and training in freestyle, slalom, whitewater, boaterX and rafting, from absoloute beginner right up to a night time race down the grade IV 'Claw' rapid which will test even the best paddlers! The list of coaches attending always reads like a 'who's who' of Ireland's most well known instructors, and this year I had the honour of being asked to run 2/3 star training sessions for the weekend. Although struggling from time to time with the sheer volume of traffic on the river, I had some incredibly enthusiastic groups and really enjoyed the day, working through the fundamentals of river running with the Skerries sea scouts and anyone else who was looking to progress their skills. I'm hoping to see a lot of the same faces back next year, tearing it up in the intermediate boaterX!

Ground zero for Cranafest; Swan Park in Buncrana, Co. Donegal. The shops are here, most of Ireland's top paddlers and instructors are here; if you're not around then you really need to find out what you're missing next year! Photo by the Great Outdoors.

When the coaching sessions finish up each day, it's the advanced paddler's turn to strut their stuff. The highlight of the weekend is the midnight time trial down the Claw, and this year the organisers stepped things up a level with a series of obstacles on the way down! After sliding down a ramp into the river and avoiding touching the timing system which would mean immediate disqualification, we had to touch a ball hanging over the entrance ramp, duck under a limbo pole at the exit to the rapid, pass our paddles through a hoop in the pool below, round a slalom pole and then sprint back upstream to the finish gate. The standard is high with lots of top level whitewater and slalom paddlers intent on taking the win, and a completely flawless run is always needed to finish high in the results table at these events. I haven't seen any rankings yet but I clipped a rock and lost speed on my way back upstream towards the finish line, which I'm pretty sure will be enough to drop me well down the field! Thankfully, after the coaching sessions finish on Sunday afternoon the boaterX competition on the Claw gives another opportunity to go for some silverware. These races are always chaotic, and the spectators only get to see a fraction of the action as the competitors go over the Claw four or six at a time! The contest starts long before the go command is given as people jostle for their preferred position on the starting line, and continues all the way down the river with barging other boats and taking paddle strokes off other people's boats, bodies or heads all totally part of the game! After lots of tough racing against all the usual suspects and multiple lead changes all the way down the river in the final, I lucked out and took the overall win! Thankfully, after spending an hour or two effectively trying to kill each other, everyone was able to shake hands afterwards and laugh about all the carnage. It'll be all smiles and good times on the river together, until the next head to head when the game faces will go on again!

Nailing the line on the Claw in one of the boaterX races in the Exo Six. It's slightly easier when you can see where you're going! Photo by Sean Lynn.

So where next after Crana? Good question! There are plans in the works, there are other people involved, and there are tickets booked! I'll go into the details soon, stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Dream Tour Part 2 - A Day of Two Halves

As soon as the surf kayak British Open was cancelled last weekend due to the dismal surf forecast, the focus turned to the upcoming Irish Open in Easky. Hoping that the west coast was getting more surf than the north, I headed for Bundoran and set up camp there for a few days to get some solid training done before moving on to Easky. The move paid off and I was treated to a fresh swell in Tullan on Sunday, with waves approaching head and a half high and heavy enough that getting caught in front of them in a boat really wasn't fun! Watching the boardies pulling into closeout cover ups really kicked off the excitement for the next leg of my travels, which I'll go into more detail about sometime soon! The swell slowly dropped over the next few days and I had lots of great sessions; all at Tullan with a chilled out crowd of French and German travelling surfers. By Wednesday it was small enough and I was tired enough that it was time to take some time off, do a bit of a tour around the North West coast and slowly start making my way down to Easky.

The north coast of Donegal is stunning, and the weather on Wednesday showed it off at it's best! 

I arrived in Easky on Thursday evening, with just enough of a wave on the reef make it worth getting in for a quick session. The waves were less than two feet but nice and fast and steep, and myself and Aisling Griffin surfed into the night hoping to get a head start on the crowd that we expected would be on the water in the morning. Unfortunately though, not for the first time on this trip, the waves decided not to play ball. We woke up on Friday to find Easky as flat as a pancake, and were forced to travel to Tullan and fight for 2ft waves with the other 40 people who ended up in the same situation.

Beautiful? Yes. Surfable? Definitely not!

After this we weren't very hopeful that we would have waves at Easky for the competition the next day. Various alternative venues were discussed and a 7.20 meeting time was announced to give us time to move the whole circus if needed. It was pitch black out when we arrived at Easky on Saturday but pretty soon a bit of light started to appear in the sky and it was clear that there were small but contestable waves for us to play with. Unfortunately the wind was strong and blowing the complete wrong direction for Easky, blowing a horrible side chop into the wave and making it incredibly difficult to pick out a decent wave and link a couple of turns on it. I came off the water after the first round IC heat expecting a last place finish after blowing a bunch of take offs and not really putting together any decent rides, but it turned out that everyone else was struggling just as much out there and I had made it through in first place. I also made it through my first round HP heat which meant I could change out of the wet gear and shelter from the weather while waiting for the semis and finals in the afternoon.

These are the waves you spend hours in the office dreaming about. Long, rippable walls with nobody else out! Photo by Paddlesurf Ireland. 

After a couple of hours wearing as much clothes as I possibly could and watching people struggling in fairly big but downright dirty surf, things slowly started to change for the better. As if our prayers were being answered, over the course of an hour or two the rain stopped, the wind dropped and turned southerly, and the sun started to show a face through the clouds that had remained unbroken all morning! The chop that had been destroying any chance  of a good wave slowly disappeared, and the gentle offshore breeze caused the waves to stand up and take on  that classic Easky shape. All of a sudden it was game on for the finals, and I got more and more excited as I watched the juniors, masters and waveskis ripping on picture perfect waves!

Pushing the Paddlesurf Ireland Equinox nice and high into the lip of one of the set waves.

The finals were what all surf kayak competitions should be like. Shredding perfect waves in the sunshine with good friends around you and and an enthusiastic crowd on the shore loudly encouraging all of the competitors to surf harder and harder! In conditions like that it's impossible not to have fun, the competition takes second stage as you get to surf incredible waves with only three other people on the water, getting a front row seat to watch some amazing surfing and using that as motivation to up your own game. After a couple of great heats in the semis and finals, the arms were running out of juice and by the end of the HP final the mind was starting to wander towards the well deserved bottle of beer waiting in car park!

Hitting the lip on the last section, slightly too close for comfort to Johnny McBride! Photo by Paddlesurf Ireland. 

Coming off the water I had no idea what to expect results wise. Everyone had caught some amazing waves and surfed them beautifully, and from what I had seen the judges must have had a tough time picking between them. Special mention has to go to Pablo Airways from France, waveskiier extraordinaire who hopped into a kayak for the first time to see what it was like. He opened my mind as to what's possible in a boat and has really inspired me to try to push my own surfing up to another level. In the end, huge congratulations are due to Andy McClelland and Matthew Lamont for taking first place in IC and HP respectively. I came away with third place in both categories, not quite equal to last year's haul of double firsts but a respectable result none the less! I don't think any competitor is ever totally happy with their own performance but at the same time I definitely surfed better than I could when I left on this road trip a couple of weeks ago, which at the end of the day is what this whole road trip is all about!

Happy out collecting the silverware at the end of the day! 

The next stop on this tour (check out #dreamtour posts by keyes_92 on Instagram if you like landscape and sunset photos!) is Cranafest next weekend. I'm going to be teaching level 2/3 whitewater skills for the weekend so that's you and if you want to hear more of what I have to say then you know what to do! Most of the country's top instructors and competitors will be there so if you haven't got your tickets yet get booking, it's going to be epic! If you're not familiar with the event go and check out the website, there's something for everyone over the course of the weekend, regardless of age or kayaking ability! 

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Starting the Dream Tour - Surf Kayak Home Internationals

Waking up to a beautiful sunrise over Brandon Bay and the Maharees. 

The first big destination after finishing work a month ago was the surf kayak home internationals and British open in Portrush, Northern Ireland this week. I spent the last couple of weeks surfing my ass off in County Kerry and training as hard as possible, taking the occasional break to do some windsurfing and rescue boat work. We got a fairly consistent run of surf during the month and by the end of it things were starting to come together. I camped out in some really cool places, had some great surf sessions at various spots around Brandon bay and put a lot of work into more aggressive lip turns and more consistent end moves. I was really looking forward to the journey north and surfing heats against some tough competition. 

Looking up at the Cliffs of Moher from the bottom of the goat track at Ail na Searrach.

On my way north I visited the UL kayak club on their annual migration to Lahinch. It was great to do some surfing at a different spot, meet a lot of old friends and visit the Cliffs of Moher again. Most importantly, a party like that is not to be missed! After a crazy weekend of surfing, partying and generally having the craic, the drive up to Antrim on Sunday felt like it took forever!

The surf kayak home internationals at Portrush. Not much surf but at least the sun is shining! 

The surf kayak home internationals is a bi-annual team competition between Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This year's competition was held in Portrush by the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland as a practice run for next year's world championships, and when I arrived last Sunday the surf was small and dropping. We had a few nice freesurf  sessions at a couple of breaks around the area but by Wednesday and the start of the event there was barely a ripple around. Since that was the best we were going to get it was decided to run off as much of the team competition as possible while the waves were just about contestable, which meant doing a full 12 hour plus day on the bench. 

Despite the generally terrible waves, there were occasional opportunities to build a bit of speed and hit oncoming sections. This end move was by far the most fun moment of the day, the boat came around effortlessly! Photo by Donie McLoughlin.

Competing in marginal surf is infuriating to say the least but at the end of the day everyone has to make the most of the same waves, and the same surfers will generally come out on top regardless of the conditions. As a team we were consistent, with a couple of standout heats from Sheelagh,  Alan and others helping to hold us up the leader board. Unfortunately consistency wasn't enough to beat England who were surfing very strongly all day. Still,  second place in any international competition isn't a bad result, we'll just have to keep working on it and come back stronger next year! Despite the surf, Ashley and his team put on a great event and I'm sure that next year's world championships here will be a cracker. Unfortunately the British Open competition had to be cancelled due to the surf forecast so the next event on the calender is now the surf kayak Irish Open in Easky next weekend. We have been very lucky with conditions for that one for the last few years so hopefully that will continue. Fingers crossed! 

The plan for the next week is to leisurely travel over to Easky, via as many surf spots as possible and aiming to get there for Thursday or so to get a few days on the water there before the competition starts. It should be a great week, there's a lot of surfing to be done between Portrush and Easky!