Kayak intervarsities 2013 Captains and Safety Officers Weekend

This weekend we ran an event for the Captains and Safety officers of all the clubs who will be competing in Varsities in a few weeks time. The idea was to show all the lads around the locations where we'll be competing and generally have the craic! On Saturday morning, after having a quick look at the long distance location out the back of the UL boathouse, we headed to Gower where little Gower was working class! I've gone on enough here about how much I love paddling little Gower so all I'll say is we had a savage session with the tow line before the main wave started working! When the main wave did start working it was big, fast and steep with a tricky but do-able paddle on. Everyone had a great time on it before we got tired and hungry enough to call it a day.


Mike Shaw got some savage photos from little Gower on his shiney new camera: 

After we had refuelled we went to check out the location for the polo competition in the UL Arena pool. Since there was a round of the div 2 Munster Polo League on at the time all the captains got to have a game of polo as well as see the pool. We got some badly needed game time too which will help us get the UL team into shape for varsities. We're not at the standard yet but we're definatly making progress, hopefully with a few weeks practise we'll improve another bit before d-day!

After a cool party on Saturday night everyone headed slightly hungover out to Castleconnel to check out the whitewater course that I've spent the last few weeks putting together. I'm really happy with it, I think it's got a cool mix of poles, banners and bouys to navigate around and it's not too over the top with just 6 gates. There are cool moves on the entries to some of the gates like surfs and s-moves which should really seperate the competitors. The course combined with the rule changes that we're implementing mean that all the colleges seem pretty happy with the plans for the whitewater event. All the plans are in the final stages of coming together, with a bit of luck and effort over the next few weeks we'll host a weekend to remember!

I think during polo on Saturday I did too much paddling with funky feathered paddles and my wrists are feeling it now so I think the plan is to take some time off the water for the next few days. On Thursday we've got a club safety training day and then at stupid O'Clock on Friday morning we're heading to North Wales for a week. I cant wait for that now, last years trip was epic!

Anyway, that's it for the next few days, clean lines and happy paddling!

Tipping Away

Things have been fairly dry here recently but that's been no reason to stay off the water! There hasnt been enough rain  for the Glens to run and there's been so much rain up the country that Gower has been washed out for most of the past week or two. We did get one savage session the other day tho, when the ESB released enough water to bring little Gower out of hiding! We set up a tow line and had a savage session before the water dropped off again. I love little Gower when it works, it's a steep, fast, retentive wave which takes less than a minute to get back onto when you flush off. Pity it only works once in a blue moon!

The rain that has been falling has been enough to keep the Deel pretty high for the last few weeks. I've had some fun runs on it with Limerick Canoe Club and UL recently, the gorge section in particular is great craic at the levels we've had, even if the holes after it do make collecting swimmers a bit interesting! The guys from UL are making great progress. From beginners to potential instructors/leaders they're a solid out group for running rivers with. I did a non-stop run with a few of the lads from Limerick Canoe Club a while ago too. 10 minutes is the benchmark without pushing too hard, at race speed I'd say around 5-6 minutes would be possible!

Unfortunatly we've had to postpone the Glens race for a second time since there isnt much rain forecast for this weekend. Dissappointed but I guess that's kayaking in Ireland! Myself and Orky will figure out what to do now and we'll put the word out as soon as we decide. We might end up running a race on the Deel instead if the levels on that hold up for a few weeks.

2012 Highlight Video

It's that time of year! I've had a bit of free time over the last few days so I put together a video of the highlights from the past months. Between 9 months in Ireland and a road trip around Europe it's been a good year! All that's left now is to eat lots over Christmas, get out paddling where possible and pray for a wet new year! Happy christmas and see you on the river!

Autumn Update, Christmas Plans and Clare Glens Race 2013 info

I know it's been awful quiet on here recently but I've had a seriously hectic semester in college. I've still been getting out kayaking pretty often, Gower's been working well for the last few weeks and we've had some savage sessions sessions! Even some of the first years from UL are getting the bug, everyones having a savage time and there's some serious progress being made, keep an eye out for them over the next few years!

Here's a video I put together a few weeks ago, of one of the quieter sessions we've had:

 

Unfortunatly we had to postpone the Clare Glens Race a few weeks due to the lack of rain. We weren't completly skunked tho, there was plenty of wet weather a week or two before the race was meant to be on which meant it was time to ignore college work for a morning and go for a quick blast. We managed to borrow the UL students union van and when we got there the river was at a savage level, something like .7 on the old gauge! ( .4, just runnable, on the old gauge is around .7 on the new OPW gauge, for anyone who's interested. The site, riverlevels.ie, isn't updating at the moment but hopefully it'll be back online soon!) We had a savage run anyway and I even made it back in time for my afternoon lecture. Happy days! 

The plan for the next few days is Castleconnel tomorrow, surf kayaking on Thursday ( the forecast is looking class, check it out if you're going to be free! ) and hopefully the next few weeks will be just as busy! Unfortunatly all this is happening at the cost of delaying Christmas shopping by another few days, hopefully I'll find some time to fit that in before the 25th! I've got a video of the highlights from the past year in the works too, keep an eye on here and I should have it up shortly. Anyway, merry Christmas, happy New Year and clean lines everyone! 

P.S. The Clare Glens Race has been rescheduled to the 5th or 6th of January, with a freestyle competition on Gower on whichever day the race isnt on. Mark the dates and keep it free, it's going to be an epic weekend!

Paddlesurf Ireland Waveski Trip

I spent my last few days before college started back surf kayaking and waveskiing up in Sligo and Donegal on the Paddlesurf Ireland NW freesurf trip. We got lucky with the surf for the few days with Easky left breaking well for all the time we were there, except for one morning when we went up to Tullan Strand in Donegal.

It was pretty much my first time back in the surf kayak in about 6 months so things were a bit rusty to start off but I got the hang of it again pretty quick and had some really fun surfs over the few days. The highlight was probably when I went for an air and somehow got kicked upwards by the breaking lip, I got a few feet of air and landed off the back of the wave.
It was also my first time trying out the beginner waveskis that Paddlesurf Ireland bought recently. They go really nice, they're nice and easy to paddle and catch waves on and they surf really well too. Obviously not as high performance as a custom waveski but definatly on a par with a surf kayak. If anyone wants to demo it just give me a shout, that's what it's there for!