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Thursday 23 December 2010

Santa visits Shepperton

So I've been home from Uni for around a week now, during a normal winter this would mean lots and lots of regular but cold playboating. But this winter has been unusually cold, dry and snowy meaning that the usual local spots are still running on summer levels, the only difference being the temperatures often being below freezing!!

Anyway I'm making the best of it and doing my best to get a bit fitter in a slalom boat, today just before my regular session Santa popped along for a paddle, of course I lent him my kit and off he went.



Stay warm and have a good Christmas holiday

Monday 8 November 2010

little videos

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy, lots of driving and a fair bit of paddling to boot. I've been working on a short video project since about august, here it is. Enjoy and safe boating



If the Video looks off watch it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGjinxpp4U

Monday 25 October 2010

Bo Selecta: GB Freestyle Kayak Team selections

The weekend just gone saw the Nottingham play host to Great Britain Freestyle kayak team selections. Across the course of two days competitions were held on two different features on the course, the 'Twin Waves' and the 'Tardis'. Saturday also saw the one and only squirt boat team selection.

I've spent the whole summer training for squirt boat selection and was really fired up for the competition. So when saturday morning came I knew there were only a few hours left to prepare. Months of training all came down to to this, three sixty second rides with the best two counting. The scoring system for squirt is fairly complicated, basically each competitor is scored based on their flatwater tricks, added to their style scored then multiplied by downtime score (Which is the amount of time the whole boat is under water, greater points awarded if the whole head and body go underwater) Anyway six men rocked up to give it a go with three places on the Team up for grabs as James Reeves won the last world-Championship he was pre-selected so didn't attend. That left myself, Jamie Austin, Paul King, Josh Gosling, Ben Aldred and fresh out of squirt retirement Chris Evans to duke it out for the three team slots.

the nervous waiting between rides



I had three fairly consistent rides although I did feel like I was along way off my best it time for a nervous wait while the scores were added up. I filled the time by trying to get warm, dry, getting out of the horrible weather and helping out on the commentary. Finally the scores were, 2nd place. I was in, a place on the GB Freestyle team for the Plattling World championships 2011.

Later that day I was competing again in my float boat on the 'Twin Waves', out of three rides I had one very average ride, one rubbish ride and then ten seconds into ride number three my deck popped. I have literally never been so annoyed at a competition. Anyway Saturday evening, and I had good reason to celebrate I hit the town with Matty Nichols and Adam Ramadan.



Godzilla on the Tardis


When Sunday came I was feeling a little worse for wear but it was super sunny so I pushed on and by the end of the day it was time for my rides in the 'Tardis' one of the courses smaller, more flushy features. So I managed one average ride, one rubbish ride and one really rubbish ride. Overall I wasn't that impressed with my own performance, but to be perfectly honest I wasn't expecting any better as I hadn't really put the time or the training in like I had in my squirt boating.


A great weekend was had by all and well done to all who competed. On the top end it was great to see big rides from James Weight, Sam Anderson, Matty Nichols, Pringle and many others. Also a big thanks to all of the UK Freestyle committee for organising all of the events this season.

Photos by Dave Wortley

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Pyranananananananananananana Fest

I've just got back from a wild weekend at Canolfan Tryweryn which was playing host to the third annual Pyranha Fest. For those of you not in the know PFest is a Pyranha organised event where a massive fleet of demo boats get brought down to Tryweryn for people to try over the weekend. There are organised coaching courses by some of Pyranha's top coaches and a whole bunch of fun competitions. In the evening there is a hog roast, short talks about recent trips, previewing of an up and coming paddling film (Means of Production 2) and of course a party.

For me this event really kicked off on friday as I arrived in Runcorn to help load up a fleet of vans with demo boats, tents, bean bags, merchandise and other general paddling paraphernalia. Once we were all loaded up and had a cup of tea we set off for Wales. Arriving in Bala we had enough time to sample the limited edition Angry fish ale before hitting the hay.
A cloudy start at Bala Lake.

Unluckily for me I had been delegated to work at Bala lake on saturday morning with almost the complete range of touring boats, open canoes and sea kayaks. The morning ended up being fairly quiet although I did do a short coaching session for a gentlemen who wanted one.

Then we loaded up the van and headed over to the river I arrived just in time to miss the rodeo (gutted) but in time for the Boater-X race. The race was scheduled to take place from the top of graveyard to the NRA bridge (thats a long way for those who don't know). Heats had 6 people in and mine was not without incident. Straight from the word go I got into a tussle with boring James Bradley who promptly pulled my spraydeck off. I managed to get it back on and over take him but could only finish 4th in my heat not enough to go through to the semi final. In the end Tom 'sickline' Wakeling came in first, David 'Spaghetti arms' Bain came second and Pete 'The Scud' Scutt came third.

A boater-X clash once my deck was back on

After a short rest a mellow surf session on Cafe wave turned into a 15 minute game of King of the Wave, luckily no-ne was injured.
Cleaning up in the Varun

Chillin out
Once all was said and done we packed the vans and headed back to the Glan Lyn, for an evening of talks, videos, hog and beer. Not to mention the odd informal breakdance off.

Throwing the Varun around

Sunday was a more chilled day with some paddling, relaxing and resting. At the end of the day we packed the Van and headed back to the factory.

A fun weekend was had by all and a big thanks should be said to all who were involed in the planning and implementation of the weekend.

Photos By Leanne Atlee

Monday 4 October 2010

Brit champs: Nottingham

The sun was shone brightly on saturday for another in the series of the British Freestyle championships series. This event was a special one for me as it was scheduled to be the only event to decide the British Squirt boat championship.


The day started in the standard format, registration a good deal of standing about and then eventually the competition kicking off. The squirt comp was first for me at 2 o'clock, this was my first Squirt comp and needless to say I was nervous. My feelings weren't really helped when I learned it would be in the Pyramid Pool, which is notoriously shallow a long way into the pool and the one which I usually do worse in whilst practicing. At the right time I got changed, got on the water and did my warm up. and by the time the competition came I felt focused and ready to go.


My rides went well and a bit of sunshine certainly helped. After all 10 male competitors had had their rides the scores were totted up, I was happy coming in 4th place.


After a quick change of clothes it was time for me to do my k1 runs, although my runs went to plan I was still a long way off top place. Thats hardly surprising though as Pringle scored over 1600 points in one ride! My final result was 14th out of 18.
That evening saw the usually consumption of food and beer, but also brought a lot of rain. The course was already fairly brown on saturday and the evening rains pushed it over the edge, and forced the course to be closed on sunday. Unfortunately this meant no finals to watch and no body boarding event or boater cross.
Anyway despite the rain it was a great event and I look forward to the last few of the year.

See you on the water

Photos by Dale Mears.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Scotland: There and back again (and then once more)

So Ive not been back to Uni for long which means it must be time for the yearly pilgrimage to Scotland for the Wet West Paddle Fest. Last year I found someone to travel up with but this year preparations were a bit more last minute. Luckily the Team Pyranha van was to the rescue giving me a ride up to Scotland if I could get myself to Runcorn. Easy peasy. Plans were made, I arrived at Pyranha a bit early, hung out for a bit until I eventually found out that Tim Burne had left without me, Shocker! So after some hurried phone calls I made my way north to Preston where I linked up with Tim and headed north.


Although I was slightly ill over the course of the weekend we returned home on sunday evening having made some great new friends.
The following wednesday I made my way To runcorn again, this time the plan was to link up with the boys, Pete Scutt, Graham Milton and Tom Wakeling. We left late in the evening and picked up the final member of the crew, Si Tapley on route. Our goal, Etive River race.

We drove through torrential rain all evening and spirits were HIGH, the vans chat nav was firmly tuned into high water options for the week. We swung by Falloch on the way up and were disappointed to find it extremely low. We continued to the Etive, arrived at 4Am and slept.

When we awoke we checked out the Etive and were less than inspired by the water levels, we went and drank tea for a while and then opted to smash down the Etive and then travel to one of the tributaries down stream. Si Tapley opted out of paddling an took the role of photographer with some great results.

We squeezed out a couple of low water runs on Friday but concentrated on rest for Saturdays race. When the day came the river had dropped off even more prompting organiser James Flemming to call a mandatory portage on one of the rapids. Once the day was done Team Pyranha had made a strong impact taking many of the top places, Barnsey and me placed 7th in the sponsored team category.

Overall a great time, heres a few pics by Si Tapley. See you on the water.









Chillin when the day is done.

Saturday 28 August 2010

Pre-weekend Creeking in August.

So last monday it started raining and it didn't really stop, at all. Tuesday night I got a hurried Facebook message about a Thursday trip to South Wales. After pleading with my boss to get the day off I made some phone calls, our one day trip had now been extended to two days and was set to include a days surfing, swell predictions were 10ft, SWEET!

So Wednesday night we hurriedly packed our stuff in the rain, it took around three and a half hours of driving through heavy rain to reach our destination, the take out for the Afon Mellte, which I was reliably informed was one of the finest whitewater runs in all of the UK. When we awoke the following morning it was only spitting so after checking the levels of another river (The Tawe) which was too low we headed to the Mellte Put on.
The run starts with a sweet drop (pictured above) and the runs on into another bigger drop which we sessioned for a while. It also featured a highlight of the day when Stu Morris (An extremely experienced kayaker) took his first swim for 18 years. After that the run is a series of fantastic S bends, bouncy wave trains and fun slides.



I can safely say the Mellte lived up to expectations, now it was on to the beach, specifically St. Justinians, Home of the Bitches. When we got to the beach we were greeted with about three inch waves, great. Off we popped to another beach, with equally poor waves, so we decided to take a stroll on the beach for the evening and hope the surf was better in the morning. After spending an evening formulating a plan for the next day we decided that getting up at 3AM for the Bitches wasn't really an option, so If the surf was rubbish again we would take our creek boats and go for some coastal exploring.


Typically the morning brought no surf and so we mounted up and went for a lovely bit of Sea exploring in the sunshine. After all that the long trip home got me back in time for the weekend, sweet.

So remember, make time for those last minute trips. They are so worth it.

See you on the river. Peace.

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Secret Squirting.

Since about mid-june i've procured a squirt boat and have been practicing in secret, but lately in a quest to improve myself i've had to ask for help and advice from a range of other squirters. I've come to the point where the cat is pretty much out of the bag so heres a few pics of me at Chertsey with the regular tuesday club boys, anyway thats all for now.

catch ya later.



Going for downtime

coming up

Tuesday club

Sunday 4 July 2010

Rodeo Weekender: The PeakUK summer sausage sizzle rodeo

So this weekend just gone saw the first PeakUK sausage summer sizzle rodeo. Te event was held at HPP, Nottingham and saw over 45 competitors across three categories competing against each other.

The aim of the event was to bring fun back into freestyle kayaking as in last few years freestyleing has become a bit serious. Extra points in this competition were awarded being able to maintain a sidesurf and for doing a 180.
LoooooooooooooooP

The heats for this competition went on in bib number order with heats of nine people with men, women, juniors and c1 all up against each. I did well to place a solid 8th of 16 senior men, however since there were only two c1's they were competing in the same category as the other senior k1 men, therefore my overall standings in senior k1 mens would have been 6 out of 14 which I thought was very respectable.
Space Godzilla


Saturday evening saw fun and ball games outside the Peak shop including volleyball and rounders (which some people took a little too seriously)

Me commentating the day

Sunday saw a top five final across three categories, mens, womens and juniors. Bren Orton smashed the junior competition to win, Jenny Chrimes scored an impressive McNasty to win the Ladies category and Matty Nichols smashed the mens competition out of the water with a range of Phonics Monkeys, McNasties and Space Godzillas.

Overall I would say PeakUK organised a wicked weekend and I hope we can get more events like this happening in the future.


Monday 21 June 2010

WhiteWater: The Canoe Centre Open day

So recent times has seen a quick drop off in water levels here in the Thames Valley area, sadly that mean no rushing to Hurley straight after work, on the plus side it does mean plenty of slalom fitness training has been happening instead.
The weekend just gone saw the long awaited return of a WWTCC open day. For those not in the know this is where the shop is specially opened on a sunday, filled with manufacturers who have all bought there range of demo boats for people to come and try.

Obviously a big event needs a big party and at the shop they know how to throw one, a live band cold beers made it a great success. All in all a great day, stay tuned for more updates soon.

As ever the pfooooonell was out in force by the end.

Photos from Amanda Kenn and Holly Reichal

Friday 28 May 2010

May maddness

So May is nearing a close and this month has seen me as busy as ever. Starting off with a 10 day spell in Nottingham paddling and raft guiding every day in preparation for an upcoming slalom double event at HPP.

Training was going really well but a boozey night out in Nottingham the night before the race threatened my chances. Luckily I managed to get there in time and layed down a time which left me sitting in the mid-table after saturday. Sadly Sundays course changes didn't suit me and I had a poor result. Luckily sunny weather and good company made up for it all.
The following week was spent on a practical week with uni climbing in the Peaks and learning a few new bits and bobs along the way. That lead straight into an early drive to Bala, Wales on saturday morning where Pyranha were hosting the first of a series of freestyle competitions. The event was held at the top hole on Tryweryn, and although the water was cold the weather was HOT.

The feature was a bit flushy and after three rides I had not done that well. Luckily a cracking party was organised and the next morning saw a brilliant boater-X event. Once the water had been turned off I headed to Capel Curig where I had another week of multi-pitch climbing with Uni.




In conclusion May has been a real belter, hopefully the rest of the summer will be as good.

Photos by Ash Bullivant, Mike Scutt, Liz Forshaw, John Butcher and derek burdett