Another Video............NSR 2009

This is a longer video of the event which took place in March 2009. Enjoy...

Holidays..................

In about September time, a few of my friends and I started planning a eurotrip kayaking holiday. The idea was to drive round the different paddling play spots of europe, and even run a few rivers. Well as time went on, pretty much everyone who wanted to do it had pulled out, leaving just me and one of my friends. Since a long holiday with two people would have been a bit boring we decided to do a weeks playboating in Lyon, south of France. In the week leading up to my trip I had everything sorted, car ready, clothes packed, eurotunnel booked, money changed. Then someone recommended i look into the Alps for a couple of days. Although I wasn't convinced initially I looked into day trips that could be done from Lyon. I finally settled on a day at Bourg-Saint-Maurice, a French International Slalom Site. More about that later.

On sunday morning we got on the road, the photo above is taken on the road in France, by midday temperatures were well into the high twenties, and when we arrived in Lyon after ten hours of driving on the wrong side of the road the temperature was well into the thirties.

The next morning after getting some food at the supermarket we headed over to Hawaii Sur Rhone. It turns out that this particular feature is quite easy to see from the motorway, but very difficult to get to, as navigating around the complicated French road system is hard. Finally we arrived, we walked over and had a look the size of the wave. BIG. There were a few other people there, so we got changed and jumped on. After talking to the people who were on the water we discovered that the water levels weren't great. What this meant was that the wave was extremely difficult to catch. With this in mind we persevered and although we didn't get loads of rides, but each one we did get was both amazing and terrifying. The speed down the wave was amazing, each hard carve lead to a bounce which threw your whole boat into the air.

Thats me, that little spec in the middle.

After a couple of days here we got up early and headed to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. I wasn't really sure what to expect when we got there, so when I arrived to see around a 900M of lovely Alpine river, made even better by the fact that no-one else was there. We spent the day playing on the river, the water was FREEZING, darn glacial melt.

A pic of Bourg (Taken from French website Eauxvives.org, as i can't find the one we took)

The next day we were back in Lyon, unfortunately for my paddling buddy Andy he swam, on his first ride of the day. As if this wasn't enough he lost his paddle. With no spare that put an end to his paddling week. Unluckily for me I pulled a muscle soon after. With no solution in sight we did the student thing. We bought some really really cheap wine and got extremely drunk.

The following day we felt a little worse for wear, so decided to wander around town.

Now i'm back in the UK and back at work. I had a good holiday, if you've got one coming up good luck, I hope it goes well. Be safe.

The WhiteWater Chertsey Tuesday Invitational

Every week at the 'Mighty' Chertsey weir an informal playboating competition. The event is invitational and 'organised' by my friends and colleagues at Whitewater: the canoe centre, generally we all turn up, paddle then go to the pub for a refreshing summer shandy in the sun. The competition is pretty informal, a few weeks ago I filmed the event, yesterday i finished the video.

I'm back down South............

So its now May and I’m back from Uni for the summer.  Its awesome, the weather is lovely the water is warm but its not perfect, there is a distinct lack of water at the moment.  Luckily for me, the ‘Mighty’ Chertsey weir is always running, and even runs best at lower water levels.  So, off I popped down to Chertsey to meet up with one of my local paddling buddies Mike Brown.  We had a wicked hour on the water and I finally started to to get my Loops dialed in.  After that I whizzed down the road to WhiteWater: The Canoe Centre, my local canoe and kayak shop for a cup of tea. Lovely. Im back to Chertsey this Tuesday evening for the regular Tuesday night Chertsey Collection.  This usually see a great mix of people of all ages and abilities.  There’s a couple of photos below.  So until then, be safe and paddle hard................

Mike Brown going for the Mystery move

Cracking out a loop...

We love the Nights...

Had a great fun time at HPP last night, it was really nice and quiet.  I managed to lay down some nice Loops and a few cartwheels.  Luckily it was fairly quiet, with only a handful of slalom paddlers and no other playboaters, this meant no queuing, SWEET.  heres a few little pics.

A bit of an arty shot of Andy

Me Goin UP

Andy, giving it the wave

Me again, all smiles at the newly refurbished HPP

Stay Safe....

A week of paddling prizes......

The last few days i’ve been back at uni, and they have been packed with paddling prizes.  Well maybe not packed, but i’ve had a few.

It started with the Canoe club (Derby Uni Canoe and Kayak club) AGM on wednesday, during the meeting, the D.U.C.K awards, were dished out.  Prizes were awarded for Best swim, Best Novice male, Best Novice female, best haircut and Most Valued Paddler.  

Andy Gibbs won Best Haircut with his current half blond-half brown hair do.  Josh Edwards Won Best Novice male, Rory Richards won best swim, for not even making it to the feature at NSR just a few weeks earlier and i was lucky enough to win MVP for a combination of my individual representation of the club at the BUCS slalom in January, and doing OK at NSR.  The prize was mainly pride, but also a really big rubber duck.

Following this I have spent all weekend slalom racing a the Marple Division 3/4 Dave Higson memorial slalom.  The event was held by Manchester Canoe club on a small shallow bit of river located in Marple (which is near stockport).  The weekend was a double event meaning each day counted as a separate race.  On the Saturday, despite a few showers around 25 Div 3 K1 Men took part.  My first run put me in second place, but after smoothing out my second run i finished ahead by a healthy 5 seconds, earning me a nice shiny plate.  On the Sunday the weather was much nicer, however there were less competitors, despite this there was still fierce competition, and in my second run I was even given a 5 second penalty for starting too early.  Inspite of this i still had a fast enough time too finish in first place.  To make things even better, i had scored the fastest aggregate time over the two days, earning me the ‘Dave Higson Memorial trophy’.

All in all a good week, I hope I can do as well in races later in the year.  

The Prizes

National Student Rodeo 2009

At the end of March 2009, the biggest freestyle kayaking event in the world was held at Nottingham’s newly revamped HPP.  Here is a short film i’ve just finished from the event, I will be doing a longer vid when i get some more time.  Enjoy.

and here is a youtube link if you are struggling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfS7aBYGf0