Too cold to paddle..........

With winter firmly setting in causing traffic chaos around the UK, I have finally conceeded that it is too cold to paddle. There is a good few inches of snow on the ground and our lake at work is very much frozen. I managed to take a grab a couple of photos.



A Swan Lake








Some Cold Canoes




A very frozen Lake







The Lake looks like it might get thick enough to walk on soon so stay tuned for that soon. Meanwhile why not pop in to WhiteWater: The canoe centre (www.wwtcc.com) and grab yourself a winter bargain in the sale.

Hopefully back on the water soon.

Pimp my kayak. And how to make you seat/thruster happy again....

The weather at the moment is currently SUPER cold and although i've braved it a few times, I wasn't out long enough to take many pics. Me and Pete had a brief slalom this morning but the lake lake at WWTCC is very frozen so we might have a few days off till it warms up.

I recently bought an SLR camera, but haven't really been able to take it boating with me, as I was too worried about loosing, because it would be between my legs. Today I solved that by Pimping my kayak, Westwood stylee.

I have attached a peice of webbing through the central colum to clip my Peli case to, so stay tuned for some boating pics in the near future.

In other news My Jackson kayak happy Seat/Thruster combo has been rather unhappy lately. What had happened was the valve had worked itself loose thereby letting all of the air out. Heres how to fix it.

Simply take some Stormsure (available here: http://www.whitewaterthecanoecentre.co.uk/shop/product.php?productid=104&cat=13&page=1) and apply a few thick coats around the seal (make sure you don't stick the thing together). Et Viola Your seat/thruster is happy again.

Me. braving the Sepperton Cold a few days ago. Photo by Mike Scutt

If you do go paddling make sure you wrap up warm and enjoy.

2009: My kayaking review...

This year has been great for me, loads of firsts. First playboating competition (as well as the second and third), a promotion at the end of the slalom season to Division two, My first waterfall (and then three more), my first grade five rapids, first kayaking trip abroad, first time snowboating.

I've tried to sum it all up in a little vid, enjoy

WhiteWater: The Canoe Centre, The Golf open

Every year a select group of people are invited to take part in the WWTCC Golf open. This year was my first year, so I managed to get a sneaky mornings practice at a driving range with my Grandad. The next day there was enough snow to keep us off the real golf course so we made our way over to Top Golf, we had a competitive morning of golf with the benefit of a heater and not having to walk anywhere.

Ive never really played Golf before and was unaware of a rule which means if you miss the ball you have to play the next go with your trousers down. What a crazy game.

anyway, have a lovely Christmas, See you on the river.

Back down south and already breaking Ice...

So after making a treacherous journey home in what felt like blizzard conditions on Thursday evening I was stoked to be travelling to Dartmoor on Friday to do four star kayak training course. Sadly on Friday I got the email to say the weather was too bad for the course to run. Never mind, Hurley is on a perfect three so off I went. Great level, loads of snow and ice on the walk up though.

Spinning

And Blunting

All Smiles, except for the cold..

Have fun on the water, paddle safe and be careful of the Icy conditions.

Photos by Simon Kibble

No time to paddle!!!!!!

So its been nearly seven days since I last sat in a boat. Last Saturday morning I made the long drive from Buxton to Shepperton to endure the cold and enjoy a 5 gate green wave (Sorry no pics, was too busy paddling) , Sunday morning brought a fun four gate Hurley, although it did frustratingly brake my nose clip!!!

Since then I've been snowed in with Uni work and have not had time to get in a boat, last night to vent our frustration me and a few of my house mates set up a slackline in our local park, hopefully I am nearly at the end of this work and I can get back in a boat soon.

Deep Concentration

One legging

Have fun and be safe..

GB Freestyle team selection, event number 2....

Ok, so it happened a few weeks ago but I’ve been a little bit too busy to blog it. It all took place at HPP, on the 7th November. The event was held on the newly remodeled ‘Tardis’ Feature which was grippy and difficult to set up on but great fun. The usual format was used, each competitor gets three rides, their best two count. Early in the day came the Squirt, OC1, Junior ladies and Men’s. The morning events were commentated by yours truly, I think I did a bang up job, It was really great to see a good turn out in all of these categories. Then Lunch. Then it was the C1, Womens and Mens K1. The weather was lovely for the event, sunny and not a hint of wind. By the time it was my go it was getting dark. My run’s were a real mixed bag, after scoring nothing in my first run after a failed entry move put me off I knew I had to do better in my next ride. My second ride was awesome, a really big loop, some ends and a spin got me a score of 130 points. SWEET. Unfortunately I could not re-produce this in my final ride and scored a poultry 6 points. This put me 19th out of 23. Paddling mentour Pete Scutt came just one place above me this time, with only four points in it. As ever the show was stolen by James ‘Pringle‘ Bebbinton who scored an impressive total of 1586. Although Jon Best was hot on his heels at 1423.

Throwing down

Setting up...

Good fun was had by all, and I will definitely be having another go next year.

Paddle safe

Photos by Mags Brayfield