National Student Rodeo 2010

The weekend just gone played host to the worlds largest and funniest freestyle kayaking competition, the National Student Rodeo. As ever 'My Lot' from the Buxton, Derby University Canoe and Kayak (D.U.C.K) were in attendance with more than double the amount of people than the previous year.

For those not in the know, NSR is a freestyle kayaking competition for uni students from all over the country, tailored to suit all abilities from novice to expert.

Since its a student event the Friday evening when everyone arrives is a big party, even though it goes on well into the night the competition still began on time at 8:30am the following morning. The format of the competition begins with an extreme slalom, this puts people into there respective categories either novice, intermediate or expert. Heats would then happen across each category throughout the afternoon. I was in the expert heats and paddled well enough to get to the final the following day.

Sofa Cross race

Saturday Evening, after a dinner had the premier of the new Rush Sturges/Tyler Bradt Film: Dream Result, the second this was over we hit the bar, a number of others had headed up for the party including Pete "The Scud" Scutt, Ed "Egg" Kay, Sam "Rambo" Ellis and a load of other people who don't have good nicknames.

General camping shinanigans.

The following morning with a stinking hangover I took up a bean bag at the Pyranha stand and began watching the days events, starting with the Topo Duo semi-finals. Eventually it was time to get on for the Men's Expert Final. It was a fun eddy with many familiar faces including two other D.U.C.K.s. Regrettably the amount of alcohol consumed the previous evening ment that i struggled to avoid being sick and needless to say did not paddle that well.

Big turn out for the Final

After that was done everyone gathered to watch the Topo Duo Final which is easily the funniest event of the competition.

Topo Duo Final

Great Fun was had by all, and i'm looking forward to next year already.

Best trip ever....Uganda.

So i've just returned from a two week spell in Uganda where the sun shines, the water is warm and the whitewater is massive. Spending most of our time in the Dorms at Nile River Explorers set us in the perfect location to paddle both the day one and day two sections of the river.

The White Nile from the Air.

I flew out from Heathrow Airport on Sunday 14th Feb with Ed 'Egg' Kay. We arrived at NRE the following afternoon where we were greeted by a great view and cold beer. We booked ourselves into the Dorms and had a few more beers while we caught up with our old friend Jon Best who has been living in Uganda since Early December. The following morning we headed out to do our first Silverback run, a quick blast of blind grade 5 whitewater from NRE to the take out below Silverback where we were met by our Boda Boda drivers (Little motorbikes that you sit on the back of). The run takes around half an hour and we were back in time for a chapati lunch.

Bujagli Falls on the Day one section

The best Chapatis ever

A few days later after some heavy nights in the bar and some fun paddling we loaded up a car and headed to Nile Special. This was the first time I had ever used a tow rope and it took a while to get use to it, however it was definitely worth the effort as the wave was great. We also did the full day one section following a raft, great fun but i got pretty badly sun burned.

Using the rope

After nearly a week we were joined by Pete 'the Scud' Scutt and Richard Marrill. Now we had a good crew the first thing we did was another day one trip so that Pete and Rich could get a good go on the River, at the end of the day we finished by doing all of Itanda Falls a big (fairly scary) grade 6. That evening much celebratory beer was consumed and the next day was much more docile.

A bounce on Special

A tasty river lunch

Later that week we did the day two section which includes Kalagala falls, vengence, hair of the dog and Kulu Shaker. This section is also home to some great river waves including Nile Special and Mutts Nuts (A morning wave which is easily better than Special).

A Crazy Boda journey

Uganda is one of the friendliest, greenest countries I have ever visited and although the people are poor by Western standards they are fairly well off compared to some of the other african nations as they can cultivate crops and keep animals. Its a great place to be and I would definitely say it is the best holiday i've ever been on. I could say so much more but you would probably get bored of reading about how much i enjoyed it, just get out there if you can.

The view from the bar.

A welsh weekend with the D.U.C.K.s

So this weekend just gone I spent the weekend in North Wales with Derby Uni Canoe and Kayak club (D.U.C.K). We all saddled up our cars and left Buxton on Friday evening. It wasn't long after we crossed the Welsh border that we were bombarded with snow (which was un-forecasted).

The morning's View

The next morning after struggling on the snowy roads we were confronted with low water everywhere. Saturday we managed to get a run on the Llugwy.

The D.U.C.K.s getting ready to go

A new river to me, it had an two sections of note, a brilliant Grade three drop which everyone in the group managed and a series of three Grade five drops. Pont Cyfyng has a tricky lead in rapid with a series of large drops, I managed to run the lead in and the first drop and quickly made the get out on river left, just before the second and third drops which have lead to a number of deaths in recent years.

Having a look at Pont Cyfyng

Me at the bottom of the First drop of Pont Cyfyng

The following day we were forced onto the Dee, at a fairly low level, with plenty of snow. Everyone in the group enjoyed this river although it did cause a couple of swims within the group.

Discussing the final drop of Pont Cyfyng from the bottom

All in all it was an enjoyable weekend, without me having to do too much rescuing.

Have a great time, I will see you on the rivers.

Pyranha Molan. My beyond the Hype review.........

Today I managed to get some time in the new Pyranha Molan. Before I start this review I should point out that the boat I paddled was a pre-production version, and had shrunk a bit out of the mold so it was a tad smaller.

I paddled the boat at Shepperton weir, it was on a nine gate wave, which wasn’t the greatest level but gave me a good chance to see how the boat surfed, how loose it was, speed on the wave and the boats ability to accelerate.

The first thing I noticed when sitting in the boat was that it was a touch narrower than my current JK Allstar (07-09 model). I liked this, it puts your body into a better position to throw the boat around. The Molan was also a bit shorter than my boat, however this seems to be a common theme in the latest playboats and definetly makes a difference in speeding up the boat mid-air. By that I mean the shorter tail travels through the air quicker making tricks easier to stick. The Molan is a large amount of volume in both the bow and stern, although I didn’t get a chance to try it on a hole it should loop massive.

Once I got on the wave the boat felt great, noticeably looser than my boat and much easier to throw around. The Molan great acceleration I was impressed at the amount of speed that could be generated on such a small wave.

Outfitting wise Pyranha’s Connect 30 outfitting seemed comfortable and durable, with plenty of scope to kit it out to your exact requirements with the selection of foam provided.

My only criticism would be that that the stern was a little catchy however I imagine on a full sized version this wouldn’t be such a problem. Also the slightly narrower hull did feel unforgiving in whilst paddling through the Shepperton boils and surgey eddylines.

In the lead up to this boats release alot of different things were said, one of the things I heard the most was "Its just an Allstar with different stickers". Well I can say first hand that is not the case, the new Allstar has a number of differences. The new Allstar is shorter, has a different seating position and has a different shaped hull.

Overall I would say I quite like this boat. So there you have it, get out and give one a go.

Photos by Pete Scutt

Cold days and Slalom nights..........

The last week temperatures have frequently been zero degrees, and each day time I would often have to put on more and more layers. Luckily this was not the case at night time, when I would often end up quite sweaty. But Why? you ask. Well the simple answer is I'm back in Slalom training, in the last few days we have been doing technique work, fitness and endurance training and also having a good good bit of fun along the way. Here's some pic's I took last night.



Joel Crossland, rippin it on the wave



Pete doing the same



Going round the gates



Committing to the cross









Last but not least I should hopefully be testing the New Pyranha Molan on the weekend, here is a pic to wet your appetite. Stay tuned for a report.....

Winter Paddling......Sunbury/Hurley

Although I've not paddled for the most part of last week, yesterday I braved the cold to get some playboating in. Heres how it all went down.



Saturday: Pete and I decide that we should go for a paddle. I rumage round to find some more thermals and a set of pogies. Saturday afternoon, we decide to go to Sunbury weir, just before lunchtime. Saturday night, Pete looks at the weather forecast and refuses to go if it snows. Sunday morning, we go to Sunbury. The car park was frozen and we had to walk through three inches of snow to get to the water.

When we got to the weir we found a a big steep hole and ice everywhere. After I had had a few quick goes we got off. Pete decided he'd had enough and went home. I went on to Hurley where I had probably the coldest two and a half hours of my life, on an almost perfect water level.

Icicles cover the weir

Me in the Pit of the Hole



Having another go

Not a bad way to spend the day. If your going paddling be sure to wrap up warm and be safe.

The Bold, The Cold and the Brave.....

The cold snap over the last week has resulted in the Lake at WWTCC being extremely frozen, a few days ago we gingerly tested the thickness in a controlled, scientific manor. By making Pete go first. Seeing that he didn't die straight away we grabbed some boats and jumped on.

Although there was a tiny tiny risk that falling through the ice would result in a swift death that didn't deter us. Here some pics:

Testing the water (albeit not far from the edge)

Sliding around

Getting adventurous

Although we had great fun this could be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS please be VERY CAREFUL if you try this, and don't try it alone.

Stay safe and stay warm .