Hey,

So I have broke the onlyish kinda rule I set my self when I started this blog thin up, “to keep it updated regularly”. The only positive is that I’ve had loads of stuff on as of late which included some boating & good times.

Clifden Fun Rodeo 09

So for the few weeks leading up to the weekend of 20th/21st of June myself , Bowsie & some of the NUIG/GMIT kayak club crew were busy making plans for Event 2 of the IFS league which was to be held in Clifden Co. Galway.

The idea of the event was was pretty straight forward, “lets get everyone over to Clifden do a training / freestyle event lash a BBQ & beach party in the middle of it all and hope every one has a savage time”. From the feed back we have gotten I say it’s safe to say we did what we set out to do.

We had to limit the numbers to 50 for the competition itself but the training day was open to more and the BBQ was all comers welcome.

After the feature had stopped working on day one we held a quick flatwater rodeo so all the folks cold show their skills to the judges. This was only put in for a bit of “Fun” but I did notice allot or serious faces in the eddy & even heard talk of “ride plan’s”. It was a great spectacle showing off a variety of paddle spins / self reasuces / huge loops and epic cartwheel sequences. In the end Ger O Reily in his pink boat took first place.

That evening were had a BBQ out in the dunes in Dunloughin (or however its spelt), Colm Healy /Ethan / Michelle / Donna cooked up a storm on the BBQ’s making sure everyone was stuffed to the gills with food before they had a social drink. We had DJ Shmenda ( NUIG Oldie) was manning the decks of our make shift mobile night club and blasted the tunes out late late into the night.

I reckon Caitriona O Brein’s photo sums up how most people felt the next day.

After a clean up of the camp site we headed back into clifden to set up for the competition itself!

There was a super turn out for the event with some great runs being put down across all of the classes, a special mention has to be made to Conor Bredin & Adrian Durrant who put down some some nice entry loops.

All in all it was a cracking weekend and folks who were there are really looking forward to hitting up Cork for next months event. There will be a full rundown of results & league standings on IFS in the next day or so, but here is an over all of the weekends scores.

On a personal note I would like to thank everyone who made the event possible, all the guys in NUIG , the people who traveled, the time keepers , judges , scribes, River Deep mountain high, Peak UK, DJ Shmenda, to Bowsie for going to going to bed early so he would be fresh to judge on Sunday and thanks to all those who said thanks.

I-Canoe video night for Irish Freestyle team.

Adrian D & Colm in i-canoe decided to run a bit of a video / social night in the shop to show case the entries for a video comp they had run along with trying to raise some funds for the Irish Freestyle Team who are heading to Thun at the end of the summer. I didn’t make it to the night myself as I was across the far side of the country at the time but I’m informed that it was great craic and loads of prizes were given out.

Well when I say I wasn’t there myself…. Mr Healy owner of i-canoe decided to show a bit of film he made a couple of weeks ago of a spin we had on the Dargle where I had a “paddle malfunction”. I reckon whit friends like this who need enemies…lol Anyway have a laugh at my expense.

After we had gotten of the Dargle we made a quick dash across to Laragh we we got a speed / dusk descent of the Avonmore followed by a pint in Lynamhs. Not a bad round up to a funny evening of after woork boating.

Prior to that paddle incident on the Dargle I had being using Select W1 paddles and really liked but finally gave in to the temptation of Foam Core Werners. In waiting for my custom Werners to arrive I had put my Select’s up for sale not thinking they would shift quick with money being tighter for everyone these but two days later and I had to fall back on some 10 year old Rough Stuff Tempests which were long long past their best before I brought them on the Dargle that evening.

Happy days yesterday when I package arrived in i-canoe for me of two new sets of paddles, 191cm Double Diamonds & 200cm Sho-guns . I know some of ye are thinking 200cm that’s massive but trust me its the forwards for rivers ( or more like back to Slalom style paddles) . Initial impressions apart from they fuel my Carbon fetish is that they feel, super light , rigid & responsive. I am really looking forward to getting some quality river time with them as opposed to the canal outside the shop.

A day out for the dogs..

Last weekend Tullamore Canoe Club held an open day for members of the public to come along and try canoeing and kayaking which also doubled up as a social gathering for friend to catch up and try some new boats. Colm and myself headed along for the day and brought loads of different boats from wild water racers / crossover boats and the worlds newest boat manufactures “Big Dog Kayaks”.

We had a couple of different sizes of the Havoc (playboat) and one of the Kaos ( river play) there on the day and folks were lining up to see how they handled. Most people seemed quiet impressed, myself and Colm had to wait until the very end of the day before we got a shot in them. I had spent the the the previous while doing some freestyle coaching so when I eventually managed to get a go I was pretty spent. What I would say is that the sizing is quiet strange and the outfitting would need a bit more tweaking before I would be happy with it, overall not a bad boat and it give the impression that to would be responsive and loose on a wave.

Last night we had them on the canal with our team looping monkey AD just to make sure they go big on the loops.

So that’s about it for now, there has been loads more happening and the next couple of months it looking good with the Cork Rodeo coming up , a trip to Canada boating and a trip to the World Freestyle Champs in Thun also, not to mention what ever summer boating the Irish weather allows.

Fair play for reading this far, chat to ye later.

Adrian