Hi,

With the 51st Liffey descent around the corner and people hard at the training ready to test themselves against what is billed as one of the top Marathon Races in Europe / World I decided to re post I the highlights program of the 2009 event which was shown on Setanta Sports. It will give those who have never taken part in the event an idea of what they are in for and remind the others to learn form last years “missed lines”

I can’t take any claim for the production of the film or the like I only saved it and stuck it on line. So with an further fan fare here here are the highlights of the 50th Liffey Descent 2009.

Good luck to all those taking part this year.

Adrian

With spring now here and the Irish Winter Kayaking season now over without even a hint of any sustained paddling to be had its time to look ahead and to all the bright evenings and after work boating.

Apart from my some what random departure into robotics I have finally gotten around to  start making some sort of sense of the “Coaching & Instruction” part of my wee website. Up until now it was kinda a case of drop me a line and we will see what we can do, I’m trying to put a whole lot more structure in place to make it easier for anyone looking for stuff and give a better idea of what’s on offer.

Its all very much a work in progress at the moment with lots of information to be added not to mention I’m still wrestling with an online course calendar / booking system.

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The weekend just past brought about the second Colligan Gorge Games which had a huge number of Irish paddlers travel to the unlikely white water Mecca that is Co. Waterford. This year had the one thing that last years event was missing which was near perfect water levels.

The event had both team and individual categories which were divided into sport & expert classes. The racing was tight among everyone and it was shown that even the slightest nudge from your competitors could send you to the back of the pack in an instant. It was a long day with the racing getting off from not long after 9am and continuing right through until almost dark, it was a testament to all those that travelled that the crowds never stopped cheering not once all day long.

The finial “Salmon Leap” rapid was the location for some very interesting lines and some carnage from both the expert and sport classes and the dash to the finish line was littered with abandoned boats & bruised egos.

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So the long weekend just past was scheduled for the first “Free you Style” event to take place in Kilkenny, sadly a couple of days before the event was to happen the recent very heavy rain fall had washed the weir out and there wasn’t much of a feature left.

As the aim of the free your style day was to encourage and foster an interest for participation freestyle events I had little choice to postpone the event until a further date in the near future.

In contacting the coaches who had volunteered there services for the day they were all really keen to still take part in the event at a later date. I was aware that lots of the people who all set to travel to Kilkenny for the day were still keen to do something regardless of the level so I said that I would run a river trip on the Sunday for the first few who got back to me and would decide what section of the river to use upon seeing the water level on the day.

Sunday morning brought us sunshine and highish but workable levels, we ran a mini rive trip from the Bleach road get on to the weir. We all had a wee chat at the get on and set out what we all wanted to work for the day and set off in good form with every one set to pick up some new skills and brush up on the ones we already had.

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Hey,

As some of you know this idea was only really conceived in the Sluice car park last Sunday afternoon after a training day organised by Ger O’Reily and to be honest I am surprised how quickly this has snowballed. The premise for this event and the ones that are planned to follow it is pretty simple “To run a series of freestyle events with will allow people to learn new skills & develop their existing ones in a fun and safe environment”.

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