As I’m sure you are all well aware boaters seem to be all budding amateur photographers, all you have to do is log onto facebook after a wet weekend and see some pretty pro results.
So I dropped my mate Ryan a line who is a Scottish based ( I know he will hate being called) Pro Photographer and solid boater a line to see if he was interested in giving me and those who check in on this blog a few tips that might help us get better results.
Ryan himself
I suppose this is where I should just be quiet for once and let Ryan take the drivers seat…
Righto Mr Shanahahahan,
Top Tips for what NOT to do and perhaps what is good to do when you’re taking and editing your boating pics…at the most basic level.
Rule of thirds – Does every photograph you take have the main subject in the centre? Boring huh! Rule of thirds concentrates on composition…i.e. where you point your camera and what’s in the frame. You can Google the definition and think about how you want to composition a photograph. All I’m saying is don’t keep everything central, it’s boring. Read the rest of this entry »
This is just a quick little post about something I was thinking lately. In recent times the latest bit of kit that has become a white water essential is the “open sling” and is in fact a mandatory part of the Irish Canoe Union kit list for some awards. I for one reckon its such a versatile / inexpensive / robust bit of kit there is almost no reason anyone can argue against it.
I favour the Nylon tubular webbing sort but traditional climbing tape or even Palm’s “Safety Line” all work the same. More often than not most of us end up having to tie the tape into a loop as part of an anchor system, this is where us as boaters get things a little bit more mixed up.
Nine times out of ten people will tie an overhand knot or figure of eight which are fine for most situations with ropes but this isn’t true when it comes to tape / webbing. The problem with both these knots in tape is that under a high load these will separate and come apart.
If you ask any seasoned Climber to tie you a two ends of tape together they will straight away do the very aptly named “Tape Knot”.
So here is how…
I just used two different colours of webbing so you would be able to follow what was happening, obviously if you are making a loop in a single tape it will be all the same colour (and not use roof rack strap).
This method is by far the safest and best way to attach two ends of tape. Learn it, Practice it and teach your mates.
A few days back on of the guys from the UKRGB Bren (aka Peakfreak) posted up that there are no videos online that just explain the “double pump” and any that try assume too much previous knowledge from the person looking to learn.
I had being thinking of doing up a few wee how to tutorials but was being a bit lazy about it, I took this as a bit of motivation. I hit a part of the local river two cameras and tripod in hand. Sadly after I had uploaded the footage to my laptop I some lost it all , a fecking disaster so I flew back down to the river with my younger brother Keith “shaky hands” Shanahan and managed to get only 6mins of raw footage before the battery died. I managed to salvage this after all that.
This has kinda inspired me to put a bit of effort in and knock out a few more hoping to improve on the quality.
This is one of those things that always seems to crop up either after the annual pilgrimage to the Alps or after a big dump of rain after a long dry spell. Contrary to what allot of folks seem to thing these days kayaks are large designed to paddle down rivers avoiding rocks and obstacles as opposed to being rock ramming machines. So its not too uncommon after head on collision with a rock to get a bent nose or a split in your boat.Read the rest of this entry »
So very recently I loan my cag to a client and we had a bit of an oopsie with the neck seal when it was being taken off. This happens loads of folks & and I know people panic and think it will cost a fortune to send it away to be fixed. With a little bit of concentration and less that 20mins you can have the job done and ready to rock and roll for full use 24hrs later.
Now to be fair I have done a bunch of these back in the days when I worked in an outdoor shop many many moons ago but its seems more daunting that it actually is. The folks in i-canoe hooked me up with a Kokatat neck seal repair kit which has everything you need to do the job, the seals come in two sizes so everyone is covered.
So a while back I did up a bit of a guide for one of Irelands best play spots Clifden on Irish Freestyle ao I thought I would stick it up here so it wouldn’t get lost in the depths of cyberspace. One of the reasons I did up this post was folks are always asking me the same questions…Where is it, how does it work, can you camp, where can you get good online tides. So I am going to stick up the relevant info and hopefully that will answer any questions, and with the lack of water and the good weather there is no better time to get over to one of Ireland’s premier playspots.
When does it work.
As Clifden is tidal it changes when it works, it works about two hours before Galway harbour high tide ,only Spring tides (full moon / new moon)which are twice every month. The tide has to be above 4.26 meters ( 14ft old money) but comes into its own 4.72 (15.5 ft ). So how that all comes together, look at the tide time table for spring tides and make sure thew are big enough.
Take two hours of the time in this case its 15:52 and get to Clifden and be on the water ready to enjoy yourself. Clifden is usually a pretty friendly place to paddle and great for paddlers of all abilities with swims not being a big deal as the saltwater lake it flows into is not dangerous and gear is easily recovered. What I will say there are a few 5.4 meter tides which while not particularly dangerous it’s not for the faint hearted. But still worth the trip for the more adventurous paddler.
So I thought I would do a little how to of some of the knots I reckon are good to have in your “skills tool box” as a white water kayaker. I know some people will say ah but sure I know all I need to at this stage but in my experience I have seen kayakers who I’m surprised managed to tie their shoe laces/board shorts yet alone set up any sort of rope system. I don’t just mean those who are new to kayaking but some folks who are very solid boaters paddling some of the pushier rivers around.
I have picked three simple knots which have loads of uses, for this little instalment I’m not going to go into scenarios but just stick with the straight forward how to tie them.
Welcome to my little part of the interweb, I know what you are thinking " Ah jayus..........not another fecking blog", sure bear with me and see how it goes.
I will be updating it nice and regular with photos/ stories / random banter & little "how to" guides. Stay tuned it might help you waste some time during the working day.
