Don’t do places to learn the basics of free style kayaking, but if they did they might start with somewhere like Kilkenny!
I’m sure most paddlers have heard of the river Nore which flows through Kilkenny City but I’d be fairly certain only a small few are aware of the little gem of a play spot that was created some years ago during the flood relief scheme.
To be clear this is no Curragower / Sluice / Clifden or Tuam but it is in my estimation one of the best places I’ve been to to introduce people to the the basics of freestyle kayaking.
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.
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 of you may know I am currently part of the Irish Freestyle Committee this year and part of our job is to help promote freestyle kayaking and help introduce new people to the sport. I decided to run a “river freestyle” training day on the river Boyne. Now to be honest the Boyne is far form a freestyle feature meca but there was just enough to allow us have a quality day on the river going over all sorts of things. Read the rest of this entry »
Where do we start, last weekend saw the kick off of the Irish Freestyle kayaking session with an event on the Curragower Falls in Limerick City. The run up to the event saw lots of people questioning the availability of water to make the wave work, but the ESB confirmed water for us early on Friday morning and we were all set to go. With 40 odd paddlers showing up all set to strut their on the wave which was running at near perfect level.
It was easy too see that the wave hasn’t been working regularly in the last few months as everyone seemed a little rusty at first but after the first runs blew the cobwebs off there were some impressive moves thrown down, including Pistol Flips, big fat blunts and donkey flips. Mark Leonard laying it down
The day its self was great the sun came out and some of us myself included caught a little too much sun. One of the highlights of the day was seeing the junior ladies & men and how much they are really setting a high standard for themselves, they are a credit to all those who have being coaching them.
The ladies expert class was quiet close and the standard only seems to be improving year on year and the there were some real nice smooth rides put down. Fran mid run
The day was run using the new ICF Rules which ment in the heats each paddler got 4 rides and their best two counted. I was decided before the event started that the finial results would be taken from the heats as time was tight and we were not certain of water for a second day to the event. Len mid Pistol flip
So after some nice rides and plenty of banter in the eddy and river bank the finial results stacked up as follows. Clicky here for full size version
As most of you know this event also served to select our team that will be heading to the Worlds Championships held in Thun at the end of August this year.
On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank all those who help make this a success. That includes the paddlers for travelling and making the event possible. The judges who gave up their day, a big mention to Killian Kelly and Ross Redmond who came just to help us judge and also to Caitriona O Brien who kept the time and things running smooth. Also to those whom are too many to mention who scribed and helped the judges out throughout the day.
Also a massive thanks and mention to the guys in the ESB who allocated us the water and without it the day would not have happened. Also cheers to the guys at the Curragower Falls bar who let us use their back room for prize giving.
I would also like to mention the shops which we when to purchases our prize vouchers off and they pretty much all made sure we left left with more than we paid for, thats allot guys.
Oh and in the the words of Jenny Kilbride thanks to those who said thanks.
The weekend just gone saw the passing of the squad selection event for this year’s ICF World Freestyle Championships. The plan was to hold the event on Curragower wave in Limerick City, and following a phone call from the ESB on Friday afternoon confirming the requested water levels for the weekend everything was green for go.
On Saturday morning almost 50 paddlers showed up to strut their stuff and gain a place on this year’s squad. Sadly we received a phone call from the ESB saying that due to near epic rain fall over the Shannon Basin that water was now flowing Ardnacrusha dam and they had to realise as much water as possible. This ment the Curragower wave would never form, however it did bring “little Gower” into play, the decision was made to wait until 14.00 to see what the suitability of “little Gower” for trials.
During this time phone calls were aplenty checking water levels and play spots around the country. As 14.00 arrived it was apparent that “little Gower” was not suitable for completion so the difficult decision was made to move the whole event to Tarmonbarry Wave, Only after receiving confirmed reports of epic water levels. This decision was received by the competitors far far better than was expected, as everyone understood that these were special circumstances. There were calls of last minute road trip and even reports of some people getting in some late evening practice that night.
As Sunday morning rolled around in Tarmonbarry it was a testament to the Freestyle community that we had almost 100% attendance from those who had showed up in Limerick the previous days. As the conditions were Baltic and the levels were very high it was decided that the Juniors did not have to compete but they were having none of it! The completion kicked off at 11.30 and confirmed Tarmonbarry as one of the premier play spots in Ireland.
On behalf of the committee I would like to say congratulations to those who have made the squad and all the competitors who supported this event and made it a success. A huge thanks has to all those who judged and scribed, without you these events are not possible. A pat on the back To Orky our Completions Officer who did very well despite this being his first big freestyle event to organise.
On a personal note a Huge shout out to the Junior ladies who braved the elements and stepped up to what is quite an intimidating feature that even some of or more seasoned Seniors were apprehensive about. Also to Rory “the kid” O Reilly who put down some rides that would have placed him in the Senior men squad.
Thanks again to all who took part, and here is looking forward to a successfully Worlds later in the year.
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.
Don’t do places to learn the basics of free style kayaking, but if they did they might start with somewhere like Kilkenny!
