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 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.
As some of you might know I am a member of the Irish Freestyle Committee and that our National Team are in preparations for the upcoming World Freestyle Championships In Thun Switzerland later in the Summer. RTE’s magazine program Nationwide decided to do a a small piece on the Freestyle Team and Freestyle kayaking as a whole, this was a bit of honour for us as we are the only sport/ discipline to get covered twice.
As this was Filmed at relative short notice and that the team are currently spread from Uganda to the Ottawa I drafted in some help form friends / Sluice locals and those of the national team that were in striking distance of Dublin.
Fellow team i-canoe member James VdB took some shots on the day
The piece aired on Irish National last Friday evening to approx 500,000 + and was received well among both the paddling / non-paddling community. My only regrets are that there was not some more kayaking shown as a few of the guys managed to go huge on the evening but this wasn’t shown, there were also a couple of more interviews shot too which didn’t get aired ( one of which included the single best “why do you kayak” answers I have ever heard ).
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 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 »
So a couple of weeks ago I made what could only be described a an armature mistake when out paddling, just before the get one of our group ask if they could borrow my river knife to cut some foam. So I took it out of my pocket and unclipped the lanyard it was attached to, they when I got it back I just stuffed it into my PFD pocket and was on my way. Fast forward a short while later I jumped out on the bank to set up some rescue, and when taking a sling out of my PFD pocket my knife flew out in what seemed like a comedy slow motion and straight into the river, where it now resides permanently.
The knife I had I was pretty fond of I had bought it while working in France a few years back, I had a spare Peak UK river knife but I just never liked it! So I dropped into the folks at i-canoe to check out what they had in stock and catch up with the lads. They stock NRS kit which I have always thought was well designed & put together right. The first choice was do I go for a sheath knife or a folding type which I have always favoured.
The 3 models to choose from were the Wingman / Pilot / Co-pilot, I whipped them all out of their boxes and took some photos to help you get a better idea of their scale.
The Co-Pilot is by far the nicest of any of the sheath knives that I have come across, its compact but just the right size while never feeling bulky. If you are the like the Idea of having a knife on the outside of your PFD this is the bit of kit for you, the sheath clips perfectly into lash tabs that are on most rescue vests. Read the rest of this entry »
So along with this months water I also took delivery of 2009 Full Cut Rocker, delivered in person by i-canoe owner Mr Colm Healy. I have to say my first impressions is that it was very yellow or as Sweet have decided to call it Rescue Yellow. Having had the previous model for quiet some time and being very happy with it, I was pleased to see that Sweet have refined the design a little more and added some nice little touches that are a real improvement. I will crack out the camera and do a bit of a comparison review in the next few weeks.
After nearly 3 months of solid boating I am super impressed!
I have been using Peak UK kit now for a numbe of years so when I decided to up grade early this year I was always going to lean more towards Peak UK over other manfacturers.
For a long time now Peak UK kit has always looked a little on the basic when compaired with some of the offerings from Palm and other such makers that come with all the “bells and whistles”. This time round Peak have not decided to play sheep and make a dry top that is just a copy of what everone elso has on the market. They went away and came back with what I think is the best engineered “creek” dry top available on the market today! I realise that is a bold statement but I honestly think it’s true.
I bought this dry top, sight onseen but I knew from the previous Peak stuff I had before and that this was there top of the range offering I wouldn’t be going too far wrong.
The material (X4) is bomber, from the first time you feel it and wear it on the water you will know just what I mean by saying this. The fit and finish of the top is just what you would expect from any manfacture who are selling kit at this price. You can feel the quality of the garment the monent you pick it up.
The cut of the top feels just right, when you are boating no matter what kind of position you twist yourself into it never feels restrictive at all.
Most important it does what it is ment to do it is 100% dry and breathable!!!! This is a piece of kit I can see lasting the average weekend paddler for years and years to come! It just feels solid.
I would say this is prob the best bit of kit I have ever owned.
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.
