With the big melt in Val Sesia coming to a head, I flew out to join Nick Horwood for some freeriding fun!
With levels at a premium it was a fine chance to experiment on some world class features.
A great start to the summer season, fantastic weather, great food and friends. Whatever you’re up to this Summer, remember to play that river hard!
Luke F
This September, Palm Paddlers Chris Eastabrook and Tom Parker, along with Rich Brooks and Dave Hollin are heading off to Tajikistan in search of whitewater adventure (the original plan was Tibet, but the Chinese government wanted all the tea…) Follow their progress at shadowofsonomi.wordpress.com as they tackle some of the most remote rivers in the former USSR…
Between June 2nd and June 8th 2010 Dave Cornthwaite and Sarah Outen will take to the water and Stand Up Paddle between Bath and London, a distance of 150 miles. The two are not strangers to this sort of journey, last year Sarah rowed over 4000 miles across the Indian Ocean, and in April 2011 will begin a global circumnavigation from London to London, Via the World! Dave had paddled the length of Australia’s longest river and in 2006 he broke the world record for skateboarding further than anyone else, ever! He’s also planning a world distance record on a Stand Up Paddleboard in 2011.
The pair’s journey will start at Bath’s Top Lock at 10am on Wednesday 2nd June, following the length of the Kennet & Avon canal via Devizes, Pewsey, Hungerford and Reading, before paddling onto the Thames and making their way to London. They will finish at lunchtime by paddling underneath Tower Bridge.
Commuting to work along the Kennet & Avon Canal
We’d like to invite members of your club to join Sarah and Dave for a stretch of their journey as we pass through your neighbourhood. You could paddle in canoes, kayaks or on Stand Up Paddleboards, or even walk, run or cycle alongside. We’d like everyone joining us to help us raise some funds for our charities.
Dave and Sarah are big supporters of The Blue Mile project. A Blue Mile is a mile travelled on or by the water. If each paddler aims to raise £10 per Blue Mile paddled with Dave and Sarah this would be absolutely wonderful. We are aiming for a total of 1000 Blue Miles and if we achieve our target, this will mean we’ve raised at least £7000 for our charities, which would be amazing!
All donations and sponsorships should be donated online at www.justgiving.com/greatbigpaddle
Finally, Dave and Sarah will be supported by a small and very fun team who will be making a documentary and taking photos of the event. We’d love to hold fundraising events each evening and if you’d be interested in organising one, please take a look at the schedule on www.thegreatbigpaddle.com and get in touch. We’re also organising where can stay each evening, so any help with this would be greatly appreciated!
This event is all about getting people on the water and promoting exercise, water sports and a passion for the environment, so the more people who take part, the better!
We hope you can be involved, and look forward to hearing back from you.
Best wishes
The Bath2London 2010 Team
Email: hello@thegreatbigpaddle.com
Tel: 07872 986084
For full details of the event, please visit www.thegreatbigpaddle.com
To find out more about Sarah, visit www.sarahouten.co.uk
And to learn more about Dave, visit www.davecornthwaite.co.uk
Along with a friend, Sebastian Terry (who happens to be ticking off a bucket list of 100 things before he dies) I spent a couple of days in late April Stand Up Paddleboarding across Lake Geneva.
Last year I paddled from Source to Sea along Australia’s Murray River and along with Seb am now planning a much longer journey on Stand Up Boards, so the Lake Geneva Crossing was basically a warm-up!
So, without further ado, here are the four parts of a short documentary about the trip. If this doesn’t give you an itch to go Stand Up Paddleboarding, nothing will! Check 0ut www.thegreatbigpaddle.com for more tales of my paddling adventures.
Episode 1
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9KDehTlcE
Episode 2
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzXjDF1ZbsA
Hey there guys,
My name’s Finn and I’m pretty new to the palm team and blog, I’m 18 and an enthusiastic paddler. I pretty much like to make videos of myself and others boating and for the most part have a great time doing it! This is my first post here which is really cool, I’ll be posting up every time I make a new flick or when I’ve got pictures and words…
Below is a little video I shot and edited of my trip to the White Nile last year with my good buddy Hugh Graham. We spent six weeks paddling, partying and generally having a good time on the banks of one of the finest rivers in the world. This video is the sole product of that trip… time well spent for sure.
I hope you all enjoy it!
Video – Freestyle Kayaking on The White Nile.
Take it easy and all the best,
Finn Burrows
Moving on with the techniques, the boof is a skill which can open up a new level of white water. If it isn’t new to you, then a bit of time brushing up won’t be wasted!
Prerequisites
Being comfortable on grade 3 white water, with confident and effective use of strokes and body positioning to make your way smoothly down rapids. Although you don’t tend to need a boof to paddle grade 3, there’s often a little ledge around to practice on and get the timing right before you move to grade 4 where technical manoeuvres are more essential and mistakes are more severe. The final and regularly overlooked prerequisite is outfitting, you need to make sure you fit snugly in your creek boat with plenty of comfortable contact on your footrest, thigh grips and hip pads!
Positioning
First of all, with ledges, which require a boof, it’s best to have a think about positioning. I rarely boof a drop directly in the middle but instead always aim to boof at the edges, generally because this is where the hole that waits below will be weakest. In the case of angled ledges my general rule is to boof on the side furthest downstream as this will also be the weakest and quickest exit from the hole.
Boofing on the side of the ledge furthest downstream in case of any mishaps!
Timing
Before you charge at a ledge in hope that speed will save you, think about your timing. A good boof requires finesse, not a flurry of brute force and ignorance! Think about your strokes leading up to the ledge so you can make sure you’re ready with the placement of a long powerful stroke at your toes when you reach the lip of the ledge.
Body positioning through the stroke
The stroke planted at your toes puts you in a forward, aggressive body position. That’s good, as while your blade is the power, your body is the leverage to lift the bow and in it’s forward position, is wound up ready to ping back and lift!
Leant forward waiting for the right moment.
As you pull the stroke through keep it close to the side of your boat, to avoid doing a powerful sweep stroke and landing sideways in the hole – a common mistake. The stroke has to be long, to see you over and past the hole. Stopping the stroke short is also a regular mistake, leaving you motionless and with no leverage or power in a nosedive!
Torso moving back with the stroke and legs following to pull the bow up.
As the stroke goes through, your torso position starts moving back, beginning to lift the bow. As you feel your body going through it’s central position pull on your knees as if pulling them into your chest. This uses your thighs and core muscles to powerfully lift the bow better than any amount of speed or paddle power could.
Long stroke holding the line and angle.
Follow through
Having a well timed, long stroke is vital, not only to aiding body positioning and power but also in the follow through. If your boof stroke was long, then your opposite blade will be forward ready to be planted for a powerful stroke away from the ledge. This is very good practice and has certainly spared me a few beatings when it hasn’t gone to plan.
Left blade forward ready in case it’s needed.
In a nut shell
See you on the water… surf is epic in Cornwall at the mo!
Ed
After months of preparation and hard work The Big Paddle finally arrived, and we’re glad to say was a huge success!
People flocked from all over the UK and further afield to come and join us for paddling and fun at the beautiful Symond’s Yat on the river Wye.
There was lots to see and do, and fun was had by all, from Masterclasses and ‘have a go’ sessions, to Guided Nature tours, and of course Saturday evening’s party. A huge number of people got out on the water in all manner of craft, from first timers to seasoned veterans, to enjoy and celebrate paddling in one of the UK’s most beautiful locations.
The event also saw the return of the chaotic and hugely entertaining Cardbard Canoe World Championships, which involved a hard fought race between several of the paddling industry’s leading manufacturers. Naturally Dagger Europe’s chief engineer Bob Slee came out on top, leaving the competition soggy and sunk.
A huge thank you goes out to everybody who came along and got involved, and also to everbody who worked tirelessly to make the event such a success, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Here are some pictures from the event, thanks to Paul Wilkinson. Enjoy!
Click on a picture to see the full image.
If you made it to the event then please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you thought!
