Dan Butler on the slidey combo drop, Rio Castro. Pic: Adam D.
Catching it on film. Tom Parker behind the camera as Chris Eastabrook whizzes past. Pic: Adam D.
Adam Dumolo dropping in. Rio Castro. Pic: Pete Firth.
Tom Parker running the ‘advisable to boof’ first drop of the famous triple combo on the Rio Castro. Pic: Adam D.
Myself, Niamh Stack, Dave Hollins and Fran Kohn are two weeks in to our month here in Colombia. We’ve been stunned by how beautiful it is: dramatic moutains covered in thick, lush jungles and huge canyons… a landscape that makes for some very committing sections of river!
So far we’ve paddled some amazing white water, including the big volume Suarez that really got the heart racing and the stunning multiday canyon of the Chicamocha. But the big story so far has been how one river that should have taken us 3 hours ended up taking 4 days – including two gruelling hikes out through the jungle in the dark! (read more about this epic on our trip blog)
The new Mamba is treating me very well and fitted all my multi-day gear plus camera gear in the back no worries. And it handles really well both with and without kit. Its really hot here so my Zenith shortie cag is probably my favourite new piece of kit as it doesn’t let water into my boat but also keeps me cool. That said, with all the jungle hiking we’ve been doing I’ve been pretty glad of how sturdy my Gradient boots are too… you can never underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle 
Surfing a big wave on the Suarez in the Mamba
Getting from one place to another has been an adventure in itself as we are hiring 4x4s and trucks of all shapes and sizes for our shuttles and have been squeezing our kayaks into the luggage compartments of buses for transit between regions.
We spent the past 2 days on buses to reach Villavicencio and paddled a really pretty canyon on the Guayariba today. In the next couple of days we’ll be heading out into the hills to paddle a river that requires hiking for 3 hours, but this time we’ll have mules to carry our kayaks! Pretty excited about that!
Until next time, adios!
So me and Palm’s Bren Orton just finished making the Wrap Up Video of our time putting on the Kayak Display at the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show and all that was on during the show.
Our display was on for 15 minutes twice a day so this gave us plenty time to run around the show in-between demo’s to find all the activities you could try and cause a bit of chaos amongst the Yachting crowd 
It’s amazing what people will let you do when you have a Camera in hand.
Filmed by: James Bebbington, Bren Orton & David Bain
Edit by: James Bebbington RiverZoo.com
happy paddling,
Pringle
Last summer my buddy Palm’s junior ripper Bren Orton had the idea to shoot a little vid on Tryweryn, This was the first session we had on the Top Hole there.
For those who don’t know Tryweryn, it’s a fun dam released river, near Bala in North Wales. I started out kayaking on this river and did my 1st flat spins and cartwheels here.
It’s often over looked for play boating but is actually an awesome little river that’s fun to run down and has some sick little waves and holes surrounded by green lush, welsh countryside.
Thanks to Bren for the sweet clip!
More from the boat show soon,
Pringle
This last week we’ve been paddling hard on flatwater….It is for good reason though We’re at the London Boatshow at the Excel Centre.
Myself, Bren Orton, Claire O’hara, Mallory Franklin, Anton Lippek, & David Bain are putting on twice daily shows of freestyle & slalom on the watersports pool commentated by Ed Smith & Christian Stevenson along with our little video clips on the big screen.
Pretty weird surrounded by all these big yachts to be in a 1m deep pool showing off freestyle!
This year we don’t get to use the ramps & cable tow set up like last year but we have been doing daily talks on whitewater, freestyle & slalom to give the visitors the opportunity to fins out more on our sport, how they can get started and where it could take them.
Here is a clip from last years show by Bren:-
With 4 days left of the show we’re putting together some video interviews & other bits to check out daily, yesterday we shot Bren’s one, hold out until the end to see the outakes….
If you want to check out the display we’re on at 12:15 & 15:00 daily until the show finishes on Sunday 15th of Jan.
Anyway enough talking, here are some photos from around the show and a walk around Londons sights.
Pringle
Do you know what the ISO test is? How is fabric waterproofness measured? Is breathability in paddling gear really relevant. Will Kevlar® socks really stop a bullet? These questions and more will get answered at the end of January when we bring our head designer Barney Caulfield to the inaugural Gene 17 River Source Symposium.
He’ll be fresh off the back of Palm’s annual design week and no doubt buzzing with new ideas from planning our ranges for 2013, 2014 and beyond. So what better chance to get a unique glimpse into how Palm go about the whole process from product concept to manufacture – oh and its free, yes FREE!
But it’s not just about us showing off how we make stuff – although we’ll have a load of new gear on show Making the right kit choices can massively increase the enjoyment and success of you or your groups days out. Barney will be guiding from inside out so you understand how to get the most from your paddling gear and how to choose the right stuff.
Its a unique opportunity, but you’ll need to book so for a place on Barney’s gear seminar go here.
To start with a little background, here’s Barney at last years Kanumesse talking about the revolutionary new Spark suit
Palm’s New ‘SPARK’ suit – coming Spring 2012 from James Bebbington on Vimeo.
At the tail end of 2011 Welsh kayak anglers Andrew Williams and Gareth Bowen took themsleves north, to Scotland, in search of Skate…… looks like the Aleutain suits were needed in that cold weather.
We had awful weather for the week and only managed to get out onto the Skate grounds for two sessions , each lasting no longer than 3-4 hours.
I reckon I had a bait on the bottom for 2 hours tops but still managed two skate , one of 40lb the other 90lb. The pics of the 90lb fish are poor quality as they are stills taken from a video. Gareth was using my camera and was unfamiliar with it , he thought he was taking stills but was actually just focussing the camera, we sorted this by the second session which is when I had the smaller fish.
I was the only angler who caught any skate , Gareth did hook into a monster which he played for 50 minutes before his line snapped – gutted .
As the target weight of 100lb plus was not reached , I am going back at the end of March for another crack at them , along with Gareth and a few other kayak anglers.
We’ll be keeping track of progress on this as well as more reports on the kayak fishing scene and possibly some event news.
2012 is getting off to an exiting start for myself, Fran Kohn, Dave Hollins and Niamh Stack as we are just about to set off for a month of boating in Colombia.
Bags packed and ready to go…
I’m taking the new Mamba 8.1 on this trip which I’m really excited about because it seems to handle really well both with lightweight day kit and a full boat for multi-day adventures. We have a long list of rivers we’d like to get done: some of which may involve jungle hikes and sleeping in hammocks or bivis. We can’t wait!
I’ll be updating the Palm blog as often as is possible on these kinds of trips, so stay tuned and I hope to bring you tales and photos from our adventures!
