The fuse came into Palms line up a few years ago and from the beginning was a clear favorite with freestyler paddlers throughout the world.
Clean cut, manufactured in conjunction with the Glideskin gasket seal and latex wrist seals to provide total dryness and level of comfort that is unmatched and available in two bold colors
The cut of this dry top is perfect for high performance movements, Just enough extra material to allow you to move un inhibited, whilst still stopping you from looking like your dry top is a hand me down from a far bigger sibling.
Many people have doubted the Glideskin neck seal since it’s arrival in the Palm line up a few years ago, However all users of this type of seal have been converted to the comfort and simplicity that it offers. In the past Freestyle kayaking in salt water with a latex seal has always been brutal on my neck and produced pretty horrible abrasions, these are a thing of the past with my new set up in the fuse dry top.
Wrist seals, Nothing new here, latex under seal to provide dryness and neoprene outer seal to protect the latex and provide additional dryness, I like the fact that there are no adjustable tabs to come un velcroed when kayaking and that once again simplicity wins.
The waist tunnel features a double seal with a light weight lyrca material as the under layer to further promote freedom of movement and comfort. Velcro adjustment tabs allow you to fasten the otter layer in place and complete a dry seal between you and the spray deck.
I have been using this dry top almost everyday for the past 2 years and couldn’t be happier with it.
It is exactly 21 days until the 2013 World Championships begins.
I arrived a few days ago and have been rapidly getting my freestyle mojo back.
The hole isn’t by any means the most spectacular feature, but it offers up every trick in the book and almost any combo you can think of.
The competition is going to be fierce with the usual big names on top of their game and serval up and comers looking set to dominate.
We have plenty of time to polish of individual moves/ rides before the event begins but the line up is going to be stacked after the next week.
Currently I am training 3 times a day and fighting the temptation to go run the Green. However, the Demshitz boys roll into town on thursday which will make it even harder to stay off the creeks and stick it out in the line up …
With the American freestyle circuit over it was time to step back from meticulously practicing rides in small features, strap on our manly dangly parts and head to Washington.
This was my first time on a creek boating mission and I was lucky enough to be travelling with a sick crew. The Demshitz boys have been running some of the best runs in the states for years.
We had a sick trip firing of a couple of sweet drops such as Log Choke, Silver falls, Exit and Hamma Hamma.
I learn’t lots quickly with the boys, had a pretty bad crash on my first attempt at Hamma Hamma but nailed it on my second attempt, Huge thanks to Dave Fusilli for saving my ass on the first attempt, Footage coming soon.
After 6 weeks of solid creek boating it was time to wind down and head to Outdoor Retailer, The show has one more day to go before I head out to North Carolina to practice for the upcoming world championships.
Situated in Egmont,Bc. Skookumcuck is a series of tidal rapids that form on certain tides to produce what is probably the glassiest wave in the world. It’s been my dream from an early age to surf skook and this year I finally got the chance.
The waves form when the tide flows rapidly over a seemingly flat piece of water, as both the water speed and volume of water increase a reef is revealed and the wave starts to form. The first wave is the main event but much fun can be had wrestling with the boils, whirlpools and crashing waves downstream.
I’ve been working hard to progress my wave freestyle over the past few years. Check out the video I made of me and the Demshitz boys throwing down in Canada.
I have never paddled a wave that is as smooth or as nice and can’t wait to head back.
This winter I made my annual pilgrimage to Africa to surf some of the biggest and best waves in the world.
As always I had an awesome time and you can see some of the footage from my trip in the FX promo video below. Unfortunately in my infinite wisdom in deciding to save my money and not buy anti malarial tablets, I unfortunately caught Malaria, collapsed and broke my hand. This weigh laid me a bit with my progression in kayaking as I couldn’t get out on the water or train properly, So with thanks from a friend I cut short my trip to Africa and flew back to the Uk to get fixed up
It was a pretty miserable time, England was covered in snow, I couldn’t paddle due to my hand and selection was fast approaching.
Anyway long story short, my hand healed, selection was postponed, I made the team in the first available position and will be competing at the World championships later this year.
Selection is always a hard time for me as I have to back of on performing combos and focus on strict run plans. Luckily this only fuels my desire to create new moves afterwards, here’s a couple of moves I’ve been working on.
Competition, it’s a strange beast – it has the potential to allow you to perform at a higher level and achieve you’re “dream ride” or perform far worse than you normally would. All the while magnifying you’re emotions to a state where sometimes it’s hard to breathe before you’re rides. According to a couple of people, competition gets easier with time…. Personally I disagree; it becomes less and less about achieving and far more about not failing.
I became severely bogged down with this mentality of not failing over the past few years. To the point of throwing up before competition rides, not wanting my family to come and watch me and struggling to sleep the nights leading up to the event. Winning the European championships released me from this mindset, I’ve proved I’m a good boater and now I feel free to do my own thing and paddle the way I want to. My paddling has increased dramatically since winning the euros and I’m happy with what I’ve achieved, but far from content.
My name has been thrown around by a fair few people as a contender to be world champion this year, which is flattering but to be completely honest it has no effect on me, Being World Champion would be an amazing experience and it would be a great way to repay my sponsors, friends and family for their support over the past few years but measuring myself against other people is not what I’m about. I would much rather be remembered as the guy that came along and threw down the best ride ever seen in a competition, as opposed to being the guy that beat everyone else.
This is the beginning of my journey towards “The dream ride”. To performing the highest scoring, most fluid competition ride possible.
The first ever Younguns event took place on the Tryweryn this past weekend,
Taking up where the youth freestyle series left off, Younguns still maintains the original elements from the series; An extraordinary amount of young paddlers getting out on the water and having fun !
The Tryweryn is the longest venue the tour visits with an abundance of rapids and small features it allows the junior rippers to get a good experience of river running and down river moves.
The competition took place in the renowned “worlds hole” above the chipper. A deep but flushy hole proved to be both fun and challenging for the kids, some big moves where thrown, some flushes where had but all the competitors finished with a smile on their face.
The Palm Spark Suit and why it’s by far my favorite piece of kit.
Just a few short months ago when Palms idea for a new performance orientated dry suit specifically aimed at Freestyle Paddlers first emerged onto the public domain, it was thought to be a huge mistake, mainly due to the lack of latex seals on the ankle and neck gaskets. However over the past winter it has proved itself to be one of the most ground-breaking pieces of kit ever sold.
Over the past few years I have unfortunately collected a reputation as a professional destroyer of kit, however I would like to point out this is not necessarily through misuse but much more to do with overuse of my kit. This is the first dry suit I have ever owned, I’ve tried several over the past few years and have never found one that allowed me enough range of movement, which is why this suit piqued my interest but I must admit I too was completely skeptical as too how this “semi” dry suit would fair.
Predominately being a freestyle kayaker I inevitably spend most of my time immersed in water and as such have always wondered why manufacturers choose to place semi dry seals on kit aimed at freestyle paddlers, I’ve used semi dry seals in the past and have always found that despite being very comfortable they are completely and utterly useless at keeping the user dry.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when I came to use the glide skin gaskets that Palm have used, For the first time in using a non latex I actually felt the glide skin gasket form a good seal against my neck, It proved to be truly exceptional at keeping me dry and despite being used twice a day everyday for the past 8 months it still maintains it’s elasticity. It’s far more comfortable than a latex and just as dry, the fact that it doesn’t degrade over time has made me a full convert to the glide skin revolution.
I feel the cut of Palms’ garments has improved drastically over the past year with the new range of kit. And just as with other products throughout the Palm range this suit does not disappoint. A clean cut provides a full range of movement without having excess material flapping around allowing for the most dynamic of freestyle moves to be thrown. The material is reasonably light whilst still maintaining a positive feel that re-assures you that it’s a piece of kit that will be with you for a long time. The zip is hardly noticeable and an added bonus for those that have a slight degree of flexibility, it can be zipped up and down by oneself … who needs friends ?
I haven’t spent a vast amount of time swimming in this suit but when I did I found the neoprene ankle seals to work surprisingly well, provided they where pulled further up the leg, The suit is also available with optional socks which could be worth a look at if you are going to be spending an added amount of time in the water.
Overall I couldn’t be happier with my spark suit. It’s one of the few pieces of kit that has truly stood the test of time with my paddling tendencies and my only hope is that Palm continue their trend for bright colors and add some additional color choices to the spark suit range. Cough Harlequin Cough.
My predetermined winter boating destination for the past 3 years. A chance to kayak on some of the best white water in the world, forget about the stress of competitions and live cheaply and happily ad mist happy locals and passionate freestylers.
This trip I was able to polish of some of the wave tricks i’ve been working on, run all of the rapids on the river, catch up with some old friends and as is always the way on the Nile, Make some new friends.
Due to tight funds, I elected to stay in the village with a couple of friends, Martin Koll, Tom Dunphy and Paul Lydon where awesome company and it was a pleasure to boat every day with them, however my favourite person by far was a Russian dude called Vanya, who took life really lightly, entertained us numerous times with broken english and hand gestures and was generally an awesome guy to hang round with.
Life in the village is perfection for me, wake up early, go paddle club wave, come back chill and then head out to Special. The days just melt away and blend into one. The concept of time doesn’t exist, if the waves where in it was time to boat and if not, then it was time to relax.
I had a great time but I think now it’s time to move on from Uganda and find a new destination for big water freestyle paddling, rumours of monsoon boating in Nepal and countries such as Venezuela/China are exiting me and I hope I can get my stuff together this year and take a trip out to see what I can find.
Unfortunately due to a bad case of Malaria and a broken hand I wasn’t able to get enough footage to make a full length video but I will hopefully post up a short collection of the moves we captured on camera over the next few days.
