With the Youth freestyle series officaly over for the year, We where able to look at the results and pick out some of the most promising youngsters to join us on a weekend of coaching in Nottingham.
We had planned to take the kids on the white water course but unfortunately a freak band of rain forced the course to close over the weekend … luckily however we had an alternate venue to use in the form of Newark Wier.
Newark is a completely unique wave and unlike anything the youth freestylers had surfed before, With a long steep ramp dropping down onto a shallow ledge, it creates an almost completely green wave that is really fast but also quite shallow.
The kids learnt a lot and we had a great time coaching them, I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing them progress over the coming years.
See you on the water,
Bren
All photos by Mike Mcpeak
The youth freestyle series finale took place this weekend at the white water course in nottingham,
Nearly 100 junior paddlers turn’t up to take part, The weather even cooperated with us at this event and a combination of sun, friends and great freestyle spots made for an awesome day for the junior boaters.
Check out the video of the day below.
See you next year,
Bren
Shortly after getting back from the european championships in Lienz,Austria, I got the chance to head to lee valley and take part in an event to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic flame at the official site for the london 2012 slalom event.
Lee Valley is host to by far one of the best white water courses I have ever paddled, long and continuous with some fairly large drops for a white water course, there is an abundant amount of play features however rescently the course has been fine tuned to fit the slalomists needs and the play features weren’t quite dialled in to what they could be, but were still great fun.
We were paired up and assigned a feature to play in, myself and Dan Chamlet spent most of our time in the hole under the bridge, whilst Josh Wedgwood and Sam Stephenson went to the bottom of the course where a fairly powerfull and sticky hole forms with a small green wave just behind it, We had a great time, with no pressure, as our only instructions where to have fun and look happy. Some big moves were pulled, lots of wipe outs where had, from hitting the bottom of the course and stalling out on loops and some downriver moves where hit along the way, it seemed to go down fairly well with the crowd .
We where mainly filling in the gaps whilst the Gb raft team carrying the Olympic flame made their way back up to the top of the course, Despite valiant efforts by Zack Franklin and the raft team to keep the torch dry, the continuous Lee valley white water course took it’s toll and eventually extinguished the flame, Luckily someone had foresaw that this was quite a likely scenario and a back up flame was nearby to relight it.
The torch then continued on to Newport carried by Jamie Oliver,
Check out the video of Day here : http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/video/video=torch-relay-day50.html
A huge thanks to Colin Woodgate and the organisers/participants,
See you on the water,
Bren
Day 2 of the european championships saw the senior men and junior ladies stepping up for their first rides of the event.
The junior ladies was typically closely fought and some impressive rides were thrown down by the girls in this powerful hole. Jen Mcgally and Kim Aldred from Gbr both made it through to the next round of the competition and Nuria fontanne messo from spain managed to put some fear in the junior boys with some huge space godzillas.
During the mens prelims tensions are always high, with both rides counting there is little room for error, a mistake here will cost you dearly and could potentially stop you from advancing to the next round.
Palms James Bebbington managed to lay down some great rides and secure his place in the next round along with the other members of the Gbr senior team, James Weight, Andy Brinkley and Alan Ward – unfortunately Gav Barker, who has been battling an injury for the past few days did not quite make the cut,
The cut for the senior men is filled with some of the top paddlers in the world and it’s going to make for an awesome few days spectating.
Unfortunately due to problems with the internet here, I can’t upload todays pictures, but will make sure I get them up tomorrow after my rides 
See you on the water,
Bren
The second event in the Youth freestyle series took us the the Nene whitewater course, in Northampton .
The nene is possibly the smallest course we have in the u.k running on just 2-3 cumecs it funnels it’s way down a series of small ledge holes untill it hits a wooden ramp and the excitement really begins – Pool A consists of a reasonably big pour over and whilst not being famed for it’s freestyle prowess it does dish out a fair few beatings in between moves – great fun to watch.
The event followed the usual Youth freestyle format of some chilled out coaching in the morning, followed by a competition in the afternoon. However due to the weather/easy to swim course/coaches and parents wanting to cool down – the Nene is also host to a search and rescue ball game, a team of 5 kids has to rescue the balls that are being recirculated in the pour over.
The results for the Nene can be found here - http://www.youthfreestyle.co.uk/attachments/article/44/Nene%20Club%20Results%202012b.pdf
Check out the video below,
See you on the water,
Bren
The Youth Freestyle series has officially begun !
The first event saw a huge crowd of junior paddlers head to the river Dee in North Wales,
The river Dee has always been one of my favourite places to paddle, it’s home to some of the best playspots in the u.k at the right levels, has a couple of well known rapids and above all has a really chilled out atmosphere, I was really glad that the Youth Freestyle series returned to the Dee this year so that the younger paddlers could experience this stretch of river,
We were blessed with a nice medium level which easily facilitated high scoring rides but at the same time wasn’t to pushy for the beginners, However despite the organisers best efforts to organise warm sunny weather, the typical welsh weather shone through with heavy showers and low temperatures – luckily for us the juniors that attend these events are really enthusiastic about everything related to freestyle kayaking and weren’t to put off by the weather – the same couldn’t quite be said about Pringle who only returned back to the u.k from uganda the previous day.
The juniors were all split into groups and got the opportunity to be coached by some of the top paddlers in the u.k. Big smiles, new moves and huge wipe out’s where had by all !
With all of the paddlers having had their opportunity to get used to the features and gain a few tips from the coaches it was time to begin the competition – due to the temperature it was decided to run the competition in a jam style format to keep the participants a bit warmer, due to this format paddlers got multiple rides and were a lot more willing to go for bigger, more complicated maneuvers. This year the sponsored and GBR team members were separated into their own categories, to make it a bit more interesting the organisers decided to pit us all against Pringle to try and score the same or even better his ride …
The results for the event can be seen here :
http://www.youthfreestyle.co.uk/attachments/article/41/Llangollen%20Results%202012a.pdf
A huge thank you to all the juniors that took part, the coaches/Organisers and the sponsors of the Youth Freestyle Series !
And also Brother Photography for letting me use their images !
For more information check out - http://www.youthfreestyle.co.uk/
See you on the water,
Bren
The first ever Gladiator of the Sluice competition took place this past weekend at the National water sports centre in nottingham,the competiotn brought together a wide range of paddlers from various parts of the country.
The event was run in the evening with prelims in the fading light of dusk and finals in complete darkness – fortunately lit by “rainbow daves” strobe lights, lasers, snow and fog machines.
It was by far one of the best competitions I have taken part in and am thoroughly looking forward to the next one !
Photos by Matt Rodgers
Check out the video below
See you on the water,
Bren
Uganda was one of those far off destinations that captured my imagination from an early age, with warm water, big rapids and awesome play waves, it truly is the perfect way to escape the cold (and dry) British winter.
The video of my trip is below – Look out for Pring and Katya’s video from their trip !
See you on the water,
Bren
