Another year spent ringing in the New Year in county Kerry, and further confirmation that it must be one of the greatest places to be for a paddler at that time of year. Almost every university kayaking club in Ireland makes the journey south to Ireland’s Kingdom for a week of paddling and shenanigans. These University boaters are joined by a host of other paddlers from around Ireland to create a festival atmosphere. For those in the UK, think of a week long NSR but with creek boating and nice accommodation. UK Resident boaters James Smith, Dan Rea-Dickens and Louise Fingleton decided to see what the hype was all about this year and needless to say they were not disappointed.
Dan Rea-Dickens loving his first time boating in Ireland
Kerry and Cork has the highest mountains in Ireland so the area naturally produces some of the best creeking Ireland has to offer. Tough rivers like the Flesk and Gaddagh keep the advanced boaters happy but there are many easier rivers for any level of paddler to enjoy. If we get a completely dry week which has not happened for a number of years, Kerry hosts some of the best surf beaches in Ireland.
Kerry became altogether too much for James. Here he is showing off the comfort of his Palm kit. Photo by David Glasswell.
A couple hundred boaters congregate on a small town by the name of Glenbeigh and rent houses here, the reason for this is that it is within walking distance of the legendary Ross Inn pub. A premises with seemingly bottomless leniency to the antics of whitewater paddlers. The nightly walks there with everybody in high spirits seem like a pilgrimage to a sacred place. You really just have to experience it for yourself.
Picking a line through the gates of the Flesk
This year it was decided by myself and the rest of the Irish Whitewater Race League organizers that we would incorporate the Colm Johnson Memorial Flesk Extreme Race into the Kerry New Years Festival. This is the hardest and most exclusive race in the League. We spent days checking and rechecking forecasts hoping that we would be able to run the event. The rain absolutely pounded down the night before flooding the whole region and a nice large gathering was found at the put in of the river in the morning. The problem was now was that the river had rocketed too high to safely run the full race. We instead ran a shorter version on a very fun section at the start. Here are the results:
Needless to say, after the race concluded we had a awesome run down the full river at a big and bouncy level! Special mention to 16 year old Robert Kierans who ran it for the first time and styled everything!
Muireann Lynch digging deep while navigating this difficult section of whitewater
Besides the river Flesk there are many other classic rivers in the region to get done and we were fortunate to paddle with the Kerry river Guru that is David Glasswell. Here is a photo taken by Dan Rea-Dickens of the main falls of the Owengar River.
Since returning to my hometown of Galway I was also recently able to check out a freestyle feature on our home run the Boluisce River. It has not been working very frequently in past years but we were shocked by how good of a feature it actually is! The focus lately has been predominantly on freestyle as Irish Team Trials are scheduled to take place in the next 10 days, some great athletes will be there this year and it should be a great competition.
Top Hole on the Boluisce River
Well that’s all for now, thanks to Palm as always for keeping me warm and comfortable in the cold waters.
No need to edit this to make it look fun! Blast down the Caher river on the West coast of Ireland, choose you own music if you don’t like the raw sound of the wind. Thank you Palm as always for keeping me warm, dry and comfortable.
Yes, I know World Championships were months ago, apologies but I feel its worth mentioning some things, especially now that I have had plenty of time to reflect on the experience as a whole. I have not represented Ireland in any other sports before so this was a unique and really cool experience for me. I believe in the old proverb that pictures (with captions :)) tell a thousand words. So after you scroll through my favourite photos that summarise our trip maybe you’ll be ready to read some more ramblings about what the World Championships are really about and who made it all possible for us. (Photos predominantly by David O’Sullivan and Barry Loughnane)
I started my trip at my home away from home, RiverRun Rafting in the Ottawa Valley
Clay, Coach Dave and Flo-Dog made fantastic travel buddies for the long journey south
Although I did have a favourite…
Highways cut through the stunning scenery of North Carolina, not what we were expecting from south-eastern USA
Arriving at the NOC and deciding to take the cheap option a little way off the beaten track…
Fun times! food always tastes better from an open fire!
Team mates begin to arrive and the local culture is sampled…
Very well sampled…
Oh wait we did lots of training too :)
Shane Little KJM loving his new Palm gear! Coach Dave was always on hand to give us video feedback during our training sessions. Legend!
Patriotism for the flag grew stronger as the competition day advanced
We found ways to relax in the days before the competition, it wasn’t hard in paradise!
Opening Ceremony was a blast! The whole town of Bryson turned out to see us march!
We even had a team mascot! Team GB and Palm paddler Bren Orton
Training was heating up and we kept each other focused on hitting the rides we had visualized in our heads
Competition day, there was a real togetherness within this group and you could feel that everybody on the team even though they were your competitors, wanted you to do really well. We supported each other shamelessly
Staying focused for my rides
The Dagger Jitsu dishing me out some nice air
Happy with my rides and pointing to the stand where my team mates were cheering, their support helped me greatly. (Photo by Pringle)
My rides at world championships earned me 37th position which I was pretty content with for my first major competition but being at worlds also showed me the standard of the top athletes, even to break into the top 20 would take an incredible amount of commitment and training. I hope I can continue to push on in the right direction. However more important then the competition for me was the people I was there with. There was definitely no team that spent as much time together as a group helping each other and having the ‘craic’ then the Irish team, we are all great friends and that was what made it such a great experience for all of us. We also got on great with many members of the other international teams and I know personally I made about 10 promises to visit people in different countries to go and paddle with them soon! That is for me what the world championships are all about.
I would firstly like to thank my parents who went along with what they didn’t understand in me for a long time, their support was the reason I was able to compete in NOC this year. Now they know more and are beginning to understand why I love paddling as much as I do. After that Roger McClure our team manager did an unreal job organising and keeping us all in line with a smile on his face, definitely one of the lads! Shane Cronin, owner of progressive distribution helped me a lot in getting me kitted out with Palm equipment, Dagger kayaks and AT paddles, this top of the range equipment has definitely brought my paddling up a level. Snowy Robertson and Chris Gragtmans from Dagger kayaks who are legends of the highest order. Lastly but not least I would like to thank the Irish Freestyle committee and Canoeing Ireland whose financial support was definitely needed and very much appreciated. Freestyle kayaking is on the up in Ireland this will be shown by the fierce competition for places on the European Championships team this year.
Since being back in Ireland I have taken up residence in the University of Limerick which is a great base to keep paddling and progressing. I’m also ecstatic that our plans to keep the Irish Whitewater Race League going for a second year have come to fruition. With the first of 6 races kicking off at the unmissable New Years paddler festival in Kerry, its a great time to be a kayaker in Ireland.
GalwayFest 2014 is also on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of March. It emerged as the aftermath of too much talking by myself and Barry Loughnane in a pub in the small town of Buncrana in 2011 and is now an event going from strength to strength, we are hoping to accommodate more then the 110 racers we had last year when we bring it back for its 3rd year on the trot.
Poster from GalwayFest 2013
Anyways I’ll leave you with a couple of preview edits of our first two scheduled races for the Irish Whitewater Race League 2014.
An Amazing few days for one of the main events of the Irish kayaking calendar @ the 2013 Crana Canoe Weekend in Buncrana up in Lovely North West Donegal, run by Adrian Harkin and his lightning sharp crew@ justkayak.ie.
There was something for everybody, and there was no shortage of smiles and laughter as everybody brought great inspiration and good vibes to the days. The venue is ideal as it’s guaranteed dam released water for these two days of the year and all happens within close proximity of each other so great for spectators also.
We were there running coaching clinics and to have the craic and join in the events. The mighty “Palm Throw Bag Olympics “ were in full swing where folks have to run through a wild throw bag assault course and winners being awarded the big prizes.
There was the first Irish rafting race with teams being drawn in from all different disciplines to go for gold.
The First Dagger Dash took place. A Le-Mans style running mass start around a course and then a 1km blitz down a whitewater course. Folks trying to gain advantage by not snapping their decks on in the maddness at the put in were awarded a slow sinking to the bottom mid course.
An incredible event for juniors with all classes catered for with slalom, down river, boater X, freestyle and coaching clinics, all held on the easier pieces of water at the venue.
River rescue clinics and intermediate and advanced white water coaching clinics were being run throughout the two days covering everything and anything.
The Main event is the Boater X. It is run on the Sunday. The course is about 800m long, starting out with a flat section sprint in to a few rapids and as the river squeezes it slingshots you into the mighty “ Claw”. A double drop rapid with various lines all with various outcomes. Needles to say, great spectating and some competitors left with permanent side partings and their buoyancy aids on backwards at the finish line.This years winners were Slalom King, Cieran Heurteau, just back from a top 15 result in the Sickline world championship.The ladies crown was taken by Laura Griffin showing the stylish lines in her Dagger Mamba.
A full list of results for all the events can be found @www.cranakayakevents.com
A really fun event,with great people, good laughs and some great racing. It was really magic to see so many juniors out there charging. Big thanks to everybody getting involved and bringing all the positive energy to the clinics and races, to Adrian and crew@justkayak.ie for running such a smooth event and looking after everybody so well and thanks to Shane @progressive distribution for taking care of the troops and having all the toys at hand! It was great to be there with the Palm/ Dagger crew, looking forward to next year already. All info on http://www.cranakayakevents.com Put it in your calendar for next year.
Last weekend the Junior Paddlefest 2013 event took place in Hidden Valley Holiday Park in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow.
This cracking event was put together in 2008 by Paul Donnelly from Great Outdoors (Dublin) with a lot of help from friends, volunteers and support from Wild Water Kayak Club.
The event has grown from strength to strength over the past 5 years and is now the largest junior event in the Canoeing Ireland calendar.
The weekend provide the opprtunity for juniors to sample a host of disciplines across all paddlesports. At multiple sites across the venue the kids get to try Sprint, Marathon, Slalom Polo & Freestyle kayaking.
Palm were delighted to be on-site with Great Outdoors exhibiting our Junior specific products including the proto-type of the brand new Rocket, a whitewater jacket especially designed for the next generation of whitewater heroes & heroines.
The format of this weekend is awesome, all the coaches, instructors and site staff all volunteer their time & expertise free to this event and you can feel the good karma wrapping the venue for the weekend.
Roll on Paddlefest 2014.
This is Shane reporting for Palm Equipment International Limited from the Emerald Isle
p.s. Gear for Paddlers, especially the little ones
Photos with thanks to Shane Cronin & Maria McGivern McNally
