At last, Rain! It seemed like every boater and their mother was on the Mellte, South Wales at the weekend.
Here are some pics from Sunday.
Luke on the lip of the first drop
Adam shows us how to boof while I fumble with the focus
Luke 'Mr Uniyaker 2009' Farrington on the Double Drop
Tim grinding out and heading for a burning man!
And the sun even came out for a few minutes
Palm Kinetic Paddle Jacket
The winner of the Palm Kinetic Paddle Jacket at Gene17′s APWE was Lee Renton from Dorset.
Congratulations Lee, let us know here which size and colour you’d like and we’ll post it out to you today!
Vast amounts of paddlers rocked up at the River Dart Country Park this weekend for Gene 17′s Adventure Paddlers Weekend, and what a weekend it was!
The lack of rain and subzero temperatures certainly didn’t put anyone off – the bunkhouse was booked out and all three carparks were rammed all weekend. Saturday started early for team Palm with a dawn raid on the Upper Dart in the Dagger Greens (we had to make sure we’d be able to manage the race course without getting too nailed!).
With the number of pins in single figures we decided an extra metre of boat over the competition probably wasn’t cheating too much and, after a speed run of the Loop with good uni friends, we headed back to Dartmeet. Luckily the race went well and the long boats sailed to victory. Definitely cheating!
Simon Westgarth on the road to a hollow victory!
That evening we were treated to showings of 80′s German classic Family Mad and an awe inspiring documentary following Ben Brown (check out his new site below) and Steve Fisher’s trip to Iceland. After the films Graham Milton did his best to disuade anyone from visiting Greenland in a fantastic presentation about his summer kayaking-come-hiking trip.
Bob Campbell giving out prizes in the raffle
With bleary eyes Sunday was another early start with a mad dash down the Upper to get to ‘the mad mile’ to catch the light and do a photoshoot for the new Immersion Suits. The light was incredible and we got some great shots, thanks Paul! Watch this space but until then here’s a taster….
Sara James in the new Element Suit
Not quite a high five...
Ed rockspats in the new Torrent Suit
Many thanks to Simon Westgarth for organising yet another successful weekend, to Ewart from AS Watersports, to our pap Paul Wilkinson for keeping up with us running down the footpath loaded with camera kit and to everyone else who helped us out over the weekend.
As always the Mamba and Nomad demos were extremely popular; the winner of the Palm paddle top will be announced on the Gene 17 site in a few days.
Tim
This weekend at the River Dart Country Park, UK, Team D paddler Simon Westgarth from Gene 17 presents a weekend of paddling, lectures and films. It’s always a cracking weekend and a good chance to paddle with old mates and get inspiration for the next trip.
The Palm bus is loaded and we’re looking forward to a chance to catch up with the team paddlers and go for a boat! Demo boats are free all weekend and, because it’s nearly Christmas, take a demo boat out over the weekend and we’ll add your details to a prize draw to win either a Palm Kinetic or Lara paddle top. Other than that, Team Palm/Dagger paddlers Simon Westgarth, Matt Tidy and Ed Smith will be out and about in their new Palm Stikine and Torrent suits and we’ll have the new Axiom prototype to have a go in.
See you there!
Tim
I’ve just got back from what must be one of the biggest events on the UK boating calendar. Every year over 1000 students, ex-students and general rabble gather in Hexham near Newcastle for the annual carnage-fest that is Tyne Tour.
It was quite muddy..
There were some swims..
..and a few sinkings…
The ceilidh was typically epic..
..And ended with a good amount of uni banter!
Thanks to Claire, Andy and everyone involved in organising another cracking weekend. Thanks also to Andy and everyone at Leeds Uni for yet again bringing 80 people and providing first class banter/carnage on and off the water!
Photos by Paul Wilkinson. More here.
Matt has just sent in a video of his latest paddling out in Voss.
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Jonny N
Since getting back from Norway I feel I’ve embraced a summer of mediocre English boating fairly well. Sit-on-tops on the flat, marathon boating and the like – great fun, but hardly adrenaline pumping. This weekend, though, I needed something different. I gathered up some good mates and a plan started to come together. With only Sunday free we had to cram in as much as possible. Looking at the tides we realised that, with a bit of motivation, we might be able to grab a session in at the Bitches and Severn Bore on the same day.
Arriving at St Davids at 2am left us 2 hours of sleep before we found ourselves kitting up and heading off into the darkness. Luckily we’d opted to take the new Dagger Greens and having a long boat made the early morning ferryglide all the more pleasant. A couple of hours of sunrise soul surfing and much yeehaa-ing later and it was time to head back to Whitesands bay (via the mandatory fry up in St Davids) for a few hours of kip in the sun.
When we woke up it was off to Newnham to catch the Bore (via Rosie’s for tea and cake). We then waited.. and waited. As the sun went down we thought of all the things we could be doing instead.
Suddenly we heard the rumble. “Bore Coming!” It got louder until the noise was terrifying! It felt like getting to a class V drop when you’re expecting a river to be all class II bimble. Out of the black the wave arrived – 3/4 ft high, glassy and green. We surfed until we all fell off, pegged it back to the car and overtook it again for two more hillarious surfs. Crashing through nettles and seal launching into the darkness is all part of the fun!
Still buzzing and giggling to myself two days later I had my first run down local South Wales Classic, Poo Creek. Perhaps a summer of English boating is something to get excited about after all…
Tim
Check out http://www.severn-bore.co.uk/ for tide times and Bore info
TIP: Take a fast boat
Good guide to the Bitches on UKRGB
http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/bitches.htm
The first shipment of production Green Machines arrive this week! We’ll have a fleet of them at the Performance Kayaks Demo day this Saturday, so get down there if you’d like to be the first to have a go.
Here’s a couple of shots from my recent Norway trip. Is this the longest boat to have paddled Ula falls? The Green flies!
Tim
Photos Colin F
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| Thursday night I got a text from Simon Tapley fresh from his Greenland Expedition wanting to go paddling so early Friday morning we headed to our ‘Secret’ local playspot. When we got there it was higher than we wanted and as the playhole has a big sticky hole below it, it was a sketchy decision whether to jump on or drive up to the Kent in the Lake District. We flipped a coin and playboating was the result. |
| This hole is the second in a series of three and depending on levels it can be super sticky or flushy, but its the hole below we were anxious about. After seeing how the flow was down to the second hole we got stuck in. |
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| On Sunday Palm were at the Paddlerworks Demo event at the Llyn Tegid / Bala Lake forshore. |
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| t this event there was a lot of interest in our Islander sit-on-top range the Paradise, Paradise II and the Strike (our specifically made kayak fishing boat). |
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| The G-forces and Agents were very popular with the younger paddlers down at the lake and we rarely saw them on the stand all day. |
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| Jonny N |
Yesterday was the first ever Slope Jam on the Fournel. Paddlers from Universities all over the UK and some ‘mature students’ were throwing down the drops and grinding down fallen trees.
Our team paddlers made a big impression, Matt Tidy chucking some of the most stylish moves with almost no effort and Rosie Cripps pulling some of her first freewheels in the Mamba with ease. But it was Tim Trew who won overall throwing down some big hammers in the Dagger Green Boat.
Check out the podcast for highlights of the event.
Big thanks goes out to Tom Laws, all the helpers and paddlers for this successful event.
Check out http://studentboaterx.wordpress.com/ for more info on the event.
