New to Dagger’s Whitewater boats for 2013 is a whole new outfitting system which goes by the name of Contour Ergo .
You might have heard or seen some noise about it, but here’s a closer look at the technology and innovative new ideas behind the new kit.
There are a lot of different styles of kayak outfitting available, and Mark ‘Snowy’ Robertson (Dagger’s head boat designer) wanted to create a modern outfitting system to compliment Dagger’s new designs that would achieve significant steps forward in safety, comfort, and performance.
In a Creeking seat, designed for steep, technical paddling, safety is a key priority, and the Contour Ergo System has a few features which set new standards for kayak outfitting.
The full plate footrest was invented as a safety feature to prevent a paddler’s feet from slipping past the footrest and becoming trapped in the event of a large piton or impact to the bow.
The Contour Ergo takes this a step further, by offering an automatically expanding footrest with toe cups, which fits the shape of your kayak making it practically impossible for a paddler’s feet to slip past the footrest in an impact. Click on the link here to see how it works:
Other safety features include a newly shaped step out pillar to aid exit in the event of a pin.
Another revolutionary aspect of the Contour Ergo system is the all new leg lifter ratchet. Maintaining effective contact with the thigh braces of a kayak is vital for control, and the leg lifter guarantees both comfort and contact with the seat and thigh braces.
The Contour Ergo System has a durable, high quality finish, and is loaded with storage and attachment points for safety gear and other essential kit. The new system reaches new levels of comfort and adjustability, making you feel more connected and in control than ever before. Don’t just take our word for it though. The new spec boats are in shops now, so get down to your nearest one and check it out!
For 2013 the Contour Ego is available in Jitsus, Mambas, Nomads, Axioms, GTs, and of course the Green boat.
We’ve been receiving deliveries galore to Palm HQ over the Christmas period, and a host of exciting new products are now winging their way to your local shop…
For starters, the revolutionary, innovative, and luxuriously comfortable Contour Ergo outfitting has arrived! Now coming as standard in Jitsus, Nomads, and Mambas.
As well as new boats and outfitting, there’s new soft gear galore, from the stunning new line up of paddle trousers to some refined new touring gear, and our new rafting specific PFD the Highside, we’re really proud to bring something bright and fresh to a paddling shop near you!
Check out the images to see what’s new!
We can’t wait to see all this new gear out on the water, so get down to your local shop to check it out!
We’re excited to introduce you to our brand new Stikine and Torrent Surface Immersion Suits!
After several years of work and refinement, we’re really pleased to bring the new suits to market, as they’re filled with exciting new innovation and features.
Check out the video below for more details and an overview of the suits, which will be arriving in shops in January!
As a new designer here at Palm and relatively new to kayaking, and after getting pretty fed up of getting wet and cold from swimming far too much, Paul (our marketing manager) thought it would be a good idea to send me off to Plas Y Brenin for a 2 days rolling clinic
I arrived at Plas y Brenin on Friday 7th December in the evening. I was welcomed by the friendly reception staff and shown to my room with a welcoming, cosy, bed after a long drive up from Bristol. In the morning I met my follow students, John, Andrew, Rodger, Branwen, and our coach Chris, and off we went to the pool all keen to get on and start rolling. First Chris showed us how to rescue each other which proved very necessary!
We started by doing some hip flicks off the edge of the pool and some of the guys jumped straight into attempting their rolls having been able to roll successfully in the past.
After doing my hip flicks effectively off the edge of the pool, Chris came over with my paddle. I was pretty nervous at first so the plan was I would go over and Chris would guide my paddle once then on the second time I would do my hip flick and come back up. To my amazement this worked! So after a few more of these I then started using a paddle float and doing it on my own.
To begin with it wasn’t going too well but Brenwan was very patient and become a pro at rescuing me! Then I started to get the hang of it, which was a massive relief.
Next we all went off for some well deserved soup at the bar. Taking advantage of the lovely setting I went off for a wander around the lake and to call my Dad to tell him the exciting news!
After dinner the session continued to go well with people doing successful rolls with and without the paddle floats. After a while Chris suggested we should have a break from rolling and have some fun with Andrew’s sea kayak. So we all had a go at doing some self-rescues. Some proved more successful than others, which was amusing and a welcome break from rolling.
That evening we all went off to watch some videos Chris had taken of us during the day. This proved very useful as we could all pick out the areas where we needed to makes adjustments to our technique.
The next morning we were all feeling a bit achy and tired therefore as a result the morning wasn’t so successful… Until Chris came in with tea and biscuits, which put a smiles on everyone’s face! After the little break things started going much more smoothly and I managed to do many successful rolls without the aid of the paddle float. So off we went to lunch again with a big smile on my face!
The afternoon went just as well and I came away very happy with my progress and confident I can continue to improved with the technique we were taught. I think the others would also agree they came away happy all having being able to do successful rolls.We all dried off and had a de-brief with Chris. We said our goodbyes and all set off on our long drives home.
The team and Chris our coach
Overall it was a fantastic weekend at Plas y Brenin, I was very impressed with the facilities and coaching. Everyone was looked after very well and I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to master the art of rolling!
So a big thanks to all the staff and Chris our coach! And I hope all my fellow course students continue to improve their roll and I hope to see you out on the water!
That’s right Folks, it’s that time of year again – for the North of England’s biggest, coldest, and most fun paddling weekend! Renowned for big fun on the water, and Saturday night’s legendary Ceilidh, the event never disappoints.
Here’s what’s happening at the Palm stand…
Tips and Pointers
Get chance to paddle with Palm’s leading kayak and canoe coaches Chris Eastabrook and Jules Burnard who will be offering FREE half day paddling sessions.
Sessions start at 10.00 am on a first come first served basis. Those wanting to paddle will need their own boat and gear and be competent and comfortable on class II whitewater.
Palm Gear and Free Beer
Join the Palm crew for a free beer and check out some of the new 2013 Palm kit after 4pm on Saturday. The new Dagger Jitsu will be around for a viewing as well.
Palm pro coaches Jules Burnard and Chris Eastabrook will be on hand offering advise on topics like trip planning, paddling locations, equipment set-up and a few stories of their adventures. Demo Boats
A fleet of Dagger Whitewater kayaks and Mad River canoes are available for demo for those wishing to test paddle. After paddling come and talk with factory staff about the latest Dagger designs including the Jitsu playboat
Mad River canoe will have demos and expert knowledge on boat set-up from Pro Paddler and coach Jules Burnard.
Boats available for test between 8.00am and 10.30am and 2.30pmto 17.00. Id required.
Bring your down jackets, your best dance moves, and plenty of spare thermals, ready for an amazing weekend!
Most of you have probably seen ‘kayak kiss’ the viral video that shot Palm Team paddler Ben Brown into the main stream and onto TV screens during major sports events like the US Super Bowl.
The success of that was in no small (excuse the pun) part down to Go-Pro cameras and Ben is a master of making the sorts of videos that the rest of us aspire to with our wobbly and grainy footage. It also has something to do with the sort of water he paddles being that bit more impressive than most of us manage.
We’ll Go-Pro have stepped up again this week, launching their new Hero3: Black Edition, and guess who is one of the lucky athletes featured in the promo – Mr. Ben Brown!
The narrative is a bit of ’a day in the life’ kind of affair, with kayaking featuring along side other sports like freediving, surfing, skiing and more. The previous Go-Pro High Definition camera was cool but wow, to say a camera quite literally sings and dances is quite true of this new model – slow motion, amazing angles, great definition, bright and light: It looks amazing.
Anyway, enough of an advert, we are just super stoked to see our man Ben in there, representing kayaking and cutting it up amongst the likes of Kelly Slater and Aaron Chase. Keep firing it up the Waikato warrior!
What an amazing few days at the 2012 Rocroi NRPF river festival in the heart of the Spanish/ Catlonian Pyrenees.
With a logistical twist of fate, the Palm/ Dagger Bus got left in the UK due to a ferry strike in Santander and quick change to an aeroplane with the magic new Jitsu as luggage.
This year was again magically orchestrated by Lluis Rabenada the well-known kayaker, event organiser and good guy to be around. The festival has the ethos of a big kayak jam with paddlers from more than 15 different nations attending. The guaranteed water releases from the dam ensured the stunning sections of the Palleresa river flowed at a great level. It’s a great destination, with the river running at class 1-3+ and so many moves for all types and levels of boater.
On the Saturday everybody seemed stoked after the clinics that were organised for folks looking to learn some new tips and tricks from the Pro teams paddlers and industry coaches such as Eric and Dane Jackson, Nick Troutman, Mikael Sarasola, Quim Fontane Maso, Jerome Gaudine to name a few. I was lucky to paddle with some of the 14 to 17 year old Catelonian young guns from the same club as Team Daggers Aniol Serrassoles and his brother Gerd. It’s obvious there is something magic in the drinking water up in that valley and we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more from those kids in the kayak media over the years. They are brilliant! We looked at running the river quickly and safely with some creek style freestyle moves thrown in. We also checked out the benefits of having a good rope, BA and equipment that feel minimal and light so you can move well and with the maximum back up. The guys were definitely impressed with the new and current additions to the Palm Equipment Range.
The big talk at the event was the arrival of the new 5.9 Dagger Jitsu freestyle boat. Suffice to say everyone who paddled the boat was raving about it. I was stoked to hear this as it has been a few years since dagger have brought out a new freestyle boat and it’s great to see them jumping to the top of the queue again from the feed back of the paddlers.
In the evening times there were films and amazing local Catalan food along with the big party :-D.in which we managed to crowd surf no less that 4 world freestyle champions and a bunch of the wild Scottish lads wearing kilts.. Move of the night went to Eric “Ej” Jackson for wining an €1100 ski pass in the raffle and making a present of it to an 11year old local girl that paddled on his clinic.
There was an improvised Kayak slide put together down the bank at the festival site that proved to be a high octane affair and some car crash TV ensuing. Whiplash isn’t normally an injury associated with Kayaking!
The NRPF is a perfect end of season chance to paddle with friends in a beautiful place, get some good culture, good vibes and have some great laughs. Well done and thanks to Lluis and his team at Rocroi for putting on a great show and a big thanks to Dagger and Palm Equipment for supporting the event and sending me over. Don’t miss out on next years dates from the 25th – 29th September 2013.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said in that documentary, The Terminator; “I’ll be back”.
The Palm team had a great time last weekend at the annual Cardiff International Whitewater Paddle Fest. Sunny weather brought hundreds of people down to the course to enjoy a paddle, with races, coaching and freestyle thrown into the mix, making for a fantastic day out.
We’ve been helping to recruit the new generation of paddling superstars by supporting the CIWW Kids’ Academy, and we were proud to present Cardiff’s youngest rippers with their brand new fleet of shiny red Axioms. A huge shout out to Dan, Cole & Ed, who were all tearing up the course, showing real style and great skills. Check ou the video below for a snippet of the action, these guys will be worth watching out for!
Check out the video:
The Palm team Boater X event was also great fun and a real crowd pleaser. This event involved 6 teams, each comprising of a pro paddler (kindly provided by the manufacturers present at the event), a junior, and two adults. All paddlers had to compete in a timed race with their own team, and then a free for all 6 way race against the other paddlers in their category. The races were all hard fought, and the junior boter cross category was a real crowd pleaser, with young Dan taking the title in style in his Axiom.
All in all, this is a fantastic event, and great fun was had by all. There was even a brief celebrity appearance of Rory Mcgrath paddling a bathtub!
Aghast that facebook is not allowed and struggling with internet speed Rosie has sent us this great post from China, read on…
We have arrived in China!
Flown over on an all expenses paid trip by the local Chinese government, Suzie and I have arrived in Zixi County in Eastern China to represent GBR in the Dajue Mountain Natural Water International Rafting Competition 2012.
'What the river looks like in the tourist catalogue'
We actually felt pretty lucky to arrive in one piece as it seems drivers in China are all boy racers – and there was a lot of water on the road! It’s been raining since we got here – first days training was today so we were bussed up high into the mountains with the other international teams – Czech, Hungary, Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and America.
And the river was like nothing any of us (despite rafting and kayaking all over the world) had ever seen! In Suzie Jackson’s words ‘I love China! Big river pimped up with maaaasive slides! Safety = bedraggled man in poncho with bamboo stick. I Love CHINA!’
'Raft coral at the top of the river'
'Those that didn't make it...'
Early night tonight for race day tomorrow – and who knows what that might bring, with the mini two person rafts nigh impossible to keep straight down huge 10m slides, spinning out of control at every opportunity!
'We Love Rafting In China!'
Exciting! Will be posting up how we get on very soon.
