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!
Early October held the fifth edition of the annual Adidas Sickline World Championship! Despite flooding the week before the water level was perfect during the race. The race kicked of on Friday with a brutal qualifier round with the 150 athletes culled to just 48 men and 3 chicks after two runs of the 75 sec qualifier course. This created tight racing with favorites and 2011 medalist Michelle Ramazza being knocked out.
Photo by M. Arnu
The Sickline race uses a unique format not found in any other kayak event. After the qualifier there is a heat-to-heat on time, with the fastest racing the slowest, using the international ladder system. This cuts the field down to the top 15 for the super final Down the class V Wellerbrucke rapids.
Photo by M. Arnu
Photo by J. Klatt
The men final were super excited to watch. It is amazing Sam Sutton took the top spot three times in a row! And it was nice to see Dejan on the podium this year, as he just missing the podium by a spot for the last three years. Mike was the last one coming down in the finals and as he came down it looked like he got it, until he made a mistake at the bottom, screwing it up at the Champions killer, but still making it in third place.
Photos by M. Arnu
Photo by M. Arnu
For the first year there was a chicks final, with the top 3 chicks charging down the Wellerbrucke! I was super stoked we finally had this change and was keen to go hard. The whole week I have been paddling the top of the Wellerbrucke section, which leads in to the race section. The top section is super nice whitewater but really full-on. After a couple of laps I felt super confident running the top and the race section. I never screw up my lines and out of all my runs I never had a surf in ‘Champions Killer -1’, the new hole in the race course. (which I guess was pretty rare this year). I wasn’t nerves or scared for my race as my lines had been sweet and I was confident running the section. I have no clue what happened in my race, but basically everything went wrong!!
Photo by J. Klatt
Photo by M. Arnu
Photo by M. Arnu
I was definitely a bit guttered after my race for a few sec… but in the end of the day it is just another race ;-). I had such a great week lapping the upper Wellerbrucke section with the boys and had a great time in Oetz. I’m also more motivated to come back and try again next year! Hopefully with better lines during the race :-).
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”.
Originally there was a competition scheduled for the 8th and 9th of September but unfortunately it had to be cancelled because the organizer was unable to get permission to run it. Someone thought that it would be nice for everybody to still come down and have a day of surfing together on the 8th and calling it September Surfacular.. I’m not sure who named it! It was also decided that the England Team coaching day would run on the 9th so that everyone who was on the Team could come down and have a weekend of surfing if they wanted to. As I have qualified for the Team this year I would be taking part in the Team training so I went up to Bude where it was being held for the whole weekend, camping overnight. I was desperately hoping for some nice weather and good surf as I didn’t really want to be camping in the rain and good surf is always nice.
Coming up to the weekend the weather forecast was looking good, really nice on the Saturday and getting a bit colder on the Sunday. But most importantly it wasn’t going to rain! The surf forecast wasn’t so good, quite small on the Saturday but to pick up during the night to be a couple of feet on Sunday.
The day before (Friday) it was decided by the organizers that they would move the social surf to Northcott Mouth instead of Black Rock because the surf was so small. It was a good job that they did as when we got there Saturday morning there was only a very small wave. It was high tide so most of us decided to give it a couple of hours before venturing out and as it was a really nice, hot day, hung out in the car park chatting while a couple of more venturesome surfers decided to risk the dumping surf, and the rocks that were only revealed when the waves drew back, to try and get some waves.
On the Saturday social surf there was also going to be a best wave competition but this was postponed till the Sunday as the surf was so small. The surf got a bit better as the tide went out and when I decided to go for a surf the sets were a couple of feet and although they were only short rides and one had to work hard to keep on them it was great to be out on the water with fellow surfers. After several hours of surfing I came in for lunch and the tide was fairly far out and the surf had dropped off. I had certainly gone out at the right time. After lunch I decided not to out again but sat on the beach and watched several other people surfing. Then about mid afternoon I decided to leave and have a look around Bude before finding a campsite to stay in for the night. There was a meal organized in a local Inn for anyone who wanted to go so we went and chatted to several people and then retired for an early night in preparation for the training the next day.
The weather on Sunday wasn’t as nice, a bit cloudier and it looked like it might rain before the day was out. We all met up at Black Rock car park and then had the best wave competition for a couple of hours and then everyone selected for the England Team met up and and had a talk before walking down to beach and getting on the water.
The coaching was really good. It was only the second coaching session I have ever had in surfing, it gave me several things to think about and to put into practice. The surf was a reasonable size and the weather wasn’t too bad, it was a nice day to be out.
Overall it was a great weekend, nice to meet up with everybody and go surfing with them, living so far south means that most of the time I don’t get to see them except when competitions are on.
Next Competition is a local one for me so not too far to drive!
The Canoe Symposium moves around the UK on a tri-annual basis and this year it was Scotland’s turn to host the array of canoeists that come to these events.
I was one of the organising team and responsible for ensuring that we had a good selection of coaches and workshops to keep everyone happy and engaged.
This ranged from sailing sessions to rolling to guided trips as well as some paddling making. Everyone was please with their activities and extra sessions were available on demand.
Evening time involved some beer and presentations on trips at home and abroad. Paddlers were inspired and chat ranged onto future trips and expeditions. Still leaving time for some beer and the whiskey seemed to go down a treat as well.
This event also some time for Jules and I to get out wearing the new Kaikoura BA. With a slightly improved cut and some new additions for us it looks like we have another bit of great kit to aid us on our trips. More detailed review to follow once I have had a few trips out in it.
Well after our most excellent time in the Czech Republic for our Euro Champs Coach Dave said we were allowed 2 weeks to do whatever we liked!! In our meeting just before we drove home we all pretty much agreed that we would not change much, keep training and generally carry on as before despite what he said…that lasted all of 5 minute. Our drive there had been full of healthy food high in protein and vegetable matter, the return journey was the complete opposite. Fran managed to get through a good few bags of Haribo, Bry and Alli tucked into Pizza and the whole Pope Mobile Crew had fish and chips on the ferry on the way back. We had a lovely couple of weeks off but were all soon chomping at the bit to get back on it and into training.
Fun at CT
Our training weekend was moved to Wales at the last minute due to a pesky little freestyle event being held in Nottingham! But thanks to the great guys at the Canolfan Tryweryn we had a brilliant day on the Saturday easing ourselves back in. Coach Dave got us doing fun things down the river (mainly spinning around alot and making a nuisance of ourselves), good thing too as it took most of us the morning to remember exactly how to do it all!
Just keep spinning, just keep spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning.
Day two was back to business though. An early bird session on the lake at Llyn Padarn kicked us all into gear, with the raft feeling powerful and in tune. We did lots of swapping sides so we don’t end up too wonky and it felt great to be doing hard sessions which made us work.
We then went over to Coach Daves house for a champion breakfast of Bacon, eggs and beans and poured over video footage of our techniques. After we all became sufficiently neurotic about that Dave said we were heading over to Plas Menai for a Gym session. Its amazing having a coach who is a fitness instructor as well…
Suzie "If I don't make eye contact no one will ever know that Nerys is hiding in my HUGE trousers"
Nez, The Machine
I SEE PRIDE! I SEE POWER!
R'n'B going for in sync reverse crunches.
We all had a great weekend, Bring on October. As Coach Dave says someone else says “Champions are made in the winter”.
With so many new and updated products to show off this last week, it’s hard to choose our favourites but with a camera shoved in their face, the people behind Palm Equipment did eventually manage to pick out their favourites.
Watch the video below to see what we liked the best and meet the people who make up Palm…
For those who haven’t seen the last few updates on our Facebook Page the rest of our product videos can be seen here or in the earlier blog postings:
So let me get this right, your flying out to the far north of Canada to take part in one of the worlds toughest canoe races, paddling 450 miles, day and night, with little food or rest, with a team of Rugby coaches who aren’t paddlers, that you’ve only met once before and have never paddled together as a team?
Yep, sure am!
Your mad, tapped, insane or simply stupid!
That along with a few other niceties or rather obscenities were the usual comments I received from people when I told them the challenge I was about to embark on.
We were on our way to take part in this years Yukon River Quest, Race to the Midnight Sun which you can find out more about by reading THIS previous blog article.
The team awaiting departure
Finally we arrived in Whitehorse, Yukon after a twelve hour flight delay, a night in a hotel at Vancouver airport and plenty of eating and drinking! The view from the aircraft window on its way in was stunning, flying over snow capped mountains and as we drew closer flying along the mighty Yukon itself.
As we were now a day late in arriving we set to work quickly identifying our boat at the local outfitters, Kanoe People and making any needed alterations or repairs to it. One thing thing in particular that did take some time and effort was the construction of some sort of spray deck in case we encountered choppy conditions during the Lake Laberge crossing or more likely to prevent swamping whilst negotiating Five Finger Rapids. Quite a daunting task producing a spray deck for a 30 ft Voyageur Canoe, never the less the team addressed it and were justifiably proud of their work. Meanwhile others busied themselves about town getting last minute bits of kit we needed and of course food and drink for the race. The Super stores in Whitehorse were quite interesting with everything from shower gel and toilet roll at one end of the store to bear decoys, semi automatic rifles and ammunition at the other end! Tesco you still have some way to go to match this !!
Team busy prepping our boat
The spray deck under construction, quite a task
Chatting to one of the locals
In between all the hustle and bustle of the race prep was also the opportunity to take our boats and paddles for a test drive. This came in the form of a few little trips in the local area. During these we practiced a number of scenarios including man overboard, should I slip off the boat leaving them without a steersman. I was hoping we wouldn’t need this for real as I ended up spending quite some time floating around as the boat and crew disappeared into the distance before making some valiant efforts to regain control and steer themselves in my direction! Another drill that was rehearsed lots was that of changing paddling sides. Might sound easy but when you have a boat full of rather large rugby boys moving around in a canoe at the same time then it’s bound to end in tears unless you have a plan. On one such occasion we were lucky to see the first of many bald eagles on our trip, on its nest with its young. The novelty of numerous eagle sightings soon faded for some.
One of the many Eagles we saw
All forward...ramming speed !!
Another important task was that of sorting out our food for the journey. Some of the team visited the local stores and others set about preparing some meals. During one such occasion members from the other team had taken over the support vehicle and turned it into some form of soup kitchen. We had all opted to source our own snacks etc and I had chosen various nuts, raisons, chocolate and jelly sweets together with some fruit and energy bars, all of which were hung from a thwart in front of me in plastic tubs. These tubs were provided or rather acquired courtesy of our hotel, where they were meant to be used for ice from the ice machine. Incidentally they made great on board toilets!
One of the luxury on board toilets !
Team 1 & 2 with our boat and the Yukon behind
Team 2 A fine body of men
Time was soon upon us and it was the day before race day. Briefs had to be attended and the first of many kit checks took place. After having had our team details, entry form and insurance checked we acquired a number of ink stamps on my arm entitling us to a River Quest Race pack.
Having some of our kit checked by race officials
This contained among other things a YRQ-shirt, our race bibs with our all important team number printed on them and a couple of stickers for our boat. We were to be team 27. After we had all signed every bib on both the back and front it was off for an official team photo proudly wearing both our t-shirt and bib as requested by the officials. One half of this bib has to be returned either on completion or if you withdraw from the race as a way of accounting for everyone.
Signing the back & front of each bib
Pre-race photo wearing our signed bibs and YRQ shirts
That night it felt a bit like the last supper as we sat together as a team and ate a hearty meal. Then with race day looming the following morning it was off to bed to dream of the events to come, knowing that this would be our last chance for sleep for over 25 hours!
Race day
Our boat and our team had to be ready at the launch point for another kit check at 0730. At this point our official team mascot was added to our boat, which looked remarkably like the character Wilson from the film Castaway staring Tom Hanks.
Wilson !
Other Voyageur Canoes in our class
Teams 1 & 2 making some last minute tweaks
Once this was out of the way then it was off for some breakfast and a chill before the 1200 start.
Racers all started to converge from around 1100 at the start area. All the teams were announced and introduced, lots of good luck wishes exchanged and photos under the official start line taken. 4,3,2…1 the air horn sounded and we were off. We now had 14 hours to reach the end of the Lake, 35 hours to get to Carmacks, and 84 hours to get to Dawson. For some this truly was to become the year long day!
All teams jogged or walked their way down to their boats before launching, remembering that this was only 400m of 450 miles! The turn out by the locals was quite surprising with lots of cheers, whoops, whistles and shouts of “Yukon”and camera action.
That was it we were on our way, next stop the old Coal mine camping ground at Carmacks which would be around 210 miles later and would hopefully take us about 24 hours. Conditions were the best they had seen in years with good weather and high river levels. After a couple of hours we seemed to loose all the hustle and bustle and settled down to a steady rhythm and just the odd couple of boats around us as we entered the start of Lake Laberege and passed the first of 5 check points before Carmacks. These CP’s are all manned and act as safety to give help when needed and also to record the times of racers before sending them on via sat phones to the Comms centre were they are updated and posted on the race website.
Typical of the Yukon scenery
As well as these CP’s there are also a number of Safety Monitoring points or MP’s on route, which again are manned, they quite often have fires burning and hot drinks,for racers to warm up. There was to be 3 of these MP’s between us and Carmacks which proved very useful.
This view of the backs of my teams heads was something I was to get used to over the next 24 hours
The crossing of the lake took us around 8 hours in excellent conditions meaning we arrived at CP3 Lower Laberge at around 2215 well ahead of the cut off time of 0200. As the temperature was quickly dropping with the sun low in the sky we made the decision to change from daytime light weight clothing into thermals, topped off with our brilliant Palm Aegean cags and Viper pants. Great combination, lots of room inside with freedom of movement and easy to get on and off quickly. After a quick warm up by the fire for a couple of the team and some food it was time to get paddling again.
CP3
The temperature continued to drop as we paddled on down the section knows as The 30 Mile River. By now the light was fading but as the name says its the “Race to the midnight sun” and sure enough at midnight we were presented with a stunning sky.
The midnight sun
Our next point of interest was MP2 Lower 30 Mile which is around 40km after leaving the lake. The names of the locations we passed made me smile with such things as “Gold diggers point, Klondike Bend, Fish Eddy and Shipyard Island” The scenery by now was very much the same with little if any change from steep banks and pine trees. I was eagerly awaiting us passing the spot where the Teslin River would join us and hopefully give us a bit of a helping hand. The Teslin came and went with no apparent noticeable difference, the temperature dropped more, and we were reminded by a passing paddler “that coldest time yet to come would be around 0500”! Cosmic I thought, I cant wait for it!
Still very cold but the sun was on its way up as we paddled on
By the time we reached MP3 just down stream of where the Big Salmon River joined us, it was definitely daylight and still a tad cool. So we took the decision to stop here and spend sometime re-warming in front of the fire as a number of the crew were starting to feel the effects of cold together with a lack of food and sleep. It was here that Team 1 who were by now ahead of us had also stopped and gave first aid to a fellow racer who was suffering badly from exhaustion and hypothermia. We had been warned by officials at the race briefs that “hypothermia accounts for more than half of all crews that fail to finish, and that on cold years more than 50% of racers will suffer from hypothermia”.
A member of team 1 giving first aid to a fellow racer at MP3
We set off once again and paddled our way down the river. For what seemed like an eternity at one point we paddled through what remained of a huge forest which had been burnt to the ground, it really was mind numbing. By being at the stern of the boat and having to concentrate on steering and keeping an eye on the navigation kept me more than occupied and definitely gave me a focus helping to pass the time, prevent boredom and ultimately the potential to fall asleep. As for wild life well we didn’t really see much aside from the odd eagle, however during the journey back to Whitehorse by vehicle there were moose, wolves and bears to name but a few. Apparently they use the highways just like us to get around.
At around 0900 after having been paddling for over 21 hours and a short distance after the Little Salmon joined form the right, we eventually passed our last check point before Carmacks. From here we knew had around a further 4-6 hours of paddling until will reached the sanctuary of Carmacks where we would have a compulsory 7 hour stop. A chance for a hot shower, some food and a well earn’t sleep before tackling the remainder of our Yukon Quest.
This last couple of hours leading up to our arrival at Carmacks proved to be a real challenge. Some of the team were now really starting to suffer and hallucinations had taken over with sightings of giant beetles, knights in armor, chimpanzees and goblins all on the river bank along side. On a number of occasions crew members even nodded of whilst still paddling. I was unaware of exactly how severe the situation had become, but I did know that I had to get the canoe and its crew safely to Carmacks.
The journey seemed to take for ever, as we turned a corner only to find yet another corner loomed ahead. With an hour or so to go I got out our sat phone and made a call to our support crew at Carmacks. I made a point of letting them know we where not far and that hot food was the order of the day for all of us as soon as we arrived. However un-be-known to my team was the fact that my signal had cut out after only 20 seconds and that I had decided to keep talking pretending to have communications so as not to unsettle them any further. Another memorable occasion was when a team member stated that “I’m sure we’ve been past this before, are you sure were going the right way?” I must say for moment he even cast doubt in mind and could have caused a mutiny. I did have a moment when I feared I may have been thrown over board.
As we neared Carmacks the map and our race briefs clearly mentioned an overhead cable across the river which is approximately 2km from the campsite, and after which you are advised to keep far right so as to avoid missing the pontoon. After announcing in a very calm manner that we now had only a very short distance to the landing it again seemed to take an age. Moral was high with the thought of food and rest but to my horror as we turned yet another corner I was greeted with what I thought was another overhead cable! My heart sank as I reluctantly announced I had made a navigation error and in fact we still had 2 km to go, not a good feeling to have! But all to soon it became apparent that I was right the first time as the Old Coal mine camping ground rapidly approached. Officials were waiting our arrival and barking incoherent instructions at us. At around 1500 with a loud thud, a big wobble and after more than 27 hours of paddling we finally arrived at Carmacks.
The landing stage at Carmacks
Lots of busy people during their 7 hour stop at Carmacks
Our next problem was getting out of the boat as we were all somewhat wobbly form our adventure. As officials helped us from the boat it became apparent the toll it had taken on us. We all took some time to compose ourselves and get our thoughts whilst support crew and officials busied themselves helping those that needed it and giving us all a good check over.
A few minutes later some race officials called us together and announced that on the grounds of safety we were being “scratched”! Scratched is the YRQ term for being withdrawn. We were all deeply upset but fully understood the reasons behind their decision.
This really had felt like a year long day….
Alone and empty she had served us well but now the race for us was over
After some food and a hot shower and as we de-rigged our canoe team 1 surfaced from their slumber, had some breakfast, reloaded their boat and set off on the next phase of their adventure. Around 30 hours later they triumphantly crossed the finish line at Dawson in a time of 54 hours. A very well deserved congratulations to Team 1 for completing such a grueling event.
Team 1 leaving Carmacks on route for Dawson
The river now quiet and empty after the last boats have left
I am glad to say that we are all now back to fitness and going about life as normal. Not forgetting our overall aim of doing this challenge was to raise money for our chosen charity Help for Heroes, and I believe to date both teams together managed to meet their target and raise £100,000
Q: Did I enjoy it? A: Yes a fantastic experience
Q: Would I do it again? A: Next years race beckons to me and Im already looking at flights etc. After all I cant leave an unfinished chapter in my life. Bring on Yukon River Quest 2013!
A big thank you to my enduring companions on this trip, who were Toby Booth, Justin Bishop, Neil Hatley, Gavin Cleave and Tony Cilia and to Davis St John Claire who had the thankless task of being our support crew. Thanks also Interserve for making it happen.
Lastly a special thanks goes out to Palm Equipment, Desperate Measures, Rab and Outdoor Active for their help and support throughout.
Hasta la vista…. I’ll be back !!
See you on the water…
Jules
Bespoke Canoe Coaching, Guiding, Safety & Rescue training and BCU awards
Last weekend Lyon became a center of atmosphere as kayakers from around Europe journeyed to challenge the French for a €1000 big air title. A Big Ramp was build at the Confluence of the Saone and Rhone River in downtown Lyon.
The 10 meter long ramp caused some serious air and a couple of concentrated faces too. Sliding down goes so fast, the ramp is high, super steep and give you so much speed! The impact on your body landing from this high on the water can be enormous. A couple dented boats from smashing into the water and some soar backs for sure! Nothing to bad or serious though! To soften the landing, the organization blows air the surface, giving us a big air bubble to land in.
In the end it was Casper who won the show with a massive backflip! French Mathieu Coldobella was unlucky in the finals as he was charging super hard in the prelims, being the only one able to consistently make double airscrews. Canadian Ben Marr ended up in third and won his share of the 1000 euro price money.
The event was held in conjunction with a 10km race trough the city of Lyon on Sunday morning with over 1000 of paddlers showing up at the start of the race. A good vibe and tons of spectators makes this an amazing place to keep kayaking in the eyes of the public.
