The Andy Duff Memorial Kaituna Challenge is held annually in the height of summer in Okere Falls. Andy Duff was a local raft guide and kayaker and the race was started by his friends after he passed away while traveling in America. The race is a medley of mass starts beginning with short boats followed by long boats, tandems, sledgers/swimmers then finally rafting.
The racing can get a little bit hectic with everybody looking for a chance to take out the titles but it is all in good spirit with everybody looking out for each other.
Geni took out the women’s sledging title.
I have competed in this fun race for the last 3 years but this was the first time I entered in all 5 disciplines which was pretty full on but I was stoked to make it to the finish line in all 5 races especially the sledging!
My favourite race this year was definitely the raft race, with unprecedented carnage nearly every raft which entered flipped at some point down the river! We were in 3rd position coming up to the waterfall behind the NZ Men’s team and the team from River Rats Rafting. All 3 boats flipped and we managed to overtake the River Rats crew by getting our boat upright at a much faster pace. So in the end we finished in 2nd place behind the NZ men’s team which wasn’t too bad considering that they were recently crowned fastest team IN THE WORLD on that stretch of river.
Sam and Rob going for the carnage award.
Every year a special carnage trophy is handed out to the person or team who create the most epic/memorable carnage during the race. The carnage trophy used to belong to Andy Duff himself so in a way it is the best award. This year the award went to Mike Hudson (the guy with a red helmet in the photo above) who attempted the sledge race for the first time and had some epic downtime underneath the waterfall. Also see below the winner’s of last year’s carnage award.
Also a big kia ora to Douglas McCormick for the photos and for organising the race, thanks Douglas!
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.
This month I’m going to show you how to Loop in shallow holes.
Being from the UK, one of the first obstacles I had to overcome was how to do the moves in shallow features. It’s an invaluable skill to have for many reasons.
Getting normal loops is relatively easy in modern short boats but many people still struggle when the holes aren’t very deep.
Ordinarily on the loop you stamp down hard, get the boat as deep as possible and then jump up with your arms to get the height and go as big as you can.
Shallow spots require a very different approach however.
Step One: In a shallow hole, you take as little speed as possible going into the seam line.
Step Two: When the nose touches the seam try and catch as small amount of water as you can whilst still getting vertical.
To do this back paddle and use your core stomach muscles to keep the boat straight as you approach the seam line and then continue these little micro strokes to maintain control whilst initiating the bow in the green water.
Step Three: Once vertical you want to effectively do a flat-water loop but in the hole. Push down as hard and snappily as you can with the back of both paddle blades.
Step Four: When you’re body is as far forwards as it can go, grab the water with the power face of your paddle blades and open your body out like the opposite of a sit up as snappily & aggressively as you can.
This will kick your feet out in front of you and push the nose of the boat back into a front surf.
Tips & Tricks
You can practice this motion on dry land by lying on your back with your legs in the air then try and kick out as hard as you can. On dry land the idea is just to get a feel of this movement.
Spending some time perfecting your flat-water loops will help you with these skills too.
When you have this shallow hole looping technique perfected, the way you finish the loop by grabbing the water and kicking out can also be applied to finishing Phonic’s and Mc’Nastys and is a very very good way of forcing the boat to keep straight, and retaining the feature. For competing this skill is invaluable as it enables you to force moves to keep straight when the pressure is on.
How the gear I use helps me…
Out with my Dad on the Washburn in my beloved Jitsu, toasty warm in my Palm Spark suit. Life is good!
What’s also going to help your freestyle progression is using the right tools for the job.
I’m very fortunate to be using what I consider the best equipment possible for what I do so I’d like to give some of the stuff I use a little shout out!
I use Dagger’s new Jitsu kayak that I was involved in the design process of, so it’s pretty much my dream boat. One of the reasons is its slicy ends. It makes it easy to initiate the nose and cut it in to the water whilst keeping a volumous poppy centre that give you that much needed lift to get big air. Having precise but short back end gives you the freedom to play in shallow features without hitting the bottom on the landings and pull stuff though quicker and easier in normal holes.
Being a very cold winter for play boating I’ve managed to paddle the whole winter through thanks to having my Palm Spark suit to wear, it’s much lighter and less restrictive than ordinary dry suits and feels a lot like wearing a top deck only much warmer with great freedom of movement!
Good luck trying this one out, and enjoy the coming spring!
Sunshine, 3 Gates, Big Air & Good Friends – Hurley Classic 2012
When I first started competing the ‘Hurley Rodeo’ was the UK’s biggest event, drawing in paddlers from all across Europe for an aerial frenzy on the Thames.
In recent years the event has been on a much lower scale, largely due to poor levels, but this year Jacko from KayakoJacko went all out to bring the festival feel back and turn it back into the booming event it once was. With the boom that’s going on in freestyle right now it seems perfect timing to relaunch the event in this manner.
Jacko definitely didn’t disappoint! We had perfect levels, good weather and over 120 paddlers attending including all the big names: Peter & Nina Csonka, Mathieu Dumoulin, Quim & Nuria Fontane, UK’s Bren Orton & myself and Katya.
So we had World Champions, World Cup Champions, European Champions, Rider of the Year winners, National Champions & past Champions all gathered to do battle on one of the UK’s most iconic spots. Jacko had a treat lined up for us.
A very international eddy queue
Cheesy came down and put up the Palm & Dagger tent to show off the new kit and the Dagger Jitsu. We had all 3 sizes for people to try. They definitely fly here on Hurley!
First up was the final of the British League event. Your best two out of three 45 second rides gave you your final score. I had some great rides getting KY’s, Loops, AirScrews and Panams and thought I might have the win but as it turned out I ended up in 3rd place behind local favourite Alan Ward in 2nd and World Cup winner Peter Csonka taking the win. In the ladies Emily wall took the British title with Nina Csonkova taking the overall Win.
1st place to Peter Csonka
Saturday afternoon gave us a steep ramp into the Boatercross. Carnage ensued throughout but keeping the speed up and avoiding the crashes David Bain sprinted his way to the win.
Sunday was what the weekend was all about really, going big with our friends without the pressure of timed rides. It was a jam session format of 15 minutes and then a superfinals of ICF rules for the top 5. Unfortunately I was a bit too determined to get my KY and wasted too much time and finished way down the list but those who got the right tactic of going big but making sure to cram all their moves into their session came out on top.
Mathieu Dumoulin from France fighting hard into 2nd in the final
Palm’s Seppi going high – Exactly what the Classic is all about!
Palm’s Bren Orton went huge in the prelims and got everyone raving when he got his place in the senior mens final (he’s still a Junior), UK Champion Sam Anderson made it too then we had Quim, Mathieu, and Peter all there. The finals were a great display of the various styles but eventually Peters consistency edged ahead of Mathieu’s fluidity to take the Win, with Quim in 3rd. In the womens Nina Csonkova took the win again with Flea in 2nd place.
Was macht ein Kanulehrer im Urlaub? Richtig Er geht paddeln. Soweit so klar. Allerdings habe ich im Urlaub immer ganz stark das Bedürfnis möglichst alleine, in ungewohnter Umgebung und vor allem ziemlich ziellos ” herumzustromern”.
Das war auch in der vergangen Woche der Plan. Das Ziel war die Gegend um Lysekil in den west-schwedischen Schären auf halbem Weg zwischen Göteborg und Oslo. Mit an Bord waren neben der Familie zwei Seekayaks von Current Designs, ein aufblasbares SUP von Starboard und mein Palm Equipment.
Da die ausgedehnten Brunchaktivitäten wirkungsvoll etwaig aufkeimenden Aktionismus verhinderten blieben gemütliche Zeitfenster von 2 bis 3 Stunden pro Tag für den Wassersport. Genau richtig!
Als überzeugter Stechpaddler bin ich vor ein paar Jahren zusätzlich dem Seekayakbazillus verfallen und seit zwei Jahren definitiv auch dem Paddeln im Stehen. Was dazu führte, dass die Paddelausrüstung massiv anwuchs und, das war der entscheidende Aspekt, ich das Gefühl bekam, ein kompletter und auch in vielen Dingen offenerer Paddler geworden zu sein. Der Blick über die Disziplingrenzen hat mir gut getan. Verschiedene Pfeile im Köcher zu haben, führen zu einer unglaublichen Freiheit an Wahlmöglichkeiten. Je nach Stimmung, Umfeld oder Paddelpartner wählt man das passende Gerät.
Hier in den Schären hatte ich die Wahl zwischen Stehen und Sitzen. Das spannende dabei ist, das der Wechsel von kurz über der Wasseroberfläche zu knapp zwei Meter weiter oben einen unglaublichen Unterschied macht. Zumal die Geschwindigkeit auch eine komplett andere ist. Im Kayak ist man mehr auf Strecke ausgerichtet, orientiert sich an ferneren Zielen, peilt Landmarken an. Auf dem Board regiert die Langsamkeit, der Blick fällt viel eher auf die kleinen Dinge am Wegesrand, der Aktionsradius ist kleiner aber nicht weniger interessant. Es ist ein wirklicher Perspektivwechsel.
Ganz besonders spannend fand ich den Unterschied beim Blick ins Wasser. Vom Board aus ergeben sich viel tiefere Einblicke. In Lysekil wurden die wenigen Quallen im Sitzen zu ganzen Armeen im Stehen – da hat es manchmal auch Vorteile, wenn man nicht alles sieht
In Schweden ist übrigens das SUPen noch nicht wirklich so weit verbreitet. Man erregt doch ziemliche Aufmerksamkeit als Stehpaddler. Dabei bietet sich doch gerade das Land der vielen Seen als echtes Paddelparadies an. Vermutlich wird das noch. Bis dahin regieren vor allem an den Küsten und in den Fjorden die Seekayaker. By the way …. auf der Anreise hat mir ein Kollege in Copenhagen berichtet, dass das SUPen auf den Kanälen der Stadt verboten sei. Tsts…
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Von unserem Ferienhaus in Såmstad aus bin ich vor allem zu Touren im Fjord unterwegs gewesen. Als bekennender Schiffsfan und Küstenliebhaber am liebsten immer in Sichtweite zum Ufer und mit einem Schlenker in jeden noch so kleinen Hafen. Das ist übrigens auch eine ziemlich coole Aktion mit dem Board. Man sieht unglaublich viel mehr als wie von der Wasserlinie aus und Es erschrickt doch immer mal wieder ein Skipper, wenn plötzlich einer vor dem Fenster steht … haha.
Für uns Süddeutsche ist das Revier zwar nicht wirklich ums Eck, aber dennoch auch für einen kürzeren Aufenthalt sehr zu empfehlen. Ach ja. … Seafood gibt’s in rauhen Mengen und fangfrisch!
Myself, Niamh Stack, Dave Hollins and Fran Kohn are two weeks in to our month here in Colombia. We’ve been stunned by how beautiful it is: dramatic moutains covered in thick, lush jungles and huge canyons… a landscape that makes for some very committing sections of river!
So far we’ve paddled some amazing white water, including the big volume Suarez that really got the heart racing and the stunning multiday canyon of the Chicamocha. But the big story so far has been how one river that should have taken us 3 hours ended up taking 4 days – including two gruelling hikes out through the jungle in the dark! (read more about this epic on our trip blog)
The new Mamba is treating me very well and fitted all my multi-day gear plus camera gear in the back no worries. And it handles really well both with and without kit. Its really hot here so my Zenith shortie cag is probably my favourite new piece of kit as it doesn’t let water into my boat but also keeps me cool. That said, with all the jungle hiking we’ve been doing I’ve been pretty glad of how sturdy my Gradient boots are too… you can never underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle
Surfing a big wave on the Suarez in the Mamba
Getting from one place to another has been an adventure in itself as we are hiring 4x4s and trucks of all shapes and sizes for our shuttles and have been squeezing our kayaks into the luggage compartments of buses for transit between regions.
We spent the past 2 days on buses to reach Villavicencio and paddled a really pretty canyon on the Guayariba today. In the next couple of days we’ll be heading out into the hills to paddle a river that requires hiking for 3 hours, but this time we’ll have mules to carry our kayaks! Pretty excited about that!
Last weekend was full of exciting antics in Dartmoor, Devon, and I took a break from working in Oxford and made my way down. Two days of paddling, filming and partying (sometimes at the same time, no word of a lie) all summed up in this short little video I’ve put together.
Big thanks to Hugh Graham for his mad filming skills throughout the weekend, DJ Fromage who’s deck maneuvers made the party and to Simon of Gene 17 for hosting such a great weekend event.
I’m going back to work now, but at the end of the month I’ve got to catch a flight to Chile, which should be a real hassle.
The Kanumesse 2011 show opened this morning, the Palm team spent the day showing off the new range of kit, meeting and talking with dealers and traders and in the evening were giving out snacks and free beer to visitors of the stand…
Me & Katya have been taking photos of whats going on and todays video target was the three new Dry/ Immersion suits in the range:- the Spark, new ladies Element & the touring Aleutian.
Here is the New ladies Element suit:-
The Spark edit is up in the post below more to come as we get through the footage
As the good(ish) weather officially comes to an end here in Europe, I thought i’d put up a post with some of my favourite pictures of the spring/summer season. I managed to squeeze in two trips to the Piemonte/Ticino regions, before heading north, as ever, to Norway. This season we did some more exploration, both in central Norway, and further north, as well as paddling a number of rivers which have been secretly documented in some detail over the past few years, and since the publication of this online guidebook are set to become classics.
These are some of my favourite shots, huge thanks go to the photographers, as well as the people in them!
First up – I finally caught the Devil’s slide at the perfect level, in the right mood. Huge thanks to Adam Dumolo for taking this photo whilst simultaneously doing safety for this one.
Next, an excellent shot from Tom Parker of a sweet boof in the Lower Sermenza Gorge. I’ve been absoulutely loving my Harlequin Fuse Jacket, definately the comfiest shell garment ever, and coloured to match everything!
Lakeside camping in Hattfjelldal, Norway. Is this the best paddling destination in Europe?
Next up a shot by Hugh Graham, of Finn Burrows lining up for a rinsing. Dusj-boof (Shower-boof in Norsk)on the Susna. One of the most fun rapids anywhere, especially in high water, when it becomes Wipeout-boof.
This shot was taken by a friendly local, who regularly fishes the pool below this fall. Yours truly, on the first descent of Storfossen, on the Herdalselva, near Valdal.
Due to the trees being harvested on the right hand bank of the Mikkemus-elva, there was excellent light for photos for the first time tis year. Here Hugh Graham hits the perfect line. Watch out for Hugh, he’s one of those people who makes everything look a bit too easy.
Finally, a shot of Finn I took on the incredible Tverraga, another first descent and a true gem of a river way up inside the Arctic Circle.
I’m now back in the UK for a while, waiting for storm fronts to roll in and dump their goods in the hills. The new Mambas will be arriving soon and I can’t wait to get mine out and flying.
Hi all. We’re back in the UK and work has begun on the film we’re making of this summer’s Norwegian Odyssey.
It’s called Vaniljesaus (Pronounced Vanilla Jesus), and will be released online here on the Palm Blog within the next few weeks. For now here’s a sneak peek….
Er geht paddeln. Soweit so klar. Allerdings habe ich im Urlaub immer ganz stark das Bedürfnis möglichst alleine, in ungewohnter Umgebung und vor allem ziemlich ziellos ” herumzustromern”.
