Colligan Gorge Games

We had a whistle stop trip to Ireland this weekend for the inaugrial Colliagan Boater X race  , here’s a few piccies and scribblings about the trip.

The event kicked off bleary eyed early on Saturday as the plan was to get it done in one day.  With about 100 entrants (many of them fresh faces to Irish boating thanks to the Uni clubs of UCL and UCC) it ran amazingly smoothly throughout thanks to Paul and his organising team who impressively were hosting an event for the first time.

The course  was on the gorge section of the Colligan river –  a nice 400m stretch of class II and III with a few tricky  shoots and slots giving competitors the chance to pass one another or better still jam others from passing. The river level was lowish but it never really matters for this sort of thing, as its all about jostling for position and the odd rock spinning a paddler out lends to the fun.

We all choose to use the Dagger Green boat which meant that we were at an advantage over everyone else by about a half boat length. This was great if you could get out in front  - like Rosie did to win the ladies event, but not if you got trapped behind other racers – like I did in the mens final where the other racers made a pact to stop me at all costs!

The team race also had some twists with a cheeky eddy above the crux and a finishing bell which all had to ring. Again team Palm came unstuck in this race as we could not get enough space for Tim to ring the bell as the Greens filled to much of the eddy!

As expected there is alawys a little carnage, but that’s racing and part of the thrill of head to head. Your man here was the only one to get bloody though and he laughed it off and had a pint in hand by the evening!

As dusk fell prizes were handed out and the whole gang up’d and moved to Waterford for a cartoon themed night of  dancing and drinking in a local bar. Needless to say our early morning ferry the next day was painful but luckily there was a tidy little bit of surf when we got off the boat to try the new Dagger Axiom and clear the head.

Thanks again to the Colligan team, the Colligan falls holiday appartments for letting paddlers use thier site and to Great Outdoors (check thier new web site) for inviting us to the event.