Whilst visiting Riverside Centre in Oxford last week, the guys there tested the Paradise 2 from Islander with a view of adding them to their fleet at the centre. The centre which provides activities for young people in and around the Oxford area also has a shop which is well stocked with products from Palm, Dagger and Islander.
Roger with his best friend, River Thames, Oxford
For more information on the Riverside Centre click here.
Night Surfing - GRRREAT!
So what do industry types do for a boating fix -they go out at odd times.
Yesterday evening we headed off to Hurley weir on the Thames for a night surf as we’d heard the wave was rocking. Luckily we found that a crew had brought some lights (cheers Dan) so a great session took place under floodlights. Whilst there we caught up with Gareth from the TVF web site who told us about the upcoming Hurley Classic rodeo. If you are UK freestyler this is the spot to try and to get involved in the longest running UK rodeo comp – check it here.
Tim Ripping the Dagger Super Ego
Not having had quite enough we got our kit out again (all praise the dry suit) just after dawn this morning and went back. Thinking it would be empty we found the wave already occupied. Desperate Measures had beaten us onto the water after getting up at 4 am. The guys were fitting in a paddle ahead of a day collecting stock for their shop – another set of paddlesport industry employees getting thier fix at odd times!
Danny from DM
Three gates in the daylight!!
After paddling we went off to visit the guys at White Water The Canoe Centre to check how they have altered their store ( luckily without loosing the massive collection of posters, signed photos, comp bibs and other paddling history they have covering the walls). As they showed us around, it seemed that the Scutt brothers, who co-run the store, were looking a little tired and it soon came out that they too had been out on dawn patrol, slalom training before the store opened.
WWTCC - tired shop staff!
So if you want to find the latest news about paddling, see the latest kit and meet the faces the best thing to do is set the alarm a bit earlier!
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.
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.
Well, as most of you might know..: The Adidas SicklineWorld Championships 2008 are history, and the first World Champion crowned!
At that point, even if its 1 month after the event, I send a huuuge thanks out to OLAF OBSOMMER and his team, Planet Talk, Oetztal Tourism and most importantly ADIDAS… you all together pulled off an amazing event, and made it possible that the Extremkayaking World could crown its own champion!
In the meantime i returned to Switzerland and took many, many positive memories with me from the Oetzvalley! After a difficult season in which I again was injured and some other challenges in life, I drove with mixed feelings to the Oetz race. With the knowledge how little I could prepare really for this important race and also how many really strong paddlers were there, with little chance of a good ranking for me.
It was not that i felt like a weak paddler nor didnt i paddle during the summer. As i heard many rumours though about how crazy people get ready for this event, i just didnt fell that i could keep up with them! After organising the VW Multivan River Jam and re-organising my life, my focus were in the last months just not too much with racing!
After the advancement though into the final event, as only remaining Swiss, I didnt wanted to keep place 50.
On saturday morning I started as first paddler. My goal was to make the cut to the best 25 paddlers, and so be able to go into the second and last round! The hopes for that one vanished super early though: As soon as i hit the water after the startgate, i parked my boat in the eddy below. With a strong performance in the technical middle part and a “so-so” boof of the last drop i came with 1:09:42 into the finishgate and knew right away, its going to be tiiiight!!
And so, i was standing for about 90minutes beside the “TAG Heuer Timewatch”, which stopped quite a lot after my time. Pretty early though, i realised that it would get really really tight, as the parking of my boat right at the start, easily did cost me 2 seconds.
Along the racestretch, several hundreds of spectators tried to get a glimpse of the race, with more or less luck. The ambience though was fantastic and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The fastest 15 paddlers were still on top (including olympic athletes, former Slalom world champions etc etc), and i was in meantime on place 14. It would get super tight.
Jakub Nemec after the crux.
At the end, i ended up on the 26th place after all competitors were down. On one side i was disappointed, on the other side i was alright with that position. After a serious training in the winter/springtime i had to fight with all sorts of troubles and altough i would have been better than this 25th (in the end after a disqualification), i respected all the other guys which put so much work into it, were fighting and focusing on this competition!
Bernhard Mauracher (AUT) before the crux.
Jakobus Stengelein (GER) at the exitdrop of the Wellerbrücke.
After an extremly interesting final, the winner was the previous Slalom World Champion Thilo Schmitt from Germany, tightly followed by Sam Sutton from Kiwiland, who had an incredible second run, yet thilo won that one by a better first one! On third came in Michelle Ramazza from Italy! Right after those three guys, the “who is who” of the international racescene took place after place.
After the “Flower Ceremony”, everyone got ready for the big “championsparty”. In the meantime a lot of other paddlers showed up and it was supposed to be one of the better “get togethers” of the Summer 2008.. 
After a wicked concert by “Orange but Green”, we danced and cheered to the new and fresh World Champion Thilo Schmitt… Greatly done, dude!
On sunday morning, most packed up and set off for their travels home…
Myself in the racestrech
Image by Michael Neumann (THX!)
CONCLUSION FOR THE EVENT:
Adidas and the organisers pulled off an incredible event, which defenalty deserves the title World Championships. After last year cancellation it was a relief when the event kicked off on saturday morning! I mostly had only positive feedback from all sides (expect the ones that always complain *smile) and i look forward to hopefully a great event in 2009, one month after the Freestyle World Championships in Thun Switzerland.
CONCLUSION OF MY SEASON:
After two seasons in which i had to fight with serious backproblems, i have decided to get back in shape for 2009 and give the boys a hard time after all! ) I look super forward to race, discover new rivers and spend as much time in my boat as i can! Well, there is the Worlds to organise and lots of other projects, but i know that i can get there! Next year i realised, i want to stand differently at the riverbanks of the river Oetz before the event!
And so we packed up my fellow Multivan and drove on a really sunny day back towards Switzerland. On Monday I was part of a crazy Bacardi event in Interlaken and the next day an appointement with a local TV station to shoot some action. Life is great and never the same..
Actually just returned yesterday from a trip down to ticino! The Melezza was running at perfect flows… WOW! This whitewater gem is on my TopThree list of Switzerland and runs only every now and than! Because of massive yet decreasing rainfalls we hit the perfect level yesterday with sunshine in the deep gorge! WOW!
talk soon and stay safe!
simon
Palm Equipment/Dagger Europe have been major sponsors of the Youth Freestyle series over the last couple of years and have provided a huge number of prizes at each event. The final of the 2008 series was recently held in some unexpected, but more than welcome, October sunshine at Holme Pierrepont. It was unfortunate that the original event was postponed due to a flooded course as there were well over 100 entrants due to enter and not all could re-arrange to the new date. However, a good turnout of 75+ youngsters took to the course for a morning of coaching and an afternoon of competition.
Thankfully there were a number of features to use on the course allowing a variety of coaching to take place for all abilities – from those who were learning to tail-squirt and perfect their roll, to those who were working on space godzillas and figuring out which moves to put into their competition rides.
The competition in the afternoon was held on the Muncher and the Inlet gate (one ride on each). For the less confident paddlers and novices there was one ride on the eddyline at the bottom of the course and one on the Inlet gate which had been turned down especially to allow for easy exit off the wave. The crowd-pleasing moves here were big pop-outs which scored extra points if combined with a paddle-throwing manouevre – especially if followed by a swim! As always it was great to see the enthusiasm of all the competitors supporting and cheering each other on.
The crowds started gathering for the biggest event of the day: the parent/child competition. The organisers cruelly cranked the Inlet gate right up so it was extremely tricky to get out of. Not to be outdone by the youngsters, the paddling parents all put on a brave face though and side-surfs, powerflips and swims were greeted with big cheers from the spectators.
A brave Dad!
Big cheers from the crowd!
Showing how it’s done: one of the ‘sons’ looping
As this was the final event of the series those that took the top 3 positions over the whole series all went home with a nice glass trophy for the mantlepiece! Full results can be found on www.youth.ukfreestyle.com
