Uganda was one of those far off destinations that captured my imagination from an early age, with warm water, big rapids and awesome play waves, it truly is the perfect way to escape the cold (and dry) British winter.
The video of my trip is below – Look out for Pring and Katya’s video from their trip !
See you on the water,
Bren
There’s nothing quite like getting a big box and not knowing what’s going to be inside…
However, several days after receiving the box from Palm, and the day before we were all to meet in North Wales for Training Bryony was struck down with a bad case of food poisoning… disastrously spelling an uneven number of paddlers for the highly sensitive raft! Luckily, being true professionals and driven by the excitement of what might be in the box for us we soldiered on regardless.
Needless to say it wasn’t long before we ripped open the box, to reveal some gorgeous amazing, warm, dry and sexy Amaris dry pants !
Being decked out in new gear gave us all a chance to get up close to that lush XP150ª 3-layer fabric during the warm up…yummmmm 
Plus there were rumours that over the next couple of week there may be another delivery!! Very Exciting!
On day one we worked on the Tryweryn making eddies, practicing our timing, using slalom poles and, for the newer members, learning the best lines for a raft. Poor Susie and her new Amaris Pants got to know the drop under Miss Davies pretty intimately as she fell out a couple of times, although she was heroically rescued by the team. She obviously did it on purpose so that we can get practice at rescue scenarios should it happen whilst racing…
On day two we weren’t so lucky with the Tryweryn release so headed instead to the Menai straights for some flat water drilling. With it being spring tides we were strongly warned by some firemen not to park our cars on the jetty unless we wanted to have them floating away on our return! And they were right – don’t park in a tidal car park!
In the morning we worked on sprint starts and sprint pacing setting ourselves pyramids of distance – (we all hurt at the end of those sessions!). In the afternoon we managed to get the tides completely wrong so paddled against the flow to Britania Bridge then against the flow back to Menai Bridge as well! What a good workout it was though. We were all still smiling
All in all a productive weekend.
Ciao till next time!
From Fran and the Girls
Here’s a little teaser video from our recent Colombia expedition. If this whets your appetite, we’ll be showing more HD video along with telling tales of our epics and adventures on our lecture tour, so check out the dates and venues. And if there isn’t a talk happening near you, get in touch on info@flowfree.co.uk and we can probably get one sorted!
Enjoy!
As winter shifts to spring here in the southeast United States the paddling season continues to be a good one. Even though the weather is starting to warm up its still drysuit season and I expect many more days in my Spark before summer truly hits. This suit has been an amazing surprise for me over the winter and I am now a convert to its comfort, versatility, and quality.
I will be honest when I received my Spark suit back in late October as a part of Palms testing program I was a little skeptical. I mean the purpose of a drysuit is to be dry right? I just couldn’t see how a neoprene neck gasket would do the trick. However after 4 months of winter and paddling in almost every condition count me as an advocate! This thing has far over achieved in every category that a drysuit should.
The best thing about the Spark is its comfort. The cut makes this the most comfortable drysuit I’ve ever worn. This translates to exceptional ease of movement both on and off the water, especially in the arms and torso area. All that space makes this suit a freestyle kayakers dream, you can twist and contort all you want! It doesn’t stop there, the light but durable choice of fabric only adds to the comfort.
Now comfort is all fine and good whether you’re a freestyler or a river runner but the real question is: does it keep you warm enough?
Bryan Knight putting the Spark through its paces on the Linville Gorge.
The answer absolutely yes. I’ve been kayaking both freestyle and river running in temperatures down to around 40 degree F and am happy to say the Spark performed just fine. The Neoprene neck keeps you comfortable, no restricting the airways, yet still provides a good seal. And with gaskets on the wrist my arms stay nice and dry.
An unexpected benefit of the Spark for me was how perfect it was for a couple of the extreme races here late last fall. Often times the weather is a little chilly but if you wear a full on drysuit you can get really over heated while you’re racing. The Spark’s combo of ease of movement and light fabric made it the perfect suit for racing. Then I was able to stay toasty warm while I watched the rest of the race from the shore!
The Flying Squirrel, right above Gorilla during the Green Race.
All in all I would not hesitate to recommend the Spark to anyone and I look forward to many more great days of kayaking in it! Plus it has a badass color….
Airing it out, post Greenrace celebration at Sunshine.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, Palm Equipment and Dagger Kayaks Europe have been selectively breeding the most ferocious of NSR jungle boats.
The National Student Rodeo 2012 approaches and here at the Palm factory we’ve made something very special for the overall winner.
May the best University Kayak club win.
Get ready, this weekends gonna be wild!
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on here, largely due to finals at uni followed by the move back to Scotland and setting up work. However now that the storm has settled, and I’ve bought a Go Pro, I’m jumping back into the online kayaking media with my first clips of head-cam footage from a few “local runs”. Alongside paddling I’m also training hard for an adventure challenge on the west coast of Scotland, called the 70 Wild Miles, which pretty much speaks for itself in terms of the distanced covered via a combination of bike, kayak and run. With that in mind I’m doing a fair bit of solo boating with running gear packed in a dry bag in the back of my Nomad so that running shuttles is a good bit of training… when the event comes around (on the 9th of June) I’ll be jumping out of my sea boat straight into a half marathon, so it makes sense to dabble in the cross over now whilst keeping the added excitement of white water. I’ve found that the River Orchy is a great training ground thanks to some nice rapids interspersed with flat pools over a 10km section which helps me work on technique and, once I’ve hidden my boat and gear in the woods, provides a long enough run back to the car to be of benefit. I’m doing the 70 Wild Miles on behalf of Clic Sargent to raise funds which will support kids with cancer so for anyone happy to give a little my just giving page is here – http://www.justgiving.com/Ed-Smith03
. Enjoy the first instalment – it’s short enough to watch without getting busted at the office – more soon!
Ed
London has never been an unknown white spot on my kayaking map. With Hurley Weir as one the country’s prime freestyle spots close by and a vibrant boater community living in the region, the metropolis of England has always ment more to me than Tower Bridge, Big Ben and the Queen.
But now, London has gainded one more attraction: the Lee Valley White Water Centre. As part of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, no efforts have been spared to create one of the most challenging and modern whitewater courses in the world.
Since I moved to Bristol about two weeks ago, there hasn’t been enough rain to get some of the notorious local creeks running. Hence, when Rowie from Palm asked me whether I was keen on checking out the Olympic course before the world’s best Slalom athletes would occupy it for their games, I was in. Rowie booked the course and invited all her paddling buddies. And off we went.
Despite the chilly February wind and rain, the course was full of people. Rafters, whitewater paddlers and slalom kayakers braving the weather. But before we could all join them on the water, we had to undergo a mandatory assessment by an expert, proofing that we were skilled enough to cope with the difficulties. I was highly amused when the guy came up to our group. It was my old friend Matt, whom I haven’t seen for years. So we had quite a lot of fun with him during the following hour.
The whitewater park is devided into two separate sections: the easier Legacy course and the full on Olympic course. While the Olympic one is really fast, pushy and packed with stronger holes and waves, the Legacy course is way more relaxed but still good fun containing some really nice play features like stern squirt eddies, surf waves and a hole for big loops and enders. Both end up in a large pool where two conveyor belts wait for you to bring you back up to the start.
After passing the assessment in our red bibs (showing that we were capable of avoiding a number of rafts banging around with lack of control) we were allowed to pay for more time on the water (10£ per hour) and had to change to orange bibs (cameras monitoring that you’re wearing the right one everywhere). We were surfing it up, racing against each other or just cruising down both sections numerous times until our time was up. Cold, tired but smiling from one ear to the other we got changed and headed to the local pub to celebrate the great session with a delicious pint.
Can’t wait to come back. It’s just a shame that London is so far away from Bristol. So let’s hope for rain and see you all on the Dart or the Lynn .
Seppi
PS: I also had the pleasure to try out the brand new Spark Suit and AMP vest from Palm, both in lime green. Check out the photos. The combination looks wicked.
Hi All, here’s an update from our most recent training session, where despite the freezing conditions and having to break through ice during our warm up we were all fired up and raring to go (this is how fun rafting is!).
The focus for the weekend was paddling technique and timing within the raft. Team member and ex Welsh slalom squad member Nerys Blue had researched some top tips from an outrigging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outrigger_canoe) paddle stroke that would be useful to transfer to the raft. We started off on the flat and in particular worked on really pushing down with our top arm to transfer power down through the paddle instead of just pulling water. The analogy that if your paddle should snap you would fall in was frightening on such a cold day but thankfully none of us were that unlucky! This adjustment to our technique produced a really powerful stroke and combined with timing the ‘catch’ so that each person’s initial power occurred at exactly the same time made the boat feel smooth and very powerful. So impressed were we with this result that in a couple of weeks time Rosie, Ally and Georgie will be travelling to London to learn more about the technique from a top outrigging club coach, and take technique tips back to be used at the next training session. It’s exciting to be involved in a sport still at the stage of developing the most efficient basic paddle stroke!
We transferred this to the white water (where, as in kayaking it is significantly more challenging to focus on technique) and definitely felt the increased power across the whole raft.
On the weekend we were very lucky to have support on the bank with Georgie filming and giving us feedback with input also from coaches Matt Blue and Gareth Wilson. It’s so valuable to have eyes on the bank pointing out things that are hard to feel from the boat; if you are carrying out your own winter training it’s well worth begging, paying or bribing someone to observe you, or even better video. Video feedback is incredibly useful to see improvement during the sessions and highlight areas to work on for the next session. Also, the camera never lies!
As usual the two days of training was intense, but a really great start to the year; the timing and power gained within from trying a new technique felt amazing and we’re all really fired up for the year ahead!
In other breaking news rumour has it that shortly the team will be receiving a package from Palm, containing all that we need for the cold training weekends ahead…we can’t wait to see what gear is in the box!
Also, so as to remind you (and us!) that paddling isn’t all about dark evenings and ice freezing on the paddle check out our video of some fun training runs on the Pacuara River on the run up to the 2011 World Championships.
Have fun on the water!
Allison McIntosh and Rosie Cripps
Since my first trip to Uganda in 2005 i’ve been out here every Winter and Katya likewise, it really is a playboaters dream Winter playground.
Last Winter we decided to take a break from uganda and headed for a month in Galicia/ Portugal instead.
So in the two years since we were last here a lot has changed on the river with the finishing of the Silverback dam. Undeterred however, me, Katya and Bren Orton decided to escape the cold and dryness of the UK and the harsh Siberian winter.
For myself and Katya we really just wanted to get on warm, perfect waves, relax in the tropical environment, watch the animals and nature thats so abundant here and feast on the many delicious fruits.
Here you can get the best banana’s, pineapples & passion fruit in the World and many other tasty fruits some unusual like Jack fruit and others more common like watermelon, all so fresh, ripe and tasty, perfect for our diet we (me & Katya) eat a raw diet of mostly fruits, so here is like a banquet for us.
The two waves we’ve spent our time on so far are Nile Special & Malalu.
Nile Special you’ve probably seen a 1000 times but at the right levels its really sick wave you can go huge on, its not the easiest wave in the World to surf as it can be a bit violent but when it greens out you get a perfect ramp to throw whatever you’d like off of.
When Special gets too foamy and the level starts to rise Malalu a big soft mostly green wave forms 40minutes paddle downstream. Very friendly and soft and in the evenings when it gets high and the wave gets steep and green it’s one of my favourite waves in the World.
Having spent the few weeks before I came here battling it out alongside Bren at a cold and deserted HolmePierrepont in Nottingham it’s so sweet to be out here with Katya on the waves I really love to paddle and best of all no thermals are necessary.
Between sessions we’ve been loving life on the second island at the Hairy Lemon campsite. It’s pretty special here as we are the only ones on this bit of the island and because of that the animals shelter there and enjoy the peace. Every day we are treated to the sight and sounds of the birds, monkeys & monitor lizards going about their daily routines. In the evenings across the little channel of river from us a rare African Finch Foot bird has been roosting! It’s a bit like being in a Wildlife documentary, I love it!
Bren, Palm’s junior star has been paddling so well out here too, he’s really getting the waves dialled in and his paddling is going pretty sick! i think he has 4 more weeks here and is pretty fired up to run some of the bigger rapids too having already been showing some of the other guys down Itanda so look out for more from him when he gets back to the UK.
Just before I came out here I drove down to Palm HQ to pick up some summer kit for the trip out here and they had a few new items to give to us to check out too;
The Paw Shoe and the Vortex Jacket
The Paw shoe is pretty much a dream for Playboaters, as lightweight and slimline as a neo sock but with a thin sole to protect your feet, we’ve been running around rough rocks everyday and squeezing into our boats and they’ve held up great to our abuse, pretty sick bit of kit for Playboaters like us.
The Vortex is a new lightweight cag that has been ideal out here to whack on over the top of my deck as it’s a bit too hot for my normal zenith shortie and I hate just paddling in a deck as too much water always gets in whatever I try (not fat enough to fill the gaps 
So the vortex has been an ideal lightweight solution for me and has so far kept the water out of my boat and not made me feel like i’m going to pass out in the heat every time I have a long ride.
Off to Jinja today to go get fast net and see some of our old friends at NIle River Explorers where I used to work and then paddling in paradise again tomorrow.
It’s also worth mentioning the rapids for paddlers wishing to head out here now the dam is in. Although there is no Silverback section now there is a cracking section of 50? km of river full of rapids and waves still here and with the constant high water now the big rapids like Dead Dutchman, Itanda, Hypoxia and Kalagala are at perfect levels and are getting ran very regularly by those who want to push themselves in that direction and of course there are plenty of nice grade 3 and 4 rapids and smaller waves as well as holes along the Day 2 stretch of river.
Anyhow bye for now,
Pringle & Katya
Just before Christmas Paul, Daniel, Michael and me went south to the Rio Futaleufu. When it startet snowing 150 kilometer before our final destintion we doubted our desicion to celebrate christmas and new year´s eve far away from the party crowd in Pucon. However, with a huge fire in one of the Quincho huts at the Cara del Indio camp it got cosy and warm.
And two days later, when a change in the weather pattern brought 30 degrees and sun all day long we were absolutely happy with our place to stay. Who else is starting his Christmas eve with a Christmas brunch in the sun, followed by a long day of kayaking down the Futaleufu – a river every whitewater kayaker is dreaming of – and having an original Chilean Assado as holiday roast for dinner.
So we spent a whole week at the Futa. Having finest summer weather we paddled alternating Futa top to bottom and the bridge to El Macal section every day.
The only break in this routine was our trip to Chaiten. Paul and Daniel needed a ride to their bus back to Santiago so we assumed it might be a good idea to paddle the Michimahuida on the way. After two hours on the gravel road we reached the put in and a fantastic day of paddeling began.
At perfect waterlevel and weather on our seven hours trip, getting sunburned was unavoidable. The incredible mood was suddenly inturrupted – the worst case, a broken boat, happend somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Except from the put in and take out the river meanders through the wilderness very remote from any civilisation. So there was no way out of the river and the boat got fixed with a lighter and duct tape professionally. Luckily the high quality work lasted till we reached the take out bridge in the evening – tired but happy. The next day we made it to Chaiten in time to drop off our two friends at the bus station.
Beeing just two of us left we went back to the Futa to get some last big water practice and to find a crew for a trip to the Rio Baker. Both was done quickly and we started driving south in good humour with Gabriel from Canada, Jean from France, Aniol from Spain and the Basque Gael with his Norwegian girlfriend Netta. Our frist stop was planned to be the Rio Ventisquiero. After a short look, we decided to continue driving because the river looked way to low. Unfortunally the car of the French-Spanish-Crew didn´t start anymore and so our group split already on the first day.
In the afternoon of the next day Gabriel, Michael and me finally made it to the Rio Baker after a beautiful scenic drive along the Lago General Carrera and the Lago Bertrand. We found a super nice camp ground just two kilometers upstreem of the Salto the Neff and started scouting the first few rapids to prepare ourselves for the next days big water mission.
One of us even adjusted his beard to the river – simply lovely!
The next morning our small crew finally started full of action to do our first kayaking trip together down the Rio Baker. Because of the low water level the only option to run the frist rapid was to run the far left creek line. So the boys started making fun of the pretended force of the Rio Baker. But only a few hundred meters later when I turned around after the S-Rapid I saw both of them beeing very busy rolling and trying to get out of the eddylines and whirlpools close to the canyon walls. With a big grin in my face I waited for them in the eddy below the rapid and from there on they believed me that all the waves, holes and whirlpools are a lot bigger than they look like from the top.
We enjoyed the beauty of the Baker about four days before we had to go back to Futa, Pucon, Santiago and home.
When we left, Hector – the owner of our campground – told us, that Hydro Aysen is going to start building the dam on the Rio Baker in 2014. So we have to come back as soon as possible – see you next season Rio Baker!
