What I paddled today thread

rgfuller · 12-08-2010 2:35pm

Paddled a rented sit-on-top down the Dordogne from Carsac downriver in France last Thursday - gorgeous weather but a crowded river! At least 200+ other kayakers or canoe'ists overtaken or passed by.

ParkRunner · 15-08-2010 9:51pm

Paddled from Balbriggan out towards Rockabill lighthouse today in very calm waters. It was my first ever paddle of any significant distance out at sea and I really enjoyed it. Had a few curious seals for company and had the current with me on the way back. It was very pleasant in the evening sun! I may have caught the bug!

yomchi · 09-09-2010 11:13pm

It was my fourth time on the river today. Still a bit nervous. My instructor brought me up to Lucan today to have a look at the sluice. He wasn't expecting the water levels to be where they were, something like 3megs released from the dam so the sluice was one scary looking bast*rd:eek:

There was no way I was going down it, he wasn't going to let me anyway. It was my first experience of fast moving water and we did some ferry gliding practice, I nearly made it over on the last attempt but the water was too strong for my weakling strokes :rolleyes: and I got pushed down river, still it was good to experience.

The other lad with us has about 6 months experience and he ran the sluice. It ate him good, he lost control on the approach and capsized heading into it, he got tossed out of it pretty quick and came up on a T rescue.

We headed down toward to the Lucan weir and we did some X rescue drills on the way down which were good crack especially in the fast water.
I ran the weir at Lucan, it was some drop! Made it to the eddy and capsized by turning too quick without controlling the edge well enough.

It was a great day all in all, some hair raising moments and some good skills practiced.

yomchi · 15-09-2010 11:20am

It was back to the club last night for some technique drills.

We covered some ferry gliding across the river, front and back with a larger focus on lifting the edge. We went then into low brace turns, again with an emphasis on the edge. I capsized twice on this turn initially but got it down later on in the evening. We went then into sweep stroke combo's and a couple combination drills where I had to ferry glide across to one side, low brace turn mid way, paddle backwards to the bank and then paddle with speed back across. That went ok for me.

To finish as we moved back down the river to the club house I touched on the draw stroke which was a difficult little pig to master!

The lads went down the weir then and played around in the standing wave. Great session all in all. We have a rescue course tonight, should be good!

yomchi · 19-12-2010 5:51pm

Liffey, Cold, Hypothermia, sore hands. Good day

Truley · 27-12-2010 12:32am

Lots of fun was had pushing boats down snowy hills

yomchi · 02-01-2011 8:52pm

Made the line through sluice today for the first time. The last time I tried I ended up stuck to a tree with no paddle and that was before the wave! Today the preparation was perfect, I followed Ger's (my instructor) line down keeping the nose pointing river right. Paddy was behind me just in case, made it onto the wave, leaned forward and paddled like hell but the bump off it was too much and not even the best high brace in the world saved me and over I went for a few seconds, came up on the nose of Ger's boat. Delighted I made the line though and it was tankin' as well. That's one head fcuk nailed, next time won't be so daunting.

wet-paint · 05-01-2011 3:34am

Good job dude, but easy up on the high bracing, they're not good.

irishlostboy · 05-01-2011 10:32am

done a wee bit of boating since the thaw. missed a lot of the best water unfortunately. yesterday got a new first on a river i found over a decade ago, but only got it clear of trees this summer. nice short and steep little creek. hoping to hit it again soon with more water.
166648_191677650846952_161478637200187_810007_6040643_n.jpg

166648_191677650846952_161478637200187_810007_6040643_n.jpg

also spent the down-time editing up some purty videos. footage was taken by Peter Martin for some projects he needed some kayaking on. paddling is not flash, but the camerawork is to die for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0ahmPcJuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJzIXmp7NJE

yomchi · 05-01-2011 10:16pm

wet-paint wrote: »

Good job dude, but easy up on the high bracing, they're not good.

In fairness I think it was more flailing than anything else

but I hear ya, need to keep the shoulders in tact!

wet-paint · 09-01-2011 3:20pm

irishlostboy wrote: »

done a wee bit of boating since the thaw. missed a lot of the best water unfortunately. yesterday got a new first on a river i found over a decade ago, but only got it clear of trees this summer. nice short and steep little creek. hoping to hit it again soon with more water.

also spent the down-time editing up some purty videos. footage was taken by Peter Martin for some projects he needed some kayaking on. paddling is not flash, but the camerawork is to die for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0ahmPcJuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJzIXmp7NJE

You don't fancy doing up a short review for IWW, do you?

BOOF IT STEVE · 09-01-2011 6:53pm

A cold but fun trip down the dereen with TKC

irishlostboy · 10-01-2011 12:51am

wet-paint wrote: »

You don't fancy doing up a short review for IWW, do you?

the river guides i have for our local rivers are available here: http://sligokayakclub.com/river%20guide.html
i wont write guides for the new rivers that i dont know well yet. i wait until i have paddled them in various water levels, until i know the river, access, etc well. then i write the guides. we have only paddled this new river twice. it needs some good saw work to be made safe and i need to speak with local land owners before i set the info about it into the wild.

KenHy · 10-01-2011 2:12pm

You have some good guides there! Could you put them on IWW too, as I'm sure it could be usefull to plenty of people who wouldn't visit Sligo Kayak Club's site too often?

irishlostboy · 10-01-2011 4:23pm

KenHy wrote: »

You have some good guides there! Could you put them on IWW too, as I'm sure it could be usefull to plenty of people who wouldn't visit Sligo Kayak Club's site too often?

if anyone fancies transfering my guides over onto IWW, then go for it. just so long as the article submitted links back to the original article and gives correct credits i dont mind.

BOOF IT STEVE · 14-01-2011 6:32pm

Low to medium run on the annamoe.. Glens tomo

:D

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=490517686433&subj=100000666342293

yomchi · 16-01-2011 7:41pm

Crackin' days paddling today. We ventured down the Avonmore from the put in opposite little Jacksons and headed down to Clara vale church. The water was up around medium to high in places. I made massive improvements on this trip, pulled out two rolls and had no swims, eddy catching is becoming much sharper too.

We pulled out at the picnic spot after running the wave trains and did it all again except this time I had to catch the eddy further up which was much sharper, and made it

We headed down to the Clara Lara slides then for a bit of banter and a flask of tea.
After that we headed on down and did some more level 3 skills, ferry gliding is much easier now but the big step up was edge control heading over eddy lines.

I even managed a half arsed boof off a very small rock for the crack! It was like pulling a wheelie over a ramp on your BMX when you were 7

you think your wheel goes really high put it doesn't

Also met Kipper on the river at little jacksons he was doing a photo shoot for a magazine. Anyone know him? Meant to be sh1t hot.

I'll have a video soon I hope to share

yomchi · 20-02-2011 8:16pm

Ventured up to the Boyne today, it was time to don the aul playboat for a change of scenery as the last few trips on the Avonmore were all in the river runner. I knew the river would be high but fcuk me :eek: it was tanking when we pulled in at Slane to have a gander. The Animal was washed over and lots of big whirl pools were circulating on this side of the bridge. On came the dry mouth and the need for a few toilet trips

There was only four of us, me L2 and the three others at L4 going for 5 so I was in good company. The objective of the day was to push the adventure zone out and have a wet and wild day and that's exactly what happened. I made it up and over every weir but the edges on the PB proved a right challenge as I straightened up post the drop, I had a couple of swims but the first one was gas, the deck imploded and the boat filled up with water and sank like a stone with me still in it

all I was interested in was saving me new rough stuff paddles :cool:

Anyway it was a blast of a day and very interesting to see all the features that would normally be quite tame on normal water levels turn into beasts. You'd want to see the wave at the Slane Castle weir!! It was like tidal I kid you not, but what a rush heading into it and up and over it to hit a stopper on the far side and then catapulted upside down like a rollercoaster!

We must be mad!

Truley · 21-02-2011 12:28pm

Nice day out on the Inney river Longford at medium/high level. Getting closer to getting my cartwheel in the hole, and had lovely surf on the green wave. Also had my first swim in a long time. I always do it in the sillyist places

yomchi · 21-02-2011 11:23pm

Slane Castle weir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E780WYMxchI

I was the middle guy.... and I held in

Truley · 08-03-2011 9:12pm

I had a lovely surf in Tulan Co. Donegal at the weekend. Place was crawling with kayakers, surf kayakers and waveski's. Got cag rash on my neck that looks like a giant hickey. Great impression I made on my first day of new job :P

vintage01 · 11-03-2011 1:28am

Truley wrote: »

I had a lovely surf in Tulan Co. Donegal at the weekend. Place was crawling with kayakers, surf kayakers and waveski's. Got cag rash on my neck that looks like a giant hickey. Great impression I made on my first day of new job :P

There was a kayak surf comp on there on Saturday. Its nice to be out with loads of paddlers sometimes keeps the boardies in check!

Truley · 11-03-2011 10:54am

vintage01 wrote: »

There was a kayak surf comp on there on Saturday. Its nice to be out with loads of paddlers sometimes keeps the boardies in check!

The poor boardies were terrified! And rightly so :P

black spot · 17-03-2011 2:09pm

I've only been kayaking once, last year from Fermoy Rowing Club out to the Flatley pile & back again. I loved it

Slidey · 28-03-2011 11:54pm

First time out this year.

Went up river to Templehouse lake. Nice view of Templehouse from the river.

Was just in Tshirt and shorts, would have gotten out dry but I have no stoppers for the kayak. Anyone know an irish stockist for RTM kayaks that will have the stoppers, google has failed me along with Call of the Wild in Sligo

pclancy · 29-03-2011 10:34am

Hello all. Just noticed this forum, great to see fellow Kayaking addicts on Boards! Have been living in New Zealand the last few years so have been lucky to do some deadly white and salt water kayaking.

This is the lovely Marlborough Sounds on the top of the South Island.

Some more photos here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/plclancy/MarlboroughSounds?authkey=Gv1sRgCKf6gMWhkPrDvQE&feat=directlink

pclancy · 30-03-2011 1:09am

yomchi wrote: »

Slane Castle weir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E780WYMxchI

I was the middle guy.... and I held in

Those little Kayaks look great fun and the weir seriously good fun! Cool video.

yomchi · 16-04-2011 6:05pm

SOme stunning photos!

The little Kayaks are playboats, designed to be sporty in fast water. Lots of edge catching going on

yomchi · 17-04-2011 7:52pm

Great day on the boyne today, the S bends were the scene for my first 'real life' combat roll, what a feeling

There were kayakers to beat the band up there today, nice to meet you all

pmccormack · 27-04-2011 3:31pm

Here is a short video of what I spent my Eater Sunday doing!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y48ySk8vsgI&feature=feedwll

Cant beat hanging around in the caves and caverns of our wonderful coastline!!!

Paddy
www.irishcanoekayak.com

What I paddled today thread

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