ye old shepperton....
We had a great night yesterday, after work we shot of down to Shepperton and found it on an absolutely classic green 9. All the boys from shepperton slalom canoe club were down taking a break from their gruelling training sessions to have a good old play!
(I can't for the life of me remember this guys name, But I know he drives a silver scoby)
(Joel burns up the wave in his C1)
(All the pictures are due to mike, Sorry mate he din't get your name!)
(Me in the Tallywhacker, we had our maiden voyage last night, the Whacker ROCKS!)
Shepbury!
What a weekend Friday sat and sun I was down at Andy’s stag do in Weymouth, how wet can you get! So much fun though. 17 hour drinking sessions, Mackerel fishing, Go carting, Pirate Golf, Great time. Then back home to find Shep & Sun going of the meat counter baby! Now drop that bomb…….
(Mike in the GTS at shepperton first thing, Now his play boat of choice, Whay a lovely day, the second wave was good in small play boats. Front wave was only really good in proper boonners)
Can you really believe it! 3 days till June and we can still surf.....what a cool season this has been, and the biggest complaint of the day, It's to bright...Pete at sunburt just before work today
Dagger’s Secret Agent
Dagger’s latest and greatest Play boats the “Agents” have just arrived in the shop! We also have all the sizes to buy and as Demo, so if you want to come down and try one out on the weirs you are more than welcome…. The Agent has been designed by top Welsh designer Snowey
What Dagger say:
“The Agent picks up where the award winning Crazy 88 left off as Dagger's top play boat. The Agent has fantastic hull speed and great bounce. It’s been developed with Team D paddlers and tested in a wide range of conditions - on rivers and in the ocean. The Agent's hull design allows paddlers to make quick edge to edge transitions, while retaining hull speed. The rocker profile makes for explosive bounce and huge wave moves. Traditional play hole moves as well as aerial and combination sequences are the Agent's strengths as a result of its precisely distributed volume and slicey ends. Dagger continues to up the ante in play boat comfort with extra foot room for even the most excessive foot requirements. New outfitting includes thermo-molded foam seat pad, hip pads and backband. An IR Overthruster is standard.”
(Pete paying secret agent!)
The Washburn
After many years of serious effort and commitment, Pete Astles of PeakUK has decided to take a well earned break from organising events here in the UK. Thankfully, Jim Evans and his company AlpKit have stepped up and this past weekend saw the launch of the
Plastic Fantastic AlpKit Kayak Series The first event in the series was held on the Washburn River in Yorkshire. All of these event will have two main parts, a boater x and a freestyle competition. The boater X saw it's fair share of carnage with heat of 4 heading off in an 'America's Cup' style start. Each paddler had to negoiate a slalom pole half way down the course which mixed things up a bit and allowed opportunities for over taking. The expert men's class saw an interesting battle between Jon Best and James 'Pringle' Bebbington, who had made a bet where the loser had to race the final topless. However, both made it through after winning their heats so the final saw the two of them scrapping 'skin to win', except they were so busy fighting each other that they were over taken by the other two paddlers leaving them in 4th and 3rd respectively.
Jon going skin to win in the Mega Rocker
In the women's event, I won my heat putting me through to the expert women's final with Claire O'Hara and new SquareRock paddler Molly Crisp. A good start put me in second place, but at the slalom gates, I slowed down and Molly over took. However, after sneaking across the start line before the buzzer, Claire, who had shot off in 1st place, had to touch the penalty board, putting her back in the third place. It was a good fight til the end, but I couldn't quite get past Molly, leaving her to take the win and me in 2nd, with us both in Punk Rockers, a JK 1 and 2! My best results in a river race so far!
Molly at the back, then me, chasing down Claire at the start of the final
The next day saw the freestyle competition take place in the 'broken weir', a small shallow hole where you hit the bottom, alot. Despite this, Pringle managed to pull phonix monkeys and loops from no where to take the win in Expert men's. In the expert women's, Molly was looking great for the win all weekend, however the final was knockout format and one not so good ride left her in third place. Leaving me and Claire to fight it out. Claire went first and couldn't quite get the moves she was looking for. I think this was the first time I really realised how much my time spent judging has helped me. I was able to figure out exactly what I needed to do and although it wasn't the most exciting ride, it was safe and I was able to win!
Overall the weekend was a great sucess, Jim did a fantastic job and thanks to everyone who helped out. Bring on the next event at Tryweryn in September!For all the results check out
http://www.alpkit.com/pfaks. All picture courtsey of Jim Evans
Jim with the women's freestyle podium finishers, (me on far right)
When Sambuca goes wrong!
What can I say. Just your average night out in Sunbury..........
The and only "WWW" Wave
The "W" wave is a little used and much underrated feature on the Thames! It is quite a small feature but for people looking for a fun wave witch you can surf, spins, blunt on its fine, and with the Thames fast dropping it’s starting to come into its prime. And best of all is nice and quiet……
(The boyz Mike & Matt squeezing through the nettles to gain access to the river!)
(The good thing at the "www" wave is you can pull most moves in most boats, Here Matt spins the Eskimo speeder and sets up for some nice ends.....) The pictures don't really do the wave Justice, When your in it it feels much bigger than it looks. Honest!
Swim Ear saves the day
Pete is not normally known for his water retention problems, but recently he has had terrible trouble hearing things.
Swim Ear to the rescue, what a little diamond!!!!!
World Champs 07
So the 2007 Freestyle world championships has come to an end. Despite Bus eater only being in for 4 days the event went very well. We had a crazy training day on Tuesday when the organizers had to cram in training for all the nations, which proved hard as many of the competitors had never used the tow in rope before, this meant training was short with not much wave time. I think I managed to get 5 practice rides before my competition rides. I guess it was the same as everyone bar the locals.
Photo by Maggie Crocker
The wave fluctuated quite a bit during the comp, I think it was probably at it's prime on the first and half way through the second day of the comp, by day three it had started to brake and become very piley. At its best the mini bus wave is amazing, the biggest wave I have ever surfed. Every wave move is possible and every move is massive, it is very hard to throw anything small. When bussy backs up and your at the top, it feels like your about to fall of a house, you need take advantage of every pass you can because your never sure when the pile will brake on you, you'll be swallowed and spat out the back.
The competition went very well, with chief judge
Emily Wall keeping things on time and running smoothly. All the competitors seemed stoked that the comp was going ahead on bussy and that really showed in their paddling. Some of the rides were out of this world, Billy Harris, Nick Troutman, Peter Csonka, EJ and and many more showed unbelievable control and style. In the women's Ruth Gordon and Tanya Faux really made an impression pushing the limits for female paddling.
When the comp was quickly over on the Friday, it was time to party. A Hawaiian and Red Bull party finished off the event nicely.
To find out more about results and info on the worlds check out.
www.worldfreestylekayakingchampionships.comCheck out
EJ's winning ride here.Thank you to 'Wilderness Tours, Matt'Sharky'McGuire, Emily Wall and all the judges, Peter Mears, Team GB, Dave, Terry and Pete, and all else involved.
2 sunny for you!
The news came through late last night. Hurley on 2! so this morning still rather shaky after a late night of home brew and poker me and Mike set off for a early morning mission.
It was alright!
Nice and sunny!
Have a good weekend, please pop in.
red-eared terrapins
Mike has been telling tall stories for the last couple of weeks about mermaids and sea monsters in the eddy at Chertsey, but blow me down! he was right check out the new pets at Chertsay.......
(I think they Bite! be careful)
Cider, Tea and a token paddle…
A Bank holiday is a momentous occasion here? Why you say, well because we get 2 days off in a row. We had planned to go fishing this weekend, the telescopic fishing kits were packed and the Ocean Kayak Big games were loaded, but then quite out of the blue the weather went a bit funny and the surf started rolling in. Plan 1 was scraped and plan 2 came into affect!
(Pete at the national Cider and perry collection, Middle Farm west sussex)
(Air Miles enjoying the briefest of sunny spells with some new friends) Monday dawned wet and windy, the surf was up, so off we went!
(Nothing to big but a bit of fun) 
Hobie kayaks have landed.
Just a quick note to let you all know that we are now the authorized dealers for Hobie Kayak, London and south east area. We have several of there more popular models as Demos so please call in and have a look. Prices start from 1099.00 and continue up!
check out there web site here
It's May already.....
A mementos occasion occurred last night down at Chertsey! For the first time ever (As far as I can remember) Squirt boats out numbered float boats………. And I think the Chertsey squirt massive should soon be getting bigger. Squirt Mondays seem to be growing in popularity fast, see you there.
P.S Stock check has nearly finished normal bloging should soon be resumed!
