Picture by Caitriona O'Brien

Nearly 30 female paddlers from all over Ireland made it out to Connemara this weekend to paddle together and raise funds for the Cancer Research through the Irish Cancer Society. The weekend was open to all abilities and a lot of new faces decided to come along and try some freestyle moves.

Emer Farrell, photo by Aisling Corkery

The first session brought us to a mellow playhole in Tuam. The levels were low: ideal for getting used to new boats and practising surfing and spinning. There were three ‘work stations’, going over boat outfitting, surfing the wave and spinning, and some braver souls even threw themselves in the pit of doom without their paddles!

After a swift drive through the beautiful countryside of Connemara, the second session took place in Clifden. The hole is a bit more serious than Tuam and quite hard to attain from below. Nevertheless there were some spectacular moves by beginners as well as experts, and everyone managed to get a surf.

Waterford Girls after the drive to Clifden...

The weather was too cold for a beach party unfortunately, and we spent the evening in EJ King’s listening to live music and planning to take over the world.

Morning Surfing

Small but steep!

The next morning brought us rain and a tiny surf, but some of us went out and caught a few punchy little steep waves at Dunloughan beach. It was only a short session and tea and lunch was a great treat after getting out in the cold.

The Great Outdoors Race: Bionic Woman Jen Lynch wins!

The rodeo kicked off with a race through the arch, won by Jen ‘Bionic Woman’ Lynch from ULKC/Queens. Wavesport have sponsored an extra amount towards Cancer Research instead of a prize, thanks a mill Shane!

Denise mid spin, photo by James van den Broek

The Universities battled hard with some pretty sweet trophy moves. Clare Quigly from Trinity managed to land the ‘Big Move’ category with landing a helix in the Hole. The Great Outdoors in Dublin have kindly sponsored another 100 euro towards the cause, thank you Great Outdoors! The University Class was eventually taken by Rebecca Power from WIT. Well done Bex, and a big thanks to Mark from Munster Dive and Canoe for contributing to our University Class Donation.

Emer going for the Loop, photo by James van den Broek

Five juniors entered the weekend, and the standard was very high. The girls were spinning and going for loops in the practice sessions, but decided to go for fun rules to have more FUN. Louise Cummins from Blessington took the gold medal with some sweet fun moves, but the others were following closely with spins and some hand-free moves in the hole. A big thank you to Total Experience for your donation for the Juniorette class!

Inney kayaker Irene Nooney

The beginners class was heavily dominated by a certain force from the midlands. Irene Nooney elegantly took Gold, and Sinead Thornton (only paddling since August) took the Bronze, with Mags from Dublin taking silver. Thank you very much James Carroll, for sponsoring no less than 200 euro towards our cause!

Fran, photo by boyfriend

Fran, Niamh and Ash: experts top 3

Then last but not least, Fran O’Donnell, with injury and all, took gold in the Outdoor Evolution Expert class with two very convincing rides. Thank you very much, Jenny, for sponsoring 100 euro towards the cause in this class.

I have to say, I had a great time this weekend. Meeting lots of new people and paddling with girls has definitely been fun, and the group hug at the end was brilliant too… (in fact, they nearly killed me)

Group Hug

I’m still waiting on some of the money, but it looks like we will pass the 2500 euro mark! Thanks again everyone!

Hi Guys,

One week to go till our Women’s Freestyle Weekend. It looks like we’re not getting one of them spring storms next weekend, so we’re good to go for the Beach Party! There will be some rain during the week before, so this might give us a chance to do a morning session in Tuam! Keep your eyes on this site for the green light.

In and around 30 girls have signed up to come along so far. Some really cool freestyle instructors have offered their help on the Saturday. There will be a beginners clinic, an intermediate clinic and an advanced clinic, so if you’re looking to practise catching the wave, spinning or want to get your head around nailing them McNasties, there will be plenty of chance to practice.

The medals for the rodeo have been finished as well, and they are looking quite funky… The Fun Rules have been worked out and I think they are quite Funny I hope! Check out below for the fun rules and follow this link for the score sheet for the Experts Rules!

Fun Rule Score sheet

Hope things are going well with your sponsorship cards! There are 6 sponsors so far and we are still waiting to hear from the last two.

If you don’t have a playboat and wants me to find one for you, let me know as soon as possible so I can sort it out! Similarly, if you’re looking for a place to stay, I can give you a list of hostels and B&B’s, and send you a route description with Google earth. If you’re on Facebook, sign up to the group Women’s Freestyle Weekend to discuss carpooling and look at the pictures! 

See you next weekend!

Women's freestyle in aid of Irish Cancer Society

Freestyle weekend to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society!

To help raise money for Cancer Research, I am trying to get as many female paddlers down to Clifden as possible for a day of clinics and a fun rodeo.

Clinics

Saturday will be a practise day to learn all about your moves and getting to know the other participants. There will be clinics by female freestyle paddlers, tips and advice in the hole and on the flat, and we’ll take some photos and video so we all have something to remember the day by. If you’re not interested in doing the clinics, just come along for the laugh!

Rodeo

On Sunday there will be a sponsored fun rodeo for all ability levels. If you don’t like the idea of competition just think of it as a social occasion where loads of ladies meet up, spend time in a beautiful place and go paddling together to contribute to a great cause.

• Novice Class: if you have never seen a playboat in your life and you want to give it a lash (fun rules)
• University Class: if you’re in a college and feel like going mad (fun rules)
• Expert Class: if you’re in for the big tricks (European Rules).
• Junior Ladies: if you’re between 14 and 18 (fun rules)

There will be no entry fees, but we do ask you to fill out a sponsorship card (send me an e-mail to get one). There will be independent sponsors that will pay a contribution towards the the cause for every point scored by the winner of each class J.

So send me an email and come along! It will be great fun!

Sponsors:  

Total Experience: proud sponsor of the junior ladies class

Munster Dive and Canoe: sponsoring the University Class

Medichem medical supplies: sponsoring the novice class

Outdoor Evolution: Sponsoring the Expert's Class

Great Outdoors: Sponsoring the Bionic Woman-Race

Wave Sport: sponsoring the Big Move

Mullingar CC, going for the wave

The last while I’ve been delighted to run several level III assessments with nice groups. Ireland seems to be ready to rock and roll in regards to the ICU Award scheme, which is great because it offers a great opportunity to really get those strokes and techniques right.

Malcolm and Brian: surf kings

There have been some changes on the Syllabus since September I would really like to highlight for people who are going for their level III in the near future: the ROLL and the HANGING DRAW are now in there too so don’t forget to practice those!  Personally I would love to see the Syllabus evolve so it focuses more on the actual understanding of the river flow and moving the boat where it needs to go,  so that solid paddlers that miss out on a few strokes and have different (but technically sound) solutions to get where they want to go can also pass the assessment.

Until then: keep perfecting them strokes and use them where they help you get where you want, but remember the main thing about paddling is fun! Well done to the Mullingar, Tullamore and Lir paddlers that have recently passed their assessment!

Girls on the Castleconnell

Last Saturday some of us Ladies from UL decided to paddle the Castleconnell on an unofficial girly day. The rest of the country was either snowed in or bone dry, but the CC had a nice bouncy level.

Timmy, Kim and Emma the Great

We got lots of sun, lots of water and Little Joe found his way back to his Mum!

S-bend on the Castleconnell

The S-Bend Rapid was flowing quite happily through the trees on both banks so we had to make sure there were no uncontrolled swims. The Castle Wall rapid was one big wave train with lots of push.

Wave trains

We ran the river without major incidents and got some eddy turn practise in. Thanks Jennifer (for a smooth boat rescue), Lilly (for the sound effects), Timmy (for the facial expressions) and Emma for the great little dance at the put in…

The Team

Surfing Lil Gower

Due to very high water levels on the Shannon, the scheduled squad trials that were due to happen at Curragower Falls on Saturday and Sunday had to be postponed and moved to a one day event at Tarmonbarry Weir. Some of us took the opportunity to have a fun session at Lil Gower before heading to Tarmonbarry.

The following day we all gathered up at Tarmonbarry, where the high water levels had changed the feature into a very trashy flat wave that was quite hard to get into.

However, it was better than nothing and progression in the moves was seen over the day. I would like to take my hat off to all the juniors that braved the cold weather and the tricky circumstances and would like to let them know: don’t worry, freestyle competitions are nearly never like that!

Fortunately I managed to finally get onto the wave after a few tries (during my runs) and got enough points for first place in the competition. A series of competitions will now select 3 ladies out of the 6 that have made it onto the squad.  See here for more information on the new squad! 

A big thanks to the organisation and good luck to all the squad!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hopefully everyone is fired up to celebrate the New Year with lots of paddling. I definitely am full of inspiration for the coming year! Have a look at the plans: 

-A series of level III and IV based dynamic paddling sessions: How do we incorporate the strokes we’ve learned in a confident, dynamic paddling style!

-Freestyle days: Learn the basics of freestyle in Sluice, Stackallen, Clifden, Curragower or Tuam! 

-Guiding days: how to prepare, lead and solve problems on a river trip.

-Slovenia Girls Trip: an all girls coaching trip on the best river in Europe (Click HERE for more information)

-Biomechanical analysis of techniques: I’ll be putting my sport science course to use and hope to upload more technique articles onto the site for general use.

-Level II, III and IV assessments: I’m hoping to be on the level IV assessment panel in the near future, and am available for assessments or assessment practice sessions.

 

 

 

That’s it folks, stay tuned in and hope to see you soon for a lot of paddling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

xxx Kim

… nor the ‘F’ word (freezing), nor the ‘B’ word (Baltic)! Instead, the hardcore Trinity paddlers that went out with me on the coldest Saturday Annamoe Session this year used sentences like: “I’m starting to feel less warm,” and “Is that glass?”.  

I thought this might be a perfect day for a Teddy Test: equipped with my fleecy Teddy top, bottoms and socks (because they’re figure hugging they don’t bulk up underneath your gear so you can actually move), I subjected myself to a 4 hour trip down the Annamoe river in minus conditions.

A lovely Warm Teddy Feeling

4 Trinity paddlers had asked me to do a session on how to prepare and execute a safe river trip with beginners. We started with an Anns-Coffee-Shop-Classroom-Session, brainstorming on the ingredients for a safe and fun rivertrip with beginners. When everyone had thawed out we got on the river, where it was clear to me that personal standard of paddling was great. We managed to keep dry heads except from one little organisational error: that first corner after the put-in is always difficult to negotiate well, even with good paddlers! I learned some great variations on exercises that I sometimes do myself, and it shows that it is great to meet new people on the river, because every club has a store of new ideas! 

We kept moving fast to keep warm, and managed to get dry hair lines on Jackson’s just before dark. Getting changed it proved that the Teddy Thermals had kept me warm and dry and they passed the test with flying colours! Another learning point for the day was that wet gear sticks very well to a frozen ground.

Well done Trinity heads. We know we’re not idiots but… heroes!

Competitors racing down the Colligan Gorge

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. a small group of rebels organised a kayak race in County Waterford.

 It seems a long way to go, but in fact, it’s only an hour and a half from Limerick (if you travel with the speed of light), and the gorge is beautiful and a mellow class III. On arrival, competing Jedi’s were funnelled into a registration tent where T-shirts and wrist bands and even bib numbers were given out: it was clear there had been some slick organiser at work.

Unfortunately Han ‘Ross Redmond’ Solo had driven his fastest bucket of bolts in the galaxy a bit too fast and I was feeling a bit queasy, so decided to watch from a safe distance. I had time to discover even more organisational features like the test boats at the adventure centre pool, two portaloos and even a bit of shopping! Palm, Munster Dive, Total Experience and of course Princess Jenny from Outdoor Evolution featured the grounds with a display of down jackets, hats, thermals and other warm items. Down by the river signs and marking tape guided you safely to the start line. I was most impressed by the wobbly hanging bridge and the team of college Ewoks that took care of crossing your boat for you, along a zip line.

The hanging bridge: a one day special

The race kicked off with the individual boatercross, where competitors battled 5 by 5 to get down the river and ring the bell in the bottom eddy first. Men, women, even padawans came flying down through the narrow slots and slides. The use of light sabres was allowed and some fierce battling was witnessed in the ladies sport class. Some poor unfortunate competitors managed to forget about the ringing of the bell and missed out on their chance to go through to the next round. It was clear that the Dagger Green had quite a speed advantage on the other boats, but… was it enough?

Cheez and the Green Machine

The team race focused on tasks like paddling around a buoy, rolling and catching a very small eddy, and I think I wasn’t the only one that was waiting curiously if the Green would be able to make the turn. A very slick performance of team green showed it is possible to turn the Green just about anywhere, but that it is hard to all three of them the same eddy at the bottom, and Outdoor Experience took the trophy!

Rosie 'you could only see the smoke' Cripps

 After a prize giving with lots of happy people, nice prizes (for full results click here) and an all-over feeling of contentment, the focus was on the Ireland-All Blacks game, and afterwards the big party. The weekend was a great success and we established there is a lot of talent, especially in the female University class (of who some well may call themselves masters at this stage), and of course the younger girls! The Tullamore Sisters and Waterford Home Girl were shining in the boatercross, and the Lacken Padawans took the team event. Well done!

On one last note: Jenny, Keoghser and Kipper decided to give the boat (by I-Canoe) that they won in the team race away to the raffle in aid of Childline. On the 6^th of December there will be a big fundraiser night with lots of interesting guest speakers, raffles and other craic at the Outdoor Evolution shop in Blessington. DON’T MISS IT! Click here for more information!

Photos in this article by Germy and Co

Outdoor Evolution Opening Night

With the winter coming and snow arriving early, I have already had a few good clatters around the head from the icy hammer! It ain’t easy, out facing the elements. The latest development has therefore arrived just in time!

A brand new outdoor shop has opened in Blessington. Outdoor Evolution (www.outdoorevelotion.ie) is owned and managed by my friend Jenny Kilbride, a very active sportswoman (kayaking, mountainbiking, running, you name it). She has a great amount of hands-on experience with all sorts of gear and opened up her shop especially to sell only things she has tested and proven worthy in action!

Missus boss woman herself

And it’s getting better: she has decided to sponsor my thermals. For the years she has known me, I haven’t heard the end of her teddy thermals: with the winter coming I shall attempt to wear them at every occasion (bless my good class mates…) and see if they are really that good!

A great success: people fighting over popular merchandise