Interesting times in Limerick

Being back to school has never been so exciting. Not just one but two adventures already this week! Going on at this rate I might even win the lottery!

After moving in with the loverly bunch down in Kayak Central in Castletroy, I’m starting to get used to cycling to college again, like back in the olden days in Holland. But travelling by push bike in Ireland is not the same as biking the peacful paths of the flatlands: precautions like helmets and high-visibility vests are very much needed. So indeed, I’ve had my first hit from a car: an A8 with an elderly driver hit me on his way out of the petrol station and I landed on the bonnet. No harm done: just a bendy wheel and a shook driver. I was fearing for his poor heart.

But not just this collision made my week exciting: I also had the luck of chasing a burglar on his way into my window out of the house at 3 am, and had to stop myself from following him all the way through the garden as I was only wearing a bra and knickers.

No photo’s of my Limerick adventures, I’m afraid. Unless I do manage to win the lottery before the end of the week!

Slovenia with Gene17

Slovenia, week 2

Slovenia is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe and an ideal waterpark for river people, rafters, kayakers and even the shark biscuits that call themselves hydrospeeders. It also very good for paragliders, climbers and mountain bikers and of course hikers and August is one of the busiest times of the year. Gene 17 hosts white water kayaking courses here, in spring and late summer, and this year was my third year out here.

The first week Matt Tidy and Dave Carroll were part of the instructing team and during the second week Dave left for home and Deb Pinniger came out in his stead. We were lucky to have a really fun group of nine people during the first week, and even luckier to have another really fun group of nine people the second week: I think both weeks there were rumours of the local drinking house Bar Baraka being drunk dry.

Upper Soca

Somehow in Slovenia you tend to get a mixed bag of weather in August; it can be scorching hot one day, and it seems the weather almost gets tired with itself and decides to throw a big wobbler, thunder and lightning and wind storms included. This meant a nice top up of water every now and then, and the river varied between higher and lower levels. We never had any bad or cold days however, although the darker days would provide us with some amazing mist banks and dramatic cloud formations.

The late nights cooking and the full days of driving and paddling caught up with me on the second week, where I lost both voice and car key on the same day. The car had to be opened by a mechanic and the voice didn’t show itself for a few days, but my team mates were amazing for keeping the spirit and really helped reducing my worries about it, so thanks for that Matt and Deb!

Group in week 2

On returning the car to the airport at the end of the two weeks I literally gained a few gray hairs (ask me to show them next time you see me), as I got stuck in traffic on an Italian motor way with only a very small margin to catching my flights. I eventually got in right on time and was a lot luckier than Jody from the course: she missed her flight in Stansted and had to fly to Belfast instead…

So back home it all felt a bit strange. A long summer, 3 months, 10 countries, loads of new friends: time flies when you’re having fun! And the tiredness set in… I spent most of the week horizontally, getting ready for another year playing Sport Scientist in the lovely University of Limerick. But it could be worse ;-), Curragower and Glens, here I come!

European Championships

Trains, planes and automobiles from now on! I left Arctic Fox within Dave’s good care in Norway and flew with a detour via Ireland to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, from where we would rent a car and drive to Ourense. The brand new C3 we were allowed to break in ended up being the slowest car any of us had ever driven, and we contemplated cutting out holes for our feet for some extra power. The appartment I was sharing with Siobhan was very comfortable except from an ant invasion. Poor Tim Harris. He really doesn’t like ants!

The wave was supposedly not working on the weekend of our arrival, but we went down for a sneaky peak and were lucky enough to get our first training session on Sunday. The wave in itself was a bit small but perfect to practise some smaller moves on. I reckon if we had it in Ireland, there would be people on it the whole time.

The team after the training session-photo by Jackie Ferguson

The first team training with the French made our eyes roll out of our heads. Especially the French Junior Men were astonishing, and the new type composite boats they were paddling attracted a lot of attention. I reckon other companies will come out with similar concepts, but Gui Gui Prod definitely made an impression during the European Championships.

Team Ireland at opening ceremony

In the Preliminaries the men unfortunately missed out on the bigger scores; unfortunately Louis just managed to miss the cut. In the ladies Jackie pulled a similar act with a very respectable 11th place, and where I managed to get through to the semi finals, Siobhan even placed herself fourth! The juniors and junior ladies did really well during their first competition outside of Ireland. It is not easy to stay calm and show what you can do when everybody’s watching and I think they all coped with the pressure really well.

Siobhan was battling a stomach illness in her semi final runs and managed a nice seventh, and I was very excited to find myself in a fifth place and make the finals with two solid runs, even though only one counted. The finals eventually brought me a fourth place, which I was very happy with. I caught an edge and nearly managed to turn it into a macnasty, but not having very much practise at this move I landed just behind the hole and missed out on a medal. The junior and senior men’s finals were very exiting to watch as well, with the French cleaning up, as expected…

A ladies blunt...

There has been a lot of discussion on the fact that the runs weren’t very spectacular to look at, and agreeing with that, I still think that it was a very interesting competition, just for the fact that it was very flushy and there was no room for mistakes. I think Louis from Roc Roi (who was called in to save the day after a lot of controversy as regards the organisation) did a great job and deserves a big hug, especially after coming out during the busiest time of the year and having a young family. Fair play!

So we closed off our trip to Spain with some sight seeing, shopping (great rebajas!) and tapas. We even managed to finish our sun tan. I flew back home to touch base for a few days, and to prepare for the last leg of the summer trip: working for Gene 17 in Slovenia.

Norge!

Picking up where we left off: after a lovely time in France we swung by Slovenia to see Beppe and Sabina, some paddling friends from Slovenia and Italy, tie the knot and get married. Congrats guys, it was a lovely day and the party and dinner at Franco’s was very enjoyable.

After a detour through Nussdorf, where another couple of paddling friends live (thanks Ingrid for the most excellent work on my helmet; and Holland, where I visited my grandparents and aunt and uncle, we made the long trip all the way up to Norway.

It is great to have a van, because even though it might not be the safest position, lying down in the back is definitely the most comfortable way of travelling. We swapped over plenty of times, but by the time we got to Sjoa, we were still absolutely wrecked.

We met up with some old time partners in crime, Tim and Nick, who are always ready to help out save the world with their expert hypermiling:

We had absolutely perfect waterlevels and got a few excellent playruns in, a session or two at the bubble machine and

 some riverrunning on an ole time classic: the Ula slides.

When we met some of the other Irish paddlers out there, I was invited along on one of my favourites: the Upper Jori. It was a real wonderland run with beautiful scenery and sunny weather and a great day out, buttered mariettas and tins of minerals included.

Photo by Ross Redmond

Most of my time was spent sleeping the drive off in the back of the van and surfing the wave behind the Kayak Centre in Heidal. It is not generally running and after the floods from last year it was feared that the wave had been washed away. We were lucky: it had come back and better than ever. A perfect fast bowl wave with shoulders on both sides. Expert coach Matt Tidy from tidytrix.com helped me out with some core tips and even now, back on Curragower, I can still feel the difference!

Photo by Anna

At the end of July Strie Strommer kayak shop organisise a wicked even: Sjoa River Festival. This is one of the best periods to be out in that area,as there are loads of nice paddlers around and there is generally good water. They have a boater cross and sometimes when the levels allow it a rodeo as well. This time I had to miss out on the race and the parties and fires as I was on my way to the next destination: Spain and the European Championships.