Yet another round up!

Sorry readers, yet another 'round up'. This time we've got Squirt boating in the sun on the river Exe, Louise and I before and after our XC Mountain bike racing adventure at Haldon, and some old pictures of Paddling the Upper Dart at a good level!

Sunshine and squirt boats on the Exe

Louise feeling nervous before the fully sussed race at Haldon

Both of us feeling exhausted after the race

Check out the race results HERE

Somewhere on the Upper, After stopping to rescue a boat!

Euthanasia looking chunky!

Sorry its been so long.

Sorry its been so long, I feel like I've barely been able to spend any time in front of my computer recently! So here is a quick run down of what you've missed in the last three months.

Christmas; New year; A whistle stop tour of the UK; Mountain biking; Surfing; Kayaking the Dart; Kayaking the Severn bore; Kayaking the Walkham; A week in Scotland; A new Mountain bike; New Camera stuff; And plenty more!!

Here is a few pictures of just some of this stuff.

Climbing in the Scottish highlands

Cycling round Loch Rannoch

Fun in the snow Loch Morlich

A muddy cycle in Epping Forest

New Macro Camera gear

The Upper Dart

New Yak Team member, Extreme Frog!

Competing at Whitsands Bay surf kayak competition

Ewart Khan, warming up for the Walkham

Team AS/Yak surfin' it up!

On the Severn Bore - I'm the kayaker on the wave on the left of the picture

Waiting for the Severn Bore

Ewart Waiting for the Severn Bore

More fun from the weekend

So after all the fun of Gene 17 APWE it was time to hit the water on Sunday. There had been loads of rain, and the rivers had all been huge early in the morning, but by the time I hit the river around lunch time the level had already dropped to a good, but still fairly high level.

I started off with some squirt boating with Dan W, Tom B and Hazel W. The seam at the Weburn/Dart confluence was awesome, although my squirting technique still needs much more practice. However I still got some epic, and scary downtime!

Then it was back to top wave for a quick surf session with Tim C, and Hazel, and any other passing paddler who wanted a quick surf!

Boat of choice?! Top wave over run by Jackson kayaks!

Tom B, Dan W and Hazel after some mystery move action at the Weburn/Dart confluence

Me getting my Squirt cool on!!!!! NOT!

A rich, full weekend

What a great weekend; A rich, full weekend as I like to say. Over the weekend I managed four runs on the river Dart, each one in a different type of Boat. I started off on Saturday with a playboat run down the Dart Loop. The level was good, but just to low for Top wave to be Awesome, and just to high for Triple playwave to be ripping. Bit of a bummer, but good fun none the less. Then I switched to the squirt boat, for my first try at sinking at the 'Breathalizer' seam. I had a few 'so-so' mysteries, but I got my first taste for proper downtime, when I got sucked down into the depths! It really did take my breath away, but I can't wait to get in there again and get some more squirt boat action.
Then on Sunday I had an Upper Dart run with Tom and Andy, again a nice level, a fraction higher than when I ran it last week. Followed by a Loop run Tandem in the Open boat with Louise.
What a great weekend! Great weather, great water levels and great paddling!!

Great Autumn colours on the Loop

Tom and Andy Below Surprise Surprise

Andy, in the meat of Euthanasia

Dan and Andy testing new uses for creek boats!

More River Dart paddling.

I've managed a couple of runs on the Dart in the last few days. I managed to squeeze in an Upper Dart run with Andy and Simon Westgarth. The levels was ok, but it could have been just a little bit higher. But we had fun, and there was enough water to make it worth while.

Early on the Upper Dart

Andy, Just after the first steep rapid on the Upper Dart

And then a few days later I managed two runs on the Dart Loop. Once tandem with my wife in our open canoe, and once in the playboat. The level was a bit higher, covering half the slab at newbridge, possible the highest we've run the Loop tandem. But it did mean that all the rapids were really good, and the play wave a Triple fall was great. I did surf the wave in the open boat as well, but it did end with a small out of boat experience, check the picture below! Can you tell me what I did wrong? Then Ewart, Andy, Tom B and I had a good run in the playboats, with all the usual antics!! Check out why we call Andy the Fat-Man!

Me, about to loose control, can you see what I did wrong?

Tom B in his squirt boat, on the triple play wave

The one and only Fat-Man

Queuing for a go on the play wave

Some surf action, and some new fins?

Another action round up. I've been trying to get out in the surf as often as possible. I've had a couple of Cornish sessions and a couple of North Devon sessions. The New Rush 7/2 is ripping in the surf!
After my little rock/fin incident I've set about re-shaping the remains of my fins and have made and started testing a new centre fin. So far the whole small side fin, larger center fin set up has been working really well, and the first prototype centre fin has worked well too. If all goes well I'll make some molds from these originals and try and make a few of them. I have a few other fins shape prototypes too, they just need re-fining and testing. Watch this space for more!

Fresh off the work bench, center fin prototype 1

The best looking surf boat ever??

The new fin set up after their first test

Cool new Yak Camo sticker

Hmmmm....... sparkly!

Harlyn surf, and my new boat

I took my new Surf kayak out this morning for it's maiden voyage. Due to a strong wind from the south west I opted to head to Harlyn, to try and get some shelter. To get the best of the tide, and to avoid the worst of the crowds I set off while it was still dark, and hit the water before eight and at about mid tide. There were only 4 other guys in the water, and the surf was a good, 2-3ft.

The view from my cockpit

A boardie slots into a clean one

As the tide continued to push, the waves got busier, and the swell got bigger. What had started as a comfortable couple of feet soon turned into a 3-4ft, with the occasional bigger outside set that would race in at about the six foot mark and close out most of the bay! It kept me on my toes! Somehow I manged to get away with only the one working, possibly a new Harlyn record for me!

Classic Harlyn

A bigger set wave gives a boardie a good ride

As the tide hit the High mark I called it quits. My new Valley Rush 7/2 had acquitted itself well. I really noticed the extra stiffness and the speed it helped to generate, and the light weight meant that snapping off the top hadn't completely torn my stomach muscles to pieces! After a good session it now needs a bit more padding and more footrests. I also stopped to take a few pictures of the surfers ripping in the now quite sizeable waves. Harlyn gets a bit odd at high tide, but with a solid swell pumping it was going well.

This months Round up

I can't really believe that is been three weeks since I last posted anything. It's not because I've not had any news, I've been upto loads. But that is the problem, I've been doing so much that I've not had the time or energy in the evenings to post anything up.

So heres a quick photo round up of some of the things I've been upto this month.

Paddling the River Dart with Ewart, Liam and Kayleigh

Enjoying a dawn mission raid and after work mission in the surf at Sidmouth With Ed, Dan, Owen and Ewart

And Enjoying a great highwater day playing on Topwave and the Loop

As well as this lot I've also enjoyed a great evening messing about in the canal with Playboats, and a short weekend away in mid wales Mountain biking. It really has been all go here recently, more of the same please I say!

Sidmouth surf session

Unless you've been living underground recently you can't have failed to notice that it's been hot, really hot! And hot weather means no whitewater, and quite often no surf. But Team AS watersports struck it lucky this week. We managed to get some surf (albeit very small surf) at Sidmouth this week, which meant that everyone was able to get out on the water after work and enjoy a good mess-around in the water. Check it out!

Me, on a micro-wave!

Ewart, back in the water, and enjoy the Valley Rush

Jemma, catching a 'big' wave!


Ewart, checking out my ski

Andy and Big Dan competing for a ripple!

Kayleigh, Mitch and Dan, chilling in the evening sun