GoPro Camera test, again

Nothing too exciting today I'm afraid. I was keen to give the GoPro digital camera another test, so I bodged together a helmet mount, and went for a quick play on the canal. I also managed to persuade Louise to sit on the side and take a few stills with it as well.

Getting my bow stall on!

The still shots turned out quite well, but with the camera being very simple, and totally automatic, and with a small view finder it can be a bit hit and miss getting the focus right sometimes, and in low light conditions it will automatically set a slow shutter speed, meaning that action shots will come out blurred.

Am I spinning, pirouetting, twirling, fluffing a cartwheel.......

The video is very good, it doesn't always look as good when posted on the net, due to the compression used to limit its size. But when played back on your PC at home it looks very impressive.

Overall the camera is a good as I'd expect from something that costs less than £100, including the waterproof case. The stills are good, the video is simple but crisp, and good enough for web use. It does has a few draw backs, the view finder is small, and when in the waterproof case almost impossible to use, and it can be a bit battery hungry when taking lots of short video clips.

I feel its a bit of a second camera, and the big attraction is the waterproof casing. If you want something for nonstop use in, on, or just under the water then the GoPro could be for you. If you want something for high quality photography and video, then you might want to look somewhere else.

Some helmet cam footage from a bit of playing on the canal.

Bantham surf, in a kayak!!

With the surf forecast showing a good Southwest swell, and off-shore winds, there was no doubt that there would be some waves on the south coast today. The only trouble was getting the tide times right. There was only one thing for it, a 5am start!!

One of the larger set waves of the session

So we rolled up at Bantham at 6.30, still in the dark. But the dawn was rapidly coming, and so were the number of cars! A dozen hard-core dawn mission surfers made the way out into the line up. Some for a quick 45min session before hitting work, other were there like me, surfing till the tide was too high.

Mmmm.... Werner foam-core paddles......

The surf was perfect, 3ft sets, with the odd larger set to catch you out, light off-shore winds to hold them up, and a soft light pressing through the grey clouds. The only worry I had was, "what this boat going to be like?" I'd not paddled the Valley Rush, or any other composite surf kayak, before and so it was going to be a bit of a jump in the deep end!

Desperately trying to make the drop in

The Rush however turned out to be a dream to paddle, fast, very maneuverable and surprisingly forgiving. I took a couple of late take offs, one on one of the bigger sets, I was sure I was going to go over the falls, but some how, with all my weight back and on my highest rail , I made the drop and fired off down the line in a state of shock!

One of the earlier waves of the day

I would like to try out the new bigger sized Rush, the Rush+. I just felt that the boat felt a little over loaded sometimes, even with only my 12stone in it.

Shredding the inside re-form on the way back to the beach

I also gave the Gopro camera another test. However it wasn't the greatest, unable to mount it on my helmet, helmet mounts are still on there way. So I strapped it to my Buoyancy aid shoulder strap. I captured a few good bit of footage, not many, but check them out below.

Bantham surf video, not the best but not too bad!

The season starts here!

Well October has started, the River Dart has 'opened' once again, and spirits are high. Hopefully we'll have another good season in the South West. I hear some people have been on the Dart already, even if levels weren't that good!
But don't forget it all kicks off this weekend, with The South West Canoe Show. Saturday the 6th of October 10am till 5pm.
Check it out at www.swcanoeshow.com

Puddletown woods, camera testing

It feels like ages since I've been out for a good mountain biking session, but today I put that to an end. Ewart and I headed to Puddletown woods in Dorset. A great place for some DH, Freerideing, 'Shore and dirt jumps. With masses of trails and masses of styles of trail there is loads to choose from.
We started off with some straight forward flowing trails and jumps, on one of the open sandy hills. Check out the videos below for a taster.
Then we headed over to one of the other hills, and had a quick ride on the dirt jumps. Where I crashed lots!! Then it was on down the hill to the Northshore. It was the first time I'd been to the shore here and I was impressed by what we found. Unfortunately the camera batteries had started packing up by this point and so I've not got anything to show for it! We also managed to find some Monster Big 'shore that was still under construction. It looks like it'll feature a 10+ drop off when it's finished, that pretty big!!!!
The trail that flows through the shore, named creepy hollow, is really good, lots of small sections of shore, and lots of swooping turns and drops. Brilliant!
Then after a quick ride on a few other trails, and a quick jump session on the 'bmx track' section of trails, we headed back, via a great sandy sweeping trail back to the van.
What a great days biking, why haven't I been doing this all summer!!

Some of the new BIG shore

The Big shore

Ewart stood below the unfinished BIG drop off





I've also been testing out the new Go Pro digital hero camera. Its a small waterproof, shock proof camera, capable of stills, video and stills sequences. All these pictures and video are from it. Next I'll be water testing it. Then I'll give it a proper review.

Playboat in the surf

Well after waht feels like a summer long flat spell some swell finally hit the south-west. Shame it came with howling onshore winds! The north coast looked chunky but pretty messy, and I decided that I couldn't face a long drive for some poor super on shore surf. So instead I bimbled along the south coast, checking out a few spots, they were either really clean but tiny or moderate sized and messy. So in the end it gave in and went to Bigbury, where it was just about cross off shore, but blowing a gale.

Setting off on not a bad looking wave

The wind was so strong the van was rocking on it's suspension in the car park, and out on the water I had to paddle non stop just to stay in one spot! It also brought home the reality of 45 degree feather playboat paddles, great for playing, but terrible in a head wind!

I managed to get a few good waves, and even a few good moves, but after an hour of non stop paddling I was shattered!

Launching a big bounced blunt

Mind you the wind surfers were loving it, ripping along, surfing into the beach then charging out back to do it all again. One chap was getting some major airtime, and really knew how to pull a good cutback. But there did seem to be one downside, it they fell off inside the break, they then had to sort out their rig and try and do a water-start in between getting pounded by the waves! After seeing that I decided that while the air time looked good, the beatdown looked horrid!

Some old dude on a windsurfer getting a sweet floater

Video!

Well if all goes to plan, above should be an old bit of video of paddling at the the Pots. Hopefully the new Video hosting part of blogger will work and I'll be able to share a few bit of video with you.

Here goes, fingers crossed!

It's been a while

Hey there Blogging fans. Sorry it's been a while since I've really blogged anything, but my summer has been a bit slow, and I've not really been up to much. But heres a bit of a catch up of what happened in the last couple of months.
After a terrible start to the 'summer', endless rain but nothing paddleable whilst I was free, and all the local mountain bike trails horrid and muddy, I finally got something sporty done and went to France paddling (see my previous post!). I also went to the Eden Project to see Lilly Allen, wich was awsome, I can recomend going to see a gig at the Eden Project, it's great!! Since then though things have been thin on the ground again. I've been trying to paddle at least once a week, but it's mainly been flat water, just messing about in my play boat, so nothing really blog worthy. I've been out on my bike a few times, but not often, and I seem to have been unable to hook up with anyone else for a good riding session.
There were a few wet days towards the end of August that saw the Exe come up, and the mighty Pots show itself, check some of the pictures, for the second, and lower days padlling.
Since then I've entered the world of Kayak fishing, and it's brilliant, check it out on Ewarts blog at http://www.3bsports.blogspot.com/ I've also been out biking on Dartmoor and at haldon recently, but more bad weather has meant that the camera has stayed safely tucked away in the dry.

Some of the Haven Banks boys ripping up the Pots, in August!!!!!

The Eden Project is an awsome venue, and Lilly Allen rocked!

Well thats all for now, but hopefully more will follow!

Two weeks in France

Well me and my wife, Louise, decided to take a two week trip to France, mainly to do some open boating. So we loaded up my big green van with kit, kit, and more kit and set off for the Massif Central to check out some of the great open boating on offer.

First up was the river Allier. Flowing northwards out of the northern end of the Massif the Allier cuts it's way through spectacular Basalt and granite gorges, and has a real wild feel to it.

The chapel of Sainte Marie des Chazes on the Allier

We paddled two sections, the first on the lower section of the river was a fairly straight forward class two with some great scenery and some amazing towering basalt cliffs. A perfect introduction/warm up.

The get on at Prades and the towering basalt cliffs.

Me preparing lunch, baguette and cheese!

The second section we ran was the middle gorge section, above the barrage. After swinging round the first corner we were to enjoy about 16KM of wilderness with no sign of human activity except for the railway line cutting its way through the gorge with us. Apart from that it was just us, the river, the trees and the wild life. It was only as we got to within 2KM of the get off that we saw any one else!

Setting off into the wilderness, below Chapeauroux, Allier.

After that we set off for the Tarn. The Tarn flows roughly westwards through the Massif, cutting a huge gorge through a limestone plateau. The plateau above rises to over a 1000m, and the gorge cuts through it over 300m meters deep.

The water in the Tarn was amazingly clear, due to most of its water bubbling up from springs and resurgents along the rivers length. We were able to see the river bed in amazing detail, and watch huge fish everywhere.

Clear water, incredible scenery and sunshine on the Tarn

We only paddled one section on the Tarn. From the campsite we were in at Le Vignes to Le Rozier. This is probably the shortest section of the river, but also the section with the harder rapids. Peaceful and quiet on the river, combined with easy shuttle from the road running alongside the whole way. We were amazed to see huge Griffin Vultures circling on thermals all the way down the river.

Me taking it easy on the Tarn

More great scenery on the Tarn

Looking down into the upper Tarn Gorge

Then we hit the road again and drove to the Ardeche. The Ardeche cuts its way southwest off of the Massif. The higher sections offer some paddling, but the main event on the Ardeche is the spectacular Gorge. The river cuts its way through another Limestone plateau, and creates a 28KM gorge. The gorge is a national park and protected, but it is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Massif Central. There are vast numbers of hirer companies at the top of the gorge and people hire boats and either paddle the whole gorge in one go, or can book into one of the two official bivi sites and do the trip over two days.

We avoided the hustle and bustle of the gorge tourists by camping in a small campsite on the plateau above the river. It was well worth the small amount of extra driving by being small, quiet, friendly and a quarter of the price of the more touristy sites!

Looking down off of the plateau above the Ardeche

We opted to do a two day trip, take it easy and enjoy the scenery, rather than having to charge through in one day. Most of the people who hire opt for the one day option, and so are all on the river fairly early in order to get down in the river in time. If you take your time, the mass wave of hire boats has pretty much passed by mid morning and it becomes more peaceful again.

In the gorge on the first Day

The scenery in the gorge is amazing. Vast limestone cliffs dropping upto 300m straight into the river, and trees and shrubs packing anywhere that isn't vertical. The Ardeche was easily the warmest river we paddled, and at times the river felt warmer than the air!

Le cirque d'Madelleine, Day two

We spent an eventful evening at the bivi site. Just after getting our tent sorted, the sky turned black, the wind started howling down the gorge, and thunder and lightning started to flash and crash all around us. For twenty minuets or so the weather was terrible, torrential rain, monster hailstones, booming thunder and wind that nearly blew us away. Just as we began to question our choice of making a lightweight camp on the river, the skies clear, the sun came out and normality resumed, like nothing had happened!

Looking down from the top of Le cirque d'Madelleine

The number of people opting for the overnight trip was tiny compared to the hordes of people paddling the gorge in one day. This meant that we we put on the river on the second day we had the river almost to ourselves. With a following wind we were able to make our way down the 14KM of the second day with out having to put too much effort in. The final 2KM we managed without a single paddle stroke, Louise stood up and acted as a sail and I just ruddered!

Then it was just a case of sorting a shuttle, so I set off up the gorge road with my thumb out! Just as I was beginning to consider if it was a good idea to try and get a lift (after about an hours walk in the blazing sun!) I was picked up by a German couple and dropped back at the van, Result!

I even had some time for some playboating!

We also managed to get in some rock climbing on some wonderful bolted limestone cliffs, and of course lots of lounging, book reading, taking it easy, eating and enjoying being on holiday!

well it's almost working

The pictures in the previous post seemed to have made it, but it looks like it left half the text and captions behind. Oh well it took long enough just to get it that far, think I'll give it a rest for now.

Is blogger working again??!

Well I think I might have tracked the problem down to either of two sources. It might either be my computer has finally had enough, or the new 1GB memory stick I got recently doesn't entirely work properly. I tried the computer at work today, and it uploaded pictures from my old memory stick, but it didn't want to know about my new memory stick. Shame my computer wont talk to either memory stick anymore!

Well any way, all that means that I've managed to upload a random selection of pictures for your enjoyment!!

Tom KP jumping

Tom KP and Ewart biking on Dartmoor

Taking a break out on the moor

Rob squirting at the Pots

Roger F checking out the Pyranha Speeder

Me shredding some cornish waves

Slashing a cut back

Tom 'maverick' B in his squirt boat

Ewart riding the skiny at the random shore in the park

Ewart and his new surfboard!

A semi conscouise ewart after falling off a quater pipe

blogger almost working!

Well I thought I'd have another go at uploading some pictures today. Blogger let me add these two pictures and then refused to co-operate with any of the rest of my recent snap shots.

Oh well, at least its a step in the right direction. Hopefully soon I'll work out whats wrong. Then I'll get a random selection of my latest shots up here.

blogger not working

Hi there blogging fans (well, all three of you anyway) For some reason blogger has been disagreeing with my computer for the last few weeks, and I'm unable to add any pictures at the moment. I've got all sorts of interesting things to show you, involving, boats, bikes and surfboards.
Hopefully I'll get it all sorted soon and normality(!) will be resumed.