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

A Quick round up. River Dart and Surfing

It's been a bit busy here again, and I've only just gotten round to downloading pictures, let alone putting them on the web. So here is a quick round up of a few of things I've been doing.

I went to a surf kayaking competition at Westward Ho!, where I totally bombed out ending up joint 17th out of 21. The surf was a pretty good size, but not very clean, being pushed along by a steady on-shore wind.

An IC class paddler goes for a lip

Me in my first round

Walking down to the surf

Another IC class paddler going for it

Yet another IC class boat hitting the top

Sam the son of Satan, ripping in the HP final

I've also had a couple of trips on the Dart. Once in high water, getting two runs, and enjoying a spot of playboating, and a semi disastrous dawn raid with Ewart, where we both managed to forget different bits of kit, and ended up taking it in turns for a go on top wave!

Satu Westgarth enjoying topwave

Kate D spinning on topwave

A high water view of Triple drop

Jack R playing on the Dart loop

Ewart enjoying an early surf on a small top wave

Me, carving up topwave

Smooth and sunny Saunton surf.

Surfing at this time of year is great, the waters warm, the swell is good (and getting better every week!) and the air temperature hasn't dropped much yet. I managed to get a magical session in at Saunton on Wednesday, the swell was 2-3ft, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger, but there wasn't a breath of wind, and the sun was shinning and the sky blue!
I managed to snag a few great rides. And then after my joints could take no more, I got the big camera out and snapped a few pics. The Sun was super bright, shining straight at me, and glaring off the water. So all the pics were very silhouette, and monochrome, but hey, I like it!

The swell forecast looks small for the weekend, but huge mid week next week, so hopefully I'll get some more surf action in soon......

South West Canoe Show 2009

Here is a quick round up from this years South West Canoe Show. While the weather forecast hadn't looked great, the day itself turned out to be fantastic, with only a few minuets of drizzle, and the odd gust of wind to spoil everyones fun. The sun shone, the sky was blue and everyone was happy!
Here's just a few pictures of what went on.....

Blue skies and sunshine

The Mighty Hog Roast

Menacing sky and a busy canal

Crowds enjoying the afternoon sun

The new Palm FX Vest

The new Palm Extrem

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!

The Posse rolls out; Woodbury mountain biking

Ewart managed to get together a pretty impressive Posse for a ride on Woodbury Common. 9 riders hit the trails led out by Tom K. Tom knows the trails on Woodbury like the back of his hand, and managed to link up all sorts of bits of trail to keep us going for 3 hours! covering just about every square inch of the common!

The posse, mid ride

Tom K hits Jimmy's gap

Tom KP falls foul of the roots, mind you he did only have a back brake!

Tom took us to some of his favourite test pieces, including this steep, rooty and slippery slope. Some riders managed to get down it cleanly, some had a few dabs, and some collided with trees, and fell down it instead!

The roots and trees gang up on Pete!



Mandy hitting up the jump combo

Ed C gets some air time

Ewart, flying, but hanging off the back as usual!

We also stopped for a quick session on a freshly re-dug jump/bombhole/step-up/step-down! despite being a bit of an odd combo it was very smooth to ride.

Kate, on a steep roll-in in the quarry

Then we set out through the gorse bushes, stopping for some fun in an old quarry, and for a chance to pick out a few prickles!

We eventually got back to the cars, three hours later, dirty, sweaty, scratched by gorse and brambles, sore, tidy but very happy!

Me, my surf kayak and some waves

Here's a quick round of pictures of me in my new Valley Rush 7/2 surf kayak. Once again southerly winds meant a trip down to Haryln. The swell was much smaller this time, only 1-2ft, but still super clean. But being a bank holiday also meant that the surf was very busy.

The only problem was when I took off on a good sized wave, went left, got closed out and then ended up surfing over some rocks. OUCH!!! A few clonks and bangs later and I was back on the beach inspecting the damage. Lucky for me the fins took almost all of the damage. My right fin loosing large amounts of glass, my left fin, only lost a little glass, but split and delaminated, and my centre fin barely seems to have been touched. As for might boat it only has a handful of very minor surface scratches across the hull. Phew!

Moments after this I ended up going over some of the rocks in the foreground.....

Ouch!

Time to invest in some new fins. Then take the grinder to the old ones and make a smaller set out of them!

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.