Junior slalom

Last Sunday was a slalom race to raise funds for the Northern Ireland Junior slalom squad. I went down as it had been a while since id been in a slalom competition. It was held in Shaws bridge , which had very little water despite all the rain.

I decided to enter C1, K1 and C2 classes, paddling C2 with Kevin. I had managed to borrow a C1 slalom boat for the day which saved me having to use my playboat again. The only problem was it had no straps fitted so I had to take a strap from my playboat, I paddled my first run with nothing and kept falling around inside the boat! Id a pretty good run in the C1 class which I was happy enough with, however I struggled with the K1 class a bit. It was the first time in quite a while Id paddled with two blades and I didn't enjoy the experience too much. Rather than making it easier, I found the second blade just got in my way. I think for slalom at least I wont be bothering with K1 again for a while.




























The C2 runs with Kevin were great fun! It was only the second time we had paddled together so I was quite surprised how well we actually did. By the second run we were even managing to stern dip through gates. The two of us are very tempted to try getting one and keep it up.













Thanks to Navarat Turner for the photos. Her site can be seen here; http://community.webshots.com/user/aqua_invader/profile

Jacksons

In an effort to avoid doing my aerodynamics project last weekend I decided to take advantage of the rain and go paddling.
On Saturday I met up with UCD canoe club, running the section from Trooperstown down to Bookies bridge. This was my first run down Jacksons in C1 so it was a little intimidating at first. Thankfully I made it down upright every time which was a bit of a relief.

On Sunday I ran the same section again, only this time with some friends from the North who had come down for the weekend to do some paddling as the North was dry. They were not disappointed as the Annamoe was still running at a low (but still runnable) level.

Paddling in Wicklow is always good craic, I cant wait to get back home and get paddling there again!