Sunday 28 June 2009

And now for something different

Due to lack of water and being on the wrong side of the country for any surf at the moment I decided to do a bit of sailing for the weekend. On Saturday we took the yacht out for a race. The race took the best part of the day due to lack of wind for most of the race. At the start of the race visibility was down to 30 metres and it seemed we wouldnt get to race at all. However halfway into the race the weather completely cleared up and it almost seemed like a different day completely!













































On Sunday I tried racing squibs for the first time. They are great craic but seem very cramped and small after racing a cruiser the day before. However they are quite fast even in the light winds we had this weekend.

Friday 26 June 2009

Irish freestyle league

Last weekend saw the Clifden fun rodeo being hosted in Galway. This event also formed event 2 of the Irish Freestyle league. Unfortunately I missed the first day of flatwater fun competitions and training but managed to get across to Clifden in time for the more serious competition on the Sunday.
Before the competition was running, I managed a couple of very nice head under mystery moves in the feature itself but having struck the bottom several times I left it alone to practice my flatwater moves.

In the competition itself, I won the C1 class. The C1 event was difficult as it was right at the end of the competition and due to the tide starting to turn the hole was extremely flushy making retentive moves difficult. The feature actually disappeared completely meaning that the C1 class didnt manage a third run.

The final event of the day was the squirt boat event. This is the first time there has been a squirt boat competition in Ireland since 2001 or so. It was run as a demonstration event to show everyone what squirt boats were capable of. They are extremely uncommon in Ireland with about 10 people paddling them at the moment.

Below are some photos of the squirt event.



Thursday 4 June 2009

End of exams!

I have finally managed to complete my exams. I have to say it has not been easy and the last 3 weeks or so have been very testing. 12-16 hours a day in the library has taken it's toll. Hopefully it will be worth it but I wont know for another few weeks yet!
Today was the first day in several weeks that I managed to get in a boat, with a short sea kayaking session around strangford lough. It was great to get out in a boat again and Strangford is a pretty nice paddle with plenty of wildlife. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures as my camera leads all went home.

Now it's time to get a few quality weeks of paddling in and start getting fit after nearly a month sat at a desk! Lets hope it rains soon.