A small update

Unfortunately for the last 2 months there has been practically no rain whatsoever. At least not in the quantities required to bring up any of the rivers or playspots. Similarly there has been no surf any time I'm near a beach! Instead I have been concentrating mainly on sailing, with squib and cruiser sailing at least once a week. Probably the only good thing to be said about recent weather is it has been perfect for sailing! The last couple of races have had perfect wind (10-20 knots) and very warm conditions, meaning racing mostly in boardies, which is great after so much of the year spent in dry gear.

Unfortunately today the wind is too high and the swell is far far too big for the squibs so there is no racing.

Last weekend I went up to Clubfest. This is the first event of it's kind for CANI and involved getting the canoe clubs of the north together and doing some paddling.This was all based in the Share centre in Fermannagh.
After a mess around in the squirt boat and a session on the Friday night we all went for a paddle from Crom to the Share centre (approx 5 miles), I don't really do much rec paddling so its good for a change to borrow a sea kayak and have a bit of a mess around.
When we returned from the paddle, the share centre had a barbecue organised which was great followed by another social.

On the Sunday all the clubs showed their various talents, with BKC doing sea kayaking, MUCK doing polio to name a few. Myself and Kevin got all the freestyle boats and tried to run a session but ended up spending most of our time messing about with Harry's waveskis! I really liked the feel of them and will definitely be trying to borrow one next time I go surfing.

I spent a lot of time over the weekend playing about in my squirt boat, trying to learn new moves. My conclusion from the weekend is I need a small amount of feather on my squirt paddles. I love using Zeros but for one or two moves I am finding the disengaged blade is catching so will be adding a very small amount of feather just to make sure it releases better.

(Photos thanks to Colin Bankhead and Derek Stephenson)