Sunday, September 25, 2011

Norway Edit

Here's a short video of my trip to Norway this summer. I spend just over three weeks traveling around with a great group of paddlers. Unfortunately I had a lot of camera trouble so ended up getting very little footage. Here's the video from what i got.



I am off to Austria for the Adidas Sickline World Championships on Tuesday. Levels are pretty high at the moment so it should make for an interesting week.... Here's a link to the Sickline website with all the info on the race.


Here's a few photos from my Norway trip. All Photos are thanks to Nick Horwood.

German Drop On The Micky Mouse Run

 More Crystal Clear White Water

Landing After German Drop

 The Micky Mouse Run, Valdall

The Micky Mouse Run, Valdall

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Big Wave Surfing Out West

Levels came good over the last few days for some nice surfing out west. Last time I saw this wave at this level was two years ago. Hopefully it wont take that long till our next surf.

Andrew about to launch


 Catching some air

Billly about to take off

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Clifden Beach Party

Here a few photos from last Sunday's Clifden Fun Rodeo. Photos were taken by Cian McComb.

The whole weekend was great criac with a huge turn out of paddlers on both days. Fair Play to Adrian and everyone involved for making it such a great event.  I managed to hit all my moves and take first place and my first competition win on Sunday with Bowsie and Ronnie in second and third. Cant wait for this again next year.

Thats it for now, should have a short edit from my trip to Norway up some time next week.







































Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Worlds Wrap Up

 The 2011 World Championships finished up last Saturday with a refreshing break from the usual dominance of North American paddlers with British winners in both the senior men's and senior women's classes. Pringle, James Bebbingtion took top spot in the senior men's class with a 1070 point ride to leave Peter Csonka in second place with 1020 points. Stephen Wright finished off the podium places in third. Claire O Hara took two gold medals at this year World Championships successfully defending her Women's Squirt Title and adding the Senior Women's Title defeating Emily Jackson with a 660 point ride.

This was my first worlds and second international event after the European Championships last year so from the outset my aim was to improve on my placing last year of 42nd where nerves got the better of me in my first big event. Having arrived in Plattling almost a month before worlds i had loads of time to train at all levels before it got to busy. So by the time team training came around a few days before worlds i felt pretty well prepared for prelims. The day before men's prelims were set to begin we found out that due to the possibility of the feature flooding out Prelims for all classes would take place on Wednesday. That left a seven am start in the senior Men's class with Ireland's David O Sullivan starting off the prelim's joined by Thomas Dunphy in the first heat. My heat was one of the last leaving me being the last Irish senior K1 to compete. In the eddy just before my heat i was feeling good and looking forward to it with the level just over 200 being pretty much perfect.

I got through a lot of tricks in my first ride but didn't manage to score everything flushing twice on a left felix coming out with 280 points. Still feeling good i paddled on for my second ride slowed things down a bit and managed to get through more of my ride. I flushed on my mcnasty but managed to paddled back up the eddy and throw two big space godzillas but flushing on the second one after plugging to high in the green. My second ride left me with 416 point leaving me with a two ride total of 696.



When all the heats finished up i was left in 30th place missing the cut for quarters by five places or 60 points. I took a lot out of this worlds as its the first competition i properly prepared for with good training and a solid ride plan and it paid off as it was my best performance score wise since i starting competing two years ago.

The rest of the Irish put in solid performances in there respective classes with the top placed Irish paddler Billy Brett making it to the semi finals of the Junior Men and coming away with 8th place. Conor Macken and Robbie O'Shea placed 21st and 22st respectively in the Junior Class along side Billy. In the Junior Women's Class Caoimhe Farrell and Niamh Cleary placed 17th and 19th. In Senior Men Thomas Dunphy and David O Sullivan took 39th and 44th place with Brian Cahill and Ronan Brennen taking 47th and 54th place respectively. Orky took very respectable 13th place in C1 just missing out on the semi finals.

So that's about it for Worlds, great event and looking forward to NOC in two years time. I left Plattling on Monday evening to start the long trek to Norway to switch up my paddling with a few weeks of creaking, almost there now after some of car trouble along the way.Levels are are close to flooding in Voss right now with some big wave surfing to be had.......

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Four Days to go

With four days to go until the official start of the 2011 World Championships, Plattling has exploded with kayakers from all over the world. With the line in the eddy getting longer every day out here as everyone tries to get to grips with the feature it is getting harder and harder to get a decent session in. I was able to put my ride together before it got too busy here, which is standing to me as i am just fine tuning it at the moment. Depending on what level it will be on the day I will either drop or add certain tricks and mix up the order of it to best suit the way I am paddling.

Mens prelims begin on Wednesday the 22nd, with Squirt and C1 starting things off on Tuesday after the opening ceremony on Monday. Juniors Men and Women are the last of the prelims on Thursday with the second rounds taking place after that. The competition site is really starting to take shape out here with the grand stand now in place. In typical German efficiency it only took a couple of hours for it to go up with a team working around clock to have everything ready in time for the start.




With the line in the eddy being so long during the day we have been getting early morning sessions in at six am when its quiet, and relaxing during the day until it quietens off again in the evening. We are taking a few night sessions as well under the lights of Orky's car which have been great criac and a good way to beat the crowds. During the day we have been chilling out at the campsite and swimming pool with the latter proving to be the source of a bit of bad luck with the team taking some injuries on the water slide over the last two days. I think we will try avoid them for a few days at least.

That's about it for now. Ill throw up a link of streaming of the heats if they are doing that again this year. Here are a few more photos from Plattling.





 Eric Jackson getting used to low levels in Plattling

The grand stand and the feature from down stream

 A beat up carbon Rock Star

Nick Troutman

Stephen Wright dropping in

OC1 Rock Star