Galway Fest Take Two...

One week on and the dust has finally settled on Galway Fest 2013. What started off as an idea came upon one late night has lead to over a hundred kayakers racing down the our local run. For the second year in a row Conor McComb, Andrew Regan and I got together to stage an event that we hope will become an annual addition on the Irish Kayaking Calender. Once again we took the format of a event that rewarded all round ability while at the same time trying to encourage people to compete in both Freestyle and Whitewater over a weekend of events to be in with a chance of getting their hands on some prizes. Having opened registration at the beginning of December is soon became clear that this years edition was going to go some way past 2012 on numbers, with the hundred mark passed well before Christmas.

On Friday the 22nd February paddlers from all over the Country started making their way west, safe in the knowledge that the release was booked and at 10am on Saturday morning water would start flowing down the Boluisce River.

Race briefing Saturday morning

Saturday morning the crowd gathered and after getting everyone through registration and briefing the mass shuttle began to the caravan park and the launch site off the footbridge. The race was broken up into two heats of sixty odd paddlers each, racing just over a kilometer down the river to a grand stand finish at Poll Gorm. Once the last racer from heat 1 crossed the finish line, the safety teams swapped over and the second batch of racers set off on the course. Once the times were totted up the six fastest men and women headed back up to finish the day with the boater x final. The women kicked the finals off with Niamh Clearly taking 1st place for the second year while shortly after Conor Macken took 1st place in the first backwards boater x final. Another bright idea from a south Munster man.

Time trial start

Saturday night saw the crowd take to Galway City with massive turn out. The night started off in the Western Hotel and finished with everyone on the the top floor of Karma Night Club. With a Sunday start of twelve o clock not to many were lost to the party and most managed to show up in time to finish the weekend off in Clifden. Juniors kicked the day off, followed by Men's Sport with Women's and Men's to close the show. With the titles still undecided everything was to play for as competitors threw their moves and racked up the points.

Sunday freestyle in Clifden

Prize giving took place in E.J. Kings bar in Clifden town with grub being served while the final scores were being put together. This year there was even more support from our sponsors with I-Canoe, Great Out Doors, Dynamic Venture, River Deep Mountain High, Canoeing Ireland, Wavesport, Dagger, Palm and AT Paddles all providing support and  prizes for the event. 2013 proved  a repeat of 2012 with Niamh Cleary taking overall win in womens with 1st place in both events and I managed to claw back lost ground to take the win in mens after the freestyle in Clifden.

The weekend was a great success and hopefully all things going well Galway Fest will be back bigger and better in 2014!

Galway Fest 2013 Results