First Update From Plattling

I have been out in Plattling for almost a week now in preparation for the world championships taking place next month here. Levels have been on the low side making the feature a bit tricky but with heavy rain over night and more forecast today we should see perfect levels for a few days. At the moment there is a great group of people out here, with paddlers from seven different Countries.


First thing i noticed when i got out here was that nearly every boat was composite and most of the people with plastic boats are waiting for their composite boats to arrive. With the low levels of late, broken composite boats is common place with some one patching their boat every other day.Plastic is looking like the way to go for now unless there is rain when the competition comes around

Peter Csonka hitting a mcnasty

As for the feature at current levels of 140- 150 on the gauge there are some deep spots where you can knock out air loops but be warned there are a lot of rocks. I spend some time watching paddlers that have been here a while to see how they paddle the feature and where they plug which proved very helpful to finding the sweet spots. Levels can be checked via the online gauge here which updates constantly through out the day.

Robson's new playboat designed and paddled by Martin Koll

Its still not to busy over here with ques not getting bigger then four or five at peak times, but with everyone else still to arrive, Plattling is sure to start filling up soon. That's about it for now. Ill throw up a video of our training so far some time next week. Signing off from the local kebab shop....

 Orky in his new boat

 Plattling

Bartosz in his Vajda

Tom training in his Project X

Orky's new Gui Gui Prod

Composite Molan

Peter Csonka in his new Vagda Stelth

Katya Kulkova

Bren in his composite Molan

Tuam

Last week we got some water in the west which brought up Tuam hole. I tried to get out a good few times as i got a call up for the worlds this summer so its time to start doing some training. Here's a quick video i put together.

Second Team Trial's Event , Sluice

Last weekend was the second event of this years team trials which took place in Sluice. There was a good turn out on the day with with plenty hoping to make a spot on the team. I finished 3rd in the first event so was hoping to build on that and make the team.

I was drawn in the first heat along with Neil Gibson, Tom Dunphy and Bowsie from the men's expert class. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best of rides flushing on loops and spent a lot of time paddling back up the eddy. Tom put in some great rides with blunts, cartwheels and back stabs but it was Neil Gibson who who took took the win on the day storming back after his disappointing finish last weekend to take a place on the team.

In the second heat Dave o Sullivan and Moogie made it through over the two events to make the top five along with Tom, Neil and Bowsie.

Orky showed his improvement in the C1 class with some solid rides despite suffering from shoulder pain after milling himself on his bmx during the week. He put in a great run on his second ride sticking an Air loop, blunt and round house.

 So after the two events i finished 6th in the standing which leaves me being a reserve for the team. It has opened up my summer paddling plans a bit so in the next few weeks I am going to decide where to head to. I am thinking of heading to Canada for some play or heading out on the Continent for a road trip with the creak boat.  As well as that I will be competing in the Adidas Sick line World Championships at the end of September in Austria before heading back to Africa for few months to avoid the Irish winter. So the the rest of the year should be fairly interesting on the paddling front.

Next weekend the first round of the National Championships is taking place at Curragower wave in Limerick. Water levels for the event are a bit unsure at the moment but hopefully it will go ahead. That's about it for now. Will throw something up if National Championships go ahead next weekend.

Some more photos form Sluice below.

Team Trials Event 1 : Clifden

Last Saturday was the first team trials event for qualification for this years World Championships taking place in Plattling Germany. Twenty two competitors took part on the day to try get the chance to represent Ireland this summer.  I had been hoping that there would have been water for this event to take place in Tuam so I had been doing most of my training there. So when the forecast came through and it looked like there wasn't going to be any water I decided to head out the Friday before the competition to get some practice in. The tide wasn't that big on Friday so the hole ended up being pretty flushey for most of the session but it did pick up for about forty minutes around high tide which gave me a chance to get some good practice runs in.

The following day I headed back out to Clifden for the competition. It was divided into two heats of eleven paddlers, I was drawn in the first heat along with Moogie, Neil Gibson, Conor Bredin and Eoin Keys from the senior men's class. When it kicked off the hole was still a bit flushy, that with some nerves on my part left me with just a loop after my first ride. Before my second ride I loosened up with some flat water cartwheels, loops and felix's which helped me put together a much better ride. I managed an air loop, split wheel, cartwheels, felix and some spins,  I went for some space godzila's and mcnasty's too but didn't manage to score them.

The second heat started as soon as everyone from heat one was off the water to judge and scribe for the second heat. From senior men's there was Bowsie, Tom Dunphy, Ronnie and Dave O Sullivan. Tom put in two solid rides with some nice air loops and space Godzilla's with the others not far behind him.

As soon as the second heat was finished everyone jumped on the water and with the pressure being off, people started throwing out their best rides of the day. I definitely need to get more competition practice in as the two forty five second runs leaves no room for a slip up.

After the hole died off everyone gathered in the car park for results. I managed to finish 3rd with Tom taking the win and Bowsie second. Full results are below as I remember them. I will update them once the full results are published on Irish Freestyle if I have them wrong.

Next Weekend is the second team trials event in Sluice up in Dublin. Hopefully I can put in a decent performance and make the team again this year. Top five make the team so I have a little bit of breathing space but not much. Then the following weekend there is a Gower Event, think that could be the first round of the National Championships but not to sure on that.

Hopefully I will get out boating a few times this week before round two of team trials. Below are the results from Round one,a video Eoin Keys threw together and some more photos from the day.

Unfortunately I cant remember results from the juniors but I will add them once they are posted online.

All Photos courtesy of Eoin Keys

Results Team Trials Event 1 : Clifden

1. Tom Dunphy
2. Bowsie
3. Barry Loughnane
4. David O Sullivan
5. Ronnie 
6. Moogie
7. Neil Gibson
8.  Eoin Keys 

New Play Spot

 With team trials called off this weekend due to sluice being washed out it left the weekend free to get some boating in. First choice was t wave, we were hoping with all the recent rain that it would have come in by Sunday morning.
Five of us set off from Galway only to arrive at t wave to see a small green wave. After weighing up our options we decided to chance a spot Dave O Sullivan had seen some pictures of in Boyle Co Roscommon. Twenty minutes later we rocked up to find three hole/wavy features in a row right in the middle of town.

This was good enough for us so we geared up and hoped on. The top hole was a bit shallow, everyone was hitting bottom on loops but mcnasty's and phonix monkey's went clean. The hole was a bit flushy so everything had to be snappy to stick it.

The two features below the top hole were a bit more wavy, neither of which had eddy service so we only bothered with them when we missed the eddy for the top hole. They may have some potential on higher water though.

While we were taking a few pictures we got talking to some locals who told us that during the floods last year the river that been a meter and half higher but the features had not washed out. Nice to know that they don't wash out as the top hole would be pretty sweet if it was a bit deeper.

So although we didn't get t wave it was nice to paddle a new feature. With a bit more water the top hole would be pretty much the same as Tuam hole.

A few more photos here of the day. All photos courtesy of Dave O Sullivan