Worlds Wrap Up

The 2013 World Championships have finally come to close with the sleepy mountain resort of NOC  returning to the norm. For the past two months paddlers from all over the world have been making the treck to the Nantahala Gorge with it all coming to a climax on Sunday as finals were played out. No Irish paddlers made the finals this year but we had some promising results with Billy Brett and David McClure making it through to the semi finals in Junior Men finishing 9th and 10th respectively giving us something to cheer for.

With the big jump in standard this year competition was fiercer then ever with the cut to make it out of prelims in 20th place being 1500. To give you some perspective Stephen Wright posted a score of 1400 to sit in first place after prelims at the 2011 worlds in Plattling. The jump in standard was great to see and made the event great for spectators. Some massive rides were thrown down with the height of it coming in the quarter finals with Mathieu Dumoulin laying down an unbelievable ride of 1520 with nearly every move being linked with end over end cartwheels and splits while going huge on all his loop moves. However Mathieu was not at the top of the board long as Dane Jackson then topped it with a 1560 getting huge and clean bonus's on all his loop moves. Dane went on to put in another 1500+ second ride to set a new record for a two ride combined score of over 3100 points. With all the big scores some surprises were on the cards with 2011 world champion James Bebbington making an early exit in 11th place.

Semi finals took place Saturday night under the flood lights which lit up the Nantahala river as if it was daylight. With a packed crowd squeezed in trying to get a good view of the action the atmosphere made for an electric semi final round. Prior to the light set up bring seen there was some concern and a push by some to have the semi finals moved back during daylight. At the last worlds quarter finals were held under lights but due to the size of the river lights on all sides of the river were not possible making it difficult to seem where you were in the feature at all times. The team at NOC put together a light set up that took away this fear with lights enclosing the river on all sides to light it up as bright as day. Hopefully we will see more events under the light as it really does create a special atmosphere. 

Scores under the lights did not reach the height of the quarter finals but were no less impressive with Dane Jackson taking top spot once again with a ride of 1200 +. Mathieu Dumoulin was the surprise casualty of the semi finals going out in 6th place to Britain's Alan Ward who took the last place in Sundays final. 

Sunday saw finals kick off early with Men's and Women's squirt first where Clay Wright and Claire O Hara took the honors. Next up was OC1 with Jordan Poffenberger taking top spot throwing some impressive mcnasty's along the way. Juniors were up next with local paddler Rowan Stuart taking top spot in Junior Women. Junior Men's final showed just how good the next generation of seniors are with it taking a ride of over 1000 points to just get on the podium. Americas Hunter Katich taking top spot with a ride take would have seen him place well in the seniors final. In C1 Jordan Poffenberger knocked Dane Jackson off top spot to claim his second word title of the day with an spectacular ride of over 1000 points

Women's finals saw the action heating up with Japanese paddler Hitomi Takaku taking top sport with her first ride of 650 points. She held the lead until the last ride of the final when Clare O Hara pulled it out of the bag with a ride of just over 700 points. Mens finals saw some big score once again with the top three all hitting 1200 + rides. Dane Jackson took top spot to complete the Worlds having lead at every round of the competition. Peter Csonka was narrowly beat in the second place by only seven points.  Tomasz Czaplicki rounded off the podium in his carbon Dagger Jitsu capping a great competition for him.

The results for the Irish Guys in senior and junor men's were as follows

Senior Men
31st   Barry Loughnane

34th  Tom Dunphy
37th  Andrew Regan
51st  Robbie O'Shea
59th  Conor Macken

Junor Men
9th    Billy Brett
10th  David McClure
18th  Shane Little

2013 Worlds Begin

The 2013 World Championships have finally kicked off with the opening ceremony taking place in Bryson City last night. Teams from every nation took part in the parade through Bryson which ended with the local Cherokee Tribe performing their ritual dance before the air ramp competition took centre stage for the night. There was a huge turn out from Bryson  and the surrounding area making everyone feel welcome and create a great atmosphere for the start of the event

This morning saw the first competitors taking to the water with Junior Men opening the show. Ireland's David McClure was in the first heat and laid down solid rides to book his places in the semi finals later in the week. Heat 2 saw Shane Little put in a solid performance but unfortunately for some very strict judging he missed out on progressing to the semi finals. Heat 4 had Ireland's last competitor in Junior Men in Billy Brett and he did not disappoint, linking tricks and going big to qualify in 6th place for the semi finals. 

Billy going big

Next up for the Irish will be Senior Men on Thursday, Conor Macken and I are in the first heat which is starting at 4pm Irish time. Andrew and Robbie go later in the day with Tom the last Irishman to compete. Having seen how hard the judging is this year all efforts will be on completing moves straight and finishing rotations to get all the points we can. If moves are only slightly off they will be scored zero points so the pressure is on to have every move perfect come Thursday. 

Shane dropping in for his first ride

For the last week we have been solely concentrating on forty five second competition rides in training with whistles, timers and the camera rolling. The aim is to know your ride inside out and be able to throw it down when it counts. With every nation allocated a training slot we have only been getting half an hour on the water each day which usually works out at four training rides of forty five seconds each. After each session we go through the video to see what moves scored and what ones didn't to give us a idea of where we are with our ride plan.  Most are happy with their rides and focused for prelims on Thursday. 

NOC at night

In Senior Men's the field of seventy odd paddlers will be cut to just the top twenty who will progress to quarter finals on Friday. With so many good paddlers from every nation it will be a tough challenge to make the cut. Two years ago in Platting the cut to quarters was around the 700 point mark but with the jump in standard that two years gives it looks like the cut mark could be over 1,000 points. That will take two solid rides with big tricks and minimal time padding back up the eddy in the event of a flush. 

Team Ireland

In spite of all that and the pressures that the competition creates everyone is in great spirits and really enjoying just being here at Worlds. NOC have put on one of the best shows in kayaking with a picture perfect venue high in the Smokey Mountains and a world class resort surrounding the feature. Live music and sponsored events for the public to take part in are taking place every day from now till the close of the event on Sunday evening so the focus isn't entirely on the athletes competing. 

Taking the competition aside this has been a great trip to a new destination with a bustling paddling community of amazingly friendly and generous people. Hopefully the whole Irish Team can cap off the trip with some great performances over the coming days.

Here's a few more photos from the last week

 Getting some air during trainin

Carbon repairs 

Passing the day 

The recruited Irish 

More air ramp 

 Dave waiting for his second ride

Shane going big 

 Billy about to drop in

Ireland on the score  board 

Billy waiting for his second ride 

Air ramp

Worlds Update 1

Once again the World Championships have rolled around and this year they are being held in North Carolina USA. The spot that competition will take place on is a man made hole created here at the Nantahala Outdoor Centre. The feature is good with it being easy to retain if you mess up a move in your ride. Scores should be big with a noticeable improvement in standard right across the classes.

I have been out here almost a week now training in the hole everyday and trying to get my ride together.  Lines in the eddy are long and only getting longer with more and more nations arriving. At this stage I have my ride planned out and am just practicing and making minor tweaks to it in hope of throwing it all down come prelims. Having had the chance to compete in the 2011 Worlds in Germany I am feeling good about the competition and looking forward to a big week with all the hype that surrounds it.

The whole Irish team has almost arrived now with a nice atmosphere starting to build here. Plenty of craic is being had between the team and the rest of the guys out here. The venue here is the perfect site to host the World Championships with 360 degree viewing of the feature and great facilities courtesy of the big rafting industry here at NOC.

The area here is packed full of other runs with the Green river just over an hour away. Hopefully we can get out and paddle some of the rivers this area has to offer before we leave but with out a car its going to be tricky.

There should be more updates coming out of here in the run up to worlds from me and the rest of the Irish guys tracking our progress and the happenings of the 2013 World Championships.

Here's a short video of a training ride for NOC

A couple more photos from the last week.

Coach Dave

Enjoying the local culture

 Rest day

Entry

Shane Space Godzilla

Andrew going big

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

Summer Garb

Short video of a bit of Garb footage from the last while. Levels are a little on the low side for Garb at the moment so praying for some rain to bring it back.

Uganda

This year with college out of the way I was able to make my second trip to Uganda to paddle the White Nile. I headed out in February after the Kayak Intervarsities for two months. With the Bujagali dam now complete and with it the loss of all the white water above it I was unsure how this trip would go, as on our last trip we spend the majority of our time at NRE making the most of the Sliverback section.

We based ourselves at the Hairy Lemon which is an island on the river five minutes paddle from Nile Special. Its pretty much a paddlers paradise with three meals a day, tea and coffee every morning and some of the worlds best paddling right beside you. Our first day on the river we jumped on from Kalagala and got a pleasant surprise to see how much the levels have increased.

Dropping off Kalagala

During the first three weeks levels were high enough to have some sick Malalue sessions which is the nicest wave on the river, super smooth like ower but way bigger and faster.  At these levels Nile Special was pretty trashy and would give you a good kicking so it was nice to have another option in the evenings.

Shuttle from Malalue

Shortly after Moe arrived levels dropped slightly which meant no more Malalue but special was at prime levels, big green and paddle on.  Days would usually finish up with a special session with the sun setting in the background, hard to find a better place in the world to spend an evening.As for the river with the higher levels the rapids got a lot bigger, most noticeable on Itanda, at these levels it really can give you serious beat down if you get it wrong. Luckily i managed to avoid it this time despite a close call on a run with down with Moe with us both getting kicked off the back if pencil sharpener hitting the Cuban and Moe taking a friendly surf in the ash tray. Lesson of the day was don't go down the entrance ramp side by side.

On the back of Pencil Sharpener

Last time we were out we didnt get a chance to run Dead Dutchman, its a tricky one to scout as without a serious bush wack you cant see the entry being the crux move to punch through a wave that feeds into one of the worst looking poor overs i have ever seen. Once your past that you drop down a ramp into a series of massive surging waves that will eat you if you get unlucky. About ninty five percent of the volume of the Nile flows down this rapid so you get some incredible boils and whirlpools.


As for a paddling destination Uganda still has it all, warm water, big waves, friendly locals and a laid back lifestyle. I cant recomend it highly enough for a trip abroad.  I will definitely be back again.

Dropping down the ramp on Dead Dutchman

Here a quick video of out trip that Andrew put together.




As for now I have just arrived in Canada to work and paddle on the Ottawa river for the summer. First few days on the river have been good here, warm weather already and hopefully some good play will come in this week.That's about it for now, hopefully will get an update up during the summer

Galway Fest

Last weekend Galway Fest kicked off with freestyle at Tuam hole. Levels were a little on the low side but it still make for a great event with almost fifty competitors taking to the water. Competition was fierce in all classes with the juniors posting scores that would have placed them well in senior mens. The heats were ran off in jam format so everyone had plenty of time to stick their tricks and make up their top eight which made up their overall score.


Sunday saw the whitewater event take place on the Boluisce River.There was a great turn out on the day with over seventy paddlers racing the course. The format for the day was a time trial with the six fastest racers going through to a boater x final. The course was a bit over a kilometer long with a grand stand finish running through Poll Gorm and under the footbridge.

First heat about to kick off

I made it into the top six for the boater x along with Colin wong, Moe Kelleher , Paddy McGover,  Eoin Keys &  Brian Cahill. The start had us sitting backwards at the back of our boats which through up the option of doing the race without a spray deck to save time at the start. I got away quick at the start opting to leave off my deck and had a long battle with Moe Kelleher before Colin Wong took him out of it. I managed to get the front of my deck on half way down the shortened final course which just about saved me.

Colin Wong charging to the finish

Racing past the last road bridge I held a narrow lead over Paddy McGovern and despite almost getting back looped in the fish counter above Poll Gorm managed to hold on by half a boat length to take first place.

Final of the boater x

The scoring for Galway Fest gave equal weighting freestyle and whitewater to make up the final results to decide who took home the prizes. The idea behind this was the get people competing in both events that would normally only do one and also make it a full weekend of paddling for everyone. It seemed pretty successful with plenty of new faces at both events

I ended up taking first place with wins in both freestyle & whitewater with Moe Kelleher in second followed by Paddy McGovern in third. In Senior Womens Niamh Cleary took top spot with a win in the whitewater and a second place finish in freestyle followed by Siobhan McGriskin and Laura Giffin. Junior Mens saw Billy Brett come out on top followed by Robbie O Shea and Shane Little. Full results with scores & times are here.

Hopefully we can bring this event back next year and keep it going year after year. A big thanks to everyone who helped out on the day, with all the help both days ran off very smoothly. Thanks to all our sponsors Wavesport , Dagger, AT Paddles, I Canoe & River Deep Mountain High for supporting the event. Also a big thanks to Canoeing Ireland who helped Insure the event.

Photos are thanks to Shane Cronin and Ultan 0'Byrne