Continue reading »]]> With a free weekend and MetCheck suggesting that Wales might be in line for a spot of rain it seamed only fair to make the drive north and see what was running.
Not long after crossing the border into Wales it was pretty obvious, pretty quickly that most were running in Wales.

Read the rest of this article Here.

And some more Here.

Continue reading »]]> Now there are not too many countries like Italy, and I say this for many reasons. There work ethic seams to, well work pretty well! The people are friendly and welcoming, the country side like many of the female inhabitants is magnificently sculptured, there weather for the main part is warm and sunny, they drink wine like its water and when there not drinking wine they are sipping the best coffee or licking the best ice cream you can get on the planet. Oh and the whitewater is pretty dam fine too.

I really didn’t think I was going to make it out Valsesia this year but luckily for me just as I thought all hope had gone I got a call from one of my oldest paddling friends & 8 days later I found my self boarding the Euro Tunnel, Italy here we come. Four of the South West’s finest paddlers made up the majority of the group, (Roger Ford, a very good and very competitively priced electrician!

Dan Westaway, Dom Crawford, Andy Iley) and I made up the numbers. Are first paddle was on the middle / lower sermenza and had some great bedrock slides and boulder garden rapids to warm up on, we then shot up the valley for some fun on the Egua. Oh how me and Roger laughed as Dan first then Dom and then Andy all got whirled around in drop/eddy together! “Maybe the water is quite High” I remember saying to Roger “maybe we should slow down a bit!” he replied then continued to laugh.

Day two took us up the Sermenzina, my memory of rivers is terrible, but I always remembered this as a great river and again it didn’t disappoint, as you fly of the trumpet drop all you can do is smile. After the Sermenzina with the sun still shining high in the sky we opted for a bit of Gronda action, this is another top river, a quick walk up a bosh down, with the water pretty sporty we then carried on down into the Sorba slides, nothing to hard but 3 big volume, great fun rapids.
Day 3 started with a distinct lacking of food! So we shot down to Varallo for a re stock, and when in Varallo you may as well have a curse down the Mastallone, and I’ve got to say I really enjoyed it, and even had a swim on at the bottom! Oops…. I haven’t swum in like 12 year, then 2 in one year! Must be getting old. After a pretty chilled afternoon we headed back up to the Gronda and Sorba for some more vertical fun.

Day 4 we had had a fair bit to eat the night before! And with 2KG of Italian cow still in my belly we met up with Mr. (Gene17) Westgarth for a Simon speed decent of the Alpine sprint section of the Sesia, and it was pretty cool nice to paddle something with a bit more volume and it ends at Campertogno (where we were staying sorry!). After this we had pretty much done all we wanted to do in Italy, and so with the storm clouds brewing we packed up and headed north up in to Switzerland / Ticino & and Ribo. The journey however was quite wet…. We wild camped at the top of the Ribo; it rained all night and all morning. The Ribo was quite high…. So we decided to have a look at the Isorno, now we didn’t know to much about this, just a few choice words from Simon, park at the end of the road walk 20 minuets get on at the big slide, get off at the second roman bridge. It took us a day to find all this and I really don’t know how far I walked that day! A lot, that night though the weather cleared up and by the time we had finally hiked ourselves and are kit to get in the water had definitely dropped a touch on the previous day, Cool so we hoped on and what an adventure we had. I’m not going to say to much as you should all go and do this river.

There are lots of blind bends, lots of vertical slippery sided canyons, pretty sure it all goes. If you can get out and look though I would strongly advise this, quite a spectacular river well worth the effort.

And so after another night of wild camping and rain we found ourselves on our last river the Verzasca. After the intense day on the Isorno I think we were all a bit tired and sore, but on ward we went and what an amazing river it is, great boulder rapids some really great bed rock slides, still not sure if we had medium or high water! But there is a great pizza restaurant at the end! Home….

Two stand out frazes of the trip……Fuck it we’re on holiday! And Oh I’ve forgotten to mention Katja (That’s not the Fraze!) Are German Brain surgeon! Not overly sure how she ended up getting stuck with us but for the later part of the trip she did. But, on the Isorno (you have to picture the scene) deep gorge, rain, interesting drop and she says in her perfect German/British “I am not paddling this shit” swiftly followed by a long scream as Roger shoved her off and into the “Shit!” Classic.

Same again next year? Cheers Guys for an ace trip hope to see you all soon.

Pictures all curtsey Andy Iley

Continue reading »]]> Despite the bitterly cold whether, I’m sure it must have been -5 on the water! The testing of the New Pyranha Molan continues. The boat has reached it’s 5th incarnation and is now in it finally pre production prototype stage, these boats have shrunk a fair bit as they are the first from the mold and the hull of the boat has been changed a smidgen to allow it to release quicker. But apart from that that what you see here is pretty much how it will look. Over the Christmas period the boat has made it out to most of the popular Thames weirs and has been performing well, the later prototypes have been tested a fair bit on and in holes around the UK & across Europe over the summer but it has been nice to finally get the boat back out on some good waves to see how the modifications that had been implemented over that time would work on a wave, personally I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out. The Molan is just a bit longer than the new 2010 All Star and you do notice that on a wave. I wouldn’t say that it’s a fast boat, But it sure dose accelerate fast! And the new sharper rails really allow you to drive the boat hard down and across the face a wave and release with razor sharp precision, far far better, easier and cleaner than Pyranha’s of old. The fit and outfitting of the Molan is like you would except from an Anderson & Sheppard suit, clean, smart and very comfortable. All in all things are looking very promising from this little chap. Bring on the production boat.

Continue reading »]]> It’s been a while since I paddled a new river but with the river of Wales full of water and a weekend off it seamed only fair to go forth and paddle. Me and Ali set off early Saturday morning and headed to the Mellte in south Wales we reached the river and found it at a good level, this river really doesn’t give you much of a warm up!

(Ali at the start of a good day)
 

The put in is below a pretty chunky waterfall (we didn’t run) you then get about five paddle strokes in and fly off a super cool, must be about 15 footer! Big auto boof really nice and then it just carry’s on, we didn’t really stop and look at much, as I dropped of the edge of the 25 footer I kinda wished I had!

(Not a great picture! but a great little drop at the bottom of the river)

But it was all good. Really nice river, after the long walk back to the car we loaded up and headed north, driving threw Wales was really nice great autumn scenery, bloody long way through didn’t realize the place was that big! With the rain hammering it down we arrived at Plas y Brenn for dinner and to meet up with the big man Sam Ellis and local boy Evans. The rain continued to fall and river rose like crazy we all went to sleep with ideas of huge spate runs on tiny unknown welsh rivers infesting are dreams.

(The boys at the get in on the glen!)

(The Big man Sam, Drops into fairy falls)
When we awoke all the water had gone thought! And we decided to start are day with a cheeky run down the Fairy Glen on the Conwy, I’ve never done this run but it’s one I’ve wanted to tick off for a good number of years, allegedly this is the UK’s test piece run! I’m not sure if it’s the hardest thing I’ve done in the UK but it’s up there! I think we had a low to medium level, but it’s a good solid run, powerful drops really nice technical rapids, Pipe line was my personal favourite. A really nice solid run! Then we set off for a bit of a scout about, by now it had started raining hard again but none of the river we looked at had much water in, bit odd we all thought! But ……. So any way we headed back the fairy Glen for another bash, by the time we got back the water here had come up a fair bit and all the drops seamed a good notch or two up on the first run, Pipe line was great fun again, the whole river was great fun a really stout test, think we did the run in about 15 minuets! It was way cool! I also have to admit to my love of my Everest! Some days I don’t like it, but on days like this I just love it.

(Ali and Me! in the rain at the bottom)
Stays up in the water really well, moves around nice and positive a really nice safe easy boat to use, not saying I made a hash of anything! But even if you do fudge a drop the boat really looks after you, surfaces nice and controllably and fast to get going again a really top top boat! And what a top weekend’s paddling. Two days, two new river, Great.

(Weapons of choice loaded for another run!)
Oh and on Saturday night we went out to a local pub for dinner, I’ve never laughed at the graffiti on the wall of a toilet so much………….

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Sorry this is a bit late, but with all the fun and games of the past few weeks I really have just had no time to sit down and write some words about Pyranha Fest! The event took place over the weekend of the 20th and 21st September, on the River Treweryn in North Wales, there was quite a bit going on over the weekend, courses organised by Tom Parker (and run by the Pyranha Team paddlers) covering a wide range of core paddling skills and group dynamics! Boater X competitions, boat outfitting master classes (If you didn’t go to this you missed out on the biggest pile of free foam I’ve ever seen!) Photographic workshops, Free style coaching with the Legend Mr Pete Catterall and many other interesting paddling related bits, oh the two new boats were lunched, The Karnali, a softer river runner designed for the progressive intermediate paddler went down a treat & the big one, the Z.one, this is the boat that has been produced to take over from the very popular Ina Zone and shares many design characteristics of the Ina zone, But made better with slightly changes in the cockpit, bit more bow rocker, a longer softer but more defined rail and the whole boat has been stretched out to make it super fast threw the water. However it’s still really easy to paddle really user friendly, a great boat. If you haven’t paddled them yet, find them and try them!

Mikey Abbott and Andy Phillips, of the informs Whitewater Warriors had made the long trip over from Norway for the weekend to run a “Warrior Master Class” which proved very popular and of course the river was open to enjoy

Saturday evening the entertainment didn’t stop! It just left the water and moved into Bala for a night of beer drinking, Film premieres curtsey of the FatCats with there resent trip to Greenland a great talk from the Warriors about there travels. The night descended into a beer glass and some good naked dancing, what a night!

Sunday was a re runs of Saturdays paddling fun. I’m very sorry to the nice chap whose shoulder became dislocated! I hope your well….. And sorry I did forget to give out the names of the winners from the boater X
4th place (but 1st woman home) Emma Runcorn, Very well done!
3rd place Graham Milton
2nd place Adam Donlay (think that was your name! Sorry if I’ve spelt it wrong)
1st place Josh Wedgwood (now this is quite amazing when you realize young Josh is only 14! Very well done) I’m not sure if there were any prices!…….. But great win!

Overall what a top weekend how Sammy got the sun to shine I will never know but a top event well done Pyranha cheers Sammy! Again again

Continue reading »]]> Well quite a lot of events took place this weekend, Personally I along with Graham and the other guys from RunandJump Clothing headed to Scotland for the Etive River Race. We arrived by the banks of the Etive at 5 in the morning after a night of driving that just never seamed to end! But after a bit of sleep we awoke the Friday morning to find the Etive pretty dam low! Never mind we thought this is Scotland and there is always something to paddle, with the race in mind we started on the Etive, I’d only ever paddled it once before and had walked most of it then! So took the opportunity to learn the lines and paddle all the drops. After a few runs down we turned our attentions to the small tribs that flow into the river further down stream, although low they provided us with some great sport and a good long walk! Friday as we were just falling asleep it started to rain…….it continued…………….for a long time………………a very long time. The next morning it was still raining and the river had risen over night by quite a lot! So much in fact that the section of the river the race was going to be held on was just too big to run a commercial competition on, so we moved up river to the next section, normally this section is bump and scrape at best, but not today! With the rain still falling the section was now a good grade 3 with good wave trains and hole’s dotted along its length. The format for the race was nice and simple! 50 teams, two in each team, both set off when the last man crosses the finish the clock stops. Pyranha, in the sponsored category to be fair did pretty well with 3 Everest’s and a Burn in the top 4 positions. Me and Graham came first Chris Evans and Pete Catterall came a very close second, Shep and his mate came 3rd a really good well organized race. Once down the main the course Me and Milton set our eyes on the section the race was supposed to be held on, with the water now super high this section turned into a right old mission, but was super cool. The rocky lines of the day before had been replaced by big powerful drops it was great and made the long drive well worth the effort. After the run we all headed back to the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven for prize giving and wee dram of whiskey!

(The river on Saturday!)

Wining teams:
Open: Simon Grant & Calum Hogg, A Bowl Full of Fun,
Sponsored: Graham Milton & Pete Scutt, Run and Jump Clothing Team 3, Pyranha
16-18: Jonathan Hiam & Adam Cox, Psychotic Badgers,

Thank you to David for brining me up a boat! cheers to Pyranha for the said Everest!

Continue reading »]]> Master Of Water 2008….Very impressed!

This story all started when I received an E-mail from Sammy at Pyranha, The mail read something like “Hi Guys there is a competition in Sweden with a great party! Is anyone free to go?”

It took me precisely 3 seconds to decide yeah I’m up for that! And so a few weeks later I found myself sitting on a plane flying to Sweden, when on the plane I did think to my self really I should have organised myself better! I was on a plane to Sweden; I didn’t know where I was flying to! And when I arrived in Sweden I had now idea where I was going too! And also I had no idea who I was meeting, when I landed in the place which I had no idea where it was! But luckily for me the man I was set to meet was the Legend in his own life time James Venimore, James owns and runs Kajaktiv, Sweden’s largest kayak importer/distributor and has covered more miles in a kayak than maybe anyone else I’ve ever met before.

The reason for me being in Sweden was to compete in the Kajaktiv Master Of Water Contest 2008 (sponsored by Pyranha!) The basic idea behind this event is a lot like the old PeakUK challenge. There are 3 events, First a boater X , Second a Speeder race down a set course against the clock, and third a good old Freestyle blast! The rapid the event was held on is near the village of Dala-Floda and for this type event was perfect nothing to hard but a good length and plenty of different lines to pick and choose from. The Boater X was up first and was the event I was keen to do well in, unfortunately all the local seamed to have done a lot more training for the event than I had! I can honestly say I’ve never been so worn out, after a lot of pushing and jostling and a good dollop of English cheeky good luck I found myself in the 4 man final. Man it was tight right up to the point I capsized and couldn’t roll!!!!! Some big time carping ensued and finally I managed to get the burn the right way up and make it to the finish! In 4th. Hats off to Julian from France who won the race, Super fast! Next was the Speeder race. 4 Pyranha speeders had been race readied the day before by myself and James and one at a time they were raced at high speed down the course, the run only took 1-2 minuets but it was great fun and paddling the boats down a good class 3 rapid quite different than anything I had done before . In Sweden Multisport paddling is very popular and the good guys took the rapid apart totally have a look at the results to see where I came think it was 10th or maybe 7th not sure.

Last up and with more lactic build up in my musicals then ever before was the Freestyle the hole was a bit on the shallow side and not that powerful, but you seamed to be able to stick most moves init. I was actually getting some really good rides, good entry move into few ends into clean ends, blunt left right, front loop back loop. But then in my scored runs I remembered why I leave freestyle to JB and Pringle. I was pretty poor! The Rev was great though. Really happy with that little boat.

At the end of the event I think I finished somewhere around the top, But kayaking was the real winner!!!!!!! No no, the event is really good. All the people at Kajaktiv are super positive and the event ran like clock work, next years event is looking to be even bigger and better so keep an eye on there web site or ours! And if you need a hand getting out there give us a bell and I’m sure we can help!
Oh I’ve forgot to say about the festival that is running as the comp is on too! Basically it’s very different to anything you have at a UK comp but it’s so much more and fits the atmosphere so well. Your have to go out and sample it for yourselves. Plus a few last things: Sweden really not that pricey! Take away the air fair and to be fair that was less than it would take me to drive to Devon. It dose not cost a lot to live I spent less there over a weekend than I would in the UK. And finally if you want a really good destination to paddle some good rivers nice class 3-4 nothing to full on give Kajaktiv a bell they do some really good courses and there very cheap I would say. Oh and lets not forget the Hot Tub!

Pictures By: James Venimore

Continue reading »]]> Over the past few weeks I’ve been busy paddling morning noon and night, testing one of the new Rev prototypes,  on and various features around the Thames valley.  The final boat will be a little different but here are a few words on were we are at the moment!                                                                                                                                                                                              

So we have a new play boat more an evolution than revolution the Rev takes the high performance of the 4 Twenty a step further.  I was always pleasantly surprised paddling the 4Twenty at just how fun and easy it was to paddle and also how user friendly it was to learn new moves in, not forgetting exceptional comfort.  Now with the new Rev You still have a boat that is great to sit in, the knee room has been slightly adjusted and still   provides plenty of foot room. However the performance has been turned right up!  The boat is considerably narrower than the 4Twenty; the vortex rails have been sharpened and elongated, this combined with the lower rocker makes for a much faster snappier involving boat to paddle.                                                                                                                                          

On a wave the Rev’s flat rocker and quick planning hull make’s it a very quick boat that loves to race down the line, but has still kept enough of the tail rocker for hassle free back surfing & for landing big blunts, pan am’s etc.  With   the reduced width, in a hole/pile of a wave the Rev isn’t  as stable as the 4Twenty and has taken a little longer to get used to, but the benefits you gain in acceleration, speed, looseness and bigger, easer air time out way any negative     points.  The volume distribution has also been tinkered with, and as a result the Rev is stable and controllable up on   its end, cartwheels, and split wheels and huge loops are a piece of cake. All in all this boat take’s a bit more thought to paddle than the 4Twenty but be patient on a big wave or a small hole or even just down at the local swimming     pool this boat give you a big smile!                                                                                                                        

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It’s been a busy few day!  The rain has started to fall and some of the Thames weirs have are starting to open. We have a great range og waves and holes on the Thames, a great testing ground for all new boats.

On Shepperton a pushy fast wave I found the boat to be fast, retentive, and very carvey, more so than the 4.20.

On a steep wave like Sunbury the boat excelled very well, with it’s super narrow hull, edge transfers were easy, therefore carving air blunts were going very big.

 I took a trip down to Hurley this morning on a classic 3 gates. The boat cartwheels well, it feels very stable on end and has a good amount of pop for loops. Again carving blunts were great the boat felt very loose in the middle gate.

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The new Speeder has been out for a few weeks now, but due to the high water we’ve had down here in the south i’ve not really had the chance to give it a good play.  Today I awoke to lower water levels and snow! so it seemed a good idea to go for a spin.  The Speeder has primarily been designed for fast  down river touring, but it can do so much more.  This is a really good fun boat, super fast but so easy to control, fitted out with full connect 30, so it mega comfy too! If you need a boat to get out and enjoy any river in any water condition and do any thing.  The Speeder could well be the one for you….