Pyranha Fest

The annual Pyranha fest  is always a great show and this year was no exception. The robsons stand was set up in prime view of the infamous 'cafe wave' ( where we could witness all of the carnage) and the demo fleet was in constant use the whole of the weekend! There was a great turn out from the team including David Bain, Kev Griffiths, Josh Morrisesy, me ( Charles Blyth) and the infamous god father of the operation: Paul Morrissey! On the Saturday night after a presentation including a raffle with one of the prizes being donated was a Robson Paddle from the new recently launched range which was won by the Burne family..I am sure they will put it to good use :)
On sunday David Bain and Charles Blyth entered the 'pro' boater X race which contained 6 of some of the fastest paddlers around! Charles came in 3rd with Dave slightly behind due to the carnage at the jump in start.
Overall it was a great weekend for Robson Paddles and it is definite that the Robson range is getting good vibes on and off the water!
See you on the river,
Charles

Sick lines, Fast bikes, and a little gravy!

It always starts with a journey

Our trip started in Nottingham, where Tom and I live. A kit list was made and we left at midday on Friday. A quick drive and we arrived in London at the White Water Canoe Centre where Pete Scutt works. After an afternoon in the shop we headed to the local pub beside the Shepperton Slalom Site followed by a curry.

The next morning we were back in the shop watching the rugby, myself very over-excited about the coming week and not really knowing what to do with myself till 4:00. However, the time did eventually come and we began our trip to Dover and the drive to Europe, our destination, Sickline!

We arrived on Sunday afternoon with sore backs from the journey. After a quick inspection of the course we were changed and raring to go. This was the first time I had seen the Wellerbrucke section at race level, and to no surprise it still looked rather big. With help from all the GB guys here I had my line set in my head as well as following Graham, Pete and Tom down.

My first run was pretty clean, and filled me with confidence, I went straight back up for another few runs. We all got off the water buzzing with how we paddled. No huge beat-downs were taken and most of us felt really positive about the course. We then got some food and headed to Crazy Eddies.

Crazy Eddies

Crazy Eddies is possibly one of the coolest most random places I have ever been to. It is an old raft centre, where many raft guides still live. It’s comprised of a central building with a full industrial kitchen, of which only a small electric oven hob combo, and a fridge works. Another room with another walk in style industrial fridge is, again not working, and a table where we eat, chill and most importantly drink tea.

There is also an assortment of old train carriages, which are very Harry Potter style. You can even imagine the dementors coming down the corridor. These carriages have doors to each, converted “bedrooms” which have fold out bunk beds. The window seals are perished and doors squeal but still I really enjoy sleeping there for the quirkiness of the whole place.

Middle Oetz and back to the Venter Ache

In the morning we headed up to run the Middle Oetz with Seth as our guide. It was a really fun run, with nothing too difficult at this water level. It certainly kept you busy though as the rock-gardens were super long and tight. After this we went up the valley to the Venter Ache, my favourite run to date. Unfortunately I had only ever run it in spate, and at normal water levels it wasn’t anything overly special. It was still great to paddle through the deep gorges in the sunshine, and there were enough features to make it enjoyable and a fun run.

We finished the day back on the Race course on the Oetz with a few quick runs down, and an unfortunate snapping of my paddle just above the two largest drops on the course. A bit of C1 down the drops had me on a nice clean line though. Thankfully.

Race Prep is Important.... But so is relaxing

After a having to abandon a plan to run the Risbach we had to decide what to do with the day. The thought of a day just on the race course was not so appealing, therefore we went to the local bike hire, and rented some Giant DH and free-ride bikes. I had not been on a DH bike for a few years, since I sold mine. We got the ski lift up, and had our first run down, a definite walking track. It was super steep and not really wide enough for a bike. We ended up finding some single track road, then nailing it down the mountain roads overtaking cars. The second run down we found some fire road tack where even the open corners seemed tight due to a lack of berms. Towards the end we found a nice little section of DH which really got the adrenaline pumping. A few minor crashes were had within the group but nothing major. The day ended, again with a few runs down the race course.

The reality of racing

So it came to Thursday, as I awoke the race nerves came apparent. It was a strange feeling knowing that this was actually a world champs. We had a short paddle in the morning including a run down the Infamous upper Wellerbrucke, which is one rather scary dirty run. The evening had some nice lines going down from all the GB paddlers. We had a race meal that evening which consisted of numerous pieces of meat and a few potatoes. I got an early night and started psyching myself up for the next day.

Qualification

The prep leading up to the race for me was pretty thorough. I had not done much training on the qualification course due to the top being so technical, a mistake on my part as I had not understood how challenging qualification was going to be. Anyway, with advice from Pete Scutt, Craig Aires and Rob Harris, I thought I knew my lines well. I waited in queue for the start, eagerly awaiting my time to climb down the steep bank to the small eddy by the start beam. I sprinted off the start, and as planned hit the hump of the first drop nailing the boof and landing on the left pile, I sprinted towards champion’s killer. I hit the right boof and landed perfectly and powered through the small gap below. At this point I had thought the hard work was over and it was just keeping to the “easy lines” however through the middle section I made contact with a few rocks which slowed me down significantly. My time had me 3^rd in 1^st qualification.

Second qualification was very much the same again hitting the same rock. I rushed up after my times to watch the other GB competitors. Tom Wakeling, one of the fastest GB paddlers unfortunately backlooped on champion’s killer therefore this year did not have the chance to race in the final. Congrats to Pete and Anton who also made it through along with myself.

Finals day!

The moment I had been waiting for, sitting at the top of a 6 meter seal slide looking down upon the swirling waters below. A cameraman was placed just where I wanted to be at the top of the slide, which meant I had to just hope that I would be ok sliding further right. The light went green and I shifted my weight over the edge, the boat began to slowly tilt, then speed down the rock towards the small yellow plank. I shot off down the river as my hull boofed nicely off the flat surface below. I knew this was the first key part to my race. I then picked up the pace through the first section flowing with the S around a rock then a hole, a quick boof and I was on to the flat section in the middle of the course. I sprinted towards the compulsory left channel. I hit it with a nice line and then paddled for the middle route where you come all too near to the undercut that has claimed so many peoples runs. I got the double boof and then sprinted towards the second to last drop. I hit the hump and again, as in quals landed on the flow and gripped it. On approach to champion’s killer I was just praying that it went to plan. Unfortunately it did not and I backlooped. I finished 8 seconds behind the Russian I was against, who went on to win the quarter final stage.

I finished 34^th, very happy with my performance in the race. I can’t wait after another hard years training to go out again and hopefully get a better seeding!

Thanks for reading,

David

p.s. The party was Epic!

TITAN test pictures

Matt Cooke. mattcookekayak.com Lightning Team Rider. Blog update

Hi,  my name is Matt Cooke and I have been paddling with Robson paddles for the last 10 years or so.  recently, I have switched to Lightning blades since the merge.  I have used hundreds of paddles in my paddling career and have found myself with a set of paddles that really suit my paddling style and volume of usage.  I have two sets of free ride crank paddles and use one set for freestyle and a slightly longer set with my magnum.  Up to now, I can't fault my paddles.  They are strong, smooth and light.  From what I have seen, the paddles take a licking and keep on ticking.  I have not seen a set break yet through paddling.     I have made a small pro mo on youtube and face book from some sessions in Wales and Canada.  These paddles seem to be becoming more and more popular in the pro kayaker scene proving their worth on the world stage.  see you all on the river.  peace,  Cookie :-)

Road Trip

Road Trip

So you may have noticed over the last 6 months, there has been a distinct lack of blogs on my creek and big water paddling. This was because I was focusing purely on my racing at this year’s Junior European Championships. However within 3 days after the Europeans, Joe Morley and I had started the drive out to Europe, with 4 plastic boats on the roof.  Our plan was to drive out straight to Prague for a few days of Freestyle paddling on the 2008 Freestyle world cup site, also home to many international slalom competitions.

All packed up and ready to go

Creeking In Czech

On arrival to Prague a BBQ was quickly set up, at 11:30pm and steak was readily consumed after the 14 hour+ drive out. In the morning I woke early, as usual after a late night, so took a look at the river. My heart sunk after seeing the level far too high for the slalom course, leaving the channel backed up and washed out, no use for paddling at all. I quickly made the plan that we were not staying in Prague, I was having serious withdrawal symptoms from paddling. Unfortunately I did not know many Czech non slalom paddlers, but a quick look on the Pyranha Team website gave me a few names. After speaking with Katerina Migdauova she said our best bet was to head up to North Czech with herself, and a few mates. On arival to a small town called Jizerske Hory, the landscape becoming ever more mountainous and seeing swollen rivers below us really got my heart pumping, excited to run some real water.  We parked in a small carpark filled fully with paddlers cars and brightly coloured boats.  We followed the group up the valley, after a reasonably long steep drive, we went over a brow of a hill to see a huge bowl like valley, filled with small wooden houses, it reminded me of a western film as the cowboys look upon the Indian settlement.  We paddled this small tributary which joined the main river about a km down. The river was very steep, very rocky and incredibly good fun. The top was tight narrow and gnarly which really put me on my toes after not paddling a creek boat on steep water for many months. The river then opened out following the confluence of 2 other rivers to give some bigger , deeper technical rapids.

  nice technical rapid on our first river

We then decided to paddle the Kamenica, a river which I would describe as a steeper wider bigger Washburn. This river was exceedingly good fun, continuous rapids all the way down.  It ended with a 15-20 foot weir, one that the locals were wary of due to the shallow landing and strong tow-back. After a careful inspection, and giving Joe first the camera, then the throw-line I was psyched to run the drop. I got some run on the boat, and looked for my line, a strong boof off the lip landed me flat at the bottom, with lots of speed to clear the tow-back.

Final drop on the Kamenice

My experience of the rivers in Czech was very positive, and I would definitely encourage people to go paddle their more often and get it on the map!

Wild Water Racing World Champs

The next place on our trip was Opava, Home to the 2011 wild water racing junior world championships. A week was spent there, learning the lines and racing. The river was exceedingly flat, favouring the bigger stronger paddlers, however GB fought hard and came out with some reasonable results! It was a great week and it was especially great to meet up with friends which I had met over the previous 2 years. It was especially to see the amount of paddlers that were not just wild water paddlers, Haley Popp, a fellow NRS team paddler raced well, along with her brother Bryson who raced in C2 class as well as many slalomists who competed in wild water alongside their slalom paddling.

Team race in Czech

 

Time for the main event

On arrival in Austria life was once again balanced. My slalom and wild water paddling had been the priority, but now it was just me and the rivers, able to choose what to paddle, what lines to take, and ultimately how hard I wanted to push myself. Many rivers were paddled during the ten days we were in Austria but I will only speak about the highlights. We started the trip with a medium level run of the Inn Shoot and Landeck gorge.

Inn Shoot and Landeck Gorge

The Inn Shoot is one of the best bits of water to date that I have paddled. It is a continuous 3km run with large waves and huge holes. Joe had told me about this run, saying it was a lot of fun, so it was on the hit list for both of us. Joe made a call to Oz Rowdon, a slalom paddler he had paddled with in Austria last year with, and we were set to go. We got to the get in, and started a decent towards the gorge. My heart was pumping., egerly awaiting to see what the river looked like at water level, not 100 feet up! The whole run was non stop paddling, powering threw the edges of holes and fighting over waves to see what the next section would bring. The river flattened off after this until Landeck gorge approached giving a nice short ending rapid.

Lower Venter Ache- My favourite run to date!

The Lower Ventre Ache was quite simply amazing. Large (very large) continuous rapids for 6km. Joe and I had paddled the top half earlier in the week, and were determined to paddle the rest. We headed up to the get in and met with a group of Czech Guys. The river was high still due to glacial melt, way over the guide books high water recommendation however the Czech Guys had ran it once that morning so, despite it being a higher level Joe and I decided to give it a go.

The river is fast, and narrow, a little wider than Trywern. The river had continuous high peaky waves and large holes, some of which went across the whole river.  The gorges were seriously steep with no exit, intimidating when in the middle of them was some of the biggest water I had seen. The river was still rising sharply when we got off the water, but one more run seemed like a good idea. The river was bigger still and so fast we did 3 breakouts on the whole 6km.

First rapid on the Venter Ache this starts on exit of the get in eddy

Lower Oetz

The lower Oetz is the classic run, in low water it is a run much like the Tay, in high waters it just keeps getting bigger with large standing waves and munchy holes to punch. The highlights of the Oetz for me, have to be the standing play wave below the “extreme danger weir” which had me doing clean spins and surfing all day, and the rapid on the following corner, where there is literally a wall of water standing in front of you which you have no choice but to punch threw.

just  a fuzzy screan shot - new photo comming soon :P

Brandenburger Ache

I had been pretty excited about this run all week. Joe had been bigging it up for the past 6 months, so I was anxious to see it for myself. Getting on to the river, after briefly looking at the first gorge from a foot wide path, literally cut in to the cliff, left a lot of unknowns, especially how big the water was going to be down there. The first gorge was steep fast with small drops all the way down, ending with a curl off a wall in to a deep recirculating hole which had me quickly flipped and rolling. The best thing about this river was the length, 16km ish I think was the section we paddled, the even better thing is the river doesn’t really slow for a great distance before you are in the next over hanging gorge working your way down the next rapid. It was quite an exhilarating experience paddling threw a gorge not much more than 3 meters wide with cliffs towering above, and indeed over your head. About half way down there was one shot portage, due to a drop with a tree in the hole, however the portage was so steep and tricky at the time it almost seemed safer to run the rapid. The last section was again in a gorge and had a small drop with a nasty hole at the bottom, which saw a few of the team having to bounce off a wall or fight their way out of the hole.

A flat part of the Brandenburger-a relitivly rare sight

And thus ends the post, I had the time off my life paddling out in the alps, something I plan to do again as soon as possible. The experience I have gained from my time out there, has made me much more confident and I am now really looking forward to Sickline in a month or two’s time!

Upper Pitzbach

The Upper Pitsbazh was also a good run, a technical rocky 8km made us on our toes. It also had a nice little boof half way down…

Small Boof on the Pitzbach

Thanks

 I would firstly like to thank Joe for joining me on the trip, he was great to have along and made things run smoothly.  I would also like to thank NRS, Lightning Paddles and Pyranha as my gear really did serve me extremely well throughout the trip. In addition to this I would like to thank White Water Canoe Centre, Nelo kayaks and GoPro for their continued support. I will also thank Desperate Measures on behalf of Joe for supporting him.

Over and out,

David Bain

Worth the wait...

It's been a while since any good swell... but when it came it brought us some great waves! This great North Devon break needs really specific conditions to work. Everything lined up and there were some awesome waves to be had, including some barrels!

Hopefully the summer swell will be here to stay!

Philip Watson

After a very busy few months moving from my home town of Chester, to Nottingham. Moving schools and training hard in the UK, France and Bosnia I have a free minute to write a post.

BOSNIA PRE EUROPEANS

The time has come where the Junior and U23 GB teams have returned to Bosnia. Thankfully the river is staying at a consistent level now, not like in our training camp, where the water rose each day from 25 cumecs to 200, which was challenging to say the least with gates having to be risen every 5 minutes.

The course has been altered very little since I was last here, and although it is not the most technical river out there, I am still thoroughly looking forward to racing, which starts with my individual and team qualification races on Thursday.

And yes, it’s a little hot, 40+ deg c :O :O :O

PADDLING MY NEW PYRANHA VARUN AND CARBON FREERIDE BLADES AT HPP

As my training started to dip for racing, and "hot" weather visiting the UK I decided it was about time to get comfortable in my Varun, before I get on larger rivers in central Europe in 3 weeks time. I really enjoyed paddling the boat down river, its a lot faster than other play boats of its type, yet also carves nicely on a wave as well as it being playful in a hole. It really is ace for all round paddling, which is exactly what I intend to do in Austria, Slovinia and Switzerland.

The carbon blades were also great; I am still using the Freeride blade design, which as I said in a previous review are nice strong, powerful blades. The carbon blades are quite a lot lighter, making them more similar to my slalom blades.

David Bain