New Year Demo Day

We will be having are New Year Demo Day on the 2nd Jan 2011. More info can be found on our website www.canoekayakrader.co.uk

Happy Paddling!

White Water Trip Nov 2010

Whitewater Weekend North Wales November 2010 Want to say thanks to Fred, Paul & Pete for a cracking paddle. We had a run down the Lower Tryweryn (first time for 2 of the 3) & then the Upper Conway including Bryn Bras falls (or Brass Balls Falls) for the first timers!

Congrats to Fred for finishing his 3 star kayak & delivering the "goods" when required.

Pete showed all the hallmarks of having practiced inbetween his white water trips & no longer submits to aquatic inspections of the river bed. Medals for progression!

And Paul deserves a mention just for turning up & making it down both rivers the right way up especially not having really kayaked in about a year! Some video to follow! Thanks again gents, you made my life fun for the weekend!

Kids River Dee Trip

During October half term we ran a day trip up to the River Dee for some of the young people that have been coming on courses for a few years and needed a new challenge!
We arrived to a slightly-higher-than-i-would-have-liked Dee, and got on at Glyndyfrdwy with lots of very excited faces all round. 

 

After just a few minutes, we came to the first rapid, a lovely bit of grade 2 with some big bouncy waves at the bottom to enjoy. One at a time, everyone ran it, and everyone stayed upright, with a particularly impressive brace from Eve when we all thought she was about to trip up on the eddyline at the bottom.

The rest of the top section was a lovely combination of fast flowing flat sections and sections of grade 1 to 2 white water, which everyone really enjoyed, with only one or two occasional mishaps. The more experienced paddlers were being challenged to hit as many eddies as possible, while the rest were practicing moving the boat around on the rapids and spotting the rocks early enough to avoid them - with varied success!

At horseshoe falls we decided that the canal would be a good option, as a lot of people were getting tired by that stage, and the river was quite high.

Then it was back onto the river for a quick run down the first two drops at Mile End Mill, and a ferry across to the finish... well that was the plan anyway, perhaps Charlotte and James P has different ideas and didn't want to miss out on the last drop?! :-) James ran it beautifully, and Charlotte won the prize for swim of the day on the middle stopper, and did the last drop sitting on Dave's deck... nice rescue Dave - good job he was paddling that giant Karnarli!

We all got out just as it started to get dark and headed to Mc D's for some much needed grub!

Congratulations to James S and Calum for passing their 3 star assessment...

Thanks to everyone for making it such a great trip, I couldn't have hoped for a nicer bunch of young people to spend the day with. And of course, thanks very much to my beautiful assistants Dave, John, and Will.

Jenna

Sevylor Dealer Day

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the Sevylor Dealer day held by Meridian Zero at Symonds Yat. It was a great chance to try out all the Sevylor products. Below are some of the pictures from the event.

View from the Reef 

 SUP

Big thanks to Meridian Zero and Coleman for a great event

Cheers 

Alex

Freestlye at the Nene

Over the summer Matt and Myself have been going to the Nene White Water Centre on Tuesday nights, running  intro to white water and freestlyle courses, as well as bringing our fleet of demo boats for people to try. Below are some of the photos of the freestlye courses that I have been running:

 Chris playing in the pumps

 Arron looking cool

 Night time playboating in pool A

 Aaron playing in pool A 

Alex in the pumps

Cheers 

Alex 

1* Trip to Warwick September 25 2010

We were lucky to wake up to a lovely bright morning, and the day stayed warmly autumnal for the trip. After getting kitted up, the four of us set off from our Leamington site and spent the first hour paddling to the weir at princes drive, while covering some foundation skills.

The weir was unforuantly blocked at the bottom due to building works meaning a portage and wet feet. The rest of the morning was spent heading along the Rivers Leam then Avon toWarwick where we stopped for lunch in st Nics park before paddling round the corner to have a look at  to the castle.

After everyone had had enough of the veiws of the castle from the water we turned around and started the journey back to Leamington, stopping to cover new skills and building on those we had covered in the morning.

Everyone on the trip had a fun day and left with new skills, a 1* certificate, and having had a very enjoyable paddle.

Yannig

New Canoe Kayak Trader Blog

Welcome to Canoe Kayak Trader's new blog were you can keep up to date with what the CKT staff have been up to.