River Wye Trip Sep 8th

To the Paddlers of the World

Big thanks to Sarah, Dave, David, Ruth, Rachel & Jeremy for being great company on a lovely day out paddling the beautiful Wye. 

We travelled the 8 miles from Kerne Bridge to the Yat then paddled at least as far again with some time on the famous rapid. 

As usual on sunny days it seemed most of Britain was getting in a canoe or kayak at Kerne Bridge dispelling the myth that not many people go paddling! 

We put our newly learnt paddle skills to the test on the slow moving Wye, with the harsh instructors not even allowing skegs to be used at times! 

As usual the demon of Symonds Yat rapid was laid to rest with the ubiquitous "Was that it?!" & we went the whole day & not a single swimmer... we must push you harder next time!! 

Congratulations to all though for completing your first run & practise on a grade 1 rapid!

Hope you all slept well.. pictures & this blog  on our facebook page Canoe Kayak Trader & Training. 

see you all soon on the river.

regards

Matt & Ross

Bank holiday paddling the Loki

 My club, Soak, always does a long weekend away on this bank holiday, and this time, we went to the mighty Tryweryn, but I wasn’t able to stay the whole weekend as I had to work the Sunday and Monday.
I packed my van Thursday night, so I could go to work on Friday, and pick up the Loki and set off for Wales as soon as work finished.

I was really looking forward to paddling the Loki on the Tryweryn, as I think it’s the perfect boat for the river, as its not big enough to need a creek boat, and I don’t really want to trash my play boat on all the rocks, and the Loki is sort of in between them, as its still long, so has so good speed, but its low volume slicey ends mean it can still be fun, throwing stern squirts into the flow and carving into the eddies as well as even throwing a few ends on the flat, where its deep enough!

Having paddled the river in my plat boat many of times, it felt strange being in a longer boat, and took me a while to get used to it, as I had to paddle slightly differently.
I didn’t need to put as much effort into making the eddies, as the Loki is a lot quicker and longer, which meant making the eddies super easy.
I also found that I had to really carve the boat into the eddies, which was super fun, as you gain the speed in the flow then carve the boat into the slack water, it felt so smooth and quick.

When we got down to the café wave, I couldn’t wait to see how this boat would react on a wave, I was expecting it to be pretty good, as I had managed to surf a few of the smaller waves on the way down with ease, where is in my play boat, I just couldn’t stick on them.

 I wasn’t wrong!

It was so much fun just carving from left to right across the wave and it felt really stable when on edge. I could have stayed there for ages just surfing away, but we had a swimmer, so I had to go help chase boat, and as soon as we picked up all the pieces, I walked straight back up to the wave to carry on surfing, until I got hungry and decided to meet the rest of the group for some lunch before heading down to run the lower.

Pete

Team CKT storms the Freestyle British League Event at Cardiff.

Last weekend was the second round of this years British League Events for freestyle kayaking, at the Cardiff White Water Course. Its was a great chance to have a play on the course and the new hole that they made for freestyle. At the start of the day the course was running at 4 cumecs - at this level it was hard to play in the features as it was really shallow, so I decided to go and have some breakfast and wait till 11o'clock  when they put it up to 8 cumecs.

Pete Bridgeford having a practice 

 Alex contemplating the next run

Jake Boswell 

At first it took some time to get used to a new feature but after some pratices I started to enjoy the new feature. Nearly all moves were possible, and the feature had a good eddy service. After the morring on the course it was time to get off the water and rest for the comp, where they put the flow up to 10 cumecs.

The judges (scary!)

First up was the junior and senior lady's with them all paddling well, Next up was the junior men's were three of Team Canoe Kayak Trader (Jake Boswell, Pete Bridgeford and Tom Goddard) were competing. It was great to see a good turn out from the team, with great results all round - Tom was 2nd, Pete was 5th, and Jake 7th.

Final Results 

 Jake

 Pete going for a loop

Tom's McNasty 

Next it was the turn of the OC1 and C1 paddles, Where Team Canoe Kayak Trader paddler Paul King paddled in both categories. Showing great boat control in the OC1 coming 1st (...and only but that's not the point) and pulling off some good moves in the C1 to come 3rd
.

Paul in his OC1 

Lastly it was turn for the K1 Mens class were I was in the second heat and was excidited to paddle the new hole on 10 cumecs. I had a nice first ride lading some tricks that I did not manage to pull off in practice and I now really like the feature. After my last run I ended coming in 6th place which I was really happy about.

While the K1 Mens class was happening they also ran a novice category were Rob Capehorn (one of our staff) entered his first ever compertion in freestyle were he came in 3rd place - Well done!

 Rob waiting for his run

It was a great day out and it was nice to see some many people paddling and I would like to say thank you to the our team paddlers for being at the event and the Cardiff White Water Course for holding it.   


The next British League Event will be at Nottingham on the 22nd and 23rd Sept.

Hope to see you there, and here's hoping for another excellent show from the Team!

Alex

Anglesey Sea Kayak Trip Aug 24 & 25^th

A really big thanks from me to Sammy, Rich, Dan, Nick, Martin & Pete for dragging me out the office for a fun weekend of 3 star paddling in Anglesey.

We opted for the more sheltered east coast near Moelfre to start with.

Began with 3 star warm up skills to get used to our boats & then practised paddling with a following wind across the bay. We were paddling a mixture of Wilderness Tempests, Easky 15’s & Jackson Journeys.

We were merrily heading upwind enjoying a blustery Force 4 that fairly soon turned into a Force 5, gusting 6.  We crossed over to the Lee shelter of Moelfre island then attempted paddling against wind & tide towards Dulas Island. Hard going! Practised turning round in a rough sea & then catching the swell & surf back.  We got so confident we even did a lap of the island & all survived to tell the tale.  The following seas  of 6 to 8 ft waves on the return journey

Kept us all on our toes but despite the anxious faces everyone made it back without drama.

I was impressed!

Back in the calm of the bay, we went through a round of rolling & rescue drills to allow all to show off their skills. Even Rich surprised himself! Good old Pawlata!

Once recovered in the bar, Sammy remembered that for sea kayaking she expected sunshine & beautiful  blue seas so, next day,  after morning prayers we set off to the sandy beaches of the west coast for just that!

It was sunshine & rash vests!  Launched from the picturesque Treath Trecastel  & paddled NW along the coastline. Found some swelly rockhopping along the way & practised a few more 3 star paddle skills. After a glorious sunny lunch on our own island the wind picked up on cue for our return journey giving us an excuse to practise with skegs. We paddled wide across the bay for a little more exposure but the hoped for surf never materialised.

With aching muscles we packed our kit away watching the evening sun over a beautiful sea.

Someone remind me, why do I live in the Midlands? 

regards to you all

Matt