God Loves Hinckley Sea Kayakers !!

Hey Folks,

Anglesey Sea Kayak Weekend

What a weekend ! It was practically tropical! Big thanks to all of Hinckley Canoe Club who who got me out of the office for a stunning weekend round West Anglesey.

Day 1 Rhoscolyn's beautiful Porthwen Bay 

After getting over the shock of long boats & edging the "wrong way" we had a bit of time getting used to our boats then we were off to find our sea legs... 

The swell was being gentle so we had no trouble (ie no swimmers) running back in with a following sea. Later, as we were close to slack water we went for the ferry glide over to the beacon... i nearly lost Taz & Dave to the tide race as we turned between the island but the coastguard were engaged so they eventually figured to paddle harder! We dabbled with a bit more rock hopping then ran through our rescues & rolls to get some of the 3 star skills done 7 dusted. 

Day 2 Treaddur Bay. 

After a couple of warm up skills we went off rock hopping NW of Treaddur bay. (Myself skilfully & narrowly escaping a wave - rock- scraping spanking) 

Everyone seemed more comfortable in their boats & the weather was unbelievably good. Seriously! 

God must love Hinckley CC because i have never been so warm nor seen the sea so calm ! It was so sunny & blue it just seemed inevitable that a pod of dolphins would appear & frolic in the sea for our amusement! 

Didnt you see them?!

Lunch at Porth Dafarch was sweetened with the occasional set of medium waves to remind ourselves of the joys of surfing & watching other people roll over! We even finally managed to get Onno wet! Then we were off to explore the caves. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your outlook, the direction & size of swell made it too risky to get too deep into the caves. So we browsed under & around the entrances, getting the feel of the rise & fall of the waves & listening to the boom of the mighty surf as it crashed behind us.  We all escaped unscathed & opted not to approach the tide race at Penrhyn Mawr but had a pleasant return paddle practising a bit of rafted towing and the last rescues.

All in all a wonderful weekend & so a big thanks from me & Alex to all of you for getting us out on the mighty sea. And special thanks to Daddy Dave for 2 cracking meals! 

regards

Matt & Alex

PS As Xmas approaches , remember we will beat Brookbank on price every time & give you free delivery!  

Nottingham league event 2012

After the Cardiff league event, the next was at the Nottingham white water centre, on the 23rd September, which was conveniently the day after the Youth freestyle, so people could make a weekend of it, whether they paddled in the youth event, or just came to help out and watch the up and coming youth paddlers!

On the Friday I met Alex at the boat centre, so we could travel down in convoy and get a much needed practise in the second hole, as this was where the competitions are normally held. This seemed to go quite well, with Alex nailing some mcnastys and a few phonix’s, and I finally managed to get some mcnasty as well.

I was lucky as I can still paddle in the youth events, so this gave me even more practise for the league event, with me getting mcnastys a lot more consistently.

We had to be up early on Sunday, as the registration was between 8:30 and 9 unless you’d registered the day before, which I hadn’t!

At 10am we all gathered round and had a briefing on how the day would plan out. It started off with the junior women’s heat first, then C1, then the juniors and expert juniors heats started, Tom Goddard was in heat 3 and Jake and I were in heat 4, which was the first heat after lunch. Alex’s was in the Expert men’s, which always end up being at the last to go, and there were quite a lot of them.

Before each heat, we all had a quick time to practise whilst the judges sorted out the scoring for the heat before.

I was quite happy with my rides, as I’m not very good in the feature but I managed 2 rides over 200 points!  Jake and Tom also managed some great scoring rides, with there totals being over 400 as well for their 2 best rides.

Paul King also managed some good rides in the C1 category, but I missed him in the OC1, but I’m sure he got some great rides there too.

Next up was Alex, who had been waiting around in the cold all day to paddle. Unfortunately his rides didn’t go quite to plan, as he could get any mcnastys or phonix’s to go, but he still managed some massive loops and godzillas to rack up some points.

 After watching a few more top paddlers, we decided to head home and get out of the rain.

Big thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend!

See you on the water

Pete

Nottingham Youth Freestyle 2012

After spending my first 5 days at the University of Derby, I left my Halls on Friday afternoon to head to the Whitewater Course at HPP. I decided to go for some much needed training for the weekend’s competitions: the Youth Freestyle Finals and British League Event 3.

I had a good evenings training, mainly in the Twin Waves as that is where I felt I needed to improve most. My moves were coming together well with some nice Phonix’s, McNastys and Lunar Orbits.

I was back the following morning eager to get on the water. I went into the event with a good ranking as I had some good scores over the past few events. However, I knew that to get a good final result that I’d have to put in a strong performance in the Sponsored Boys Category in order to compete well against Tom Goddard, Brandon Hepburn, Matt Rogers who have been paddling to a very high standard this season!

We practiced in the morning on the whole course, Inlet Gate and Twin Waves were running nicely but most other features were a little too flushy!

After lunch the competition started. For the Age Categories and the Sponsored events the rides took place, one in the Inlet Gate and one in the Twin Waves. I was really happy with my Inlet ride as I scored 845points. My ride consisted of an Airloop,Godzillas both ways, Cartwheels and Splitwheels linked both ways, a McNasty and a Lunar Orbit. However, I let myself down with a poor Twin Waves ride scoring only 125points! I was happy with my total of 970. It’s a little frustrating however that James Benns managed a 1060 point ride in the Inlet Gate without his paddles…

The day finished with the Special Event which consisted of a combination of swimming and paddling to retrieve balls from the opposite river bank.

It was then time for the prize giving. Jake Brooks took the 1^st in the 18&under category, Jonny Williams 1^st in the 15&under category, Matt Rogers in the Sponsored Boys and Kim Aldred in the Sponsored Girls. I came 5^th behind Matt, Brandon, Tom and James but I was happy with my result!

However for the overall series results for the Sponsored Boys, Matt Rogers claimed 1^st, Sam Stephenson 2^nd, and I came 3^rd .

I was very happy with my overall result and performance for the season and hope to paddle even better next season!

Pete Bridgeford and Tom Goddard also put in fantastic performances from Team CKT!

                                                                                Jake

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