Last weekend the sun came out in Germany and brought us the first days with over 20 °C. So it´s time to get the boat out of the cellar and  get on the water.

Staying dry is in our sport most times pretty necessary if you want a long and fun day on the river. Freestyling is a dicipline in kayaking where you´re  mostly “in” the water then over it. Of course it´s annoying to stop every 10 minutes to make your boat dry again because of water thats leaking in. So you need a good dry top and a good  skirt. But the best way to stay dry and be very very comfortable is a dry deck. I use a combination of a Comp LX Dry Top and a Kling On Empire for my Pyranha Jed and in my opinion that works perfectly.

Try it out and i´m sure you will love it. But please consider that a dry deck is not a good option for serious whitewater and means a risk for your life because of different aspects.

Cheers Timo

In the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to get to NSR for a big party and paddling event and then to the Falls of Lora near Oban for three days of surfing in the sun.

Read more (NSR)…..

Read more (Falls of Lora)…

NSR Duo Final

Surfing at the Falls of Lora

Nick

World Kayak and AUCC present the North Esk River Race on the 27th of April 2013.

IR is proud to be supporting the first North Esk Race. Taking place in the beautiful Glen Esk, the North Esk River Race gives competitors the option of racing on hard grade 4 whitewater or easier grade 3 rapids in a race against the clock! The main rapids of Rock Garden, Witches Cauldron, Triple Step, Presidents Corner and Fishladder as well as the many unnamed rapids in between will challenge competitors to pick the fastest lines they can!

The format of the race will be a time trial down the main section North Esk, with three tough categories, each with mens and ladies races, open to all kayakers:

Intermediate (grade 3) – Starting from just above Rock Garden to finish in the pool above Triple Step, this race will be ideal for those who love to compete, but aren’t quite confident enough to tackle Triple Step and Presidents Corner.

Advanced (grade 4) – Starting from just above Rock Garden and finishing below Presidents Corner, this will be a sprint to test the most seasoned paddlers!

IRONMAN – This race is a little different, and more of an endurance race for those feeling brave enough. In order to race the competitor must first compete in the Advanced category. This race has two parts to it, the first, the paddling section, runs from the top get on pool of the river to the get out. From there competitors will leave their boat and paddle, and run back to the top carpark. The winners of this race will be crowned the Nesk Ironman and Nesk Ironwoman.
Think you can handle it?

Entry fee: £10 flat fee (pay on the day)

Register online here! Please register as intermediate or advance. Registration for the Iron man will take place on the day.

Parking! Glen Esk has limited parking. We are hoping to arrange parking in Edzell as near as possible to the take out of the river. From there we will arrange shuttles to the top. Shuttle busses will be provided courtesy of AUCC.

On the day competitors will need to register in the car park with the race organisers. At this time you will be allocated your race number and you will need to pay and sign the insurance waivers. Registration will open at 9 and close at 10:30.

A pre-race briefing will take place at 10:30 in the car park.

Racing will commence at 11 sharp. 

Some safety cover will be provided but we welcome volunteers and we will be expecting everyone to look out for each other on the day.

9ft Boat length MAX.

here´s a short video from my ten day multidaytrip in russia. Had a hell of a great time out there.

The clocks just changed in the UK. Bad times.
This means by the time I’m out of work it’s already dark. Goodbye evening boating. It also means to get the most out of a day out, you need to get up super early to get as much in as possible.

I seem to keep missing all the good rainy days (silly real job getting in the way) but still battling away, doing my best to be a weekend warrior. Recent hightlights have included…

My last evening paddle, a solo run of the Leny
This was my first ever solo run of a proper river. I paddled all the rapids of the Leny without an issue, being alone definitely adds a bit of doubt to your day.
Things to think about if you go solo boating…
1. Being alone plays mind games with you. It’s all the same rapids, but somehow they just got a little harder.
2. No one will believe what you did unless you have a witness or a gopro.
3. If you wear a drysuit, make sure you can do up the zip without assistance.

Boater X on the Tay followed by the Braan Gorge
This year’s IR ambassador Nick ran a boater x event on a slalom site of the Tay. I arrived at the event with some reservations on the grade 3 course, but I was happy to be a part of the event and the social scene. The course definitely surpassed my expectations! There were plenty of technical moves. It was a course that rewarded good paddling and punished tired paddlers. Needless to say, I was punished by the end of course.
The day was capped off with a blast down the local classic, The Braan Gorge with Nick and a few others.
Definitely need to improve my fitness for these funny race things.

A low day on the Orchy
Usually, I would be a bit down in the dumps about a low Orchy, but this day was different. Low levels open up the possiblity of a rarely paddled drop on one of Scotland’s most popular rivers. It has a reputation for having a grippy towback and a lip thats tough to get a good boof from. It went really well for me though, check out the video. I’ll be running that drop lots more for sure!

As the colder weather approaches I’m very greatful to the lovely people at IR for my Double D drysuit and my Union suit. Now to sort some new gloves to save me from frostbite.

Ieuan has finally ditched his old faithful wetsuits. Hopefully the extra freedom of movement he gets from a drysuit will lead to even bigger moves. Enjoy.

Ieuan Belshaw and crew managed to get after the recent rain in Wales and he has put together this nice edit!

This is his description of the day: “Perfect level for this amazing gorge on Saturday morning.

Last time we tried this it was 0.9 on the Druid Alwen gauge, we spent a lot of time gorge walking with boats because everything was a lot more sporty. The video shows it at 0.8 which was a nice level!”

Article for thebigbluetree.co.uk:

The last two weekends and the last week have been fantastic. The weather gods have blessed Scotland with both sun and rain in almost equal amounts. This is a stark contrast to the usual grey drizzle we are treated to.

Ed Smith – Below Double Drop on the Lochy

Last weekend saw Me, Debs, Sandy, Joe and Dom heading for a sunny low water weekend camping in Glen Etive. The Etive, as all British paddlers know is the classic low water run or scrape. Read more here……..

For the last year I have been based in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania right next to the IR factory (ok so it was a 5 hour drive but america is very big…). I was able to get out and explore a bunch of the rivers available to the east coast boaters and go along to the many festivals and events including Gauley Fest, Moose Fest and Cheat Fest. After winning the EU ambassador contest I met up with Andrew and almost instantly became good friends (well when someone welcomes you and your friend in to their house and takes you to play disc golf its hard not to get along!). A few weeks after meeting Andrew suggested we go down to Ashville to paddle the Green River Narrows with kayaking legend Pat Keller a weekend of nerves and excitement (and very long drives) ensued. After my time in Philadelphia finished I headed north to the Rouge, Mistasibi, Lacine and Ottawa before returning home to Scotland. For me these experiences have now all blurred into one. All I know is I had a great time spending my weekend with IR!

here´s a short clip from my floodwater Ötz valley week.

When the days get colder and the green trees slowly turn into a nice orange color, it´s the time of the year that my stomach begins to prickle. It´s the time oft the year when i drive my car to the infamous Ötz valley in Austria. The low water levels make it possible to paddle nice sections of Ötz and Venter river like Heiligkreuz or Wellerbrücke. This year  my stomach began to shake a little bit earlier in August. I decided to go to Ötz valley in summertime what i didn´t make in the last five years. You can´t run the classic low level sections but a lot of other sections which become fast and pushy rollercoaster runs. If you want to paddle high quality big volume rivers, this is your destination in summertime in Austria.

All the runs look pretty ugly with dark brown glacier water, which temperature is slightly over zero degrees and it´s hard to find a rock that is not sharp like a knife.  Swimming is definitely no option here.

But at least it´s keeps you young and fresh when you scare yourselve once a day…

Enjoy some photos of upper Ötz, middle Ötz and lower Venter

Cheers Timo