Weather many march blah blah blah Its still cold!!!!

ORIGINAL POST DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010

After the first sign of decent rain in a long long long! time we set off for a paddle. The mountains again lightly covered in snow, the air temp freezing and intermittent spells rain, hail, sleet, snow and sunshine! We hit the always reliable Colligan for a little paddle. Plenty of people on the scene Aidan, Paul, Gráinne, Eoin and myself. 3 or 4 runs of the gorge catching some eddies and splashing water at each other and we were toast. I also got to take my shiney new river toy, a ginger liquid logic jefe grande. She is certainly bigger and heavier than my old Huck and I'm feeling it in the legs this evening after all the walks back up the gorge. Thats it for now here are some pics.......

The Comeraghs lightly powdered

There was lots of this............ Walking and posing, Click!

Paul and Aidan

And a wee bit of paddling!

So more rain please. Meantime surf Friday!

mikef

Tuam Fun Rodeo

ORIGINAL POST DATE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2010

Tuam Fun Rodeo

Big thanks to Andrew Regan and others for organising the fun rodeo event in Tuam on 17th January 2010. The event was a training event for freshers from NUIG, GMIT and other beginners in freestyle. A couple of other more capable paddlers were also on the scene throwing off all their usual collection of big moves. The event on the day kicked off around 2pm in the coldest water I'd say I've ever paddled in, take 2 seconds to long to roll and you were sure to get a very serious brain freeze! The rodeo as a very informal event no entry fee, no prizes just good craic and a bit of music. Plenty of beginners showed up out numbering the expert class entry as seems to be the norm lately which is good. Anyway I won't go on, a good time was had thanks to the Galway boys again for that. Here are a few more photos from the day.

Paddy lining it up

Styling the loop here with only one hand on the paddle!

Cathal doing a big loop in Andrew's boat

Barry Loughnane mid-flight

Kev enjoying a snack bankside

Freestylin' in the Surf

ORIGINAL POST DATE: MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2009

This video was made almost a month ago now during one of the most active few weeks of paddling I had put in in long, long time. The amount of paddling done over those few weeks was completely the result of a long period of savage surf and rain fall in the South East. Magicseaweed.com posted solid surf reports for almost three weeks solid, something I've never seen (not that I'm drawing for any great numbers of years of experience or anything) and Tony and myself made sure to take full advantage of it. So here is the result, a short video for the day after the best days surf of the whole period and myself and tony were on top form. The footage was shot at Bunmahon beach in County Waterford from a top the cliffs surfers left by Kevin Jennings and Eoin Keane, Thanks Guys! There is also another hour of footage shot by Aisling O'Neill, that we have yet to watch so thanks to Aisling for standing in the rain that day footage to follow soon. Hope you enjoy and have a Happy X-mas and hopefully I'll see you all on the water in Kerry for New Years.

Oct/Nov Gorge Games Training

ORIGINAL POST DATE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009

Gorge Games Training for the Waterford I.T. crew began good and early this year. Having floated through the the first half of first semester with little or no water things certainly kicked right off at the end of October with numerous floods. The first days training was a warm-up / welcome back to your creek boat session, on the the River Nire near Ballymaccarbery on October 29th. The day didn't go so well, about 10 minutes in Mr Tony Walsh came a cropper on a tree and baled out. Having narrowly missed the full length of a 20m throw rope by an arms length, what followed was a mile and a half long swim for Tony during which he lost his boat, paddles, throw rope and deck. Tony was safely recovered slightly battered but it would be a couple of days before all his gear would be recovered, his boat being the last, turning up lodged in a strainer not far from Clonmel on the River Suir!

The very next day a group of us set out in search of Tony's gear and some much lower water levels. The Nire was much more welcoming and Colm, Darren, MJ and myself set out. Cold, clear water had replaced the brown torrent from the day before and an enjoyable days paddling produced a number of swims and some good lines on the big rapids by our newbie Colm but unfortunately none of tony's gear.

Darren Flynn shoots through the first tough rapid on the Nire with ease and class and a very dodgy paddling face!

Colm O'Neill on the big rapid on the Nire

With plenty of day light to spare and good water levels reported on Colligan Gorge itself we set off. The levels were very high indeed and a mock race from the start line ended in another swim and a victory for MJ. The task of having to carry our boats back to the top without the aim of the gorge games bridge proved to much for some and so we messed about in the Salmon Leap for a while.

Body boarding at the Salmon Leap begins!

Closer inspection of a pile of rubbish in an eddy beside the Salmon Leap produced a body board which provided all the entertainment till dark. Disposable probes MJ and Colm experimented with "mid rapid aerial take off" maneuvers, "body board eddy break outs" and a full run of falls for MJ emerging slightly winded but in one piece!

MJ in full flight, body board in hand

Colm breaks out in to the big flow, eddying out will be a very different story

A short dry spell, combined with Tony gathering his many lost pieces of gear stalled paddling for a while but the week in the run up to the games saw us on the gorge almost every day, even up until 6pm the night before. Paul, Eoin, Tone and Paddy were busy making good warning signs, fancy banners and one kick ass new bridge! While they were busy myself and Tony made us of the high water. Getting in multiple runs before a bit of surfing in the hole at the bottom of the salmon leap.

Pity Tony can't read!

Tonys a blur at these kind of levels

How much edge is too much edge? I try to nail the line outta of the Salmon Leap

Surfing the hole in my creeker

All our prep was done, now all that was left to do was to enjoy the day which we did and the party after!

New Boat, No GoPro!

I've got a new boat! I got a Project X 62 since coming home from Oz. Its great I love it. I've put on a few Kilos since coming back and I really notice the difference. The last day in the surf I just kept getting back looped. I shall look forward to shifting some of the weight after the thesis because aside from the back looping its not great from my back! Hoping to take the X for a spin in the BlackHole tomorrow(Saturday 19th Nov), I'll take some pictures.

My GoPro is broken. So there'll be no new videos from me for a while. I've to send it back to Australia to be serviced. You'll notice a little black dot in the bottom left of the Oz video, it's dirt inside the lens. Also it stopped recording videos longer than 3seconds so its gotta go! Laters

Day Dreaming Plans................

Big hi to anyone that still reads this. Happy Thanks Giving, Christmas, New Years, Easter and any other holidays and celebrations between this point and next June! I am knee to waist deep into my final year of Architecture at Waterford Institute of Architecture. I have little time for paddling, although I've been out for a few surfs since the start of the year. So all I do these days is day dream while I'm working on college stuff on what I'll do when I finish next June as there's no jobs to be had in Ireland. So leaving all reality aside I want to live like Steve Fisher. I want to get a van fit it out for paddling and travel the country. Check out this video by Dan Cambell. Great to see Dan back on the scene with Steve, if you've seen "Steve Fisher: Black Books" you'll know Dan's story. Anyway enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/24692712

The Land of Oz Video