Today was the Palm BIG Paddle event at Teesside.
I had a chance to take some shots of Paul ‘Cheesy’ Robertson paddling the Dagger Jitsu and trying out some of the tweaked features on the course. Continue reading
Tag: 2013 (Page 3 of 4)
Today was the first development day for modification to the feature named “Happy Eater” at the Tees Barrage International White Water course. The course uses the Rapid Block system as used in the London Olympics. The blocks are bolted to the floor of the course and can be configured to create a range of features.
Before the multi million pound upgrade to the course “Happy Eater” was a breaking wave/relatively gentle stopper that was superb for flat spins and blunts. Since re-opening many paddlers have expressed that they wanted something like the old “Happy Eater” back. Thankfully support from the management team at the barrage has resulted in a a new Facebook group being created and a chance for paddlers to design the layout of the course. Continue reading
The 2013 Student Boater X is taking place on the 22nd of June. For a little flavour of what it is all about check out this write up from Jack Roberston about last years event. Enjoy!
The Student Boater X is the biggest unofficial kayaking event on the student paddling calendar and now officially recognised by Bomb Flow it was going to be the biggest so far. With guaranteed sun, cool alpine flows and a huge selection of prize to be won it wasn’t hard to persuade a few hundred student paddlers that a spontaneous inter uni race down the L’Argentiere-la-Bessee slalom course was a good idea. There were five categories, catering for all levels of paddler. With old boys and girls competing for the Bloater X title and swimmers for the Inflatey X title, everyone else found themselves in a fight for the beginner, intermediate and advanced prizes.
Val Sesia 2013 team tour teaser. from Pyranha on Vimeo.
The Pyranha takes a massive departure away from the cookie cutter playboat shape that we have all seen developing over the last few years with the new Loki. Designs such as the Jed, Project X, and Jitsu have all to some extent developed in one particular direction – to allow paddlers to pull off some of the more modern aerial moves.
The Loki on the other hand has been designed to allow paddlers to return to a time when cartwheels, stern squirts, stern stalls, flat spins and blunts were the moves of the day. In essence Pyranha have set out to capture the feel and performance of old school playboats.
It was going to happen at some point and this little writeup has been kicking around on my Mac for almost 6 months. So here it is a Q&A with me.
Tell us a little a bit about you accomplishments in the kayaking world.
I’m not the greatest paddler and I haven’t won any major competitions. I class myself as simply a guy who loves kayaking, loves being in the water and just happens to run a website. I would therefore have to say that it is probably this site that is my biggest accomplishment in the kayaking world.
You can read about the why and how here.
Unsponsored will be at the The BIG Palm Paddle Tour at Teesside on the 23rd of June. Lots of great stuff happening over the weekend. More news on that later….
I had a close look at the Palm FX PFD today. Both the fit and design are definitely upgrades from the previous model.
The FX is a simple over the head slab design with fully adjustable shoulder straps, a nice broad set of straps to get the fit nice and snug around your middle and a thinner web strap for the waist.
Team Pyranha 2013 Promo from Paul Butler on Vimeo.
I was never really a big fan of the previous Astral Green Jacket. I loved the features and the design but it simply didn’t fit me very well.
For 2013 the Astral Green Jacket has been tweaked and I had the chance to check out its new features and try it in the dry. Therefore I am unable to comment of what it is like to swim/paddle wearing the Green Jacket at this stage. UPDATE: Full review here.
The Sweet Rocker is back for 2013 with what looks like a tweaked Occigrip QR (red in image) and baby blue/orange colour scheme.
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