Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view

Month: April 2012 (Page 1 of 5)

The Best GoPro Package for Kayaking?

As of 2012 what is the best GoPro package for kayaking? Over the past couple of years I have owned two GoPro cameras. The first was a 1080p hero and the second the HD2. In both cases I bought the helmet mount bundle (or the Outdoor Edition as it is now known) and although most of the mounts have been used I have never used the elastic headband mount.

The Best GoPro Package for Kayaking

Initially I had dismissed all of the other package/bundle options as I wanted to mount the camera on a helmet and the helmet mount pack seemed the logical one to go for. However, more recently I have been looking a little more closely at which bundle offers the best solution for the film making kayaker.

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GoPro HD2 Surf Edition

GoPro HD Hero2 Surf Edition

Just over £200, includes the floaty back door as well!

Sweet Wanderer Helmet – The Poor Man’s Rocker?

The Sweet Wanderer Helmet comes in at around £120 which is around £50 cheaper than the Rocker. A search around the net can find Wanderers (and its Ski cousin the Rambler) for less than £100. The small visor (now fully integrated on the new model) keeps water and sun (if it’s around) out of your eyes so you can focus on the task at hand. Sweet’s occigrip tensioning system ensures that the Wanderer stays put giving optimum protection.

sweetwanderer (1)

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Genes – Advanced WW Techniques

Genes Advanced Whitewater Techniques is another little gem from Westgarth TV, this time covering Grade IV/V skills like running big drops, boofing and slides.

The Blurb

GENES, the third in Simon Westgarth’s Gene17 series. This time aimed at Advanced White water technique for running Class 4 and beyond. The focus is on paddling slides, drops and waterfalls, with the introduction of key skills such as flaring the boat through a drop, plus the development of boofin’ and promotion of driving the boat through the rapids. The central theme is the clarity of vision an advanced paddler requires to be able to get more from the river, their boat and themselves. Continue reading

Aerial Flip Turn

To pull this moves you’ll need a good fast wave and a boat that carves well. Nice sharp rails and even fins can help.

Get youself esatblished as close to the top of the wave as possible. As you feel the boat surge down the face of the wave at maximum speed, use a stern rudder to start turning the boat and start a flat-spin. Once your boat is almost sideways use an aggressive ‘hip flick’ to over edge the boat in the turn (edge the boat down stream). This aggressive flick should then force the boat out of the water and into the air. Continue reading

River Tees – Egglestone to Cotherstone (Racing Stretch)

The stretch of the Tees from Egglestone to Cotherstone is know as the racing stretch due to its use as a ww racing venue. Access at Eggleston Bridge has been dodgy for some years so you are better off heading up stream to put on at Middleton. The outdoor centre at Middleton is a pefect place to get on, it can found just outside of town on the road to High Force. As you leave town you’ll go over a stone bridge which has a tight left hand turn. As you head up the bank you’ll see some new houses on the left. The outdoor centre lies just beyond the houses. Don’t park in front of the house, just call into the outdoor centre and ask if it is OK to leave your car. 9 times out of 10 it will be OK. From the Outdoor centre a short 200m walk down a narrow footpath takes you right down to the river. Alternatively park in town and walk down to the river.

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Pyranha S6f – Review

Review by James Bebbington – Team Pyranha

Obviously I will be biased towards Pyranha boats as Pyranha sponsor me but these are my actual opinions and thoughts of the boat and how I have found it over the time I have been paddling it.

Outfitting

I weigh about 10 stone and am 6ft tall with long legs. I managed to fit comfortably in the boat and could even move the seat 3 quarters of the way forward if I wanted (without the shock block in).

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Unsponsored now using Instagram

Instagram photo of one of the new T’s

Dagger Kingpin – Review

I haven’t really seriously paddled a Dagger kayak since I owned a Vertigo years back. At the time I was pretty happy with the outfitting although I did change the back band. I was therefore very interested in giving the Kingpin a go to see how things had developed over the years.

Dagger Kingpin - Review
Dagger Kingpin – Review

The Kingpin comes in the now traditional three different sizes. I managed to get hold of a Kingpin 6.3 for a few days at the end of the summer. I was fairly limited on where to paddle it due to the lack of rain but did get to spend several hours throwing the boat around at a local P&P spot.

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The new stickers

This post will be where I will be posting images of peoples kit with the new Unsponsored stickers.

A few paddling images from today

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Block Moving – Tees Barrage April 22nd

Today (22nd April 2012) was the third opportunity to move the blocks on the short course. The aim of today was the collection of data to enter into and verify a computer based model. Ultimately it is hoped that the model will allow different scenarios to be tested without the need for the heavy lifting.

A small crew of five shifted the blocks today.

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