Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
Check out the first in a series of films from Mike McKay.
What role does silence have in all this noise?
In order to fully experience the chaos of the waterfall the paddler must push away the noise in his head and surrounding him. Zen is experienced in the complete isolation and embrace of the river’s power.
When you start your paddling career progression is often very rapid. Skill acquisition is quick and you develop the technique required to safely get you down a piece of water. After you have been paddling for a while it is easy to hit a plateau. Moving past this can seem quite difficult but a few changes or adaptations can help you to continue to make progress/develop.
Consider where you mainly paddle. Change venue if you can. Try a new piece of water.
Paddle more. It’s a simple step that can really speed up your progress.
Continue readingSpring time means you get to find out how bad your wrist and neck gaskets have degraded over the winter.
Spring time also means Robe Race and for 2015 the Xavier Engle Memorial Robe Race.
There were murmurs that the race might be shifted by a weekend, as there was no rain in the forecast the week leading up to the race. But level bumped up to just below 5.2 feet and by Friday afternoon we knew how we were going to be spending our Saturday; racing Robe Canyon and praying not to take home the Gnome!
It’s an easy template for a race: paddle as hard as you can for roughly 3.5 miles and crush around 40 rapids with as little carnage as you can manage. Then, just for shits giggles, throw a hideous portage in the middle of the course to see just how flexible those ankles really are…
One of the greatest stretches of whitewater in the UK is under real threat.
The German company RWE NPower, in association with Dulas (a North Wales renewable energy consultants) are planning to dam and divert up to 75% of the flow above Conwy Falls (Penmachno Bridge) for the purposes of small scale hydroelectric power generation. The section under threat is known to paddlers as the “Fairy Glen”. To put this into perceptive the Conwy only needs 10m³/s of water for it to be paddled. The scheme will divert 6m³/s of water through a 2km long pipe. This will significantly reduce the number of days per year that the Conwy will be at the minimum paddling level.
The Black Canyon of the Bear River is an awesome dam release section, thanks to American Whitewater! It brings boaters together from Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and the rest of the Rockies for some early season boating, partying and good times! The race is from the class V rapid of the section, Boo Boo, to the take out. This year we saw lots of clean lines and lots of carnage.
By now most of you will have seen the story unfolding of the impact the earthquake has had on the small country of Nepal.
Darren Clarkson-King is out there with his wife and is working directly with the people in Nepal to get what’s needed to where it’s needed quickly. No charity middleman, this is direct boots on ground help.
Daz has set up a paypal account to accept donations – info@purelandexpeditions.com
From Daz:
People are amazing, funds flooding from previous post- we have paypal info@purelandexpeditions.com. ‪#‎nepalneedsyou‬ ‪#‎blessed‬ ‪#‎wecanhelp‬ grassroots help for the people. Jeeps loaded, food, shelter, medicine all sorted – AMAZING. People can start to rebuild lives.
In the summer of 2014, team Substantial found refuge in the best coast of the USA, and Canada, The WEST Coast. A spontaneous trip to California landed us at Fantasy Falls, arguably the best overnighter in the good ol US of A. Then later in the summer we spent a few days around Revelstoke, BC tapping the glacier fresh whitewaters, and of course Kokanees. The summer ended with the almighty Grand Canyon of the Stikine where the crew found substantial flows, and simpler times. Enjoy!
A few weeks ago myself and a group of friends were kayaking in Scotland on our annual easter trip with Salford University. We were having a great time, kayaking some really beautiful Scottish white water.
On Easter Sunday we hatched an ambitious plan to hit 4 runs in one day and make the most of the water levels before they dropped because of sunshine. The first order of business was a 30 foot waterfall near Loch Lomond in Stirling called the Falls of Falloch. This waterfall is famous with kayakers as being a very friendly waterfall to run and practice on.
After checking it out we were all happy and we got kitted up and psyched up for what would have been the biggest drop any of us would have done. My friend dropped the falls first and did it perfectly, after seeing him do it I geared up to paddle this beautiful drop. I hit the line and tucked for the impact at the bottom, unfortunately once I plunged into the pool at the bottom I knew immediately something was wrong. My landing was slightly horizontal, my back was in agony and I couldnt move.
Continue readingUnsponsored has launched a new competition over on our FB page. Please go check it out and enter the HF Turtle Back Competition for your chance to win a brand new HF Turtle Back kayak carrying system.
Alder Creek Canoe and Kayak shop helped us set up a sweet little waterfall clinic at Sunset falls on the East Fork Lewis. It was a church Easter Sunday out there with a good bit of progression on this little bastard! Thanks to all who attended!
Any kayak trip that includes a float plane journey must have been a good one. This edit from Sea to Sky Whitewater covers a trip on the Grand Canyon of the Clore up in northern British Columbia.
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