Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
As a smaller female paddler I was asked to review the new small Pyranha Burn 3. I am 5’0”, weigh around 60kg and not particularly flexible. I currently paddle a Zet Veloc, with a brief time paddling the Dagger Mamba 7.5 before and during a trip to Nepal. I confess I have never tried the previous small Burns because they never appeared to be small enough.
Name: Dave Brown (aka Redneck Dave, Full Face Dave, Small Head)
Location: Barrow or North Wales
Boat: Currently an XL Burn Mk3 in the sickest colours you’ve ever seen – Rasta
I really like the way the rails allow you to carve hard without stalling and tripping you up unlike the old burn, making it easy to fine tune lines and snap into eddies. It has quite a flat hull which allows it to surf easily, staying high on features and keeping you in control as you move laterally across the flow which is really cool. It has the Connect 2014 outfitting it comes with which allows the seat to be varied in both height and pitch. I have this set in the highest position, with the largest block installed under the front of the seat to really lock me in which works well, even though I’m the bottom end of the weight range. Seeing as I have the attention span of a gnat, I’m considering swapping out for a 9R to get some speed in my life.
Hōu Canoes are a new UK-based company who are manufacturing open Canadians ranging from 13 to 17 foot with choice of red or green colour.
Looking to do more canoeing on both flat and easy moving water, I bought a Hōu 13, the smallest canoe available in their fleet at 13’3”. The moulds were designed by Colin Broadway (a UK based canoeing legend) and were very successful for many years under his company name Mobile Adventure, the Hou 13 being closest to the old Majorette, re-using a perfectly good design from the past. The other canoes in Hōu’s fleet are also created using reclaimed and recycled moulds, re-established and re-outfitted in the North West of the UK. Continue reading
Review by: Kirstie Macmillan
At 8’9″ (266cm), the Liquidlogic Flying Squirrel 85 is much longer than my current creek boat, a Wavesport Recon 70. Despite the Squirrel’s sporty length, it is surprisingly light and doesn’t feel like you are paddling a barge!
Yak are the kayaking/canoeing side of the Crewsaver company. In the past Yak have catered for the middle to lower end of the market with some fantastic hardwearing kit for centre and club use. Although functional and hardwearing they didn’t have the same appeal as some of the more well known brands. However I think that this is about to change. Having seen quite a lot of the new Yak range over the last couple of weeks I can safely say that I think they have come up with some great looking designs that appear to be very well thought out.
Bren Orton gives us opinion on the FXr PFD from Palm. Bren is a Palm paddler but I would have to say that I agree entirely with the review. It is an awesome bit of kit that is well worth checking out. Continue reading
The second edition of GoPro’s The Frame Mount has seen a fair bit of use over the last few months and probably a great deal more use than with the first edition frame.
Over the last few weeks there has been a great deal of interest in my thoughts on the Flying Squirrel versus the Recon. I have a review underway at the moment and will be publishing it after a little bit more time on the water with the Squirrel. In the meantime here are a few very initial thoughts, comparisons and specs.
A new GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition landed at Unsponsored HQ during the course of today and has just been unpacked. Other than the video upgrades there also seems to be a number of changes to unit that are not apparent when looking at the pre-release images.
In the box is the usual booklets, safety advice, skeleton backdoor, 2 x extender pieces, 1 x curved mount, 1 x flat mount, USB lead, additional QR and stickers. The notable difference between this and the GoPro 3+ is the lack of a remote fob.
The form a factor the the actual camera remains the same as the 3 and 3+ series but there have been a number of changes. Continue reading
Over the past few months I have been testing a couple of pairs of shoes from the Canadian company Baffin. They both fall within the companies Trail To Rapids range and are designed for use on and off the water (with more of bias to waterborne activities).
Baffin are probably better known for their cold weather footwear which by all accounts is damn good stuff, but their Trail To Rapids range including the two pairs I have here at the Unsponsored HQ are worth having a look at.
First up is the Swamp Buggy:
This is relatively large set of shoes that offer great support. If you are familiar with the Five Ten range then they are certainly comparable in many ways to the Canyoneer shoe.
Over the course of the summer I have had the opportunity to read and review In the Flow by Jonathan Males. Jonathan has coached both the British and Australian Olympic slalom teams in the past has has used his knowledge of coaching and recent research to create a book that aims “to help paddlers and coaches understand the theory behind success and provide practical skills to improve performance”.
Now don’t be put off if you are not a slalom paddler. In the Flow is applicable to all areas of the sport and has actually been broken down in to a number of component parts with only a small percentage of the book being focussed on competition. Continue reading
Another great perspective on the Sweet Intergalactic Dry Suit.
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