Kenneth Hynes

Summer Marathons 2011!

2011-10-10T18:13:00.004+01:00

I got a bit of a marathon craze this summer and between kayak marathons and running marathons I took part in 3 different events between September and October.

First up was the WWKC club race, the Lower Liffey race. I'd been out practicing in the wavehopper a good bit over the summer, but it was the first time I'd had to run any whitewater in it and the first actual race I'd done in it! I entered into Div 4 racing class and overall I did quite well. I was up against some K1 racing boats which were always going to be faster, but I was the second plastic boat to finish the race so was very happy with that performance.

Next up was the Dublin Half Marathon (road race), again my first ever running race of any kind so I was actually quite nervous that I'd end up embarrassing myself. With Daragh's (my Flatmate and an accomplished runner himself) I'd taken up running earlier in the summer and this was my first real test. I set myself a target of 1:50, nothing particularly demanding, but also a respectable enough time for someone who had never done running or even participated in sports (I always played in goals!) that required running before. The first half of the race went very well, and I was slightly ahead of target at the 10 mile mark. Unfortunately however I just ran out of energy for the last 3 miles and I slowed by over a minute a mile for each of those and came home in 1:55. Those last 3 miles were quite possibly the hardest thing I've ever done. I was very tempted to just give up. I just had to keep telling myself how close I was to both the finishing line and my target time. Overall I was satisfied with 1:55, I was hoping to be a bit faster, but I wasn't far off the mark I set for myself and it's a standard to improve from!

Me on the half marathon!

Then last up was the Liffey Descent last Saturday. This is one of the word's premier kayaking events and everywhere I traveled kayaking people would ask me about it. However I'd never taken part, so this was something I had wanted to do for a while. I'd done a bit of practice before and had good preparation with the Lower Liffey. Overall the race went well, I had targeted a top 20 position, but I far exceeded that with a 7th place finish and a time of 1:44 (again all in a plastic boat, slower then those which are normally competitive). However for me it was very much a case of what could have been. The e-mail brief we received prior to the race informed me that my class was to start in wave 4, however we actually went in wave 3. I wasn't ready and ended up some distance from the start line and behind everyone else in the class. It took me more then 5 minutes to even get to the start line (with the clock running during that). After that I had to negotiate slow boats all the way through the Jungle and it was only about 7km in that I got some clear air to race. Overall I'd guess I lost a least 10-15 minutes because of this error, a time that could have put me well in contention for a medal so it was very disappointing to have not got off well.

I also took a swim on Palmerstown weir, We were informed prior to the race that there was a tree in the centre line and we were to avoid that and go left, however upon arriving we were told to aim centre. I wasn't the only one to end up neither on the centre or left line instead dropping backwards into the hole. I've never managed to roll with wings before and this was no exception. Another 5 minutes lost and I was really left wondering where I could have been were it not for these two mistakes.

Myself during the race!

There was a few other DCU paddlers involved in the race as well! Club captain Alan came in an excellent 3rd, and improvement of over 10 positions from last year. New member Laura was racing in a canadian. Before the race I also had a chance encounter with a paddler who had just joined the club in the last week. He ended up wining the GP class making 3 of the top 10 members of DCU Canoe Club, a very impressive return for a small club, here's to more success in future!

Alps 2011

2011-07-22T23:17:00.003+01:00

As early summer came around again it was time for what is now becoming an annual pilgrimage to the alps for me! This time the plan was to spend two weeks in Italy. I was joined by Aisling and Trevor from DCUCC and a crew from Mullingar Canoe Club. Unfortunately the weather and conditions in Italy didn't always play ball, it rained heavily at times and levels varied wildly from much too low, too much too high. That said I got some great runs in (the highlight of which was the Ayasse where got my Lv. 5 training done.

After a week of all the weather the Italian Alps could throw at us a chance to get a house in Briancon in France came up, so it was over to there for us. With most of the Mullingar crew returned to Ireland it was a smaller group and we had a fantastic chilled week in the Durance Vally, getting some nice paddling done as well as some climbing and mountain biking. The biking in particular was an experience, going along trails barely half a metre across with over a 50 metre drop of the side wasn't particularly my idea of fun! Nonetheless a good day.

Overall a fantastic two weeks, going for longer then the usual week was certianly worthwhile, we were able to slow the pace down and enjoy it as a holiday insteed of the usual mad rush to paddle all the time. Hopefully back next year to get some of the Italian clasics I missed due to crazy levels and perhaps even for longer then this year!

Dave Corcoran, Steve Burke, Aisling Doherty and myself by the Durance in France

A dry winter

2011-05-15T14:54:00.005+01:00

No blog updates here for a while. Winter has been very dry and there hasn't been much opportunity to get paddling. On the upside on the few days I did get out I managed to get to run some of the local Wicklow runs which have up to now eluded me. I got two low water Dargle runs and a medium level run of the Glenmcnass in. A visit to west Cork saw us get a nice run (if a bit scrappy) run on the upper Bandon, but I still haven't had a chance to run the Clare Glens and the Upper Liffey.

Upper Bandon from Eanna Ryan on Vimeo.

Eanna captured our Upper Bandon Run on video

I have still managed to get out paddling a lot on Club trips with DCU and WWKC and it's great to see many more new paddlers getting into the sport!

Competition wise, I took part in both the varsities (for the fifth and final time :( )and the Jacksons Boatercross, "Wacko in the Jacko".

DCU Polo Team which came in impressive 3rd.

Varsities largely went well, DCU overall came forth and I competed in all 4 events. Polo was first and DCU did very well to finish 3rd, we were unlucky to loose the semi final to runners up trinity and did well to beat a strong and aggressive UL team in the 3rd place play off.

The next event was the Boatercross and the team of myself, Ashling Conway and Alan Barret were very happy with a 3rd place finish on the Upper Bandon.

DCU team on the lead in to the main drop on the Bandon.

The Long distance race later that day did not go as well as my boat turned out not to be waterproof and a stop half way to empty it as well as dragging a few gallons with me ended my chances of a good finish. Freestyle at Cork Sluice was next and even though I didn't feel it went great the judges saw more then I did and we finished a respectable 5th place.

Getting ready for the freestyle comp!

The Jacksons' boatercross was another great event organised by Total Experience and held for the first time in a number of years. I didn't make it through the second round however which was pretty disappointing given the good run of finishes I'd had in boatercrosses up to this. None the less it was a great weekend and hopefully it keeps going strong over the next few years.

Leading heat one over Jacksons Falls.

Next adventure is Italy, heading in two weeks and hoping for good water levels over there!

A few videos!

2010-11-21T01:43:00.002Z

A few videos of me paddling over the past few months!

The Zam, video by Sandy Douglas

Sluice, video by Len Kellaher!

Autumn in Ireland

2010-11-21T01:14:00.007Z

Back in Ireland after traveling I've started working, but I've still found time for some paddling, that despite pretty low levels.

I entered the Sluice Rodeo in October. Freestyle isn't normally my thing, but I reckoned it would be good craic, and it was. Adrian Durant and his crew put on a great show and the turnout reflected that. I entered the men's sport class and wasn't expecting much, so I was pretty happy when I placed and came third in what was my first ever freestyle competition! There was also a no deck boater-x through the sluice. I was one of the few who had opted to not wear a drysuit, so it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences!

Me at the Sluice Rodeo

I've got a few river trips in, mainly club ones on the Boyne and Liffey, but also up to Wicklow. Last weekend a crew from DCUCC traveled down to Waterford to compete in the Colligan Gorge games. It was another great event. The Colligan is a nice stretch and is perfect for botercross. Once again results went my way and I finished 2nd in the Mens Sport class.

Racing on the Colligan

On the Sunday after the Race we explored some more of the paddling options in the South-East and went to do Pollanassa Falls near Mullinivat and the Barrow. Both nice options when in that area of the country. I did get some fotage of the weekend on my GoPro and put together a short video of the weekend!

Colligan Gorge Games and Pollanassa Falls from Kenneth Hynes on Vimeo.

USA 2010

2010-11-20T13:19:00.008Z

I'm finally getting around to updating the blog about two months after actually doing this trip!

After leaving Zambia and taking 72 hours of traveling I finally made it to Charlotte, NC, where I met up with Ronan, Waggers, John Judge and John Moore. We were planing on paddling and partying our way through the US southeast.

The Irish Crew in Gauley, Waggers, John Judge, Me, Ronan and John Moore.

After one night in Charlotte (where It took me several more hours to actually get to bed), we headed towards the world famous Green River Narrows. This is a cracking run. The next morning myself and Ronan borrowed creek boats from a local shop (we were in no way inclined to use the play boats we brought with us) and we put on. A slow start then picks up into some technical III-IV rapids. We took our time scouting most things and making our way down until we were met with the option of a either a rocky looking 15ft drop, or a sieve ridden boulder garden (we now believe this rapid is called boof or consequence). Luckily for us two locals turned up and went straight for the 15 footer so we followed (all of us made the boof!). ! few rapids later we were met with a similar dilemma. Thankfully another local group caught us here. They seemed a bit shocked that a group of out-of-staters would just put on without a guide, but they were perfectly willing to tell us the lines down the rest of the river. The rapid we met them at was called "go left and die" so we all opted for the right hand line!

Ronan on one of the big slides after Gorilla on the Green.

The river continues in this vain of technical IV-V rapids. I had an incident on Zwicks falls. After dropping into a hole near the top, I received quite a beating, I hung on for what felt like ages, it was long enough for the lads at the bottom to realise I wasn't coming down, for Waggers to climb out of his boat and come back up. Unfortunately he didn't bring a rope so I ended up swimming. Thankfully both myself and my boat made quick exits from the river as the next rapid up was the Gorilla!

Portaging Gorilla I got back in a bit shaken (and as I realised later a bit concussed too, judging from the bruise on my nose and lip, I must have hit my face during my beating, but I never noticed it happen!). The rest of the river was still epic, some big slides and drops and some fun rapids.

John on one of the many drops on the Green.

After our run, which we only just completed in time as water from the dam runs out after a while, the Locals who showed us the lines very kindly invited us back to their place saving us a long drive to what we later discovered would have been a dry Chatouga (the river from Deliverance). The next morning the lads had another run on the Green and we packed up for the long drive north to the Upper Yough in Pennsylvania.

The next morning we discovered some good and some bad news. The bad news was the dam on the Upper wasn't releasing, the good news was that a falls right in the centre of the town of Ohiopyle which was previously illegal to run would now be open for just one day. So we went of to run that!

Myself, Waggers, Ronan and JJ scouting Ohiopyle.

The falls itself was nice and clean and was followed by a few km of easy rapids which looped around and brought you back to the put in again. So we did it twice. Most the lines were clean, but Ronan did manage to receive a beating at the bottom! We also met up with Lucas from Colorado, who we traveled with for most of the rest of the trip!

Ronan at the bottom of Ohiopyle falls!

Over the next few days we didn't have much to do, there was no water in the dam, so there was no release on the upper Yough at all. We passed the time by hiking and driving around the place, We decided a few days later to head on towards the highlight of our trip, Gauely fest 2010 in West Virginia. pausing on the way to run Vally falls. They look easy but apparently there is an undercut there which swallowed a capsized Waggers and resulted in many photos been taken.

Waggers after Vally Falls.

Then on to Gauley. A massive whitewater festival with people driving from all over the states to go to it has to be experienced. The river Gauley releases for a few days and much carnage is had. Unfortunately after about 6 weeks of paddling almost every day my shoulder had pretty much given up and I never got a run of this river in. Next year!

Waggers on the Pillow Rock rapid.

After the weekend it was back to Charlotte for some beers and our flight back home to Ireland where after traveling for two months I had the depressing reality of employment waiting.

Myself on Ohiopyle Falls.

Leaving Zambia

2010-09-07T09:14:00.002+01:00

After five weeks here I am finally leaving. It's been a good five weeks here, despite everything working on Africa time. My boat may have been a week late, and some days were write offs just because they were, but T.I.A! Only downside to this trip was my inability to sort out my head cam (laziness and it refusing to work being the main issues), so I don't have as much footage as I'd like.

I still got plenty of paddling done, the Zam is without a doubt the best river I've ever seen. It did give me a hard time and I did take the odd swim, but it every day on the river was still great. At the moment I'm back in Lusaka waiting for a taxi to bring me to the airport. Next stop is Gauly Fest in the USA and hopefully it can be as good as here.

Colin Wong and Myself on Number 4 - Photo Will Clark

Kayaking the Zambezi

2010-08-31T17:24:00.002+01:00

If I haven’t mentioned it before this river is epic. Definitely the best I’ve ever paddled. It’s been a while since I last posted here so plenty has happened since then. I’ve got a good few runs from rapid one (the boiling point) normally getting off at rapid 7 ½. It’s a great section still very intimidating, but loads of fun. Rapid 7 ½ has one of the best play waves I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately my shoulders acting up (as is usual) so I’m keeping the playboating to a minimum.

A group of us also did a run all the way down to Lower Momemba one day last week. Normally this is run over two days on a multiday trip, but we did it in one, needless to say it was a long and tiring day, but it was great to see and paddle the rapids beyond 25 which a lot of kayakers never go down too. This section is not as good, but still contains some fun rapids (Upper Momemba being particularly fun)

Time has flew and it’s now into my last week here so I’ll be doing as much paddling as possible over the next week. Unfortunately the headcam is not working out too well. I’ve yet to obtain a stable mount that actually fits (and stays) on and gives good footage. I’ll keep working on it and hopefully get some good footage by the end of the week.

Droping into number 5 - photo Will Clark

Swimming on the Zambezi

2010-08-22T15:43:00.002+01:00

A few days ago I took a swim down rapid number 3 on the Zambezi, not much fun! Number 3 is a huge wave train, much bigger and longer than the Silverback rapid on the Nile which is the closest thing I can compare it too. Capsized on the second wave and couldn't manage my roll on such big water. I've looked at a video of my roll since and am shocked at how lazy I've got doing it! Definitely needs improvement, it generally works (only being let down the once!) but on big water like out here it is much harder than at home.

This river is truly massive. It's definitely a step up from the Nile and I'm definitely being challenged here. Rapids are longer, bigger and more consequential than anything I've ever done before. Number 3 is one of the easier ones!

Not to be deterred I took one day rest and went paddling again the day after. Rest days are important out here. My swim was after 5 days consecutive paddling and I should have taken a rest. No issues for me this time, however there was a bit of a epic when two paddlers decided to walk of at rapid 18 after one of them lost a paddle. 18 supposedly has a path, but the lads didn't find it and eventually ended up climbing up vertical rock face! We spent a few hours driving around the bush looking for them, luckily finding them (with the aid of a local farmer) just before dark. We arrived back in Livingstone after 7pm when the original plan was to get back in time to watch the New Zealand v South Africa game at 3.00!

Zambezi fun!

2010-08-18T16:33:00.003+01:00

I'm Finally beginning to get plenty of paddling out here, still only getting from 10-25 though. It's a fun section with rapids 12/13 and 15/16 particularly good. Unfortunately the paddle from 19-25 is a long slog without much to say for it but it's the first take out after 14 so it must be done.

There are not that many people here paddling from one to ten, as of today only 4 people have done it this year and none of them have been doing it over the last few days. Sebastian and Jack did get a run in this morning but I had picked up a bit of a flu so gave it a miss and just paddled from 10 again. Possibly just as well as they discovered the body of a local who drowned a few days ago tyring to rescue a tourist who went swimming under the falls, which was not a pleasant experience (The tourist survived.)

However a few more paddlers have arrived in the past few days (all UK based) so the plan is to run it tomorrow! Hopefully it will be fun!

Don't stop paddling and stay away from rafts!

2010-08-14T10:09:00.002+01:00

I finally got my gear two days ago so I've been able to get out on the river at last. Paddling here is very different to anything I've ever paddled before, even Uganda! There are massive boils and whirlpools everywhere! Added into that there are many floating undercuts (rafts) to avoid too. Got a bit of a beating on rapid 14 yesterday. I was paddling about 20m in front of the raft when I got stuck in a whirlpool, surfed it out and ended up right in front of the raft. Trying to avoid it I ended up in another whirlpool and had to roll a few times getting out. About 30 seconds later I was out of it but somehow still beside the raft! trying to avoid it again put me into a 3rd whirlpool which held me for ages and I couldn't get a roll. Eventually I felt myself being pulled under the raft so I put my hand out and was able to grab the rope by the side to prevent myself going under and managed to right myself! not a pleasant experience!

Other than 14 though this river is great! Logistically it's difficult here though, the river is a bit away and the choices are go with the rafts (which are not out every day and involves getting up at 6.30am) or pay plenty to get guides and porters and such, you cant really just go down and paddle like on the Nile due to the distance away. But the river is definitely worth it. Hopefully I'll get lots of runs over the next few weeks!

Still Kayakless and first day on the river.

2010-08-11T17:49:00.002+01:00

The bad news is I still haven't got my kayak and equipment, the good news is I finally got on the river in some borrowed kit.

My gear seems to have got lost again. It arrived in Lusaka on Sunday and was sent by Fed Ex on Monday morning (i.e. it should have arrived Tuesday morning) but it is now Wednesday evening and there is no sign of it. Fed Ex don't know anything about it and Ethiopian cant seem to be able to give me a reference number so I can track it. Everything takes longer in Africa (I spent 2 hours in a bank withdrawing money yesterday) but this is getting ridiculous I'm here a week now and they have had it for 4 days. It cant be that hard to get it here.I'll continue to badger them, not allot of spare gear going around here so its not a case that I can just borrow some other stuff. Should be able to get a boat, but nobody has spare decks or paddles around.

Nevertheless I did get on the river today. I rafted rapids 10-14 and than swapped into Jack's Kayak and paddled the remaining rapids to No. 25. These rapids are not particularly difficult, the occasional large wave is the main obstacle. However this is a big volume river, and there are very substantial boils and Whirlpools! Swimming is pretty much out of the question on a few of these rapids. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get out again tomorrow, so I really hope my gear shows up soon.

Livingstone!

2010-08-08T08:49:00.003+01:00

I've finally arrived in Livingstone. Got in late on Saturday night. The bus journey down from Lusaka was very long. we were 7 hours on the road and I was stuck in a seat with a mother who decided not to book a separate seat for her child (and not a small one mind, she was about 10!), so I had to share with two people instead of the Campsite/hostel here is nice, has a good pool/bar area and seems to be pretty busy with backpackers. There are not a whole load of paddlers here, 6 in all including Jono and Jack who I paddled with last year in Uganda.

It appears that Ethiopian have found my boat in London and sent it on to Lusaka, so hopefully I'll get it down here soon. They are trying to get it on a plane here, but apparently its small so they are not sure if it will fit. If it does I could have it by tonight, if not who knows when?

Hampered by gear, high water levels and other logistical issues, I still haven't managed to get paddling yet. Apparently the river is much higher than normal for this time of year. I need to get out on some of the lower sections and shake of the rust before I can start paddling the more well known rapids. Unfortunately that seems easier said than done. I should be able to hop in on a rafting trip, but there was none today. Hopefully I'll get out soon and have some pictures and videos to show for it!

Kayakless in Lusaka

2010-08-05T17:05:00.003+01:00

Yes, I'm on a kayaking trip and I no longer have a kayak. or a paddle. or my camping gear. It's Ethiopian airways fault for that, as after charging me €40 for my paddle they promptly lost it. Don't know what I'll do now. Will probably head to Livingstone in the morning as planed and try and wing it form there, Ethiopian reckon that it will come on tomorrows flight and that they will send it on to me. However I'm not sure if I believe them, either about the sending it on or it arriving tomorrow as they have no better idea on where it is than it probably never switched planes in Addis.

So I'm toren between staying here (in Lusaka) for another night and waiting for it myself, or going on to Livingstone and trying to wing it. They also have my first aid kit with my Malaria tablets, so knowing my luck I'll probably catch that now too!

Only (small bit) of luck I got today was getting the last bed, in the 3rd (of 3) hostels in Lusaka. It seems nice, opened today judging by the smell of the plaster and paint.

Zambezi bound

2010-08-03T23:09:00.005+01:00

Tomorrow I leave for the Zambezi, similar to last year in Uganda I opted for the cheaper flights which were way more hassle. I said last year I wouldn't do that again, saw the price difference and changed my mind and am beginning to regret it already.

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning on the most charming Ryanair, facilitator of much stress in previous trips, to London Gatwick, making my way across London to Heathrow, and flying with Ethiopian Airlines to Lusaka. I'll be attempting to find accommodation there for the night, (Kuomboka Backpackers don't seem to respond to e-mail, so I'm not quite clear if I'm booked in there or not!) After that it'll be a six hour bus journey to Livingstone. It seems to be recommended that I go with the "Blue bus", hopefully Lusaka Bus Terminal is nothing like the one in Kampala, or else I'll be looking all day.

But once all the logistical stuff gets sorted It'll be some of this!

Zambezi - Gopro HD Hero from Peter Csonka on Vimeo.

I've purchased a similar camera, so watch out here for some (hopefully!)epic footage!

DCUCC in Slovenia!

2010-07-05T22:46:00.009+01:00

For the first time in several years, DCU Canoe Club officially went foreign. Steve Fahy, Andy Cahill, Joe Downes, Catherine Farmer, Orla Croarkin, Ger Gleeson, Steve Quinn, Emer O'Leary and Myself based ourself on the Soca in Slovenia for a week.

Myself, Steve and Mateja preparing to run the Slalom course

Our flight out was far from easy, with Ryanair insisting that we move our stuff around until each individual piece of luggage weighed an assigned amount (even though what we put on the plane ultimately weighed the exact same anyway.) Things got easier on arrived, where we picked up our rental cars and van, packed our stuff away with a lot more ease than on previous Alps trips and set of on the two and a half hour drive to Bovec. When we arrived seven hours later (some of that extra time was spent showing extraordinary restraint in Decathlon), we were able to pick up some rental boats for the week and set up camp in between the rain showers :(.

The River at our campsite

Our campside was nice, located right on the river it even had a covered drying rack so we could dry our gear even when it rained.

Lifesaver - our gear was dry all week!

Over the next few days we got several runs on many sections of the river. The levels were perfect for most of the week, aside from one day, where heavy rain caused the river to rise over a metre and double in volume! This meant that the river became much pushier and faster, much to the shock of some in the group! Nonetheless, the Soca is the perfect river for learning, it's safe and clean, with plenty in the way of features, with runs ranging from 1-4.

Myself, Steve and Mateja on the Slalom course

There is more to Slovenia than just kayaking however! As well as stunning scenery and other adventure sports (such as Canyoning, Biking and mountaineering) the Soca Valley was the location of 13 major WW1 battles as well as Battles from the Napoleonic wars. This all means that the place is full of history, so we visited some WW1 trenches after the river one day.

Slovenian Scenery!

World War One Trenches

Catherine mountain biking!

This was a fantastic trip in a perfect location and with luck the Soca valley will see DCUCC returning next year for another alpine adventure!

Galway polo comp

2010-06-08T20:25:00.007+01:00

June bank holiday weekend is the traditional home of the Carrick on Shannon polo competition. However that got cancelled a few years ago so we had to go to Galway instead.

The DCU polo team, Catherine, Ciaran, Orla, Alan, Myself, Joanna, Ashling and Eoin.

Not that any of us were complaining, Galway never fails to come up with the goods when it comes to weekends away!

It was almost a year since I'd played polo before this weekend so I was looking forward to getting back in a polo boat. I was playing with the DCUCC team in Division 3. The weekend didn't start well when the slowness of my car. (It cant do above 90kmph any more :( ) and the severity of the Galway tragic led to us abandoning our plan to go to the beach, so we went to the pub instead.

The next morning encouraged by much funny bunny and memorable quotes we were all fresh(ish!) for our half nine start. We had a good time playing polo, qualifying for the semi-final by wining two, drawing two and losing two games. Our semi was a hard fought game against Galway Kayak Club, but we just couldn't manage to break down their zone, and three breakaway goals saw us lose 3-0.

Our 3rd/4th play-off game, was against a team who had just lost some players, and it was starting to rain, so we generously offered to play a game of rock-paper-scissors instead of polo to settle the tie. Most ungenerously of them they won 2-0, ensuring that we finished in 4th.

The 3rd/4th place play-off got caught on camera.

The plan at that stage was to move on to Easkey for some surfing, but lack of surf put a dampener on that one, so it was back home to Dublin in the hope that the rain had hit Wicklow.

Back to Paddling and Lv. 3 Instructer!

2010-05-03T14:52:00.005+01:00

Haven't updated this in a while so here's a rushed version of what I've been up to for the past few months!

Apart from studding and working on college assignments I've got a bit of paddling done. My shoulder seems to have finally fully recovered and I've got out for a few club trips on the Boyne and Avenmore. I also got one good day up in Wicklow with Oisin and Ger from Wild Water, where we ran the Annamoe at a perfect level and than paddled the bottom section of the Glenmcnass at a very high level.

Oisin got a video of the day, not great quality, but an idea what levels were like.

I also got my Level 3 Instructor assessment last weekend and I was quite happy to pass that. The assessment was though, two tiring days. Day one was all about rescue skills and personal paddling at the sluice. The second day had us leading a group down the Liffey and training them up in Level 3 skills. Was a good two days to take a break from the monotony of study. Next up now is my exams, than hopefully a summer with plenty of paddling!

Kayak Intervarsities 2010

2010-02-17T20:24:00.009Z

This years Kayak Intervarsities were hosted by NUIG in Galway. DCU went as defending champions having won last years competition hosted by UCD. Unfortunately due to my shoulder still being injured I was unable to participate myself and had to be satisfied with taking pictures!.

Me with the Varsities cup and the white-water cup that we won last year

Due to the early start to the polo, we were up bright and early for a 8.30am departure for Galway. In typical DCU Canoe club style we left closer to 9.30. Still we weren't that late arriving and shouldn't really blame that for not showing on time for our first game against UCD. Fortunately for us, UCD were sound enough to give us a replay later on in the day. Therefore our first match was against Maynooth and their Div 1 Kilcock players. Not to surprisingly we got beaten by eventual champions. Our second game was against UCD and we drew 2-2, putting us through to the quarter finals on goal difference to play UCC. UCC had a very strong team and despite a good performance we went out in the quarter finals for the second year running.

DCU in action against Maynooth

The Friday night party was in the college bar and than on to Karma nightclub! so it was a tired morning when everyone turned up to the Long Distance for an 8am registration time! we had participants in almost every class, but unfortunately the only medal position was Ashling Conway who secured a top 3 finish for the second year running, this time in the Women's HP class. Comic relief was provided by Ger, who capsized metres from the finish line!

Men's GP start in the Long Distance

After that it was of to Clifton for the Rodeo. Participating for DCU was Ronan Matthews, Ger Gleson, Ashling Conway and Ciaran O'Sullivan. The lads put in a good performance, particularly given Ashling and Ciaran had never done freestyle before. Ronan Matthews put in a good run and Ashling secured a unexpected 3rd place with the tried and tested fall over & swim combo! UL dominated the event however securing 1st in the women's event and all top 3 positions in the men's freestyle.

Ronan Matthews playing in Clifton hole

The final event was on the Sunday, and was the white-water race on the Boluisce in Spiddal. DCU's team was Ger, Ashling and Ronan. Unfortunately for us the river was low and rocks impeded on our ability to finish the race! The final shootout was made up of UCD, NUIG, TCD and GMIT Castlebar, with Paddy McGovern of GMIT wining ahead of UCD.

Paddy McGovern of GMIT on his way to wining.

Overall the event was won by the University of Limerick who put in strong performances in every event to take a thoroughly deserved victory. DCU came a disappointing 10th, but it was always going to be hard to defend our title with a number of injuries and absences to contend with. We'll be back in force next year though with the competition to be held in Cork.

Uganda Video

2010-01-12T15:10:00.005Z

I have finaly managed to get the Uganda video that Chris made online. (I'm studying for exams right now so finiding ways to avoid study is well up my list of priorities)

Uganda 2009 from Kenneth Hynes on Vimeo.

WUDC Turkey 2010

2010-01-09T19:14:00.003Z

This years Worlds University Debating Championships were hosted by Koc University in Antayla, Turkey and I was lucky enough to get to go along as a Judge to this magnificent event.

Koc spared no expenses in hosting this tournament, with the entire delegation (of about 1,500 people, making it the worlds largest student event) put up in the 5 star Maritim Pine Beach Resort. This fantastic venue was made even better by the fact that everything was free! Including the hotels many bars, a service which was availed of frequently by the Irish contingent.

Aerial View of the Hotel Complex

The Social events organised were amazing, the highlights being the Full Moon New Years party hosted on the beach including with a spectacular fireworks display to boot, and the closing night white themed "Atlantis Party".

Not all the nights went without hiccup though. One night we were brought to what we were promised was "Turkey's best nightclub", only to arrive at a converted industrial building with an interior that reminded me strongly of the Palace. Drinks were priced at a suitable rate to compensate for the free bars at the hotel. To top all that though it soon proved to be in fact a mafia club, and the mafia of at least 3 different nations later showed up complete with armed bodyguards.

The only regret I have was that despite spending over a week in Turkey, I got to see very little of what I'm sure is an amazing country. Free 5 star hotels are amazing, but they could be anywhere. I'll definitely be returning sometime in the near future to see more. I would have stayed for longer afterwords, but for the scheduling of my exams in January (this blog post is an attempt to postpone study!) Sadly I have a lack of Photos for all this as I have mislaid my camera, hopefully I will either find it or get a new one before I go somewhere interesting next time.

As for the debating, DCU's teams did very well. Adam and Derwin (DCU A) finished on 14 points (a very respectable score) while Declan and John (DCU B) finished on 12, that despite Declan having to miss 4 rounds with a nasty bug that was going about. I got to Judge good rounds throughout, and even got to be a chair judge which I'm happy about.

Scotland 2009!

2009-11-17T16:14:00.002Z

On the October bank holiday weekend a group of us headed over to Scotland to see what whitewater it had to offer! DCUCC members Aisling Doherty, Trevor Ebbs, Brian Mc and I joined up with former DCUer Steve Fahy and a group from Wicklow Mountain Kayak Club.

We set of from a very rainy Ireland early on the Friday morning intending to hit the Scottish rivers by sometime in the afternoon. The journey to the ferry was not without incident though with Brian sleeping through his alarm and making the 3 hour journey from his gaff in Wicklow to Belfast in just under 2 hours!

Such pace was not found on the Scottish side of the pond however and much faffing and a few wrong turns lead to us looking at a dirt low Orchy far too late to get on it anyway. We were not comforted much by news that Wicklow and Kerry were pumping in our absence. So we made our way to our bunkhouse to relax in the sauna with some 2% water like liquid which we were dubbed into purchasing by its ridiculously low price tag combined by the label which identified it as beer!

The next morning was we were up bright and early and off to run the Etive! The Etive is one of the most photogenic rivers I have ever seen as well as being one of the most fun to paddle ever! It starts off with the imaginatively named triple step.

Clara Cleaning the Line on the last drop of Triple Step!

It was then on to a further series of fun drops, all imaginatively named, letterbox (keep left unless you want to get "posted"), Crack of Doom (a drop into a small gorge which looks like a crack in the ground, one that you'd want to consider some rescue on :-) ), crack of dawn (quite like crack of doom) and ski jump falls (guess what it looks like?).

Myself doing rescue on Crack of Doom

The river than reaches its biggest and most impressive fall, the 35ft(ish!) Right Angle falls. Unfortunately my line was a little less impressive and I rolled both above and below the drop.

Trev running right angle properly!

Right angle is almost the end of a fantastic river, but there was one more surprise waiting for us where on the last drop Trev decided to ignore the "the lines on the right" signal and ran it left attempting to wear down some Scottish rocks with his elbow. Perhaps unsurprisgly the Rock won (Scottish Rocks 1- Kayakers 0) and we had the first (and only!) DCUCC swim of the trip!

Leaving Trev in the car to recover the rest of us trekked up an Etive tributary called the Allt a' Chaorainn. It's described in the guide book as "more bizarre fun than should be legal!", and it certainly lived up to that promise! It's packed with fun slides and drops. All great fun until Aisling decided to try and revenge Trev's defeat to the rocks by attacking one with her boat. Once again however the rocks proved stronger than expected and it was Rocks 2- Kayakers 0.

Brian Mc running "pinball" on the Allt a' Chaorainn

The next day the rain had finally arrived from Ireland and levels had risen drastically, which meant that we abandoned our plan to run the Roy Gorge and went off to do the An tSuilleag. A great fun little river, with a bit of everything on it. The top rapid was the only difficult one on it which Steve F, Brian Mc and myself ran (relatively!) cleanly. This inspired Jim Ryan of Wicklow Mountain Kayak Club to give it a go, however once again Scottish Rocks proved the downfall of a kayaker making it 3-0 to the rocks and causing a rough looking swim and a lost bung!

Steve Fahy on the top drop of the An tSuilleag

At this point it was decided to split the group with some going of to run the Gary while Brian, Trev, Aisling and I decided to run the Roy, the river we decided not to run earlier. We were not put of running it by the large number of Scottish groups making the rather demanding walk out of the gorge, and put in 3 hours before darkness! The Roy has to be one of the best rivers out there, it was great fun with a few set piece rapids before the gorge, a demanding line through a nasty looking rapid at the start of the gorge (I portaged this one, but kudos to Brian and Trev for running it along with another ex-DCUCC member Alex Stanley who we meet on the river.)And than a great continuous run through the rest of the gorge. We just made it off in time to avoid paddling in the dark but it was a fantastic run a well worth doing again. (Apparently it was a few feet above the level described as "Very High" in the guidebook!) Unfortunately no pictures of this one as we were tight on time. In a side note another bump appeared on Aislings boat, making it presumably rocks 4- Kayakers still nil.

Our last day was Monday, where we set of early to get a paddle in on the Orchy which, had risen since Friday, before we set of for our ferry. The Orchy is another good river (but no Roy, Etive or Allt a' Chaorainn). The main rapid on it was shallow and contained many Scottish rocks. Given our track record it was walked by many, but Steve Fahy, Aisling and Trev gave it a go. They had nice looking lines through it, but the shallow landing took its toll with further marks on Ais and Trev's boats making it 6 to the rocks. Steve appeared to get through fine however so there was a consolation point to the kayakers at the very end!

Aisling boofing on the Orchy

After that it was the long drive home, been miles to early for the ferry (Never thought that would happen) and eventually home to sleep of the weekend!

Me on the Etive

Back in College

2009-10-09T13:10:00.008+01:00

I'm back from Uganda a month now and life is back to normal. College started back two weeks ago and this year as a masters student I have depressingly long hours and an enormous amount of project work to be doing.

It also hasn't rained since I got back from Uganda. The odd shower here or there but not one wet day that would bring rivers up, so no paddling for me. Who said it rains a lot in Ireland?

This week was Clubs and Societies days in DCU, where all the clubs and societies go out to try sign up as many new members as they can! This year was very slow, with freshers being very protective of their cash. but we still got loads of new members in both Debate Soc. and in the Canoe Club! So here's to another great year in both!

The first Debate Soc. house debate of the year certainly got of to a good start with a good showing of freshers who produced and excellent and entertaining debate.

Back home

2009-09-20T21:33:00.004+01:00

I'm now back home a week and very much missing Africa! I've all my photos up online on my Picasa Web Album. Unfortunately I cant upload the video Chris made for some Techey reason.

The flight home was long and fairly uneventfully, apart from a rather impressive looking thunderstorm while flying over the Sudan. I had 2 seats to myself again, this time one of them being a window seat meaning I had a great view of the thunderstorm.

I'll definitely be back to Africa at some point in the future. Unfortunately it probably wont be to Uganda, at least not to Kayak as with out the Silverback run which will be lost to the dam it just wont be worth it to me. Maybe the Zambezi for next year!

Rhino in the conservation park!

Parrot

Buffalo at Murchison Falls NP

One of the Local Kids carrying a boat up from Superhole

Kids who came out to see the Mazugus who st oped outside their house

This Guy borrowed my boat at the bottom of silverback, despite been way too small and using my paddles upside down he was actually quite a good little paddler!

Myself at Superhole

Hugh going big on Nile Special

Myself at Buj, Despite the sign we ran this many times :)

Leaving Day

2009-09-12T13:30:00.003+01:00

Today is my last day in Uganda. The time here has relay flew. The last few days have been particularly hectic. Yesterday I had intended to do a few Silverback runs to get some final video footage, particularly of the back channels which we had no footage of. Unfortunately for us we only found out at about 11 that the Dam builders were intending on blasting and we could not paddle after 12 so we just had time to do a normal Silverback run with no video. It felt strange to paddle it for the very last time. It's the best section of river I've ever paddled and with the dam being built I'll never get to paddle it again.

Unfortunately there has been a few problems in Kampala over the last few days with Rioting and roads being blocked. A tribal King was denied access to some part of the country that hes not supposed to go to and an entire tribe took offense. Several people were unable to get to the airport over the last few days so this morning I had to leave early in order to get here before expected rioting started again in Kampala. We passed a few burnt out buses and trucks and the police and army were out in force, but we encountered no problems so I arrived at Enttebe airport, where I am now, with many hours to spare.

I'll be back in Ireland tomorrow so I'll have photos and the video Chris made up soon.

Last week in Uganda

2009-09-07T08:14:00.002+01:00

This week will be my last in Uganda, time has passed by so quickly here it doesn't feel like I've been here anywhere near that long.

Since I've come back from the lemon, I've been paddling on the day one section again. mainly Silverback runs with some Superhole sessions and back channels too. Silverback seems much more manageable now than it used to. Its taken a while but now I seem to be able to run all of the rapids clean most of the time, whereas when I first came out any rapid that I didn't roll on became a major achievement.

We've also done plenty of filming. Chris Fischer, who's doing a motorbike tour of Africa is filming plenty of stuff we're doing so we should have a decent video sometime this week. I've taken plenty of pictures with my own camera too. It's good for easy point and shoot pictures, but it generally fails with taking pictures of big rapids as there is too much movement and colours for such a small camera. The zoom isn't great also. I definitely miss using an SLR, I could get much better pictures with one. It was also a loss when on safari when animals were some distance away and I just couldn't get good photos with my little camera.

Murchison Falls Safari

2009-09-01T08:35:00.001+01:00

I was also on Safari in the last week. Myself and Tim and Huw from Southampton took three days off to go to Murchison Falls. The Falls themselves are a sight. The whole river Nile slots through a drop about 6 meters wide which makes it the most powerful waterfall in the world. I've got plenty of pictures, but I dont think they come close to catching the power in the water.

We also went on a game drive and a river cruise where we got to see elephants, giraffes, hippos, wildebeest, many types of antelope, even more types of birds, crocodiles and Lions. We than visited a rhino sanctuary where they are raising a heard of rhinos in order to reintroduce them to the park as they became extinct in Uganda during the rule of Idi Amin.

The Safari may have taken 3 days but it was definitely a worthwhile break from paddling. I'm back in Bujagali now and staying at the Eden Rock campsite. Planing on doing plenty of Silverback runs with the camera to get pictures and videos. It's hard to believe that I have less than 2 weeks of my month stay left. The time has flown by.

The Hairy Lemon

2009-09-01T08:13:00.004+01:00

I've spent the last week between the Hairy Lemon and a Safari at Murchison Falls National Park. Both were absolutely fantastic.

The Hairy Lemon is a campsite at the end of the day 2 section. Its a fantastic chilled out place to stay. It's in the middle of nowhere, so all there is to do is chill out and go paddling. The day 2 section has some big play waves. I got to session Club Wave and Nile Special which are only a 10 minute paddle from the campsite and also the Mutts Nuts wave which is a much lesser known, but equally good wave on the Hair of the Dog rapid.

Club wave was my personal favorite as I'm not much of a playboater so the fact it was easy to get on made a big difference when most of the time all I'd get was a fount surf before getting wiped out. Mutts Nuts is hard to get on as its a tricky ferry glide and the wave is liable to green out completely at any time, normally just before I was about to surf it. Even Finn and Hugh who are fantastic playboaters struggled to catch it at times.

Nile Special is probably the best wave here but it takes a long time to master the rope needed to get onto it. I managed a few surfs towards the end of my sessions but that was all I could do on it.

Living in Uganda

2009-08-22T16:44:00.003+01:00

At the moment I'm staying in the NRE campsite by Bujagali falls. It's pretty cool here. It's right at the start of the Silverback run so is a perfect spot to stay. there's a bar on site which sometimes has a great atmosphere. There's about 10 kayakers between here and the Eden Rock campsite across the road. I should move over as it's cheaper and quieter but it seems like a lot of effort.

The crowd at NRE changes all the time. Truck loads of tourists traveling Africa arrive for a for a few days at a time and the weekends are also busy with volunteers who have some time off. They are all here to raft so the night usually kicks of after the video of that days rafting which is shown at 9.

The rainy season has well and truly arrived too. It rains torrentialy almost every afternoon (today being a nice exception). Yesterday brought the heaviest rain I have ever seen. Bucket loads of water came down. There was a river of water flowing through the bar where it was only raining heavily as compared to the sheets of water falling outside. The river, which is only about 200m from the bar was completely out of sight. After it passed it transpired that the rain had brought down most of the tents in the campsite. Luckily mine was one of the few that escaped.

The rain also has an effect on paddling. The Boda-Bodas wont operate in the rain so we have to try time our Silverback runs to avoid the daily deluge. A Boda-Boda is a 50cc scooter which are fairly common out here as taxis. We get them to meat us at the get out bellow Silverback and we load ourselves plus our boats and gear on to get the 20 minute ride back to the campsite.

As for paddling I've spent the last few days paddling with some English lads plus a guy from NUIG on the Silverback section. Today I did my first back chanel, blade runner and also managed a dry head line down the Silverback rapid. (Still haven't manged to clean the second hole on the Bujagali left line though). We'll spend another day or two here and next week I'll probably head to the Hairy Lemon with the English guys. The Hairy Lemon is another campsite at the bottom of the day 2 section and is right beside Nile Special and the Club wave which are big playwaves. Myself and 2 paddlers from Southampton Uni may also take a few days out for a Safari next week too.

Silverback

2009-08-20T16:41:00.003+01:00

Finally got to paddle on the day 1 section today. We did two runs from our campsite down to Silverback. It's a great run. Theres a few rapids after silverback but also a lot more flatwater so they were left to another day.

My runs were far from Stylish and unlike the day 2 section, were I only had to roll once, I rolled on most the rapids here.

The first rapid on the run is a choice between either Ribcage or The Hump neither is particularly hard but both are good fun. After that is Bujagali falls. There are several lines but I oped to run the left one both times. The left line is basically two drops with a flattish section in between. On the first run I realised that the the flat section was actually quite pushy and ended up ferrying hard just to make the line having been pushed into the centre which is nasty and rocky looking. I landed just at the edge or the normal line and got flipped by the hole. The second time was much better but the second hole still got the better of me despite being on line.

50-50 is the next major rapid. The curx of it is a diagonal wave which is fairly big. It flipped me on both occasions. The second one I was sure it had popped my deck due to difficulty of rolling, but it appears that I timed my rolls perfectly with the waves on the wave train which were pushing me straight back in. The final (and biggest) rapid on the run is silverback, there's a massive ramp where the river narrows and feeds into a wave train. The waves are huge and surging and a clean line requires an element of luck for anyone. my first run I got eaten by the 3rd wave while in my second run it was the 4th wave that ate me after I dared to roll up when wave number 2 had already flipped me.

It's a great section of river, I still have to do Overtime and Chopasuai which are further downstream as well as any of the back channels. Hopefully over the next few days I'll get to try them as well as make some cleaner lines on the main rapids.

Rest Days

2009-08-19T17:06:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately my old shoulder injury made a reappearance on Bujagali Falls (the first real rapid on the run) on my first run down the day 1 section, so I have had a few days rest hoping that it will go away. Its still a bit stiff but hopefully I can go again tomorrow. I've spent plenty of time in the eddy practicing rolling on my left as rolling on my right (which I normally do) seems to be whats most likely to aggravate it.

That has meant that I've had plenty of free time. I've spent plenty of that chilling out on the campsite, but I've also taken some time to explore the local area. One day I rented a bike and one of the local raft guides on his day of brought me around the locality. It's definitely worth giving up a day for. It's the start of the rainy season here so everyone is out working getting the fields ready for planting. We passed through little villages, fields and schools. Everywhere the people are so friendly, particularly the children. When ever they saw me they'd come running shouting "Mzunda" which means "white man", they all what to shake your hand so if I was to stop for all of them I'd never get anywhere! most of them were delighted with a wave back though.

Today I went into Jinja on a Boda, a 50cc scooter taxi with two lads from Southampton Uni canoe club. We wandered around the town for the few hours, enjoying the market and some local foods.

Hopefully though I can shortly go back paddling, as nice as the area is I did come here to kayak. I've been down to Sliverback and I cant wait to run it. That said I'm not planing on taking too many risks as I still have over 3 weeks left here and If I seriously injure it I may not get too much paddling at all.

First days paddling in Uganda

2009-08-16T11:46:00.001+01:00

Paddling in Uganda is every bit as good as I’ve ever been told, and I haven’t even done the best bit yet!

I signed up to Kayak the Nile’s 3 day introduction to the river as I didn’t know anyone here, as it turns out it was probably unnecessary as it didn’t take long to find other paddlers anyway. That said I don’t mind having gone on the intro trip as the volume here is unlike anything else I’ve paddled and the waves are huge.

It turned out the night I arrived was a once of and every night has been buzzing since than. A large group of rafters arrived early in the morning.

On my first day here we did a fairly flattish section from the Owen Falls dam down to the campsite. In the afternoon I went to Super Hole. Super Hole is an amazing playspot, it’s incredibly friendly and all moves are possible there, as was demonstrated by Ibrim, our guide who will be representing Uganda at the World Freestyle Championships in Switzerland in a few weeks time.

Yesterday we paddled the day two section which is great fun and has some huge waves and holes, that said the lines are easy to spot and paddle. Day two finishes up at the Hairy Lemmon which is beside the Nile Special wave. Its insanely big, I gave it a miss yesterday as I could only really see one outcome to me attempting to surf it but I’ll definitely be heading back to try and surf it over the next few weeks once I’ve a bit more practice in big volume rapids.

Next up will be the Day 1 section which includes most of the rivers biggest rapids.
Paddling in Uganda is every bit as good as I’ve ever been told, and I haven’t even done the best bit yet!

Geting to Uganda

2009-08-16T11:25:00.001+01:00

Getting to Uganda was a bit of an experience. I had to fly from Dublin to Gatwick, Gatwick to Brussels and Brussels to Uganda. My Uncle gave me and my gear a lift to the airport which certainly saved me a lot of hassle, so many thanks to Frank!

In Dublin I finally managed to get a camera, so now I am the proud owner of a waterproof Pentex W60. I’ve got some decent shots already, but the internet here is pretty crapy so I won’t be able to upload any till I get home.

I had to stay overnight in Gatwick as my flight from Gatwick left very early in the morning. Trying to sleep in Gatwick is not something I’d recommend to anyone I could only find one spare bench which was right beside the main entrance. I was disturbed several times, once by a guy wanting to sell me a net for my kayak, and 3 times by a drunken guy looking for money. Eventually I got to check in and I brought my boat over to the oversized baggage. However the guy operating it spoke only two words of English, “too big” and wouldn’t let me put it on. Even when I found his (thankfully English speaking) manager he didn’t want to put it in. Eventually when he was talked around it and rather unsurprisingly it did actually fit.

When we got to Brussels we were taken of the plane and put on a bus directly over to the long-haul plane for the flight to Africa. It went via Kigali (in Rwanda) which meant that the flight took over 10 hours. I also got to see a passenger board the plane in Kigali with a large, very authentic looking spear!

When I finally got to Entebbe I was meet by Robert the driver who would bring me to the NRE campsite. Driving in Uganda is an experience. Road markings are generally ignored. The roads were crowded with pedestrians, most of whom walked right down the middle with no lighting at all. Going through Kampala while on a dual carriageway we were met by even more pedestrians and Kids playing in the middle. My driver never turned of his headlights, so we spent the entire trip been flashed at. Indicators seem like a luxury item here, so if you have them you show them of by putting them on all the time.

After 30 hours of traveling I got to the NRE campsite at 1AM, despite what I’d been told about the bar been open to all hours the place was dead so I went to one of the bunk houses as it was far to late to put up a tent.

All ready to go

2009-08-12T11:58:00.005+01:00

I'm now packed for Uganda. Unfortunately without either a credit card or the new waterproof camera I had ordered. AIB managed to extend the 10-15 day process of getting a credit card to over 40 by being generally incompetent. Fortunately I was only getting it for back up so I'll still have money over there.

As for the camera, I had it ordered of Pixmania and due for delivery before August 1st (plenty of time one would think) but when it didn't arrive I checked their website only to find that they had prosponed delivery till September 1st and hadn't seen fit to notify me. So I went on to contact my aunt in the Chanel Islands (no VAT) and she got me one and registered posted it to Ireland. But Royal Mail/An Post conspired against me to loose it somehow.

Fortunately I have managed to acquire a playboat, an Blue ZG54. It's in great condition and I've brought it out to Sluice in Lucan for the last two days. It surfs far better than any other boat I've tried and feels much more balanced than other playboats. I cant wait to use it on big water.

All packed up

Newcastle Euros 2009

2009-08-10T12:49:00.004+01:00

Last week David and myself took part in the EUDC 2009 hosted by Newcastle University. We also had Declan in tow as officially the first Hungarian Judging representative at euros.

We had an very early flight leaving Dublin which meant that we were in the student accommodation provided by Newcastle by 9.30 in the morning leaving us with a day in Newcastle. We went for a walk around Newcastle. It's a city with very much a sense of former grandeur. We also managed to get a visit to St. James Park, the day after Sir Bobby Robson died. Literally thousands of fans had gathered in and around the stadium, and the shear amount of memorials left and the cost of getting the latest jersey with "Sir Bobby" on it, only to leave it in the stadium is an indicator to how much this city loves their football.

Bobby Robson Memorial at St. James Park

Day 2 was the starting of the rounds. There was a major delay at the start due to registration problems which lead to one of the four scheduled rounds been cut. It was a good day for the Irish with several teams on 7 or more points after 3 rounds (so from a maximum of 9). It wasn't so good for myself and David though. We started with a solid second but in the second round we messed up big time and took a deserved last. The 3rd round we felt we did well in but we were given the worst adjudication that I have ever seen and ended up taking only a 3rd which left us on a rather poor 3 points after 3 rounds.

The Newcastle Authorities were unsure as to who was to use this gate

Day 3 was much better. We bounced back from the previous days disappointments with 3 straight wins which put us right up where we wanted to be and in with a solid chance of making it into the quarter finals. Our last preliminary round debate brought us up against some good teams including Cambridge and Tel Aviv. Unfortunately we were unable to take the win in what was a tight debate and it was the Cambridge and Tel Aviv teams who mad it through to the knock out stages. A number of Irish teams did make it through, 3 from UCD and one from UCC.

The last Irish team was knocked out in the Semis (Susan and Jeramey from UCD) and all Irish support went to the team from Tel Aviv who were the only non-Oxford team in the final. In the end it was Oxford's A team who won (for the forth international tournament in a row).

It wasn't to hard to figure out which team the Irish were supporting in the final

An early flight the next morning didn't curtail the party that night and it was a particularly tiered looking Irish contingent on the 7.50 flight the next morning.

French Alps

2009-07-29T10:02:00.013+01:00

This year myself, Steve Fahy and Steve Quinn headed over to France for a week of kayaking fun. Over there we meat up with Aisling, Trevor and Phil who were already half way through a month long trip around the alps.

We headed for the region around Briancon, which has an huge amount of great rivers within a short distance. We camped at L'Argentière-la-Bessée slalom site which is ideally located for paddling.

Briancon old town gate

In the first few days we got runs of the Briancon Gorge, the Upper Claree and the Lower Guisine. All fantastic rivers at great levels.

Fantastic Scenery on the Briancon Gorge

Guidebook cover photo of Steve Fahy on the Upper Claree

The levels in France were still high though and we were reminded of it when we spotted a almost totally river wide fallen tree far to late on the Gyr, luckily it wasn't too difficult to avoid. The Guil was pumping all week too, making most sections of it far to high for most sane paddlers! Steve Quinn, Aisling, Trev and Phil got a run on of the lower part of the Middle Guil (from X-Box down) though. It was huge volume and continuous and with the standing waves been compared to those in Uganda by the guys at the get out combined with the undercuts, I'm not entirely upset by the fact I missed out on this one

Phil's a dot on the Middle Giul.

Due to the high levels, (and us being lazy) we didn't get the preplanned 2-3 rivers a day done over the week, but we had a much more relaxing holiday for it, with Via Ferrata, eating Americans by the Flesh Pit, cursing the gauge at the Durance Gorge and admiring our rented Citron C5 with tons of gadgets among our many other activities.

The Lads enjoying Americans (A roll with chips and burgers in it rather than people from the USA)

Quiner got angry with the Lady at the car rental desk so we got upgraded from our C2 that we paid for to a rather spacious automatic C5, which Quiner promptly ruined by doing 4 wheel drifts in mountain passes

Aisling Via Ferata

Myself on the Upper Claree