Sunday, April 25, 2010

Widemouth surf kayak competition

This weekend saw the annual Shoreline Widemouth handicap surf kayak competition. Using a slightly different format to most competitions, surfers get to surf at least three rounds, with their results from previous rounds helping to determine their next round. Then after three rounds there is a semi and a final.

After the competition there are two sets of results, the overall results, based on the results of the finals, and the handicap results based on your finishing position less points based on your age and experience.

I got a first and two seconds, which was not quite enough to get me into the semi's, but it should leave me with an overall result of joint 11 ( I hope!).

The surf was small, it started small, and as the tide rose it got worse, not necessarily smaller, but it ended up with surfers pretty much riding the shore dump!



















Monday, April 19, 2010

Yet another round up!

Sorry readers, yet another 'round up'. This time we've got Squirt boating in the sun on the river Exe, Louise and I before and after our XC Mountain bike racing adventure at Haldon, and some old pictures of Paddling the Upper Dart at a good level!


Sunshine and squirt boats on the Exe



Louise feeling nervous before the fully sussed race at Haldon


Both of us feeling exhausted after the race
Check out the race results HERE



Somewhere on the Upper, After stopping to rescue a boat!



Euthanasia looking chunky!




Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A bit of Dartmoor sun and cycling

Some more quick pictures, this time of me enjoying a bit of spring sunshine whilst biking on Dartmoor. The sky was blue the trails were dry, and the riding was awesome!





I'm trying (vaguely) to get ready for a Mountain bike race this week at Haldon. Fully Sussed are running a series of races, including some Thursday night evening races. I'll be giving it a go, its all just for fun!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cornish Slabs

Here's a few quick pictures of a Mutant killer Cornish slab that I took at the weekend.







Strangely there was no one riding it!



Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sorry its been so long.

Sorry its been so long, I feel like I've barely been able to spend any time in front of my computer recently! So here is a quick run down of what you've missed in the last three months.

Christmas; New year; A whistle stop tour of the UK; Mountain biking; Surfing; Kayaking the Dart; Kayaking the Severn bore; Kayaking the Walkham; A week in Scotland; A new Mountain bike; New Camera stuff; And plenty more!!

Here is a few pictures of just some of this stuff.


Climbing in the Scottish highlands


Cycling round Loch Rannoch

Fun in the snow Loch Morlich



A muddy cycle in Epping Forest



New Macro Camera gear




The Upper Dart





New Yak Team member, Extreme Frog!




Competing at Whitsands Bay surf kayak competition




Ewart Khan, warming up for the Walkham





Team AS/Yak surfin' it up!





On the Severn Bore - I'm the kayaker on the wave on the left of the picture





Waiting for the Severn Bore





Ewart Waiting for the Severn Bore

Monday, December 07, 2009

More fun from the weekend

So after all the fun of Gene 17 APWE it was time to hit the water on Sunday. There had been loads of rain, and the rivers had all been huge early in the morning, but by the time I hit the river around lunch time the level had already dropped to a good, but still fairly high level.

I started off with some squirt boating with Dan W, Tom B and Hazel W. The seam at the Weburn/Dart confluence was awesome, although my squirting technique still needs much more practice. However I still got some epic, and scary downtime!

Then it was back to top wave for a quick surf session with Tim C, and Hazel, and any other passing paddler who wanted a quick surf!

Boat of choice?! Top wave over run by Jackson kayaks!



Tom B, Dan W and Hazel after some mystery move action at the Weburn/Dart confluence



Me getting my Squirt cool on!!!!! NOT!



Sunday, December 06, 2009

Gene17 APWE 2009

This weekend saw the annual Simon Westgarth Gene17 Adventure Paddlers Weekend. Saturday night saw three Presentations, Below and Beyond Machu Picchu, the B.U.K.E Kayak-Nam, and Olaf 'Big-O' Obsommer. The Presentations were then followed by the usual Raffle and prize give-away. Then to wrap the night up the dance floor was cleared, the lights were switched off, and the tunes were turned up to 11! The mighty Cheese opened things up with a blistering set, before DJ Redbelly got down, dirty and ravy with it!

Check out the pictures...

Above and beyond Machu Picchu

Kayak-Nam


Big O


Dave Carrol gives some free prizes away



The raffle gets underway


Cheesey provides some blistering tunes



DJ Redbelly gets the rave on



Simon Westgarth




The Party gets going



The party in full swing