The weekend just past brought about the second Colligan Gorge Games which had a huge number of Irish paddlers travel to the unlikely white water Mecca that is Co. Waterford. This year had the one thing that last years event was missing which was near perfect water levels.
The event had both team and individual categories which were divided into sport & expert classes. The racing was tight among everyone and it was shown that even the slightest nudge from your competitors could send you to the back of the pack in an instant. It was a long day with the racing getting off from not long after 9am and continuing right through until almost dark, it was a testament to all those that travelled that the crowds never stopped cheering not once all day long.
The finial “Salmon Leap” rapid was the location for some very interesting lines and some carnage from both the expert and sport classes and the dash to the finish line was littered with abandoned boats & bruised egos.
People has travelled form all over Ireland and even as far as Switzerland with a couple of well know faces from the UK paddling scene.
Not only was this one of the most fun and exciting kayaking events ever held in Ireland it is also possible the first Boater X held in a tight & technical gorge that saw a paddler use a 16ft sea kayak avec full face helmet.
My own camera died a death at the weekend but fellow team i-canoe member James V D B got loads of savage ones just which you can check out on his blog jammersworld.net , there are a few photos in there which I would rather didn’t see the light of day but sure if we can’t laugh at ourselves its a sad sad world.
Events like this I reckon is the future of competitive kayaking. After all the paddling was done while some of the team i-canoe crew settled for a quiet night in the rest of of headed for the after party in Waterford.
While our team didn’t win the Boater X we certainly were in the running for winning the party judging by the “tired heads” the following day. After we managed to crawl out of the beds on Sunday and headed back up the country we stopped for a wee bit of park and huck action at Pollanassa Falls in Co. Kilkenny. After an awe full lot of standing about and all sorts of excuses being made only four of us took to the water.
AD was on hand with his camera and got some nice shots including one of Paddy Mc Govern stomping a freewheel, you can check out these & loads more on the team i-canoe blog . He even managed to catch a couple of me where I almost look like I have a bit of an idea how it all works.
That’s about it for now folks but the weekend ahead has epic water about so pretty much every run will be off the scale if met.ie is to be believed.
Paddle safe and enjoy.
Adrian
