Only the other evening I was out with the local Kayak Club here in Kilkenny ( Kilkenny Aqua Canoe Club) for the first time in a while, just out with some of the young guys who have an interest in freestyle and white water boating as a whole.

Last summer I paddled with one young guy in particular ( Billy )who was getting to grips with the basics of freestyle paddling, fast forward a year and Billy is not long gone 15 and progressing quickly. Here is just a few seconds of footage I took from the boat.

Its not just Billy there is a core bunch of kids who are all pushing each other on and doing really well, much like the guys from Dublin scene from Wild Water Kayak Club. I’m sure there are others much the same all round the country that I’m not aware of.

There seems to be plenty of talent about which can only be a good thing for the future of the Irish Freestyle Scene.

Well done to them all and to those that help them on their way.

Just a bit of a plug for upcoming Junior Paddlefest that’s happening next month in Wicklow.

More information and application from HERE .

Adrian

I’m sure most paddlers have heard of the river Nore which flows through Kilkenny City but I’d be fairly certain only a small few are aware of the little gem of a play spot that was created some years ago during the flood relief scheme.

To be clear this is no Curragower / Sluice / Clifden or Tuam but it is in my estimation one of the best places I’ve been to to introduce people to the the basics of freestyle kayaking.

The weir itself is a large downstream U shape which creates 3 different features which work at varying river levels. One of the great things is it works when the whole country has almost turned into a dessert right the way through to where its almost washed out.

A location like this is never going to excite the next world champion but it’s being visited by a few folks who can more than hold their own at completions and every one has had a great time here. The moves list that can be done here is not huge but for the beginner and improver you shall be kept busy, we have had spins every which way,Blasts, shuvits, low angle ends, variations of phelixs & pistol flip (type thing..watch your elbows be warned )

Sadly it isn’t not deep enough to loop but I suspect at higher levels some one lighter than my good self might be able to eak out a loop in the centre hole.

You can park and play at the spot or you can take it in as part of a river trip on the Nore itself, there is a nice deep pool above the weir to hone your flat water skills and pools below the weir to collect any possible swimmers.

Three Features, One Location, Clean Water

Good Times!

With the new motorway now open its just on and hour and 10mins form Dublin so all those who seem to live on the Boyne should take a closer look.

Here is a quick bit of video of it at current higher levels, I was just playing with a new camera and editing program so its a bit pants. Gives you a rough idea of what the place is like though.

That’s about it for now, there are a whole bunch of updates going up in the Coaching & Instruction part of the site in the next couple of days along with the 2010 course calendar, have a check back and see if there is anything your interested in.

Adrian

As the aim of the free your style day was to encourage and foster an interest for participation freestyle events I had little choice to postpone the event until a further date in the near future.

In contacting the coaches who had volunteered there services for the day they were all really keen to still take part in the event at a later date. I was aware that lots of the people who all set to travel to Kilkenny for the day were still keen to do something regardless of the level so I said that I would run a river trip on the Sunday for the first few who got back to me and would decide what section of the river to use upon seeing the water level on the day.

Sunday morning brought us sunshine and highish but workable levels, we ran a mini rive trip from the Bleach road get on to the weir. We all had a wee chat at the get on and set out what we all wanted to work for the day and set off in good form with every one set to pick up some new skills and brush up on the ones we already had.

On the way we worked on getting the perfect stern squirt, which everyone really enjoyed and people even surprising them selves with just how good their results were. One of the things we focused on was that control & finesse was more important than brut force and that concepts learned in even the most basic of moves transfers to the more challenging ones.

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Once we got to the weir everyone was well warmed up and keen to see what to could do, I was really impressed with everyone and just how willing they were to get stuck in. Again after a small bit of coaching everyone’s rides were improving. One of the things I really like to encourage is peer learning and sharing ideas with each other which the whole gang got into.

I have to say I had a great day on the water and a huge thanks to all those that came along on the day, also a big thanks to Johnpaul Ryan for helping out on the coaching side of things. Also a thanks to Kilkenny County Council who had given us access to set up bank side had the event gone as planned and also to the Irish Freestyle Committee for the use of their event shelter.

To all those that had registered & contacted me wanting to take part in the “Free Your Style” event don’t worry we still have those medals up for grabs and are planning to reschedule for some time before Christmas.

Till next time,

Adrian

Hey,

As some of you know this idea was only really conceived in the Sluice car park last Sunday afternoon after a training day organised by Ger O’Reily and to be honest I am surprised how quickly this has snowballed. The premise for this event and the ones that are planned to follow it is pretty simple “To run a series of freestyle events with will allow people to learn new skills & develop their existing ones in a fun and safe environment”.

From having attended the day Ger organised it was clear to see that there was an appetite among folks for events just like this. As if to prove a point when I advertised that we would be running an event at the end of October in no less that 23hours all the thirty allotted spaces snapped up along with a rapidly growing “reserves list”.

Having run a couple of training things before there is a bit of behind the scenes things to sort out which are starting to slot into place nicely. What I would like to say that the real stars of these kind of days are the guys and girls who give up their time & experience to coach and make the whole thing possible.

To all those that have registered keep an eye on your inbox as the days itinerary and more details will be landing very soon. To people that did not manage to get in this time stay tuned for further events or if you would like to help out on the day making things run smoothly drop me a line.

If anyone wants to try get in some pre event practice more details of this wicked little spot can be found here on irishwhitewater.com .

I hope to add a few more photos and video in the run up to the 25th just to give people a better idea of what to expect & to get the excitement levels raised. Until then here are a couple of shots taken on a recent recce to the spot by myself and a couple of the lads.

That’s about it for now but here is a video that for me pretty much sums up the value of holding and attending days such as these. At the start of August I exchanged a few emails with Two Time World Freestyle Silver Medallist Billy Harris who gave me permission to use this clip and also said he couldn’t stress the importance of getting solid foundations to help progress your skills and always push your self.

Inspiring stuff I reckon, I hope ye are as excited as I am about this upcoming event and those that hopefully will follow it.

Adrian

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Enjoy the warm bright evenings while they last…..

This November Irelands most dynamic playspot brings you something new. Stay tuned for more details.

Adrian

How to double pump 101 from Adrian Shanahan on Vimeo.

Hi,

A few days back on of the guys from the UKRGB Bren (aka Peakfreak) posted up that there are no videos online that just explain the “double pump” and any that try assume too much previous knowledge from the person looking to learn.

I had being thinking of doing up a few wee how to tutorials but was being a bit lazy about it, I took this as a bit of motivation. I hit a part of the local river two cameras and tripod in hand. Sadly after I had uploaded the footage to my laptop I some lost it all , a fecking disaster so I flew back down to the river with my younger brother Keith “shaky hands” Shanahan and managed to get only 6mins of raw footage before the battery died. I managed to salvage this after all that.

This has kinda inspired me to put a bit of effort in and knock out a few more hoping to improve on the quality.

Stay tuned……

Adrian

Hey,

As some of you might know I am a member of the Irish Freestyle Committee and that our National Team are in preparations for the upcoming World Freestyle Championships In Thun Switzerland later in the Summer. RTE’s magazine program Nationwide decided to do a a small piece on the Freestyle Team and Freestyle kayaking as a whole, this was a bit of honour for us as we are the only sport/ discipline to get covered twice.

As this was Filmed at relative short notice and that the team are currently spread from Uganda to the Ottawa I drafted in some help form friends / Sluice locals and those of the national team that were in striking distance of Dublin.

Fellow team i-canoe member James VdB took some shots on the day

The piece aired on Irish National last Friday evening to approx 500,000 + and was received well among both the paddling / non-paddling community.  My only regrets are that there was not some more kayaking shown as a few of the guys managed to go huge on the evening but this wasn’t shown, there were also a couple of more interviews shot too which didn’t get aired ( one of which included the single best “why do you kayak” answers I have ever heard ).

I’d like to thank all those who made this posible in no particular order Cyril & crew from Riverside Television and all the paddlers Jim Keohe, Fran O D, Adrian Durrant, Emer Farrell, Ronan Brennan, Caoimbe Farrell, Brian “Bowsie” Cahill, Eoin Farrell, Niamh Cleary, Cake boy. Also to James for his savage photos and to all the parents who took the time to ferry the juniors about.

The show can be view from inside Ireland on RTE’s Player service right here (alt here ), for those of you without an Irish IP address I have hosted the video on my site here . If you just want to get straight to the freestyle piece just fast forward to 13mins.

Update Feb 2010…

I finially got around to sticking this bit of film online

I’m really looking to traveling with the team to the Worlds this year & thank all those who have helped in their preparations to date.

Adrian

]]> http://adrianshanahan.com/wordpress/index.php/2009/06/as-seen-on-tvlol/feed/ 0 http://adrianshanahan.com/wordpress/index.php/2009/05/boyne-river-bash/ http://adrianshanahan.com/wordpress/index.php/2009/05/boyne-river-bash/#comments Sun, 17 May 2009 22:00:57 +0000 Adrian Shanahan http://adrianshanahan.com/wordpress/?p=262

Just a quick note on this:

So of you may know I am currently part of the Irish Freestyle Committee this year and part of our job is to help promote freestyle kayaking and help introduce new people to the sport. I decided to run a “river freestyle” training  day on the river Boyne. Now to be honest the Boyne is far form a freestyle feature meca but there was just enough to allow us have a quality day on the river going over all sorts of things.

We had almost 30 people on the water so the banter was flying and a good day was had by ever one who was there. One of the big things for me was that there was a visible improvement in skills from all the participants on the day, we covered everything for cartwheels / loops / spins & and even some river safety too just to keep the day well rounded. Its fun days out like this that remind me why I was attracted to freestyle all those years ago.

A couple of things I learned on the day we that there are only so many cartwheels you can do before your shoulders feel like thae want to fall off & that every one loves a free t-shirt.

I’m not sure how it happened but everyone seemed to happen but everyone forgot their camera, must have been too busy pulling awesome moves..

I would like to give huge thanks to all the coaches that gave up their time to make the day possible and also to Colm from i-canoe for making the organisation easy for me.

Laters,

Adrian

Colm after a long long day on the river

“Stretching  those legs”

“Smiles & good times all round”

So as of late there has seems to be allot of new folks getting back into freestyle kayaking in Dubling and starting to make more use of the play-spot “Sluice”. While it may not be world class with a bit of time and effort & getting to know the place it can be a bit of a diamond in disguise.

As its dam released you need to know when there is water, the ESB up date this info daily and is generally pretty accurate.

Anything above 14+ is generally good to go. I will post some photos / videos of different levels in the coming weeks.

Adrian