There is another method I favour but I can’t find my jig I made up some time ago and in all reality most people haven’t got the time or inclination to make something too complicated for a one off replacement.

For this "how to" I have decided to use the method as set out in the Kokatat Gasket Replacement Kit, on first impression I know the instructions come across as a bit complicated and all over the place as it just doesn’t read that straight forward. But once you read it a couple of times and with the help of this little guide you will be back in action in no time.

What you need:

- Replacement Seal

- Aquasure glue

- Craft Knife / Scissors

- Sandpaper

- Acetone

- Double side sticky tape

- Latex glove

- Cardboard

- Compass, ruler

First things first, get yourself some good quality cardboard and cut out the discs as described in the instructions.

Once you have your cardboard cut take the cling film and cover the large disc but keep it tidy.

Having replaced many neck seals over the years I am in full agreement with Kokatat when they say “The simplest, safest and most effective method of dealing with deteriorated gaskets is to cut the old gasket off, leaving the base adhered to the fabric, then gluing the new gasket to the old gasket base. Kokatat strongly recommends this method, unless the gasket left on the garment is badly deteriorated (gummy) or there are already two or more layers of repairs.” So unless it really has to come off do not be tempted to fully remove the existing seal.

Take your scissors which will need to be extremely sharp and remove the existing gasket leaving a generous lip to which you can attach its replacement, be careful we are playing for keeps here so any slip of rip could be costly.

Once the seal is removed it should look a little like this.

As my Kokatat GMER Drysuit’s neck seal is attached from the inside I decided to deviate from the instructions a bit as I think it yields better results that following the external fixing method as per the supplied directions.

From here turn the top of the suit inside out and get your large cardboard disc ready for action. Not forgetting to take the time to clean the latex with a solvent and give the surface to be glued a light sanding.

As per the instructions place some double sided tape around the outside of your large cardboard disc which is now covered in cling film. The cling film is there just in case things don’t go quiet to plan and prevents the glue bonging the seal to the cardboard.

Place the large disc in under the neck seal, once remove the backing for the tape so that you can fix the drysuit to the disc. The ides it to try get the area you will be bonding as flat and as firm as possible. Take your time and do it right, it will pay dividend in the finial result.

Now its time to get the replacement gasket ready to be attached. Insert the 8” disc inside the “bellows” section for the gasket.

Now flip the replacement gasket over and get the cardboard ring you prepared earlier ready. This means placing double sided tape all around the perimeter of the ring and placing it over the end of the upturned gasket.

Now you remove the backing from the tape and carefully offer the gasket up against it ensuring to make it as flat and wrinkle free as possible. You prepare the latex surface to be glues like we did earlier with acetone and sand paper.

Its at this point where I made a rank amateur mistake on the tutorial front by forgetting to take a photo of the next step. But fear no with some dodge photo shop all will be ok.

Now were are at the business end of thing as its gluing time. Put a moderate amount of Aquasure on the prepared section of the Drysuit / Cag. be careful not to put an excessive mount on as this can leak out everywhere and cause you no end of grief.

Once your glue is on you can now place the replacement gasket on top, the seals are designed to fit in place perfectly and with the aid of the cardboard ring its super easy to place correctly. Place it confidently and press around the whole rim to ensure a good bond that is air bubble free.

Right that’s pretty much most of the hard work done, all we need to do now is place a flat weight on top of the setup as it dries over night.

The Aqua sure takes 8 hours to dry but takes a full 24 hours to be fully cured. DO NOT RUSH THIS, if you are really caught for time get yourself some Aquasure accelerator-Cotol 240 problem which cuts curing time down to two hours. I find I get best results if you let the glue cure in some where that is moderately warm as opposed to a damp shed or the like hence the above photo my my living room floor.

Once the Aquasure has had time to set its time to remove the weights and start taking the cardboard forms out of the gasket.

Start with removing the cardboard ring first, as I used a double sided tape which was a relatively low tack (i.e. cheap and not too sticky) after cutting the ring with a scissors it pops off easily leaving the tape on the gasket. It only takes two minutes and a little bit of patients to take the tape away from the latex. We can not remove both the small disc in the bellows and the large disc that is inside the drysuit.

A good result with gasket will attached with no wrinkles / bubbles and evenly glues the whole way around. I have no doubt its 100% sealed.

And that’s that, all I have to do is trim the seal a fraction so I’m not choked to death when I put it on. If this is your first time using these replacement gaskets give it one of two wears before you trim massive amounts of latex away as they do stretch. As I have used this particular replacement seal previously I know I have to remove 3/4 rings to allow me to be able to breath .

There you go that’s now tow different ways in which you can replace a damaged neck seal on your drysuit, I think this way is a little trickier and there is more preparation involved which tends to put people off but I think this way yields far more consistent results. I promise the next seal I replace I will dig out the jig I made up which is a gem to use and they you will have all the trade secrets to help you save a few buck and minimise your time off the water with a damaged gasket.

Right I’m off on my bike for a bit with my fingers crossed so that we have a repeat of the last couple of weeks here in Ireland and get loads of water and I can enjoy using what is without doubt the best quality dry suit money can buy.

If you have any hints / tip or comments on gasket replacement please pass them on for myself and other to try out and use.

Adrian

As I’m sure you are all well aware boaters seem to be all budding amateur photographers, all you have to do is log onto facebook after a wet weekend and see some pretty pro results.

So I dropped my mate Ryan a line who is a Scottish based ( I know he will hate being called) Pro Photographer and solid boater a line to see if he was interested in giving me and those who check in on this blog a few tips that might help us get better results.

Ryan himself

I suppose this is where I should just be quiet for once and let Ryan take the drivers seat…

Righto Mr Shanahahahan,

Top Tips for what NOT to do and perhaps what is good to do when you’re taking and editing your boating pics…at the most basic level.

Rule of thirds – Does every photograph you take have the main subject in the centre? Boring huh! Rule of thirds concentrates on composition…i.e. where you point your camera and what’s in the frame. You can Google the definition and think about how you want to composition a photograph. All I’m saying is don’t keep everything central, it’s boring.

Composition – There’s a famous quote that says if it’s not good enough, you’re not close enough. As much as I would never say get as close as you can. I would 100% advise that before you push the button, if there’s sky, trees, rock etc that doesn’t need to be in the frame…zoom in further or get closer.

Shutter speed – Unless you’re trying to get a specific effect I’ simply recommend get your shutter speed as fast as you can. 500th of a second is great, 300th of a second can still be a bit slow but hey, this ain’t Africa, you have to work with the conditions you’re in.

Aperture – If you don’t know what this is, Google it. In short it refers to how much light your camera lets in which also effects what is known as ‘depth of field’…again, Google it. If you’re photographing the boat & person and not the scenery then a general rule you’ll simply want as much light in as possible, only when you want the boat, person and the scenery all in focus will you have to start letting less light in for a greater depth of field….which coincidentally means a slower shutter speed, which of course doesn’t suit this sport in countries with crappy weather….magic answer, there isn’t one; practice and learn more.

For kayaking – The above have all been pretty general that can be used in many type of photography as well as kayaking. The following works specifically for kayaking.
Tripod & Monopod – Tripod’s take up space and time, a monopod will help for those low light, slow shutter speed moments. When you start to get arty though a tripod is a must. Boats, trees, rocks can all come in handy though so use your imagination.

Focusing – Ok, I once asked a Canon sponsored, award winning, very rich and successful photographer what the most important thing he’s learned how to do in photography over the years…he answered “Focus his lens” and he meant it. Moving water is damn hard to do….but the rock, tree or whatever is right next to the water isn’t….so focus on that instead! Turn off your auto-focus and aim for where the boat will appear and wait. There is nothing I can tell you that will make you perfect at focussing….if you find any ways of getting it right all the time every time please let me know.

Communication – Do you boat with strangers, are you being a paparazzi, are you hiding from those coming downstream? NO! So talk to those you’re going to photograph, tell them where to be, the move to perform, not to pull a stupid face and most of all get the bloody paddle away from their faces!!!! But that last one might have to be part your skill and luck…very few paddle strokes help though!

The final and most important top tip that comes from the award winning photographers out there; get some kind of photo-editing software. You can’t be expected to take the world’s best photograph, first time, under pressure, in less than perfect conditions, of your mates ugly mug….but you can resurrect many of what would be terrible shots! YouTube is by far the best way to learn how to do this…the word ‘tutorial’ is a good place to start.

In summary, when you’re on the river just remember:

Focus – make it sharp;if you can’t focus on the water focus on something the same distance away.

Off Centre – Centre is ok…but not every shot chaps & chicks
Shutter Speed – fast fast fast

Talk – your friends will forgive you when they get a great shot of themselves.
Edit Edit Edit– There’s no reason not to.

Ryan

I’d like to thank Ryan for taking the time to do this for me I know I am defiantly going to try put it into practice, you can check out his Company website Liquid Impact.

I would also like to add a little note of two other Irish Paddlers who are skilled photographers one being Chris Tierney who you can check out HERE. Also I’m sure allot of folks know Kyle Tunney check out his Facebook, Website , Blog who’s images constantly amaze and inspire me to want to be better behind the camera.

Adrian

This is just a quick little post about something I was thinking lately. In recent times the latest bit of kit that has become a white water essential is the “open sling” and is in fact a mandatory part of the Irish Canoe Union kit list for some awards. I for one reckon its such a versatile / inexpensive / robust bit of kit there is almost no reason anyone can argue against it.

I favour the Nylon tubular webbing sort but traditional climbing tape or even Palm’s “Safety Line” all work the same. More often than not most of us end up having to tie the tape into a loop as part of an anchor system, this is where us as boaters get things a little bit more mixed up.

Nine times out of ten people will tie an overhand knot or figure of eight which are fine for most situations with ropes but this isn’t true when it comes to tape / webbing. The problem with both these knots in tape is that under a high load these will separate and come apart.

If you ask any seasoned Climber to tie you a two ends of tape together they will straight away do the very aptly named “Tape Knot”.

So here is how…

I just used two different colours of webbing so you would be able to follow what was happening, obviously if you are making a loop in a single tape it will be all the same colour (and not use roof rack strap).

This method is by far the safest and best way to attach two ends of tape. Learn it, Practice it and teach your mates.

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

This is one of those things that always seems to crop up either after the annual pilgrimage to the Alps or after a big dump of rain after a long dry spell. Contrary to what allot of folks seem to thing these days kayaks are large designed to paddle down rivers avoiding rocks and obstacles as opposed to being rock ramming machines. So its not too uncommon after head on collision with a rock to get a bent nose or a split in your boat.

Thankfully its not the end of the world as in most cases a boat can be repaired, depending on where/ how the kayak is damaged you can get it back to to being pretty close to being full strength again.

This example that I did is of a weld that had been done before that split again, I won’t mention the previous welder but it was his first attempt . In fairness I was there the day it split again and it was a fairly solid thump. So here is a very basic “how to weld your boat”

Here is what I use.

If you click on the photo above you will see a the secret weapon of the whole operation, the modified blow torch. I saw this first used a good few years back and reckon its the best bit of kit for the job.

Patent pending on this bit of custom kit

You will notice the spoon, the idea of that is to prevent the naked flame coming into contact with the plastic which cause carbonation & in turn significantly weakening the plastic.

Step one:

Use your craft knife to clean the split and to make a nice smooth surface to begin your weld on. Be careful not to go nuts here and take way too much plastic away & making the gap massive.

Of course if you are the proud owner of an NRS Wingman that also works a treat.

I then use my drill to bore a hole at either end of the split, 6mm ish bit pending on how wide your split is.

Step two:

Now we need to borrow a strip of plastic from elsewhere in the boat to help fill the gap. I always reckon some where around the side of the cockpit rip works well. Be sure that where ever you take it from is not some where you will catch your hand / dry suit when getting in and out of your boat.

Step three:

Now depending on the type of split I have often placed a small block of timber inside the boat and screwed into it from either side of the crack to strengthen the repair. I didn’t think that was necessary this time but it does work very well.

So now is time to heat up the whole front of the boat around the area that is being worked on, the heat gun does a good job of this. the plastic should start to soften up around 130 deg C if your want to be super anal about it but its fairly easy spot when the plastic starts to look “glazed”.

Step four:

Now this is where the interesting stuff starts to happen, now a word of warning don’t put your hand on the boat to see how how it feels! You will burn your self and it kinda hurts. So get the strip of plastic you cut out earlier and hold it in the your pliers and heat it up so its hot but not melting.  Now place this strip in your split.

Step five:

Now fire up your blow torch and give it a few seconds for the spoon to heat up. If this is the first time using your torch spoon do expect a few sparks/flames as the torch burns any impurities of the metal. From here on it is all down to feel and touch. Use the back of the spoon to melt the filler strip and the plastic either side of the weld.

The idea here is to bond the whole lot together as opposed to just filling the gap with melted plastic. Slow and stead will win the race here so don’t be afraid to crack out the heat gun to keep the working area warmed up.

I often use a metal chisel to help me work the plastic into the split and to try keep things tidy, it can get a bit “gooie” around the weld but stick with it and don’t be tempted to add too much heat.

Step six:

With any luck you have now managed to fill the split in your boat without melting it into a big blog or setting the plastic on fire. What I do now is use the heat gun again to heat up the whole area again to the “glazed” look and use the back of my chisel to dress the plastic into something that looks nice and tidy. Less is more here. Now we want to leave the now the hot front of your boat to cool down nice and slowly while bonding together. Don’t stress if it doesn’t look perfect just yet we will address that next.

Step seven:

Once the boat is now cool to the touch we can make it look a little prettier, hopefully if you were tidy doing your weld this won’t take a min to do. Use the heat gun again to heat up the repaired area to the point where the plastic is just becoming soft and then using the back side of the chisel to smooth out the area. The thing here is we are just working on the top layer of plastic and not wanting to heat the plastic right through.

It’s hard tell from the photo but this turned out pretty well and I reckon its a solid weld, if you have time and you want you can strip out the whole inside of the boat and try access the weld from the back to repeat the process. In my experience of doing that it’s super hard to work in such a small space without using a pencil blow torch.

Here is how mine looked from the inside.

I reckon that’s just about right and that this boat will go on to live many more days on the river.

In wrapping the whole thing up its probably easier to learn not to smash your boat into rocks that it is to repair it. But if you do damage it don’t panic too much I have seen all sorts of things brought back to life with some time and effort.

Anyway try it at your pearl… and sure as I was told when I first tried it years ago…”Its always better to learn on someone else’s boat”.

Best of luck,

Adrian

So very recently I loan my cag to a client and we had a bit of an oopsie with the neck seal when it was being taken off. This happens loads of folks & and I know people panic and think it will cost a fortune to send it away to be fixed. With a little bit of concentration and less that 20mins you can have the job done and ready to rock and roll for full use 24hrs later.

Now to be fair I have done a bunch of these back in the days when I worked in an outdoor shop many many moons ago but its seems more daunting that it actually is. The folks in i-canoe hooked me up with a Kokatat neck seal repair kit which has everything you need to do the job, the seals come in two sizes so everyone is covered.

< p>

So as you can see in the kit you get:

• The replacement seal
• Small section of sandpaper
• UV protection solution
• Aquasure glue
• Instructions

There a a bunch of different ways to go about this and I chose not to follow the instructions provided by Kokatat as I had my own way of doing it. So in addition to the kit I also need a craft knife ( or in my cast my NRS wingman) and a method of stretching out the neck of your cag. I have always favoured the use of this specialist bit of kit.

I’ve always used a traffic cone in the past to stretch out the neck of my cag and make the repair easier for me, sadly when the way the Peak creek Cag is made it doesn’t allow it to slide far enough down the cone to get enough of a stretch. I could have resolved this by padding out the cone higher up with some towels but I was feeling kinda lazy& there happened to be a small bucket right beside me that looked like it would do the job just fine.

< p>

So as you can see from the photo I slid the cag over the bucket and using a sharp craft knife I trimmed away the damaged neck seal while still leaving about 35mm of the existing seal. All you have to do now is slide the new seal over your cone/ bucket so it rests pretty close to its finial position. And then lift back the edge as per photo ready for sanding / gluing.

The Next step is just to take the small piece of sand paper you got in your repair kit and give the part of the latex you intend on gluing a very light sand just enough to create a key for the glue to adhere to. Now we are ready to get with the gluing, so open up the tube of Aquasure and apply an even bead around the existing next seal. Be careful no to go to close to the edge or you will stick your cag to the bucket when you pair the new seal.

So once you have applied glue the whole way around the seal it should look kinda like this, the next bit is super easy as all you have to do is fold the new seal on to the now glued section. The trick here is not to be afraid of it and just do it, once it sitting on it rub around the joining with your thumb to make sure you get a good seal and press out all of the air bubbles.

Now were are almost done the new seal is sitting perfect and we have no glue seeping out on our cag. I always like to add an extra bead of aquasure around the seam as it just a nice bit of reassurance and can’t hurt.

Right that’s the job done. The glue sets in 6ish hours but I always like to leave it a little longer before I take it off the cone/ bucket and then give it  an additional 24 hours to to make sure the glue is fully cured. Your cag will now be ready to rock and roll and be 100% dry again.

This is one of those things I reckon every one should try as its pretty easy and only takes 20minutes max, I think it took me longer to write this post that to fix the seal.

If you have any questions fire away.

Laters,

Adrian

EDIT: I have written another guide for a different method which you can find here

</P�< p>

</P�< p>

So a while back I did up a bit of a guide for one of Irelands best play spots Clifden on Irish Freestyle ao I thought I would stick it up here so it wouldn’t get lost in the depths of cyberspace. One of the reasons I did up this post was folks are always asking me the same questions…Where is it, how does it work, can you camp, where can you get good online tides. So I am going to stick up the relevant info and hopefully that will answer any questions, and with the lack of water and the good weather there is no better time to get over to one of Ireland’s premier playspots.

When does it work.

As Clifden is tidal it changes when it works, it works about two hours before Galway harbour high tide ,only Spring tides (full moon / new moon)which are twice every month. The tide has to be above 4.26 meters ( 14ft old money) but comes into its own 4.72 (15.5 ft ). So how that all comes together, look at the tide time table for spring tides and make sure thew are big enough.

Take two hours of the time in this case its 15:52 and get to Clifden and be on the water ready to enjoy yourself. Clifden is usually a pretty friendly place to paddle and great for paddlers of all abilities with swims not being a big deal as the saltwater lake it flows into is not dangerous and gear is easily recovered. What I will say there are a few 5.4 meter tides which while not particularly dangerous it’s not for the faint hearted. But still worth the trip for the more adventurous paddler.

Where to stay

There are two hostels in Clifden village and loads of B&B’s around the area which a quick Google search will give you relevant numbers.  Loads of people when the weather is good make a camping weekend of it and make there way out to Dun Loughan a camp / surf spot a short drive from the playspot.

Here is a google maps link of where it is Now before you blame me for getting lost it can be tricky to find for your first time.

Jackie did an good article for Playak a while back which you can find here which has more info. ( but don’t ring her looking for tide info ) See the attached PDF for 2009 Galway tide time tables. (Information not copyrighted for non comercial use from UK Hydrographic Office)

Any questions just ask or if you have more info to add fire away.

Galway 2009 tides click right here

Adrian

So I thought I would do a little how to of some of the knots I reckon are good to have in your “skills tool box” as a white water kayaker. I know some people will say ah but sure I know all I need to at this stage but in my experience I have seen kayakers who I’m surprised managed to tie their shoe laces/board shorts yet alone set up any sort of rope system. I don’t just mean those who are new to kayaking but some folks who are very solid boaters paddling some of the pushier rivers around.

I have picked three simple knots which have loads of uses, for this little instalment I’m not going to go into scenarios but just stick with the straight forward how to tie them.

For me there are 3 principles of the knot.

• Easy to tie

• Easy to untie

• Fit for the purpose you intend

So first up the figure of eight.

While the simple figure of eight knot does not have a huge amount of use on its own it is the foundation for the “double figure of eight” or a “figure of eight on the bite” to be more correct.

So firstly a “bite” is just a loop of rope which looks like this:

So from now on if you are ever asked to tie anything on “the bite” you know what to do, its not as if it’s rocket science. Now that we can do a figure of eight and now we know what a bite is we just have to put them together a little something like this.

l

As you can tell for the above sequence this can really use full for clipping into all sorts of things, you will also see in the last shot I put in a little “stopper knot” just to tidy up the excess rope. If your bite is in the centre of your rope this stopper knot is not needed.

I’m sure most people have hear of the phrase a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and in the case or ropes this is no different. In a rope rig or set up the knot is always going to be the week point, as a general rule of thumb a knot will half the effective strength of your rope at the point where is is tied. There has recently been a research article released by Dino Heald of Plas Y Brenin which goes into the effects of  knots on polypropylene rope which makes for worth while reading.

The finial knot I will introduce to you is the “Bowline” which is found more commonly in rock climbing and sailing but also has its uses for us in a white water environment. One of the things I really like about using a bowline over a double figure of eight is that no matter how hard you haul or pull on it during a situation it is always relatively easy to untie, the same can’t be said about the figure of eight.

I like to use a Bowline when I have to anchor/ haul off a big object like a large tree trunk or bolder that I can’t get my sling to fit around and using a bowline this way is also light on using up gear. A word of warning of you do want to use a boline as part of your system, it is possible to tie a bowline so that it looks almost right but as soon as a load is applied it will open up resulting in bad times all round. So if you intend on using it practice practice practice.

Having a good working knowledge & understanding of rope work is as important as knowing how to boof when you start pushing the boundaries of your kayaking. I would recommend that you practice all your rope skills on a regular basis so that should you ever have to use them in anger they will be sharp and reliable.

As always if you are going to be working with ropes you should always have a suitable river knife on your person and the ability to use it single handed if needs be.

I would say that reading about all this kinda stuff on my blog or elsewhere online is good to get familiar it is not a replacement for professional training from an experienced and qualified instructor.

If you have any questions just fire away.

Adrian