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

To quote Seanie Byrne over on irishwhitewater.com

2010 has been a disappointment for most Irish paddlers so far

I couldn’t agree more with him, in the last 10 or more years I can’t recall a winter dry spell quiet like this, I can only imagine there there will be a few rude awakenings once the water eventually arrives. Until that happens we have to get our fix of the outdoor live either out on the MTB trails ,surfing, any way we can or even through online videos and articles.

In the last couple of months I have been an abide watcher if “The Season” a weekly online video documentary.

The blurb form Bryan Smith and Fitz Cahall the guys behind it..

The Season. Five lives. A world of possibility.

From the creators of The Dirtbag Diaries and 49 Megawatts comes a new web television project following five athletes through the course of a single season in the Pacific Northwest. A veteran climber invents a new piece of gear.  A pro snowboarder searches for a way to return to the roots of his sport.  A boulder returns from a series of injuries with new perspective.  A family man goes to Whistler to test himself against mountain biking’s elite. A young sea kayaker with a troubled past sets out to reinvent his sport.

Shot entirely in HD, this 22-episode series is available to you for free at a number of locations. Every episode premieres on the Arc’teryx web site.   You can have the HD version delivered right to your computer and find all the old episodes by subscribing on iTunes. Expect new episodes once or twice a week.

P.S. This is our baby.  For months we schlepped ropes, camera gear and tripods through underbrush and up the side of cliffs to present our vision of these sports. Some of these athletes are professionals, some aren’t. They are all unique people who have something to say.  We’ve enjoyed helping them tell their story. We hope you enjoy their stories.

I personally have just subscribed to it on i-tunes and it downloads the show in awesome HD as soon as it becomes available. I really can’t recommend highly enough that you check this out and get watching.

I’ve embedded the show trailer here that will give you a flavour of the whole thing.

The first twelve episodes are up online, subscribe / enjoy and lets keep praying that some water eventually arrives.

Adrian

Apart from my some what random departure into robotics I have finally gotten around to  start making some sort of sense of the “Coaching & Instruction” part of my wee website. Up until now it was kinda a case of drop me a line and we will see what we can do, I’m trying to put a whole lot more structure in place to make it easier for anyone looking for stuff and give a better idea of what’s on offer.

Its all very much a work in progress at the moment with lots of information to be added not to mention I’m still wrestling with an online course calendar / booking system.

Lots of stuff is set for change over the coming weeks but it will give you an idea of what I’ve planned.

On an unrelated note my little blog here was nominated for an 2010 Irish Blog Award in the “ Best Sport & Recreation Blog” and has reached it as far as the penultimate round of judging with the finalist being nominated later this week. I was more than a little surprised to be nominated and in a cheesy Oscars type feeling its a bit of an honour to even get this far.

I’d also like to give a bit of a shout out to Nathan Kingerlee of Outdoors Ireland who is also nominated in the same category as me, myself and Nathan used to work together way back in the day in Baltinglass OEC. Its great to see less traditional sports being represented alongside the likes of Soccer / Rugby & GAA.

That’s about it for now, I best get back to my rain dancing.

Adrian

With what seems to be the driest winter in memory and if the daily updated Facebook & Twitter status of the Irish boating community are to be believed paddlers are being driven to madness and MTB. I’m no exception to this and if anyone who has seen me on a bike they will testify that I’d be better off going mad than embarrass myself any further while biking.

So with that mass amount of time I have to waste these days I had to have something to help pass the time and slow my descent into madness.

I have started to notice more and more top quality video productions of boater x events and extreme races.

In all of these productions we see the use of cable cams and get massive and cool sweeping and tracking shots of runs down sections of river. Over the years loads of boaters have chatted after a few beers saying “we should so do something like that on the < insert river name here >.

I’m not sure if it was a moment of stupidity or inspiration but the other day I went I might have a go of doing a DIY one of those. I went to the the shed and in 30mins I had come up with a wee bit of a “proof of concept”.

Now I know what I came up with is as rough as a Bear’s rear end but it was enough for me to think it might be worth a bit more effort.

I came up with a bit of a list of features I’d love to have, not saying I could manage them all but sure what harm in thinking about it.

Power driven
Stable (gyros / counterweight)
Pan & Tilt movement
Video sender
Oh and the whole thing has to be radio control

My knowledge of miniature electronic and robotics is limited enough but sure I wasn’t about to let that stop or slow me down at all. Here was my first concept.

The two red areas would represent two 24v motors to drive the unit on the cable while the yellow thing would be a weighted pendulum to counter left/right swing. I wasn’t really able to get pan & tilt to work with this idea so I had to do a bit of re design.

I hit up Google to see if it could help me out a bit and this is my latest rough concept.

I have started to get a few bits like the RC gear and a couple of motors / servos so I can start construction soon as possible. Where I am a little stuck is how to engineer the centre 360deg swivel point, I was considering using a lazy Susan type thing mounted inverted but I know there has to be a better way.

I’ve been on the the folks over on Robots.ie but I know there is a mass of experience out there amound boaters so I would love to hear from folks whom might know more than me or have some ideas or suggestions.

That’s all on this for now but if things start to come together I may post a few updates. Lets all start praying from some rain before the madness sets in any further.

Adrian

I’ve been rather lazy on the blogging front over the last while up until I saw this thread over on the UK boating site UKRGB. It starts of pretty simple looking to identify a type Prussik knot and as all online forums seem to splits into a couple of different directions with all sorts of information / miss information popping up.

There were a couple of things which I found interesting. Firstly it confirmed to me that boaters and ropes / rope work are strange bedfellows. There seems to be an assumption in the wider paddling community that if someone can paddle ( X ) grade river they are automatically totally up to speed with the rope stuff.

Secondly and the thing that struck my interest is that kayakers seem to have an aversion against using out of the ordinary such as “mechanical devices” or tools which might make things easier.

I have constantly heard people preach the K.I.S.S . principal but I wonder have some of these folks closed their minds to their own detriment, are we missing out on using the right tools for the job?

I thought I would share a bit of kit I have been using for a few years now and I honestly think its a savage tool that can complement almost any WW kayakers tool kit.

Its called a Robot and manufactured by an Italian company called Kong.

“KONG ROBOT DESCENDER: A versatile piece of gear in the vertical world. Some of its many uses include a belay device, rappel device, ascender, in place of a pulley in a z-drag system and the list goes on. It can accommodate ropes between 5-13mm in diameter in a single or double configuration. It even works great with ropes of different diameters”

These are usually used by mountain guides and cliff rescue teams in the Alpine regions but due to the fact it is so versatile it has quickly become an invaluable part of my paddling kit .

The specs stack up like this:

Material: aluminium alloy

Weight: 158 g

Dimensions: 52 x 148 mm

Max Load: 22 kN

Rope diameter: 5-13 mm

It weights in about the same weight as a standard steel crab or about twice the weight as an alloy carabineer. Size wise its not much bigger than a large paddling wire gate crab and fits nicely into the pocket of my PFD.

So now we know that its nice and compact just what kind of practical applications does it have to us in a white water environment?

Kayakers seem to be obsessed with Z-Drags and all sorts of mechanical advantage set ups and this little tool makes those easy set up and extremely effective in their operation. The device works as both an auto locking calming pulley all in one.

Once you are set up like this you can operate it just as an auto locking 1:1 system or using a prussik and another crab and have an auto locking 2:1 system.

The use of the Robot for this kind of set up just makes it very easy especially when there are only a small number in your group as the auto locking function allows you to take breaks during each pull without loosing tension. It can be set up to use just as a “pulley” to reduce friction without engaging the auto locking if you so wish. For the demo there I didn’t add a pulley on the prussik end just to keep it gear light.

I would carry the Robot for that function alone but another great thing it does is works as a rappelling device, so if you ever have to portage a cliff or lower yourself down to a get your sorted there to.

All you have to do is make a sit harness with your sling / tape and your away, I also make use of the Spectra belay loop that comes on Astral WW PFD’s to make things even safer.

That’s just one way of using it as an abseil device there are a few more combinations depending on what dia of ropes you are using etc.

One of the great things is just how well it handles double ropes so that you can lower down a drop on a looped rope. You can even use ropes of different dia without any issues.

With the addition of a sling the Robot can also be used as an ascender in much the same way as you would set it for a 2:1 z-drag.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg as to what this device is capable of and with a little bit of learning and practice you will no doubt find endless more applications for it.

So the Robot covers a tasks that you would normally have to use a hand full of others.

In summing up I would say that we as white water paddlers should open our minds to learning and understanding new & possible more efficient ways of doing things rather than just accepting everything that is said to be “best practice” and taking it as gospel.

Needless to say I’m only covering some of the uses of Kong Robot, no amount of reading stuff of the net will make up of hands on experience or being showing by a quality / experienced coach. If you have any questions or comments on what you might like me to cover in the future fire away.

Adrian

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

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

get your gallery at realiventblog.com

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

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.

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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.

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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

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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