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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