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.

get your gallery at realiventblog.com

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

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

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”

Howdy folks,

Where do we start, last weekend saw the kick off of the Irish Freestyle kayaking session with an event on the Curragower Falls in Limerick City. The run up to the event saw lots of people questioning the availability of water to make the wave work, but the ESB confirmed water for us early on Friday morning and we were all set to go. With 40 odd paddlers showing up all set to strut their on the wave which was running at near perfect level.

It was easy too see that the wave hasn’t been working regularly in the last few months as everyone seemed a little rusty at first but after the first runs blew the cobwebs off there were some impressive moves thrown down, including Pistol Flips, big fat blunts and donkey flips.

Mark Leonard laying it down

The day its self was great the sun came out and some of us myself included caught a little too much sun. One of the highlights of the day was seeing the junior ladies & men and how much they are really setting a high standard for themselves, they are a credit to all those who have being coaching them.

The ladies expert class was quiet close and the standard only seems to be improving year on year and the there were some real nice smooth rides put down.

Fran mid run

The day was run using the new ICF Rules which ment in the heats each paddler got 4 rides and their best two counted. I was decided before the event started that the finial results would be taken from the heats as time was tight and we were not certain of water for a second day to the event.

Len mid Pistol flip

So after some nice rides and plenty of banter in the eddy and river bank the finial results stacked up as follows.
Clicky here for full size version

As most of you know this event also served to select our team that will be heading to the Worlds Championships held in Thun at the end of August this year.

On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank all those who help make this a success. That includes the paddlers for travelling and making the event possible. The judges who gave up their day, a big mention to Killian Kelly and Ross Redmond who came just to help us judge and also to Caitriona O Brien who kept the time and things running smooth. Also to those whom are too many to mention who scribed and helped the judges out throughout the day.

Also a massive thanks and mention to the guys in the ESB who allocated us the water and without it the day would not have happened. Also cheers to the guys at the Curragower Falls bar who let us use their back room for prize giving.

I would also like to mention the shops which we when to purchases our prize vouchers off and they pretty much all made sure we left left with more than we paid for, thats allot guys.

Oh and in the the words of Jenny Kilbride thanks to those who said thanks.

Adrian

Some video of the day

The weekend just gone saw the passing of the squad selection event for this year’s ICF World Freestyle Championships. The plan was to hold the event on Curragower wave in Limerick City, and following a phone call from the ESB on Friday afternoon confirming the requested water levels for the weekend everything was green for go.

On Saturday morning almost 50 paddlers showed up to strut their stuff and gain a place on this year’s squad. Sadly we received a phone call from the ESB saying that due to near epic rain fall over the Shannon Basin that water was now flowing Ardnacrusha dam and they had to realise as much water as possible. This ment the Curragower wave would never form, however it did bring “little Gower” into play, the decision was made to wait until 14.00 to see what the suitability of “little Gower” for trials.

During this time phone calls were aplenty checking water levels and play spots around the country. As 14.00 arrived it was apparent that “little Gower” was not suitable for completion so the difficult decision was made to move the whole event to Tarmonbarry Wave, Only after receiving confirmed reports of epic water levels. This decision was received by the competitors far far better than was expected, as everyone understood that these were special circumstances. There were calls of last minute road trip and even reports of some people getting in some late evening practice that night.

As Sunday morning rolled around in Tarmonbarry it was a testament to the Freestyle community that we had almost 100% attendance from those who had showed up in Limerick the previous days. As the conditions were Baltic and the levels were very high it was decided that the Juniors did not have to compete but they were having none of it! The completion kicked off at 11.30 and confirmed Tarmonbarry as one of the premier play spots in Ireland.

IFS Squad selections

Some video fottage from Paddy King

On behalf of the committee I would like to say congratulations to those who have made the squad and all the competitors who supported this event and made it a success. A huge thanks has to all those who judged and scribed, without you these events are not possible. A pat on the back To Orky our Completions Officer who did very well despite this being his first big freestyle event to organise.

On a personal note a Huge shout out to the Junior ladies who braved the elements and stepped up to what is quite an intimidating feature that even some of or more seasoned Seniors were apprehensive about. Also to Rory “the kid” O Reilly who put down some rides that would have placed him in the Senior men squad.

Thanks again to all who took part, and here is looking forward to a successfully Worlds later in the year.

Adrian

pro@irishfreestyle.com