Paddle4Play

Paddle4Play: July 2011

Sunday 24 July 2011

Longford Canoe Polo Club Championships Weekend

With the rivers in Ireland still dry and a break in the K1 schedule, I took to the road in search of water, friends and something to do!

As it happened I received a call from Niall Power about a canoe polo competition taking place in Longford, a new venue on the calendar………. An offer I couldn't refuse!

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With the van loaded I headed for the venue a small village called Clondra, based on the grand canal with the tease of a dry Tamonbarry to keep focused.

The venue was a small harbour basin big enough for 2 regulation size pitches with parking. camping, toilets and shower facilities as well as a pub. what more could be asked!P7230132

The event kicked off 10am Saturday with the first rounds of games. each team would play a league event with the top 4 from each division progressing through to semi finals and Finals.

The Sun was out but unfortunately our players weren't with our first game kicking off with only 3 players we held our own keeping the defence tight and looking for the break. midway through the first half the Calvary arrived bringing ‘Turtles’ up to a full team.P7230137

We gelled quickly and put out impressive victory's over our 1st four games on Saturday with teams from WWKC, Kilkenny Irish ladies and bad company all stepping aside.

The evening saw the local pub provide a BBQ for competitors keeping every one both hydrated and fed.

P7230158Sunday we awoke with games kicking off at 9am, the early start again caught us short once again 3 players with one late arrival saw us 4 against 5 and on the back foot resulting in a close game and our first loss of the weekend, with one league game left we needed the win to keep us top and meant the easier draw for the semi final, this we did with a full team and good goal difference putting us against Kilkenny in the semi in a 1st against 4th encounter, P7240183

Since Saturday the Kilkenny team had become seriously stronger with some late player additions including Billy Brett (Freestyle junior team paddler) again we pushed with skill and brute force taking the game and making it ours with what resulted in a comfortable win.P7240186

The sun made a brief appearance over lunch whilst the playoffs went on seeing Kilkenny beat the Galway team.

The afternoons excitement kicked off with a golden goal decided in Div 3,P7240217

next up Div 2 final saw Turtles against The WWKC team the game was a very close affair with the introduction of the shot clock causing lots of rushing and mistakes from both teams with a simple lob shot from Eric the decider in an extremely close 3-2 win for the WWKC team.P7240235

Last game of the afternoon was the div 1 final with the usual suspects of gremlins and WWKC in another heated final with only one yellow card in a hard fought match seeing Gremlins take the win.P7240194

Overall an excellent event in a superb venue with nice weather and lots of good polo and professionalism from all.

 

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Wednesday 20 July 2011

Salmon Leap National Marathon Championships 2011

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To mark the clubs 50th birthday Salmon leap took the opportunity to host the 2011 National Marathon Championships, a prestigious race with Irish titles at stake.

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For 2011 Salmon Leap set about inviting top European paddlers to attend to really make this a special event. in response World Champion Ben Brown, Rene Olsen, Mark Childerstone and Jon Simmons made the hop across along with other British teams for a great weekend of racing.

Saturday saw the K1 events with a fun race for juniors over a short 2.5km course with 25 participants an excellent spectator sport.

The afternoon kicked off with short course and long courses some fine racing and some fast portages kept the races close with World Champion Ben Brown taking 1st place just ahead of Neil Fleming from Celbridge paddlers

Saturday K1

Sunday went ahead after a night of BBQ and dancing, with the K2 crew boats in action some very noble performances today once again Ben Brown and Rene Olsen just sneaked 1st place by a metre from Irelands powerhouse of Neil Fleming and Peter Egan,

Sunday K2

Once again it was a fantastic weekends racing with some very close races,

Thanks to everyone for taking part, here's a few images captured by Mick Feeney.

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Sunday 17 July 2011

Irish Freestyle Cardiff League event

With a successful league underway we move to Cardiff for the next freestyle event,
With the van packed and loaded we leave Dublin for Rosslare with a couple of traffic jams and a lovely girl from Stena phoning us to check where we are, we made it to the ferry,
Once parked up we find ourselves trapped between flood gates and trucks hunting for an exit to the passenger area, the ship was probably the worst ferry imaginable with tight stairs and opera on TV we were trapped.
Stenna Line lost trying to find the van!
Luckily the ship docked 3 hours later and we were free of the ship! (colm is not to book ferry's again!)
Once in Fishguard we headed for Cardiff. Over mountains and down through Welsh valleys.
Once in Cardiff we found the hotel “Future Inn” with its double double bed rooms clean and smart within minutes of the WW Course.
The Day started early with a full Morrison's breakfast before heading to the course to meet old friends and finally get boating,
With the pumps at 8cumecs the course was fast flowing with shallow features and tight eddys this made for lots of fun bouncing around with plenty of rafts to join the affray,
The Course has a lot of potential as an international competition site with moveable features and changeable flow makes for a lot of fun. Probably the biggest draw to Cardiff over other sites fresh clean water and an escalator back to the top, with top class facilities, cafe and changing facilities inc shop. The competition was due to start at 6pm with a flatwater comp scheduled for 4.30pm so with the practice over time for the flatwater, without seeing GB freestyles new scoring system I decided to enter bouncing loops and cartwheels, mcnastys and splits thrown together with party trick and some more loop combos to see what scored with a high calibre of entries linking well practiced routines I wished id read the rules! luckily the scores were released leaving me in third place with a very respectable score of 635 points P7160010Small
The evening saw the course close with the water turned off and the hole altered before being restored to a meaty 12cumecs this saw the course become a completely different game, with the high flow the course changes drastically,P7160077Small big bouncy holes and fast curious waves, and to round it all off bouncing surging eddy's to make you really watch your edges. With no real practice at the new level of feature we were purely their to make up numbers watching guys throw solid rides knowing the feature inside out,P7160086Small
With Coleman up first we cheered on from the side, big aerial loops and clean cartwheels and splits showing off the new home-grown boat design mkII, with a mix of old school ends and new school air Mark was back in the game taking 1st place in the events C1 CategoryP7160089Small
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With the event continuing with junior men, women and finally onto the men's heats under floodlights,
With Ronnie up first in his sherbet coloured all star (the same colour as the water) trying to learn the new feature whilst putting down competition rides was hardly the best preparation but albeit solid rides with unlucky flushes.P7160095Small
Next up was Adrian and Colm in the same heat, with the rain pouring the music was stopped and everyone hid for shelter from the prevailing weather conditions (Except us who were waiting in the eddy) with Colm looking for the split struggling to bring the ends over and just losing out on the pop with a couple of flat bonuses to assist the cause, Adrian was up with a spectacular window shade into head rudder combo we were struggling with the new feature, with a couple of rides left to try and put some points on the board we started to enjoy the occasion and just see what happened a couple of loops spins and cartwheels and we had those much needed points, in the cool evening air we finished our rides and continued to savour the 12 cumec course.ad cardiff
The results were out leaving Adrian 15th, Ronnie 16th and Colm 17th.
The Whitewater course in Cardiff has lived up to and exceeded every expectation a great destination for some away training and close hotels make for a relaxed weekend full of paddling,
Big smiles and thumbs up for Cardiff!
Thank you GB Freestyle for their hospitality and the great event.P7160106Small


QuickVideo from Colm



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