Several weeks of Hurley boating

A fun few weeks since Hurley went up to 2 gates. I've been working on my wave moves - my blunts are getting bigger as I have been concentrating on lifting my head up and standing up rather than ducking my head down 'tucking under wing style'. Mr Hopper also gave me a few other useful tips about my technique which I am still working on - thanks Ed.


I've been trying clean blunts (so far unsuccessfully as I keep putting the paddle in the water!) and the odd helix attempt - getting closer but mainly just hurting my back and getting a face full of water. I'm not brave enough to practice Donkey flips on two gates as my attempts so far have resulted in an over-exagerated pan am going too deep and hitting the floor between the stanchions -causing whiplash and sore toes, ouch. I'm waiting for a slightly deeper 3 gates before I try that move again.

It was a low two gates yesterday and I retained a couple of nice loops and a back loop.

In between times I have been working (the odd day or two, I nearly completed a 3 day week last week! Well, I figure I may as well make the most of it before I go full time in May).

At the beginning of last week I helped out with the Army Freestyle Champs which took place on Hurley, I helped with the judging and gave a helping hand in rescuing lots of boaters that hadn't been to Hurley before (in fact, many of them hadn't been on moving water before). It was great to see so many people throwing themselves into the wave and enjoying themselves.

Yesterday was the flame carrying for the Special Olympics. The Special Olympics is a sporting event for people with learning disabilities and is happening in Glasgow in July. SAS (who sponsor Shaun Baker and own the bank at Hurley) are sponsoring this event and they put on an open/sports day for the event. There was press coverage of Shaun Baker carrying the flame down the weir and a few paddlers, including Alan Ward, Matt Tidy, James Farquharson, and myself, did a demonstration of freestyle kayaking. Commentary was expertly given to the crowds by Small Robin. This seemed to be a successful event, there was a lot of interest in the kayaking. Unfortunately people weren't allowed on the weir bridge so had limited views of the paddlers on the wave but we made sure we did some flatwater moves as we came off the weir into the eddy. Shaun Baker's 5 on the wave proved interesting, and slightly scary as I was stuck in the middle at one point bouncing off a boat on either side!


Flatwater moves for the crowds in the demo Freestyle Event:

Spring Time Blues

Back home. A few trips to Hurley have taken place - thankfully it rained. Unfortunately we never know how long the rain will last. Unlike the rest of the world, who are looking forward to their boating season starting, this time of year in the England means the rains are starting to disappear along with the paddling (except for the drive up to the artificial courses, and the pourover paddling at Boulters - I don't like pourovers!). Maybe after the driest winters on record we'll get one of the wettest springs! (wishful thinking). Come May 9th it won't matter as I will be super busy with my new job (contrary to popular belief teachers do have to work some long hours, well in term time anyway) - a job until Christmas (that's almost permanent for me!)

However, being a teacher means 6 weeks of summer holidays, a few weeks of which will be available to go away somewhere with water. Not sure where we'll be heading this summer.

In the meantime, if it stops raining, and if the job is getting too much we've some other sports to get into, some of which we've been trying out recently - mountain biking and scrambling up mountains in N.Wales, and some indoor climbing. Good for a bit of a change from boating.

Until it stops raining - see you at the weir!