Irish Kayak News

When did you last have a check up?

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 10:15:21 +0000

Last Tuesday afternoon after having a fairly busy morning I was driving and had to pull over as I was experiencing lots of the symptoms you might associate with having a heart attack.

Being alone in the car and a few minutes drive from A&E I weighed up the options and drove myself to St Luke’s Hospital.

I was fairly sure it wasn’t cardiac related as I had a full work up and cardiac stress test fairly recently where the Dr’s opinion was “Too fit for a fat fella” But when trying to walk the 100m from where I abandoned the car to the A&E entrance while clutching my chest I was full sure it could be serious.

Fast forward a whole bunch of test and excellent care from the staff in the Medical Assessment Unit and the diagnosis is I’m not dead or dying. My heart is still in top shape and I’m still overweight. The best guess is something called Costochondritis which won’t kill me but is still pretty shit to experience.

The reason for this post isn’t looking for likes or the classic ‘U OK HUN’ stuff but it was a bit of a wake up call on two fronts.

I spent about 12 hours hanging out in the MAU and to see what the front line HSE staff have to deal with while going about their work is tough. This included a couple of fist fights where the Gardaí had to be called as they feared for their patients and own safety. Over managed, over worked, under paid and under resourced. No easy fixes but something needs to be done.

The second one was how we take things for granted, I know guys / girls like me in their thirties think it will never be them. Guys are especially bad for visiting the GP to get and auld check up every once in a while. Maybe my bit of a scare might give you a nudge to make that appointment and get the once over.

After all being dead would be proper shit!

I know this post has nothing to do with paddling but I know the kind of people who read the stuff I post it might be relevant to some of them.

Jegou's Penalty-Free Run Not Fast Enough To Secure Olympic Place

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 07:56:48 +0000

#Canoeing: Ireland C1 paddler Liam Jegou finished outside the top 10 nations at the canoe sprint World Championships in Lee Valley in England today and missed out on this chance of qualifying the boat for the Olympic Games. Jegou went off second in his semi-final and had a penalty-free run down the course, but his time of 106.29 seconds was not fast enough to stand in the top 10 nations. Jegou came in 27^th, ahead of Italy and Canada. Spain, Portugal and Australia also missed out.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Lee Valley, London, Day Five (Irish interest)

Men

C1 – Semi-Finals (10 to Final): 27 L Jegou 106.29

K1 – Team Final: 19 Ireland 161.62

Ryan Best of Irish K1 Competitors at Canoe Slalom World Championships

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 15:41:59 +0000

#Canoeing: Cade Ryan was the most impressive of Ireland’s three competitors in the K1 at the canoe slalom World Championships in Lee Valley in England today. Ryan clocked 90.42 seconds and 89.69 in the two runs, with no penalties on either. Elliott Davidson and Sam Curtis were pushed well down the rankings, through penalties on both runs.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Lee Valley, London, Day Three (Irish interest)

Men

K1 – First Run (top 30 to Semi-Finals): 60 C Ryan 90.42; 98 S Curtis 145.17 (incl 54 seconds penalty); 102 E Davidson 203.59 (incl 104 sec pen). Second Run (10 qualify): 27 Ryan 89.69; 41 Davidson 99.06 (incl 6 sec pen); 65 Curtis 146.05 (incl 56 sec pen).

Liam Jegou Excels in Second Run to Claim Semi-Final Place at World Championships

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:16:05 +0000

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou qualified for the semi-final of the canoe slalom World Championships in Lee Valley, England today. The France-based teenager produced an impressive, penalty-free, second run in the C1 to place ninth, with 10 places available. In his first run, he incurred penalties on gates eight and 11 and had four seconds in penalties, but would have fallen outside qualification in any case. Jake Cochrane placed 68^th and 64^th in his two runs.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Lee Valley, London, Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

C1 – First Run (top 20 to semi-finals): 37 L Jegou 95.98 seconds (incl 4 sec pen); J Cochrane 161.15 (incl 54 sec pen). Second Run (10 qualify): 9 Jegou 90.83; 64 Cochrane 108.38 (incl 8 sec pen).

Women

C1 – First Run (top 15 to semi-finals) 32 C O’Ferrall 191.62; Second Run: O’Ferrall 132.14 (incl 4 sec pen)

Craig One Touch From Semi-Final at World Championships

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 15:00:54 +0000

#Canoeing: Ireland’s Hannah Craig came close, but missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals of the women’s K1 at the canoe slalom World Championships in Lee Valley in England today. She came down the course in 97.04 seconds on her first run, but a touch on gate 11 took her to 99.04 seconds, and pushed her out of the top 20, who qualified. The second run had just 10 qualifying places available. Craig finished 21^st, with a penalty-free run of 100.4 seconds.

Canoe Slalom World Championships, Lee Valley, London, Day One (Irish interest)

Women

K1 – First Run (20 qualify): 30 H Craig 99.04 seconds (incl 2-sec penalty); 2^nd Run (10 qualify): 21 H Craig 100.4 sec.

Moving With the Flow

noreply@blogger.com (EoinK) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 23:02:00 +0000

So since the last update, a few things have changed! Besides the whole business of a freestyle world championships, which I'll start on in a minute, since coming home I have moved house, started a new job and am now working on catching up on missed sleep and figuring out what there is to do in Killorglin in the evenings after work! If anyone is in the area and up for doing stuff let me know! The trip to Canada for the freestyle world championships was such an awesome couple of weeks that I don't know where to start. This post might turn into a bit of a ramble as I try to get through all the things that I want to say about it!

I cannot say enough good things about this group of people! From kayaking to cooking, cleaning, supporting and chilling out, it's the people that make or break every trip and this one was an epic one! Picture by Jack Ledwith.

I was the first of the Irish to reach the Ottawa valley by a couple of days. I arrived a few days before the official shuttle bus to Garburator started running, planning to rely on the generosity of other paddlers to get to and from the rivers. Kayakers being the charitible bunch that they are this was no problem, the English juniors were doing the same thing and paddler, photographer and all-round legend Philip Robert kindly drove all of us around until the official shuttle started, wedged into the back of his 'Boof Bus' like sardines! When the official shuttle started it wasn't the end of the crammed journeys, by this time the German team had shown up and a couple of times there were Irish, English, Aussies and a whole pile of Germans hoping to get the same mini-bus back to Wilderness Tours. I think the record we hit was 17 people in the back of a 9-seater mini-bus for one trip which was very entertaining!

The legendary Boof Bus! Photo by Philip Robert

Wilderness Tours, one of the rafting companies on the Ottawa, were the main sponsor of the event and provided most of the funding needed to run an international competition in the middle of nowhere. They also looked after us extremily well while we were there, providing free camping for competitors for the duration of the trip and setting up a meal plan which gave us three all-you-can-eat meals a day for a very reasonable cost. The staff there were amazing, they did most of the setting up of the event venue and looked after us really well while we were there. All in all a huge shout-out is due to Wilderness Tours for everything they did for us, it's really appreciated! The best thing about this meal plan was that it meant that three times a day you were going for food with all the other paddlers who were camped out at WT. This was a great opportunity to get to know loads of kayakers from all over the world, and following a couple of beers led to the founding of Team Plastic, which I'll talk more about later!

The bit of orange duct tape made it a lot easier to find my boat among the piles of green Rockstars stashed at Garb. It stands out pretty well in photos too! Photo by Robert Kierans.

The Wave... Where to start?! Garburator is awesome, violent, scary, dangerous and a lot of fun all at the same time! When I arrived first most of the paddlers who had been there for a while were held together with the medical equivelant of duct tape! Damaged backs and shoulders were the most common complaints, including at least one person who had dislocated a shoulder on Garb and was holding it in with tape, along with many cases of tendonitis due to how tight people were having to hold onto their paddles on the wave. Despite the huge number of injuries going around, very few people were taking any time off the water to recover, preferring instead to rely on huge amounts of ibubrofen to keep them paddling and training coming up to the comp. Ignoring the risk of getting injured, Garb is epic! The huge foampile means that it's incredibly retentive for a wave of that size, and the speed of the oncoming green water means that it's possible to get huge air. The lack of any kind of green face makes it difficult to consistently time a bounce, but this proved to be no problem to the guys at the top of the field. It's one thing to watch the likes of Nick, Dane, Matt, Bren and Quim throwing huge moves in videos online but it's even more impressive to see how consistently they can throw huge rides on an extremily tricky feature. The biggest difference between those guys and the rest of the competition is that everyone else takes a couple of passes on the wave before they throw a big move, while the top guys are throwing moves on almost every pass. The most impressive thing about watching Dane paddle is that he misses less passes than anyone else, as well as the moves that he throws invariably being huge! That's the next thing on the list of stuff to work on now that I'm back in Ireland; consistency!

The amplitude that some of the guys are getting is just ridiculus! Photo by Philip Robert

As well as getting the hang of a wave that was incredibly different to anything I had surfed before, I also had a new boat to get used to over there. A huge thanks to Emily and the rest of the team at Jackson Kayak for kitting us out with the brand new 2016 Rockstars for the competition! Coming from the Project 52 the Rockstar took a bit of getting used to; thanks to the more rounded rail profile it handles very differently on a wave but the same rounded rail makes it far more forgiving and less likely to catch an edge and flush when landing moves. The short tail makes it a little more twitchy when paddling down river but comes around super-easily on moves like Helixes. I have always been quite critical of Jackson Kayak's outfitting, as I have always found it gave me a very poor connection to the boat when paddling other people's, and the backrest nearly always popped when I tried to loop. It turns out that almost everyone whose boat's I have paddled just had them set up terribly badly! Once set up correctly, with all the air sucked out of the Sweet-Cheeks and Happy Feet (very important!!), they form nice rigid pads which are perfectly fitted to your body! My back-rest also hasn't ever slipped on me so far, so it looks like the ropes just need to be replaced when they start to wear out. The Rockstar is by far the most comfortable playboat that I have paddled, which is pretty good considering I had the Project for six years and thought I had it set-up perfectly! The tweaked volume distribution has made it incredibly easy to throw around on flatwater, especially if you're towards the top of the weight range like me. There's still enough volume around the middle to make it loop pretty big, and I'm really looking forward to taking it to Tuam to see how it goes in a hole. The competition spec boats we were given are also ridiculusly light, which helps to make everything easier. I passed the boat around to a few people at some ULKC pool sessions last week, and heard the phrase 'best boat I've ever paddled' at least once! If you're in the market for a new boat it's definitely one to demo, and if anyone in Ireland wants to try mine out I'm sure we can arrange something.

Yeah, that new boat goes! Photo by Philip Robert.

Obviously, the reason I headed out to Canada two weeks before team training started was to try to get as much time on the wave as possible before the comp started. This worked out really well, when I got there first the eddy was relatively quiet and I would simply chill out at Garb all day and hop on the water every time there were less than ten people in the line. This way I was doing up to five or six short sessions every day, which is definitely the way to go when training on a feature as physical as Garb. After four or five rides the consistency would start to go downhill and I would start making mistakes and flushing on moves that I really shouldn't be flushing on. Progress was slow but steady, and everyone in the eddy was real friendly and always up for giving advice with things like airscrew and pan-am techniques. Gradually over the two weeks before team training the eddy started to fill up and eventually it was quiet whenever there were less than 20 people in the water! A 20 minute wait between rides isn't ideal for learning new moves so it was definitely good to have the couple of weeks of training done before then! The rest of the Irish team showed up in bits and pieces in the two weeks coming up to the comp. Most of the team had been out to the Ottawa before and it showed. Tom Dunphy has been training hard on the Ottawa all summer and was ripping by the time I got there, working on a ride that would have put him right up at the top end of the competition if it came together for him on the day. The two Kellehers and Shane Little were also super impressive, taking no time at all to get used to the wave and going huge on it right from the time they arrived. In the end, the experience that Len and Moe brought with them paid off, with both of them just missing out on the next round by a couple of places.

Len Kelleher, doing what he does best! Photo by Philip Robert.

I had a shaky week or so before the competition, when my paddling seemed to be getting worse and worse no matter how hard I tried to improve it, and no matter what crazy times of day I tried to get some time on the wave (a couple of 3am and 5am sessions were done to try and beat the crowds, and the wave was nearly always busy!). It got so bad that at one point I was only able to get one or two moves in every ride before flushing and in the end, with just three days to go before the competition I decided that my body must just be tired out from too much paddling. I made the decision to take two full days off to recover, which took me up untill the morning of prelims. I didn't paddle in the last team training session, didn't paddle in the allotted training session the night before prelims and didn't paddle Garb at all the morning of the competition. I made it to the morning of prelims feeling fresh and relaxed, and went for a nice long warm-up session directly before the heat. Although I had a potential ride in my head that could scrape 1000 points if everything went perfectly to plan, I went into prelims praying that I would stick more than two tricks in each ride! My plan for the competition was to take it easy for the first ride and use it to get used to the wave again after the couple of days off, take two rides to try and hit my planned ride and have one ride at the end left to go for broke.

Thankfully, it all kind of came together in the end! Photo by Philip Robert.

In the end, as soon as I dropped into the wave for my first ride and threw a blunt or two, a safety boater from the Esprit rafting company paddled down the wave in front of me, despite an agreement being in place that they would only paddle down between rides. Thankfully, the competition organisers were very understanding and offered to wipe my first ride from the record, so no harm done! ...except to that safety boater, if I ever meet him again. The next couple of rides went more-or-less as I had hoped. I took it handy, turned down passes if they didn't feel right and although this stopped me from getting anywhere near the 1000 point mark, I did manage to stay on the wave for the full 45 seconds each time and get a couple of solid moves in. In my last, go-for-broke ride I threw the only entry-move of the competition and got a couple of more moves in before rushing things too much and flushing on a Helix. In the end the two highest rides were only enough to leave me in 35th place with a combined score of around 750 points, not enough to qualify but I'm happy with it all the same. I had a whole lot of fun on competition day, my gamble of skipping a couple of training sessions paid off and I paddled much better than I did in the few days leading up to the event. Now I have a benchmark that I'm going to have to try and beat at the next worlds, so it's time to go away and learn to hole-boat!

Pushing hard for a Pan-Am! Photo by Philip Robert.

After prelims were over it was time for the partying to begin! Over the next few days we watched some of the competition, paddled the river a few times and hung out and partied with all the rest of the competitors who were no longer part of the action. One of the things that we noticed while hanging around and watching the rest of the competition was that all of the top guys are part of team Jackson Kayak, team Adidas, team Red-Bull etc etc etc or someone else who is paying them a wage to go kayaking. They are legitimate athletes and kayak at a level that is all but impossible for those of us who work all week to fund the next kayaking trip to reach. Those guys all paddle carbon boats and spend their time travelling to one perfect river to the next. This all inspired a bit of lifestyle and boat envy from those of us watching the competition from the sidelines, and someone suggested that what the world needs is a team for those of us who paddle on local, average features as often as possible, go to competitions to meet people and have some fun and generally do the best we can with what we've got. There could only be one name for a team like this! What started as a joke suggestion got us talking about 'what ifs', and now there is a facebook group and stickers. It doesn't pay a wage but it's already led to some entertaining banter with people asking what the hell is this shite! So give us a like at Team Plastic, I've no idea what we're going to do next or where it's going to go from here, but it'll definitely be a bit of a laugh and be relevant to anyone who enjoys going kayaking whenever they can!

James Rowlinson; sick paddler, all-round nice guy and Team Plastic founder not letting his plastic boat or broken and taped body hold him back at all! Photo by Philip Robert.

Jenny Egan Fourth at Canoe Marathon World Championships

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 11:35:02 +0000

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan finished fourth in the senior K1 event at the Canoe Marathon World Championships in Gyor in Hungary. Anna Koziskova of the Czech Republic took gold, covering the 26.1 kilometre course in one hour 56 minutes 28.847 seconds, while Egan was three minutes and just under 50 seconds further back. Egan was 57 seconds behind bronze medallist Kristina Bedec of Serbia.

Canoe Marathon World Championships, Gyor, Hungary

Men

K1 Senior, 30km: 25 P Egan 2 hrs 15 min 24.477sec ; B Watkins dnf. K1 Under-23, 26.1km: 18 T Brennan 1:56.378.177

Women

K1 Senior, 26.1km: 4 J Egan 2:00.18.166.

Sixth Place in European Final for Liam Jegou

david@afloat.ie (David O'Brien) — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 13:00:48 +0000

#Canoeing: Ireland Under-23 competitor Liam Jegou finished sixth at the canoe slalom European Championships today in Krakow, Poland. Jegou went off second last in the running order of the C1 (Canadian canoe) final thanks to an excellent performance in the semi-final. However, Kirill Setkin of Russia set a remarkable time of 81.91 seconds, and while Jegou came down the course with no penalties, his time of 88.06 would push him out of the medals. Setkin took gold.

European Canoe Slalom Under-23 and Junior Championships, Krakow, Poland (Irish interest)

C1 Under-23 – Semi-Final (Top 10 go to Final): 2 L Jegou 86.75 seconds. Final: 1 Russia (K Setkin) 81.91, 2 France (T Blaise) 83.62, 3 France (K Foulon) 86.67; 6 Ireland (Jegou) 88.06.

Nearly There...

noreply@blogger.com (EoinK) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:31:00 +0000

Team training is finished, the opening ceremony is tomorrow and the final preparations for the comp are being made! We had a productive time at the final team training session this afternoon, everyone has the wave pretty much dialled in by now and some of the Irish guys are going huge. Shane Little in particular has a couple of big moves that he is throwing down pretty consistently, while the Kelleher brothers are probably less consistent but both are throwing some huge front and back Pan-Ams which will get them big scores in competition. The juniors are also doing great, the extra time that they have spent out here is really showing and they are consistently throwing down some great blunts and back blunts, along with the occasional Pan-Am. My own paddling is still all over the place, I'm occasionally getting some nice helixes, Pan-Ams and air screws but struggling to get them all into one ride. Fingers crossed it will all come together on the day of the competition! Bar the top five or ten competitors who are consistently throwing down ridiculous rides, Garb is so fast and foamy that everyone else seems to be struggling to lay down a couple of big moves in a row. It looks like it's all to play for on competition day!

Thankfully, it looks like there's going to be a lot more down-time at this comp than we got over in Spain! A few of the lads are gone to a demolition derby in Cobden and there's a paddling movie night at Wilderness Tours tonight, tomorrow the organisers are feeding everyone after the opening ceremony and the following couple of evenings all seem to have some kind of entertainment lined up. So it looks like it's going to be a great comp, regardless of if it ends with the losers party on Friday night or Finals on Saturday! The comp kicks off with Squirt on Monday and the Men's K1 prelims are on Wednesday. It's all going to be streamed live here so keep an eye out!

Liam Jegou Charges into Final at European Canoe Championships

david@afloat.ie (David O'Brien) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 10:29:38 +0000

#Canoeing: Liam Jegou qualified for the finals at the European Under-23 Championships in Krakow in Poland this morning. Jegou, in his C1 (Canadian canoe) finished second of the 10 qualifiers in the semi-final, just .33 of a second behind Kilian Foulon of France. The competitors will go off in reverse order in this afternoon’s final.

European Canoe Slalom Under-23 and Junior Championships, Krakow, Poland (Irish interest)

C1 Under-23 – Semi-Final (Top 10 go to Final): 2 L Jegou 86.75 seconds.

Update from the Ottawa

noreply@blogger.com (EoinK) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 20:10:00 +0000

The Irish team is in town! After a couple of days hanging around Garb by myself and getting to know all of the Aussie, English and German paddlers who also arrived early the Irish team started to trickle in. By now we're almost all here and set up with our own luxury log cabin and transport, naturally including one all-American, 5L Ford F150 pick-up truck! It can only carry marginally more people and boats than my Ford Fiesta but you know, when in Rome and all that... Team training kicked off two days ago and it's going great so far. The two Kellehers especially hopped on the wave and immediately looked like they had been here for weeks with some huge blunts, pan-ams and back blunts! Tom Dunphy is also looking really strong, the amount of time that he has put in on Garb over the last few months is really showing. The rest of the team are working hard to catch up, starting with getting the feel of throwing moves on a totally new feature and then putting those moves into a ride that offers the potential for scoring maximum points in competition.

I have a bit of a head start and the competition ride is starting to come together. It's not as consistent as I would like yet but we have another week before men's prelims. Coming out a few weeks early was definitely a good call; waiting times for a ride on the wave are over 20 minutes outside team training times, and the team training slot only guarantees around 5 rides on the wave per day. Not a lot of time for learning moves! At the same time, the wave is so physical that there's only so much paddling that the body can take in a day. Huge numbers of paddlers here are carrying back and shoulder injuries and relying on medical grade duct-tape to hold them together on the wave. So the goal for everyone at this stage is to polish off the ride while tapering down the training to minimise the risk of getting injured, and also be as fresh as possible when the competition starts. Fingers crossed it'll all go to plan! Garb is awesome; super fast, fairly retentive and there's the potential for big air when everything goes right. It's so big and foamy that it's quite difficult to land moves consistently but the top couple of paddlers are having no problems. The winning ride will most likely contain two air screws, four pan-ams, two helixes, two pistol flips and a couple of blunts! There are a few paddlers landing that kind of ride in training and the title will probably go to whoever can get the most huge and clean bonuses.

There's a great vibe around the campsite here and it's really started to fill up in the last couple of days. Everyone is pretty chilled out about the comp and up for having the craic in the evenings; there's been some great multi-national games of soccer, volleyball and pool so far, as well as one or two pretty full-on parties! Loads of different countries are represented which is great to see and the topic of conversation has generally revolved around ripping the piss out of each other's accents and national stereotypes! The comp kicks off on Sunday, and will be streamed live. It's going to be epic to watch, the likes of Dane Jackson, Matt Doumoulin, Bren Orton and a bunch of others have been going huge in training so definitely check it out!

For another paddler's perspective on the worlds to date check out James Rowlinson's blog at http://shenanteryakking.blogspot.ca/. It's got some great descriptions of Garb and everything else we've been getting up to recently!

20% Off Sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Adrian Durrant) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 15:58:00 +0000

The Sit on Top, beach toy or whitewater accessory?

noreply@blogger.com (Adrian Durrant) — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 16:10:00 +0000

When plastic boats burst onto the scene manufacturers were suddenly left looking for the boat to
suit everyone, a boat which could be manufactured stockpiled and sold to the masses not a
whitewater machine with a relatively small end user group but a general purpose safe for all the
family style boat.
Mirages, Dancers, Europa's came and went being replaced by shorter more playful designs, gone
were the days of one boat did everything.
Eventually sit on tops were born.

With UK based company's building boats Perception, feel free and islander other companies have joined
on to the expanding market. Now in Ireland we have a huge choice of sit on tops for every need.
Sit on tops are a fantastic choice for all the family from taking your first paddle strokes through to
experienced fun.
In the past a sit on top was widely seen as a 'beach toy' with designs like the Perception Scooter and
the Islander Kayaks Calypso Sport two very similar boats both UK built and sold hugely in Ireland.
These created a family friendly platform for getting adults and kids out on the water. These general
purpose sit on tops range from between 8-10ft in length with cheaper options like the Winner Purity
II and the Islander Hula perfect for smaller guys and gals up to the increasingly comfortable
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 this range of boats were designed to do everything, whether its
pottering around your local coastline or playing in the waves they will feel at home on canals and
inland waterways manoeuvrable yet super stable. The shorter a boat is, generally the wider it gets these
boats all provide a fantastic platform for getting out on the water with the worst case scenario involving falling in, getting wet before simply climbing back on, a sit on top takes the hassle out of paddlesport.
So why are they not more often used??
Well now that is the question over the past few years companies have expanded their ranges of sit
on tops looking at specific uses for many boats to draw people in to the non covered way of life.
Tandems

There's not a lot of things better than a sunny day on the water in a boat except for sharing that
experience with friends and family, a tandem offers that experience with space now for 2-3 people
for both adults and kids the capacity of the boats is huge which provides a stable platform for kids
playtime and adult enjoyment boats like the Islander Kayaks Paradise 2 comes with really soft seat
backrests to keep you comfy and stable whilst out for a paddle other boats like the Tarpon E from
wilderness systems provides solid flip up backrests for extra support. both designs offer the centre “third” seat, a moulded space to bring a little one along for the ride.
Surfing

With wave skis being used the world over it was natural for a company to attempt to build a surf
specific boat the Perception 5-O at the time the only high performance sit on top-esque wave ski of
its class, hard rails and fins with a flat belly and lifted nose provided the platform for a popular
introductory surf boat but soon many would be upgraded to a lightweight ski.
Touring boats

With sit on top designs the big factor has to be the length and the width, as a boat gets longer it gets
narrower. As with sit in kayaks the 14foot designs like the Tarpon 140 and the Venture Kayaks Islay
14 SOT offer a fantastic option to take your beach toy and suddenly give it some speed and you can
start exploring coastlines, islands and caves. By extending the length will allow the boat to track better and
provide the extra speed to head off and explore with boats like the Tarpon 160 a 16ft monster taking Sit
on Tops right up into the performance sea kayaking end of things. Being able to load up these huge
capacity
crafts with the built in hatches and head off on your adventure. Add a rudder for better steering in
bigger water and you have a boat you can paddle all day. What you gain in length and straight line
speed you will lose in manoeuvrability, the longer the boat the less easy it is to turn around so before you
pick yourself up a speed demon just decide if your canal is wide enough to turn in!
Fishing

Probably the most practical use for sit on tops had to be there stable nature and load capacity. This has
meant thousands of fishermen worldwide are now availing of these easy going craft.
With Sit on tops easy to launch and recover as well as being able to get into places a boat may find
difficult the cost of a Sit on Top in comparison to a motored boat has led to a new culture with top
fisherman now pulling in huge fish onto their sit on tops. With many favouring the likes of the
Tarpon 14 and the Ocean Kayak Prowler series it's easy to look at the Jackson Kayak a whitewater
brand now makes more fishing kayaks than whitewater boats. With boats turning into full on fishing
platforms now makes it much more accessible.
At the budget end of things the strike angler from Islander Kayaks provides a simple set up with flush
mounted rod holders which can be used for trailing lines and accessories.
Many of the fishing boats have comfort in mind with better seating positions to give you comfort and
support whilst out for the day, with many now offering higher seats and ability to stand as well really
proves the stability of many sit on tops.
Seating
As previously mentioned throughout the article the seating, probably the biggest area of change in
Sit on tops, from simple plastic moulded seat locations providing an area in which to sit, next the
fabric backrests and seats, a simple clip on clip off design which can be adjusted to offer support and
comfort this is the standard as found on many a sit on tops.
Next comes the solid backrests with simple flip up designs to go with padded seat areas provide solid
support and very user friendly,
At the top end the boats look like arm chairs wilderness systems have a unique three way
adjustment system to provide height adjustment in the backrest as well as angle of the back rest and
a leg lifter to take pressure off of your legs.
If you look at Jackson kayaks with their rock and roll seat
which provides height adjustment and then lift out of the way to provide standing room you might
as well be in heaven, Sit on tops provide some of the comfiest seat positions going because of their
nature the seat doesn’t need to be able to fit into a round cockpit to be fitted this allows more space and
more comfort for the end user.
Many of the boats have simple moulded in footrest positions this allows the user to choice a spot
and put their feet on the right mark, this makes boats really user friendly, for slightly more comfort
an adjustable footrest is then used whereby the user is able to slide the pedal into position for
optimum comfort.
To combine usability with performance knee straps can be used a simple foam and fabric pad which
is clipped along each side of the boat allows knees to slip under and grip this provides the user with
extra control in rough water and waves it also helps to be able to roll some of the boats. In the event
of a spill simply straighten your legs and you will easily fall of ready to hop back on.
Storage
All of the kayaks mentioned have their own storage compartments many are done by the way of a
watertight hatch cover which allows access to the inside of the hull. Many of these are highly water
proof but because of the nature of the boats not totally water tight so dry bags should definitely be
used as well.
The bigger the boat the more storage with larger hatches and hinged covers making loading easier
and specific areas on the top deck designated for bait boxes and rod holders on fishing specific
boats.
Maintenance
As with all kayaks a Sit on Top is virtually maintenance free with the exception of the odd hose down
after being in the sea many a folk leave the boats outside, as with all plastics the biggest thing to
degrade a boat is the UV damage from the sun so a good idea to keep them covered if possible but
as far as being waterproof the rain provides no threat. A quick hose down after being in salt water will help keep fixtures and fittings in good working order.
Accessories

Sit on top accessories are a huge thing with seat upgrades through to camera mounts and rod
holders all available my personal suggestion would be a paddle leash. First thing when buying your
boat, PFD, paddle and paddle leash so when you fall in or put the paddle down its attached to your boat and
won’t be off floating without you, your paddle is your engine and without it makes things fairly hard
going.
Whitewater

So the article had to lead back to whitewater, as many may have seen over the years people have
tried to create whitewater sit on tops whether it’s a good idea or not has led to much debate, with
boats like the Liquid Logic Coupe and the Fluid Doitnow not really taking off in Ireland its now turn of
the Pyranha Fusion Sit on Top.
The Fusion has been an excellent crossover boat for a few years now paddling whitewater and
flat-water with ease so Pyranha have taken the ever stable hull, made it more stable and changed the
top deck to a sit on instead of a sit in.
At first glance I had never thought much about the idea of whitewater and sit ons thinking about
how much it might hurt falling off, but then again how much does it hurt when you fall out of a
kayak? So having taken a demo Fusion sit on top for a spin I found it easy to paddle, very
manoeuvrable and not a whole heap different from my standard river kayak, almost disappointing
how good it was. So over the past while I've been pushing it further and further paddling class 1-3+/4
on it with relative ease, I've had it sea surfing and bouncing down weirs whilst still surfing holes and
spinning on waves. Firstly the control means the boat rolls with the thigh braces and if rolling isn’t
for you hop off and hop back on within seconds your away again no more emptying boats or lifting
swamped boats.

Personally I feel previous whitewater sit on tops have never really taken off because they haven’t
been paddled, my best advice for any one whether experienced whitewater paddler or intermediate
just give it a go. Get it out and see what you think it's some of the best fun I've had. Mentally the fact
you're not enclosed brings about a sense of comfort for many who feel kayaking claustrophobic and
entrapping. Being able to jump off when things get scary will give people a lot of confidence and
then the ease of hopping back on quickly gets more time in a boat and less time underwater.
Sit on tops have many positive factors and very few negatives, they will never completely replace a
closed in kayak but for sure will make paddlesport more accessible for many users whether an
introduction, an afternoon hire or a trip down a class 2 rapid it's about the fun the excitement and
the exhilaration it brings to the end user.

.Sit On Tops are available in a whole heap of shapes and sizes for the best advice on what your require always visit your local kayak store before ordering to make sure you pick up the right boat for your needs
As always thanks to the photographers for use of images Palm Equipment, Conflueance watersports and Irish Photographer @Oisin McHugh - http://www.oisinmchughphoto.com/

Jenny Egan Sixth in World Championships Final

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 14:41:12 +0000

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan finished sixth in the K1 (racing kayak) 5,000 metres on the final day of the canoe sprint World Championships in Milan. The Irishwoman was 11.26 seconds behind the winner, Maryna Litvinchuk of Belarus. Peter Egan finished 24^th in the men’s 5,000 metres, the final race of the Championships. Earlier, Barry Watkins had finished sixth in the B final of the K1 500 metres, 15^th overall.

Canoe Sprint World Championships, Milan (Irish interest)

Men

K1 500m – B Final (Places 10 to 18): 6 B Watkins 1 min 45.063 seconds.

K1 5,000m – Final: 24 P Egan 22 mins 01.64 seconds.

Women

K1 500m – C Final (Places 19 to 27): 6 J Egan 1:57.717

K1 5,000m – Final: 6 J Egan 22:47.32

Jenny Egan Eighth in Semi-Final in Milan

liam.gorman77@gmail.com (Liam Gorman) — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 14:17:31 +0000

#Canoeing: Jenny Egan finished eighth in her semi-final of the K1 (racing kayak) 200 metres at the canoe sprint World Championships in Milan. The Irishwoman, who had the 28^th fastest time, exited the competition. Tom Brennan also made his exit. He finished seventh in his semi-final of the men’s K1 200 metres. He had the 30^th fastest time. Egan competes in the K1 5,000 metres on Sunday.

Canoe Sprint World Championships, Milan, Day Four (Irish interest)

Men

K1 200m – Semi-Final Two: 7 T Brennan 37.139.

Women

K1 200m – Semi-Final Two: 8 J Egan 43.00.