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In the UK we have a fair few events scattered throughout the year. One of the events new to this year was Paddle in the Park, run at the Holme Pierrepont white water course. The event started at 10AM on the Saturday with free paddling till 1PM. I took this opportunity to get my feel back for the water and get in a couple of rides before the afternoons competitions. Read More…

Now, I have noticed over the last 16 years of freestyle kayaking that freestyle is an exceptionally hard sport. The tricks are not easy to learn. They take months if not years to learn and years if not a lifetime to master. When you paddle you train for hours after hours, spending most of that time falling on your face as you begin to just start to figure each trick out. Then as you begin to get it, the water levels change, you move to a different river , change to a new kayak or simply forget one key part...

Sometimes planning is key. Sometimes you just get very lucky. Sometimes you plan to spend 2 weeks family holiday paddling at Plattling with just your mum and dad for company but instead you get to spend everyday on the Isar river being coached by 8 times world champion, Claire O’Hara and GB Freestyle Performance Director and Head Coach, Dennis Newton of Sweetwater Coaching. Plattling is the venue for this years European Championship and a favourite with freestylers from around the world. Clean water, decent feature and Bavarian culture take some beating so it wasn’t a surprise when we arrived after an...

This is a kids Rock Star! Sized 1/2 way in between a Shooting Star and Small Rock Star, it fills the gap that has been missing from the industry since the beginning of time. Kids growing through the range from the Fun 1 to the Shooting Star now have the right size boat to graduate after the Shooting Star. This is a 100% performance oriented boat based on the World Championships winning 2016 Rock Star. It is designed to allow kids to learn freestyle, and for those who are already on their way, to perfect it and really shine on...

Mention the National Student Rodeo to any paddler who has experienced one and you will quickly get an idea of what a crazy and brilliant event it is. The combination of freestyle kayaking, hundreds of students, two nights of partying and a theme (this year’s being ‘Christmas’) seems to be unbeatable in making for an awesome weekend. This was to be my first NSR and after hearing all the stories from past events, my excitement had been steadily building for weeks. There were four of us from Cambridge University canoe club; two joining the rescue team and two of us...