On holiday earlier this month I returned to my old slalom-training course at the Broken Bridge on Tasmania’s Derwent River. I joined in a session run by Peter Eckhardt and Dave Borojevic, long-time paddling friends who are doing a fantastic job coaching a new generation of enthusiastic and talented young slalom paddlers. Several of them [...]
Archives for Whitewater
I thought I was immortal.
If you’ve not already read it, I strongly recommend reading this posting by Pat Keller on the Tribe Rider Facebook page. It’s a great reminder of the need to grow your paddling abilities in line with experience, and not rush into bigger situations than you can handle. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=350583031637867&set=a.242093089153529.73955.242090492487122&type=1) It reminded me of a phase in [...]
Categorized in Uncategorized, Whitewater
Feel the fear and do it anyway?
I’m just back from three days boating in Devon. It was a great trip with the usual suspects, and unusually there was enough water to provide entertainment on the Upper Dart, Erme, Tavy and East Lyn rivers. After a summer of slalom and regular paddling at Lea Valley I felt strong on the whitewater, which [...]
Why kayak? Musings on motivation
Why kayak? My wife believes that kayaking involves being uncomfortable, wet, cold and exposed to physical danger. As a result it holds absolutely no appeal to her. Fortunately she is exceptionally tolerant of my own love for the sport. So what is it that motivates me, and many others, to kayak? I first stepped into [...]
Categorized in Uncategorized, Whitewater
Tags: kayaking, Psychology
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Inspirational paddling films – Dudh Kosi
I recently picked up the DVD of the 1976 British Kayak expedition to Everest that was led my the late Mike Jones. http://www.davemanby.com/DudhKosi.aspx It was one of a couple of films that was hugely inspirational to me as a kayaking obsessed teenager in Tasmania (the other was ‘Fast and Clean’, a documentary about US paddlers [...]
Categorized in kayaking, Whitewater
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Top after-work paddling locations?
I was aching after a great late summer evening paddle at the Lea Valley Whitewater centre on Thursday night. It was a real mates session, with me and Wendy the only kayaks on the Olympic course, and Mark Coleman on duty steering the only commercial raft. Made for a nice relaxed atmosphere, with warm water [...]
Categorized in kayaking, Whitewater
Tags: Lea Valley, Whitewater
Where to next?
There’s been some great feedback already on the last post, and I wanted to share this e-mail exchange from my mate Mat Newton. Newts is an ex-slalom paddler like me, lives in Tassy, and is one of the best photographers around. Hey Mally, Just checked out your new blog. We are just back from two weeks [...]
Val Sesia; What gives you confidence on the river?
Last month I spent a week with my friends paddling rivers in the Val Sesia region of Italy – well known as the steep creeking capital of Europe. Here’s a short video clip of our adventures on the Sesia, Gronda, Sorba, Egua and Semenza rivers. Val Sesia 2011 As well as the paddling, I wanted [...]
Categorized in kayaking, Whitewater
Tags: Psychology, Whitewater
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3 decades on
I paddled my first slalom session at the new Lea Valley Whitewater Centre last weekend. It was only my second time on the course, and a slalom K1 was a bit more challenging than paddling my creek boat during the assessment session the weekend before.After I’d been paddling for about an hour, Dave Florence got [...]
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