Diary of a middle aged kayaker

We stand on the shoulders of giants

I was working with a young slalom paddler the other day and I mentioned the name Bill Endicott. “Bill who?” he replied. I was momentarily shocked, but then it dawned on me that there must be a whole generation of paddlers who aren’t familiar with Bill’s massive contribution to the sport. Just as Isaac Newton [...]

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When goals get in the way

I’ve long been fascinated by the way goals can help or hinder performance, right from my early days of competition.  Having a clear objective ‘should’ be a good thing, but it seems to me that this isn’t always the case.  It takes a bit of care to choose the right goals. Over my winter slalom [...]

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Rules of the road – when slalom and plastic meet.

I was disturbed by a recent Facebook post from a paddling friend who said  “my session (at Lee Valley) today was completely ruined by the hoards of extremely selfish slalom paddlers..” an update that led to a long stream of comments about the difficulties of slalom paddlers and others sharing the same stretch of whitewater. [...]

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Road trip to Val Sesia and Ticino

8 Rivers with Dean, Andy, and (all the way from Tasmania) Harry. We spent five days in Val Sesia, to take in the Gene 17 Festival and paddle the classics, before heading east to Ticino in southern Switzerland for some new rivers.  We started with a couple of runs on the Sesia including the Gene [...]

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