Last weekend I went across to North Ireland’s Tollymore centre for the CANI Paddlefest – which turned out to be an excellent weekend that got people boating, trying new things and provided inspiration for paddlers of all disciplines, ages and abilities.
I kicked off proceedings on Friday with a photo slideshow of the expedition to Georgia I led last August. I hoped to inspire paddlers to get out on adventures of their own, or visit Georgia… or both. There certainly seemed to be plenty of “bar chat” of future Georgia trips or other potential destinations that evening, so I guess I managed that!
Throughout Saturday and Sunday there were a range of courses and workshops that participants could sign up to. I was running an expedition river skills workshop and armed with a hand drawn river map, I headed out with 6 lovely paddlers for a day on the Blackwater Weirs. Despite low water this proved to be an excellent coaching venue for working on group dynamics, lateral momentum and key strokes for drops and stoppers.
Sunday was a little slower off the mark and with a shorter session we were only able to venture as far as a tidal spot, which provided enough flow to work on efficient ferrying and driving across boily eddylines. Once the tide became slack, we returned to where iCanoe had a bunch of demo boats on offer – allowing us to give people an intro to playboating or work on their double pump while others practiced their rolls or just tried out different boats. We also discovered that lean-cleaning uses the exact same motions as hula dancing… so dig out your hula hoop!
More photos and comments from the weekend can be found on our facebook page.
