Blastathon

The annual Abingdon Blastathon went off with a bang on Saturday night. This is one of my favourite events of the year- always a really good laugh and a solid turnout.

The key to the fun is the scoring system which gives everyone the opportunity to compete and score, regardless of ability or paddling craft. This includes points for fancy dress, entertaining (or bribing) the judges, artistic merit and a good mix or old school moves such a paddle spins combined with the more convential.

All the competitors got 2 runs of 45 seconds which combined the sublime with the frankly ridiculous. Dave Surman combined bun throwing and superman, whilst another went for the scuba fins and mask option. Brilliant!

The ROx guys put on a great performance with Louis Frost eventually finishing 1st and Connor Cox taking 3rd in the under 18's, despite arriving late and taking his customary swim! Dave Gibson won the king of the wave and Jen Clough managed to win the open canoe event, mostly due to the fact that she lost her paddle mid way through her second run :0)

The Mens was the biggest field its been in a long while and the competition was close, with the top few paddlers putting down very respectable runs. James Metcalfe managed a creditable 3rd, with Richard Morley just pinching 2nd and I managed to eventually come out on top, taking away the Chris Wheeler memorial trophy.

The BBQ afterwards was great fun and not even the rain could ruin the atmosphere- roll on next year!

Big thanks to Dave Surman and Kingfisher Canoe club for putting on a great event once again and to Simon Know for letting me use his photos- you can check out more of his handiwork on his website, which is well worth a gander.

TV Freestylers Birthday Video

Filmed by Finn this is a great little round up of the days fun and frolics- enjoy!

Thames Valley Freestylers 4th Birthday @ Cardiff! from Finn Burrows on Vimeo.

TV Freestylers Birthday Party

This is the fourth year of TV Freestylers- and as has become customary its time to throw it a birthday party! This great event is usually held at Hurley and is an excuse for paddlers of all abilities to get together, have a laugh and paddle with each other over a diet of light-hearted competition.


This year Hurley was running dry so the whole valley upped sticks and moved west to Cardiff. This, we discovered was a great little course with loads of fun drops and an OK play feature, especially when the flow was cranked up, all that and there is a conveyor belt- brilliant!!


The day had something for everyone- a boatercross race, which for those not in the know is when 4 paddlers race at the same time down a set course- carnage usually ensues and this was no different!!- extreme slalom, which mixed boofs and freestyle moves along with style points, some hilarious runs- 3 move freestyle- what it says on the tin- choose your moves, or have your peers choose them for you and get 2 attempts to nail each one- tag team freestyle- teams paddling with everyone having to tag in the next boater before they can score- great spectator sport :0) King of the Wave- swimmers, pain, carnage.


James made the finals of the boatercross with a cheeky bottom eddy start. Me and Finn made the freestyle finals. Can't tell you how any of us did as we were all having far to much fun to pay attention to the fact it was a competition, brilliant day with big thanks to Dave "scout" Wortley and the crew for pulling off a great day. Creck out the photos and block out your diary for next year, you dont want to miss it!

The long awaited next installment...

A look at how to throw the imfamous Panam-



See you guys and gals on the water somewhere soon!

Matt

ROx Hurley Sessions

ROx have been down at Hurley most weekends for the last few weeks and the level of paddling has been getting better all the time. The following is a vid by James Metcalfe and soe photos of him paddling from a little 2 gate session- he has shown some huge leaps forward this year throwing flip turns, donkey flips and cleans with irritating regularity!









Look out for the next How to Vid on Panams which should be edited pretty soon!

Hopefully see you all on the water and paddling hard soon.

Matt

Slacklining

In the recent drought I've been spending some time learning to slackline- found it to be really addictive, great fun and theyre cheap to buy! Check it out...

Adventures to come...

I have found myself with a holiday and no water, or any real trip organised... a strange feeling indeed!

I have spent the kayaking famine organising the possible years trips. Been meaning to get over to France in Easter to go surf Hawaii-sur-rhone, amongst other things- was lucky enough to be over that way in the summer and there is so much potential in quite a small area- looking forward to the adventure already.

Also looking forward to the summer and a possible trip to the mighty Ottowa- I have been meaning to head back to Canada for many years to sample the joys of this whitewater playground.

And I need a surf trip somewhere- hmmm- one to work on!

All I need now is some water before I begin to loose my sanity- hopefully see you all on the water somewhere soon!

Matt