Riverside Shop Christmas Party! Tuesday 15th December

The Riverside Shop warmly invites you to come in and join us for a Mince Pie and some Christmas cheer and pick up some Christmas present bargains for yourself or loved ones.
We offer gift wrapping presents and storing them until Christmas Eve!

So drop in from 6pm till late!

L'Aventure Alpine 2009

Finally after massive delay, it's time for a write up of a most excellent Don's expedition to the French Alps.

It all began with a huge amount of planning. Youth Oppertunity Funds were applied for, meeting attended, and a massive amount of work had to be done before we could even think about going. Finally though, after what seemed like a monumentous wait, we were off, to begin a 789 mile trip to here;



The wonderful Camping du Lac, which would be our base camp for the week.




Ahh, just like home.

Over the next few days we tacked 3 sections of the durance, played on slalom courses, playboated in the Rabioux wave (to which the footage has mysteriously disappeared), practiced our skills and paddled the challenging Ubaye Racecourse (so challenging we didn't have any time to take any pictures.)

After a few days it was time to move on to Sault Brenaz, a wonderfull whitewater course for practising many different aspects of paddling. People were learning about ferry gliding, Surfing waves, paddling inflatable canoes (hotdogs) and some people passed a 3 star assessment (Well done!)



Ashley and Portia Surf a Hotdaog




Connor's Robson Photo

All too soon it was time to go home, but we won't forget the good times had, friends made and things learnt will not be forgotten



Group Photo!




Time to begin the big drive home

We'd all like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has helped, in whatever way to make this trip possible. We couldn't have gone without you. If you haven't already had enough of our trip yet, check out the video!




Stay cool

-Louis

Juniors attend BCU Southern Region Wavehopper Sprint!

BCU Southern Region Wavehopper Sprint event
Newbury, 15th November

After a couple of training sessions in appalling weather on Saturday, Riverside's Wavehopper team enjoyed a fabulous day at the races in Newbury in glorious sunshine on Sunday.

The event involved two 500 metre sprints down the millstream, under the bridge below the lock and millpond to the finishing line outside the Waterside Centre. They then had to paddle their boats back upstream against a strong current to the lock and portage them back up to the starting line for the next competitors to use.

Racing against 8 other teams from the Southern Region Riverside achieved 4th position overall. Everyone did really well with a special commendation to Jona for coming 3rd in the under 12s and Sophia for coming 4th in the under 14s. A brilliant result for their first race in Wavehoppers.

Team Wavehopper:

Kieran Husband
Jona Boender
Owain Harris
Carl Gregory
Jake Woodward

Jay Boender
Erin Keenan
Nicole Head
Sophia Frost

Many thanks must go to the team, their parents and supporters and to the coaches who made this event possible.

Jennifer Clough

Riverside Shop Sale 21/22nd November

Dear All,

This weekend will an excellent sale of Kayak and canoe equipment. Everything in store will have 20% off plus loads of items at special prices.

Come in and find the special bargains and enter our limited 120 ticket raffle to win a Playboat.

We will open at 9am so get in early and grab yourself a bargain!

See you then.

Chris

Lunar Orbits

So this is the next vid for tvdfreestylers... check it out and tell us what you think!



Enjoy!

Cancelled

Unfortunatley we have had to cancel the Leo Hoare talk this evening, but he will be returning in the New year to give his talk then. If you would like further information on Leo, please visit his website Getafix.com

Apologies for the late notice.

Chris

Evening Talk

The Riverside Shop is please to announce that:
Leo Hoare
will be giving a talk on his Greenland adventures
‘Fresh Fish and Icebergs’ on
Wednesday 21st October 2009
At 7.30pm

Cost of the talk will be £4.00 (adult) and £1.00 (Young People) with all proceeds going towards the Young people at the Riverside Centre.

Tickets available from the Riverside Shop or to reserve a place email:
riversidecentre2@btconnect.com


Back then slalom was the thing to do. Leo competed to a high level and represented Great Britain for 6 years. In those years he raced and trained all over the world, achieved a fourth place in the junior worlds, a place in the squad for the Barcelona Olympics and many wins at junior internationals. He finished chasing sticks in 1992 after appearing on the programme "Paddles Up", and being ranked in the top 10 UK seniors. From 1992 to 1994 he coached the Welsh junior and senior squads and the British intermediate slalom teams.
The seed had been planted to see and experience other places and cultures at an early age and discovering the open canoe and sea kayak has allowed him to go on some amazing adventures: A solo circumnavigation of Easter Island in a 10-year-old White water boat, the Rio Grande in Mexico, kayak safaris in Africa and expeditions to S.E Greenland, Norway and New Zealand is just some of the adventures he has had.
Leo loves people; That's why he feels that coaching is the best job in the world, and paddling is and always will be in his blood.
Leo has contributed chapters to the BCU Canoe Kayak Handbook and the BCU Coaching Handbook, and made smaller contributions to the books Top Tips for Coaches and Canoe Games. Recently Leo has been involved with the development of the new UKCC coaching awards, producing resources, running pilots and fine tuning the structure.
Leo co-directed and produced the DVD Sea Kayak Safety with paddling partner Olly Sanders.
Before setting up his own paddling company Getafix he worked for Plas Y Brenin for 7 years and freelanced for centres country wide providing staff training.

Hurley is NOT open.

But I made a video ages ago - when Hurley was open.



6 Months ago.

Finn

Finn & Hugh go to 'The' Uganda

"Oh look a danger sign I can take a photo of! How original am I?!"

Ah yes, another post - documenting what can only be described as a momentously messy trip to Uganda. If you want to know what Uganda is all about read either Hugh or Matt's posts from earlier this year; I feel they do a great job of summing up something that I can't be bothered to sum up again!


Hugh going Clean!

Finn going Clean!


The River running is 'grand so'

Relaxing, maxing all cool at Eden Rock

Queued up for Club wave

Nile Special wave was also 'Grand so'



In order: Finn Killin' it, Finn Killin' it some more, Hugh... not so much.

Heading out for another days paddling


Uganda is amazing - go before the best bits are gone... (The top section of the white Nile, not bits of Uganda itself. Don't worry.)

Jump on that 'safety assured' van! No, not insured, assured.

Ok, so the trip in one sentance...

Amazing kayaking lifestyle with a drop of confusion, stumbling about, adrenaline and Japati.

"Oooh ah ah ah ah!"

Take it easy,
Finn & Hughberry


P.S. Expect the video to be up in the next few weeks, there have been some major set backs...

Hi just a wee post to say thanks to Sam for all of his hard work over the past couple of months and to also wish him the best at Uni. I have rearranged the shop slightly... More soon.

Chris

Youth Freestyle Nottingham

The Queue during the mornings coaching at "The Tardis"

Finn went up to compete in the last of the Youth Freestyle events in Nottingham, so I decided to tag along!

Have to say it was a very cool, very well organised event, with coaching in the morning, combined with a ball hit slalom in the middle part of the course- Dave bainbridge, fresh from his win at the worlds, showed everyone how it was done, hitting pretty much every ball with the boat in his example run!



Throwing the mc Nasty in the tardis



The crowd at the inlet gate

The comp itself was held on the inlet wave, with a novice event held further down the course. This was composed on 2 45 second runs that you could take whenever you liked. There was a big range in ability, but that didnt stop everyone pushing themselves to get the best possible score they could manage.



Busting out a stratospheric loop



Touchdown

I was really impressed by the level the top juniors were displaying- cartwheels, cleans and supercleans both ways, mc nasties, phonixes, tricky whus and lunar orbits all went down, with the top guys hitting back to front loop combos, paddleswitch and paddle throw loops.



Paddlethrow loop



Finn mid loop



Egged on by the crowd ever more silly things were attempted (the standing up in the playboat game is always a crowd-pleaser!). Next up on the calendar is the British Champs- guess i will see you all there!

Summer paddling and a new tricks vid

Well after the last couple of summers its back to the normal Thames Valley Paddling routine of Abingdon, Boulters and Chertsey.

Been spending a lot of time at Chertsey, a great little spot where just about any hole move goes- really good for learning new stuff in. Hector has joined me on a few occasion recently and is progressing quickly, throwing phonix monkies and mc nasties and getting close to tricky woo's.

I spent the first bit of the summer figuring out Tricky woos and have been giving Lunar Orbits a try in the last couple of sessions, with varying degrees of success!
The following is the next tricks vid, filmed at Chertsey on how to Mc nasty- enjoy!



Matt

That's a Video!

Because the Blog can't fit it in widescreen.

The Swiss/Italian Dream:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj79yHJazx0&feature=channel_page

Tricky Woo

One of The coolest looking hole moves going... bring on the tricky woo!



Matt

Swiss Italian Alps - Amazing.

So it's been a little while since the blog was updated with a full article, however our latest trip report is sure to make up for it.


It all started with an epic drive to Switzerland...

(Above: Chilling in a lay-by... put it away Scopes)
We left Oxford and set out on a ridiculously long Journey across Europe. We boarded the ferry at Dover, ate a school dinner-like meal on the way across, and landed in Calais at around 10pm. The real drive had begun. The night was long and hard (well for Boothy at least... props for driving!)each hour seemed never ending... the arduous drive only broken up by pit stops and the occasional text from O2 roaming...'Welcome to Belgium...Luxembourg...Germany'...and finally... "Welcome to Switzerland. Calls to the UK & EU cost 35ppm & 18ppm to receive". We'd Made it!

Border crossed. Road Tax paid. Amazing service station visited. Ready to paddle.

Upon arriving in the town of Illanz, we hooked up with some of Rob's buddies from the Nookie crew, Tim, Hazel and Alex and also the two Euro-trippin' love birds - Hugh and Scopes. So after introductions by the side of the road and a bit of a chit chat we set off for our first river of the week, the Glenner: an awesome little run from start to finish. Unfortunately Hazel managed give a rock a piece of her mind (face...) half way down the river, resulting in stitches. She got her paddles ripped out of her hands in a stopper, but to our amazement picked them up again, rolled up, eddied out... styled it. Luckily nothing too serious, however she was desegnated photographer for the next days river...

The Cristallina: Awesome water, amazing location... slippery rocks. Rob NOO!
(Below Paul Scopes on one of the entry sections Photo: Mickey)

The second day in Switzerland saw us paddle the beautiful Cristallina river. Seriously picturesque with amazing whitewater to match, we were all in for a great days paddle... or so we thought.
Unfortunately just before the drop pictured below, Rob managed to break his foot! Ironically whilst setting up safety for wee man Hector.
(Below: Hector styling the first drop on the Cristallina. Photo: Scopes)

(Pictured Below Rob before the accident... Photo:Mickey )

With that minor set back sorted in good time... we paddled down the river, which was pretty consistent throughout, providing awesome fun for the duration.

(Above: Boothy on the next drop of the Cristallina)
(Below: Finn Burrows flying off another drop involving a Kicker and a wall Photos: Mickey)

The rest of us jumped off at the get out to watch Alex, Tim and Hector run these three sweet drops at the entry to the gorge section:



(From top to bottom: Hector approaching the lip of the first drop with Tim below. Hector Boofing the second. Alex Driving down the third. Photo's: Mickey)
Cheers to Alex Keller for letting us stay in his house for the night and showing us some awesome water!

Our next Swiss drive led us to James Weir's house - another of Rob's buddies who we were going to have the pleasure of paddling with the next day.

(AboveThe Pathway to James's House. Photo: Finn Burrows)

(AboveTim checking out the SLR. Photo: Finn Burrows)

Next morning led us to a River with no name (well it did have a name I just can't remember it). An awesome, fairly high volume run with lots of bouncy wave trains to kickflip off!
Here's the Pictures:





(Above High five to Finish the day - sorted Photo's: Rob Yates)
Big thanks to James for putting us up for a night and showing us this beautiful river!

Get in the bus! Let's go to Italy!
Now for the Italian side of the Alps. After a fair few hours driving we rocked up in the lovely town of Campertogno in Piedmont Italy.

The campsite in Campertogno is possibly one of the best I've been to, lovely people, paddlers everywhere, great atmosphere and the best pizza for miles.

Our first run in Italy was the Sermenza, seriously good whitewater.
( Above Finn running the opening drop on the Sermenza )
The section we ran, led from the drop pictured above, through about 2km of class 3/4 and into a beautiful gorge section to close. Check it out. These Pictures are from our second run of the Sermenza, as the first time we paddled in a thunderstorm with the river being about two foot higher.

(Below The lead in to the gorge.)



(Above Boothy Running the lead in. Scopes Dropping into the Gorge)
(Below Hugh waiting for others in the Gorge)


Unfortunately due to the 'gorgeyness' of the gorge we couldn't really get any photos of the quality whitewater that lay within! Well Maybe one picture...sorry Hugh:

(Above Hugh Swam! And put a hole in his boat!)


But wait! There's More!
So we stayed in Campertogno for the rest of the week, paddling the Rivers in the surrounding area and generally having a great time. We managed to paddle (and take photographs, video etc.) of the Gronda and Slides of the River Sorba. The River Gronda is a fairly tight, boulder strewn, slide and drop filled beauty of a whitewater river, that flows into the Slides of Sorba. The Sorba slides are short and extremely sweet. I'll let the photos do the talking.


(AboveFirst Drop of the Gronda - Scopes Runs it, Finn Watches)
(Below Hector Runs the second 'mentionable' drop)

The larger drops and rapids were broken up by tight and technical boulder gardens.

(Below Sweet drop into little slide)

(Below Hugh runs the race line on the penultimate drop)

(Below Hector Hucking the last drops of The Gronda)

The Gronda then flows into the Slides and drops of The Sorba:

(Above Finn Running the first drop of the Sorba)
(Below Hugh styles the second 'connecting' drop of the Sorba)

The three drops we ran were all interconnected, so once you ran the first, you were running them all.

(Above Hector Dropping on to the last slide)
(Below Hugh's boat and fingers after running the last slide)


Only a few flesh wounds, luckily nothing serious.
Apart from Hugh's little escapade on the third slide, everything ran smoothly and what a great way to say goodbye to Italy, we'd run out of time!

Back on the Road again!



So we packed up at Campertogno, jumped in 'ye old faithful' Riverside van and set of across the lush mountains, heading back through picturesque Switzerland and all the way through mainland Europe to the not so picturesque port of Calais.

Back home, all I can say is... I'll miss you Swiss/Italian alps... you were good to us.

Well that's all for now, what an amazing trip it was! Definitely go if you get the chance, it's well worth the drive. I'd love to go back.

Just a quick thanks to Rob for staying strong in the face of adversity, Boothy for bearing up and driving such long distances and all the folks we met along the way for being so kind.

The video should be up within the next day or so, keep your eyes peeled, it's a goodun.

Take it easy

Finn