Venom

 A big thanks to Venom for giving me a sponshership! The new blades look sweet, fully carbon blade and handmade carbon shaft. They only cost £175 new because Peter makes them in the shop. Absolute bargin! Cant wait to test them out on the river.

Lee Valley

The first time you go to Lee Valley you have to pass an assesment so they can decide what sort of level you are and wether you get to paddle on the legacy or the Olympic course. You start off just paddling around on flat water so they could see that we had the basics. We then took the convayabelt up to the top of the legacy course, which is alot smaller than the Olympic. We did one basic run down then a run where we had to hit slalom gates and do a roll or a "controlled swim". He then told me and Graham we could go to the Olympic course as we had passed that part of the assesment. (Everyone else passed to stay on the legacy course). On the Olympic course we had to surf across a big hole and come back across surfing a wave. Then we had to hit four eddies and then make a must make eddy before one of the big drops. Me and Graham both passed to be able to use the Olympic course in future.

We spent another hour on the course after the assesment. The Olympic course is alot bigger than it looked on the telly, I was pleasently supprised. The only thing that wasnt that great was that there wasnt really any deep holes for playboating. I had one sketchy moment with a raft, when I was surfing the big hole you cant see upriver and all of a sudden the raft was on top of me but I just managed to skim passed it. All in all it was a good day and I will definatly be going back there when the rivers are empty.

1st at Hurley Youth Freestyle

This competition was supposed to be at Boulters on the 14th of July but the weir was washed out due to high water levels. The event got moved to the 11th of August. It then got moved to Hurley as Hurley was on 2 gates and is a better play spot! Its not very offten Hurley runs in the summer so we got lucky. It was my first time at Hurley so I was excited to get going! I got there with Tom and Jacob Collings. It was a nice sunny day and the wave was great fun as we had a bit of practice before the competion began. We had to run the competition early as they wanted to close a gate as the water levels were dropping, but Jacko had a word with the the guy and managed to get us a few hours of water. I was to go in the Under 18 category. The comp was really good fun and this was the biggest feature I have ever competed on. We each had 2 45 second rides. I flushed once on both of the rides so it wasnt too bad as I managed to get back up to the feature pretty quick. I managed a few blunts and spins on the wave and even put a shudder rudder in there to try and please the judges ;) We had some more time on the water after the competition and had a bit of coaching from Jacko.
It was results time and I came 1st in my category which I was very pleased with! More photos on Facebook here- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150999268817043.423498.757682042&type=3
Results here- http://www.youthfreestyle.co.uk/attachments/article/53/Hurley%20Results%202012%20Age%20and%20Novice.pdf
Jake

Success at Nene Youth freestyle

Me and Tom Collings with Emily Jackson

I went to the Nene event of the Youth freestyle series. The sun was shining and it was very hot! Just a rash vest was the ticket for the day. It was my first time in the under 18 category so I didnt quite know what to expect! They changed the rules about a bit think to make it a bit more fair. The sponsored paddlers were in a seperate category to the main event.
First off we were just having a bit of practice and playing about on the course. Me and my friend Tom decided to take a dynamic duo for a bit of fun. It was really was good fun until some other paddlers took it out after us and folded it in half!
It was soon time for lunch and thats when I was walking around and suddenly realised i was walking right behind Emily Jackson! Bit wierd although I knew she was in the country so I wasnt too suprised to see her.
It was then time for the competition with the main event in the main hole and the novice in a smaller feature downstream.
I was watching some of the paddlers before me and they looked really good pulling off phonix mokeys, mcnasties and loops. These were the sponsored paddlers. Then it was my turn- I had a really good first run with a cartwheel, splitwheel, loop and I think the judges may have awarded me a phonix monkey although the loop at the end looked more like a roll! My second run was not quite so good with just a wavewheel entry move and a piroette.
Results time-I didnt think I had a chance but as it turned out I came 1st in my category! Jake Brookes came in at 2nd and Ben Coulton in 3rd. All the other Category results can be found here. I had a great day and am looking forward to the Boulters event on the 14th of July.http://www.youthfreestyle.co.uk/attachments/article/44/Nene%20Club%20Results%202012b.pdf   Here is a video Bren Orton made of the day.https://vimeo.com/43143879

Best Birthday

I had the best birthday ever this year. Me and Jack Campion headed over to the Dart Loop on Dartmoor as the levels were up! It was running through the third arch at Newbridge. The first wave you get to is the best wave on the river and I managed to get tricks like spins and blunts on it. The rest of the river is bouncy! Triple falls is just a big wave train.

Here is a short video of the day.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfUTKam41DM

Eastmills video by Tom collings

East Mills Weir

This is my local play spot. This weir is a funny one it can either be really good or really disappointing. Sometimes it can be a nice deepish hole good enough for loops and all other modern freestyle moves. Sometimes it can be a wave good enough to flat spin and just about blunt. Or sometimes it can be completely flat. I would also say only go here if you dont mind a bit of confrontation as the land owners arent keen on paddlers being there.

East Mills

Just a little video of my local weir at East Mills

My Life so far

The first time I got into a boat was when I was just 6 weeks old in my dads canoe. I would like to feel I have progressed since then. My first white water kayak trip was the lower dart when I was 9 with Ringwood Canoe Club, in a Cypher. My parents have always been into it so I had no option but to kayak, which I feel is the best thing thats happened to me. We were always away on Club trips to Dartmoor and Wales. We also do a bit of sea kayaking, two years ago we did a weeks sea kayaking in Croatia, this was great fun! I did my fist Upper Dart (grade 4) run when I was 13 with Ringwood and Sandleheath scouts (thanks to Graham Bland for taking me on trips like this). This was in my Dagger Dynamo. I Then got a Dagger G-force at the age of 14 as I wanted to take up freestyle kayaking. I then decided to go in to the youth feestyle event at the Nene white water course. I entered the novice category and came 10th.The next year I entered novice again and came in at 6th place I also entered Boulters that year but entered the main category and came 7th overall. This year I entered the 18 and under main event at Nene and came 1st! I am looking forward to competeing at Boulters on the 14th July. I now enjoy going out with paddling freinds to the Dart, Cardiff and my local weir (East mills weir).