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Replacing the backband string on your Jackson Kayak

Paddling the amount that I do and at the level I do, I find the string that comes as standard on the Jackson backbands often wears through and either breaks or slips out of the cleats (though the new Rockstar’s cleats seem to hold much better). If you find your backband slips or is starting to look warn, I highly recommend replacing the string. Here’s how…

1. Get replacement cord

I use 5mm prusik cord, available from most climbing shops (e.g. Rock Bottom in Betws or online). This is rugged and hard wearing, while also being rough enough to have good friction in the cleat. You need about a metre per side you wish to replace. I’d replace both sides at the same time.

2. Remove old cord

But don’t remove both side at once! Leave one side in while you do the first, then you have it for reference if you get confused about where the cord needs to go. Note the knot used on either end, it is usually a figure of 8, like below. There is a plastic washer on one end of the cord – put that safely to one side, you’ll need it again in a minute.

3. Start at the cleat

This is probably not the obvious place to start, but trust me it is the easiest! Tie a figure of eight in one end of the cord then feed the other through the cleat from the end closest to the front of the boat.

4. Feed it through the larger hole

Starting from behind the cockpit rim, feed that same untied end of the cord through the larger hole in front of the hip pads.

5. Loop around the backband ring

Note the direction that the cord is passed through the ring, this ensures the cord can pull through freely to tighten the backband.

6. Pass through the smaller hole

7. Remember the washer!

Find the washer you put down in a “safe place” and stick it on the end of the cord then tie another figure of eight. Pull the washer down onto the knot.

Pull the cord through until the washer is against the inside if the cockpit rim. Ensure the washer is sitting flat or it can damage either the washer or your cockpit.

8. Do it all again for the other side!

9. Trimming

Remember that excessive lengths of string could cause an entrapment hazard. If you need to trim your cord, use a hot sharp knife.

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Get Your Club Playing @ Tandridge

For a while now we have been running a “Get Your Club Playing” scheme, the idea of which is to enthuse clubs about playboating and show how basic playboating can be introduced at any flatwater session. We provide inspirational demonstrations by GB Team paddlers, expert coaches and a load of demo playboats. This is a little write-up of one such session we ran for Tandridge Canoe Club at Thames Young Marinas.

After introducing our coaches and helpers for the day, our GB Team paddlers put on an inspirational display of flatwater acrobatics to get everyone fired up and to show what freestyle is all about.

We then split into groups depending on experience and ability. The beginner group was all about the first experiences of playboating. Trying lots of boats, playing with edging, enders, tailies, lean-cleans, rolls and some even got on to double pumps!

The more experienced group worked on double pumps, flatwater cartwheels, bow stalls, loops and flatwater pistol flips with Bren Orton and Matty Nicholas. Video feedback was used to breakdown some of the more advanced moves and track progression.

At the end of the session paddlers of all abilities not only had a big smile on their face, but had plenty of skills to work on with a clear idea of how to progress towards their next goal – whether that was consistent tailies or learning the flatwater McNasty.

The following day the more experienced paddlers had a follow-up session on Hurley Weir, where we again split into groups depending on ability and worked on anything from catching the wave and front-surfing up to blunt-to-pistol flip combos!

If you’re thinking that this looks like fun, why not organise a session for your club? Details here.

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Hula dancing makes you a better playboater?

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.

Bank-based coaching

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.

Punching stoppers

Happy group at Blackwater

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!

Playing with play boats

Double Pump coaching

Stern stalling

Showing off

More photos and comments from the weekend can be found on our facebook page.

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It´s Chile over here!!

Ok so I´m in the last month of my three and a half month trip to Chile. After the really bad luck that Dave Hollins and I endured at the beginning of the trip (laptop stolen, wallet stolen, camera broken, issues with documentation etc.etc.etc) we have managed to have an awesome time. This is my second trip to Chile working for kayakchile.net as a kayak coach and safety kayaker. Two days ago I came back from the amazing Futaleufu where I was Safety kayaking and coaching for our three clients on a ten day Big water adventure. We had mostly beautiful sunshine and boiling hot temperatures, and Im sure I have eaten my body weight in Cow in the last 10days.

Over the trip we paddled the whole Futa including: Inferno Canyon, Terminator Section, Bridge to Bridge, Mas o Menos and Casa de Piedra and the Macal Section.Anyway here are some photos of our trip for you to look at.

Photos thanks to Katie, Pamina, Christiano, Tzak, Dave and Me

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Election Fever in Uganda

On Friday 18th Feb, the Presidential Elections were held in Uganda – a country which hundreds of kayakers visit every year to enjoy the wonderful white water offered by the White Nile. Uganda is generally one of the most stable and safest countries in Africa to travel around as a tourist but with the political instability of countries across Northern Africa and the Middle East hitting the headlines, I think it’s fair to say that we were all a little anxious to see that this election went smoothly in what paddlers affectionately call “the centre of the Universe”.

The current president, Museveni, has been in power here for 25 years and expectation was that he’d win once again. The results released today show that was the case, though opposing parties claim unfair practice and fraud – something I suspect will never be proved either way – a sad fact about African politics.

In the lead-up to the elections there was much excitement and loud rallies (often with a big sound system playing upbeat music in the back of a truck) were common sights across Uganda. People went around wearing the T-shirt of the candidate they supported and posters were stuck all over: from shops to mud-huts! I thought it was great to see a country really engaging with their politics and being proud to show they care about their vote and the end result. Sure, the system is flawed – for one it is almost impossible for many poor Ugandans from rural areas to register to vote – but it was still a refreshing change from the apathy you see in the UK. If only people would realise that at least every vote DOES count in the UK!

The video above was taken 2 days before the Presidential Election and shows a rally in support of Besigye, the main opponent to Museveni. We’d already been stuck in the middle of this rally for at least 10 minutes before I remembered I had my camera with me! There was very little in the way of trouble across Uganda prior to the elections – though this rally later met with a rally for Museveni and there was reportedly some small scale violence. On the whole, the people were enthusiastic and passionate, which was great to see (if a little daunting in their large numbers!).

I feel I need to finish this post by relating it back to kayaking, since that is what FlowFree is all about. I hope to do that without diminishing the importance of the democratic process (you judge that one?) that has just occurred here. Museveni regaining power means we can expect another term of stability in Uganda, which will allow us to travel there as tourists without too much concern for our safety… the major issue for paddlers there now is the immanent closure of Silverback and plans for further hydro schemes on the White Nile. But that is another story entirely…

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Goodbye Silverback

For the past month I’ve been in Uganda running Kayak the Nile which has been amazing. I’ll add another post soon with photos and video from my time here so far, but for now I wanted to share this information about the timing of the Silverback closure due to the construction of the dam.

The official date of closure of the Silverback channel to river craft is now set as Feb 28th – less than a month away. Below is the response from Nile River Explorers Rafting.

For kayakers, the effect of this closure is initially not as dramatic. Kayaks will still be able to paddle the rapids prior to Silverback and portage Silverback to continue down the Day 1 section. Only when the dam is actually put in place will we start to lose the rapids upstream of Silverback as the water backs up – it is estimated this is around 12 months away yet.

That said, I’m taking every chance I can to paddle all of those rapids before they are gone forever!

If you are thinking of coming out to Uganda, my advice is do it! Even if you can’t make it until the dam is in place, there is still a great range of rapids and playspots below the dam and the promise of higher flows will make it a lot of fun all round.

Time to get back on the water. Happy paddling all.

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Tryweryn Fest 2010

Back in September, the first ever Tryweryn Festival was held – one of the first events to involve almost all the UK market’s manufacturers. With loads of demo boats available, coaching sessions and loads of fun events all weekend – this promised to be an excellent event.

Demo Boats

I was there running some FlowFree coaching sessions – as well as getting involved with some of the events. Here’s a summary of a fun, wet weekend in Wales.

Saturday was full of events such as the Dynamic Duo rolling contest and the eddy-hop challenge: where you had to try and get as far back up the graveyard as you could from the slalom hut.

Duo rolling

Saturday also saw a “multi-sport race”, which involved running up the Tryweryn, kayaking down and mountain biking back up, round a short course and down again to the finish-line by Chapel Falls. Sadly there were only a few entrants but competition was hot as everyone wanted to beat their mates! Carl Mitchell did a cheeky over-take to beat Lynsey Evans to the top spot.

For those of a less competitive nature, there was an en-masse paddle down to Bala or plenty of opportunity to just play about on the upper section. As well as quality coaching sessions available; from an intro to white water up to nailing those eddies on the Graveyard.

After an evening of films, food and beers; Sunday’s events got going. The morning’s big event was the 8-ball race – an utterly hilarious head-to-head race where various moving obstacles came out to get you at every turn.

8-ball carnage

More carnage

Racing
Photos by Paul Smith

Having already completed a morning’s playboat coaching session I was stoked to make it into the Open final (after 5 knockout rounds) and finish in 3rd over all. But then the organisers decided to run a Ladies-only final too! Race no. 6…. and this time I got 2nd, to the legend that is Lynsey Evans.

Just enough time to collect my prizes and get a quick sugar fix, it was time for the freestyle at NRA wave. This event was all about fun and encouraging others – and prizes were only given to non-sponsored paddlers. The jam format of the heats allowed everyone to have fun and try some new moves and throw in some old school. Everyone loves the shudder-rudder-to-air-guitar combo!

Deck grab

Photos taken by: Adrian Trendall

All in all, I think this event showed a lot of promise. Getting all the manufacturers involved meant there was something for everyone. It was a shame that the rain and clash with WWPF meant numbers weren’t as high as they could have been – but hopefully next year at least one of those factors will be arranged differently!

Hope to see you there next year!

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FlowFree at your Club

We are now offering clubs the chance to book us for their own pool sessions, evening meets or weekend trips.

We’ll come directly to your club session so no special arrangements need to be made for the club. We can run flatwater playboating sessions (with demo boats), rolling clinics or any variation of our usual white water or safety & rescue skills courses. Or if you’d like us to display our skills to inspire members (or potential members at an open day), we’d be happy to come and show off 😉

Get in touch for more details.

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Wave-tastic fun in Lyon

Here’s a little write up sent to us by one of our trainee coaches, Fran Kohn.

So after the obligatory long drive, multiple fried breakfasts and dodgy ‘value’ French confectionary, we arrived at our destination of Hawaii Sur Rhone for an Introduction to Big Wave Paddling course with Lowri Davies from FlowFree.

We arrived late in the evening but were keen to see what we had come for, so we went straight to see the wave. In the dark the most noticable thing was the never ending thundering and crashing as about 900 cumecs raced past us, just 10 feet away. In the glow of the street lamps it looked big, fast and exciting and we were all fired up for the next day.

While the clients went back to the comfort of a nearby hotel, Lowri and her Trainee coach (me) bunked down in the luxury of her camper-van.

The next day Lowri talked through where we wanted to catch the wave – ‘the sweet spot in the middle just on the surfers left shoulder of the pile’. We started with a straight forward run through the wave to get our up stream markers worked out, because the massive horizon line obscures your view of exactly where you are on the wave. As we ferryed out it became clear just how big this river was!! On the lip of the drop the surge of adrenaline pumping through your veins is unbelieveable as you are confronted by a river wide 10ft wall of water! We all punched through it shouting variations of “hell yeah” and then fought our way to the get out eddy all excited about our next rides on this awesome wave!!

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Actually catching the wave proved quite difficult. Gauging where you were on the wave using your upsteam markers required a fair amount of balls as you wanted to go far enough river right to catch the wave but not so far river left that you got stuck in the sticky bit!! Both myself and Andy ended up going too far right and both had to battle with the consequences. For me, I firstly felt elation of having caught the wave, and then came the realisation that I was in the wrong place! And stuck! No amount of trying to carve surfers left was working. Both Andy and I got rolled over a couple of times only to roll back up in the meat off the wave! I managed to pull myself out on another roll, whilst Andy’s experience ended with him getting a little bit wetter…. Time for lunch, I think!

The rest of the day was spent working out how to get on that elusive sweet spot, but as the water level rose this proved even harder!!! But by using the techniques like positive thinking and visualisation we each got a few wicked rides on one hell of an awesome wave by the end of the day.

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On the morning of day two we checked the river level and decided it wasn’t ideal for Hawaii-sur-Rhone so making use of Lowri’s expert local knowledge we headed to a slalom course just outside of Lyon which had two great waves on it. We spent the day there with Lowri doing some intensive freestyle coaching to great affect! At the end of the day we were all exhausted.

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It may not have been Hawaii Sur Rhone, but we had had a brilliant day and progressed our wave boating loads.

Day three started a little falteringly as sadly Hawaii Sur Rhone was still not right so we headed back to the slalom course for some consolidation of what we had learned the day before. We then paddled down the course and onto the river Rhone after hearing rumours about another great wave. Sure enough just outside the slalom site another river wide wave WITH EDDY SERVICE!!!

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Usually this wave does not exist but there was construction work on the dam upstream so for the first hour this new wave was rising and falling right in front of our eyes and under our boats… but as soon as work finished for the day the workers left all the gates open, giving us exclusive access for the whole evening. AND IT WAS FANTASTIC! It had everything on it you could want, a hole, a wave with a pile and even a green wave! So we spent our last evening grinning from ear to ear doing all the moves we had learned over the past few days – we were very happy campers.

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Thanks to FlowFree for an awesome trip. If you are interested in a similar trip or some coaching at this fantastic playboating venue – drop them an email on info@flowfree.co.uk. Lowri will be back out there from mid-June to early July or courses for groups can arranged on request – just get in touch to make arrangements.

To see more photos of our trip, check out the photo section of the website!

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Newsletter : April 2010

Hello and welcome to the latest FlowFree newsletter!

Well February and March were very busy indeed here at FlowFree. We’ve run trips abroad, freestyle courses, safety courses, week-long bespoke courses, BCU courses and white water skills courses of all varieties. And our coaches have been just as busy in their spare time: slalom competitions (see below), ski trips, Level 5 development, open boating and much more besides…

New Course Dates Online
We’ve now put all of our course dates for the whole of this year online so you can chose a date to suit you. Of course, if you do not find the course you would like on a date to suit you, just get in touch – we may well be able to arrange (or re-arrange) something for you. Check out our course calendar.

New Confidence Booster Course
Due to popular demand, FlowFree now offers a two-day confidence boosting course for anyone who feels that their inhibitions hold them back on the river. Confidence is a delicate thing and without it, no-one can paddle at their best. Losing your confidence can happen to anyone, of any standard. There may be a trigger – perhaps a you’ve had a bad experience or had a long gap since your last white water adventure – but sometimes you just seem to lose your mojo. We understand how frustrating this can be and would like to help you past that mental block towards happy, relaxed and enjoyable paddling at whatever level you’re at. Low ratios and highly experienced coaches ensure that you will have a very productive weekend, tailored to your needs. For more info and dates, click here.

FlowFree in France this Summer
From mid-June to early July, Lowri will in the French Alps and available for coaching courses, guided trips and playboating clinics. During this time, she will also be running Big Wave courses on demand on the Hawaii-sur-Rhone wave in Lyon. Whether you are freestyle whiz-kid or a river boater who fancies the thrill of surfing a giant standing wave, Lowri can help you to make the most of your time at H-S-R. Our “Intro to Big Wave Surfing” courses have been extremely successful in the past, with big smiles and great feedback every time. Why not come and join the fun? Lyon is perfect if you are on your way to or from the Alps or just fancy a few days of big wave fun as a short break from work.

For more information or to arrange some coaching in France this summer, just reply to this email or give us a call.

Student Boater-X, France
While we’re on the subject of paddling in sunny climes; we’ve just confirmed that we will be sponsoring the 2010 Student Boater-x which takes place on the Durance at l’Argentiere. This event is close to our hearts as our very own Tom Laws was the creator and original organiser of what has become a rip-roaringly fun event. Any Uni groups who will be in the French Alps on 11-12th June should definitely go along. It’s free!

Can we do better?
“To stand still is to go backwards.” – we understand the importance of always seeking to improve. Your feedback is really important to us, which is why we have made it even easier with an online form. If you have recently been on a course with us, please give us any feedback you may have. We take on board anything people take the time to send to us, so whether positive or negative, we want to hear from you!

New Coaching Staff
We take great care in choosing who we employ and have strict criteria: they must be an experienced and passionate paddler who is able to pass on this knowledge, technique and tactics to others through great coaching skills. But most of all, they should be people that we like spending time with and that we think our clients will like too. That’s why we are excited to announce David Fairweather as the latest member of regular FlowFree staff. Dave is an experienced white water paddler who over the past 15 years has paddled in Nepal, Kyrgystan, Morocco, Norway, Italy, India… the list goes on. You can read more about Dave’s adventures and passion for coaching on our About Us section, or check out some of his glowing customer feedback in our testimonials.

Palm Big Paddle
We are proud to announce that FlowFree will be running clinics and will have a stand at the Palm Big Paddle at Symmonds Yat on May 15-16th. If you haven’t heard about the Big Paddle, check out www.thebigpaddle.com – something for everyone!

Slalom Success
After whimsically saying she’d enter a slalom, Lowri realised she had just 4 days back in the UK before she was supposed to race in a Div 1 (for those who don’t know much about slalom, it has leagues like football, which go from Premier down to Div 4 – Premier is for very good people, usually GB Team and those sponsored for slalom who regularly train, so Div 1 is kinda like the best of the rest). There were a few problems with this plan: a) She had been in a slalom boat just twice, ever before b) She didn’t own, nor have access to a slalom boat c) The only rules she knew about slalom were that you had to go through the sticks. In order. Fast.

Luckily, Lowri found a slalom boat, someone told her what the beeping at the start meant and she didn’t miss any gates – resulting in her finishing middle of the field and being granted a rank in Div 1 for future races. Well done!

More Congratulations!
To FlowFree coaches David Fairweather and Lowri Davies for becoming Aspirant BCU Level 5 coaches earlier this month. We wish you luck with your continued coach development!

That’s all for now. We look forward to see you on the water sometime soon!

The FlowFree Team

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