I’ve been a bit quiet on here of late, either that’s because I have been so engrossed in my PhD work that I haven’t done anything interesting to write about, or I have been so busy on a combination of ski trips, paddling wherever and whenever it rains, talking at canoe shows, and coaching, that I just haven’t found the time. I’ll let you make your own mind up on that…
A year ago I confidently said that the UK’s biggest and best kayaking event, the National Student Rodeo would be even bigger and even better this year. A tough ask, but bless them, those chaps at Leeds uni always seem to manage to find space for more competitors, more prizes, and an even more epic party each year. With over 640 competitors and 800 partygoers, this year’s pirate themed NSR was a masterpiece of organisation and probably the world’s biggest freestyle kayaking event, ever. A massive thank you and well done is due to all involved in the organisation of the event, especially the dynamic duo of Tim and Nick who managed to fit in winning the duo event around organising the whole thing.
That’s what it’s all about – going deep in the Magic Roundabout (Photo: Paul Wilkinson)
Ollie, Ash and myself on the podium for the squirt event (Photo: Paul Wilkinson)
It was a busy weekend for me, with plenty of rushing around between squirt and float boat heats, and helping on the coaching session. I was chuffed to win the squirt event again, especially as this year there were over 60 entrants in the squirt category and a really high standard of competition. I also got to take my shiny new M-Long Rev for a play, I haven’t had a lot of time to play about with the boat yet but it instantly feels great. I think I’m going to have to head down south for a few days on the Thames weirs soon to see what it can really do… Full results from the weekend should be up soon on the NSR website.
Rather embarrassingly, especially given that each competitor was given a copy of the latest CKUK in which I pretend to be a photographer, I managed to only take empty batteries with me and so took virtually no photos all weekend. Big thanks to Paul Wilkinson for these shots, more of Paul’s photos from the weekend can be found here.
Filed under: Playboating, Squirt boating, events | Tagged: David Fairweather, freestyle kayaking, NSR, Squirt boating
[...] weekend (as you may have gathered from various other blogs) was the National Student Rodeo. Every year it grows, every year it gets betterer and [...]
Alright dude! Looks like its been a while since you updated – although I hear you just got back from Morocco so I expect to see something exciting soon!
Thought you might be interested in the first couple of posts on http://grumpyfisherman.wordpress.com/ – joint venture between all us lot from LUUCC off to India in Aug. Check it out and let us know what you think.
Owen