Race Day!

     For some race day is the least favourite day of the week, personally i love it! i find race day not only a friendly competition but also a time to figure out your paddling strengths and weaknesses of river running. This past Wednesday we started out at the Mcoys rapid and proceeded to make teams of four and paddle different sections that linked together. Unfortunately we were one person short and had to make a team of three, which meant that one of us would have to paddle two legs of the race.... 

Well turns out the communication skills of teenagers at 8 o'clock in the morning are not always the best.  Thinking i was running the very last leg of four in the race i took my position just below right side Horseshoe and prepared to ferry the fairly nasty hole in the hopes that it would go well and be a fast line. In reality i was supposed to complete the second leg and tag Bean, he would then complete the last two. Shorty after the race we discovered i messed up and our team was awarded last place. That does not really matter though because the laughs after the race were priceless! Turns out Alex P. Speech about "Communication On The River" and it's difficulties was actually very applicable to our situation! 
                  Rule of Thumb: Always Double Check Your Plans and Communicate with your team!  

I Didn't have any Race day photo's so i choose a cool shot i took of Nick on competition day

By: Aidan Sweeney 

Trial and Error

 Perfection is a lot harder than expected. starting off with a foam block, knife, and a dream of carving a mini kayak.
i found that choosing the right density foam is key, too soft and it is impossible to cut, too hard and it cracks.
  The knife selection is key you need a very sharp one, as i have found out and the knfies availble around here aren't exactly good for this.
  Then the carving begins, slowly shaving away the chunks of foam not needed and shapping it until the right amount of rocker is achieved and
  the chines are outlined. After the hull is complete i moved to the top trying to shapen the deck (which i found out was very hard) and cut out the cockpit.
  All and all i found that Carving foam kayaks is like 1,000,000 times harder than i had initially thought and was quite disappointed in mine. though i will
definitely try again before i leave!

As you can see i am very far away from the skills of Stephen Wright, a god of both carving kayaking and actually paddling kayaks.

-Aidan Sweeney