European Freestyle Kayak Championships 2010

Everyone finally arrived, but we were surprised that you could turn up at the hole and if timed correctly you could find it with you and about 3 others there, but you could also ...

The search begins…

I’ve begun looking for new and exciting things to do in my spare time.

The Inter Spinal Unit Games!
I got a call last minute asking if I would like to go down to Stoke Mandeville ...

Plattling World Cup

So… We left Nottingham at 5 on Tuesday to catch the ferry at midnight from Dover. We then drove through the night into Germany, finally stopping as it got light for a few hours ...

A varied diet of trail and tar - The 3 Ways Saga

The internet is definitely the root evil for most of my epic adventures… I see a link or I stumble across a blog, a seed is sown and the text messages/emails go out to see if any ...

Preparation for the Europeans

So the Europeans are only 2 weeks away now, not much time. I’ve had my last session on the course at Nottingham and I’m now nearly packed and ready to go. I’ve learnt so much over ...

Albarracin and ash clouds

Albarracin is situated in Spain between Valencia and Zaragoza and offers an excellent bouldering venue. Grades are definitely holiday grades so a good place to go if you want to ...

Skills refresher

Ok, so I haven’t done an update for a while, so here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to recently. Due to recent events in the paddling world its brought to the front of all ...

Pyranha – Freestyle, fun and Frolics

The sun shone and the skies were blue for the 1st British Freestyle league event of 2010. This was also the 1st of the events counting for selection for the 2010-2011 British ...

Snowdon and Cadair Idris by foot, bike and bus

It was Friday afternoon and it looked like there was another great weekend on the cards. I didn’t have a plan, Nick had said that he would be around during the weekend but in the ...

Welsh 3000ers

I have had tennis elbow since the summer and that has been getting me down. My bike, a 20 year old RockHopper is still in pieces. It was supposed to become a singlespeed ...

Missing Milliseconds

Winter has been a cruel training partner. My wife thinks I suffer from S.A.D’s as I tend to hibernate in the winter these days. My only solace has been of the two wheeled variety, ...

Iditarod kit list

The final competitor in this years Iditarod Invitational crossed the line on the 22nd March, 22 days 4 hours and 15 min from setting off. I will be making a presentation about my ...

Yak Attack - Breathing thin air

After a rest day in Manang the following stage saw us head to the foot of the Thorong La Pass, Thorong Phedi.

After resting in Manang and having a good walk up a nearby hill my ...

Yak Attack.. stages 3,4,5.. Catching up

With limited internet access for the last 3 days it’s not been possible to blog the race as it happened. Today we are in Manang at 3540m, a rest day to acclimatise before the next ...

Yak Attack Stage 2-3 Spinning out

After a transition stage group ride yesterday of 50km with a healthy serving of both up and down we found ourselves in Gorka.. the old capital of Nepal.

Stage 2, Gorka to Besi ...

Yak Day One - a glimpse of the pain to come.

I never viewed my participation in this event as a ‘race’, I knew the local guys had the event sewn up as although we can match them on the flat and the climbs when you limit ...

Scotland February 2010

I’d had a trip planned in Scotland for several months, but had never been sure what the weather was going to do. So as it approached I checked the weather and typical as ever, ...

Fontainebleau Dispatch

We arrived at the gîte at three in the morning. The door was unlocked but Ken thought it best that we spent at least one night dirtbag style. Driving on for another 30 minutes we ...

Arrowhead postscript

Paul is fresh back from competing in the Arrowhead Ultra 135 which we featured in our February website feature. Paul is now preparing for the next challenge in his series of ...

Snowboarding Jan 2010

With it being so cold in this country I decided the best thing to do was go somewhere where they make the best use of all the snow – France, Alpe-d-huez. A group of 4 of us ...

Arrowhead 135 - the race

4.00am… I’m wide awake… I’ve never really suffered from jet lag but on this trip it had been killing me, its race morning and with a 7am start to the race I was kinda glad of it… ...

Romping round the New Forest…

Well it’s a good start to the New Year with a 1st in the Dynamic Adventure Racing New Forest Challenge race. Two years before I competed in the 8 hour endurance race with two ...

Majorca Deep water solo/accident epic

The last few years I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time in Majorca, in fact my last blog entry was in Majorca deep water soloing. It has lots going for it; it’s hot, has warm ...

Ice ice baby

Well the annual Ice fest was on in L’Argentière la Bessée in the Ecrin. After last year’s antics I was keen to attempt to get down a ski slope mainly on my feet rather than ...

It’s cold outside

I’m here… International Falls, Minnesota…. and its living up to its title of ‘Icebox of the Nation’.

The flight was overly long and jet lag has been hampering my eating and ...

Sammy, Davey, Tommy and Jackie are cycling Lands End to John O’ Groats!

4 of Beth’s friends will be cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats aiming to raise the money needed to buy Beth a Boma offroad powered wheelchair.

Any excess cash will be ...

A New Year

It’s been a while since my last blog post but the start of a New Year offers a good time to both reflect on the year past and to look forward to the year ahead.

2009 was a good ...

The end of one year and the start of another!

2009 was a pretty good year for me, and it finished on a high getting selected for the GB freestyle kayak team. This has been my goal for the last couple of years so I’m pretty ...

ICE 2010 - Testing Times

Less than a month to go till I will be lining up with 135 miles of the bitterly cold Arrowhead Trail ahead of me, i have spent hour after hour trawling websites for any little bit ...

84km Bivvi Challenge

When winter approaches events become few and far between… as a sponsored rider exposure for the companies that give you love should never be restricted to just the racing season ...

Hurley selection event and GB squad 2010

The last 2 months has seen the 3 selection events for the GB team 2010 for the European Championships which will be held in Leinz Austria June 2010. The 1st was the heat results ...

Babies – the latest training aid

It’s time to reflect on the many ups of the 2009 season. With the main event being a beautiful (well I think so!) little baby girl born in June, my training was possibly going ...

British Freestyle Championships 2009

So the 3rd and 4th of October saw the annual freestyle championships at HPP Nottingham. In the week leading up to the event the 2nd hole had been changed to give a nice retentive ...

Old Dogs, New Tricks

We were at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham to support the British Freestyle Championships last weekend. It is a place where both Col and myself used to visit frequently when we ...

Majorca DWS trip Sept 09

Well with summer coming to an end and not getting much sun it was a time for a trip away, the plan was a deep water soloing trip to Majorca for 7 days and 15 of us. We had planned ...

A few days at the coast - Knoydart Penninsula

A few days at the coast - Knoydart Penninsula

Since being made redundant i have mostly just mooched about… looking for jobs.. discovering how little there is out there and ...

Tattershall Castle gets new E10 6C

Sometime late in August a team of average climbers took up the challenge of putting a new route up on Tattershall castle. The route would take a direct line from the main door to ...

Skye Ridge attempt

My dad has been working his way through the munros since way back when. He’s not going to set any records but he continues to plug away bagging 20 - 30 peaks each year.

When we ...

Kielder 100 - a hard days work

Everything is bigger and better in America (apparently)... they drive bigger cars.. have bigger houses.. eat bigger burgers and until the people at sip-events got to work they had ...

Old Salty Dog weekend

The past few weeks had been full on.. and then some. With six of us trapped in a cramped unit we just had to get out or something was going to blow..

Running a small company is ...

One bike to rule them all

For what seems like the entire year to date I haven’t ridden a mountain bike with gears… this started as the racing that was initially available suited the singlespeed… then ...

Alpkit and the FigFour hit TAB

Kenny and Pete have been away sunning themselves in L’Argentière la Bessée in the Pays des Ecrins region of France for this years Tout A Blocs bouldering festival. By all ...

Salzkammergut 2009

I went.. I saw.. I did some riding.. I got very wet.. they stopped the race….

That’s the super edited highlights of the 2009 Salzkammergut Trophy race… we sorted this trip ...

Bike wars

Thanks to the guys at Genesis the Alpkit bike shed has been transformed into a stable of thoroughbreds. The line up includes an iO single speed, Core 30 and Ti Altitude with ...

California 2

Since my last California update, not much has happened. Water levels are poor at present so we seem to be spending half of our time searching out white water which is in ...

California so far…

We arrived in San Francisco on a hot afternoon and I was glad to be off the plane and excited about my first time in North America. After sorting the hire car and bodging together ...

Hawaii-Sur-Rhone

I’ve just returned from a weeks boating on Hawaii-Sur-Rhone. It was a last minute decision (that’s what happens when two girls try and decide on somewhere to go boating) so I set ...

Off to California

After months of waiting I’m about to head off to California for 3 weeks to kayak in the Sierra Nevada mountains. A quick stop off to Alpkit on the way to LHR was required to pick ...

The training starts here

It was something like 18 years ago when I was first drawn into the giddy world of climbing. Early trips to the Peak District with Andy Simpson and Long Road Sixth Form College ...

SET 2 RISE 2009 : 12 hour enduro

With my race calendar looking decidedly thin on the ground and a few previous weeks of getting hammered at shorter distance events I decided it was time to get back to what I ...

Back to Melloblocco

We arrived Friday afternoon and hiked over to the car hire booth. I hadn’t even had the chance to stutter a word of Italian before our Panda was upgraded to a Volvo C30. That ...

Poorly!

Well I’ve been having an ongoing saga with my knees for quite some time! I had a fall at Stanage maybe three years ago where I broke a few things and since then I have been ...

Source to Sea - The River Tees

The weekend started by being dropped off up at Cow Green reservoir by some very understanding friends (at 11 o’clock on Friday night), we then dragged our boats part way to the ...

My Epic visit

The reason I am writing this is that Pete asked what we do on a trip like this, and couldn’t answer him immediately. That’s not because I didn’t know it’s just that it’s ...

Alpkit Review

5 years ago we registered a website. We were so pleased with ourselves that we decided to take a holiday in Sardinia. Our flight bags were stuffed with some sample Tshirts that ...

El Chorro

If you have never been or never even heard of El Chorro then this is definitely a venue worth checking out! It’s set in the south of Spain around 70km north of Malaga, a 4 hour ...

Catch 22

Just arrived in Dubai and given that it’s 1.00 in the morning it’s pretty busy, in fact very busy. I have a free internet connection - but why in the UK do we insist on charging ...

A fresh approach to training

This is possibly the only time of the year that the mountain bike season takes a break… the winter race series are done… the few early year races have happened and we are a month ...

Bank holiday surfing in France

After no days off work since the new year the double bank holiday weekend was a good chance to get away and relax for a weekend. After a little searching about the internet for ...

A weekend in the Fort

A flyer from work on Friday afternoon saw a group of us heading north to Fort William for a weekends boating and the Paddle Sports evening of this year’s Mountain Film Festival. ...

Skymasters 2009!

Friday at the outdoor show with Alpkit consisted of breaking the till, adding money up wrong, staring at the big moving/spinning volumes in anxiety and anticipation, spicy curry ...

A hectic weekend!

After picking Andi up in Nottingham we headed straight to the NEC to help on the Alpkit stall at this years Outdoors Show. The Friday is usually a quiet day but for some reason ...

GBR Freestyle Selections 2009

On the 14th March 2009 paddlers from across the country gathered at Hurley for the selections for the GBR freestyle canoe and kayak team 2009. The levels at Hurley were far better ...

Endurancelife Coastal Series Wins

It has been a while since Alpkit Adventure have been doing any blogging. This weekend saw the trio return to adventure racing action at the Endurance Life Coastal Series and ...

Climbing Works International Festival

CWIF is an international bouldering competition held at the Climbing Works, it attracts some of the top boulder’s from around the world like Jerome Myer and Tyler Landman.

The ...

Alpkit update

Well its been a busy few months, I’ve moved down to Nottingham and started a new job, I’ve finally got used to work and have got used to 15 mile round trip on my bike, for ...

Outdoor Showtime

Power tools charged and primed, dungarees cleaned and pressed, blueprints rolled out on the drawing board.. with just a few days until this years Outdoors Show it goes a little ...

Plastic Fantastic

Plastic Fantastic was held at the Nottingham Climbing Centre on Sunday 1st Feb, it was a mixed discipline competition and also a first for the climbing wall. It incorporated a ...

Flurries and slurries

We have had our fair share of weather over the past week. I guess it started a week ago when we flew out for the ISPO trade fair in Munich. The snow had hit the south on the day ...

Alps Massif trip!

Well this was to be one of the most action packed weekend I’ve had without falling off or injuring myself. Despite having a 20 hour drive at the start, with my friends fast asleep ...

Alpine Adventure

The adventure in the Alps with Alpkit was an amazing experience. I got the chance to try many new things in a relatively small period of time. Thus making the trip to the Ice ...

Team Training at the Westway

The weekend the 17th/ 18th January was the first British Climbing Team Training of the year. This is when everybody gets to meet this year’s team members for the first time and ...

Providing for the Team

There comes a time in a mans life when he has to prove to himself he is a man. This happened to me at the ICE festival. For the past few years we have been the only people to ...

Social Ice Climbing

When I casually mentioned to friends and family that Alpkit were taking me to the Ice Festival in January and that it would involve a bivvy at around -15 degrees the responses all ...

ICE Fest - 2009

This trip was a true team bonding experience, while also giving my Supersofts a chance to come out of retirement for another shot at the big league. 5 of us hit the road early, in ...

Sheffield Walls Bouldering League

A couple of Mondays ago was the first round of the Sheffield Walls Bouldering League, so some of the Nottingham Junior Team and I (and a few parents) took a trip up to The Foundry ...

6 days and nights with Alex

So we popped out to Fontainebleau for a few days which proved to be a mistake…
It rains a lot there! All in all we had a day and a half of climbing, although I managed to get up ...

Tyne Tour

The Tyne Tour is an event I have been attending for years. It’s an event that gets better and better every time and never disappoints. This year was no exception.

After a few ...

The OMM

I guess you heard about the OMM. We started early, before the rain… so perhaps went for fast and light, rather than taking a bit more kit. It was very windy on the tops and we ...

Fingers against Pessimism

Last sunday was a fingers up against pessimism day. I was desperate to go climbing this weekend. The weather report on Friday made Saturday look like a wash out, and a windy one ...

The Isle of Man End 2 End Challenge 2008

For the last six months I have been riding to work (nearly) every day as training for the End 2 End.  I’d like to think that it was my dedication at getting fit and in ...

British Team Training September 2008

Ahhhhh. How my stomach musles still ache- but, I shall be super strong with incredible core strength!
This weekend I attended the British Team Training weekend in Sheffield.
It ...

The Mighty Nene

A sunny September weekend saw paddlers from all corners of the UK heading to Northampton for the ever popular Nene Freestyle event. The course and gazebos were set up, the sun was ...

Monday Mission

At the Festival of Freestyle I was receiving phone calls the whole weekend from friends out on rivers throughout the country so I thought Id take the opportunity to catch the last ...

Festival of Freestyle

After a summer travelling around Europe paddling on beautiful blue water with mostly nice sunshine getting back to the UK was a bit of a shock. We arrived back to miserable rain ...

Hanging out in Yosemite

The weather is pretty tasty in Yosemite National Park right now, there is no way I am going to start complaining about clear blue skies and temperatures in the 30s after the ...

Val di Mello - Italy

So the Monday after the BBC’s we were all packed up and off on the 21-hour journey to the well dreamt of Val di Mello. My Dad and Karl drove through the night with a couple of ...

British Bouldering Championships 2008

The BBC’s feel like a distant memory now. A busy five weeks later and I’m going to try to remember it all.
The qualification round started and ended quickly. I felt strong and was ...

A summer in the Alps

This was started with the Tout a Bloc climbing fest, a fest that was amazing not just for the competitor but for the spectator as well, with so many hunks and honeys and ...

1st Old Salty Dog Weekend

It’s been a busy week for Alpkit over the last week or so. Ken and I went down to Devon for the 2nd Hard Rock Fest and Pete Dollman joined the company last Monday to help us out ...

Hard Rock Festival

The Hard Rock Fest, now in it’s 2nd year is small, friendly and probably the best conceived climbing festival in the UK. It is the festival we want, it’s based somewhere we might ...

Dog sitting

Amber joined us at the start of the week. In this short time she has proved herself to be an able member in the Alpkit team, quickly learning to never bite postie, to laugh at ...

Driving to the Mountains

Moggy at the cattery, CHECK. Fridge defrosted, CHECK. Passport in top pocket, CHECK. Car full of ‘essential’ gear, CHECK. August is holiday time for most of us and with two short ...

Saab Salomon Final Report

Saab Salomon Mountain X Race

Back home and sitting at our desks, it’s hard to recount the events of the past week. A week of extreme physical and emotional highs and lows, ...

Thur wave

After leaving Bremgarten early due to high water levels we eventually found the internet in Liechtenstein and realised that rivers everywhere across Switzerland and Austria were ...

Bremgarten

After weeks of river running I was itching to get back in my playboat again, especially with the World Cup fast approaching. Our travels took us northwards in Switzerland to the ...

The European OutDoor Show in Friedrichshafen Germany

What do people do at the OutDoor trade show!

The OutDoor trade show is where all the worldwide brands go in Europe to show off their products for next season. It is an ...

Playboating on the Silz

Since arriving in Austria we have seen water levels fluctuating quite a lot. The weather hasn’t been so good and we have had several rain storms bringing the rivers up. As the ...

Hamming around in Austria

Finally training has begun for the World Cup which is now fast approaching; we have been based in Austria near Hamming on the Inn. Have paddled a few runs and there is still good ...

Training for the World Cup

I’ve been out in the Alps now for 5 weeks and the time is flying past so quickly. We are currently at Bremgarten near Zurich getting some training in for the World Cup, which is ...