Tryweryn this weeknd

The date for the Tryweryn leg off the Plastic Fantastic is fast approaching so here is the plan for the weekend. With the price of petrol and diesel going insane at the moment if you have space in your car or van, maybe your could hook up with another local paddler or pick up another paddler on the way.

ukriversguidebook
canoecafe
tvfreestylers

Camping will be available from Friday evening at the Bala Mills site. Turn off the A4212 400m from the A494 turn off to Porthmadog/Trawsfynydd. The track to the site is opposite the artificial sports pitch between the turning into Cysgod y Coleg estate (you cannot access the site if you turn into the housing estate) and the College on top of the hill. Please take care on the access road – many children play along it. The site is owned by Bala Canoe Club and is close to residential premises so please try and keep the noise down.

Saturday 14th June - Location Canolfan Tryweryn
8.30am Registration
10.00am Freestyle Prelims - all paddlers will have 3, 45 second rides on the feature (NRA Wave) with the best 2 rides counting. The top 10 paddlers will go through to Semi’s.
10.00 Expert Prelims
11.30 Sport Prelims
1.00 Ladies Prelims
2.00pm Old Gits & Diva’s Freestyle (NRA Wave)
2.30pm Incubator Freestyle (NRA Wave) Coaching provided in the morning
3.00pm Semi Finals (If we are running late we will drop the semi finals and go straight to a knock-out final) 2x 45sec rides both count. Top paddlers 5 through to a knockout final.
4.00pm Finals - 45 secs rides, knock-out final

Rather than walk half way across Wales for a meal I thought we’d enjoy the Welsh sunshine and have a BBQ in the field. I’ll provide the coals, some tunes, games (and shelter if it looks like being damp). You need to bring your food and choice of beverages.

Sunday 15th June - Bala Mill Falls
9.30am Boto-X Prelims - All paddlers race 4 up to decide their seeding into the cup or plate competitions.
12.30pm Plate Heats
1.00pm Cup Heats
1.30pm Plate Quater Finals
1.45pm Cup Quarter Finals
2.00pm Plate Semi Finals
2.15pm Cup Semis Finals
3.00pm Finals

These timings will almost undoubtedly change depending on numbers.

See you in the pub,

Jim.

Washburn Event Details

Hi there,

After a quick visit last night to the Washburn to confirm all the details I am pleased to let you know the proposed timetable for the weekend.

Washburn Event Timetable

Saturday 17th May
9am - 11am Registration - Main Car-Park
11.00am - 12.00pm Briefing & Practice
12.00pm - 1.00pm Boto-X Prelims
1.30pm - 3.00pm Sport Freestyle Heats
3.30pm - 4.30pm Old Gits Heats
4.30pm - 7.00pm Expert Freestyle Heats
8.30 - Late Food & Pub Quiz at the Hooper Lane Hotel
Incubator coaching will take place throughout the day.

The water will be on from 11am on Saturday

Sunday 18th May
9.00am - 10.00am Boto-X Heats
10.00am - 11.00am Freestyle Semi-Finals
11.00am - 12.00pm Incubator Freestyle
12.00pm - 1.00pm Boto-X Finals
1.00pm - 2.00pm Pyranha Rev Challenge
2.00pm - 2.30pm Incubator Freestyle
2.30pm - 3.00pm Old Gits Final
3pm-4pm Expert Finals

Unfortunately the Dagger Greens haven’t made their way across the pond yet so won’t be making an appearance at the Washburn but the guys from Dagger will be there with a small fleet of demo boats.

Pyranha are laying down the challenge at the Washburn with their new Rev. They want to know who can rack up the most technical points in the Pyranha Rev in 1 minute. (Every 180º spin is 1 point, elevated cartwheel 40º-70º Cartwheel scores 2 points and vertical cartwheels or loop score 4 points per end) The person who racks up the most points in the lunchtime session will win a special Pyranha goody bag.

The camping arrangements are a little different this year. On Friday we have limited camping available at the Hooper Lane Hotel for SMALL tents (no canvas hotels please). If you would like to book camping for Friday please let me know by email . If you have a camper van you park it in the upper gravel car-park overnight on both Friday or Saturday. Anyone camping or sleeping in their vans at the Hooper Lane can order (and pay) a breakfast at the bar the night before for £7.00.
The main camping venue for Saturday night will be at the Blubberhouses cricket club. Unfortunately the men in white will be hitting leather with willow until around 7.30pm. Camping is strictly on the outfield only and under no circumstance must vehicles be driven onto the pitch.
There will no be extra camping fees to pay this year as they will be covered by the entry fee.

Spectators who wish to camp and join us for the evening meal can buy a ticket for £10.00.

Notes on the Boater-X.
They’ll be no seeding, your race time will be given to you at registration. The top 2 paddlers from the pre-lims will progress in the Cup competition, 3rd and 4th places will compete in the Plate competition. If you miss your time slot you’ll be disqualified and your heat will run with 3 entries. Only the first place paddler will advance to the next round.
The start will be conducted Americas Cup yachting style, with paddlers being informed 20 sec’s, 10 sec’s and 5 sec’s prior to the starting gun, meaning a rolling start is possible. Any competitor over the line at the sounding of the gun in any heat/race will have to paddle into the first eddy on the left after the horseshoe and touch a penalty marker. All paddlers will have to negotiate a different 360º slalom gate during the race.

Oh, and don’t forget to bring your bike as there is a trail centre close by at Stainburn. There is also some North Shore trails in the woods below Fewston reservoir for those real hard core enthusiasts.

Hope to see you there,

Jim.

PFAKS 2008 Preview

Whilst designing new kit, visiting the factories and building a new office for Jenni, I have been trying to pin down dates for the Plastic Fantastic Kayak Competition dates for 2008.

The only date confirmed is the Washburn, which will be on the 17th-18th May. A provisional date of 4th/5th Oct has been pencilled in for Nottingham. Dates for the Tryweryn, Nene, Tees and Dee will be published as soon as they are confirmed.

So what did you think?

Thanks to everybody who took part and helped in the first Alpkit series. Personally I think all the events ran pretty smoothly but I would like to hear your comments.
What did you like, what didn’t you like?
Was it value for money?
Do you think the league system worked?
All comments will be gratefully received and hopefully make next years events even bigger and more enjoyable.

The Money Shot 3

After the success of the first two Money Shot competitions held at the European Championships, this year sees the third installment being held in conjunction with the Brit Champs / Alpkit Plastic Fantastic event taking place on the 6th and 7th October 2007 at the National Watersports Centre, Nottingham.

The rules are simple, the movies can be no longer than 10 minutes long and not contain any content that could be considered offensive! Please try to bring a reasonable high res. version of your film. Downloads from Youtube really don’t work when put through a projector!

New for this year!!
The photo wall - at this year’s event we’re going to have a photo competition. Bring along your best shot for the wall, there’ll be prizes for the ones voted the best.

Please hand entries in to the Peak Shop before the event or bring them on the weekend and hand them to Adam Norfolk.

This is a very relaxed event which will fit in nicely with the vibe for the weekend, so come on down and why don’t you give it a go, it’s FREE TO ENTER after all.

cheers Adam.

NOTE. Please be gentle with the formats you submit, DVD’s are great. We have an Apple and a PC plugged into the projector, if you are unsure that your movie will work on this system either bring down your own laptop to run it off or hand it in before the weekend to give us a chance to give it a whirl.

Nottingham Programme

Date : 6th-7th October 2007.

It seems only a few weeks ago the Plastic Fantastic Series started at the Washburn and now we are fast approaching the final event this weekend. Sorry about the delay in sending this email, I was under the impression the slalom course at Nottingham was undergoing some development this weekend making it hard to announce the feature we would use. In fact development work has been delayed until after the event.

If you look at the timetable its going to be very busy weekend. We are going to be very strict on timings, if you’re not present for your run you’ll miss it and your chance of progressing in the competition.

The weekend will be final event in the Alpkit Plastic Fantastic Freestyle Series, all the results from the 4 competitions will be collected and the winner announced on Saturday evening.

The top 10 scores from Sport and Expert heats for each category (K1M, K1W, K1JnrM, K1JnrW, C1 & OC1) will be pulled out from the Plastic Fantastic Heats and compete for the title of British Freestyle Champion.

We’ll also be running an incubator event on the Saturday and the Sunday for beginners. Coaching will be available prior to both competitions. Saturdays event will take place on a small wave called ‘Tragedy’ at the bottom of the course, ideal for beginners and first time paddlers at Nottingham. On Sunday the competition will move up onto the Inlet Gate for those wanting a little more of a challenge.

Here is the proposed timetable for the days activities but as always is subject to change so keep your eyes and ears open for announcements & changes.

Saturday
8.00am Registration Mid Course Control
10.00am Briefing
10.30am Sport Freestyle Heats (Muncher)
11.00am Incubator Freestyle Coaching (Tragedy)
12.00am Incubator Freestlye Competition (Tragedy)
12.30pm Expert Freestyle Heats (Muncher)
2.30pm BotoX Prelims
4.00pm Sport Womens Final (Muncher)
4.30pm Sport Mens Final (Muncher)
5.00pm Expert Womens Final (Muncher)
5.30pm Expert Mens Final (Muncher)

7.00pm Food - Rugby Club
8.00pm The MONEY SHOT III, get your entries in. 10mins max. More details on http://www.alpkit.com
10.00pm Tunes and Dancing

Sunday
9.00am BotoX Heats
10.00am British Championship Semi Finals (Muncher)
12.00pm BotoX Semi Finals
12.30pm British Championship Jnr Ladies Final (Muncher)
12.30pm Incubator Freestyle Competition (Inlet Gate)
1.00pm British Championship Jnr Mens Final (Muncher)
1.30pm Boto X Finals
2.30pm British Championship OC1 Final (Muncher)
3.00pm British Championship C1 Final (Muncher)
3.30pm British Championship Ladies Final (Muncher)
4.00pm British Championship Mens Final (Muncher)

Squirt Competition
There will be a British Champion Squirt championship but details are still to be finalised.

As always more info is available on our website.

If you would like to enter and pay with a credit or debit card you can only do this with an advance online entry.

Looking forward to seeing you there, Jim.

Notes on the Boater-X.
They’ll be no seeding, heats will be drawn after registration and your race time displayed. The top 2 paddlers from the pre-lims will progress in the Cup competition, 3rd and 4th places will compete in the Plate competition. If you miss your time slot you’ll be disqualified and your heat will run with 3 entries. Only the first place paddler will advance to the next round.
The start will be conducted Americas Cup yachting style, with paddlers being informed 20 sec’s, 10 sec’s and 5 sec’s prior to the starting gun, meaning a rolling start is possible. Any competitor over the line at the sounding of the gun in any heat/race will have to paddle into the first eddy on the left after the horseshoe and touch a penalty marker. All paddlers will have to negotiate a different 360º slalom gate during the race.

Nene programme

The great Plastic Fantastic Train rolls into the station of Northampton this weekend for the Mighty Nene PFAKS (29th-30th September). We’ll take a bit of break from the controls on this one as the guys and girls from Northampton Canoe Club take control. They have organised the last few Peak Challenges held at the Nene and know the system.

We’ll start the weekend off with a leisurely registration period taking us through till lunch before the Boto-X starts in ernest on Saturday afternoon. There will be a few opportunities to practice but the morning session is reserved for the rubber buses. After a mellow evening of entertainment the Nene furious freestyle will run throughout Sunday.

There is plenty of parking on-site and camping will be available on the grass banks around the course. The cafe will be open all day for food and refreshments.

Here is the proposed timetable for the days activities but as always is subject to change so keep your eyes and ears open for announcements.

Saturday
10.00 – 12.00 - Registration
12.30 – 1.00 - Briefing – Downriver Race
1.00 – 7.00 – Downriver Race – Hopefully won’t need all the time so the rest will be free paddling.
7.30 – 12.00 – Food, Party & Downriver Prize Giving

Sunday
10.30 – 11.00 – Briefing – Freestyle
11.00 – 4.00 – Freestyle Event
4.00 – 4.15 – Freestyle Prize Giving

As always more info is available on our website http://www.alpkit.com/pfaks/

If you would like to enter and pay with a credit or debit card you can only do this with an advance online entry, click here.

Looking forward to seeing you there, Jim.

Notes on the Boater-X. They’ll be no seeding, heats will be drawn after registration and your race time displayed. If you miss your time slot you’ll be disqualified and your heat will run with 3 entries. The first 2 places will advance to the next round.
The start will be conducted Americas Cup yachting style, with paddlers being informed 20 sec’s, 10 sec’s and 5 sec’s prior to the starting gun, meaning a rolling start is possible. Any competitor over the line at the sounding of the gun in any heat/race will have to paddle into the first eddy on the left after the horseshoe and touch a penalty marker. All paddlers will have to negotiate a different 360º slalom gate during the race.

Tryweryn programme

Hello all,
the date for the Tryweryn leg off the Plastic Fantastic is fast approaching. After some manic phone calls just about everything is sorted. Here is the plan for the weekend, hope to see you there. If you have space in your car or van, maybe you could hook up with another local paddler or pick up another paddler on the way. Check out the forums for lifts wanted or offered.
http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/
http://www.canoecafe.co.uk/forum/

Camping will be available from Friday evening at the Bala Mills site. Turn off the A4212 400m from the A494 turn off to Porthmadog/Trawsfynydd. The track to the site is opposite the artificial sports pitch between the turning into Cysgod y Coleg estate (you cannot access the site if you turn into the housing estate) and the College on top of the hill. Please take care on the access road – many children play along it. The site is owned by Bala Canoe Club and is close to residential premises so please try and keep the noise down.

Saturday 8th September - Location Canolfan Tryweryn
8.30am Registration
10.00am Freestyle Prelims - all paddlers will have 3, 45 second rides on the feature (NRA Wave) with the best 2 rides counting. The top 10 paddlers will go through to Semi’s.
10.00 Expert Prelims
11.30 Incubator / Intermediate Prelims
2.00pm Semi-Finals - 2x 45sec rides both count. Top paddlers 5 through to a knockout final.
4.00pm Finals - 45 secs rides, knock-out final
7.00pm Food & Entertainment Bala Sailing Club

Get your hats out girls and let the flies out your wallet guys, we’re going to the races on Saturday evening. After a slap up curry we’ll be hosting the Plastic Stakes, a series of 8 horse races on the big screen. Punters can bet on their favourite nag with a chance of big money prizes

Sunday 9th September - Bala Mill Falls
9.30am Boto-X Prelims - All paddlers race 4 up to decide their seeding into the cup or plate competitions.
12.00pm Pyranha Speeder Challenge Canolfan Tryweryn to Campsite Bala Mill Falls
12.30pm Plate Heats
1.00pm Cup Heats
1.30pm Plate Quater Finals
1.45pm Cup Quarter Finals
2.00pm Plate Semi Finals
2.15pm Cup Semis Finals
3.00pm Finals

Notes on the Boater-X. They’ll be no seeding, heats will be drawn after registration and your race time displayed. If you miss your time slot you’ll be disqualified and your heat will run with 3 entries. The first 2 places will advance to the next round.
The start will be conducted Americas Cup yachting style, with paddlers being informed 20 sec’s, 10 sec’s and 5 sec’s prior to the starting gun, meaning a rolling start is possible. Any competitor over the line at the sounding of the gun in any heat/race will have to paddle into the first eddy on the left after the horseshoe and touch a penalty marker. All paddlers will have to negotiate a different 360º slalom gate during the race.

“Jostling” for position with paddles and/or boats is expected and accepted. However any intentional holding back of other paddlers by hand at any stage in the race will result in the paddler/paddlers responsible being disqualified.

These timings will almost undoubtedly change depending on numbers.

An evening meal will be provided on Saturday evening and is covered by the entry fee. The cafe will be open at the Canolfan Tryweryn and local stores will open through out the weekend for snacks and drinks.

Jims post Washburn post

Well that’s the first Washburn Plastic Fantastic under the belt and I am pleased to report everything went well and even the sun came out to play.

With a few extra paddlers on the Saturday, on their way up to the Youth Freestyle, we started the Boater X competition. The start was a paddle bashing affair as the paddlers jostled for position for the first 100 meters before settling into a kayak peleton. Our narrow rivers allow as much overtaking as Formula 1 so to spice things up we added a different slalom gate for each paddler to complete a 360º turn around. The kayak peleton came speeding into the arena beneath the second bridge, each paddler looking for their coloured pole. With the poles set closely together the paddlers peeled off to complete their ‘pit stop’, hoping to emerge ahead of the field. The final stretch of the river before the “broken weir” allowed those with more stamina to gain places in the final meters of the race. The gate system worked extremely well allowing overtaking to happen and no-one could make their mind up as to which was the fastest gate. Everyone ran the course in the morning and we split the top two paddlers, and the bottom 2 paddlers into a Plate and a Cup competition. Coming out top in the cup competitions was Richard Davison for the men and Molly Crisp in the ladies. In the plate James Reeves came in top in the mens and Nicola Bebbie came top for the ladies.

Between the Boater-X heats and finals we ran a hectic ALPJAM, whilst Nick and Claudia cooked us up some delicious farmhouse burgers for lunch. The scoring on the Alpjam needs some tweaking, well a lot actually, (I will have a chat with some paddling folk about how we can make this better and maybe run a few through the summer at HPP) but it gave everyone a chance to have a practice in the hole before the Freestyle on Sunday.

Saturday night we drank till the early hours an the Hooper Lane Hotel, the highlights included the funniest game of musical chairs I have ever seen and some of the brightest trousers since the 90’s!

Freestyle Sunday started bright and the sun just got brighter and hotter through the day. In the mens competition Sport and Expert paddlers competed separately, unfortunately there just wasn’t enough ladies to run separate Sport / Expert heats and finals but hopefully numbers will increase as the events become more popular and this will happen. The sport and expert categories worked brilliantly for the men. The sport men laid down mostly old skool cartwheels, racking end after end and some trying the odd loop or McNasty, whilst the Expert guys went all out for the bigger moves. This gave opportunity for the sport guys to gain knowledge of how a knock-out final runs and how to compete in one. All in all the Freestyle ran very smoothly, once we’d mastered the computer. James Bebbington put in a storming last ride of big moves to rack up the biggest score of the day, 452 points. James Reeves tried his hardest with end after, end, clean after clean to match James’ score but his 393 points just wasn’t good enough for 1st spot. In the sport category Mark Raeburn and Tom Petit shared the lead running up to the finals and looked the men to beat. Tom fell in the first round, but Mark with slightly more competition experience held his nerve and produced just enough to progress to the final pairing. Showing everyone he knew the sweet spot to the hole with a considered final ride notched his first place of the series. The ladies finals swung from paddler to paddler but Emily held her nerve making sure she had enough left in the tank to make her final run count and bagging top spot at the Washburn.

I would like to thank everyone who took part in this first event. I thought it was extremely successful and I cannot wait to see you all at the next Plastic Fantastic at the Tryweryn in September.

Full results and pictures of the Washburn event can be found at:
Washburn Results
Washburn Photos

Washburn BoaterX Plate

Mens Boater X Plate

Congratulations James, winner of the mens Washburn Plate

Womens Boater X Plate

Congratulations Nicola, winner of the womens Washburn Plate