Jason Smith's The Ed

Today... Is a Very Important Day!

Why? Because today Is Faye's (Mrs S) Birthday! As is tradition the 'cup of tea' in bed was supplied by me this morning followed by the unwrapping of pressies and opening of cards before driving the Birthday Girl to work. In honour of the momentous date, much celebrating will be taking place this weekend starting with a trip to our local brewery/pub this evening and finishing with a visit to the Norfolk coast on Sunday. Let the Fi Fi party begin!

Posted by Jason Smith

If You Go Down to the Woods Tonight...

As the evening's have drawn in and the temperature plummeted our usual Old Boys 'after-work' paddle at HP was substituted by a whizz around the Kitchener Trail at Sherwood Pines instead. Poor ol' Alpkit Jim was struck down with the man-flu, Squadron Leader Gez went AWOL and it's a bit too far for Wiggs to travel, so it was just me and Black Dog Butler that rendezvoused at the car-park. Now by the time we met up it was already dusk and as neither of us had any lights, well, charged up, working lights any how, we figured we'd burn it round and it would be OK. The trail is super fast flowing single track and we set off at a lick with Ruby the dog leading the way. It was pretty greasy from all the rain in places, but it all flowed really nicely and on we cruised as it got darker and darker. Soon it was all we could do to see the trail as we fired along in the gloom. As we flew over the pine needles with practically no visibility it almost felt like we were flying. That is until we rode in to the odd stump, or sailed off the edge of the trail. It was going OK until the trail disappeared in to a dense section of fir trees! This was christened 'The Sh8t Bit' but after lots of bangin' bars on branches we finally emerged and made it back to the car park. What a hoot!

Posted by Jason Smith

Canoeing With the Kibblies

Had a visit from my Little Sis, Nicky and my niece and nephew, Sam & Ellie, a few weeks ago. They live down in Epsom so we don't get to see them nearly enough, which meant that we all decided to pack as much adventure in to their visit as possible. We kicked off with a really long hike through the fields with Ruby the Jack Russel and then followed that up with Den building in the woods, bug hunting, a visit to the nearby Owl sanctuary and setting up a tarp over at Rutland water and having a sausage sizzle using a fire box. Up to now Sam & Ellie have never really fancied taking to the water as they were a bit to small, but this time the first thing they asked was if they could go canoeing? Can bears sit in the woods? So the finalé of their visit was a canoe trip out on to Rutland water in the trusty old Prospector. After carrying the boat down to the water and gearing up in our buoyancy aids it was time to launch. I thought they might be a bit nervous, but not at all, chips off the ol' block. They took it in turns to man the bow paddler position and take photos. We spent a bit of time practicing and then paddled right out in to the open water before turning around and coming back again. They both did really well and I was dead proud of them. I 'm looking forward to some more canoe adventures with them in the future. Check out more pics in the gallery.

Posted by Jason Smith

Wiggs Gets Wed

Colin & Angie's big day dawned clear and bright and we were up early to head over to the Peak for the wedding. Despite an early start we just made it by the skin of our teeth and as we strolled up the path the church Angie was sat outside in a handsome looking Wedding Camper Van (no one can ever say that Col hasn't got style). The whole day was lovey and the Wiggster didn't stop grinning all day. All the speeches were great, highlights being Col's new Father-In-Law saying how impressed he was that Colin had chosen a venue for the honeymoon that meant he wouldn't be off kayaking, while Col sat there smiling innocently (they're off to Canada!!) And Col's wee brother Steve who displayed some rather fine pictures of his big brother much to our delight (Colin has apic of him in a layak or canoe for every year of his life!). It was a fantastic occasion and great to see all the old faces. As the evening progressed booze was taken, paddling trip plans were hatched (watch this space - if you see a gang of old blokes wearing false beards and paddling clear plastic Dancers it's us!) before heading on to the dance floor to trip the light fantastic. Good work Mr & Mrs F and all the very best for the future.

Posted by Jason Smith

Colin's Last Paddle...

As a single man! Yep as his nuptials were fast approaching and there was no opportunity to squeeze in a paddle on the big day it seemed right and proper that we should gather at the WW course in Nottingham to give Mr Fisher the watery send off in to matrimony that he deserved. In attendance were fellow test teamers Steve 'Black Dog' Butler, Alpkit Jim, CKUK's Editorial Assistant and super-coach Ross and of course me. As the sun set we had a great time flobbing about on the course and making a balls up of all the latest moves. Apart from Rossco that is, he is a VERY good freestyler indeed! After a great session in the Tardis Hole it was off and changed and over to the Chippy at Trent Bridge for a celebratory sit-down-fish & chip-supper, and some good banter about 'speeches', before heading off on our separate ways. The next time we'd see Col, he'd of swapped his dry top for a sharp looking morning suit and would be standing at an alter rather than a river bank!

Posted by Jason Smith

South West Sea Kayak Meet

Pwllheli was a visit down to South Devon for the annual SWSKM organised by Mark & Heather Rainsley and their band of helpers. There's a full report in issue 116 of the magazine so I won't go in to detail. I'll just say It was a long drive, but a really fantastic event. Great paddling, great people, great slide shows and a GREAT pub!

You can check out a bunch of pictures of the event in the Gallery section too too.

Posted by Jason Smith

Monkey Boy's Stag Do

Been a bit snowed under with the mag of late and got behind on blogging, so I'll fire through what's been afoot in a big catch up . First up was Monkey-Fest, or to be more precise the stag do of good mate and long time CKUK Test Teamer Colin Fisher. Now over the year's Col's similarity to our simian cousins has oft been commented on so the theme for the bash was set - Monkey-Fest. This basically meant that on arriving in the far west of Wales, the bash was in Abersoch, Colin was relieved of his clothes and was kitted out in a full Monkey Suit. Strangely he didn't look that different. It was then off to that classic of Stag activities... Paint balling! Dragon Paintball Centre is pretty much the best place I've ever been too, really well organised, great layout and very, very fun. We basically spent some very happy hours blasting the hell out of each other. Strangely poor ol' Col had some rather vivid bruises all over his back. Funny that considering he was mostly facing the other team! Still he had his monkey fur to protect him.
A night on the beer followed, including the mandatory visit to a dire night club. The following day it was off for a full fried breakfast at the Train Station Cafe in Pwllheli then most of the boyos went wake boarding! Alpkit Jim and I opted out due to various broken body parts and instead made tracks to the MTB park at Llangdegla where we bumped in to regular CKUK contributors Tom Laws and Patrick Clissold before wobbling about on our bikes for an hour or so. Long drive but great weekend and I think Col enjoyed himself most of the time ; )

Posted by Jason Smith