Jason Smith's The Ed

one-armed bandit

Currently getting to grips with typing one-handed as on Monday evening I went under the knife to finally get a long-term shoulder problem sorted out. I was expecting a quick in and out local deal, but what got was a general, three hours in a surgery, three holes in my shoulder and a night in a hospital bed... Nice! Basically they had to reattach a tendon from my bicep to the bone, and reattach the lining of my shoulder socket. Not sure if it was boating related, it's certainly taken a few knocks over the years, or from pile driving my old ass in to the ground from height on my bike a few months ago, anyway, no boating for me for a while, but I'll be back in a month or so, ready for action an ready to go.

Posted by Jay

Open canoe test

For all of you out there thinking of buying a new open canoe we've just completed a big open canoe test for next issue. We've put a whole bunch of boats through their paces, Venture Canoes, Mad River, We No Nah, Pelican, Bell and more, and we'll be bringing you our findings in issue 99.

Posted by Jason Smith

Right on course

The work is done, the inlet gate is open and the whitewater course at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham is open for business again. The course is still being dialed in, but early signs are that the improvements are a big success. It's certainly faster and has lines and eddies, not to mention play spots. We spent a day checking it out in play and river boats and we'll be bringing you a guide to all the new features in issue 99 soon. The image shows Ed Smith mixing it up in the new wave-hole in the second pool

Posted by Jason Smith

Down, down, deeper, down, down

As the sun settled at the end of a day checking out the new features at the whitewater course at Nottingham a group of squirtists gathered at what used to be the cheese block pool. When the changes to the course were announced it looked like the one group of users that would miss out would be squirt boaters... But all is not lost for us sinkers. There are lots of spots that look like they have potential and the old cheese block pool now has serious downtime potential. Paul 'Cheesey' Robertson started to slot in to the seam and then Claire O'Hara nailed od deep one, but both paled against a monster mystery by Downtime Squirt Boat supremo Dave Savage. He plugged one and went deep, through the green room and all the way to the dark place. Although he was grinning when he finally came up he did admit that it was the first time he'd really been scared in about a year! Summer squirt festival at the ditch maybe? Go to www.downtimekayaks.com for more on the dark art of squirting.

Posted by Jay