Jason Smith's The Ed

Racked, Cracked... Time to unpack!

Disaster has struck this morning. While putting on the last strap on the last boat before heading off to Wales the roof-rack on the CKUK wagon has finally given up the ghost. One of the timber extensions has snapped and the front passenger side foot has pulled off the roof. It's had a tough time recently with some pretty hefty sea kayak loads. It can be fixed but it's put the mockers on our boat test shoot for today. As luck would have it, it happened just in time for me to catch Ross before he set off. We've rescheduled for next week now, so it's time to unload everything that I loaded up first thing and then a trip to the hardware shop and Halfords is in order. Ah well! On the upside we do have something very exciting and exclusive out on test at the moment. Can't say anymore than that at the mo' but keep an eye on the news over the next couple of weeks.

Posted by Jason Smith

Locked & Loaded - River Boat Test here we come

Early 5am start today to load the car ready to head off to North Wales for our BIG River Running/ River Play Kayak test. Boats are nearly on, six so far, just one more to go on (taking a quick coffee/blog break). The car is stuffed with whitewater paddles and dry suits. Gear is packed, cameras stowed, batteries charged. Rossco is loaded too ready for an 9am meet in Llangollen. Is you see us on the M6 or A5 this morning give us a wave.

Posted by Jason Smith

The Longest Day - Sea Kayaks, Motorways & Nan Breads

Set of at 6am with Faye & the dog on Saturday to meet up with Rossco on the A50 at 7. The reason for the early start was that we were heading to Anglesey to do the photo-shoot for a plastic sea kayak test in next issue. The CKUK wagon was already loaded up and Ross had an empty rack, which we then headed off to Kayaks Northwest in Runcorn to fill with P&H and Venture Kayak boats with the help of shop manager Matt. Onwards we headed until finally we arrived at our chosen bay, seven hours after we'd left. The late afternoon sun was hiding, but the sea was emerald and there was a good amount of swell rolling in, so as well as all the hard work at least the paddling was going to be fun. We unloaded all the boats and carried them down the beach to the shore line. Ross and I were then going to take it in turns to paddle each boat and shoot images respectively. For Faye though it was back in the wagon and off to Surf-Lines in Llanberis to pick up four more boats. While the sun had come out for us and we were enjoying the warm early evening air it was lashing down in Llanberis, so a BIG thank you to the gallant Phil from Surf-Lines who very kindly loaded the boats on for her. Top Bloke.
Back at the beach it was going well, the swell meant that there were some good waves to punch and surf and the rock-hopping was great. Some rock scrambling saw the photographer taking up an excellent vantage point on the headland. Once Faye had collected the boats it was off to Active Outdoor at Roscolyn to drop them off for safe storage overnight ready to paddle/shoot first thing. While she was doing that Ross and I carried the rest of the boats back up to the car-park and loaded his car once again. Once Faye returned it was load up that car and then head off to the Travel Lodge in Holyhead (we didn't camp, we'd checked the weather and it hammered down all night). Holyhead isn't the greatest place on earth to find somewhere good to eat,but we found a great Indian and settled down to a tasty curry, once that was done it was straight off to the hotel for much needed sleep, ready to do it all again in the morning. Massive thanks to Ross and Faye for their hard work. and to Matt at KNW, Laurence at Brookbank, Jace & Snakey at Valley and of course Eve and Phil at Surf-Lines for their much appreciated help.

Posted by Jason Smith

BCU & the British GP

Headed down to Bisham Abbey, near Marlow, with Canoe & Kayak Publisher Simon for a meeting with our friends at the British Canoe Union. We hit the road early and were happily cruising along in the sunshine until we came to an abrupt stop just outside Northampton. The reason? It was only the British F1 GP race at Silverstone and the A43 had actually been shut and turned in to a one way system for GP visitors. Needless to say that much country lane action and sitting in traffic followed before we arrived. Poor Chloe and Coral from the BCU had also suffered the gridlock on their journey down from Nottingham. After a good meeting it was time to head home again. I was keen to get back as we were off to Anglesey to test sea kayaks at 6am the following day and a lot of loading up was waiting. Needless to say it was a long journey. Never have so many gone so slowly, so a few could go so fast. Rubbish.

Posted by Jason Smith

Canoe Training with the Lands End Leopards - Part 2

Just completed another training session in the open boat with Rama, Danny, James and Billy of the Lands End Leopards Adventure Race Team. The guys are training for the Sailors' Society Wilderness Challenge in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland and I've been helping them with learning some skills to help them get through the open canoeing section of the race. They're putting in the work and really made some great improvements in a short amount of time. Come race time they'll be flying across that Scottish Loch. Check out the gallery for more great images of the Leopards training on Rutland Water

Posted by Jason Smith

Warts 'n' All!

We all know that open canoes are a great way to get close to nature, but on moving the Prospector ready to load up for a coaching session with the Lands End Leopards Adventure Race Team it appeared that they were also a great way of nature to get close to canoes! Nestled up on my kneeling pad was this fine looking toad. He didn't seem to bothered by being disturbed, but I figured he'd probably rather not go for a paddle, especially without his mates Ratty and Mole, so a quick relocation to a suitably dark and damp place saw him happy and the boat now toad free loaded on to the roof-rack.

Posted by Jason Smith