Camera Randoms

With all this snow outside and sub zero temperatures its hard not to think about the warm summer months. I've really broken my indestructible camera! But just for pure comedy I've just pulled these from the memory card, They're from Norway I think?

Urgh, maybe this is what broke the camera?

I want to be back in Norway!

Uh - pass, but i like it

Big Boat surfing

One ugly lookin...

...pot hole, a river feature you wouldn't want to find!

This is 4am, apre-moose encounter

G Stylin it

About 4 hours into the Ena I believe

Cheese

Bigger Cheese

Second thought's maybe this is what broke the camera? Cheers Rich!

Merry Christmas, Lets see what 2010 brings...

Ben

How good's the Assassin?

I get a call from the guys @ Pyranha telling me to get myself to Hurley, it's on 3 and they want me to go paddle the new Molan. If you live in the UK you know that most of it looks like a Christmas card right now which means one thing it's freezing cold and the roads will be all clogged up with stupid people driving into each other / trees / other inanimate objects (delete as appropriate). Cutting a long rant short eventually arrive at Hurley as its getting dark with about 40 minutes to spare...

...one thing for it step out of the car into the Assassin. throw around a freestyle boat (which is mighty fine btw - go try one) in the the snow and ice for 40 minutes, step out of the Assassin get in the car. Perfect! One word of wisdom though holed jeans and a Howies tee don't make for good thermal layers!

On the way to the weir, yes that is snow & yes it is sunset.

Warm, dry and feeling a little bit like James Bond

Ben

Small winter session in Lyon – Hawaii sur Rhone

“Hawaii-sur-Rhone”, this wave didn’t work well for about a year! The reasons? Maybe it didn’t rain enough the past year or the dams have improved in controlling the water flow against floods. In fact, we don’t know…

It’s been two weeks that the water level jumps up and down with the rain and it’s always hard to catch the wave at its best level (working during the week or in the night).
Last week, I drove Lyon and managed to catch the wave between 1200 and 800 cumecs, which are the best!
A video is being made.

Hawai-sur-Rhone is not dead!!

Léo Carpene
Nookie Team Rider

Time to say goodbye...

To my surf boat. Although now classed a little 'Old Skool', it doesn't matter I am a little bit Old Skool!

She's looked after me well, making me strive for things I never dreamt possible.

We've shared the good and the bad times

But now I feel dirty, I'm moving on to a newer younger (& OK slightly more Chav) model

Fairwell good friend...

...Now bring on the Airtime ;o)

Ben

Update from Team Rider Doug Cooper

With team trials out of the way it was time to get down to some serious training for the worlds. Hurley slowly drew to an end and it was time to migrate over the pond to Canada. Starting in Montreal with super high water proved to be no good so I trekked over to the Ottawa River. Meeting up with plenty of other Europeans with the same idea, I set out to get some wave action under my belt.

After a week or so I heard that the Gateneau river had come up nice and high and the high tension wave was well in. Arriving at the wave it felt surprisingly European. With paddlers from 4 EU countries I was at home. A week later my back was in turmoil so I left the great high tension wave to spend a few days paddling the famous Petawawa river.

Hearing that the Ottawa was on the up I headed back just in time to watch the river rise to fifteen on the gauge. Yes we had bus eater. After a week of high water Ottawa, I went back to high tension for a further week.

Time passed and after a few hectic nights in Montreal surfing the St Laurence waves and getting hideously drunk with mark from wave sport and Leone from Switzerland it was time to go home.

Arriving back in England I spent a week circuit training and doing sprint training on the river. Friday came round and James arrived at my house. We loaded up the truck and headed to Europe via the airport to pick up a friend flying in from Oz. Well we spent a few days in Holland with a Dutch buddy before heading to worlds.

Worlds began with training every day at 8 am. We got 3 rides each if we were lucky. Myself and John Best spent almost every night at the wave getting extra surfing time so we would be peak for our rides on the day. Time went by quickly and it was time for my rides. Well let’s just say “I fucked up. Big time “finishing in 44th position it felt like the last 7 months training was all for nothing. With no buzzer I hit my helix’s ten seconds after my ride. With great furious anger I went to the bar and got ridiculously hammered. The rest of the event sailed by with many a cheer and good times hanging with the rest of the Nookie crew.

Time to move on further in to my Euro trip heading to Leone’s house for a night of chilling before making the big drive across to Slovenia.

Slovenia was a haven of good water and fine food and wine. Low levels made the siphon canyon runnable it also meant we could skip the camp site and stay on the river bank and spend the days chilling. It began to get cold in Slovenia so we upped and headed in to Austria hoping that the wave in Kohal would be working. The waves work when it’s high and when it’s low. We got there and it was middle.

Hell it’s time to go home. Heading back to Switzerland to once again chill at leone's place and celebrate my birthday with wine and good steak. On the way I received a phone call from good friend Rob telling me of the famous wave at the falls of Laura would be in on the biggest tide seen in a few years I knew my time to leave main land Europe was close.

Leaving the good company of the Haberlling family I travelled across Europe for one more stop. The Netherlands, as flat as a pancake with about as much white water as my downstairs toilet. Arriving in Delft after dropping crazy Irish Neil in Amsterdam was brilliant. Hanging out with the Dutch boys was well up on my list of cool things to do. We settled down to rest our weary limbs after the long drive and digressed into kayak talk over pizza and a cold beer. Morning broke and we were off back to Blighty. With a week to do my washing and pick Swiss Leone up from the airport and get to Scotland I had time to chill and see the parents.

Big thanks to Nookie, Streamlyte, Sweet and Wavesport for the lovely kit, boats and support getting me to the worlds.

A Great Example of the Assassin Drysuit Fit

We (at Nookie) have had a fantastic feedback from the new Assassin Dry Suit and have been finding ways of showing examples of just how tailored and well fitting it is. Team Rider James Weir provided this photo.....

James in the front wearing the Assassin Dry Suit doesn't have any of the excess material around the back yet has full freedom of movement.

We also have a video coming very soon showing how quickly one can put the dry suit on and zip it up without the need of help.

New 80N Rivermonster with Gaiafoam®

The NEW Rivermonster Buoyancy Aid/PFD is now in stock using the environmentally friendly Gaiafoam® and it's now 80N!
Gaiafoam® is an environmentally friendly PVC free foam which does not include CFC ozone depleting materials and phthalate ester plasticizer. Its low apparant density reduces weight without performance loss. The ultra soft foam effectively resists cold and heat, is easy to clean and resists most chemicals, petroleum products and humidity.......
Basically we've just made an incredible buoyancy aid even better!

For more information please visit the Rivermonster webpage at www.nookie.co.uk/rivermonster

British Surf Kayak Championships - Wales

The British Surf Kayak Championships took place recently after a lot of hard work from Team Wales.

Llangenith, Gower, South Wales was the venue for the champs this year, and with the increasing numbers in surf kayaking at the moment, it was no surprise that we had over 40 entries.

The surf was great and the weather played ball so everybody had a great time. The surf kayak awards were a new addition to the champs this year, with prizes going to a selection of categories:
Media Hog
Most consistent competitive surf kayaker
Biggest contribution to the sport
Best surf kayak shot of 2009
Hottest newcomer
Most improved surf kayaker
Biggest wipeout.

The surf kayak awards had a strict dress code of black ties and ball dresses, which for a load of trainer wearing hoodied surf kayakers, turned out to be pretty entertaining.

The finals went down on Sunday and new British Champions were crowned. With a fantastic range of prices from NOOKIE, all finalists went home with new gear, and Junior British Champion, Jordan Thomas, left with a £100 Nookie Voucher!!

A massive thanks therefore must go to Nookie for supporting the event!!

Nathan 'Yellowboy' Eades
Nookie Team Rider

Full results are on kayaksurf.net

The Dartcam is back with Nookie!

The River Dart (Devon, UK) Webcam is now back in action with Nookie! Now all you have to do each day is visit www.nookie.co.uk/dartcam to know exactly what the level is at.

Updated every 30 minutes with a still shot, the new gauge will display ft and also markers correlating to features on the river such as the well known 'slab'.

For any technical queries about the webcam please email: ben@riverdart.co.uk

Oetz Valley

After a hard week of work at Kanumesse, Steve (Sales Manager) and Hazel (Designer) took a (rather large) detour on the way home to hit the Oetz Valley in Austria for a bit of 'product testing'. The water was low-ish, but the weather and the location were stunning.

Jochen Lettmann in the Nookie Assassin Drysuit - Middle Oetz

Steve testing the Lettmann Granate - Middle Oetz

Two days of paddling a variety of rivers in the area with Jochen (from Lettmann Kayaks) meant we both had the chance to be the first British paddlers to test the excellent new composite creek boat, the Lettmann Granate.