Summer season warm up

Alright I don't want to whine. My winter season wasn't that bad. I had a great trip to Colombia and Chile for three months. But then February and March were a grey time. But then, April begins, the evenings became longer and the sun got more and more power, but still no water in the Alps because it's still too cold. Perfect time to go to French island Corsica.

I love Corsica! This year I went for my sixth time there. From my home it's just a six hour drive to the ferry which takes another four. Temperatures are normally at least ten degrees Celsius plus compared to home and it's warm enought to camp outside, enjoy campfire, french wine and friends. Corsica has great local food like cheese and dry meat, this together with a local sweet white wine is just a perfect little lunch after some creekboating.

It's every season the same. After a few cold months at home, lot's of work and some snowboarding, then it's time to get back in the boat and do what I love most and hopefully most of you too. When I start to watch the same kayak movie ten times and read some articles in Kayak Session Magazine more then once, that means I haven't been in the kayak for two months and thats a too long time!

Corsica is the place where modern Creekboating grew up. Kayakers go there since more then thirty years and it's unbelievablel how they ran these small and narrow creeks with their four meter fiberclass kayaks.

Corsica is definitely one of my favourite kayak regions. Its close to my home, always a super fun roadtrip, perfect warm-up for the season and it hides just a incredible amount of great rivers in a very small place. I like!
This year a very special hightlight happened to me. My almost ten years younger/taller brother Tim joined us on the trip and got addicted to the sport! Let's see how long it takes till he shows me the good line....:)

Thanks to Tim Fischer & Arnd Schaeftlein for all the photos

Ron 'The Don' Fischer

Nookie Team Rider

New toys @ Hurley - Part 1

In the recent years the infamous Hurley Weir has been on what is a funny three gates, meaning the middle wave is good but nowhere near the potential beast it can be. As of late we have been treated to the weir being on a very impressive level, with MASSIVE, GREEN, CURLING shoulders and a nice deep pit, well for Hurley anyway! This was aptly named the Brazilian by Doug Cooper, as the wave has a clean, smooth runway with a small tuft on top! Luckily enough I've been privileged enough to have the Wavesport Carbon Project on it and have been working on the consistency of my moves and making sure they score every time for competitions this year! Anyway, Team Wavesport Rider Mark Childerhouse has just got a pretty sweet new SLR and we have been toying around with his MASSIVE......lense and here's the results and photos!

Ive also recently brought an HD Cam so keep your eyes peeled next week for a cool new vid!Enjoy,

Keep Safe and Go Big,

Matt K

Steve Ugg Product Testing

The previous 12 hrs had precipitated 30mm of rain and so on Saturday March 20 we downed tools and set off to the river Erme, Ivybridge, Devon, UK.

The product testing was of a prototype new whitewater spraydeck and was also combined with a test of the new production model Bigdog Drop Zone kayak. The deck was being evaluated for implosion resistance and water tightness aswell as ease of fitting during a river trip. So far the performance results are very positive. The Drop Zone angled & changed direction smoothly in the technical turns. The bow gave a good sense of confidence whilst punching holes & landing drops. The Drop Zone is an ideal size for Mr Uggs weight, +- 80Kg.

Leo Carpene on Hawaii-sur-Rhone - Dec 2009

Back to Lyon – kayak freestyle from Dkayaking on Vimeo.

Team Rider Ron Fischer nominated in "Rider Of The Year" Awards

Nookie Team Rider Ron "The Don" Fischer has been nominated in this years "Rider Of The Year" Awards.

Photo Credit - Daniel Herzig

To check out more on the awards and Ron follow this link

Canoe Kayak Magazine Dry Cag Review - Assault wins CKUK Recommendation

Issue number 107 of Canoe Kayak Magazine saw the CKUK test team check out seven of the leading dry cags to find out which one's best for keeping you dry this winter.....and guess what?... The Nookie Assault won the CKUK Recommendation.

The Magazine stated "The fit on the Assault is excellent and our testers felt it was the best fitting cag in the test. It's a very close fit and there is no spare material anywhere to flap about and catch water, but it gives suberb freedom of movement without riding up. The waist tube sits just right and there's no bunching. It's clear that Nookie have put a lot of thought in to the shape of the Assault. The team also really liked the Xtetra4 fabric. It feels really light to wear compared to other cags, but seemed to be more than a match for the cold of a UK winter. Combined with the cut this makes the Assault really nice to wear. The elbow protection sits exactly where it needs to be and the other neat little touch was the spray-deck clips. Our decks always end up riding down a bit, and this simple feature makes that a thing of the past."

The CKUK team felt "the flat gunmetal grey looks very cool" but they'd have preferred it if the Assault was in a brighter colour, which is a valid point and one we considered when designing this shell. We (at Nookie) wanted a more stealth design for this cag and that the on-river visability would be bought through with the lid, Buoyancy Aid, and retro-reflective piping. There are many many bright colourful shells out there and our market research has proved there are many paddlers looking for something just a little bit cooler, whilst not compromising on safety.

To read the whole review please grab yourself a copy of Issue 107 or visit the website at www.canoekayak.co.uk

Team riders on honeymoon

In August Team Riders Lilli Winter and James Weir got married, hooray! After every good wedding, and it was a really good one, there should be a honeymoon, an experience of a lifetime for the happy couple. One of canoeings most famous adventures can be found on the Colarado River in America, a journey through the Grand Canyon, perfect!


Such an expedition needs a bit of planning, permits need to be applied for, logistics organised etc. We used Canyon Explorations to help us with our expedition, they are superb, big up to Cam, Swiss and the rest of the team at CanX.

The Grand is amazing, a thoroughly stunning 17day journey through one of the seven wonders of the world. We paddled a few chunky rapids (some twice), scrambled up side canyons, cooked yummy food and chilled out around a camp fire in the evenings with some of our best friends.

For most newly weds sleeping on a beach under the stars is part of a dream honeymoon, pimp that experience by sleeping 17nights under the stars and paddling big volume white water everyday in one of the most beautiful places in the World. Here are a few of our favourite photos from the adventure, a few rapids and some friendly creepy crawlies, enjoy.

17days of views like this, life doesn't get much better!

Lavafalls exitmove

Lavafalls left line

Havasu Canyon

Rattlesnake!

Running the sh#t!

Cruising along in the beautiful Grand Canyon

Parked up for the evening

The GC is full of side canyons to explore

Looking down towards Marbel Canyon from the put in at Lees ferry

Tarantula

There are plenty of waves to catch on the fly

Everybody loves the GC

The Grand Canyon is 17days of fun and smiles

Dropping into House rock rapid

Thanks to Nookie for our wedding present and for keeping us warm and dry on our honeymoon.
Stay safe and enjoy 2010,
Lilli and James

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