Sometimes blogging can lead to browsing, and then to unexpectedly finding photos of oneself. Here's one I found on the Valley Sea Kayaks website... That's fine, but then someone pointed out that Knoydart have used the same photo in an advert. What? Could they not find a photo of anyone paddling in Knoydart gear?

I'd just like to thank Nookie for donating towards the raffle at the Wet West Paddlefest. We managed to sell around 2000 tickets for the raffle, and approximately 300 people turned up! Even better, we broke even and made a slight profit to go towards next years event. For a full report, see the blog section of my site (below), or keep an eye out for Scottish Paddler.
Thanks once again for your generosity; without you the event would not have been such a success!
Thank you,

Martin Higgs (and the rest of the WWPF organisers).
http://www.bigwethuck.co.uk

We were looking for a way to demonstrate the awesomeness of our failsafe krab park system. Sure, it never failed while we were flailing around in the water making our rescue video. But we thought y'all deserveda more graphic demonstration. And once you've crashed into the water at freakishly high speed a few times you can start to get a taste for it. Check this out - another Youtube snippet featuring some of the last week's footage... again, it's probably best if you don't try this yourself.

Another instalment of our 101 things to do with a powerboat. Waterskiing and wakeboarding are all very well. But Bill's been doing that since he was 7, and we wanted to try something new. It turns out you can have a whole bundle of fun with a surfboard. All photos courtesy Steve Childs.

The trouble with doing all the stuff your mother told you not to, because it would all end in tears, is that your mother was probably right. All good things come to an end, don't they?

***My mother, on the other hand, has always assured me that a bit of water never hurt anyone, so I'm exempt from exercising common sense and allowed to keep on playing in it (Bill)***

Here are a few of the pics of Bill surfing the Sneaker kayak on the wake of a 150hp Explorer powerboat. Do not try this at home, the kayak was about two feet from the propeller a lot of the time...


To watch a 'lil bit of youtube video of the above escapade, click here
Music courtesy of the Voom Blooms, thanx guyz.

Friday 13th - Part V

Day 5 - another day in the life of...

Ever wondered happens when you get up, yawn, stretch (here's James demonstrating the finer points of the technique, all photos SJC btw) and then...


have a hearty breakfast of bacon and copious amounts of leftover Chinese (protein and carbs for a long day on the go)...

load cameras and all these other toys ...

into big boats that can do this?

Well, check back L8r as the pics come thru. Friday the Thirteenth wasn't a bad day for us at all...

Day 4 - Every week has to have a tedious day, doesn't it? Today was spent at the Bat Cave planning the week's gargantuan finale, and doing some R&D. Which should have been cool, but there was some kinda network problem that meant no one could get on the internet or the file server, which between the two pretty much precludes getting anything done. So in my capacity as on-call janitor I got to spend much of the day scratching my head and swearing. I made it all work tho. Eventually. And the plan for the morrow is a most excellent one...

There are no photos because everything at the Bat Cave is too secret. Shhhhh....

Day 3 - we made a river rescue video. And went whitewater kayaking. The above pic, featuring James and me about to rescue damsel in distress Hazel, is a video still. The other is me old-skool cartwheeling the new Pyranha Ammo, photo courtesy of Steve Childs.

Day 2 - we went surfing. Well, we did some work, insofar as we took photos and video. But that mostly involved me going surfing in the unbelievably cool and retro Sneaker surf kayak lent to me by Valley (thank you Jason). It was perfect. Pics courtesy James Weir ;)

Day 1 - we made a video about spraypainting logos onto your stuff. Or other people's, truth be told. Very childish. Here's a rough-cut. We'll edit it more later. The genius of this day's work was two-fold. Firstly we shot it very close to the pub. Secondly, we sprayed logos onto all the things we needed to feature in the rest of the week's work. Like I said - genius.

Nookie Film Week

Joined by the incomparable Mr. Weir for a week of creating great things. I was hungover to start with, and a week of creating doesn't start without a couple of beers ;) However, we have ordered excellent (to us) weather and fine dining of all kinds, and we shall be a force to be reckoned with, albeit with slightly hurty heads.

ez dudes
back from holland and the event nookie sponsored, it was much fun. for sure the smallest water per km i have ever experienced, but so worth it. lots of paddlers with nookie decks, nookie shorties and delta long cags, which is cool. i think i got the banners in a good place but maybe could do with some bigger ones? many thanks from the organisers for the prizes.there is a report on my website and on www.funkidreadz.blogspot.com maybe we can link to the nookie blog i think the pic of the cops with a nookie banner rocks.enjoy
james

Stickers, smickers........wait till Hazel sees my new paddling graphics. Yes thats right peeps, you can now avail yourself with a Nookie logo stencil. Armed with his and a couple of spraycans you can wreak havoc and world domination a-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa.........ooops, wrong blog. You can personalise and logo your boat/paddle/gear, anyway (XXer's take note, there can't be an easier way)..........L8r. Bill

After a sabbatical of more than five years from the foot crushing gymnastics of squirt-boating, Team Nookie are back with glitter galore - perhaps it was all about having someone else to go splash about with, but armed with the world's driest squirt decks and the awesome Ti-system, Bill Mattos and Hazel Wilson are shredding again... float boats beware ;) Bill

Ellie brought me up an exciting package at the end of the day. It was our new NOOKIE STICKERS! Yippee. Within two hours, I'd scratched off the old stickers from my recently customised squirt blades, stuck the new stickers on and was on the river in the gorgeous Cornish sun. I love living in the Pasty Province. : ) Hazel