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

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.