alps 07- this time it's personal

So another Alps has come and gone. This year we spent four weeks out in the French Alps running beginner and intermediate courses along with a junior training camp. The team changed slightly this year with myself Colin, and Louise back out again along with Paul Mckay as a safety boater and with Killian Kelly doing two weeks and Shane Mc Elligett doing the reamining two.

The courses were a huge success, everyone had a blast, lots of good craic and people really developed their paddling skills. The first three weeks were spent in the chalet in Chantemerle while the final week was spent down on a campsite in Vallouise with the juniors. Each group got to tackle rivers such as the Durance, the Guisane, the Claree, the Guil, and the ubaye racecourse. Water levels were quite good this year but only because of all the rain!

( There were times when Colin needed to be put back in line, and nothing better for it than a good kick up the hole)

The junior Alpine adventure course was the first of its kind and a fantastic week. All the kids paddled extremely well and progressed even more as the week went on. This was the first time paddling out outside the country for most (if not all) of these guys and by the end of the week they were running the middle guil as an independent self-sufficient group ( making less work for us). During this week we covered river-running, freestyle, and slalom skills, along with rescue techniques, rope work, and river signals. The week was a great success and after watching these kids there's no doubt that the future of Irish kayaking is looking very bright.

I'll get more photo's up when I get my hands on them. I went to Austria straight after the alps trips to check out the paddling scene there, keep an eye out as I'll get the photo's up as soon as I get them.