Rough times ahead

Which ever way you look at it… This years race is going to be tough. Firstly it’s cold. Will it be cold enough for the canal to ice up…? Well that is major the question for the canal section and especially the Pound. Then there’s the Easterly wind, a head wind, with strong gusts, with […]

Decision

Henry is not paddling this years DW. With his rotator cuff injury there is no way he is going to paddle 125 miles next week. He is gutted. We all are. We have changed the entry to a Vet Junior K2. I will paddle with Morgan. To this end we have had a few short […]

Devizes….. We have a problem…

This has been a tough week for Henry, Morgan and myself. Henry has been struggling with a sore shoulder in silence for the last few weeks. It became visually apparent whilst paddling on Thursday evening. It would appear that it is rotator cuff problem. Of which the best cure is rest! This is not exactly […]

Gruel

A tough day for the boys. 3 hours of monotony on the Forth and Clyde Canal at Bowling. Up and down, in and out. A big head wind on each outward leg. This was hard, both physically and mentally. In some ways it is a good thing the race itself is not that far off […]

A Silver Fox inspired session- portaging with flow

The Young Pretenders Junior K2 Campaign continues. It is a challenge trying to replicate the paddling environment of the Kennet and Avon Canal and River Thames- on the West Coast of Scotland. To the boys the names Devizes, Newbury, Marlow, Teddington and Westminster are comparable with the names The Shire, Gondor, Rohan, Rivendell and Mordor. […]

The Young Pretenders Keep the Loch Lomond Flag Flying

The Young Pretenders were back at it last night, another portaging practice session on Loch Lomond. We use the slipway and pontoon at Duncan Mills for this exercise. The mission is simple, start at the green grit bin at top of slipway, run down to and then along finger pontoon enter boat and do a […]

Over and out

It was particularly good to see Pike at the 7am swimming session this morning. We had our usual tussle with the lead changing hands on 3 occasions, but with Young Pike powering through on the final and 50th length to take the honours. We had to make a very difficult decision yesterday. The decision has […]