Dragon Boats on the River Liffey

Paddling at speed up the Liffey in a dragon-boat with 21 other women, all of us with our eyes closed while a helmswoman calls the beat was not something I’d ever planned on doing.

I spent last night with the Plurabelle Paddlers – a group of women who race dragon-boats around Ireland. And while sunset on the river might conjure up some relaxing images, there was no hanging about with this group.

Chairperson Fiona Tiernan told me their coach plans on videoing the next session so she can “scrutinize” their strokes. I’m not quite sure if she was joking.

Getting the boats into the water was exercise in itself – wooden and heavy, lifting them out of the sheds and down into the water meant a lot of “mind your fingers” and “no, no, you’re other left”.  

The long boats are similar to stretched kayaks with wooden seating for up to 50 rowers at a time depending on the size of the boat. And they have drums.

Yup, drums. Sadly of the two boats out last night, I was in the drum-less boat but hearing the other run thump its up way up the river as the wooden oars flashed in and out of the water in time more than made up for it.

Our boat was mainly filled with beginners but we managed to make it up and down, even went under a bridge – with rather fabulous graffiti underneath asking: “Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?”

The closed eyes? Helps with your timing apparently, also with skinned knuckles and clashing oars. 

And as we flashed – ahem, I use that word rather loosely – past the bars on the Grand Canal Dock, I wondered did those people know what they were looking at?

We paddled in a pink boat, many of the regular crew were wearing pink fleeces or headbands and a HSE sticker decorated both boats.

Pink, pink to make the boys wink.  But it’s also the universal Breast Cancer colour. Many of these women were recovering from treatment, but you had to look closely to notice. 

There was just a quick flash of intensity to queries about someone’s health as we readied the boats, but that disappeared when it was time to get in the water. 

Sit up straight at the edge of your seat, brace your feet for the kick … Ready? Attention! Go!

The PlurabellePaddlers is the first dragon boat team in Ireland. The team was set up by Fiona Tiernan, in order to keep fit after a recurrence of breast cancer. From a membership of two and no boat in 2010, we now have 60+ active members, a wonderful coach Julie Doyle and two dragon boats.

Pic: Plurabelle Paddlers Gallery 

No women's canoe in the London Olympics

The most vocal of the women pushing for inclusion in the Olympic Games, American canoeist Pam Boteler says the sport is simply extraordinary.

For many of us, the words 'canoe' and 'kayak' are used interchangeably, so what's the difference between canoeing and kayaking?

Canoe evolved from the Native American nations in the US and Canada. You kneel on one knee in the boat, it’s a powerful position. You have a longer blade (than in Kayaking) and it’s a single-blade. There is more power and a grace to it because of being in a superior kneeing position instead of sitting. 

It is more extraordinary than being in a kayak.This is a very exciting event to watch - in Canada there is an event with war-canoes, they play the traditional music during the race.

Typically the Europeans dominate the sport, Canada are also very strong. China won the team event in 2004 and 2008. There were 22 countries at the last (women’s) World Championships, and 36 countries that have women training.

*Pam asked me to add this in here: 

The primary distinction is the paddle:  canoeing uses a single blade and kayakers use a double blade.  The paddling style in this Olympic discipline requires the paddler to be kneeling on one knee (similar to the position of one being “knighted”) in flatwater/sprint or kneeling on both knees inside the boat in whitewater/slalom.   The actual paddling motion to propel the boat is only done on one side in canoeing because of the single blade, though in slalom, they may "cross over" the paddle from one side to the other to maneuver the course.

Kayakers us a double blade (a blade on both ends of the shaft) always sit, and always take strokes on both sides of the boat.  Kayakers in sprint have rudders to go straight, whereas canoeists have no rudder and must steer with the single blade.  This makes canoeing even more difficult a discipline to master. In my opinion, Olympic style - kneeling - has more power, grace and beauty because of being in a superior kneeling position.

That all sounds very positive, so why have you set up WomenCan International? 

Women kayakers can compete at the Olympics but female canoeists are barred.

If a girl wants to do canoe, her coach will say there is nothing ahead of you, you have to be a kayaker. And who wants to be alone at 13? If you want to do it, you have to believe you will be part of paving the way for the future.

There are 16 canoe-kayak events on the Olympic programme and the IOC tells us they are not going to give our sport anymore medals. But they keep adding other sports.

We want equality with the men’s events. But we are seeing men’s kayaking events being taken away to make room for women’s kayak and that is causing resentment among the men. 

WomenCAN International tries to support women canoeists, it's me really and private donations. We typically don't have a lot of money but even 500 dollars can go a long way. 

Laurence Vincent Lapointe, Canada

What’s the argument against adding women’s canoe to the Olympic programme? 

The argument is that women’s kayak is there … but that is a sitting sports and we kneel, it’s not the same. There are five men’s canoe events as well as men’s kayak.

The IOC has made decisions to exclude women and to favour kayak events.

So what do women canoeists want?

We want equality, we want the same number of events as the men. 

We would like to be added to the Olympic programme, Canoe 1 and Canoe 2 in the sprint event and Canoe 1 in the slalom.  The numbers refer to the number of people in the canoe, single or pair events.

We meet the base criteria of the IOC, 24 countries is the base. We feel we can revitalise the sport of canoeing. But we are still struggling against people who say we don't belong.

Read more about women's canoeing at WomenCAN International. 

More great pics at WomenCAN Intl on Facebook.

Women's canoe event in the Czech Republic

Wordless Wednesday

Inchydoney Beach in Cork  - Ladies in the water!

Pictures only on Wordless Wednesday

Watery Wordless Wednesday

More photos by Fionn Rogers from the GMIT Paddling Intervarsities 2012 here.

Wordless Wednesday blogging with photos once a week

What you loved on this blog 2011

They say a week is a long time in politics so a year ... So much happened in 2011 that events from January or February seem to have happened in another decade not just a few months back. And scrolling through the stats for this blog to see what you liked reading isn't any different.

Diana Nyad

The most popular posts were the attempts by American swimmer Diana Nyad to swim between Florida and Cuba last summer and again this year. Like many of you I was disappointed for her but also impressed that she even thought of attempting the 103 mile swim at 62 years of age. That's complete with sharks and jelly-fish. 

Following close behind numbers-wise were the stories of Australian surfer Steph Gilmore and Kyrgyzstan MuayThai fighter Valentina Shevchenko.  

You also loved the personal stories from American cyclist Deborah Atkinson, and fighter Melissa Ray's retirement interview. Australian fighter Caley Reece just keeps popping up in the stats and lots of you were inspired to get climbing by Alaskan mountain-lover Ti Conkle.

Irish women you enjoyed reading about included soccer- goalie Emma Byrne, Down Under Aussie rules player Sandra Ryan and listening to MuayThai fighter Siobhan Foley prepare for competition. 

Martial arts and boxing pages definitely strike a cord which maybe says something about where I promote the blog, but it seems you're happy to take inspiration from anyone as long as she's doing something she loves - that's where the real passion lies. 

These great photos from the World Freestyle Kayak Championships by Emily Wall were a huge hit - pun intended - as were the photos from Siobhan in France. 

As the seasons turned, the snow queens have been sneaking up the list again. I haven't interviewed them (yet) but profiles of Swiss-French champ Anne-Flora Marxer and American veteran Tara Dakides are your favourites. 

Getting fewer hits but making you stick around were women like Egyptian rower Heba Ahmed, the story of the Palestinian soccer team and this short film on soccer in Brazil.

Have I missed any of your favourite posts? Leave a comment, share why you loved it.

Tomorrow: your favourite photographs (thank you download counter)

Torah Bright, Australia

Adventure Links in Ireland

Antrim Northern Ireland

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. That’s what my kayak-mad sister says whenever anyone mentions the water this time of year in Ireland is just a little chilly. Just a little you know.

And the people behind new Irish website AdventureLink would definitely agree with her. Stephen says the site’s aim is to open up the outdoors to people who don’t know where to start. It’s a pretty simple idea for a website, but seems to be working well.

And it saves on the hours we all seem to spend now trawling the internet looking for deals where before we would have just taken the first thing. “One of the key features is the easy access to all adventure links and tourism from every corner in Ireland, with the adventurer in mind. There are 44 areas of adventure activity, nine extra areas and we have sub-divided the country into seven regions,” says Stephen.

They have about 800 links up already – including this blog which is how I found them, thank you trackback – and cover pretty much anything you might like to try out. Plus he says their “long-term mission” is to encourage sustainable tourism. They’ve got links up to Leave No Trace and Rothar (um, that’s bicycle in Irish) as well as a few others.

So anyone feeling lazy, no more excuses! All details at Adventure Links

Wordless Wednesday

pic: Munster Dive and Canoe

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.

New surf kayak champions from England

So the England women's team swept the medals at the World Championships of Surf Kayaking this week. Emma Wynter took the Long Boat title while Tamsin Green won out in the Short Boat. 

Emma (19) has only been surf-kayaking for three years but has won British title in 2010, came 3rd  at the World Championships in 2009, and was on the English team which won the Home Internationals  in 2010. Not a bad start.  

Tamsin Green

Tamsin (36) has been in the water since 2006, and was ranked British No 1, was a member of that same English winners team in 2010 and ranked No 2 in the world. 

Once again there wasn't an Irish team due to lack of funds. I foresee that sentence becoming the theme of the blog for the rest of this year and into next. Perhaps we should all take up soccer?! Oh, and become guys before someone from the ladies soccer team says anything about unequal funding.

What can we learn from elite athletes?

Austrian Corina Kuhnle won a repeat gold medal at the Slalom World Championships, beating out the same woman as last year too - Jana Dukatova from Slovakia. I wonder how often that happens. * Whatever about the pairing, wining two years running in this sport makes Kuhnle only the second woman ever to do so since Czech canoeist Ludmilla Polesna pulled it off in the '60s. 

Corinne Kuhnle

Watching top canoeists race through whitewater and navigate gates at speed is a great inspiration for trying just a little harder the next time you're out on the water.What do you get out of watching elite athletes in your favourite sports?

 

(*rhetorical)

Wordless Wednesday

Well done says Claire O Hara's Mum at World Kayak Champs

 Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.
 

Not so wordless today: You can see more great shots from kayaker and photographer Emily Wall here on her Flickr stream.

Gaelforce time

Gaelforce - run/walk 21 kms, cycle 45.5 km and kayak 1 km. In one day. Welcome to the madness of adventure racing in Co Mayo, Ireland. Watch out for the Killary Fjord in the video, very beautiful.


You can read about tomorrow's race here. Note that last year's winner Padraig Marrey came in at 3.36.51 and the first woman home Derval Devaney at 4:15:51  - just a stroll in the park really.

UPDATE Sunday: the 2011 women's race was won by by Emma Donlon, Ireland in a time of 4.09.22 for the 67kms. Almost 2,300 competitors finished the race. I know of one woman who took nearly 12 hours to finish, amazed she was able to keep going. And even though I don't usually talk about guys here, I heard about one man whose bike broke; he carried the bike for a while then ran the bike-section. Mentaller as they say in Cork. 

Climbing in Alaska with Ti Conkle

Ti Conkle

 Ti Conkle works full time as an internal auditor/investigator for the government in Alaska but every chance she gets, she find ways to get outdoors and explore the world outside from every angle. And she means every chance ... she commutes to and from work on her bike during the spring, summer, fall and parts of winter until it gets colder than -20F/-29C. She blogs at Element 22.

Where do you start with a climber who casually mentions the Pika Glacier as her local spot but is afraid of heights? Someone who can spot a Jackson kayak at 20 paces but is afraid of water? Ti's blog is filled with shots from Alaska and other parts of the States, none of which give any hint of fear. 

 Conquer Fear

"The first time I ever rappelled over the edge of a cliff, I nearly vomited. I was shaking so badly that my teeth were chattering and my hands were white clear to the elbows. The same thing happened the first time I put my face in the water to learn how to snorkel. I stood there in waist deep tropical ocean water, tears filling up the snorkel mask and knees shaking," says Ti. When I asked her how she deals with fear, she said she believes fear and pain both exist for good reasons but sometimes fear gets in the way so she has had to find a way to deal with it. She says: "These things are not to be “fought”, “battled” or relegated to the back closet. Make friends with the things that scare you. Get comfortable with uncertainty. That’s the stuff that living out loud is made of."

Pika Glacier Alaska

Even a few minutes on her blog give you an insight into the beauty of her home. I love, love the mountains and get that restless feeling just flicking through her shots. She says; "I’ve lived, worked and played in Alaska for 35 years and still haven’t begun to peel back the layers on the breathtaking scenery in this cradle of adventures. From mountains to rivers to glaciers, coastal waters, lakes… there is an enormous bounty of places to explore and an equally staggering number of ways to go about it. Climbing is just one aspect, one medium that allows me access to the backcountry. My three favorite ways to enjoy the outdoors, no matter where my journeys take me are: climbing, kayaking/canoeing, and cycling."

Stay Focused

One of the posts on her blog which really caught my eye was this one on hiking + climbing up Mount Olympus. So there's an 18-mile trek, climb the mountain, descend the mountain and do it all in 72 hours without sleeping. As you do. When I ask how she motivates herself for days like this, she says; "Every time I put on a pack that is more than half my bodyweight, I feel it. Sometimes, in order to do the things I want to do, hauling a lot of gear is just necessary." And I get the feeling it's not just the bag she's talking about. 

Mt Olympus

She goes on: "There are a lot of things I will do simply for the sake of doing the thing. Nothing more. I had wanted to climb Mt. Olympus for a number of years. The roundtrip approach is a long one (44 miles) and it requires patience and time spent just hauling a pack up a trail like a mule. Everything worth having or worth doing comes at a cost; the only question is, how bad do you want it?"

Even looking at some of the climbing photos makes my stomach drop out but Ti says it's all in the mind and really it's just a matter of one step after the other. Hmm ... 

Mountain-stupid

A1

While reading (cyber-stalking) on Element 22,  that phrase jumped out at me. I thought it was a term for people who get into trouble because of lack of knowledge but Ti's explanation made me laugh. While climbing with two friends, one of them found himself trying to belay the others simultaneously. All fingers and thumbs, he ground out the phrase while trying to get the ropes right. We've all been there - well, maybe not swinging from an overhang - in that place where you brain just stops but you can't afford to lose it. 

Ti says: "It’s the same thing that occurs when a person enters an international airport. You find yourself walking down the aisle of the plane, staring at your boarding pass as if you’ve never seen the combination 27C in your life and checking and rechecking the aisle numbers. Over-stimulation, information-overload and the prospect of increased altitude combine to occasionally render the human brain completely void of useful feedback." Come on, you know you can relate to that too.

Resting

Medical gloves and cucumbers, 

Headlamp and Kleenex,

Eyeliner and carabiners,

Laptop and hiking boots,

Climbing harness and cashmere sweater,

External hard drive and protein shake,

Pelican case inside a leather briefcase,

Roget’s thesaurus and daisy chains,

Soccer shoe and Benadryl,

Coffee thermos and Metolius chalk…

Back seat of my Jeep really needs

A good cleaning. ... Get in Gear, by Ti Conkle


Come back on Thursday for the rest of this interview - teaching your kids to be brave, tips on learning how to climb and photography. If you have any questions, leave a comment ...

CORRECTION: "I might clarify one point- though there was very little sleep involved in the Olympus trip, we definitely set up camp and made the attempt at resting. It wasn't a single-push, alpine style climb- it was an expedition climb. For those who know, it does make a difference."  from Ti July 26th

Interviews to come on the blog

Venturist on Flickr

I have been pretty slack on the interview-front lately. Blame some hectic real-world stuff. But I'm very excited to have some inspiring women coming here over the next few weeks from a range of sports.

First up this week will be Ti from the outdoors in Alaska blog Element 22  As well as insights into her adventurous lifestyle, she's sent me some fabulous (or fablous as we say in Ireland) photographs to go with the interview.

And I just finished mailing with Girl Boxing so looking forward to some great stories from the boxing world in New York City.

Closer to home I'm waiting to confirm with an Irish swimmer who has featured here a few times, will let you know more about that when I have the details.

Plus a few others, including a great MuayThai fighter who has just retired, in the pipeline. As always, if there is someone you'd like to see featured here,  do let me know - or indeed, volunteer yourself for a chat if you love sports too.

Results ICF Freestyle Plattling

As someone who has never quite managed to roll correctly in even the calmest of water, it's incredible to watch the kayakers at the Freestyle World Championships. The tournament finished up yesterday in Plattling, Germany.

Claire O Hara, UK took two world titles in the Squirt and K1 sections. She was quoted earlier on the ICF site saying it just all went well and how excited she is to be part of the changes in women's kayaking. Second in the Squirt was Motoko Ishada  from Japan. Emily Jackson, America - defending champ - came second in the KI event. In all, Amercia, the UK and Spain took 17 of the 24 medals across the men's and women's competitions.

Emily Wall (UK) who sent the great pics for last week's Wordless Wednesday posted on her site: "After a shaky prelims, a personal best quarterfinal and a below average perform in the semi final, I placed 6th. I just missed the cut by 3pts. I’m proud of myself for getting that far. Of course it would’ve been nice to paddle better in the semifinal and make the final, but that’s just the way competition goes." And Polly Green, who I've posted about here and here, wrote a lovely piece on her blog on what competition can really mean here.

There are more video interviews with kayakers like Hayley Mills (US) and Courtney Kerin (New Zealand) - silver medallist in the junior women's - on the ICF site, just scroll down here almost of the end of the page.ou

Which are your favourite 'couch-potato' tournaments?

Mariann Sather Norwegian kayaker

The World Freestyle KayakChampionships are running this week in Germany.  This week's blog-posts are dedicated to the crazy women who run rivers, and love the white water.

Norwegian Mariann Sather is one of the women to watch at this tournament. Sather has been competing for ten years, while fitting in degrees in English, Spanish and Norwegian on the side - usually distance learning as she's competed in 50 countries so far. She has an inspiring view on life, one that certainly made me think it's time to do more with my days.

"To write is almost as big of a passion as kayaking, as well as helping people realize that normality is what you determine it to be. To roam the rivers of the earth,  teach at the local school or jet-set around the globe, we all carry dreams that have the potential to become reality."


This footage was shot on a trip to Corsica in May this year. 

Canadian Kayaker Sara Jane Daub

The World Freestyle KayakChampionships are running this week in Germany.  This week's blog-posts are dedicated to the crazy women who run rivers, and love the white water. 

Sara Jane Daub is representing Canada in the Junior events at the Championships. The 17-year-old was interviewed in her local newspaper while ramping up the training for the tournament, saying the trick she has most problems with is: "is called Phonics Monkey, where you use your paddle to piroutte your kayak around the bow and then roll into a front flip.“I can't do those” but she is working on it, she says.“That would really help me at the worlds.'"

You have to laugh at her favourite food - anything with cheese or ketchup. Wonder if her coach has seen this?
 

Images from Sara Jane Daub

Wordless Wednesday

 

Katya Kulkova by Emily Wall

Emily Wall Polly Green Katya Kulkova

Claire O' Hara by Emily Wall

Emily Wall

Emily Wall kayaker photographer

These pics were taken by Emily Wall, kayaker and photographer a few days ago before the World Freestyle KayakChampionships
Thanks Emily for sharing!

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.

Kayaker Katya Kullova in action

The World Freestyle KayakChampionships are running this week in Germany.  This week's blog-posts are dedicated to the crazy women who run rivers, and love the white water.

Russian Katya Kullova started in her first kayak about eight years ago, when she got tired of rafting on dangerous equipment. Far from being the built-up sport it is in many European countries, Kullova says the sport is really only starting in Russia now. In an interview a few months ago, she said: "We went in one year from two kayakers in our city to like 20-25 people. Gear was difficult to get. We could get if from Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it took like 6 months. The first boat I got, I didn’t know what to order, so I just got a riot booster without knowing anything. I had no idea what I was getting. There was no one around to give me advice."

This video was shot on the White Nile river in Uganda - a kayaking mecca.

Kayaker Polly Green goes for gold

Today is the first day of the World Freestyle Kayak Championships. This week is dedicated to the crazy women who run rivers, and love the white water.

First up is American-born, New Zealand-based kayaker Polly Green. Green, a former pro-kayaker retired at 35 to become a film-maker without having achieved her dream of being World Champion; she came 5th in 2003. Last year, she decided it was time to recover her 'Fire Within' and set out training again and documenting the whole journey. Brave woman.

Green's blog has more information, including on her training time with Dr Jessie Stone, who I posted on here. 

Kayaking in the Alps

A group of Irish kayakers went adventuring in the French and Italian Alps last week. Aisling Griffin*, one of Ireland's few female surf-kayakers went along for the ride.

Kayaker Mark Ward-Bopp filmed her in action.




*Disclaimer: nepotism