Hay everybody, I got this email off Ben-Wah. It sounds like a savage day. I would be there myself but I have to take the HSE for all they have got on the day. If any of you are even the silghtest bit interested in slalom I would advise that you get yourselves to Plamerstown this Saturday.
Hi guys,
Following the growing interest in Slalom accross the country and the success of the slalom competition at the 2009 Intervatrsities the Irish Slalom community is making big efforts to open a gateway to Slalom paddling for all who are interested. With this goal in mind some of the best slalom and freestyle paddlers in the country will be offering a free slalom training session at Wild Water Kayak Club on the Liffey at the strawberry beds on Saturday 21st March, this Saturday, from 10am till 4pm. The training will wrap up with an adhoc competition at palmerstown weirin the afternoon. Wild Water now has a full set of competition slalom gates above and below the weir at palmerstown. A number of slalom boats will be available on the day, around 20 to 30, but bring your own boats too incase numbers are high, people will be given the opportunity to rotate between gp and slalom boats if needs be.
Eoin Rheinisch and his brothers Eamon and Aiden as well as Moe and Len Kelleher have confirmed they will be present to introduce novice paddlers to slalom as well as help more advanced paddlers tweak their skills and improve their times on moving water. Many other experienced slalom paddlers have offered up their time to help out at the training. If you, any of your club members, or any of your mates have any interest in paddling slalom this is a unique opportunity to learn some new skills and network with the slalom community to help the development of the sport accross the country.
It is anticipated these training days will be held on a monthly basis around the country by high caliber paddlers and coaches, with the first couple of training days happening on the Liffey but hopefully moving to the Boyne and then to rivers such as Castleconnell, the Boluisce and the Bandon or Lee Fields and beyond if interest and support is shown. These training sessions will hopefully lead into a series of competitions held around the country, the first of which will be held at Wild Water Kayak Club on the 4th of April.
It would be savage to see big support for a progressive initiative like this, where some of the best paddlers in the country are giving up their free time to give expert training to anyone and everyone who is interested in Slalom on both flat and moving water. This is an opportunity to revive one of the best discplines in paddling which equips people with skills which they can apply to all other disciplines of paddling.
Hope to see many of ye there at the weekend guys. This could be the start of a great thing, which can have great implications for the development of Irish Paddling reaching beyond Slalom into the other disciplines. So come one, come all, crash on peoples floors in Dublin and come have some good banter on the river.
Please feel free to post details of the training on any message board. Can you please email me back just to let me know if ye are interested in going along, and if you have an idea how many people would be going with you so we can try to organise logistics and coaches.
Cheers
Hope to see ye on the water.
Benny
