2010 Home Internationals / British Open

We are pleased to announce that the Northern Ireland Surf Kayak Club will be hosting the 2010 Home Internationals and British Open in Portrush.

The dates for the competition are :

Home Internationals - Monday 25th - Friday 29th October

British Open - Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st October

Further information, including registration forms and accomodation details will be available on our forum in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the Forum for further updates.

In the meantime, have a look at some of the photos and video from the 2008 British Open held in Portrush and check out Portrush on Magicseaweed here

To see a Video from Andy Mc Clelland of the 2008 Competition, click here.

CANI Surf / Surfkayaks.com League Comp. 3

Competition 3 due to run in Magheroarty was switched early Sunday morning due to the better conditions in Falcarragh.

First on the water was the Masters with top battle between Laurence Mc Bride and James O Donnell with Laurence just catching the better waves to give him the 1st place.
The plastic class saw Kieran Dyer winning again which is going to make him hard to catch in the plastic open league class.

In the Juniors event Andy McClelland made it 1st in the IC and HP, with a fast improving Jack Porthecary getting 2 x 2nd places. It was sad to see the early retirement of Jake King due to ongoing wrist problems.

The senior IC final was a world class event with current mens IC world ranked no2 Dessie McGlinchey, world no3 Jonny Bingham, taking on world no1 and no2 juniors Corin King and Andy McClelland and also contesting the final was local favourite Gerald McGahey. It was keenly contested final which saw the more experienced seniors Jonny taking 1st place and Dessie grabbing 2nd.

Senior HP open heats saw the standout move of the day comming from Corin King with a huge aerial manouever and giving him the highest wave score of the day. The final saw conditions dying with Dessie getting 2 early waves in his new boat which proved to be enough for him to take 1st place. 2nd place saw a tie between Corin and Masters competitor Matt Pothecary. Corin was awarded 2nd on count back with Matt (one of the'aul boys') getting the 3rd which must have been the performance of the day.The waves just didnt come through for Jonny who had to settle for 4th place.

Saturday night's Camping and Barbeque was followed by Sunday's coaching which was available for all competitors.The smaller cleaner conditions proved ideal for coaching and gave Harry a chance to give feedback on what he had observed during the competition and give everyone one-2-one tuition and plenty to work on for the next competition.

The club would like to thank Gerry & The Kings for organising the event, and a special mention to Paddy for acting as scribe during the competition. Also a big thanks to I-CANOE for sponsoring the prizes for Saturdays competition.

CANI Surf / Surfkayaks.com League Comp. 3 - Update

Competition 3 is CONFIRMED for Saturday 19th June.

Full details are:

Saturday 19th June, meeting at Magheraroarty Pier, Donegal.
**Registration closes 9.30am; £5 entry fee per class**

Prizes on the day will be provided by I-Canoe, Irelands online canoe store.

Anyone who cannot make the 9.30am deadline for registration can email their registration to surf@cani.org.uk by 3pm Friday 18th June.

COACHING session for all competitors planned for Sunday 20th June, details will be confirmed during the competition on Saturday.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Please bring your CANI or Club membership cards for insurance purposes.

For further information about this event, please email us on surf@cani.org.uk.

European Championships - Mundaka 2010

Yet another early start on Thursday 29th April morning started the trip to the annual European Surf Kayak Championships held in Mundaka, Spain.

After an unsure half hour checking in at the airport, not sure if we were going to reach the departure lounge in time (because of someone’s heavy baggage!) we made it and next thing we were in sunny Santander and the convoy of cars were leap-frogging up the motorway for Mundaka (with the occasional stop to make sure the Kings boats were still there)

Small swell meant that there were no waves to be had on Thursday but we managed to get some nice small waves in Sopelina on Friday. A fun surf was had by all and the boardies were glad to see the back of us!

The 1st day of competition was moved to Bakio as there were no waves on Mundaka. The weather was good and there were contestable waves. The standard was very high all day with this year having one of the biggest entries with over 60 people.

The Northern Ireland Surf Kayak Squad were on top form with some great performances and results: with all the juniors advancing to the finals day alongside Jonny and Dessie.

There was a bit more swell around on Sunday for the finals and so the call was made to run on the world famous left hand point break, Mundaka. Unfortunately when the tide started to push towards the later part of the day, the quality of surf deteriorated leaving the Men, Women and Masters very challenging conditions for their finals.

However, this was no problem for our talented Squad as shown in the results. Well done to everyone who competed and thank-you to everyone who helped make this years Europeans another success.

The NI medalist were as follows:

Junior HP - 1st Corin King, 3rd Andy Mc Clelland, 4th Jake King

Junior IC - 1st Andy Mc Clelland, 2nd Corin King, 4th Jake King, 5th Jack Pothecary

Mens IC - 2nd Jonny Bingham, 3rd Chris Hobson, 4th Dessie Mc Glinchey

Masters HP - 4th Matt Pothecary

Competitions: We welcome members from all levels and disciplines of kayaking at our competitions and would like to emphasise the value of the plastic/ novice class which continues to produce future squad paddlers without the pressure of competing against ranked competitors. Additionally, coaching for all competitors will be available on the Sunday after each competition, for no extra fee.

All comp dates can be found in the events section of this site.

Check out the competition link for all sorts of info including this year's league comp dates. Also, news concerning confirmation / cancellation and other events will be posted on the forum, so keep checking there if you want to know what's happening.

PROMOTION: Special 2009 NI Surf Kayak Club membership offer - FREE DVD to all new members of the club showing some superb surfing manoeuvres from the NI squad; this is a good source of visual tips for new moves and how to manage them and provides a taster for the other DVDs the club has produced.

Another benefit of membership is all members will have access various surf kayaks plus can avail of reduced rates for our "Come and Try It" coaching sessions, recreational events and coaching weekends.

Club membership is 15 for the year. To join, download the club membership form here NISKC.

If you would like to be added to the Surf mailing list (competition, news, etc.) please email the committee at surf@cani.org.uk.