by Public Relation Officer | Jun 25, 2015 | Kayak Events
Here’s a write-up of our Alpine training and development trip earlier this summer, as written by our eloquent in-house Bard, Dan O’Sullivan
I’m wearing a luminous orange wife beater and I’m on my second bottle of San Pellegrino Orange Soda while my punnet of strawberries is diminishing. It’s 5 o’clock, we are driving from Bergamo to Kobarid and I feel better than I have done in a year. Tomorrow brings that moment I have been waiting a year for. When you are just paddling along and something happens, you react perfectly and the water splashes in your face. Then and there in that moment I will have my first white water smile. All my worries, anxieties, insecurities and the tremors of stress and the memory of outside life will disappear and I will exist as I should. That moment will be as clear and as pure as the Alpine snow melted water that we are paddling.
The craic is 90 on Seanie’s bus. Suddenly I have the feeling that things can change. The summer is opening up like a wide expanse before me and each breaking wave that crashes into the flood of excitement on this bus holds infinite possibility for mirth as we gaze deep down into the valleys of white water playgrounds from dizzying heights. Life passes quickly. Soon I’ll be thirty so I will live these final days of my twenties to the last drop. Kayakers form weird friendships because we rely on each other to save one another’s life when something goes wrong. The trust you have in your friends gives you the confidence to push boundaries you never thought possible. To wander so far out of your comfort zone within this group is cathartic. We won’t go home the same!
There were days of anxious overcrowded eddies. There were fun filled non-stop white water wave trains and days being thrown into the air from big bouncy waves.
I like to compare rivers to women. A good river should be beautiful, exciting and just a little dangerous. Your body should experience some sort of anticipation to indicate her approach. Little Canada and The Sermenza Gorge hold special places in my heart. When we got off the water, I screamed “It’s great to be alive!” at the top of my lungs. I had a pain in my face from smiling but I didn’t mind. Today was a good day, praise the river gods!
The weather was amazing and I wish I possessed the skill to accurately describe the beauty of this place. The mountains reminded me of the awe I felt when I first saw the skyscrapers of New York. They seem to have a character and personality of their own and their presence is comforting. It also reminds me of how lucky I am to be here in this natural paradise.
I have forgotten my life at home and I have notions of staying in this dream forever. The comforts of home like a warm bed, and having a place for everything rather than a smelly dry bag seem like bourgeois luxuries.
On our rest day we ventured boldly forth into the city where I was kissed by four women who coincidentally all had eyes as green and beautiful as the Soča River, and was mugged by a seagull who dive bombed from above to steal the sandwich in my hand as I dipped my feet into the Mediterranean sea at San Marco in Venice. This trip and the memories created by it are solid gold and will be locked away in the vaults of my mind for retrieval during the coming year. I’m going to spend the summer teaching kids to paddle and hopefully one of them will grow up to dream of white water waves trains.
by Public Relation Officer | May 7, 2015 | Kayak Events
-By Charlotte Ryan & Cormac Rowe
On the 18th of April 2015, the University of Limerick Kayak Club took part in a river clean up on the section of the Shannon that flows through UL’s campus. Members of the club took to the water to collect the rubbish and debris that littered the rivers banks and islands.
Weather conditions were ideal for the event as the water was calm and the sun was blazing. Due to human pollution and the winter storms there was no shortage of rubbish to be gathered up. All members who took part were excited for a day of paddling, fun and making a real difference to UL’s environment.
The University of Limerick has recently been placed 11th out of 360 universities as being one of the greenest campuses in the world. This ranking is in relation to environmentally friendly University management and maintenance as stated by the Green Metric Ranking of World Universities. The river clean-up has now become an annual event for the kayak club and is a great way for the club to give back to the environment that they get so much use out of.
With tremendous support from the UL Green Committee the day went smoothly and was a great success. Many bags were filled on the day with rubbish from the river. As well as these, some more unexpected items such as a traffic cone and oil drums were pulled from out of the Shannon. The river and areas around UL are now looking a lot cleaner due to the immense effort that was put in by everyone who volunteered on the day.
by Public Relation Officer | Apr 23, 2015 | Kayak Events, Uncategorized
How long have you been Kayaking?
I started in my first year so about 2 and a half years
What is your favourite discipline in Kayaking?
I’d be 50-50 between Whitewater and Freestyle which are also probably the two most practiced disciplines in ULKC
What is your greatest achievement in kayaking?
Getting my level 4 after less than a year is pretty high up there and also helping the club win the 6 in a row.
How are you finding your new role of captain so far?
It’s not too bad yet. We are just starting to organise our annual trip to the Alps which is going to involve a lot of logistical challenges due to the amount of people we try to bring every year. First semester of 2015 is when it’s going to get hard, trying to recruit as many members as we can and then both trying to keep them and ensure they have a good time.
Is there a lot of pressure on you now given the clubs winning history in both national competitions and UL’s C&S awards?
I wouldn’t say a lot no, obviously with us winning the 6 in a row in the Intervarsities there will be a bit to try win 7 and break the record. With regards to C&S awards the pressure is still on Gavin as it was his year the awards are based on!
What will you bring to the club?
I have always been very proactive in the roles I have had in the club before and intend on keeping it this way. With a committee comprised of mostly first years my main goal will be to train them all up so that they can run the club when the older members leave. I want to bring some new events in and also let our newer members have a bigger say in how the club is run.
In what direction is ULKC heading?
Up! Each year I was in the club we have strived to improve every year and I truly believe we have, membership has increased each year, we have more active members than ever before and the club has really pushed itself in every aspect possible. I want to continue this with us attending more national events and hopefully even international ones, increasing our fundraising for local charities and to try and increase our profile on campus.
What are ULKC’s chances of winning varsities for a 7th year in a row?
I believe we have a very good chance of winning, we’ve had a great group of first years join us this year who will be pushing for team positions which will hopefully increase our standard of paddling. Our sheer number of members is always an advantage in the long distance and the standard they are at is also very good. Having said that we have seen a great improvement in other colleges over the years due to the increased popularity of kayaking in Ireland and with talks of a change up of format in next year’s Intervarsities it is all to play for.
What advice would you give to people who want to start kayaking but aren’t sure if it is for them?
I would highly recommend you try it, I don’t know what it is but kayaking seems to attract some of the soundest, easiest going people I have ever met. You get to see Ireland from a completely different perspective on the river and you also get to go on amazing international trips to Wales and the Italian and Slovenian Alps.
Come down to any of our pool sessions Tuesday to Thursday 9:45 – 10:45pm, you can try out kayaking in a boat in a nice warm pool without the worry of falling out into the cold water. We also have weekly river trips either outback on the stretch of the Shannon that runs through the college or we head up to Castleconnel for a bit more fun on the river.
For anyone who might have come down in the first few weeks when the pool was packed and found it overwhelming I would say come down again now, the pool isn’t as busy so you will get your own boat and there will be people there to teach.
Coming into college I was dead set on continuing rugby however after I joined the Kayak Club I have never looked back and I can’t imagine what I would be doing right now if I hadn’t. It really is one of the best clubs in UL.
by Public Relation Officer | Feb 9, 2015 | Kayak Events
On February 5th 2015, the University of Limerick Kayaking Club attended the Intervarsities hosted by NUIG/ GMIT kayak club with hopes and aspirations to return home with yet another victory. Most people reading this probably know the story, but anyway, from the ground up; the Intervarsities is the annual event where the fifteen or so college kayak clubs in the country come together for a weekend of partying, banter and competing, to see who brings home the coveted big silver trophy!
A handful of us set off in the early hours of the morning to participate in the white water events. We had Eoin Keyes, a brilliant all round kayaker, Andrew Regan, a class ‘A’ paddler, Emer Farrell, who has loads of experience and Mark Scanlon, who was just back from a year of studying/paddling in Austria and trip to Mexico. Battling down rapids paddling as fast as they could to achieve a mighty 2nd place overall.
We then headed over to the Claddagh Basin for Kayak-Polo. For anyone who has not witnessed the sport before, it’s a 5 a side match that combines kayaking and ball handling skills with an exciting contact team game, where tactics and positional play are as important as the speed and fitness of the individual athletes.
Each college, represented by hardened polo players ready to do what they do best. Polo was never our strong point although after a long day of paddling hard and firing shots through the back of nets we managed to place 3rd overall in the competition, a great achievement as we hadn’t got that far before in this competition. Later on that night, the entire club had arrived at the Sleepzone hostel who were kind enough to allow some overly energetic kayakers stay the weekend.
At 6:30am the next morning we were stirred by the sound of alarm clocks going off that were harmonised by the overly fatigued moans of kayakers throughout the hostel. At 8:00am we arrived at the centre for the GP and HP registration. Once gear and boats were sorted we strolled on down to the river to wait for our race. For the fresher’s you could see a new level of fear growing inside them as they were being told they had to kayak 5km up and down a river without any breaks in the GP category and 10km up for those competing in the HP category. A tremendous task for any kayaker. In these events we went as individuals racing against each other. Eoin Keyes and Mark Scanlon took 1st and 2nd place in the GP men’s category, Gavin Sheehan and Eoin Farrell achieved 2nd place in the GP men’s duo category, and everyone who competed made a great effort.
We continued straight from the Upper Corrib back to the Claddagh basin for freestyle, as the water levels were too low to venture to the original destination in Tuam. Our highly skilled team of Eoin Keyes, Andrew Regan, Eoin Farrell and Caoimhe Farrell represented the ULKC with every trick in the book displaying levels of technique that would take years to master. Andrew Regan was targeted in the banter league after moving from NUIG to UL and was to be hit with the biggest fruit, to gain ‘Banter-points’, so you could imagine it was quite the spectacle seeing dozens of pieces of fruit being flung towards him, he still managed to execute some impressive manoeuvres.
On Sunday morning we were up bright and early for the boater cross event after the Mexican themed party held the night before. A new event in varsities that consisted of 5 people kayaking down the white water of the Lower Corrib River in an attempt to get to the finish line by any means possible. It really isn’t for the faint hearted. It was limited to a select few as Galway was carpeted in fog. Five of our paddlers got through to the second round of the boater-cross, which we were very happy with.
To finish off the weekend we had a ceremony in NUIG where the winners of each event were announced including the entire event itself. Various colleges were winning several events each which made us nervous for the overall outcome and even right up until the end it was there for the taking by anyone. We lit up with delight when it was announced that ULKC had won the Intervarsities for the sixth year in a row. We then proceeded to set off back to Limerick with the trophy in hand happy out with our victory.
by Public Relation Officer | Oct 12, 2014 | Kayak Events
The University of Limerick Kayaking Club have recently been on their first trip of the year to Lahinch, County Clare. The trip took place at the end of week 3, Friday to Sunday. Lahinch proved to be a great spot to commence the new season. New members got a chance to mingle and experience kayak surfing, as well as the joys of non kayak-related life in the hostel.
The trip got off to a flying start on Friday evening. Everyone was excited about the weekend ahead, spirits were high and red bull was plentiful, only a short bus journey separated us from the fantastic weekend in store. The journey was shortened by the talented Brian Higgins and Darragh Keane who provided exhilarating renditions of popular songs on their guitars, and the slightly less talented rest of us, who provided the vocals. Once we arrived, and got our room numbers, the fun part of living in a hostel began. From spontaneous raves, to pillow fights, everyone was enjoying themselves and was thrilled to be there. Everybody was getting to know each other, fun was had and ‘selfies’ taken. At the end of the night the concept of assigned rooms flew out the window and we crashed wherever we wanted.
As we got up on Saturday one of two things was going through or minds. Some were anxious and excited about the day of kayaking ahead of them, and others were trying to remember where they lost their things, as they realised that skinny dipping the night before may have been a bad idea. Kayak surfing proved to be an amazing experience for those who have never tried it before. For beginners, the challenge was to keep upright, and not be overwhelmed by the waves, it took quite a few attempts, but getting the hang of a kayak when being mauled by a wave felt like a massive achievement, and something great to walk away with at the end of the day. Of course there were less glorious moments, many were turned over, and “some”, made the unfortunate mistake of being slightly too eager to get out of their turned-over kayaks in shallow water, only to realise that smashing your head into sand, hurts, even with a helmet on. Thankfully there were no major occurrences, thanks to the eagle-eyed, experienced members of the club, who watched over us, and taught us a thing or two about how not to get tossed over. Although exhausted from the heavy paddling, we could not pass up on a good swim, which was a great rest and made for some excellent photo ops.
Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend for most, everyone dawned their fancy dress outfits, as per the cartoon/TV add theme, no one can doubt that there was a vast amount of variety, from “Popeye” to “Dick Dastardly”, to two “Flintstones” and three “Bat”-men, even “Thomas” was there with a few cans, makes one wonder, what’s Halloween going to look like? As we reached the night club the night went into high gear, the fatigue of kayaking wore off and the dancing began. There were three groups there on the night, but we were by far the loudest. Everyone was dancing none-stop all night, and when the music stopped, we provided our own. The fun wasn’t over with the club either, sleeping only got in the way of us enjoying the night, so we avoided it. We got to know each other better and also got to hear some stories from the older guys. Our room packed it in at 5:30 am that night, or morning?
Sunday’s morning was bittersweet, there was still more kayak surfing to enjoy but the thought of going home was still constantly in the back of our minds. We went out that day and took as much fun out of the morning session as we could. By the afternoon we were all packed up, sitting together in our rooms, going back over the highlights of the weekend, at 6 the bus arrived and we made our way back to UL.
The trip will definitely live in the memory of all the new members, it was our first time out with the club and it was absolutely mental to say the least. I’m sure everyone is ecstatic about the upcoming trip in week seven, and I hope to see you all there.
