After basically being away for the whole of the summer, I was glad to be heading back to Nottingham, even though I knew it would be cold. It was also great to meet up with everyone, those who had been to Canada, and also the guys who had been paddling in the UK for the summer.
Looks may be deceiving; and this was definitely the case with the weather. espite it feeling and looking fairly sunny, once on the water (optimistically in a shorty) I found out that it was actually very cold.
For my first few runs, I used my new 2016 Rockstar in small to try this at essentially my home spot. It was weird being back there, and with the course still missing inlet and twin, I took a while to get back into the swing of hole boating. Later, I then swapped into Claire O's carbon boat (2014 Rockstar) to try that out. After a few runs, I also did a flat water session to really be able to compare the boat. By doing this, I worked out that for me, it was easier to do moves like split wheels which change direction in the new Rockstar due to the narrower hull, but the carbon made loops a lot easier.
Following a short break, I then thought I would just try the new medium, mainly out of curiosity and knowing that I am also at the upper end of the small. Although the outfitting left a fair bit of room, and initially it feeling very big, I soon seemed to settle into it and particularly in troll, felt quite a bit better.
There are still lots of questions to which boat I continue in and lots more switching around involved, but it was really good to be back at HPP. Although, in my opinion, the course is not at it's prime (and admittedly I'm not rushing back to train and hone in those new tricks), it was still fun to paddle.
Looks may be deceiving; and this was definitely the case with the weather. espite it feeling and looking fairly sunny, once on the water (optimistically in a shorty) I found out that it was actually very cold.
For my first few runs, I used my new 2016 Rockstar in small to try this at essentially my home spot. It was weird being back there, and with the course still missing inlet and twin, I took a while to get back into the swing of hole boating. Later, I then swapped into Claire O's carbon boat (2014 Rockstar) to try that out. After a few runs, I also did a flat water session to really be able to compare the boat. By doing this, I worked out that for me, it was easier to do moves like split wheels which change direction in the new Rockstar due to the narrower hull, but the carbon made loops a lot easier.
Following a short break, I then thought I would just try the new medium, mainly out of curiosity and knowing that I am also at the upper end of the small. Although the outfitting left a fair bit of room, and initially it feeling very big, I soon seemed to settle into it and particularly in troll, felt quite a bit better.
There are still lots of questions to which boat I continue in and lots more switching around involved, but it was really good to be back at HPP. Although, in my opinion, the course is not at it's prime (and admittedly I'm not rushing back to train and hone in those new tricks), it was still fun to paddle.
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