Eddy Mead is a whitewater kayaker from the UK competing in extreme whitewater racing and freestyle. He is on the river whenever he can and trains annually for the Adidas Sickline in Austria. Scroll down and have a read of his adventures, kit reviews and posts....
Recently Beet-It have been kind enough to send me 3 boxes of their Beet-It Sports shots for the Adidas Sickline! They have added me to their Beet-It Challenge where there are a number of other people using Beet-It to smash their epic challenges! The page is here:
The Beetroot juice boosts Nitric Oxide in the blood which helps the body use oxygen more efficiently and therefore increases stamina. New studies are also showing that the juice can reduce blood pressure. I shall be using the juice throughout the summer for my training and drink them daily leading up to the Sickline, hopefully they give me the stamina I need!!
If your serious about your sport and training then you need to try this! I drank one before my run this morning and although I haven't started timing myself, I certainly felt faster and more efficient. The taste is really unique but with the small amount of lemon juice that is added, it takes away the intensity of the beetroot, I really like it! Thanks again Beet-it!
The title says it all really! This year the Tryweryn fest is having a short video competition based on Welsh kayaking. So I decided to throw together this edit of our recent trips on the Nedd Fechan and Mellte. The video is nothing fancy but I like to think it's entertaining to watch! Let me know what you think :) The link is below, Enjoy!
It's been a while since I've been play boating as I've been focusing on my creek boating this winter but since the rivers have been fairly dry, we decided to hit HPP! The sun was shining (most of the time) and the wind died down so was a really good session!
It was really nice to get back into it and once I'd nailed a few loops and back loops it all came straight back to me. I guess it's like riding a bike, you never forget! It was also good training for the Tryweryn Fest as they are having a freestyle event I plan on rocking up to.
Overall it was a sweet day! Got to test out the Nookie assassin cag in some rough stuff and it kept me nice and toasty. Lets pray for rain!
Yesterday I arrived home from work to a big parcel from Nookie, was super stoked to get my new cag and clothes. The quality and fit of all of it is excellent! It was perfect timing as the plan was to hit the Mellte today as it was meant to rain all night. So I got up nice and early to check the levels.... nothing, not even a scrape! Disappointed and with new toys to play with Matt and I went for a short paddle on the Wye, epic! Matt was testing out his new C1 creek boat and I had my new cag and gopro mount to play with.
The mount definitely effects rolling, not sure I want to be upside down on rapids with this thing, but as you can see the shots are pretty sweet! As for the cag, I couldn't ask for more comfort and dryness. Although it's last years model if you can get your hands on an Assassin dry cag it's worth it! I can't wait to be warm and dry during the Sickline :) Here's some shots from today:
For months I've been searching the net for a rear Gopro mount for my boat, we little success. Eventually I came across a design on Unsponsored.com and a shopping list was made. After a trip to B&Q I started work. Surprisingly it all went together really well and a solid quality mount was made. The main thing I struggled with was finding a flat piece to mount on top for the Gopro, which is why I've ended up with a telescope look.
It had been raining all night in the Brecon's, so Matt Price, Andy Shan and I hit the road early and headed to the Nedd Fechan. I hadn't paddled this river in years, but it used to be a regular run so I know the river well. I remember the first time I ran it in low water in my little Necky Chronic.... how things change! Today however it was pretty high! But it was dropping so we needed to get on quickly.
We inspected the first drop and set up safety, it's an interested two tiered drop which kicks hard right into an overhanging wall, a perfect warm up! I fired it up first with a little success but got launched into the wall, but all good! Andy went second and flipped before the second lip and got pushed upside down into the overhang, he quickly pulled his deck and we had a difficult rescue on our hands. Downstream of the drop there is an island and both channels are blocked with dangerous trees so floating down is not an option! We managed to get Andy back in his boat stress free and Matt hit the drop with the best line (guess he learnt from some mistakes..).
Andy at this point decided he wasn't feeling it that day and decided to walk back to the car, but he ran safety for us on the next drop. This next drop is a 20 foot waterfall with a challenging lip and shallow landing. About 3 feet from the lip is a stopper which can kill your speed and kill your boof, and pencilling this drop isn't a great idea! In the past this fall was considered a portage, but now it is much more commonly paddled. Matt decided to go first and after a long wait he flew off the lip, unfortunately he missed his boof stroke and came down with a crazy angle. Luckily he came out really well and pretty stoked! This didn't fill me with confidence but I was sure that I could do it. Sitting in the eddy at the top it's really hard to see your line as the actual lip of the drop is behind the stopper. This left me a little uncertain as I peeled out of the eddy, all too quickly I boofed the stopper and put a strong boof stroke on the lip and took a pretty smooth landing. Great drop! Certainly gets the blood flowing, technically easy/high consequence.
After this drop is another 20 footer, this one lands on a concrete slab and is almost always portaged but has been run a few times in the past, we portaged. Unfortunately the Nedd Fechan has a lot of trees in it at the moment so we had to portage a few great drops but the rest of the run was still great paddling. We walked up to the Pryddin drop, a 40 foot clean drop with a shallow landing. It's been run a lot recently but we decided that it needed a little more water and with just the 2 of us, an accident would not be great.
