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Sweetwater has been working on developing an on-line learning resource for freestyle and river running for sometime now and I’m happy to announce that phase 1 of creating the content is now finished and phase 2 is in progress . Over the next week we’ll be uploading the feature onto our website for a test run. If all runs well we’ll start the process of populating the skills section with further content. Our Target is to release a minimum of 1 manoeuvre a Read more…

Although the paddling season has been disrupted with the snow fall this winter we have managed to maximise our time on the rivers – when the weather smiles in our favour! Here are a few snaps taken on a 5 Star Whitewater assessment in Exmoor on the East Lyn river. Well done all, it was a great day.

Congratulation to all the finalists who made GB Team selection for 2010, it’s another strong team this season. Sweetwater would like to take this opportunity to wish them all the best in their preparations for the European Championships, June 2010 (Lienz). Results can be found on UK Freestyle

Hi All, This weekend I was down in Devon running a 5 Star white water training course, and as you could guess we weren’t short of water with all of those weather warnings going on. The heavy rain was in isolated pockets so the Upper section of the River Dart was running at the high end of medium flow but by the following day it had dropped to a low level. After spending the Saturday Read more…

The River Swale, which flows down from the Pennines through Swaledale towards Richmond,  is one of my favourite backyard runs. It’s where I honed my steep creeking skills in the early days and it still puts a huge grin on my face. I was  in the area  the weekend before last after running a day’s coaching for Lincoln University and decided to drop in for a quick run on the way home and show this little gem to a Read more…

The Merrell WaterPro Ottawa  Shoe – made with the assumption that you are going to push them and yourself to the limit. Definately caught my attention straight away. Like most kayaking enthusiasts, I am the destroyer of paddling footwear! So, I put them to the test during the last 2 months to see if they live up to the hype. The first thing I noticed was the new improved Vibram sole (something that let down it’s predecessors).  The clever R&D team at Merrell Read more…

The website aims to develop paddlers skills and give up to date advice on many aspects of white water paddlesport. I’m happy to announce that phase 1 of the project is in process. This will soon to be followed by photo’s and finally videos. Once we have the descriptions uploaded we will be further refining the content as we adjust the format. This is a free resource for the paddler community and we would greatly appreciate Read more…

It’s been busy couple of months here at Sweetwater. Although the white water season is just starting in the UK, it is coming to a close in Sweden where I’ve just been running coach and guide development programmes. I was staying in Are about 2hr’s drive from Troheim Airport on the Norwegian boarder. After a good sleep I met up with the team to discuss the program and their personal goals over  a  traditional Swedish breakfast. Read more…

Can’t believe my luck this season. After an awesome time in Sweden with perfect water levels, I arrived in Canada, Ottawa to find that Ontario had just received a record amount of rainfall – in fact the most rainfall since records began. I was accompanied by Tom Wolstenholme (the Burners programme coordinator). The ‘Burners’ is a youth  programme  co-founded by Andrew Jackson (KJO) and myself. The programme has produced some of the UK’s finest youth freestylers Read more…

Hi all, I’m currently in Sweden with the national freestyle team for the final preparation in the lead up to the World Championships in Thun, Switzerland. I’ve been working with the team for three years now, acting as an independent performance consultant and coach. The water levels are awesome at the moment, providing lots of options for suitable training features. We’ve setup base for the week just 5 minutes from the ‘Bitch Wave’ (the closest translation into Read more…