Kit Reviews, Travel and Advice
Moving on from my tutorial of how to Lunar Orbit on flatwater, I’m now going to explain how to do it on whitewater – something I recently learned myself. For the purposes of this tutorial I will be explaining the steps to do a lunar orbit on a steep feature (as pictured below) – a […]
In this tutorial I’m going to be going over the steps to both loop when seal launching and get your boat onto the side without getting out (videos below). If you own a playboat (preferably a plastic one) and can confidently loop on either flatwater or whitewater both of these tricks should be achievable. The […]
Hello everyone, I know it’s been a while since I last posted so in this article I’ll be explaining how I decided which universities to apply to and detailing some of the progress I’ve made so far (which is what has been occupying me for these past few weeks). This post should be helpful for […]
A week or so ago I was listening to Money For Nothing by Dire Straits on Spotify Premium. My Dad came in and commented that it sounded odd, he brought in the CD and we compared the two. The difference was astounding: the drums were more punchy, the sound was crisper and there was a […]
The lunar orbit is a freestyle trick that you can do both on whitewater and flatwater, but while it is an advanced trick on whitewater, on flatwater it is considerably easier and can be learnt alongside the cartwheel, tailey and bow stall. In this post I will only be focussing on the technique involved in […]
Today I’m just going to go over a little trick that I use with my Jackson Happy Feet. I know that some people like to use a foam foot block not only because they’re cheaper, but also a lot lighter and longer lasting however, I fit better in my Jed and feel more connected when […]
Consistency is an important part of sport in general, not just for kayaking and not just for freestyle. It doesn’t matter if you manage to do something perfectly unless you can do it again (or someone filmed it so that you can pretend you can do it again). In this post I’ll describe how I’ve […]
Everyone is stronger on one side than the other and it’s tempting to forget about your off-side, it’s weaker, it’s slower and it’s more difficult – right? However, you won’t become a balanced paddler thinking like that and it will stunt your freestyle development in the long run. I put off learning tricks on my […]
You guys seemed to like my last music post so here’s 5 great albums by bands that I’ve discovered over the last six months… Starting off with a group which almost certainly wouldn’t have attained the popularity that they have done without the release of this album in July 2015, we have the album ‘Currents’ […]
iMovie is my go-to piece of video editing software – it’s free, easy to use and includes all the tools I need to make a great edit. I used to work with GoPro studio but it had a couple of annoying quirks which I’ll explain as I go through. This is a short guide as […]
Warming up is boring. You want to get on the water and start paddling, stretches only slow you down and get in the way. Wrong! I’ve managed to pull my shoulders and lower back a couple of times while kayaking and normally these things go away in a few hours, but last Tuesday I injured […]
Last Saturday I went to Chertsey and spent the day there. I’m going to go over what I thought of the feature, give a few tips as well as explain the typical things like how to get there, safety and whether I think it’s really worth travelling to in order to train… Chertsey will be […]
It’s been a while since my last tutorial post (How To Double Pump) so I thought I’d do a follow up article explaining the next step – how to bow stall. Some people manage to figure this out almost immediately and others take months, I found that the process requires three key steps and once […]
I recently made a presentation on this subject for my academic symposium at school, everyone made a slideshow on a topic that interests them and that relates to their intended university course (which for me is physical Geography). I became aware that a lot of people are against hydropower and reservoir creation – mostly because […]
I’ve just finished building my second quadcopter; the first I built about 2 years ago with the intention of using it for drone racing but this new one I meant for videography, specifically to allow me to get those stunning intro and outro clips you see in films or Youtube edits etc. I’ve had a […]
One of the best ways to feel alive is to do some sort of exercise. I know that this blog is mainly kayaking orientated but right now that probably isn’t much use for most people. What’s a form of exercise everyone can do right now..? Running; apparently we’re all allowed out for infinite exercise, I […]
The double pump is pretty much the first thing you should learn if you’re trying to do any sort of flatwater freestyle. Effectively it’s the first end of a cartwheel and it sets you up to learn more complicated tricks like a tricky woo or loop. Some people learn how to tailee beforehand but I […]
Sometimes you see GoPros in the weirdest of places – on dog harnesses, on a unicorn mount or even being held in someone’s mouth. Having tried quite a few weird ideas myself including mounting a GoPro inside of a lobster pot and on the end of a stick for my dog to chase along the […]
I’ve decided to alternate the themes of my blog posts between something kayaking related and something else that I’m interested in – this week I’m focusing on shoes because over the past month or so I’ve been painting a pair of white Air Force 1 Mids. I forget exactly how I got the idea except […]
I know that some people don’t bother practicing freestyle on flatwater, maybe it never occurred to them or they don’t think there are any benefits so they never tried it. This post is dedicated to persuading such people to try training on flatwater, maybe before a session on whitewater or simply for convenience because it […]
In this post I’m going to mix things up a bit (given that everything else right now is also mixed up) and write about the 3 bands I like most at the moment and what are, in my opinion, their top 2 albums. Coming in at number 3 we have Cage The Elephant with ‘Tell […]
One of the most common mistakes I see people making (not only for freestyle but for kayaking in general) is that they’re not looking where they want to go. I make this mistake all the time and it’s annoying seeing myself in a video later and realising. Sometimes you’re tired and you just forget, or […]
Head-to-toes winter checklist – I’ve tried wearing a couple of different bits of kit and some of it works really well and some of it doesn’t (I just have to wait for it to break so I can justify getting something better); I’ll recommend the equipment I like and I’ll be blunt about things like […]
It was my birthday on Tuesday and I received a pair of Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next%’s. I wasn’t really aware of these controversial shoes until the week beforehand when I watched a YouTube video from my recommended and then stumbled upon a magazine article on the very same day. I now know that there are […]
I was afraid that if I tried the Pyranha Ozone at Lee Valley I’d want one. I tried it. Now I want one. For those of us who don’t know, the Ozone is Pyranha’s latest release and replaces the Inazone in their “freeride” (river-play) category; in layman’s terms, freeride means you can perform modern freestyle […]
There are quite a few conflicting arguments about whether or not coffee is good for you, either way it is still one of the most popular drinks across the world and a personal favourite of mine. In the following article I’ll go over some excuses to drink even more coffee than you already do and […]
In this post I’m going to explain how to loop, going over set-up and finishing as well as body, boat and paddle position throughout the movement with some tips to improve snappiness and height throughout. I will assume that you can comfortably move about on grade 2 or 3 whitewater – by comfortable I mean […]
For those of us who do not know what an overthruster is, ever seen one of those phallic inflatable air bags a lot freestylers have jammed between their legs? It’s one of those (pictured above). I really like using them because they improve both comfort and performance while freestyling. The top section prevents your spraydeck […]
In this post I’m going to go over how I tie my kayaks to our roof rack, I had some interesting experiences trying to figure out the best way to do this and I’ve seen that there many different ways to do it with either multiple straps, bungees or even just a throw-line. I chose […]
What do you want for Christmas? If your immediate answer isn’t a neon pink, fluffy dryrobe then read the rest of this post. If your answer was “what else do I want from life,” then I agree with your fashion choices. The first time I noticed dryrobes was at Nottingham during team tryouts. An awful […]
I have spent quite a lot of time outfitting each of my playboats; starting with my original 2016 Rockstar I then progressed to a plastic Jed and now a carbon Jed; I also have an Exo Rexy for river running. Each of these boats has come with slightly different stock outfitting and consequently I’ve had […]
I don’t know about you, but I need some caffeine in the morning. Despite the fact that for the last couple of years I’ve really been a tea person, in the last 8 months or so I’ve started to appreciate coffee and now it’s my preferred choice. It started with a cappuccino (or latte – […]
Patrick Kyak 