Zet Toro first impressions, fun in the sun at CIWW!

Despite being delayed by some car troubles, i finally made it south to spend a bit of time with my family before i head out to Nepal for three months.

 It's been beautifully sunny weather since i've been south, great for the soul, not so great for kayaking!

However, all was not lost today as i drove up to Cardiff to the brilliant CIWW course, a fantastic resource next to the Cardiff mariner, offering indoor wave surfing, a climbing wall and of course the whitewater course. Unfortunately i missed the whitewater festival that was on the day before, but had a great days session in the stunning sunshine today none the less.

In the spring Zet kayaks UK  and Canoe and Kayak Store were kind enough to hook me up with a Raptor, a boat which i cannot recommend highly enough. I popped in to say hi to the guys in the branch at CIWW today and was rewarded with a special treat!

 There's been a lot of hype about the Zet Toro over the last few months so i was really psyched to be given the opportunity to give one a shot. First off, it's important to say this is NOT an elongated Raptor or Director. They have completely re-designed the boat with the end purpose in mind, just as they did with the Director (i.e. not just blown up a Raptor, but tweaked the design for purpose). There is no doubt that this is a race classification of boat, designed to compete directly with the likes of the 9R and it's certainly fast! 

It's also big, and you can see that from the pictures as my Raptor looks dwarfed, although it seemed to float my meagre frame fine, and according to the Zet website has a similar recommended weight range to the Raptor. However, it certainly has lots of leg room for the larger paddler, and i could barely reach the foot blocks! (I assume the final production model will have an adjustable foot rest.) It has an extra 20L of volume over the Raptor, although a surprising 40L less than the Director according to Zet.

The seating position felt great, perhaps slightly narrower than the Raptor; perhaps to encourage trunk rotation for race pace paddling, but also perhaps down to design, who knows? The width is the same according to the specs from Zet.  I certainly liked it! I often think many of the modern whitewater designs put you in too wide a "stance", and can not always promote the most rotation, particularly if you're tight in the hip flexors.

The outfitting is in keeping with the Zet ethos, simple and effective, but the thigh braces provided excellent connectivity in that region and are perhaps an improvement again on the Raptors. The Seat, back band and centre pillar are pretty much the same set up as the other boats. 

The hull, notice the rails at the stern and rounding at the bow

 The top deck looks sleek and stylish, a design akin to the Director, again with Zet's simple and effective approach. The hull shape is interesting for certain, with a large amount of rocker on the bow helping to keep on the surface of the white stuff, something all the Zet boats do well. Much with the Raptor, the stern design helps the boat accelerate away from drops and out of holes well, but whats interesting is the rail configuration. The rails on the bow are really soft, almost round, whilst there's an aggressive rail on the stern half of the boat (which perhaps helps the boat accelerate even faster or perhaps to keep in on line?). I paddled the course at different speeds and techniques, trying to simulate a varying degree of ability and speed, and i have to say this boat likes to be driven, hard. No surprises there! Those aforementioned rails snagged a little when floating in to drops and eddies, but came in to their own when the boat was at speed, carving beautifully and carrying speed through eddies and features. For a boat that's knocking on the door of 9ft it handled and manoeuvred incredibly effectively. On the wave the boat handled and surfed brilliantly, and carried speed across waves and holes well.

Rounded and Rockered, the bow

Despite not being able to reach the foot rest (thanks a lot little legs!) my initial impression is good. if you're looking for a boat to go fast, either to compete, or just to have more fun (lets face it, going fast IS fun) then it should definitely be on your list. However, it's definitely not restricted to extreme races. If you're looking for a modern, creek boat to stay on top of the rough stuff and carry it's speed through features then it should also be on your list. I imagine it will swallow kit for expeds, handle the steeps and big volume just as well as the rest of the family does! 

I'm looking forward to giving one a go in a more challenging environment.

After a few more laps in my own boat i hopped out with my camera to take a few snaps just as the pumps were winding down. There were a couple good freestyle paddlers having fun in some of the deeper holes and with great light with such a sunny day i got a few nice snaps.

Going BIG!

Always summer Pt. deux - featuring the milky way and the northern lights

It's no secret i'm a big fan of the summer isles.

I'm lucky enough to work there quite often and i have run several trips to these incredible islands in the north west of the highlands this year.

I've just returned from guiding two back to back expeds with Wilderness Scotland, adventuring in among the skerries, caves and cliffs that make this area so special.

With very little light pollution that far north and having recently bought a wide aperture fish-eye lens, i thought i'd get up in the early hours to have a stab at some Astro-photography.
A test shot from the comfort of my tent made me realise i had a chance to shoot something else i'd been wanting to witness since moving to Scotland...

 The Northern lights are quite often visible in the highlands, but i've never been able to catch them due to various reasons, normally a lot of cloud cover, so I was very excited to get these shots.
Hopping out my tent i wandered around the beach on which we were camped snapping away, playing with various settings, often not sure whether to capture the amazing milky way, or the aurora!

As this was my first ever attempt at astro-photography, i'm content with the results, but i learnt a lot and have a few things to try next time.
Another clear night two nights later gave me the chance to get up again and try and get a few more shots of the stars. This time i decided to play with lighting up the Tipi, which worked quite well i think!

Low water high fun!

It's been a couple months since i last blogged, but there's a few to come in one go so hopefully that compensates!

I've been really busy working this summer, especially in the second half, with many back to back blocks of work not allowing for much personal play time. However, i'd blocked off a bit of time where my sister Emily came to visit and we went to the Gentlemen of the Road festival in Aviemore; followed by a few touristy type days after, including a spot of scambling, a day feeding the red deer at Rothiemurcus and a day sea kayaking in Glenuig.

Me and my wee sis

Nom Nom Nom

Lizzy and Tristan have now taken over the running of the sea kayak side of the business there. A stunning place and some world class sea kayaking on the door step, not to mention top class guiding and coaching from those guys!
Sea kayak Arisaig  are also responsible for the Scottish distribution of the excellent Tiderace sea kayaks and have a full fleet of demo boats available to try out in one of Scotland's best sea kayak venues, i'd highly recommend dropping them a line if you are near.

The following few days i had free and needed a break from Aviemore (believe it or not it can get quite claustrophobic!) so went to stay at my friend George's beautiful cottage near Loch Ness and had a few days whitewater kayaking with the crew.

Our first day we headed over to Perthshire to the Blackwater, which features in one of my previous posts. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so don't have any pictures!
Levels were high, and I put in some sketchy lines, still suffering from my cold i'd picked up post festival. Fiona, on the other hand was on fire in her new Zet Raptor nailing all the lines on the hard rapids really smoothly.
Both me and Fiona have been lucky enough to get hooked up with Raptors from Zet UK recently and I cannot rate the boat highly enough! Super fast and handles beautifully, more to come on that in the future.

The rainfall that brought great levels on the Blackwater rapidly ran off leaving us without many options for the following few days, but heading west we managed to get some good craic on a low level Spean gorge in the sunshine before heading further west over the weekend to meet up with a few other team members.

Despite the low level, spirits were high and a much fun was had on a low Etive and Allt a Chaorrain with me Jonny, Matt, Bastien, George and Chris heading to the Clachaig for a car camp, pub grub and several ales.
With sore heads the next day, we had a blast on the Orchy before driving back to Aviemore.

Fiona had been working the weekend, but was desperate to get out kayaking on Monday and with Jonny still in Fort William and her offering to pick me and Bastien up en-route, we drove back to the Etive for more air time.

Fi loving the Raptor!

There's always something that goes in Scotland, and whilst i much prefer the rivers when there's a bit of chunk in them, it's always worth the effort to go kayaking!