Halton demo day is a sucess!

Today was the first of two demo days that we at Brookbank have organised for local clubs to attend at Halton rapids and try out any boat that takes their fancy for free. The day was very successful with many local clubs and local boaters attending. We demo'd out many boats and even got some chance to get on the water and try some of the boats out ourselves. With myself (Craig) even getting a run down the rapids teamed up with good friend and boater Sam Clegg in the Demo Topo Duo, which was amazing fun and even managed to roll it. We would like to thank all those who attended the event, and any that didn't make it this time round, we will be holding another demo day on Sunday 14th March at the same location. For information about this event please see previous BLOG post for details.

Below are some pics from the day!

Laurence (left) sporting his best boating kit!







Sam Clegg Flat spinning the Orbit Fish!



Tom trying the Loop!



Pilky Carving it up!



Sam Clegg (Front) and Me Craig (rear) in the Topo Duo



Me (Craig) Swimming, YES Swimming at Halton - Dont ask why or how.....



Me (Craig) surfing the my Nomad!


All the pictures are credited to local boater and friend Alistair Gray (Atti)

A trip to the Upper Dart

Finally the rain has returned, earlier this week me (Craig) and two local boaters Atty and Ant went in the hunt of water. So on Wednesday, due to the Met Office reports , we ended up heading to Dartmoor for two days, where we had arranged to meet up with legend boater and ex employee Guy Genge. Guy now being a local to the Dart had made it his training ground however the three of us were new to the Dart experience. We paddled the Upper Dart atlow levels on the Wednesday which was disappointing as there had been so much rain. But as we camped up for the night we received lots of heavy rain over night which brought the river up to a good level and it was flowing well. So we took it on again this time enjoying the good levels and even some hero moves and boof's. It was a great trip and really good to get on a new river in a new area with some good water levels and some great mates.

Above; Craig Running Euthanasia Falls



Above; Craig Running Euthanasia Falls



Above; Guy Running Suprise suprise or Pandora's Box



Above; Atty Running Suprise suprise or Pandora's Box



Above; Craig Running Suprise suprise or Pandora's Box

The Boys are all back home now and back at work, but hopefully with a bit of luck and some wet stuff from the sky, we will be out and about again at the weekend.

A nother day without rain!

So another day off from work with no rain and no water. Me (Craig) and local boater and good friend Alistair Gray A.K.A Atty, decided to go and make the most of the day and went to scout a local river that neither of us have boated called the Swale. Although several attempts have been made to boat the river by ourselves over 2009 the water levels were always to low, so we decided to have a look at the infamous Lower Kidson Force to see what all the fuss was about. And yes this is justified it looks proper dirty, but with more water the line on the right will clean up, however a definite grade 5.

It was a good way to spend the day when theirs no water and were both keen now to get the river done, bring on the rain!

Atty Scouting The Kidson Drops



Me (Craig) getting a closer look of Lower Kidson Force

On and on the way home I even found some time to stop at local play spot Halton Rapids on the River Lune, a nice way to end the day.

Craig Surfing at Halton...

Halton Rapid Demo Days

F.A.O All Local Canoe Clubs and Local Boaters

Brookbank Lancaster are hosting two informal demo days over the next couple of months at Halton Rapids on the River Lune. We will be bringing a wide variety of white water Demo kayaks to these events for all those attending to try out. We are hoping to get a good turn out from all the local canoe clubs and local paddlers. These Demo days will be completely free of charge to paddlers to try out any and all of the boats we bring along.

The events are both planned for Sundays, dated the 28th February 2010 and 14th March 2010 and the events will run from 10am until 4pm each day or until everyone gets to cold and goes home. The event will be run from a car park at the top of Mill Lane next to Halton Rapids on river right of the Lune.

Obviously we will bring as many boats as possible and any special requests can be forwarded to myself at the Lancaster email address on the contact us link, and we will attempt to accommodate them, but also paddlers are encouraged to bring their own boats and generally just have a good day out on the water. Please note that paddlers will have to bring all their own kit and paddles as this will not be supplied.

If clubs could forward an email with any interest and some suggested numbers for attendance in order to give us some idea before the event it would be greatly appreciated.

Final Note, paddlers will be paddling at there own risk and should be competent to paddle to the conditions of the water on the day and safety or instruction will not be supplied by Brookbank.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the water.

Craig @ Brookbank Lancaster

No water any where!

Being a paddler over the past few weeks has been quite hard work, no rain, meaning no water, leading to a very unhappy paddler. However today me (Craig) and Jon got fed up of not boating so on our day off from the shop we decided to get out a do a run of the very popular Upper Lune. This is a run I have done many times before but usually with a lot more water. It was a good run but was very cold and I think half the plastic off my boat is now attached to the river bed - but it was good to be out.

Jon in the Gorge

Craig Losing some of that plastic on the shallow river bed..

Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we will get some of our rain back and I can get out on some Lake Land classics.

Until then paddle safe!

The new Brookbank Lancaster Blog

Welcome to the new Brookbank Lancaster Blog, we will be updating this blog with all our current deals at the shop any upcoming events and general kayaking news. Also we will give any regular updates about when our staff team have been getting out and about.

Our store is based in Lancaster not to far from the lake District, this means that the usual place to get out in a boat for our staff team is the Lakes. The home of steep becks, spate river runs and rocky drops.

One of our members of staff, Assistant Manager Craig Jones spent a lot of time last year getting out with a regular crew of local boaters with the aim to paddle and video some of the Lake District highlights. The links below is a list of some of what the team got up to over 2009.

The videos are various collections from different days out.

Please Watch and Enjoy.....

Leck Beck (Lake District Classic)

Ingleton Waterfalls (Craig, Loz and Guy all apear in this one a proper Brookbank day out)

Birk Beck (A Lake District unknown with a big drop)

Upper Clough (Lemmings Falls...sweet drop)

Lower Clough (Body Cam)

BackBarrow Bridge (Lake Disrict Classic Rapid)

Skelwith Force (with my comedy swim)

River Clough Swim (very Funny)

Upper Lune Head Cam

During 2009 the boys also went on a couple of trips away from the Lakes and this is a video of one of there visits to Scotland and a run of the very popular River Etive

River Etive Video


Hope you enjoyed some of the videos, like I said this was just something to put on the Blog to get it started. We will be updating it with what we've been up to throughout 2010.