Closer to home, finding adventure in familiar surroundings.
We have to admit we are a little outside of ‘the scene’. Despite early ambitious attempts Ilkeston has failed to become the extreme capital of the UK. The dry ski slope has fallen into disuse, the single track. ok bridal ways are flat and the only waves to break along the canal are in the wake of ducks. So you see in these times of high fuel costs and ecological awareness we have to flex our imagination from time to time, it takes a lot of Alpine Dreamin’ to satisfy our vices closer to home.
If you have been following our home page over the past couple of months you will have noticed a little theme developing, we are trying convince ourselves Ilkeston has all the convenience of Chamonix or Courmayer! Each home page image is set up with some very simple rules: it should reflect a certain aspect of our activity, show off our products in all their glory and is set up in our warehouse using whatever ‘props’ we find laying around. It is a simple formula which needs a healthy spoonful of creativity mixed in.
This brings us to this months image which is based around our own freestyle kayak series PFAKS. AlpJim has been putting in the overtime the last couple of years to develop a competitive boating series without losing the soul of freestyle. Designed to be all inclusive the series attracts the best UK freestyle boaters, beginners and old gits, that’s a lot of boating to fit into a weekend!
The events are run throughout the UK on some of the countries most famous whitewater rivers such as the Tryweryn, the Dee and the National Slalom course on the Trent in Nottingham. They tend to be hands on events for the Alpkit team; AlpNick has been known to serve up some tasty burgers, AlpKen and the Chunk run up and down the river with photography gear between retrieving slalom poles and trying to stop gazeebos flying away.
So thanks Jim for all the hard work you continue to put into these events. Although we would like to think we have taught you everything you know we can see you have learnt a few moves of your own along the way!