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681st Annual BCU Student Safety Weekend

April 18, 2009

Max Bilbow coaching and courses, UK Boating Leave a comment

“Safety: Not just a word – a way of life!”

Once again Tom Parker, Chris Eastabrook, Adam Dumolo and myself headed northwards in hope of some exciting Easter white water and the opportunity to impart some of our wisdom on some of the sport’s finest young minds. And this year we were fortunate to have the aditional assistance of Sara James and Luke Farrington.

Chris Eastabrook demonstrates which direction he wants throwlines to be thrown.

The first day – a day of much swimming around in cold water – was much more bearable than last year when Easter arrived a month weeks earlier. Much fun was had body-surfing holes and pulling each other out of the river.

Steve Brown tests out his club’s new favourite boat (The Karnali) on some good class 4/5 rapids.

There seemed to be a lot of ‘personing up’ from this year’s selection of student boaters. Having all our clients running the gnar (And often very smothly) lay down a real challenge for us coaches to put our money where our mouths were…

Matt Haydock (Leeds) observes Claire (Birmingham) as she persons up to run some gnar. Confident of his line, Matt fires it up himself shortly after.

mach zehnder modulator

Emily Bayne tries to conquer her fear of falling on the Etive.

…perfecting that flare on the 3rd drop of ‘Triple Step’.

I opted to test the Karnali‘s ability to boof comfortably, as this textbook ‘right-angle falls’ photo illustrates. Conclusion: comfy.

Back at the ranch, the team keep their minds fresh by partaking in some late night problem solving. Unfortunately no one was able to pick up a seduko on Good Friday… so buttering Matt and Sarah out of the stairs had to do.

For me: Special study is in and there’s ony a few more weeks left of my PGCE. Summer plans are formulating – watch this space!

For more information about BCU Student Safety, visit: www.bcustudentsafety.com.

Photos by Max Bilbow and Emilty Bayne

Pyranha Fest 2008

October 20, 2008

Max Bilbow Events, UK Boating Leave a comment

What an amazing weekend and excuse to show the Means of Production trailer…. Actually I forgot to write this article a month ago… So here are the pictures anyway.

Max goes for a pop-out in the new Kenarly

Carl Mitchel goes for a loop

Tom Parker gets working in the new Zone

Emily (I like my pink boat) Bayne throws a loop in the worlds hole

…Slackest blog post ever.

Photos by Max Bilbow and Emily Bayne

Max’s Spring Round-Up

July 4, 2008

Max Bilbow coaching and courses, Events, Liquid Satisfaction, Me, Norway, Uganda, UK Boating 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I posted anything of substantial content and yet so much is going on in the world of Max.

Max gives a talk

In March, Adam Dumolo, Chris Easterbrook, Tom Parker and I ran the BCU Student Safety week in Scottland; helping current university canoe/kayak clubs with the important safety and leadership skills that help produce such persistent university bread boaters.

Good times.

Let’s not forget the NSR and the first official DVD released this year.

Plastic Fantastic at the Washburn! Liquid Satisfaction are helping to product the PFAKS DVD for Canoe Kayak magazine.

The Future

So what for the future? What’s my next step? Well it’s going to be quite a relaxed summer for me; only 3 weeks in Norway and 3 weeks in Uganda. A little repetitive but a good rut to be stuck in, yes?

Norway’s a no brainer; not just for the courses Tom and I are running – a continuing Tom Parker Coaching / Liquid Satisfaction venture – but it’s been a while since I had a good creeking hit and Norway is a Mecca for spectacular gnar-boating.

The call of the Nile was not unchallenged by the screaming rationality of my bank balance. However it will be worth it simply for the first time I lead Adam and Tom down Silverback; “It’s just a big wave train” I’ll say nonchalantly, with a look of inane smugness on my face, as they follow me down down deep into hell’s jaws and wonder how long it’s been since they last took a breath.

Means of Production

And then there’s the DVD. That’s right, we’re making a literal DVD that I hope will be at least half as good as Dave Manby‘s Everest DVD.

The film will contain footage from the last 2 years of kayaking around the world and be chock full of extras including a behind the scenes ‘making of’ documentary. View the trailer at www.mopmovie.co.uk.

The Real World

And then I have to bite the proverbial bullet and take one small step closer to the real world. On September 1st 2008, I will begin a 1 year PGCE course in Mathematics and Outdoor Education at Bangor University. Not only is this a very exciting course for me to take part in but, living in North Wales, it looks like I will be getting in a fair amount of terrestrial boating over the next academic year!

Photos: Chris Eastabrook, Paul Wilkinson

Yarr! ‘Twas a good year for rodeo.

March 13, 2008

Max Bilbow Events, UK Boating Leave a comment

Nick Horwood and Tim Trew and The National Student Rodeo 2008

Yes, me hearties. It was a fantastic rodeo; bigger than all rodeos with nearly 24 and a half billion participants. An especially big round of applause is due for Nick, Tim, Leeds University and all the sponsors and participants who made last weekend’s NSR the biggest and most successful to date.

In fact it could well have been the International Student Rodeo this year with kayakers the DKayaking team from France, competing in the open event, and Josh Clark and Anna White all the way from New Zealand!

The party was no less groundbreaking than the event itself: Four marquees, big tunes and hundreds of swashbuckling pirates!

But perhaps most exciting of all is the forthcoming NSR 2008 movie. The movie is already thoroughly into production and will be available on DVD from the beginning of April 2008. Watch the trailer here.

For more information and photos, go to The National Student Rodeo Website.

Photos by Paul Wilkinson

National Student Rodeo 2008 DVD Trailer

March 13, 2008

Max Bilbow Events, Liquid Satisfaction, podcast, UK Boating, videos, Zambezi 2 Comments



 National Student Rodeo 2008: The Movie! Trailer 1 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (18)

 National Student Rodeo 2008: The Movie! Trailer 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7)

 National Student Rodeo 2008: The Movie! DVD menu screen Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7)

The official NSR 2008 DVD is set to be released at the beginning of April, at a price to suit students, and will be chock full of extra features.

Somehow we managed to cover every event and not break a single ankle running about the place!

See www.NationalStudentRodeo.org.uk for more information.

BCU Student Safety Weekend

April 11, 2007

Max Bilbow coaching and courses, UK Boating Leave a comment

Hurrah for the 350th annual Student Safety Week! Adam Dumolo, Tom Parker, Chris Eastabrook and I worked with students from many different university canoe clubs to help prepare them for the enormous amount of freshers they will be introducing to the sport next year.

The general feeling was that everyone had developed the tools and skills to look after themselves and others on the river.

Low water levels wont stop us British

Tom Parker sporting a new head-mounted lazer for his storm trooper helmet.

National Student Rodeo 2007

April 1, 2007

Max Bilbow Events, UK Boating Leave a comment

What a fantastic rodeo! Amazing prizes, smashing people, awesome party, and a full day’s sleep to recover. Nearly 600 students attended what was probably one of the biggest freestyle kayaking competitions ever held.

It was fantastic to see so many people go all in on the Wild West theme. Anyone who hadn’t spent the last month growing a beard went home Sunday night with a goatee drawn with permanent marker. Ace!

Liquid Satisfaction were indeed on form with Tim Trew finishing second in men’s expert, Adam Dumolo and Nick Horwood in the top ten. Nick won the Topo-Duo event, with Graham Milton, followed closely by Tim, who was paddling with Jon Fuller. Meanwhile I took the bronze for squirt and Sara James won the Desperate Measures sponsorship deal!

Through it all, I don’t think I have ever had as much fun as I did judging the women’s novice final. From girls with beards to girls with fireworks strapped to their heads! Scoring was tricky indeed. However Kayak-the-Nile’s Jamie Simpson was judging alongside me and we seemed to be consistent with each other.