Mountain Biking - 06/14

Mountain Biking

Instructor - Matthew Kelleher

Location - Star Outdoors, Kenmare, Co. Kerry

Today Myself and Matt had a day off work so Matt decided to bring me Mountain Biking. This was deadly as I hadn't been mountain biking since I was in 1st year in GMIT where Orla brought us to Derroura. 

We began by going up to the bike sheds and making sure the bikes were in good knick. This was really cool as I got to learn even more about the different parts of the bike. We then got the bikes out and hopped on straight away. Here we just cycled around the area outside the sheds for about 10 minutes to get used to the bikes. This was really cool as this area was like a pump track. 

Then it was time to go up to the proper track. Here we met another instructor who we worked with who was an Irish endure series champion. We took off on the first section and it was loads of fun. My only problem was that I kept slowing down on turns because I kept thinking I was going to fall off. When we met at the end of the first section the lads said that they even noticed that. They then told me to use my weight on the turns to get them sharper and to keep my hand OFF the breaks. This took a while to get the hang of........and even a nasty fall but I started to feel more comfortable as I did it more. They also thought me about pumping the bike coming out of jumps and even coming along humps and hollows just to gain more speed and height. 

We eventually got back to the centre and had a chat about how I got on. I would definitely do it again in a heart beat. 

Snorkelling - 07/14

Snorkelling Keem 

Instructor - Maria McKay

Location - Keem Beach Achill

Keem

Today we decided to go to Keem bay in Achill for a snorkel. When we arrived the sun was out the water looked clear and the air was warm, so this was a good day from the start. 
We entered the water on the right hand side and had a look along the rocks. Straight away we saw loads of sea life, anemones, starfish etc, but then we came across a big group of spider crabs. This was really cool as I had only ever seen one on its own. 

Spider Crab

This is the largest crab in irish waters with a width of 20cm and leg span of up to 50cm. 

We decided to go down even closer to have a look and this was amazing. Everywhere we turned for about 10 metres was just all spider crabs. We then decided to move on and snorkel over towards the left hand side of the beach by the cliffs. This can be slightly testing at times as there is a really strong rip running along that side. 
We were snorkelling for about an hour when all of a sudden a seal popped his head up about 20 metres away. We thought this was really cool but when it kept getting closer and closer we decided to call it a day. Apparently if a seal comes closer and closer to you it's to warn you to get away from the area because they have pups close by.

Snorkelling - 08/14

Snorkelling Barna Beach

Instructor - Maria McKay

Location - Barna beach Kenmare.


Today the lads at work asked if we could bring them snorkelling after work because they had never gone before. We decided to check out this spot down the road from Star outdoors. Was really calm when we arrived and the visibility looked great from above the beach but when we got in it was like a minefield of Jellyfish. There were hundreds of compass jellyfish, more than I've ever seen before. 

Although there were loads of jellyfish we stayed in for as long as we could and kept exploring. We then came a cross a 'Velvet Swimming Crab'. Any velvet swimming crab I came across before wasn't much bigger than the palm of my hand but this one was huge. Just as we came across it we were about to tell the guys what it was and one of them went down to pick it up. Little did they know that they are viscous crabs who are lightening fast. As Dan went to pick him up from behind he flipped around and grabbed Dans hand and actually burst the skin. 
The reason why Velvet Swimming Crabs or 'The Devil Crab' (as they are known due to their red eyes,) can move so quick is because they have a paddle on one side at the back which means they can spin and move quickly. 

The Devil Crab

High Ropes - 06/14

High Ropes Rescue Refresher

Instructors - Askea O' Dowd, Me (Emmet Ó Seochrú)

When I got the job in Killarney High Ropes I had to do a small refresher with the boss just to show that I still knew what I was doing after my year working at Zipit Forest Adventures in Lough Key, Co. Roscommon. My Boss Askea Told me to do the course first just so I knew how it went before doing rescues. This course was very different to Zipits courses as this one had a hook and caribeaner system where as Zipit had the 'bornack' system. 

It took me about an hour to do the course and after that we went straight into training. We went up onto the first obstacle which was a tight rope. Here Caroline acted as the person being rescued and I had to do it. 

She had to act as if she was stuck on the platform before the tight rope and was too scared to move on. I then had the set up the I.D (gri gri) 

and lower her down. She also had to act to be scared of the I.D so that made it even trickier. When that was a success we moved on to the next rescue. 

Here Caroline slipped on the tight rope and I had to go out and rescue her. These kind of rescues are a lot harder as you as the rescuer has to balance on the obstacle while rescuing the person. Here I had to set up the I.D off the belay cable and lower her down that way. This can also cause problems as your own carribeaners are on the same cable so when you lower the person off that cable, the weight of them can throw you off balance. This was also a success though as I was able to get Caroline down safely while keeping my balance at the same time.

The last rescue I had to do was when Caroline was suspended in the middle of a zip line and not able to move either way. Here Askea was telling me to stand on one platform on either one side or the other and throw a rope with a carribeaner on it to the subject. the subject should then hook it onto themselves and I then pull them in. 

I completely disagreed with this and showed her what I thought should be done. I zipped out to her in the middle of the line, hooked one of my carribeaners onto her and then pulled her all the way in. This is way quicker and also a lot safer. 

Snorkelling - 14-15/15

Snorkelling Lanzarote 

Instructor - Maria McKay

Day 1: 

We arrived in Lanzarote earlier today and decided straight away that we would go snorkelling somewhere. We decided to head over to the south west coast of the Island to an area called Papa Gayo. This area had two beaches, one really big and busy, with the other being nice and small with only a few people. Today we decided to go to the bigger one. Little did we know it was also a nudist beach, I kept the slacks on. 

Old watch tower at the top of the beach.

We decided to get in straight away and start snorkelling along the coast line. This was by far the clearest water I was ever snorkelling in. About 10m visibility at least. We didn't see much life at the start except for this school of silvery coloured fish with bright yellow eyes. They had no fear whatsoever and would swim in and around you without getting scared. After doing some research I think these were called 'striped large eyed beams'. Easily recognisable by yellow eyes and yellow on its back. 

Striped Large eyed beams.

After continuing on we also came across loads of sea cucumbers. I've only ever seen one when snorkelling in Kerry but there were easily 50 here. They get their names from looking like a cucumber with a soft leathery body 

Sea Cucumber.

Day 2:

Today we decided to come back to Papa Gayo but this time we went to the other smaller beach. This was amazing as it wasn't as crowded and the water was still as clear. Today we went out to a small reef just out from the beach where we saw two species of really colourful  fish. One of these fish was called an 'Ornate Wrasse'. This fish looks like a glowing arrangement of neon lights. 

Ornate Wrasse

The other really colourful fish we saw was called a 'canary damselfish'. This was by far my favourite that I have seen on this holiday. It was mainly black but had ultra violet tips on its fins. These fish were also very comfortable around us. 

Canary Damselfish

After exploring this side of the reef we decided to head even further out towards the other side of the reef. This was amazing and full of life out there. It actually became quite intimidating as there was a minefield of black sea urchins of all sizes. 

Heading for a look.

Soon turned around.

After admittedly getting scared of being on lowish water around these bad boys we decided to head back with our tails between our legs. 

Sailing - 06/15

Sailing

Instructor - Josh Fitzgerald

Today I decided to head out for a sail with Josh after we finished work. I have been meaning to get back into sailing for ages and even go for my pre-entry at some stage so this was pretty cool.
We started off by bringing the picos down to the pier and rigging up there. These boats are really easy to rig up so it only took us about 5 minutes. After this we headed off out the bay for a belt around. Dan then arrived for a spin in the rib so he stayed with us for the rest of the session. This was handy because I got to do my 'coming along side' manoeuvre with the rib. After a few times of doing this I had it nailed. I then moved onto the man overboard manoeuvre where josh threw out about 6 tennis balls and we had to pick them up out of the water with the boom on the opposite side. 

After this Josh brought me out to the back of the island where we set out a triangular course and had a race. Dan came out with us in the rib and acted as the start line and......referee :) 
This was really good fun as the wind had died down anyway. It's all about how well you start and how well your line is going in the each turn. After this we decided to head back and finish the session so as we had the wind against us Dan gave us a tow in. 

Surfing - 07/15

Surfing Carrmore

Instructor - Jarlath McHale


Today we decided to head to Carrowmore for a surf. The conditions weren't great with a lot of dumping waves but we tried to make the most of it. As I hadn't been surfing in a long time I was itching to go and especially since I treated myself to an awesome birthday present. 

Happy Out

Jarlath was a actually really helpful with my pop up. He had a look at me surfing a few waves first and then let me know what was going wrong. I was actually bring my front foot around my arm instead of through which really annoyed me when I tried to correct it. We surfed a few small waves at the start but when they got too small we brought the body boards in for a splash about. It was actually my first time body boarding so that was pretty cool. 
Shortly after this the waves picked up again and we brought the boards back in. This time the waves were breaking slightly cleaner so it was a lot more fun. I eventually got my pop up fixed as well which was a massive bonus. 

Wakeboarding - 07/14

Wakeboarding

Instructor - John Hynes

When working at Star Outdoors we only brought groups wake boarding the odd time when they booked ahead. Because we didn't get to do it much John decided to bring us out after work on a Wednesday evening to give us a taster session. This was really cool as I was really keen to try it for a long time. We began by heading out the bay in the boat and then setting it all up. we started by having a go on the knee board first because it was easier......slighlty :) 
This was really cool as it gave us an idea of how it felt in the wake. John went first to show us how its done and by god did he do just that. For a man that claimed he had a bad back earlier on in the day, it wasn't stopping his 360 spins and jumps on the knee board.

Joe Pigott had a go after John and got it straight away. I went after Joe but kept letting go of the rope. After about 5 times of letting go I finally got it. I figured out that I was leaning forward straight away rather than leaning back and thats what it was that was making me let go. 
The feeling of finally getting the hang of it was class. I went for about 3 minutes before getting cocky and trying to do a jump across the wake. I probably jumped a couple of millimetres but it felt like I went 20ft up. After we all had a go of the knee board we decided to move on to the wakeboard. This was a totally different kettle of fish. Similar technique of leaning back before getting up but a lot harder to start on your feet. We all got it eventually but I reckon if I had a little longer with the knee board I'd have nailed some kind of technique. 

Snorkelling Coonanna Harbour - 09/15

Snorkelling

Location - Coonana Harbour, Co. Kerry

Instructors - Maria McKay, Liz Lydon


Today was meant to be really bad weather but when we eventually got out of bed it was nice enough for a snorkel. We got in at the right side of the pier at about 2 o' clock and headed off towards the left side. 

Coonana Harbour

Visibility was actually a lot worse than what we thought it would be so it was fairly disappointing. We did see a lot of sea urchins, anenomies and wrass. As I was still waiting to be assessed on my snorkel guide we decided to go through some of the skills involved. Here we did some scenarios where either Liz or Mia would pretend to go unconscious and I'd have to save them. We also did some finning techniques as I found that i was struggling with the swim in the practice for the assessment before. I decided to do lengths from one point to the other but still found it very tiring. In the assessment you have to fin for 40 lengths of the pool in 20 minutes. The last time I tried this I got as far as 35 lengths and I was pushing it at that. 
As the visibility seemed to get worse and worse we decided to call it a day after that and did a bit of pier jumping to finish off. This was really good fun until I landed on my side after one jump and that was me done. 

This was the jump. 

Sea Kayaking - 07/14

Sea Kayaking

Instructor - Matthew Kelleher


We began our trip at the pier at Star Outdoors Kenmare and heading down towards Kenmare town. This was my first time in a sea kayak since having a bad experience in delphi shortly before so I was nervous to say the least. What made it much better was the fact that it was perfect calm conditions. On our way down Matt was kind enough to be extremely patient with the pace at which I was moving and also the amount of nervous expletives being thrown around the place.


On our way down we saw hundreds of 'Compass Jellyfish'. These are definitely the most common in Ireland but their sting is only similar to a nettle sting. 

When we got to the bridge we decided to head back up the bay to hopefully sea the seal colony. Half way back up the bay it we got a small wind against us and I ended up going over. This was so frustrating as I was doing so well and building confidence again. We continued on up the bay and saw one common seal. Apparently the seal colonies hadn't been around as much as other years. After this we headed back to Star but as it was on spring tides it was extremely low on the way and when we were about 100m from the pier we ended up having to hop out and drag our boats through silt. 

SUP - 03/15 - 07/15

SUP

Just after a fell in :)

Instructor - Jarlath McHale


Day 1:


We started out by meeting at Islandeady and getting in there. As it was my first time SUPing Jarlath ran through a few basics with me before we left. We started on our knees and then hen we were out from the shore we could pop up to a standing position. He also told me that any time the wind was strong or i just felt uncomfortable that I should kneel again because it's easier. 
When we started we were head to wind for the first 30 mins and I could feel the pressure building in my arms already. We aimed for a point on a small island up ahead and when we got there I relaxed and then..........fell in :) Really really cold but great fun.
We carried on as the wind blew across us and eventually went behind us. Our aim was to get down to Lough Lannagh and get out at the car park where we left the van. We estimated that it would've taken about 3 - 3 and a half hours but after 1 hour we were already half way. The wind was pushing us so hard that we didn't have to paddle at all. As we were firing on down through the bilberry we had to dodge loads of low hanging branches which actually added to the fun of it. We ended up getting to the car park in under 3 hours which was completely unexpected. 
This was a really long and easy paddle but I would love to do it again when there's not as much wind. 


Day 2:


A good friend and former outdoor Niall Tansy asked if I would go for a paddle with Jarlath for his cousins birthday so I said yes. 

Birthday Banter :)

This time around we decided to meet at Lough Lannagh and left from there. We got in at Lannagh Village and went up past the bridge. We stayed on our knees until we got that far as we started head to wind. We then learned how to pop up correctly while holding the paddle.....and not dropping it. We were each successful, some more unstable than others but once again as we got going it got easier. We then turned around and decided to go down as far as the bridge at Aldi. On the way down we learned how to do different turns. After an encounter with a tesco trolley and other various objects we decided to head back and have a few races. I ended up winning the first but Nialls cousin won the next two. Jarlath then decided to join the race as well but I reckon he definitely had some kind of engine with him. 

Coasteering Rescue And Skills Course. - 09-10/07/14

Coasteering Course Kenmare 

Learning jump techniques on Day 1

Instructors - Paul Norris & John Hynes

Day 1:

We began the day by going through some theory in the class room. This was mainly to learn about the organisation behind coasteering which is called the IACP (Irish Association of Coasteering Professionals). After this we got suited and booted and went down to the water. Here we learned the basic skills of coasteering which included proper jump technique, swimming techniques and entries. We also learned how to measure jumps and also determine if a site is suitable or not for coasteering. 
After a while of playing in the swell and jumping in from different spots we did the 200m swim. Being able to confidently swim this distance is a requirement when being assessed for the instructorship. It's a lot harder to swim any distance when wearing a buoyancy aid. 

To finish the Day we went back into the class room and went over the skills we had done and how to teach others those skills. We also went through some of the rescue equipment involved and the different rescues that are used in coasteering. This was to give us an idea of what we were going to be doing on day 2. 

Day 2:

To start this day we went to a small island out from Star Outdoors Adventure Centre to practice some throwing techniques with the throw bags. This was great as it gave us a really good idea of what its like. We then learned how to rescue someone by towing them with our zambeezi belts. These belts had both a through rope as well as tow rope on them. Here we had to swim out 100m to someone, get them to turn over onto their backs, hook the tow rope around their buoyancy aids and tow them back 100m. This was really tough to begin with but after a few times we got the hang of it. We then went back to the classroom and had a de-breif about the course. We were also told about instructor courses and how to go about getting on them. This wasn't very straight forward though as all the courses were full up until february. 

Happy Out :)