I'm Cathal, and I've been around the club for a long time. I'm originally from Tipperary, but I've been based in Limerick for a good while now. I've been paddling for more than two decades, starting in fiberglass boats in secondary school. Got a few all-Ireland titles to my name from that era as well.
I did my undergrad in UL years back, and I'm completing a taught Masters of Engineering (slowly) at the moment in UL. I'm also working full-time as a Unix Administrator in the Tech Park, on an odd weekend evening shift - that allows me to have Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays completely free to paddle.
Back when I was doing the undergrad, I used to be the river leader, in charge of keeping people safe on the water. Then I kinda dropped back from paddling as much as I used to with work and a few other reasons. Then when I came back to the college to do the postgrad, I got back involved with the kayak club as well as the mountainbikers. I'm slowly getting less rusty about the paddling. I've a preference for grade 4 whitewater, clean and fast kayak surfing and a little bit of freestyle (more old-school than new-school though..). I've been known to paddle a K-boat once or twice without capsizing it even if I'm not that fast in it anymore. I've been on 6 ULKC Intervarsity winning teams, and hoping for a seventh..
You'll spot me in the bigger boats (I can't physically fit in the little boats, feet and legs too big) either in the pool or on rivers, with a shaved head and usually sporting a beard these days! I'l l usually be helping out with the coaching in the pool and the rivers, but my speciality is getting people better at rolling their boats. I'm also currently on the Committee, as the Webadmin, keeping all of the computery stuff in the background working. If you have trouble on the forums, I'll usually be the one helping you out.
My gif - something crazy that I'd never have a hope of doing in real life:
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