Team Paddlers

The following people form part of Zet's group of UK team paddlers:

Mark Allen - Lead Paddler

Mark started kayaking at the age of 10 with The Sea Scouts in Exeter. He quickly became hooked and kayaking became his way of life. When he was 13 that he started to explore the white water rivers of Dartmoor and Exmoor. During his late teens Mark worked and travelled through UK and Europe working at various outdoor education centres on the way.

Mark has paddled extensively in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Norway. Nepal, Ecuador and Chile are lined up for 2013 – 2014 plus the now yearly trip to Val Sesia, Italy – The finest creaking destination in Europe.

In 2009 Mark stated www.kayakguide.co.uk which is a guiding company based on Dartmoor with trips throughout Europe. Mark enjoys nothing more than helping people on the river.

Mark likes to attend the many different UK / European events with The Zet demo fleet.

Richard Brooks - Team Paddler

As a youngster Rich became quickly hooked on paddling after a mate introduced him to the sport. Pretty soon he was spending three or four nights a week playing around on the river.

Over the next ten years he got into kayak surfing, touring, slalom and marathon racing. While studying engineering Rich met another guy who also was into kayaking and who introduced him to playing around on weirs and doing white water. This led him into freestyle. After this, freestyle and river running became his life; taking him to Norway, France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and Tajikistan.

Over the years Rich has competed heavily in freestyle, he still really enjoys it and looks forward to catching up with everyone at the events.

But what really excite’s Rich now is the down river extreme races, this is where you are timed over a set section of river which is normally pretty hard. He have taken part in the Boat Bannaza a few times, Sweet Rumble, Sickline, Teva games and nothing gives him quite such a thrill as paddling fast down a grade 4\5 section of white water.

Rich's blog: http://chasinggravity.wordpress.com/

Nick Pearce - Team Paddler

Nick has been kayaking for about 6 years, since leaving college and has used kayaking and rafting as a way to travel. Nick has managed trips to France, Norway and Chile as well as many a trip up to Scotland.

Hugh Graham - Team Paddler

Hugh began kayaking at school and as he grew older his enthusiasm grew too. He started out playboating on the Thames weirs, with the occasional trip further afield. This lead to longer trips abroad, including the classic pilgrimage to the White Nile in Uganda, where he learnt a great deal about high volume boating, encouraging him to go and seek out the “Gnar” that other countries had to offer. This included two summers in Norway, where he had the chance to test his abilities on both technical and scary water including a couple of first descents such as the Høya (The Megatron).

Hugh has been involved in competitive events particularly down river racing and boater cross reaching the semi-final of the 2010 Sweet Rumble. He finds true enjoyment from being on the water with mates, whether that be “firing it up” on a class V mission or just chilling at a cheeky play session.

Currently studying at Exeter University, he has the role of training secretary on the kayaking committee and takes great enjoyment from teaching those new to the sport.

Dave Burne - Team Paddler

Dave's first boating experience was on a loch in Scotland at just 3 weeks old.

Growing up in a boating family meant regular trips to Scotland and Wales, and to the Alps and Pyrenees. He celebrated his 17^th birthday during his first major trip oversees to British Columbia.

Since then he has played the big waves of the Zambezi and White Nile and creeked the steep rivers of Norway and California.

But he enjoys expedition paddling the most.

Dave was the youngest member of the 2007 British Universities Kayaking Expedition to Siberia and Mongolia, where some awesome first descents were made (www.fourbordersexpdition.com).

He was also part of a successful expedition to Tajikistan in 2010 which involved a lot of walk-ins, a donkey called Shakira, and a shed load of bribery! http://vimeo.com/23165835 ... and also some class rivers and rapids!

Now a 23 year old medical student, he spends his time balancing studies with work, kayaking, and planning his next adventure.

In 2011 he sought out rapids and waterfalls in the largely unexplored (as a kayaking destination) island of Sri Lanka.

And without a doubt Dave’s finest achievement is retaining the Old Skool title at the National Student Rodeo - hailed as the biggest rodeo in the world...

Callum Strong - Team Paddler

Callum Strong is a young, up-and-coming Scottish kayaker, he first caught the kayak bug at the age of ten and has been seriously afflicted since.

Usually found in his natural habitat, the steep burns and rivers of the Scottish Highlands, he has more recently been spotted floating down exciting rivers in many premium international kayaking destinations. At the age of 16 he was observed getting his first taste of international kayaking on the beautiful continuous whitewater of the French Alps. Later that year he was seen migrating South from Scotland to overwinter in the hot climes and on the warm water of White Nile in Uganda. Since then there have been various reports of his presence during Summer 2011 in the creeking Mecca of Norway.

Callum’s main interest in kayaking is steep creeking and he loves tackling hard whitewater in beautiful locations with friends. He also enjoys competing in a range of competitions, in 2010 he and his partner came 3rd in the Etive River Race and he is the 2011 Scottish Junior Surf Kayak Champion. He loves to explore new rivers and gets unhealthily excited at the prospect of exploratory paddling in remote locations. Currently a student studying Geology in Edinburgh Callum manages to put most of his time to good use kayaking.

Lee Royle - Team Paddler

Lee started kayaking at an early age, and hasn’t really stopped since. He grew up in the Thames valley, and moved on to paddling round the rest of the UK and further abroad from there.

He did a degree at Loughborough Uni, where he was able to paddle nearly every day, and get involved in many aspects of paddlesport. Being close to Holme Pierrepont he got quite involved with playboating, but whenever the opportunity arose, he was off down a “proper” river with whoever else was around.

He's now working as a Chemical Engineer in varying locations, but still gets out in a boat whenever there’s water (or not, as the case usually is). Whitewater paddling is his main raison d'être, as there’s nothing like the buzz from paddling something hard, whilst being in spectacular places with others who enjoy the same thing. He also likes to get involved in extreme races, and usually spends as much of the summer as he can in Norway, where there’s everything you could want, although plans to head further afield are afoot...

Matty Nicholas - Team Paddler

Team Paddler and General Zet Photos

Check out our online photo archive here.

Do you want to be a Zet Team Paddler?

We get a lot of people applying to be Zet Team paddlers, we cannot say yes to everyone. These are the kind of things we are looking for:

1. You need to be a great paddler - on steep creek and playwave.

2. You need to have some kind of profile - you need to be regularly taking part in races and competitions - and doing well.

3. You need to be a bit of a self-promoter - someone who likes taking photos and videos and posting them on the Internet.

4. You need an obsession with paddling which no amount of white water can quench.

If you fulfill all of these criteria write to sales@zet-kayaks.co.uk in the first instance.

Are you a river guide or coach?

We offer special discounts to river quides and coaches. To find out more email sales@zet-kayaks.co.uk.