David McClure – New JK Team member

About me: I’m an Irish freestyle kayaker, I first competed for Ireland at the 2013 worlds in Nantahala, USA, finishing 10th. It was a great experience and good fun with the Irish team doing our best to make life out there hard for ourselves… I loved it but I think Andrew Regan and Conor Macken had a tough time with lads shooting pellet guns through their tents while they slept.
Raised in Kilkenny, both my parents paddled for Ireland polo teams through the years. I’ve been told countless stories of my dad Roger McClure (everybody seems to know him) getting red cards for fighting on the polo pitch. Paddling with Kilkenny Aqua Canoe club I’ve tried most kayaking Disciplines, Freestyle became my favourite. We had a year round feature and a group of four lads eager to go paddling making it easy to enjoy.

I took a break for a while from kayaking and watched the Canada worlds jealously. A good pal of mine and I decided we’d get back into it and from there I’ve been loving paddling since. Going to Irish team trials and getting to Plattling were the highlights of last year and only pushed me to paddle more.
At the Plattling euros last summer I finished 13th. It was my best result in freestyle and the craic with the lads over there was great. Seeing Danny O’Brien competing for Ireland in C1 and throwing an entry move was probably my highlight of the whole trip.
I started college 2 years ago studying Sports Coaching and Performance and in the next six months I’m going to start an internship involving Performance analysis, Coaching and Strength & Conditioning. Fortunately, I’ve convinced my lecturers to let me do it within kayaking. Once they agreed to it I sent Joey Hitchins of Liquid Skills a message to see if we could make it work. His response to it was great and so far it looks like I’ll be in Canada this summer.
Next up is team trials for the Argentina Worlds this year. It’ll be in HPP Nottingham because of the lack of water in Ireland and the unfairness of going off a tidal feature, we should see some high scoring rides and hopefully a full Irish team in Argentina.
About the boat and team:
I’ve paddled Jackson for the for the last five years because they’ve had the best boats on the market. Although boat designs are getting better I still think Jackson have the best boats which is why I’m going to keep paddling Jackson and for me it only makes sense to become a part of the team. I’ve known a lot of guys on the JK team for a while and that has encouraged me to join them and try to push my paddling up a level. Hopefully in Carbon 😉 I hope to see you on the water. And in a Jackson!

Where I’m going to be:
February – May/June: I’ll be in Ireland until the end of college, trying to make the most of the low water we’ve got right now.
May: I’ll be heading over to the Ottawa river in Canada to work with Liquid Skills Kayak & SUP school for the summer and to train for the Worlds in Argentina.
November: Argentina Worlds with the Irish team.
After that I’m going to play it by ear. Maybe Chile?