News

19Jun

Upper Blackwater; Revisiting a West Virginia Classic

00:28 - By Bobby Miller - News - no comment

Upper Blackwater; Revisiting a West Virginia Classic

by Bobby Miller

100 Yard Dash

In the state of West Virginia, the Upper Blackwater is as classic of a steep creek as it gets. There are 62 major Class 5 rapids in the 2.5 mile run through a beautiful canyon. The run features more 4-8 foot drops and boofs than any other creek in the area and also runs fairly often. So it's a wonder that it had been 3 years since the Dogg had paddled that run. For years, it was one of my favorite runs and I logged somewhere around 100 runs during the period before 2007. Various things had kept me away: a broken wrist, a case of the gout, a stint in jail for stealing a rye bread loaf from an old lady, and who could forget that bad hangnail in my pinky toe that sidelined me for several months! The point is that the D-O-Double G is back! Cock the hammer cause it's time for action! So, with all that time away, you know that I was excited to get back to this spectacular creek. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder. What? Who says stuff like that?

100 Yard Dash #2

I saw that the Blackwater was running the morning of June 11 so I talked Sean Chapelle into going out there. It was a little on the low side but there was enough flow and it was a beautiful summer day. I'm well known for boating low flows so who am I to complain? After all, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Huh? What does that mean anyway? We loaded up the car, dropped my bike at the takeout, and headed to Blackwater Falls State Park to get SIK.

Tomko Falls

The first rapid is 100 Yard Dash and starts things off with a bang. A 6 foot boof leads to an eddy on the right with a shallow peelout to punch a hole off a 4 foot ledge. A few more 5 foot boofs and a long rocky runout leads to the pool at the bottom. I jumped in my kayak and lit it up like General Electric. I got big launches off of every boof in this rapid. Oh yesh! It was SCHWEEEEET!!!!!!

Tomko

We continued downstream nailing boof after boof. Soon, we came to the horizon line of the steepest rapid on the run, Tomko Falls. Tomko features two sweet 8 foot boofs with some maneuvering between. We got out to scout and set up for pictures. It is important to have a solid boof stroke when entering this rapid. The shallow landing zones can lead to some stiff pitons that can hurt more than a good kick to the scrotum or, as they say in medical terms, the ball sack. The Upper Blackwater is no place to learn this skill, it should be practiced and perfected on easier runs. Yessir, an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure. What? I hate humanity and their idiotic expressions! But I digress. Back to the rapid, I came down and stomped out two major launches off the drops. They could hear that BOOF sounds all the way down in Hendricks.

Nerves

Towards the end of the run, the character changes to slides and the largest of these is My Nerves Are Shot And I Can't Take It Anymore. This rapid features 5 good slides back to back with very little room between them. The third one slopes down 8-10 feet and pillows into an undercut cliff on the right. I flew down the slide and carved off the pillow, which shot me at a high speed into the next drop. The next drop has a sweet 5 foot boof on the left. I launched so big that the BOOF sound caused a rock slide throughout the canyon. Several rapids may have been affected by this event. In my 40+ years of whitewater kayaking, I have seen many changes in riverbeds but this one could prove to be catastrophic. Stay tuned to your local news station for further updates.

Nerves #2 ...

After climbing out of the canyon, finishing the bike shuttle and drinking some Brawndo to replenish my elecrolytes, we discussed heading over to the Top Yough for more whitewater action. I was on a tight schedule and probably should have saved the run for another day. But, with the lack of rain we've had this spring, you can never be sure when things will run again. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush! I'm not even going to comment. The Top Yough begins with a SIK 20 foot cascade called Swallow Falls. In an effort to save time, we decided to skip the run and just go session the falls. It ended up being a great decision as we got our waterfall stoke on! I hadn't been that fired up since I found my long lost hoodie in my duffel bag a few months ago. I know it my have been irresponsible but I remained stoked for 52 straight hours after dropping that falls and paraded around repeating, "Freakin yes! Freakin yes!" In fact, I'm stoked right now! I'm on the Team Fluid blog!

Swallow Falls#2 .

What a SIK day! I got to revisit an old run and drop some serious vert in the process. We took advantage of a beautiful day and fine water levels to turn a potentially ordinary day into a spectacular day. And that is what kayaking is all about! Where my homies at? Blow me out shorty!

Swallow Falls .

16Jun

New Fluid Detox video - boof-punch-cruise, the Detox does it all!

17:16 - By David Arnaud - News - one comment

Hi all,

So finally the long-awaited Detox has reached Europe and the US and is shipping to dealers all over the paddling galaxy. Since we unveiled it at the Kanu Messe last october, the Detox has caught a lot of attention. The drawings and CAD views looked very promising, a few pics of the proto were shown here and there on the web, but would the actual boat live up to these expectations? the answer is a big YES!

Fluid Detox Video from Fluid-Junction on Vimeo.

So where does that boat fit in the Fluid line-up exactly? Basically, it's somewhere between the Spice and the Solo. Meaning, you can take the Detox down a class IV/IV+ rapid without a problem, yet still enjoy the occasional surf on your way down. You want to run rapids but you find creekboats to be a bit too "bulky" and not playful enough, then the Detox is there for you.

It's now available in size M. Size S and L will follow later in the year.

Detox M has the following specs:

Length: 230cm /7’6”
Width: 64cm /25.25”
Volume: 250l /66gal

While it can take larger paddlers up to 90/95 kg, I think the full potential of the Detox is somewhere between 55-60 and 85 kgs. I'm 76 kgs and I found it perfectly suited to me.

The Detox was designed with the "average" paddler in mind. Not average in the sense of mediocre skills. Average in the sense that, unlike what we're used to see in magazines and videos, not everybody is interested in hucking huge waterfalls every week-end or claim first D's on death-defying stunts. For this kind of paddlers willing to push their limits and those of the sport, we have the Solo.

Andrew Pollock testing the prototype

For all the others we created the Detox. The flat hull and edges make it a very enjoyable boat, very precise and responsive. It's a real pleasure to catch eddies, glide accross the river, ferry, accelerate down the current in this boat - and this is 95% of what people do in their kayak. It gives the paddler a lot more sensations than a creekboat. Yet the Detox remains very forgiving, allowing beginners and intermediate paddlers to discover the joys of river running in total confidence.

So who would I recomment this boat to? Basically you MUST try a Detox if your playground includes mostly class II to class IV runs. The skechy, technical, more extreme class 5 stuff should still be approached with a bigger creekboat like the Solo. But for everything that is not class 5, and that is the vast majority of what people actually paddle, the Detox certainly is a great option.

It gives you a greater agility and maneuverability. It accelerates easily, boofs like a champ. Rolling is also especially easy. The Detox is the perfect boat to improve your technique and skills as a kayaker. The Detox has a great potential that can take your paddling skills very far. Yet it won't challenge you with unforgiving edges or an unpredictable behaviour.

But that's enough yada-yada. Have a look at this video of the Team Fluid testing the Detox on a variety of situations and locations. Then get in touch with your dealer and make sure you try one ;-)

05Jun

High Ridge Run

19:07 - By Bobby Miller - News - one comment

I Want To Get High, So High: Adventures on High Ridge Run by Bobby Miller

HighRidgemulti

Nestled in the headwaters of the Potomac River lies the Alleghany Front, an area of steep creeks that is home to some of the steepest runable whitewater anywhere. There are several good runs coming off this ridge but the crown jewel of the area has to be High Ridge Run. Tucked away at the start of the Hopeville Canyon, this stream hardly looks wide enough to paddle at the takeout, much less supporting enough flow to start 2 miles upstream. But for those who tough out the 3 mile hike in with a 1200 foot climb, the rewards include more bedrock slides and waterfalls than you could easily count, flowing through a beautiful gorge. The creek drops 700 feet in the first mile and 500 in the second mile so there is no shortage of action. This creek was explored a few years ago and was kept a secret until recently when a mole within the Dogg Mafia finally delivered a list of names of people with knowledge of the creek. We chose the weakest guy on the list and cornered him. We held him down and gave a purple nurple until he talked. It is an ugly business, really, strong-arming people for our own personal gain but it is a job that the Dogg Mafia is glad to do. The trick is to pick on people who can do you no harm, like that old man in the wheelchair that I indian burned $13.45 out of last week. Now that was good fun! But I digress.

Stinkfoot and I headed out early in the morning to meet up with a group of people that included Scott Anderson, JB Seay, Brenton Petrillo, and Sam Burke. The torrential rains had fallen on top of the immense snow pack that had come down during the winter and every creek we passed along the way was raging. We figured that the only creek low enough to boat would probably be something as small as High Ridge Run. At the takeout, the creek was humming along but looked like it could be manageable. As YOUR kayaking hero, I can't shy away from high water and rough conditions. Afterall, a smooth sea never made a skilled mariner! What? Who says stuff like that? At any rate, we chose to go for it and started the long hike to the top. The weather was chilly so I opted to wear my drysuit for the hike in. Big mistake. It didn’t take long for me to overheat and start sweating like crazy. I knew I was breaking Bear Grylls’ rule of survival, not to sweat but this was getting out of hand. I started getting light headed and hallucinated. I knew I was in trouble when I came upon a clown making balloon animals and a bear riding a tricycle. I figured a break for hydration would be in order at this point.

We finally reached the creek and headed down to the putin. We were joined by a large nucleus of experience creek boaters. Some of the best East Coast creekers were here, guys like Bobby Miller, Jason Beakes, Geoff Calhoun, Nathan Sass, Sam Kane, and the finder of the creek, Mike Moore. Although not super difficult, the creek is small and heads downhill fast, requiring you to run long stretches without stopping. Nossir, even with the many clean drops, the continuous nature of this creek makes it unfriendly to the zinc-faced ham n' egger crowd. Luckily, some people had gone in the day before to put up Orange Flags of Consequence at all the major drops. When kayaking down a stream, it is easy to get into a zone and flow along. However, you see on of those Orange Flags of Consequence and you better break out of your zone and get your game face on. There's no shame in walking when you see one of those flags!

The creek starts with some slides that lead into a 15 foot drop into a boulder pile. This drop had some serious potential for injury and a piton here would certainly knock the beans out of your belfry. We opted to start just past it at the first of a series of continuous ledges. These ledges led to the lip of a beautiful 12 foot launcher. I came down and launched a SCHWEEEEET one landing with such a loud boof that they could hear me down in Petersburg!

We worked our way down through more drops and got out to scout a sketchy 15 foot clapper. The lead in was shallow, the lip was junky, and the landing was all rock. A well placed boof stroke is crucial here as a piton would really knock the jack out of your box! I came down and launched a SIKy landing smoothly on the shelf below, much to the delight of the crowd of hundreds that had gathered on the bank to cheer on the Dogg (and, of course , the uncounted millions viewing from their television sets at home). The ratings were high for this momentous event!

As we continued downstream boofing off more 10-12 footers than I had ever seen on any given run in my 99.99 years on this Earth, I had a good sense of how special this run was. There were so many loud BOOFS! from me landing flat all over the place that the locals were worried that Seneca Rocks might be under artillery fire! A double orange flag let us know that we were at Fantasy Falls, which is the biggest rapid on the run. The first drop is a 20 foot near vertical falls followed immediately by a steep 12 foot slide with tree branches to duck. This is high quality, top drawer stuff in here! Of course, I aced the drop and continued downstream.

More sweet rapids followed by some trees and an orange flag brought us to the X, a steep series of ledges leading to an 8 foot boof to avoid 2 trees that had fallen in across one another in the shape of an x. I launched several SIKy's in the approach and drove hard right acing a righteous boof stroke to put me on the right and in position to duck the tree. Oh yesh! It was NICHE!

We reached the end of the run with a great feeling of satisfaction. The run certainly had delivered the goods and we were stoked. We were so stoked that we started jumping around delivering chest bumps. Finally, one of the boaters broke his sternum and we decided we'd better stop and run him to a hospital.

The next day, we returned to High Ridge to run it again. We were excited that the creek had held and, although low, we had another fantastic day. Afterward, we headed to another secret creek nearby (we'll call it Death Ledge Run for the sake of argument) and fired it up. The run was overall easy but contained a narrow 30 footer that was gorged in and was unportageable (Running Man Falls). I slipped while scouting and nearly slid into the creek so I opted to just run the falls blind (after seeing Eric Ameson paddle off the edge). This may have been a risky maneuver but, I'm a gambler: I know when to hold'em and when to fold'em! What? Who says stuff like that! The falls narrowed at the lip and the water on the right bank was folding back over onto the flow. I came down the approach in the middle and launched a huge boof before getting subbed out in the fold and going deep into the pool. I emerged victorious and excited about firing up another great West Virginia waterfall. The other guys had a good runs as well and we floated down the remaining half mile of Class 2 to the takeout with a great feeling of accomplishment.

As I loaded my car and prepared to head home, I had to smile at what a fantastic weekend it had been. I had done some great paddling in my favorite area of the country and found some new runs. I left the Alleghany Front that weekend with a grin so wide that I had to turn sideways to walk through any doorway for the next week! Best weekend EVERRRRR!!!!!

26May

Team Fluid expedition on Mzumvubu river, South Africa

23:09 - By David Arnaud - News - no comment

Last April Team Fluid paddlers were invited to gather in Fluid Kayaks homeland, South Africa. The aim of the trip was : get the Fluid team paddlers together and go paddle. Simple as that!

We ended up being a group of 12 people. Unfortunately some of our american and european team paddlers couldn't make it due to other obligations, but we had an excellent group of paddlers nonetheless.

It was decided to paddle in the Transkei region, a quite huge and somehow isolated area. We soon realized that waterlevels were quite low in the area. Our paddling options would be limited, and we headed straight to the Mzumvubu river for a 5-day trip, one of the largest rivers of the area. Soon we were gearing up and packing as much as we could in our Solos and Detoxs. This meant a shopping mission first. Here Celliers Kruger, Fluid's owner and designer, proudly exhibiting a fairly long receipt from the supermarket...

The Transkei is a fairly remote region of South Africa. From what I've been told it's quite poorer and underdevelopped compared to the rest of the country. Some pics taken on the way to the put-in:

Upon arrival at the put-in, we realized that the Vubu was at a very low level. Just a couple of expeditions had taken place on this river in the past, with epic tales of big class IV/V whitewater that sounded very challenging. Unfortunately due to low water the river turned out to be a nice contemplative run of class II/III, with long stretches of flat water in between rapids. But no one complained: the friendly atmosphere, the nature of the trip and the great scenery made it a fantastic experience nonetheless.

Celliers Kruger melting the camera with his laser look:

The new Detox was used by a few paddlers on the trip and proved to be a very good alternative to the Solo on this expedition. Even heavily loaded with gear, tent, food and such, it still handled perfectly. The Detox is just getting into Europe and North America these days, make sure you try one this season! More on the Detox

On the third day we got to the main point of interest of the trip, a massive rapid next to a small village (actually a few huts on the banks of the river).

The main waterfall is not runnable at this waterlevel, and the remoteness of the place would really be a factor to consider before launching yourself off.... Nothing can go wrong in such an isolated area.

We found a few smaller falls on an alternate channel to keep us busy. Here Andrew Kellet is firing up a tricky waterfall, not very high but defenitely challenging. He nailed it perfectly, flying just a few centimeters away from a threatening rock halfway down the fall, landing with just the right angle in the flat but probably not so deep pool at the bottom.

We met just very few people on our way down. Our presence, and gear, would raise the curiosity of the locals that we met.

A couple days later we'd reach the take out and exit the river, tired but happy. Water was low, there were few rapids, but is there really room to complain when you open your tent in the morning and see this?

We're already looking forward to next year's team trip. It was a great experience, and also my first time in South Africa, and I can say I want more! The country is so vast, there are countless rivers to run. I guess we'll just try to hit it with more water next time!

Photos courtesy of Will Clark, Celliers Kruger and myself (David Arnaud)

14May

Update from David Bain, UK Fluid team paddler and slalom

18:01 - By David Arnaud - News - no comment

Hi all,

Let me introduce to you David Bain, our latest addition to the Fluid Team in the UK. David is a talented, up and coming paddler. While his primary focus remains on slalom and downriver competitions at national and international level, David is the perfect illustration of that new breed of competitive paddlers who reckon the benefit of versatility and diversity in whitewater kayaking. Indeed David and his mates can often be seen paddling class IV/V in their Solos. And guess what, we at Fluid Kayaks believe in these youngsters! Here's a complete report from David Baine about the past winter and the road to the slalom and downriver Worlds.

___

This winters training has gone really well. I have progressed rapidly, and am looking forward to racing this summer aboard. I have been selected to go to Serbia for the European championships as part of the GB Junior Wild Water Race team, where I will be competing in Sprint and classic events against the best down river paddlers in Europe.

Down river selection During the week leading up to our trip to Scotland more than 3 feet of snow fell across Tayside, making out travel plans somewhat arduous. However we had a trouble free journey on a sunny Friday morning. When I got to Tully, the river was rather low; the snow had not yet started to melt enough to make a significant rise on river levels. I travelled up stream to get to the start of the race where the snow built and built. This made for fantastic views and scenery which made racing, a low river, far more enjoyable. On approach to the main rapid the speed of the water increased to the first drop, after taking a fast line, narrowly missing a hole, I skirted down the left side of a large wave train. At the end of the rapid the last long sprint of 300 meters came, as the sprint ended I concurred the final drop and crossed the line. I finished as first junior, and showed a very positive time compared to other senior athletes.

Slalom Junior selection

race 1 The first slalom selection was held in Bala in Wales. A very technical course was put up and I was excited knowing that it had some harder moves to test me, and my competitors. My first run was fantastic. I kept a very fast pace down the upper section and executed all the moves almost perfectly, as I came down the final drop I caught a edge and had to paddle back for a gate, before doing the few final gates. All the pressure was on run 2: the nerves were tense at the start line, however I kept my lines from the first run, and picked it up for the final move. After correcting my line and edge position from the first run, the last big move went perfectly, and the run finished off with a positive sprint. This run put me as second junior in the first race, a fantastic achievement.

Race 2 Race two was much more of a physical course, where I knew I would be doing well to be near the top. I had a reasonably quick run, but it was not quick enough to get real counting points. Race Three Now all the pressure was on the final race. I knew I had to race well to get on the team so I was pretty nervous. The course had a few very technical sections, where I knew if one move went wrong the race would be over. My first run was fantastic. I sprinted from the very start, performing almost every move without time loss. I finished the run in first place for junior selection, and 5th overall. I knew at this point that I had a good chance of being on the team for the summer, after a slower second run: I waited anxiously as the final juniors crossed the line. I still had the fastest time and gained myself a place on the junior team for the Worlds and Euros. I was ecstatic.

Ten weeks till the worlds I now will be training very hard in the lead up to the Junior World Championships in Foix and hopefully be fast enough to gain a medal. All I can do is train hard and see what comes. I would like to thank my coach, Jim Jayes for all the support he has given me this winter and preparation at races as well as Fluid Kayaks, NRS, White Water Active, Eddylines Llangollen and Lloyds TSB

12May

Colorado Early Season Paddling

21:52 - By Leif Anderson - News - no comment

Everyone in Colorado is starting to drag their boats out of storage, look around for their paddles, and just generally get ready for the water to show up. Well, I've been paddling for like two months now, suckers! I figured this would be a good time to dump a bunch of awesome photos of myself and others from around the state. However, I have trouble coloring inside the lines, so there are a handful from Wyoming and New Mexico also.

To start off, here's a quick summary of the adventure that Xavier Engle and I had in New Mexico and Durango.

We arrived in the general Embudo area sort of late at night and couldn't find the paddlers that we were going to meet up with. The existing plan was to meet for breakfast at the Pilar Yacht Club (a classy breakfast joint nearby), but we had managed to score nicer accommodations, and wanted to just meet at takeout. We left this humorous note at the Yacht Club.

Xavier leaving the note at the door of the Yacht Club

It worked like a charm.

We all met up at Atom Crawford's house and ran into Chris Baer, who had been on some kind of paddling bender, camping out in Atom's lawn and running the Embudo every day. We had a great run, but didn't take all that many photos. Here were a couple of my favorites.

Here I am with a huge monkey boof at the top of Cheesegrater. It's not the largest boof in the world, but it feels awesome. Photo by Will.

This is Xavier just below there. Photo by Will.

This is Xavier in the final move of Slots of Fun. I missed the eddy above this section and ended up leading Will through it. We were both backwards at the top. It was very embarrassing.

The crew chillin at takeout.

Xavier managed to convince Will and David to follow us to Durango that night to hit up Pandora's Box the next day. Pandora's Box was a pretty fun run, although I always hate sketchy access, and the Box is pretty sketch. If you manage to sneak past the gun toting landowner, you've still got to pseudo-rappel down to putin. However, having some local guides made the covert ops section of the run go totally smoothly.

At Swollen Member, I climbed out to take photos, and just as the last person peeled out to the next eddy right around the corner, I realized that I had no plan for getting back in my boat. It wasn't too big of a deal, but I spent quite a while scampering around on the ledges trying to find a spot flat enough to balance my boat. Once I was finally back in the water, I didn't want to slow down the group again, so I didn't take many photos.

So in consolation, here's a photo of me getting the BROWN... brownie. Laying some real treats. A real sweet BROWNie. I'm sure that there are hundreds more puns waiting to be pulled out of this one.

Then a week or two went by where I did lots of homework and graded lots of other people's homework. But eventually I was able to escape to:

And by "a week or two went by" I actually meant "two days later". Life is good.

Boxelder creek is a Wyoming run near Casper. It is quickly becoming more popular, despite a slightly tenuous access situation (although it's nowhere near as bad as Pandora's Box. There's a bridge at putin, it's just a slightly tense vibe with the locals.) Nathan Werner, Xavier and I decided that the best way to describe Boxelder was that it was like a photo with the saturation turned way up. The drops weren't all that huge, but they were a little more vivid than in real life. The scenery was a little too stark to be realistic, and the hike out was just flat out fake.

Here's Xavier on the signature drop: Loaf. This one isn't run all that often, but professor X found that he had no choice but to rock it out. This is exactly the line that we discussed; Xavier is going deep to sneak past the humongous hole. The main reason that I like this photo is because it is so similar to this other photo from the Embudo:

After watching Xavier totally style the drop (although he mentioned that he tagged a rock somewhere down there with his helmet) I decided to give it a go. I was feeling nervous, but felt like we had a good safety setup, and I felt like I had a good chance of battling my way out of the hole, after watching the currents for a while.

Photo by Xavier Engle.

It's hard to tell from this angle, but there is a dome of water just above the last curtain with two arms folding in from either side. Xavier came off a tiny bit right of center, and folded himself into the bear hug move, with both currents grabbing him and pulling him deep. I aimed for the same move, but was a little farther right beforehand, then a little farther left at the dome, then back on the right after the dome. As I went off the drop, I could feel that I wasn't quite on line, so I tucked as hard as I could in hopes of going deep anyway. What happened instead is that my tuck pulled my bow up a little, and I executed a pretty acceptable boof, carried enough speed to escape the curtain, and paddled straight out of the hole on the right side of the river. I didn't even flip. And I love the photo.

After Loaf, there was one last boof, which is about twice as tall as it looks (honest!).

And I should really stop including this sort of stuff, but I thought this photo of me loving the rock in the landing was hilarious. Both photos by Nathan Werner.

Then came the moment we had been dreading since the night before: the hike out. As Kyle McKutchen put it: "it's a great run, except the takeout is higher elevation than the putin". It's true. Once you reach the parking area at the top of the takeout hike, it is a downhill bike ride all the way back to the putin. Xavier is some sort of madman, because he immediately took off up the slope at a fast jog. Nathan and I moved at a slow crawl.

Loaf is barely visible in the background as Nathan reaches the final pitch of the climb.

After the hike, Nathan was too tired to even drink whiskey.

Xavier didn't seem to have done the hike at all, but he had already run shuttle and changed his clothes by the time Nathan and I got to the car.

Since Boxelder, Natalie and I have been paddling whatever we could. The rest of the photos were from a weekend after a big rainstorm, where the South Saint Vrain and Eldorado came in briefly. We were joined by Conor Flynn, fresh back from Japan, Xavier, and even Dan Glauser the local Rep.

Conor Flynn in the SSV Narrows. Photo by Natalie.

Damn, I look pretty good. Photo by Daniel Glauser.

Everyone loved the warmup boof in Eldo.

Sorry everyone that I have not credited for photos. Most of this last batch were taken by Natalie, me, and Xavier. Also, that last shot is one from the Poudre Narrows, that I snuck in there on the sly. It's the left line on Lower Narrows, which doesn't get run all that often.

This awesome shot of Natalie was taken by Xavier. I told him to change to the wider angle lens, and he refused, but I think it ended up better this way.

And, in closing, here's a graph from some of my students, displaying my awesome factor.

10May

XCreek, by Michelle Basso

12:18 - By Michelle Basso - News - one comment

Thursday afternoon in Bergen Norway, sun was shining, the birds are singing and it was beginning to feel like spring. Of course I was stuck in the office, trying to finish up a few last things before I took off for a long weekend rally up North. The X-Creek race (part of the X2 festival) was taking place on Friday and I was hoping for some training runs to shake off the winter rust. This meant sneaking out of work early as it was a 5 ½ hour drive to Hellesylt from Bergen. When I got home the other Basso had packed the car and loaded the boats ....so we were off.

A beautiful and efficient drive meant passing everyone in their expensive Audi's that never see 5th gear. Finally we pulled up to the Byggdelva hidden at the end of one of Norway's most beautiful fjords. It is eight in the evening and the sun has dropped behind the mountains. The light is fading to greys and blues, the temperature is dropping and that hard to shake winter chill creeps back into the air. Mark is still keen so after quick walk along the river to scout a few rapids we get back to Norway whitewater.

A brief cold shock hits me when I seal launch into the river, time to wake up and get the muscles moving…this is only my second time in a kayak this year. The weather has been cold, it has been snowing instead of raining and the snow pack in the mountains this year is very low … all of this has led to a slow start to the paddling year. But it all comes back very quickly and I exult in the feeling of moving water beneath the boat. The surrounding mountain peaks rise sharply from the valley and tower menacingly over the river. Although they are still mostly covered with snow, cliff walls jut out like black chocolate chunks in vanilla ice cream. I breathe in deeply; the crisp clean air fills my lungs and clears my head. I put my paddle blade into the water and pull myself towards the first slide.

The Byggdelva race course is short but very sweet. A couple hundred meters of slides and boofs, finishing off with a small horseshoe waterfall. The water is low but this makes the run more technical and a real race for the time clock. To avoid hitting a few grabbing, rocks you had to maintain precise control of the kayak at all times. I come off the water with a big smile on my face, looking forward to racing the next day. Back down the road to tents and beer as the hardy Norwegians from all over the country start appearing late into the night.

Friday morning I wake up and something just doesn’t feel quite right, I stick my head outside and immediately decide that it is way too early and I need to go back sleep for a couple hours. Maybe what I saw will just be the remains of a half remembered nightmare. No such luck…the weather is horrific; fog and clouds cover the handsome peaks that greeted us last night, a combination of snow and rain is falling to the ground and the wind blows the warmth right out of you. I could feel the motivation draining out of me as I stared out of the tent.

A couple hours in the campsite, eating breakfast, drinking coffee and catching up with good friends managed to restore some of my motivation and I was further revitalized by the sun that broke through when we arrived at the put-in. As the afternoon progressed the mountains came out from the wall of clouds, blue skies were once again becoming visible and the sun warmed the river bed.

In the end the race went off with big smiles throughout, thanks to some great organizing and a better-late-than-never sun hovering high above the looming peaks. Two runs, best combined time wins. Below are some pictures from the race. I was happy with my runs and came in second in the women’s category. Good times had by all. Then it was off to Østra and to the bar for the prize ceremony and some sweet tunes.

Thanks to Joar Wæhle, Øyvind Festø and Torbjørn Sewati for putting together a great race. I will be back next year.

XCreek Michelle

XCreek Mariann Mariann Sæther

XCreek Benji Benjamin Hjort

XCreek Torkel Torkel Gjeraldstveit

XCreek Martin Martin Vollen

XCreek Michelle

XCreek Dag Dag Sandvik

X2 Mark Mark skiing down to watch the freeski competition on Saturday

08May

Winter bad and good news by Val Grollemund

13:32 - By Valentin Grollemund - News - no comment

Ok, ok, I didn't write a post since a while, and the worst is I've no excuse!!! I broke my collarbone on a mountain biking session so I had all the time to do it but not...

Well, come with me on February 26th 2010. I was enjoying a MTB session with my brother Gautier and buddies, when I decided to jump on the biggest gap of the track... I kind of fucked up and crashed myself on dirt. Result, a left collarbone in 4 pieces... yeaaah...

I had a surgery a week later, they pull me on a titanium plate with 7 screws to fix the collarbone and found back the lenght of it.

The day after surgery.

2 days after surgery before pull out the drainer.

When I was laying at home with pain, I saw that beautiful cover by Raph Thiebaut for the next issue of Mountain Wilderness. On that photo you can see, David Arnaud, Eric Deguil, Stefun Pion and me.

Vikto Salomon

A while later, surgeron gave me his green card to pull out the plaster and live easy and slowly and stay really careful. So I had time and opportunity to take downhill MTB photos with my bro Gautier and buddies, in our home country in southern France (google "Aveyron"). Was so good to go out of the house and enjoy spring sunshine!!!!

Gautier Grollemund my bro. Check out his website www.gautiergrollemund.com he's a really talented videomaker and I'm sure you'll like his works!!!

Viktor Salomon goes big in "Rocco" the biggest drop of the track.

Raph Thiebaut in the deep and wonderfull gorges of the Durance across Briançon.

Finally, I'm back in my kayaks!!! I was this week in the french Alps with the local paddler Raph Thiebaut to enjoy some easy class IV+ rivers. At the same time I get my federal river guide licence which is mendatory to work as river guide in France. That's pretty good!!!!!

I'll leave in 2 days in the french Pyrenees to enjoy steep and beautiful spring rivers!!!! Hope to be back on class V rivers and more in the next days/weeks!!! May and June will be awesome, lot of projects and good things to do, I'll keep you updated!!

To see more photos, videos and completed reports, check out my blog (french and english): http://valgrollemund.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the river and enjoy life!!! seeya

Val

28Apr

Far North Queensland. Australian Jungle Boating

05:14 - By Lachlan Carracher - News - no comment

Hey All,

So its been awhile since I have checked in, Sorry about that! I have two updates coming: Northern Sumartra (a kayaking trip I did with Joel Kowalski and my Indonesian friends at Tritaseta) and an update from the previous Kimberley Expedition that along with Anthony Yap I organised an international team of 11 to paddle the Fitzroy River - The largest river in Australia. This project is still taking up a large percentage of my time and in the coming months I am sure you will here all about our trip.

Only a week or two after getting back from the Kimberley Odyssey I headed up to Far North Queensland to catch the tail end of the Australian tropical "Wet Season" I have never paddled in this area of Australia before (4000km North of where I live) and I was very impressed. It's steep and there was allot of water. The rain gods came through with extremely high water levels for the time of year. I was lucky enough to get down a couple of the classic's at possibly the highest flows every paddled.

I am not claiming any First Descents but there was a couple of drops at the put-ins for the some classic day runs that according to the locals haven't been paddled before. Who knows.

After two weeks in the tropics, 1 dislocated shoulder, 2 broken boats, and a snapped paddle I will let the photos do the talking. I cant wait to head to Cairns next season for some unfinished business. Thanks to Jesse James and The Tazy boys for a sweet trip.

Cheers

Lachie

Bahanna Gourge