Sjoa Fest & More teaching

Returning to Sjoa, we settled back into the kayak camp with a late run down Amot canyon as standard. Nick Horwood and Lowri also travelled over from Voss to work on the Gene17 courses for July.

The first weeks of July were so busy it was all a bit of a blur, but needless to say we had a lot of fun showing people down some of our favourite runs in Norway.

There was a brief break in the form of Sjoa festival right in the middle. Many Norwegian and other nations paddlers showed up for a week of river paddling, competitions, fun and festivities. We were all really happy for the event to be run by the locals again, and Kay Arne and Jon Kristian and their crew put on a great event.

On tuesday a Simon, Erik, Andy, Morten and I, drove over to paddle the Sjorli. This is one of my favourite runs, all non stop action for the entire run, I had a little trouble remembering the lines, but with local Erik Martinson we made good time with only a couple of stops and a broken boat toward the end.

Back at the festival, first up for me on Wednesday was the freestyle held over at Sjaak. I was quite excited having not competed in a freestyle event since about 2004, and much to my surprize I made 2nd place behind Tyler Curtis in 1st.

Freestyling on Sjaak

Thursday evening we all headed down Amot for the time trials, it was a relaxed atmosphere down in the canyon, but we all knew that the seedings for the Sweet Rumble, boater cross were at stake, make top 30% and you'll race head to head on Saturday, if not you're out! So the chatting stopped and we put it into gear for the race. I've done well on the time trial in previous years, 3rd or 4th usually, but I slipped down to 6th this year (fatigue again, I'm full of excuses) More on the Sweet rumble later. Big surprise of the day was local favourite Martin Vollen caning the course with a super fast time, but then missing the last eddy at the finish and that was him out of the game!

The event everyone was talking about however, hadn't been seen in 6 years, the infamous Ulla race! Its fair to say that the rapids here are a big favourite among us, but due to the steep course and reasonable risk of injuries (isn't this what extreme racing is about?) understandably organisers have been shy on this one for some time, but the Heidal boys resurrected the race and made it the highlight of the festival.

Pre-race nerves hiking to the put in

Go fast in the flats, and clean on the slides is the trick here.

The racing was great fun although I didn't perform well for this one managing 11th or 12th? (fatigue from the last few weeks definitely setting in). One nice surprise was old bear Simon Westgarth making the final and finishing 3rd using his vast experience in the sport and of this race in years past. It was Martin Vollen who took a well deserved win though. Word in the valley was that he'd been training for this one, and it certainly looked like it, making up for his mistake in Amot and then some, Well done Martin!

Simon flying into the finish line

Satu also in the finals

Of course we paddled down afterwards with some friends to huck the Ulla falls perfect end to the day.

The main event Sweet rumble boater cross, went off with the usual jostling and drama, right to the finish. Myself, well I didn't make it past the first heat, (now truly exhausted and needing a break, there I go again) another local Morten Eilertson won the event and the big cash prize fending off many international racers with his strength and aggression to win on his home run. Notable other happenings, were Simon having taken a comfortable lead in his first heat, drop in the middle of the last hole and helplessly watch is competitors pass as he surfed it out, and Mariann miss the eddy in the final again! one year the women's race will be hers I'm sure.

Back to work and the rivers, we had to look around for some new runs as levels got way too high, but we struck gold on the Atna and various other obscure runs. There are photos up of the courses here

Steep creeking early July

Progressive early July

Progressive late July

There is also a blog post on the final course in Norway here

To finish off with here is a couple of video clips our guests took on the Ulla

The first is the final drop of the race course

and the second is Ulla Foss (Waterfall) 1

Northern Racing & Guiding

As nice as Oppdal is for kayaking, the weather in June was miserable, and by the time we passed the Rauma, we had decided to get a Hutte for the night to hide from the rain. Finding the both the Myklebustelva and Langdelselva too high with the torrential rain we pushed on down South to Voss where the Sun was shining and we could dry our damp kit.

Ekstremsport Veko started the very next day and Mads and I spent a little time checking out the race course on the Brandseth before race day.

Race day was a great event with nice hot wea

ther, a riverside band that attracted the crowds and good levels in the river, meant that we could happily get on with the business of racing.

Final boof for the finish line

Despite a poor start I made the final with just a little time to spare. The 15 finalists hiked back up for a second shot at the race course and upped the game a little on the times. Its a tough race with a strong international field. In the end "Italian Stallion" and Dr of Hydrology Michele Ramazza took the top honours with consistent times, the rest of the final results were like this (combined times heats and finals) :

Men

1.RAMAZZA Michele ITA 3:19.17

2.SUTTON Sam NZ 3:20.30

3.ABOTT Mike NZ 3:21.13

4.VOLLEN Martin NO 3:21.93

5.CURTIS Tyler CA 3:25.50

6.ELLARD Allan UK 3:26.89

7.NEILSON Josh NZ 3:27.91

8.SANDVIK Dag NO 3:28.80

9.TIDY Matt UK 3:30.70

10.ØVREEIDE Eirik NO 3:31.33

11.PHILIPS Andy UK 3:32.14

12.RANDEN Kai Arne NO 3:33.62

13.SEDIVY CZ 3:33.70

14.BASSO Mark CA 3:36.27

15.THOMSON Dylan NZ 3:36.47

The favourite spectator spot: A tricky little drop

Lowri Davies pulls hard and wins a cheque in the ladies event.

With temperatures in the high twenties (in Norway!) summer had well and truly arrived and lots of water melted down of the hills, regular runs became a little too high for our interest and we started exploring a little. A little reconnaissance revealed the Teigdal in good form and, since the boat was in the van it seemed rude not to have a cheeky park and huck on the beautiful double drop. Shame the light wasn't too good for Mads behind the camera.

Back on the programme with Mads we returned to the upper Brandseth for some proper Steep creek tuition.

Mads styling the entry rapid on the Branseth

Over a picnic Mads contemplates which big thing to huck next.

Nearly Norwegian Summer

May finished with a great week with the young paddlers from Laburnum boat club in the French Alps, then a final warm down in Piemonte, Italy with good friends & Irelands finest Simon, Ali Donald and Dave Carroll

June began with thousands of kilometres of driving. First from the Haute Alps to Slovenia then I packed up the big Silver Gene17 bus with 9 kayaks, 2 bikes, and loads of Italian food, and drove over 2000 kilometres from Slovenia to Norway.

The drive goes through Austria and the length of Germany from Munich to Berlin, taking a rest on the overnight ferry to Sweden then 12 more hours of driving to Sjoa in Norway. Somehow I just about managed to complete my final maths assignments during the week too!

Through the mountains of Austria.....

and the flat lands of Northern Germany...

and onto the shuttle to Sweden, the Huckleberry Finn

the road over Jotenheim National Park, Norway

Arriving in Norway 5th June the temperature was still recovering from the winter at a little over 5 degrees! The snow pack was still around but the cold meant the rivers were exceptionally low. Still we got stuck into things, this time running a 4 week intensive skills course, we braved the white water in the cold. Mads from Denmark and Spiros from Greece were joining me for the course and being an advanced course we warmed up on the Class IV Amot gorge, and the Sjoa Canyon.

Mads loving the pushy water in Amot

the centre line super boof...

and into the corridor

Next we hit up the exposed Ulla to get our gravity fix but immediately vowed not to return until it got warmer, snow at the put in is not a great motivator!

The boys on the course made use of their drysuits on the Advanced SRT Rescue course whilst I accompanied Satu VW to Sjaak for her training for the world championships this year, its been a while since I competed in freestyle but I have trained for WC's before so I hope I was some help to Satu. The wave was low as expected but still made for good training having to force the moves out. (watch the video, see the pictures below)

Front flip 1

2

and 3

Satu VW, brave on the wave, terrified of cameras!

Unfortunately after week 1 Spiros made a return to Greece with a troublesome old injury to his shoulder, he'll be returning to Norway next year though to fire it up.

Mads and I pushed on and as the weather got warmer the rivers rose and we completed some great classics of Norway and had some adventures in Oppland including the impressive Driva canyon, a great achievement for Mads and a guiding challenge to paddle 25kms of remote class 4 + at the limit of his ability.

I don't have much in the way of photos from the following week but lots of video footage to edit so watch this space!

Danish hard man Mads Udsen, see his progression in the next instalment where I drag him kicking and screaming to White water Mecca, Voss

Manic May

Well that's it, spring is over and we should be well into summer now, but it certainly doesn't feel like it here in Norway, its still very cold outside, but what a spring its been in the Alps, I don't ever remember a season like this, with this much to do, the water levels have been incredibly good, with high water runs on old favorite's and new opportunities on usually dry creeks.

I've been really quite busy with guiding on rivers already this year, with 3 weeks in Slovenia for Gene17, a one week road trip around Piemonte and Tessin and a steep creeking course in Val Sesia also for Gene17. More recently I worked with Laburnum boat club from Hackney on their annual trip to the French Alps which was fantastic, they are a really fun group to be around, I'm looking forward to seeing them again in Slovenia in a few weeks.

We also did a photo shoot with Palm. Nick Horwood and Tim Trew came out to explore rivers in Tessin and paddle some new runs, their posts of the trip are here and here Simon and I even managed a sneaky run on the Sessera near Borgosesia which rarely has any water.

Put in on the Sessera

...and lower down

Enjoying high flows on the Vercasca

The hike in to the Basso took a while, not cos its that far, just cos every kept taking photos.

... the top however is spectacular

hmmm granite, 4kms of bedrock slides and drops to the Loana, this is the first rapid of the day.

Ninja boof into a shallow pool

The last cascade on the Loana, and time for a Pizza after 7 hours of Class V adventure.

The last thing for May was to paddle some of the Piemonte classics with friends, nothing beats a day on an alpine river with a good strong crew.

The 25 footer on the Gronda

Sermenzina

I'm now guiding in Sjoa, but heading over to Voss soon for Ekstrem Sport Veko, and adventures on the West coast of Norway, see you out there! : )

Rarely Run

Last week I went with a small team from Palm, to test some new PFD's and get some photo's, we had great water levels in Ticino, and on the way back, bagged a seldom run, hidden gem in the Toce region. The Alpi di Basso and the Loana. I'd visited a few years previously and never found enough water, this year it was cranking, and well worth the hike in.  Brief report here

http://www.palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/?p=701

The Place To Be

My last post, I've written for the Palm blog is all about Piemonte and the Italian Alps, you can see it here

Click

Start of the season

Spring is most definitely here, and on mainland Europe its all kicking off with high flows around Ticino and Piemonte.

At the end of March I swapped my ski's for my kayaking gear and headed over to the Slovenia to run some Gene17 courses on the Soca.  

The last time on this Spring's snow

Changing allegiances & swapping the ski's for kayaks 

The first week was an invitational training week for potential guides, I worked with a great team from the South West on guiding and coaching techniques in quite challenging conditions, as the Soca was running at 170 Cumecs! Not surprising with the huge snow pack this year, and the rain that fell that week!  Check out the team's notes from the week on the Gene17 blog 

Warming up, guiding and PFD testing on the Soca

The following two weeks were also busy, coaching and guiding with G17 courses, the high levels on the Soca remained throughout, with some boils and relatively pushy flows for the Soca. These weeks spent in Slovenia are always a welcome warm up for the season.

The last two weeks of April I took the opportunity to visit home, friends and family in the UK and also catch up with sponsors Fatface in Havant and  Palm in Clevedon. I also met with Laburnum boatclub in London who will be arriving in France at the end of the month and Slovenia in July, I spent an entire day applying for a Indian visa through the new system in Victoria (very frustrating) and in Exeter, Ed Cornfield and I met the students, parents and teachers of Exeter school, and enjoyed the student presentations for the final meeting for our forthcoming expedition to India in August.  My final trip was to Leeds University for an open day for the MSc I'll be studying from September.

The following morning I flew back to Milan, and I'm now ensconced in Campertogno in Val Sesia looking at an unbelievable snow pack above, its going to be an exciting season ahead!

Yesterday I enjoyed perfect levels on the Egua and punchy levels on the Sermenza even if there was still snow at the put in for the former!

Team Denmark arrive this evening for a weeks road trip around Ticino and Piemonte, so more to follow shortly!

Still full winter conditions on Monte Rosa from the South

The view from Campertogno

Plenty of snow hanging just above Alagna