(photo: Sally Montgomery)
The European Freestyle Championships recently took place in Lienz, Austria. The hole was bouncy, flushy and very hard to find the retentive spot for any loop-type moves – so much so that the majority of ladies (including myself) and many men scored 0 points in at least 1 prelim ride! Thankfully, just one air loop (from both rides) for the ladies was enough to obtain a position in the semis, and by finals my rides had become more consistent. 
(photo: Jamie Austen)
The ladies were generally sticking 2 – 3 moves maximum and due to the nature of the hole most of us saved the low-scoring moves till last going straight in for the loops. Air loops and helixes were the easiest reasonable scoring moves to be consistent with, yes helixes in holes do look rubbish, but for some reason they are worth 100 points… so, why not?! These 2 moves helped me to obtain 3rd place, another international medal for my collection 
Marlene Devillez (FRA) had an awesome ride in the finals with an entry end linked into a huge air loop and another air loop later in the ride giving her a winning 300 point score.
(Photo: Sam Ward)
The men were sticking bigger moves more easily than the ladies, though it was hard to link moves. James (pringle) Bebbington (GBR) had been leading throughout each round scoring more and more each time, with huge McNasties and textbook aerial phonix monkeys. But Peter Csonka (SLO) had his best ride at the right time in the finals edging ahead of Pringle to give him the Gold medal. The GB paddlers did well with 5 float boat medals and 3 (unofficial) squirt boat medals (see www.gbfreestylekayak.com for more details of the British results). Full event results can be found at http://www.euro-lienz.com/
The cardboard boat race drew in the biggest crowds of the event (mainly because it had briefly stopped raining during that time – but also because the general public had a rough idea of what they were trying to do!). 
Team GB (above) did well, the craft stayed intact and upright right to the end of the course (as did 50% of the team!).
While Nick and Luke were hucking about in Val d’Aosta, Tom popped to Ticino to check his new school credentials were in order…
Pic: Sarah Nash.
Great day on the Vestfjorden with the Lofoten Islands in the distance. No need for freeze dried expedition meals on this training trip. The fjord is full of fish dinner was caught as usual.
After climbing the Hamarøy Peak (seen on picture) we entered the kayaks on low tide. 
Blue mussels appeared and we could fill the boats!
Took the chance of not calling the poison-information… Made a nice fire, put the mussels in a big pot with a few cups of white wine and garlic. What a meal! Was watching Per-Thore as he ate like crazy…Hoping… But no, we are both still breathing so mussels seems to be OK.
You always get that stone-age-man-feeling when catching your own food. Unfortunately we cannot expect to live on the land at Spitzbergen.
July 19th we are flying in to Longyearbyen (Spitzbergen) the northernmost town in the world. Ahead of us a 4 weeks journey around the exposed northwest corner passing majestic glaciers and landing on the most remote beaches. The kayaks and will be shipped by boat. The team is Per-Thore Hansen, Hege Hansen, Petter Thorsen and Josh Barns.
Last time we were up here (april 2009) was for another purpose – the NORUK north pole expedition. 4 friends in the team: Bob Russel (adventurer, UK), Ceri Williams (mountain guide and paddler, UK), Per-Thore Hansen (musher, NOR) and myself (skier – testing the thin ice for the boys…). The expedition was cold, fun and successful.
The NORUK-team on the top of the world (April 11. 2009)
Preparations for the Spitzbergen kayak expedition is going well with training trip in Norway, north of the polar circle. Hamarøy is a great place to be. The midnight sun is here now and we have lots of white beaches to land on.
As always, when the expedition is approaching all the small details are on your mind day and night. Even if the planning has been going on for months, suddenly there is so much more to sort out! How much fuel and water and how much toilet paper do one really need for a month?…
It was a beautiful warm spring evening when Luke and I found ourselves in the Aosta Region of northern Italy, on the banks of the beautiful Ayasse river, with a good level and a bottle of wine.
Having arrived late in the evening, we camped out by the river for the night, only to be disturbed by a savage boar with an insatiable (and frankly undertstandable) craving for pesto alla genovese. Luke poised himself, ready to fight back, whilst I racked my brains for literary examples of heroes coming face to face with wild boar. The best I could come up with was the mythical gaul Asterix, and as we’d run out of magic potion just that week this was of no use. In the end we chose the bold tactic of going back to sleep, and thankfully woke up in the morning having escaped a tusking.
Having survived the night’s excitement, Luke and I were pretty fired up to blast down the lower gorge first thing. The section is about 500m long, and includes a selection of small slides and drops, including a spectacular triple slide combo at the canyon exit (see picture above). We figured this would serve us well as a pre-breakfast wake up.
Things got off to an entertaining start when both of us misjudged the lip on first boof of the day. Luke got away with it and I got a shoeing. Thankfully I managed to fight my way out with only a bruised Ego. Check the photo, this line was certainly sub optimal:
After negotiating the remaining slides without incident we found ourselves committed to the lower triple combo, which involves a short portage over some big boulders to a sketchy seal launch at the lip of the 30 footer. Here Luke carries his boat, before tucking up and taking the hit.
Luke’s line was exemplary, however this is quite a low volume river, and the hit at the base quite hard. He found himself therefore in a C1 situation in the boily eddy at the base of the falls. After sorting all this out, a cheeky minute or two spent in an innocuous looking cave, a terrifying hidden siphon and an abseil to retrieve an accidentally abandoned camera, we found that it was much later in the day than we’d hoped – more like dinner time than breakfast time.
This was a prime example of how a ‘pre breakfast blast’ can turn into an all day comedy of errors, and feeling somewhat beaten, we took the afternoon off for some cheese and meat appreciation.
More Fun to come soon from Extreme Sport Week in Norway, but for now here are some more shots of epic fun and freeride action from Valsesia this spring, enjoy the pics…
Photos from Luke Farrington, Joe Casey, Nick Horwood.
Myself and ocean rower Sarah Outen travelled 150 miles across the UK by Stand Up Paddleboard, from Bath to London, reaching Tower Bridge on Tuesday 8th June.
Dave, a world-record breaking skateboarder and endurance kayaker, is currently exploring the boundaries of distance Stand Up Paddleboarding with one eye on a world record journey in 2011. Sarah is preparing for a two and half year global circumnavigation starting in London in April 2011, her first major expedition was a 4000 mile solo row across the Indian Ocean in 2009, which earned her three world records.
As passionate supporters of Blue’s aims, Dave and Sarah decided to undertake this expedition to celebrate the inland waterways of Britain, concluding their journey beneath London’s Tower Bridge on World Oceans Day. Throughout their journey they were joined by paddlers, cyclists and walkers, amassing a total of 875 Blue Miles (miles travelled on or by the water) during their week-long paddle.
Along the length of the Kennet & Avon Canal and the latter section of the River Thames Dave and Sarah faced a number of obstacles. Remarkably, an early June heat wave took its effect on the pair, and as expected 115 portages in the shape of locks and weirs turned this effort from a mere paddle into a true endurance event. Without doubt, though, the greatest difficulty was standing up for an average of 11 hours a day!
On their approach to London a deserved climax beneath Tower Bridge seemed to be in jeopardy as the Harbour Master ordered them out of the water just three miles from the end. Dave and Sarah hoisted boards onto shoulders and marched alongside the Thames past Westminster and the London Eye, determined to reach their destination even if it was on dry land. Thankfully, the Harbour Master had a change of heart and sent out a boat to escort them between Waterloo and Tower Bridge.
It was a truly iconic finish to the longest Stand Up Paddleboarding journey seen by the UK to date.
Read more on www.thegreatbigpaddle.com
Meet Dave @ www.davecornthwaite.co.uk
Meet Sarah @ www.sarahouten.co.uk
For the steep creeking connoisseur, spring in Piemonte is always a treat, and this season has been no exception. This year the Gronda racecourse became pretty much part of our daily routine, offering 391 metres of steep technical fun, finishing in a truly classic ski jump drop that will leave you grinning for days.
Here are some photosfrom the last month of this golden Italian mini classic.
Photos from Luke ‘The Boar’ Farrington, Clem Holgate, and Nick Horwood, stay posted for more updates from the land of Pizza, Ice cream and Grappa, in that order.
Keep it steep,
Nick
