It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on here, largely due to finals at uni followed by the move back to Scotland and setting up work. However now that the storm has settled, and I’ve bought a Go Pro, I’m jumping back into the online kayaking media with my first clips of head-cam footage from a few “local runs”. Alongside paddling I’m also training hard for an adventure challenge on the west coast of Scotland, called the 70 Wild Miles, which pretty much speaks for itself in terms of the distanced covered via a combination of bike, kayak and run. With that in mind I’m doing a fair bit of solo boating with running gear packed in a dry bag in the back of my Nomad so that running shuttles is a good bit of training… when the event comes around (on the 9th of June) I’ll be jumping out of my sea boat straight into a half marathon, so it makes sense to dabble in the cross over now whilst keeping the added excitement of white water. I’ve found that the River Orchy is a great training ground thanks to some nice rapids interspersed with flat pools over a 10km section which helps me work on technique and, once I’ve hidden my boat and gear in the woods, provides a long enough run back to the car to be of benefit. I’m doing the 70 Wild Miles on behalf of Clic Sargent to raise funds which will support kids with cancer so for anyone happy to give a little my just giving page is here – http://www.justgiving.com/Ed-Smith03
. Enjoy the first instalment – it’s short enough to watch without getting busted at the office – more soon!
London has never been an unknown white spot on my kayaking map. With Hurley Weir as one the country’s prime freestyle spots close by and a vibrant boater community living in the region, the metropolis of England has always ment more to me than Tower Bridge, Big Ben and the Queen.
But now, London has gainded one more attraction: the Lee Valley White Water Centre. As part of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, no efforts have been spared to create one of the most challenging and modern whitewater courses in the world.
Since I moved to Bristol about two weeks ago, there hasn’t been enough rain to get some of the notorious local creeks running. Hence, when Rowie from Palm asked me whether I was keen on checking out the Olympic course before the world’s best Slalom athletes would occupy it for their games, I was in. Rowie booked the course and invited all her paddling buddies. And off we went.
Despite the chilly February wind and rain, the course was full of people. Rafters, whitewater paddlers and slalom kayakers braving the weather. But before we could all join them on the water, we had to undergo a mandatory assessment by an expert, proofing that we were skilled enough to cope with the difficulties. I was highly amused when the guy came up to our group. It was my old friend Matt, whom I haven’t seen for years. So we had quite a lot of fun with him during the following hour.
The whitewater park is devided into two separate sections: the easier Legacy course and the full on Olympic course. While the Olympic one is really fast, pushy and packed with stronger holes and waves, the Legacy course is way more relaxed but still good fun containing some really nice play features like stern squirt eddies, surf waves and a hole for big loops and enders. Both end up in a large pool where two conveyor belts wait for you to bring you back up to the start.
After passing the assessment in our red bibs (showing that we were capable of avoiding a number of rafts banging around with lack of control) we were allowed to pay for more time on the water (10£ per hour) and had to change to orange bibs (cameras monitoring that you’re wearing the right one everywhere). We were surfing it up, racing against each other or just cruising down both sections numerous times until our time was up. Cold, tired but smiling from one ear to the other we got changed and headed to the local pub to celebrate the great session with a delicious pint.
Can’t wait to come back. It’s just a shame that London is so far away from Bristol. So let’s hope for rain and see you all on the Dart or the Lynn :).
Seppi
PS: I also had the pleasure to try out the brand new Spark Suit and AMP vest from Palm, both in lime green. Check out the photos. The combination looks wicked.
Hi All, here’s an update from our most recent training session, where despite the freezing conditions and having to break through ice during our warm up we were all fired up and raring to go (this is how fun rafting is!).
The focus for the weekend was paddling technique and timing within the raft. Team member and ex Welsh slalom squad member Nerys Blue had researched some top tips from an outrigging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outrigger_canoe) paddle stroke that would be useful to transfer to the raft. We started off on the flat and in particular worked on really pushing down with our top arm to transfer power down through the paddle instead of just pulling water. The analogy that if your paddle should snap you would fall in was frightening on such a cold day but thankfully none of us were that unlucky! This adjustment to our technique produced a really powerful stroke and combined with timing the ‘catch’ so that each person’s initial power occurred at exactly the same time made the boat feel smooth and very powerful. So impressed were we with this result that in a couple of weeks time Rosie, Ally and Georgie will be travelling to London to learn more about the technique from a top outrigging club coach, and take technique tips back to be used at the next training session. It’s exciting to be involved in a sport still at the stage of developing the most efficient basic paddle stroke!
We transferred this to the white water (where, as in kayaking it is significantly more challenging to focus on technique) and definitely felt the increased power across the whole raft.
On the weekend we were very lucky to have support on the bank with Georgie filming and giving us feedback with input also from coaches Matt Blue and Gareth Wilson. It’s so valuable to have eyes on the bank pointing out things that are hard to feel from the boat; if you are carrying out your own winter training it’s well worth begging, paying or bribing someone to observe you, or even better video. Video feedback is incredibly useful to see improvement during the sessions and highlight areas to work on for the next session. Also, the camera never lies!
As usual the two days of training was intense, but a really great start to the year; the timing and power gained within from trying a new technique felt amazing and we’re all really fired up for the year ahead!
In other breaking news rumour has it that shortly the team will be receiving a package from Palm, containing all that we need for the cold training weekends ahead…we can’t wait to see what gear is in the box!
Also, so as to remind you (and us!) that paddling isn’t all about dark evenings and ice freezing on the paddle check out our video of some fun training runs on the Pacuara River on the run up to the 2011 World Championships.
Since my first trip to Uganda in 2005 i’ve been out here every Winter and Katya likewise, it really is a playboaters dream Winter playground.
Last Winter we decided to take a break from uganda and headed for a month in Galicia/ Portugal instead.
So in the two years since we were last here a lot has changed on the river with the finishing of the Silverback dam. Undeterred however, me, Katya and Bren Orton decided to escape the cold and dryness of the UK and the harsh Siberian winter.
For myself and Katya we really just wanted to get on warm, perfect waves, relax in the tropical environment, watch the animals and nature thats so abundant here and feast on the many delicious fruits.
Here you can get the best banana’s, pineapples & passion fruit in the World and many other tasty fruits some unusual like Jack fruit and others more common like watermelon, all so fresh, ripe and tasty, perfect for our diet we (me & Katya) eat a raw diet of mostly fruits, so here is like a banquet for us.
The two waves we’ve spent our time on so far are Nile Special & Malalu.
Nile Special you’ve probably seen a 1000 times but at the right levels its really sick wave you can go huge on, its not the easiest wave in the World to surf as it can be a bit violent but when it greens out you get a perfect ramp to throw whatever you’d like off of.
When Special gets too foamy and the level starts to rise Malalu a big soft mostly green wave forms 40minutes paddle downstream. Very friendly and soft and in the evenings when it gets high and the wave gets steep and green it’s one of my favourite waves in the World.
Having spent the few weeks before I came here battling it out alongside Bren at a cold and deserted HolmePierrepont in Nottingham it’s so sweet to be out here with Katya on the waves I really love to paddle and best of all no thermals are necessary.
Between sessions we’ve been loving life on the second island at the Hairy Lemon campsite. It’s pretty special here as we are the only ones on this bit of the island and because of that the animals shelter there and enjoy the peace. Every day we are treated to the sight and sounds of the birds, monkeys & monitor lizards going about their daily routines. In the evenings across the little channel of river from us a rare African Finch Foot bird has been roosting! It’s a bit like being in a Wildlife documentary, I love it!
Bren, Palm’s junior star has been paddling so well out here too, he’s really getting the waves dialled in and his paddling is going pretty sick! i think he has 4 more weeks here and is pretty fired up to run some of the bigger rapids too having already been showing some of the other guys down Itanda so look out for more from him when he gets back to the UK.
Just before I came out here I drove down to Palm HQ to pick up some summer kit for the trip out here and they had a few new items to give to us to check out too;
The Paw Shoe and the Vortex Jacket
The Paw shoe is pretty much a dream for Playboaters, as lightweight and slimline as a neo sock but with a thin sole to protect your feet, we’ve been running around rough rocks everyday and squeezing into our boats and they’ve held up great to our abuse, pretty sick bit of kit for Playboaters like us.
The Vortex is a new lightweight cag that has been ideal out here to whack on over the top of my deck as it’s a bit too hot for my normal zenith shortie and I hate just paddling in a deck as too much water always gets in whatever I try (not fat enough to fill the gaps So the vortex has been an ideal lightweight solution for me and has so far kept the water out of my boat and not made me feel like i’m going to pass out in the heat every time I have a long ride.
Off to Jinja today to go get fast net and see some of our old friends at NIle River Explorers where I used to work and then paddling in paradise again tomorrow.
It’s also worth mentioning the rapids for paddlers wishing to head out here now the dam is in. Although there is no Silverback section now there is a cracking section of 50? km of river full of rapids and waves still here and with the constant high water now the big rapids like Dead Dutchman, Itanda, Hypoxia and Kalagala are at perfect levels and are getting ran very regularly by those who want to push themselves in that direction and of course there are plenty of nice grade 3 and 4 rapids and smaller waves as well as holes along the Day 2 stretch of river.
Just before Christmas Paul, Daniel, Michael and me went south to the Rio Futaleufu. When it startet snowing 150 kilometer before our final destintion we doubted our desicion to celebrate christmas and new year´s eve far away from the party crowd in Pucon. However, with a huge fire in one of the Quincho huts at the Cara del Indio camp it got cosy and warm.
And two days later, when a change in the weather pattern brought 30 degrees and sun all day long we were absolutely happy with our place to stay. Who else is starting his Christmas eve with a Christmas brunch in the sun, followed by a long day of kayaking down the Futaleufu – a river every whitewater kayaker is dreaming of – and having an original Chilean Assado as holiday roast for dinner.
So we spent a whole week at the Futa. Having finest summer weather we paddled alternating Futa top to bottom and the bridge to El Macal section every day.
The only break in this routine was our trip to Chaiten. Paul and Daniel needed a ride to their bus back to Santiago so we assumed it might be a good idea to paddle the Michimahuida on the way. After two hours on the gravel road we reached the put in and a fantastic day of paddeling began.
At perfect waterlevel and weather on our seven hours trip, getting sunburned was unavoidable. The incredible mood was suddenly inturrupted – the worst case, a broken boat, happend somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Except from the put in and take out the river meanders through the wilderness very remote from any civilisation. So there was no way out of the river and the boat got fixed with a lighter and duct tape professionally. Luckily the high quality work lasted till we reached the take out bridge in the evening – tired but happy. The next day we made it to Chaiten in time to drop off our two friends at the bus station.
Beeing just two of us left we went back to the Futa to get some last big water practice and to find a crew for a trip to the Rio Baker. Both was done quickly and we started driving south in good humour with Gabriel from Canada, Jean from France, Aniol from Spain and the Basque Gael with his Norwegian girlfriend Netta. Our frist stop was planned to be the Rio Ventisquiero. After a short look, we decided to continue driving because the river looked way to low. Unfortunally the car of the French-Spanish-Crew didn´t start anymore and so our group split already on the first day.
In the afternoon of the next day Gabriel, Michael and me finally made it to the Rio Baker after a beautiful scenic drive along the Lago General Carrera and the Lago Bertrand. We found a super nice camp ground just two kilometers upstreem of the Salto the Neff and started scouting the first few rapids to prepare ourselves for the next days big water mission.
One of us even adjusted his beard to the river – simply lovely!
The next morning our small crew finally started full of action to do our first kayaking trip together down the Rio Baker. Because of the low water level the only option to run the frist rapid was to run the far left creek line. So the boys started making fun of the pretended force of the Rio Baker. But only a few hundred meters later when I turned around after the S-Rapid I saw both of them beeing very busy rolling and trying to get out of the eddylines and whirlpools close to the canyon walls. With a big grin in my face I waited for them in the eddy below the rapid and from there on they believed me that all the waves, holes and whirlpools are a lot bigger than they look like from the top.
We enjoyed the beauty of the Baker about four days before we had to go back to Futa, Pucon, Santiago and home.
When we left, Hector – the owner of our campground – told us, that Hydro Aysen is going to start building the dam on the Rio Baker in 2014. So we have to come back as soon as possible – see you next season Rio Baker!
It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from Colombia and with starting my lecture tour*, I’ve had time to reflect on our adventures. Rather than write a long-winded summary of our trip, I thought I’d do something different and present the highs, lows and hilarity in a “rocks and sucks” run-down.
What Rocks: Paddling 45km in one day through several stunning gorges
What Sucks: The trailer breaking on the way to the put-in
What Rocks: Surfing big waves in 40 degree sunshine
What Sucks: Having to inspect your mate’s nether regions for ticks
What Rocks: Paddling through one of the most impressive multi-day canyons we’ve ever seen
What Sucks: Having to hike out of said canyon at the take out!
What Rocks: Fiestas in Latin America
What Sucks: Our attempts at Salsa
What Rocks: Nailing the line on a big rapid after long deliberation
What Sucks: 8-hour bus journeys while hung over
What Rocks: Going paragliding while your mates are sick
What Sucks: Being sick while your mates go paragliding
What Rocks: Incredible geography & geology
What Sucks: Your 4×4 & trailer sliding 10m sideways back down the hill, next to a large cliff
(OK, we don’t have photos of that dramatic moment)
What Rocks: Huge lumps of meat cooked on an Asado
What Sucks: Spirits that come in cartons
What Rocks: Getting silt beards while paddling the Rio Negro
What Sucks: Big holes & rocks hidden by the black water
(can you see me? I’m in the middle!)
What Rocks: Bar games that involve throwing stones at gun powder!
What Sucks: Spiky, spiny and sticky plants that rip your legs apart
What Rocks: Midnight skinny dipping
What Sucks: Finding the pictures the following morning
(Sorry, they are not going on here!)
What Rocks: Having mules to carry your kayak
What Sucks: Carrying your own fully laden kayak through the jungle
…or through fields, over barbed wire fences, along steep ridges, over huge boulders or down small cliffs…
What Rocks: A bus driver willing to try anything to get your boats on board
What Sucks: Finding that his efforts have ripped a deck, split a kit bag and gauged a boat
What Rocks: Bottom left
What Sucks: Top middle
What Rocks: Unbelievable kindness and instant friendships
What Sucks: Saying goodbye
For the full stories, check out our team blog at kayakcolombia.wordpress.com – or come along to one of our talks!
* Over the next few months I’ll be doing talks about or trip, including some impressive video footage and lots of photos, at various venues across the UK. Full schedule will be released soon, but if you’d like to arrange a talk near you (for a canoe club, group or organisation then please drop me an email on lowri@flowfree.co.uk)
Meanwhile we had already December in Chile and there was another change in our crew. John had to fly back home and the two German young guns Daniel and Paul were ready for their first Chilean experience. After giving them our traditional warm up program in Pucon we packed or car to head south to the Rio Fuy.
None of our group had been there before, so it took us a while to figure out the put in, take out and ways though the rapids. Right from the start the river presented itself very pushy and as soon as we reached the famous 6 meter drop we realized that there was no way of running the falls because of the massive recycles of the following drops.
We noticed that we probably put on at a very high waterlevel for the upper section and decided to go for the lower section the next day before heading further south.
After a short site seeing seeing stop at the Saltos Petrohue and a long dirt- roadtrip along the fjord passing Cochamo we reached the Rio Negro valley late that night.
Having wet gear and a cloudy sky the next morning didn´t cause much motivation for all of us and we had to push ourselves unwilling to the put in. Once we got there the Chilean sun gave its best, burned away the clouds and made our day as nice as it could get
For two of our group – Ali und Thilo – it was time to make their way back to Pucon.
But before they were allowed to go back to Germany we wanted to check out the Golgol and the Nilahue. But sometimes things turn out different than expected. The in June errupted volcano Puyehue was still throwing out a lot of ash and transformed both rivers in dirty brown mud with a lot of pumice rocks floating of top. None of us felt like running one of them and the decision to continue to Pucon by the way was fast and consentaneous taken.
Pucon still offered us some Park-and-Hucks like the Coilaco waterfall, the 23 meter drop of the middle palguin and the Salto Palguin for the brave ones. Waterlevels were droppiung more and more.
So after some warm up runs with our newcomer Michi Motz and some photo sessions we prepared our departure to the Futa and said goodbye to Pucon for 2011 with the Palguin fest and Boater X…
After coming back from chile last year in March I was waiting the whole summer to go back to one of the best winter kayaking destinations. In the middle of November my long waiting had an end and just when the weather in Europe turned nasty and cold I packed all my gear and took off to Chile.
Two days later I tepped out of the bus in Pucon where the two Norwegian girls Nini and Erika, the American Nick and Jeff from Canada were already waitiung for me. Lucky me, the four had already organized a car and a flat, so just a few hours after my arrivalI I found myself at the put in of the upper Palguin. What an unique playground and incredible start of my Chile season this winter!
During the next days we had a lot of fun on all the classics in and around Pucon like the Nevado, the Trancura, the Maichin and the Puesco till the rest of the German-Crew – John, Ali and Thilo – arrived.
After our group was complete and everybody got some warm up runs done in Pucon we loaded our truck and headed north towards the Rio Claro. On the way we drove all the way up the Laja valley to paddle the very short but continuous section above the dam. We had to wander around for a while to find the put in but once we reached the river we got a racy ride down the 3 km to the lake on clear blue water almost without catching a single eddy. With a big smile on our faces we got back in our car and continued our journey all the way up to the national park of the Rio Claro.
After haveing a long bruch the next morning and 35 degrees we realized again that our boats were still not able to walk their way to the put in thereselves so we didn´t have another chance than carriying them all the way up to the put in of the 22 Saltos section. About an hour later we lowered our boats down to the water. Right after the first few meters all the strain was forgotten – the river meanders through an amazing volcano rock canyon back to the camp.
To complete one of those perfect paddeling, the restaurant beside our camp served us delicious meat to prepare us for the upcoming feats the next days. With alternatings in the crew we paddeled the 22 Saltos section again, the Entresaltos sectin and the Siete Tazas before we returned to the south towards the Rio Nuble.
As beautiful as the Rio Claro was, as soon as I realized that the Nuble is one of those rivers where you have enough water under your boat I was pleased as Punch.
Coming back to Pucon I put my project to hike up the volcano after one year into practice. Felt like equipped for a Mount Everest expedition groups of tourists struggled themselves uphill at snail´s pace. Once at the top one got rewarded with an awesome view and a rapid sliding descent
To be continued – Chile part 2: From Pucon to the Rio Negro
I had a lot of random spare footage left over from last Summers filming, so I thought I’d edit something together. It’s not perfect, but I didn’t want the footage to go to waste!
We filmed during the Extrem Sport Veko and had a chance to get some sweet shots of the Urdlandselvi double drop with Brendan Bayly, Sam and Jamie Sutton and Max Siech.
Rivers include Voss classics such as the Strondal and Myrkdal, a little bit of footage from Sjoa, a couple of shots from the North… and a lot of random other stuff.
– more soon!
So the vortex has been an ideal lightweight solution for me and has so far kept the water out of my boat and not made me feel like i’m going to pass out in the heat every time I have a long ride.
