Beeing back in the cold snow-capped Alps after four and a half amazing weeks on the Isle of beauty I already miss the corsican lifestyle and charm. All those old little villages, beautiful hills and massive valleys make me going back there year after year. Though we found really low water levels this year we had fun times on the rivers and even got another last run down the middle Rizzanese.
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!
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…
To be continued – Chile part 3: Futa and Baker
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
After the Sickline Race I had an Interview with German TV SWR Fernsehen:
After having a great new years eve in Pucon paddling the upper Palguin, having barbecue, watching the fireworks over Lago Villarica and partying hard with the whole Pucon kayak crowd we left the awesome little Chilean town and headed over the boarder to Argentina towards Bariloche. Two days later we arrived in Futaleufu back in Chile. So my first river to paddle in 2011 was the Futa – paddlers paradise, not a too bad start! And I still had two months left in chile… 
We spent the next two months in Patagonia paddled some great rivers like the Futa, the Baker, the Bravo and the Michimauida. In between we had some scouting missions and sometimes got rewarded by a first decent for example on the Rio Perez and the Rio Mayer down in the Villa O´Higgins area were the Carretera Austral ends. 
It was already march when I arrived back in Germany and it was bloody cold. So first thing which came to my mind was that I want to be back in Chile… I went for weekend trips to the Rissbachklamm, the Kaiserklamm and the Lofer-Schlucht were it was possible to find some water in the river as well as some frozen water on the banks… 
End of march I got my brand new VELOC and was quite happy to test it extensively on the isle of beauty . I left the icy part of Europe and spent four weeks in corsica to teach some kayaking. 
Back from 4 amazing weeks of fun creeking, cheese and red wine it was time for me to get myself back into a playboat and kick the German girls asses in our team trials and German Championships. Completing the mission after not being in a playboat for over half a year I decided to concentrate a little more on freestyle kayaking and started working close to Plattling to help the organization of the 2011 Kayak Freestyle World Championships. So during May I spent the weekends creeking in Ötztal and the week in Plattling – unfortunately the water level was shitty low and I hardly got any good sessions in… 
June was my month full of events this year – starting with the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado followed by the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games in Ivrea, Italy and finally the Freestyle Worlds in Plattling in the end. I was just rushing from event to event and in the end I was not really happy with my results in the Creek Races – I came forth in Vail and second in Ivrea. In contrast in Plattling I made it into semifinals and came tenth which was more than I expected since I am doing freestyle only for two years. 
July. Time for me to make some money which meant I was working on the Outdoor trade show in Friedrichshafen. End of July I packed my van again and headed to Tirol and Engadin for one week – Ötztal creeking again to get ready for my Norway adventure in August. 
I´ve never been kayaking in Norway before and some people may say that August is a little late in the season to go there but I just wasn´t able to make it there earlier and wanted to go there so bad. So we loaded the boats and caught the ferry. It was an awesome trip exploring some of the classic runs like Homerun, Numedalslagen different Sjoa secions, Store Ula, Rauma, Tora Bora and many more. But it was not only the kayaking which made my trip memorable. It was all about meeting friends, chilled out camping and late night cooking. To be back in Germany didn´t last long – end of August was the Lipno dam release and devils extreme race. So I got back into the van and started a road trip driving to Augsburg – Plattling – Lipno – Plattling – back home… and fast a weekend short trip turned out as five super fun days with great parties in the end. As a personal add on I was able to win the race and took home the price money – thanks to ZET kayaks to honor the women category as well! 
One month of fun paddling meant another month of work for me – so I went back to Tirol and Engadin and taught kayaking again till Kanumesse. Next chapter was the Sickline Race – I don´t like that race because I usually fuck up my line in at least one of my runs – so the same happened this year and I ended up in third position. Luckily it is not all about racing. The week before the race was on of my best weeks in Tirol this year. There were so many good kayakers around and the limit for running the harder sections of the river got pushed to higher levels. I even had my first time running the whole Wellerbrücke from the top – with a level where in the past most people just thought it is not runnable that high. 
After a few days at home I went back to the Alps to do some fall paddling. It started being cold and so my anticipation for my next winter trip grew even more – it is Chile again So ten more days kayak teaching on the Soca and then back to South America and the Futa – where I started my paddle year… 
Looking back to the 2011 Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships first thought that comes to my mind is that I had great times in the famous Austrian Ötz valley where I spend plenty of weeks this year teaching kayaking. It was great to see so many paddlers from all over the world coming into town just to compete on the Wellerbrücke.
With a starter field of around 140 kayakers out of 25 nations the Sickline race is one of the biggest extreme races in Europe. More and more slalom paddlers who just had their peak of the season few weeks ago in Slovakia came to compete against the whitewater pros. In the end it was full-time whitewater paddler Sam Sutton (NZL) who took home the win followed by Mike Dawson (NZL) and slalom paddler Paul Böckelmann from Germany in third position.
Although the organizer still didn´t manage to setup a own women category down the whole course eight girls showed up. So at least they let us race down the qualification course and ranked us in a separate result list. Martina Wegman from the Netherlands won the women class her third time in a row and slalom paddler Caroline Loir from France came second. Myself had a very bad first run and even my reasonable second run didn´t bring me further up than in third position.
Luckily it´s not all about racing. In the week before the race I had my first time down the whole Wellerbrücke – including the section above the race course. The Wellerbrücke is one of those famous and well known short and steep sections of the Ötz river about which almost every European kayaker knows a story to tell. Some early snow and warm weather with around 25degrees kept the flow quite high before the race. Usually the section was run at flows less than 180 cm so I first thought that again I will not get it done this year. But having a good team around was pushing the limit and after the first crew went down with a flow around 2 m more and more paddlers followed. So finally I got started, followed the guys and got to know that even the upper part is all good to go. I didn´t end up in a cave, sieve or on some rocks – all stories just fairy-tales again…
All pics by Arnd Schaeftlein
Last weekend the European championships in extreme kayaking took place in Lipno.
My name is Bernhard Steidl from Kajakschule-Tirol.at and I got the chance to have an interview with current overall winner of the Devils Extreme Race and European Championships in Extreme Kayaking Anne Huebner.
Mr. B: Could you give us a short impression of the event?
Ms. A: During this weekend Lipno turned out to be a huge festival for all kind of wild water sports. I heard a lot about this event but never made my way to this awesome place. It was amazing to see paddlers from all over the world traveling to the small Czech town Lipno to take place in the annual release and to see all kind of various vehicles floating down the river.
Mr. B: How was the race?
Ms. A: Well, after winning the first and most challenging competition on Friday night the first kayak race started on Saturday morning kind of early at 9 am. It was the slalom competition. Every competitor had to touch 5 banners on the way down to the finish banner. One of the eddies to take was really hard to get in so I missed it – luckily I was not the only one and still made my way to the finals later the day. After a short rest I felt well prepared to go hard and managed to have the fastest time down the course in the sprint. Louise Jull from New Zealand came second and Katerina Migdaouva from Czech Republic third. Next day was boater X and team race.
Mr. B: That means you won the European Opens and took home the first place in the European championships in extreme kayaking. Congrats! I heard about some difficult rapids like “bloody hand”. Is the river really that hard?
Ms. A: No, it is mostly a class 3 river. I think the main reason for those scary names is that all kind of boaters from class 2 to 5 are trying to go down that river. So there might have been some accidental swims etc.
Mr. B: I would have tons of questions but unfortunately we have to go kayaking now. So only one last question: What are your plans for the next month and the winter time?
Ms. A: Try to get some money to enter the next competition, for example sickline and later make my way to the southern hemisphere – chile again…
Mr.B: Sounds awesome! Thank you for the interview!
All pics by Arnd Schaeftlein
After having a pretty turbulent June attending three big events I just want to give a short update about this years edition of the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games in Ivrea.
It was the third year the Games were hosted during the second weekend of June in the new location.
The long distance down river race was hold up in Valchiusella and won by Mike Dawson (NZL) and Martina Wegman (NED). It acted as qualification for the famous “King of the Falls” race. While lots of the full time slalom racers were to scared about running the “King of the Falls” section it was Ron Fischer (CH) who took home the crown winning one of the hardest whitewater races in Europe – well done!
After having the team race down the Chiusella river the crowd moved down the hills into the lovely little north Italian town Ivrea. New this year was the “team night sprint” which caused heaps of fun for all competitors and spectators.
As usual during the next days all athletes were busy competing in individual sprit, individual slalom, boater X, team slalom and having original Italian ice-cream, pizza and pasta in between.
I didn´t found really into racing this year, so I ended up second behind Martina Wegman (NED) who seems to be in good race shape this year. Katerina Migdaouva from the Czech Republic was following in third position. The mens race was won by Mike Dawson (NZL) followed by Sam Sutton (NZL) and Michele Ramazza (ITA). It was the German team who took home the gold medal in the Kayak Freeride World Championships 2011. Congrats to Jakobus Stenglein, Paul Böckelmann and Lukas Kalkbrenner! Find all results below…
King of the Falls:
Kayak Freeride Team World Championships:
Downriver Race Women:
Sprint Race Women:
Slalom Race Women:
Boater Cross Women:
Overall Kayak Freeride World Champion Women:
Downriver Race Men:
Sprint Race Men:
Slalom Race Men:
Boater Cross Men:
Overall Kayak Freeride World Champion Men:
So after Pringles gold medal in Kayak Freestyle Worlds 2011 in Plattling it´s hard for me to come up with some great news…
Beeing more a creek boater I made my way from the Teva Mountain Games in Vail (Colorado) to the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games in Ivrea (Italy) and then to Plattling.
Working for the organizing team during the day I tried to get in some practice rides late in the evening or at night.
Though Prelims didn´t go very well for me I made the cut to quarterfinals placing 18th. In the Quarterfinals I had three good rides and improved my ranking to the 9th place, so I made the top ten and went into Semifinals the next morning.
After I started playboating only two years ago I am more than happy to end up on the 10th place in the world of freestyle kayaking!
Congratulations to Palms Katya Kulkova placing 7th and James “Pringle” Bebbington for his awesome 1st place becoming Kayak Freestyle World Champion 2011!
All pics by Michael Neumann and Johannes Schmidt – thanks!
