Palm at the 2011 Noguera Palleresa River festival.

 River festivals are always fun and last week’s 2011 Noguera Palleresa River festival was no exception.

Well I am very pleased to report that on returning to Sort In the Cataluna Pyrenees for the first time in 10 years since 2001 when the world freestyle championships were there, and they decided to provide in gratis alcohol and food to a bunch of “ enthusiastic” kayakers, the place still has every bit of magic beauty and craziness that it did all those years ago. The man, the myth the legend Lluis Rabaneda and his team at RocRoi.com put together another amazing event in the form of the “ Noguera Pallaresa River Festival”  2011.

With Lluis behind the magic, a van loaded with the brand new Dagger Mamba test boats, throw in some sunshine, great water levels guaranteed by the dam, new friends and old, a big party, amazing locals, both paddlers and civilians, we have a winning combination. It was the perfect end to the summer paddling season.

The NPRF 2011 attracted kayakers from The UK, Ireland, Finland, Argentina, Norway, France, Canada, America, Spain, Germany, just to name a few! The festival was very inclusive for all abilities and ages and set on the Palleresa River that has really nice class 2/3 rapids over different sections with some of the most stunning scenery that I have seen in a kayak.

Over the course of the festval there was a bunch of clinics organised for folks to go on and the river is a great coaching venue. I was involved with the Safety and Rescue clinic and had a blast with the mixed crew we had on the session. There were loads of other clinics run. Eric “EJ” Jackson was doing the freestyle clinics with the kids and adults. Raphael Thiebaut the photo master was doing a photo Clinic for kayak photographers. Next year the lads should do a party clinic on the back of their performance on the dance floor during the Saturday night festivities. A memory that will stay with me for a while is EJ saying to the Mayor of Sort whilst dragging him unwillingly to the dance floor, “ have you ever tried slam dancing??!” Ej also received a special award for the 10 year anniversary since he won the worlds in Sort.

There was a “ Le Mans” style mass race down the class2/3 section from Llavorsi to Rialp, just upstream of Sort. The race was great fun with some charging hard at the front and others just taking their time and enjoying the ride down to the finish line about 8 km away.

As I was there with the toy chest filled with a bunch of the all new Dagger Mambas along with other models I was pleased to hear such positive feedback about the boats from the test pilots. People were really fired up on how dynamic the new boats were. It’s always good to see smiling faces.

It was great to see such a range of people and abilities at an event like this. It appeared as though everybody was catered for. I will definitely be gunning to hit the fesival next year. Well done again to Lluis and his very capable and friendly team @rocroi.com Cheers for the good times. That’s what kayaking is all about, can’t wait to see what’s in store for next time. Thanks to the Palm/Dagger guys for supporting such a nice event.

Catch you on the water,

Dave Carroll

More info: http://www.rocroi.com/