The Rocroi NRPF Festival 2012

What an amazing few days at the 2012 Rocroi NRPF river festival in the heart of the Spanish/ Catlonian Pyrenees.

With a logistical twist of fate, the Palm/ Dagger Bus got left in the UK due to a ferry strike in Santander and quick change to an aeroplane with the magic new Jitsu as luggage.

This  year was again magically orchestrated by Lluis Rabenada the well-known kayaker, event organiser and good guy to be around. The festival has the ethos of a big kayak jam with paddlers from more than 15 different nations attending. The guaranteed water releases from the dam ensured the stunning sections of the Palleresa river flowed at a great level. It’s a great destination, with the river running at class 1-3+ and so many moves for all types and levels of boater.

On the Saturday everybody seemed stoked after the clinics that were organised for folks looking to learn some new tips and tricks from the Pro teams paddlers and industry coaches such as Eric and Dane Jackson, Nick Troutman, Mikael Sarasola, Quim Fontane Maso, Jerome Gaudine to name a few. I was lucky to paddle with some of the 14 to 17 year old Catelonian young guns from the same club as Team Daggers Aniol Serrassoles and his brother Gerd. It’s obvious there is something magic in the drinking water up in that valley and we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more from those kids in the kayak media over the years. They are brilliant! We looked at running the river quickly and safely with some creek style freestyle moves thrown in. We also checked out the benefits of having a good rope, BA and equipment that feel minimal and light so you can move well and with the maximum back up. The guys were definitely impressed with the new and current additions to the Palm Equipment Range.

 

The big talk at the event was the arrival of the new 5.9 Dagger Jitsu freestyle boat. Suffice to say everyone who paddled the boat was raving about it. I was stoked to hear this as it has been a few years since dagger have brought out a new freestyle boat and it’s great to see them jumping to the top of the queue again from the feed back of the paddlers.

In the evening times there were films and amazing local Catalan food along with the big party :-D.in which we managed to crowd surf no less that 4 world freestyle champions and a bunch of the wild Scottish lads wearing kilts.. Move of the night went to Eric “Ej” Jackson for wining an €1100 ski pass in the raffle and making a present of it to an 11year old local girl that paddled on his clinic.

There was an improvised Kayak slide put together down the bank at the festival site that proved to be a high octane affair and some car crash TV ensuing. Whiplash isn’t normally an injury associated with Kayaking!

The NRPF is a perfect end of season chance to paddle with friends in a beautiful place, get some good culture, good vibes and have some great laughs. Well done and thanks to Lluis and his team at Rocroi for putting on a great show and a big thanks to Dagger and Palm Equipment for supporting the event and sending me over. Don’t miss out on next years dates from the 25^th – 29^th September 2013.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger said in that documentary, The Terminator; “I’ll be back”.

Catch you on the water. Dave Carroll