15
May
Henry Hyde is only 12 years old, but I have paddled and hung out with this kid and he has more on and off the river skills than most adults you know! Here is a little write up on what Henry is all about! Welcome aboard demshitz!
Click here to learn more about 12 year old Henry Hyde!
Henry and Craig Kleckner checking out Henry’s soon to be new boat!
13
May
Rapid Magazine – Loki
13
May
A few thoughts on the new Pyranha Nano.
I will start off by admitting that I wasn’t convinced by the Nano initially. Not by the concept, or by the original prototype during testing. Terms like sport creeker and freeride boat sound a bit too much like an attempt to appeal to the skiing and mountain bike demographic, and whilst this is no bad thing, I couldn’t really see how a short creekboat would add anything new to my paddling. Upon testing, it wasn’t as fast as my Everest or Z:one, and so it didn’t hit all my usual moves with as much style as my usual boats. After a bit of thinking, chatting to some other paddlers, and watching this video, I realised that I was looking at it backwards, the Nano isn’t for all the usual moves, it’s for the moves you hadn’t even considered yet; the usual moves.
Most of my local runs here in southern Switzerland are pretty straight forward class 4. Great fun, but certainly not so hard or steep that they require a full on creek boat. In the past few of weeks, as the snow has melted and everything has started to come into condition, the Nano has had my grinning all the way down the river. Usually I am overly concerned with trying to hit every line with as much style as possible, now that’s gone out the window and now it’s all about how much fun can each rapid be. Granted, this has meant a fair amount of landing drops backwards and sideways and resulted in more than a few sub-optimal lines, but the boat seems to let you get away with being silly on the river without dishing out punishment for it.
It seems to do all the things that the marketing says it should; boof, hit tight eddies, spin on waves etc… The one thing that surprised me is that it seems to ride high over holes and accelerate away from drops faster than expected. It certainly responds best to an assertive paddling style, paddlers who sit back and expect the boat to do the work might get a few surprises.
Whilst I will still be using the Everest for expeditions or chasing bigger drops and the Z:one will still be my choice for carving up deeper alpine runs, I can see the Nano being the boat that I leave on the roof of the car for being silly on all the steeper low volume runs this season.
The illusive hull shot
13
May
First episode from SBP and Epic TV series; Kayaking down the Baker in Patagonia, Chile. The Baker is the largest river in Chile and offers some of the best whitewater I’ve ever paddled together with an amazing landscape. HidroAysén is willing to built two mega dams on this gem, on of them on the same canyon you can see on the video.
Hoping young generations will be able to see this place as it is and paddle this magical river for ever; NO DAMS! Viva Patagonia sin Represas, SIEMPRE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm7GF-bq1bQ
The first episode of the new Serrasolses Bros Productions (SBP) and EpicTV exclusive 12 episodes serie.
The RÃo Baker is the largest river in Chile and without a doubt one of the greatest, too. Located deep in southern Patagonia kayakers have to drive for two days on gravel roads through forests, lakes, glaciers, and amazing mountain passes. The turquoise blue color of the water and the beauty of the valley captivates you and makes you fall in love with this place. The power of the water and the wilderness around make you feel so small and so connected with the environment… it’s a magical place. There are two proposed and approved dams on the Baker and another three on the Pascua. Many people are fighting against this mega project that would not only flood the whole valley but destroy wildlife and some of the best whitewater kayaking on Earth.
For more information visit:
11
May
The weekend before last saw the UK’s inaugural Ladies Paddle Symposium organised by Pyranha team-member Fran Kohn. Around 70 British paddling ladies from the disciplines: freestyle, river paddling, sea kayaking and canoeing gathered together in Glan Llyn near Bala. It was ideally located close to the Sea and the Trweryn as well as having a lake on-site. Fran had organised a number of the best coaches around including Chris Eastabrook, Lowri Davies, Tom Parker, Eila Wilkinson and Trys Burke. Pyranha supported the event, providing demo boats from all disciplines and I gave an evening talk on behalf of Pyranha about overcoming fear – an issue affecting people accross the disciplines.
The feedback about the event was overwhelmingly positive, all of the participants told me that they had really enjoyed being inspired by meeting other women with the same enthusiasm for kayaking as them. Often women in kayaking clubs can find that they are surrounded by male peers, so it was great for the girls of all ages to build up networks of other women that they could share experiences with. During the meal-times and social breaks the air was filled with discussion about all types of topics from getting past the boys to lead groups to she-wee’s and other ways to go to the toilet when wearing a dry suit were also popular!!! Of course we all love being part of the wider kayaking community with the boys, but it was just refreshing to have a weekend with the girls. Many participants are keeping in touch with new friends to organise girls-trips after the symposium!  Thanks Fran!! Lets hope that there is another one next year. Let Fran know if you’re interested at: ladiespaddlesymposium@hotmail.co.uk
Pictures by Paula Volkmer and Claire Mangan
08
May
The first ever Younguns event took place on the Tryweryn this past weekend,
Taking up where the youth freestyle series left off, Younguns still maintains the original elements from the series; An extraordinary amount of young paddlers getting out on the water and having fun !
The Tryweryn is the longest venue the tour visits with an abundance of rapids and small features it allows the junior rippers to get a good experience of river running and down river moves.
The competition took place in the renowned “worlds hole” above the chipper. A deep but flushy hole proved to be both fun and challenging for the kids, some big moves where thrown, some flushes where had but all the competitors finished with a smile on their face.
Check out the video below,
See you on the water,
Bren
07
May
Last March I went to Chiapas (Mexico) with some friends for some kayaking adventures. Rush Sturges from River Roots is shooting an amazing film project with mexican kayaker Rafa Ortiz, so along with them; Evan, my brother Aniol and myself went to his beautiful land to enjoy some of the best rivers in the world.
Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, bordering with Guatemala and the Pacific ocean. It’s also home of the Zapatistas Army of National Liberation (EZLN) a revolutionary leftist group that fights the Mexican Government to try to give power back to the people and make the state a better place to live, specially for the indigenous communities.
There are two MUST rivers to paddle in Chiapas, the Agua Azul and the Santo Domingo. The Agua Azul (Blue Waters) is very touristic offering many waterfalls and slides near Palenque where there are also some amazing Mayan ruins. It’s clear pristine and warm waters make the Agua Azul one of the most beautiful rivers ever. Surrounded by jungle and little communities paddling this river is an amazing experience.
The Santo Domingo flows into Guatemala and is a really wild river. Deep into the canyon the Santo has a lot of gradient creating some of the craziest slides and waterfalls I’ve ever seen. After a really steep section with big drops such as Angel Wings, the Dome, Toboggan and others, a tributary joins the Santo offering some big water rapids downstream all the way to the takeout. Definitely one of the hardest most continuous sections I’ve ever paddled deep in the canyon surrounded by vertical walls and millions of trees, a beautiful place.
Overall it was an amazing trip with some of my best friends. Big thanks to Rafa and Rush for organizing everything, the camera crew Matty B, Adam and Tatcher, the photographers Tony, Pancho and Marcos, Isra for his hard work, Lane, Evan and Aniol, Iker… so many people, thanks everyone!
Big thanks for the photos to: Adam Elliot, Aniol Serrasolses, Matt Baker, Marcos Ferro and Tony Czech
07
May
After six months working and kayaking around Patagonia I’m back at home at the Basque Country. The spring is already here, and winter has been quite snowy in the Pyrenees so it looks that we are gonna have good flows during this season.
I’m back in class 5 white water after the shoulder injury that I had in Chile when I was racing at the White Water Grand Prix. The shoulder is answering quite well now and it allows me to go kayaking hard.
Nice waterfall in Burgos only run once before.
During the past two weeks I’ve paddled in 8 different rivers, some of them twice, all of them in north of Spain, rivers that usually are not running but that are with good flows now because of the last rains. It’s nice to be on the water again in our rivers, with my friends. It’s nice to be back home.
Snowkayaking to get into the Hijar river.
Snowkayaking to get into the Hijar river.
Another nice waterfall…
Conquered the Ramp!
Now the snow is melting in the Pyrenees and rivers are starting to run so probably I’ll go there next weekend and will be around there for the next two months.
And when the rivers start running, the races start. In three weeks I’ve got my first race of this season, the OutdoorMix festival in France, and after that comes the Pyrenees Cup with three different races in three different rivers. So now is time for training, time to be on the water, time to go hard, time to charge.
See you on the water!
Mikel Sarasola
mikelsarasola.blogspot.co.uk
06
May
At the end of the monsoon last year a group of us headed to Uttarakhand, India. We were expecting to jump on the classics but it quickly transpired that there was so much more to do than what is commonly done. This video features the first descents of the East and West Nayyar and the Kail, plus a chilled trip down the classic Alaknanda
Joe
