28
Nov
So far our trip has been quite amazing. Paddling everyday, mostly warm weather, and good flows. Here is a video from a trip we took a few weeks ago up to the very very beautiful Rio Claro. This is an edit by Fred Norquist. CLICK HERE! Also if you are traveling south and need a place to stay right on the Trancura river check out Pucon Kayak Hostel. Its nice to be right on the river!
22
Nov
For those that don’t know, the first of the modern day British Universities Kayaking Expeditions was in 2005 with a successful month-long trip to Kyrgyzstan. Since then, the expeditions have gone ahead every other year with the destination in 2007 being Siberia/Mongolia, and in 2009 to Vietnam.
The selection process happens the year before the expedition takes place, and after getting through a first round of paper applications, twenty contenders are invited to a selection event in North Wales. The selection event for the 2011 expedition took place last weekend, and despite an unfortunate lack of the wet stuff, it was a great success…
Everyone congregated in a small mountain hut in North Wales on Thursday evening and got to know each other over a beer or four, with the banter continuing long into the early hours. Friday saw us awake with less than four hours of sleep, and making the most of any water we could find. Multiple laps of the Glaslyn gorge were the order of the day, including a hand-paddling only descent and a 25 person mass start Boater-X.
19
Nov
It’s been raining hard for the last 12 hours. It’s coming in sideways and it’s cold. So, unlike the past 2 weeks of go go GO…we’re sitting around drinking yerba matte, eating bananas, letting our bodies recuperate, and catching up with the world.  Here’s a quick photo re-cap of our Chile experiences thus far. Fred’s busy making edits. So, the goods are yet to come.
15
Nov
Click here to watch a short collection of video highlights from this years Pyranha Fest!
Enjoy and see you at Pyranha Fest 2011!
12
Nov
Pyranha Fest is an annual event which draws huge numbers of like minded paddlers to the banks of the mighty Tryweryn in North Wales.
The event is hugely popular with huge numbers of paddlers attending from all areas of the U.K. Pyranha Fest is held over two days with coaching sessions ranging from Introductory courses to advanced river skills taking place over the weekend,
Saturday saw a range of coaching courses taking place through out the morning with all participants learning new skills and generally having a good time on the water, there was a break from the courses around mid day which allowed time for a fun freestyle competition on cafe wave, it featured a crowd based judging and a variety of moves were thrown an what is a very small and shallow wave, from paddle spins to Pistol flips and everything in between, Josh Wedgewood emerged as the winner, with little Jonny Williams in second and my self in third.
Whilst me and Sam Ward went off to coach another freestyle session the boater x took place, I wasn’t there to witness it but i, sure there would have been a huge amount of carnage as always, as far as I know the results for the boater x where, 1st – Tom Wakeling, 2nd Dave “spaghetti arms” Bain and Pete Scutt in 3rd
A huge game of King of the Wave brought an interesting conclusion to the day, with Dave George taking on a raft . . . you can probably guess how it ended…
That evening everybody met up at Glann Llyn centre for food, limited edition Pyranha Ale and tales of paddling in far off lands, Max Bilbow premiered – Means of Production 2. The party soon kicked of and was on well into the night, Dave Cusick and Matt Bostock provided some entertainement by turning up dressed as boats.
The following morning a slightly more hungover group of paddlers met up to paddle or take part in the courses on offer, there where no competitions on Sunday probably due to severe head aches and nausea.
All in all it was a great event and I can’t wait for next year !
10
Nov
Kayaking isn’t only about paddling gnarl. One of the most rewarding things that I have found about doing the sport we love is the ability to go to different countries and to see a side of life that very few tourists see. A rivers-eye-view!
photos by Bjarne Sahlen, Sara James Adam Dumolo, and me!
07
Nov
The Isel River in Austria is a famous big water river in Austria, in the last week we had a very low water level on the river, so we had the chance to paddle the upper gorge, which is paddled not very often. The problem is that mostly there is too much water for this section. The gorge is very beautiful, but very cold in November and also hard whitewater and some difficult portages.
The first look ….
This is the must-run slide, also scouting from waterlevel is not possible…
Daniel Herzig on the first portage…
scouting the line from the big slide agsin from Daniels Cam… from here you can onty see the edge…
Big must run slide !!!
The hurtable exit drop !!
Beautiful gorge , but very cold ..
this is a picture of the lower Isel section in summer..
Thanks to: Reiner Glanz, David Krismayr and Daniel Herzig for this sweet trip !!
29
Oct
Both myself and Maxi Kniewasser were lucky enough to complete the Triple Crown (Stikine, Alsek, Susitna) this fall. Early in the season Maxi mentioned how keen he was to paddle the Alsek and having heard the stories from Daz Clarkson it sounded like an awesome trip. For myself I had been thinking about the Stikine for a while and was really keen to train hard and give it a go and Maxi said he was up for round number 2. So there it is, the original plan thrown out there, all we had to do was train super hard and earn enough cash to make it happen.
It turned out that getting out every day and training hard in the Whistler area is not too difficult, within a 1 hour radius there are around 10 world class sections and with a record snow pack the rivers were juicing all season.
Having spent the last 3 months working and kayaking in the Whistler/Squamish area of Canada the time had finally come to head up North. We packed the ultimate paddling machine (small ford focus) to the rafters and hit the road. Having been watching the online gauges very closely for the Stikine we decided it was now or never.
The Stikine
For this river we joined up with team America (Ben, Cody and Taylor) and Daz Clarkson, who managed to get himself a world record, Wales to the Stikine put on in 36 hours. This river really is incredible in every sense of the word. It offers so much more than simply world class white water, it’s the whole feel of the place, so intimidating yet so beautiful. For me this was a huge mental challenge, this river is globally recognised as a huge water, class 5 test piece and you soon see why. Looking down at Entry Falls the only phrase that can sum up the feeling is ‘ball shrinkage’, it is very intimidating but such fun as well. All in all the entire trip was incredible with only one short period of carnage. There is a hole just before The Wall on day 2 that seems to dish out more than any, yet remains un-named, apparently it was the same hole which Si Tapley and Cory Boux got worked in and Ricky swam out of. Well let’s just say I’d rather not put the words deck implosion and the Stikine in the same sentence. Turned out all good in the end, I was back in my boat within about 50 meters.
Here are a few photos of the trip
After the Stikine it turned out we had 6 days before the put on date for the Alsek. So during the celebratory meal at mama Z’s we started throwing some ideas around for what we could squeeze in, so naturally we decided to head to the Susitna just another 24 hours further north.
The Susitna
For the Susitna it was just me and Maxi. We flew in to this river with the local float plane company in Talkeetna. It cost us 350 bucks each for the flight which included a longer scenic route over Denali, which is totally worth it, absolutely stunning. The plane lands on a small lake just 30 minutes walk from the river above Devils canyon, on river left. Devils canyon is a full day run. The white water is great, and brings a new definition to truck sized holes.
Unfortunately there aren’t too many photos on the river as there was only the two of us paddling it, but here’s a few.
The Alsek
For this trip we joined up with two Alaskans (Xavier and Johno). The biggest challenge of this trip was the weather, it turned out the day we were putting on was the day the biggest weather system I have ever seen was pushing up straight from the Gulf of Mexico. This caused a major deliberation between us all, as the potential for an epic had just massively increased. In the end, instead of aborting, we just decided to pack heavy, bring more food, clothes, stoves and fuel. The day we put on, around 8 inches of snow fell.
Luckily we got a weather break for Lowell glacier which meant we got some great views.
We made it to Turnback canyon day 4 which luckily was the only other weather break, except for the odd 70 mile an hour gusts! This section of white water in awesome. The rapid which truly stands out is named Hare. Having missed the early take out spot to allow you to scout properly, we were left with this micro eddy and small ledge to peer at this 200 meter long, now must run rapid.
All the camp spots we chose along this section were beautiful. All in all, weather included, this trip was an incredible unforgettable experience.
Here a few photos of the trip.
ALL PHOTOSÂ Â BY MAXI KNIEWASSSER
Off to the Zam now!
29
Oct
Hi people!
Check out some sick shots from our trip to Altai this year. Go to my blog www.marnics.blogspot.com
Sorry, text is in russian.
27
Oct
Photo by: Â Nicole Mansfield
The new river running playboat by Pyranha kayaks. This video features wave surfing, hole riding and river running. The Pyranha Varun proved to be a excellent boat for all styles and quite fast downriver. Â Click HERE for the Video!!!
