Last weekend I travelled across Norway to XCreek, the first race in the 2015 Norwegian racing season. XCreek is the kayaking part of X2 Festivalen, an extreme sports festival based in Volda. We spent the long weekend exploring the local rivers, racing, and then partying with skiers, snowboarders, surfers, skaters, base jumpers and longboarders among others.
Filip Knörr nailing the final drop on the race course.
Mickey Wilson stopping to watch a racer while entertaining the crowd with his insane slackline skills.
Race Briefing
The race was held on the Hellsylt section of Bygdaelva; a technical, low volume creek with many drops and slides to keep both paddlers and spectators interested. It was a great competition with Jamie Sutton coming away with the win for the guys, while I managed to win in the ladies race.
The film from the event that was shown at the prize giving is at: http://x2festivalen.no/xcreek-2015/ – Thanks Torbjørn and the rest of the crew organising this year!
Throughout the weekend the atmosphere was buzzing with paddlers super excited to get back on the water and see friends they had not seen since before winter. When not racing we also paddled a couple of the other runs local to Volda. Although water levels were low we found endless drops and slides in spectacular gorges to keep us happy.
One of many slides on the Horndøla.
Roger Kveen Volden on the Horndøla.
A narrow slot on the Langedalselva.
The Langedalselva gorge.
Borge Hamso on another narrow slot on the Langedalselva.
The festival was the perfect way to start the season…… now we have a few weeks of play time on the spring snowmelt before Trøndelagsrunden, the next Norwegian kayaking festival and the second race in the Norwegian Whitewater Cup – can’t wait!