I have dreamt of coming to this place for the longest time. Inspired by the antics of the legends of past that have descended upon this unique country and its abundant whitewater. Feelings of excitement mingled with worries over getting hurt as the clocks ticked forwards to my arrival in Norway.
I met up with my two friends Bram Peters and Adrian Mattern in Germany, and from there we made the long journey north, to the land of waterfalls and horribly expensive beer.
After seeing so many people get hurt going hard on their first week in Mexico last winter, l was keen to ease into this trip. We met up with Norwegian legend Martin Vollen in Sjoa and spent the first day of our Norway trip being shown down his local runs; Finna, Skjoli and Åmot gorge on the Sjoa. These rivers quickly became some of my all-time favourites. At high water they are all fast, continuous and chock full of awesome moves.
My plan to take it easy and get back into the swing of creeking disintegrated on day two when a fired up Adrian drew us to the Ula river. Known best for its big, easy slides that are just as much fun as they look, there are also two lesser run waterfalls downstream that command respect in the form of Ula four and five. Ula four is sixty footer with a tricky five foot reconnect move at the top. Ula five is a twenty footer with a hideous cave behind it and huge network of boils guarding your exit. I ran both and thankfully had good lines, so much for a gentle start …
Day two fully set the tone for the rest of my trip as we worked our way around Norway. This country is a whitewater kayakers paradise and there are a truly endless amount of rivers and waterfalls. It would be exceptionally tedious and to read through a meticulous list of the descents we made. So instead, here are my top five favourite waterfalls that I ran this trip.
1/ Sjoa stout (Smådøla Fossen)
A narrow sixty footer with a tight landing zone and beautiful rolling lip. This is by far one of the cleanest waterfalls that can be found in Norway. Think this looks cool? Think again, local heroes such as Martin Vollen were running this waterfall over fourteen years ago!
2/ Upper Jori portage
The Upper Jori portage is a mammoth slide with a tight line on a reconnecting thirty foot waterfall at the top. Flipping on the first drop is highly probable and unfortunately would almost undoubtedly result in serious injury. Thankfully we had good lines; I think this is the fastest I have ever gone in my kayak.
3/ Dusj Boof (pronounced Douche boof)
Not the biggest waterfall we ran this trip but by far one of my favourites. Dusj is Norwegian for shower, and it’s so called because you get a rinsing on the way down. The easy entry, friendly height and easy hike back up allowed me to experiment with some down river freestyle off this drop. My favourite trick that I landed being a barrel roll off the lip.
4/ Megatron
A first descent was made on this ridiculous slide several years ago by Hugh Graham and his crew. Megatron is possibly one of the longest, runnable slides in Europe, if not the world. Key things to remember in order to have a good line down this beast are to; relax, stay loose and enjoy the ride, there is not much you can do but stay balanced and react. I think to my knowledge we where the first ones to run the entry drop into the slide.
5/ Brenshitz Fossum
Hiding in plain sight for years, this monster slide/waterfall is where the Ulvåa joins the infamous Lower Rauma.
One of the rowdiest drops I have ever run, it’s guarded by a huge hole at the top and requiring a crux lean move into a curler to avoid an undercut and then a long and rowdy ride down to the bottom. We waited several weeks, just to be sure that nobody had run this waterfall back in the day before we gave it the name of ‘Brenshitz Fossum’.
We ran a lot of whitewater this trip but there is always ever so much more. With thanks to everyone who helped me get around and charge hard this summer and thoroughly looking forward to coming back to Norway next year.
Thanks to Lee Royle for the photos, and here’s the video of all these drops:
Happy paddling! Bren