Pyranha Team Tour – On a Mission – Croatia

After a long drive from Slovenia, via Trieste airport to pick up Ben, Louise and myself, the Team van finally arrived in the Zrmanja valley in Croatia.

Sunset on Arrival

After a warm welcome from the RaftTrek river guides at their rafting base, which included a glass of the fiery local moonshine brewed by the caretaker, we hit the sack, excited for what the next day would bring.

We awoke to glorious sunshine and after chatting to the head guide Philip, made a plan to accompany him on his river trip down the Zrmanja with some ducky clients, with the aim of filming the trip for a promotional video for the company.

A beautiful start on the Zrmanja

Duckying on the Zrmanja

The Zrmanja is the perfect river for this kind of trip and a fantastic start to our mission in Croatia; beautiful, clear water, flowing over easy pool drop rapids in a stunning gorge.

After some lunch in an amazing spot (more on that later) we were greeted by a sight reminiscent of Mexico – a clean twenty-five foot waterfall flowing over lush green vegetation.

A taste of Mexico

The river continued to wow us as we carried on down to the take out; if it wasn’t the scenery it was the wildlife that had us scrambling for our cameras.

Another great ledge drop on the Zrmanja

Even the beetles are stunning!

The next morning we met up with Ivan Safradin, a multi-talented Croatian outdoor instructor who had driven two-hours to come and meet us. He persuaded us to come and paddle his local run, so we loaded up and set off to the Cetina river.

What we found was another grade 2/3 pool drop paradise; an amazing gorge, turquoise water, caves and waterfalls.

Beautiful Gorge

Plenty of Boofs

Shafra running the main drop on the Cetina

Waterfalls at the Cave Entrance

Cave Entrance

Stalagmites and Stalagtites

After paddling two sections and 19km of beautiful river we were ready for a feast and that is exactly what we got in the old town of Omis!

Old town in Omis 

 

Massive Pizzas!

We said goodbye to Shafra at Omis and headed back North for another night under the stars at our camping spot next to the Zrmanja.

The next morning we met up with Matija and Marko. They told us about a river called the Una that was on the border with Bosnia which had some cool waterfalls. So we packed up the van and headed east. Along the way we got stopped by the police who took an interest in what we were planning to do and decided to escort us to the river!

Our friendly police escort

The Una was everything we could have hoped for. It started with a clean fifty footer, followed by a series of beautiful boof ledges, before the river flowed into a stunning grade 3 gorge.

The breathtaking start to the Una

Barney boofing on the Una 

 

Cruising on the Una

After an awesome run down the Una the Croatian boys were keen to take us to another river, ‘only an hour away’….

Two and a half hours later we arrived at the Mrejnica! As with all of the other rivers we had paddled though, it  was well worth the drive.

Another grade 2/3 pool-drop paradise awaited us, with the obligatory twenty-ish footer half way down to keep you excited.

Louise on the big drop of the Mreznica

Best of all the river finished at the campsite, where beers and a BBQ rounded off our amazing Croatian adventure.

Camp site on the Mreznica

 The next day the team dropped me off at Rijeka airport on their way back up to Italy for the next leg of the tour.

It had been great to be able to paddle with some up and coming Croatian paddlers, particularly Marko who had achieved his first boof and run his first waterfall on the Mrejnica with us!

We were all sad to leave and with so many rivers still to paddle, we will definitely be back.

Our lunch spot on the first day and still yet to be paddled….

As I sat in the airport contemplating my time in Croatia I got to thinking – with all the beautiful, clean, easy pool-drop rivers we had encountered over the last few days, is Croatia the new Slovenia?……

https://vimeo.com/99322831 – video link

Yule Creek birthday bash.

Back in the days of being a full grown freestyle from I used to spend endless hours (and still do) watching videos of kayaking, One of the videos that has stuck with me over the years is this one.

Since watching this video I have always wanted to go and fire up Yule Creek, One of the steepest, most uncontrollable runs in the world. Almost 6 years after watching the video the opportunity finally presented itself and myself and Dave Fussilli (co founder of Demshitz) both got to blast down it on our birthdays.

Yule Creek consists of four drops, The first one being around 30ft tall and ending in a tiny pool before the next rapid, Wall ride. It isn’t too hectic but the crux moves comes immediately afterwards by getting left and fading back into the middle to enter wall ride in the right place.

Wall ride was my favourite rapid on this run, Pull yourself over a huge curler and hold on as you accelerate hard towards a slate wall and then at the last possible second drop your edge and ride up it. Such a sick move!

After Wall ride you come up to the third and scariest drop, I can’t quite remember the true name of this drop but we have been calling it the Fussilli f*cker for reasons that are made obvious in this video.

It is the steepest slide by far on this run, the crux move is to get as far right as possible at the top and avoid the piton rock that owned Dace a few years ago. We both had pretty good lines, Dave pitoned slightly again but was fine, I got up on the bank and had a heart stopping moment when I realised how grippy the rock was and thought I was about to crash down the rest of the slide sideways and upside down, Thankfully the rock let go,I brought my boat back to being straight and enjoyed the rest of the slide worry free.

The final drop is a real treat after the Fuslli F£cker, A 15ft autoboof into a huge pool. This is one of the most satisfyingly awesome places I have ever been.

Video of our Yule creek run here.

It’s funny how life works out, i never imagined I would get to drop Yule Creek, let alone on my birthday with one of the guys from the original video I watched as a 14 year old freestyle grom. As always life is good and I can;t wait to finish the last competitions of the Colorado pro tour and spend some more time in a creek boat with the Demshitz crew.

Thanks for reading,
See you on the water,
Bren

Pyranha Team Tour – On a mission – Huningue

After a wonderful few days in Austria, we once again set off on our travels towards Hunigune, France.  We made a short detour to the beautiful old town of Bremgarten just outside of Zurich, Switzerland.  This was a fantastic place to surf and practice our freestyle skills.  The water was 21 degrees that made a welcoming change from the chilling glacial waters of Austria and made it a perfect place for an evening session.

Can Can Shop

On our arrival to Huningue, we met Norbert, our local dealer at Canadian Canoe Shop.  The shop was our base for the weekend whilst we worked on the artificial White Water Course just a stone throw from our location. Our mission was to support Norbert by providing demos and coaching clinics for a wide range of abilities, mainly covering play boating and river skills.  With a large team presence on this year’s tour, it really allowed us to reach a maximum number of paddlers over the weekend.

Barney at the van

Freestyle students

By arriving on the Thursday before the event it allowed us to plan a small mission on the Friday over to the Rues River in Central Switzerland.  This was just a day mission that provided wide a range of excitement for the team.  We  arrived back in time for diner at the shop and catch up with our host.

Barney Prees

Norbert has become somewhat of a celebrity in the local area due to his well-stocked shop and his Canadian can-do attitude.  His shop and courses have done much to foster the development for many local and visiting kayakers.  We always have lots of fun staying onsite due to the welcoming atmosphere, facilities and friendly service.

Norbert and Son

Huningue is an artificial white water course situated on the boarders of Germany, Switzerland and France just outside of Basel and is easily accessible by all modes of transport.  The none-intimidating features on the course allow all river users to comfortably develop their skills.

Hole ride

Matt teaching

After the very successful weekend with Norbert, it was time to head south for the student boater x in L’argentiere.  A great weekend was had by all.

Pyranha Team Tour – On a mission – Huningue

Video link. http://vimeo.com/99177968

Next stop, L’argentiere La Bessee 🙂

CKS Paddle fest

After a 40 hour drive from Canada we made it to Colorado, just in time for the first event of the Colorado tour. CKS Paddle fest.

Taking place in the small town Beunna vista home to an awesome freestyle park, I can’t say I was looking forward to completive hole boating after surfing some awesome waves all spring but with 5 sweet little features to play on all day in the sun and not be scared on the water I quickly found my love for hole boating again.

Levels where constantly changing on the lead up and during to the event and it definitely paid to be practising every day.

Our routine for the days leading up to the event was early morning freestyle, Run the local class 4 section called pine creek and then go for another evening freestyle session. Life went pretty quickly with this schedule and the event quickly advanced upon us and we saw some awesome rides in what proved to be quite a tricky little spot.

I made it into finals in 3rd place but unfortunately I just couldn’t put it together again in the finals and finished in 5th place, although for not having trained in a hole for almost 4 months I was pretty contempt with this result, The thing I was most excited about was consistently landing a crossbow Godzilla entry move linked straight into a tricky whu. The boys both threw down in this trickly little spot with Dave Fuslli finishing in 9th place and Matt Anger in 10th.

Overall, It was an awesome event with some incredible kayaking on display and kicked off the Colorado pro tour nicely! Next stop Steamboat!

See you on the water,
Bren

Idaho can be summed up with a few beautiful statements; big water, very continuous, multi-days and awesome people. This state is very special! We were lucky enough to squeeze in two trips down the South Fork of the Salmon (one combined with a Sesesh) and spend a week on the North Fork of the Payette.

The South Fork is a true multi-day river for the soul. It is mainly soul boating class 4, huge wave trains and punch-able wave holes, although there are a few spicy class 5’s thrown into the mix also! This is the perfect recipe for a fun trip. The beauty of this river is that there are no portages and amazing camp spots, which means you can get very extravagant in the food department! I feel the pictures explain it all. This is a great river to have a big crew on, both trips we rolled with a team of 10.

Well the North Folk of the Payette needs no introduction but for the record this river lives up to its reputation! We were lucky enough to catch it a juicy 3800cfs. Hands down it is one of my top 3 day trip white water runs I have ever done! One statement I heard a lot form the locals “The North Fork don’t give a f@~%” and it is true it does not matter how good/accomplished you think you are this river can and does dish out!

Check out the photos! What a place.

I want to give a big shout out to the banks crew for making us feel so welcome and for Brian Ward and Colby in McCall, you guys are awesome. Cheers for everything! Hope to see you in Whistler.

Ye old faithful 2010 Burn did a magnificent job. I can’t wait to use the start using a new Burn. The word on the street is that it is awesome!

This spring myself (Ric Moxon) and Maxi Kniewasser were presented with the opportunity to film a short segment portraying life as a kayaker. We were lucky enough to work with Anthill Films one on North Americas leading mountain bike production companies. With a budget of $25,000, red cams, phantom cams, drones and cranes the cinematography is quite something. Take a peek…

We might not have much money but we are able to sustain a very special lifestyle!

With a large watershed and a stream bed that channelizes well at lower levels, Little River Canyon (LRC) can have enough water for paddling after local rain any time of the year.  However, it is almost always above the minimum water level (for at least some section of the canyon) from Dec-May, making it a staple for local paddlers and a destination for boaters from everywhere.  Of the runs of similar difficulty in the southeastern United States, only the Russell Fork and the Green are runnable more days per year and no other natural flowing river of similar difficulty runs as often.  This video was filmed during the relatively dry Spring of 2014, but still showcases a variety of lines at low and medium water levels.

This is home.  This is the LRC.

Until next time…

-adam goshorn

Pyranha Team Tour – On a mission – Slovenia

 It was an exiting time driving across Europe destined for the emerald valley of the Soča.  Our mission was to meet our local dealer and friend at Positive Sport, Blaž Lunik, paddle the river and help him arrange the Soča river festival.  Blaž runs a kayaking, rafting and biking operation from Kobarid, located close to the commercial take out of the river.

View of Kobarid

As soon as we arrived, we caught a glimpse of the Bombay gin coloured waters of the river, levels were perfect for our mission.

Ariel bliss

On board the team van we had myself, Captain Cookie, David Bain and Barney Prees.  What I truly love about travelling in Europe is that there is never a shortage of familiar faces.  It is always a delight to meet up with friends in these types of places to share memorable experiences on such beautiful rivers.  Greer Mac and Jana Joressen joined us for the week and was a nice surprise to bump into James Weir and Rob Hind during the festival.

David being artistic

After a few days paddling, filming and getting the most from the area, it was time to head to the racecourse and set up shop.  During most of Saturday we took it in turns to run the syphon canyon with the local paddlers.  This section has class 4 lines with class 6 consequences if deviated from the beaten path.  Best to get advice from the local guys or take time to scout the rapids.  The whole canyon is just 1.5 km.  After the canyon you are back into one of the most beautiful multi fun move sections in Europe until you meet the classic high stone bridge just before the take out.  After this bridge the river becomes slow moving class 1.

Day time Kobarid

Our festival race took place a few hundred metres above the iconic stone bridge marking the white water take out.  A ramp was constructed that sent the kayakers plunging into the turquoise waters having then to negotiate inflatables and banners before a quick dash to the finish line.  The race is always held in the evening for maximum effect.  This year we decided to light up the ramp with some fire breathing that went down a treat for the crowd.

Cookie cruising with Greer Mac and the team

Cookie adding some heat to the race

The prize giving and ceremony was the best we have seen yet.  In previous years, it was rained off but this year the weather was perfect and fuelled by Limerick University, it was a pumping party until the early hours.  A huge thank you has to go to our local Pyranha dealer Blaž Lužnik and his crew from Positive Sport for organising the event on such a beautiful section of river.

Event prize giving

Tel: +38640654475 
 Email:info@positive-sport.com – video link http://vimeo.com/98168762

Skype: positive.sport

Pyranha Team Van – On a mission – Italy

 The Van arrived at the il Gatto e la Volpe campsite in Campertogno for the Valsesia River festival organized by Simon Westgarth’s Gene17 with support from Palm and Pyranha.

Festival Day

Valsesia is famous for some of the best steep, low volume creeking in the world, the quaint traditional mountain villages, pizza and ice cream.  Water levels were low on arrival causing the team to head to the Ayasse in Aosta.  The move, prompted by Jamie Wright was certainly the best one.  The crew including Jamie, Tom Brown, Scotty Robinson and the team van made the most of the stunning Ayasse valley, paddling both the upper and lower sections.  It was certainly an adrenaline pumped few days, not for the faint hearted.   This all changed however following a heavy rainstorm bringing the rivers up to huge levels in Valsesia for the first day of the festival.  This meant that whilst the classic steep runs were too high, the Sesia, which flows right past the campsite, was great fun.  By the afternoon, the levels were beginning to return to normal so people headed up to the Gronda and Sorba slides for some sporty classic park and huck creeking.

Italian landscape over looking the Sorba

Boofing into a rainbow on the Upper Ayasse

Saturday brought us some sunshine to accompany the days racing.  The racecourse was brought down stream a little to the sweet rumble site due to the high levels but even this was an exciting racecourse for the teams and individuals.  The team race commenced first with teams of three sprinting down the section off the ramp having to hit the Pyranha Mk3 Burn hanging from the bridge.  The Individual race was next and also had some very tight racing.

Race briefing

Chris Eastarbrook Racing

All of team Pyranha qualified, with David Bain taking the second spot in the individual.  During breaks in the racing, spectators were challenged to carve the best ‘foamy’ burn 3 with all entrants to be judged by the crowd at the after race party and presentations.

Sweet Rumble

The Sweet rumble was the spectator’s highlight of the festival.  Four paddlers lined up on the start ramp for each heat with the first two competitors to touch the Burn hanging in the eddy going through to the next heat.

Birthday and rumble champion celebrations

A crowd gathered along the roadside to watch the carnage below with commentary from Britain’s Matt Cooke and Italy’s Michele Ramazza.  Team Pyranha’s Dave Brown was knocked out in the quarter final, whilst Barny Prees was knocked out in semi final.  David Bain stole the show, storming through to win the competition.  The team then headed for pizza to celebrate David’s 21^st birthday and then onwards to the festival party.

Middle Sermenza classic

The next day a large crew headed to the picturesque Sermenza River to nurse sore heads from the night before.  This was followed by a visit to the best ice cream shop in the area as recommended by Simon. He was right…  All too soon it was time to leave Italy so the lads packed up the van and said goodbye to Dave Brown who was headed home.  All that was left was to get on the road to Slovenia but not before Barny and Dave had done another quick blast of the middle and lower Sermenza.

David Lower Ayasse

 Pyranha Team Van – On a mission – Italy

 Words by Barnaby Prees – Team Pyranha – http://vimeo.com/97817680

http://gene17kayaking.com/kayaking-events/valsesia-river-festival/