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30
Jul

Sjoa River Fest

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Sjoa River Fest

 

The Gene 17 Sjoa river fest is now one of the best festivals on the circuit, from the world class racing to the world class partys, the 2012 event was no exception.

 

The week kicked off with the Pyranha Old School Rodeo, where points don’t mean prizes, style does, Held in the feisty Faukstal hole on the Sjoa playrun.

In its first year the numbers were not quite as high as expected but we expect the word to spread for next year where we will have a bigger better rodeo. Congratulations to this years winners.

The next day kicked off with guided trips from the Gene 17 team followed by the Sjoa River Guide Raft Race. Then in the evening the world famous Pimp ‘n’ Ho party at Pensj Pub, I might not have one any races but am pretty sure I won the party,

Thursday had a lazy start, but with the qualifications for the Sweet Rumble and the Gene 17 Ula Race at 3pm everybody was eventually forced out of bed for a timed run with a couple of tough eddies to make down the slalom course.

On Friday at midday was the Gene 17 Ula race, as I was doing a guided trip in the morning I missed out on my race run but was there to watch the finals, the competition was tough this year and the course was high, with the winners were in the mens 1st Sam Sutton, closely followed by his younger brother Jamie with Tomas Andrassy in 3rd. In the Ladies First place went to Sandra “the guns” hislop with Louise Jull in second and Darcey Gaecher in third place, full results can be found at http://www.striestrommer.no/sjoariverfestival/gene17-ula-extreme-2012/

And a video

http://vimeo.com/45926219

Friday evening led to the Pyranha King or Queen of Sjoa un-sponsored race. With the Prize for first place being a brand new Pyranha kayak of the winners choice, we decided that if you cant throw a throwline you don’t deserve a free boat.

 

The race was you had to land your throw bag into a cockpit, recover it, run to your kayak and race the length of the slalom course, in the final we added a gate into the mix to make it harder. Congratulations to Jonny Haugen this years winner.

That evening saw the Palm throwbag olympics,

http://vimeo.com/45831804

The Sweet Rumble Boatercross was held on Saturday probably the closest finish ever in a boatercross ending in a draw between Sam Sutton and Pavel Andrassy

The girls winner was Toni George.

All in all a wonderful event in a stunning location, I cant wait for next year.

Andy

(pics by Gene 17, Tom Leyland and Graham Milton)

 

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27
Jul

Downriver Tricks in the Loki

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I’ve been having an absolute blast getting back to my favorite downriver tricks in my new Loki, and also enjoying how well it runs rivers – smooth boofs, glides, and hole punches with the nice rocker and extra length.  Lots of knowledge of how to do tricks in a slicey boat like the Loki has been lost over the years, so I’m putting together a series of video tutorials so everybody can get in on the fun!

Here’s the first installment of the series – How to do a Rock spin.

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26
Jul

Pyranha at the Welsh Rivers Book Launch

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The bible of Welsh river running, first written in the 1990’s by Chris Sladden, has long been the go-to book for river beta for boating in Wales. However, despite two re-prints since it’s intital publication, it hasn’t been available since 2008… the reason being that a new works was in the making.

Patrick Clissold and Tom Laws, two aficionados of all things wet and welsh, have been working with Chris to bring the book bang up to date, with major re-writes of all ~180 rivers, not to mention the addition of a  multitude of new pictures to the book.

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24
Jul

The Loki, bringing style back to kayaking

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Before the Phonix monkey, and the Mcnasty, when the Loop was in its infancy,  and cartwheels were king, kayakers roamed the river looking for rocks to splat and holes to throw ends in.   As boat designs became shorter and the tricks took to the air a style of kayaking was lost.  People tried to replicate this style but the modern boats  in the six foot range didn’t have the same effect as as the old boats with three feet of ends whipping through the air.   Stern squirts almost became extinct.  This year the designers at  Pyranha set out to revive this style and they did it in a big way.

  

The Loki, has revived the old days of downriver play and and added yet another dimension to the already stacked Pyranha boat line.  With  low volume ends reminiscent of the kayak designs from the late 90’s, modern outfitting and design tweaks Pyranha has created a virtual time machine.   The balanced ends with near perfect volume distribution give way to cartwheels as smooth as the deck lines.  The edge is tuned perfectly for gripping a wave for huge carves and forgiving enough boof.  With just the right amount of rocker the hull carries speed to make moves and keeps the bow on the surface while paddling downstream.  The Pyranha signature connect 30 outfitting will keep you comfy and connected to the boat.

  

Who would like the Loki?  Anyone who enjoys running rivers and playing along the way.  Someone who loves modern freestyle but wants to try something different.  People who say, “I’m not a playboater” but want to be better paddlers.  Newer paddlers who are ready for that next step to ramp up their skills.  And pretty much anyone else, I have been having so much fun paddling this boat I have hardly paddled anything else since I got it!

Do yourself a favor and get down to your local kayak shop and demo the Loki, it will change the way you paddle.

 

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22
Jul

Demshitz loves BC

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Update from the Demshitz Pyranha Van.  We just got back into the US after a short but fun filled tour in the wilds of BC.  We took a quick tour of BC, finding that a majority of the classic runs were to high but we were still able to get on a few good runs.  One of our major goals was getting to Skook and surfing Mr. Jed until our arms fell off, we didn’t succeed, we still have arms, but we did surf every minute available.

Pete’s meat glad to be done with the tour.

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18
Jul

Layin’ Bricks on the Cullasaja

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The other night, I found myself in a conversation with a few friends about making decisions about running hard whitewater. I have always been one of the more conservative boaters among the people I boat with as far as safety and walking away from rapids I don’t feel right about goes, and thankfully this has led to a full 8 or 9 years of kayaking injury free (mountain biking is another story) with very few close calls.  We talked about how there is a big difference between watching someone run something then getting up enough balls to fire off it, and scouting a drop, picking out your own line, knowing you can stick it 100% and then executing. As I said this, I began thinking about how long it had been since I had done this. Yeah I have run some difficult stuff the last month or two, but it was all stuff I had done before. Over the spring, I walked away from two bigger drops, Laurel Falls and Big Boy, that I have been thinking about for a while but didn’t feel right about, and watched friends fire them up instead. The next morning I found out I would get my chance to step it up, as a little thunderstorm had brought the Cullasaja up enough for Bricklayer falls to go. I wasn’t off work until 6 but thanks to the long summer days had plenty of time to get over there before dark.  Scouting the drop, I found it to be one of the tighter, more consequential drops, between the 30 – ish feet of drop, recirculating cave on river right, massive piton rock in the center, and exit slot on the left. Due to encroaching darkness a decision had to be made fast, and my thoughts went back to the night before. I felt good, saw the line, and knew I could hit it. I watched Sam fire it up first while I set safety, then hiked up to the top and got in my boat.  I knew I had the skills to make it happen, so erasing any doubt from my mind, I got psyched up and approached the lip. Driving off the left side I got my 45 degree angle set, broke free, caught a little piece of the flake and skipped into the left slot, splatting the big rock and setting it down clean. It felt great to see the line and make it happen while dealing with the big consequences of this drop. Check out the photos below and thanks to Hayley for hiking in and shooting for us!

Sam Causey Dropping In

Coming into the entrance

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Celebrating afterwards!

Clay

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17
Jul

High water Pakistan. I told you so?

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Three years ago I visited Pakistan on my ‘Gap Yah’ and since then I’ve been trying to convince a group of kayakers to return with me to take on the whitewater that I saw. In those three years much of the information I’ve gathered about kayaking in Pakistan is that it is not a summer destination, and that if Pakistan is to be the country of choice for kayaking, then spring and autumn is the time to go as the rivers in summer are just too high. Well, three years have passed, its the peak of the summer now, and this is what we’ve found:

High up at Shandur lake

We’ve been based in Gilgit due to its location right in the center of Northern Pakistan and for the past three weeks we’ve been exploring the catchment that feeds the Gilgit river (known upstream as the Ghizar river). The Gilgit/Ghizar is known well enough within the small groups who traveled to Pakistan in the 80s and 90s for long multi-day trips from high up down to Gilgit town. Due to levels being super high, we’ve not approached it as one long river to tackle, as much of it is broken up by absolutely ridiculous rapids, with 15 foot high holes, and pour overs that have towback of equal length that last for mile after mile. This being said, we’ve found some unbelievable short day trips, most notably the ‘Play run’ and the ‘Aint never gunna be a train station’ section, as well as the local ‘Silverback run’ that flows into Gilgit with two rapids that dwarf the late namesake in Uganda, with similar huge wave trains.

Griff scouting a chunky rapid on the 'Aint never gunna be a train station' section

Roadside fun on the Ghizar

The play run of the Gilgit

High water has meant that we’ve been able to get onto many of the tributaries of the Gilgit/Ghizar river that most groups wont have even seen, which vary from super fun blasts down eddy-less alpine style rivers, to super steep and intimidating creeks rolling over scree slopes, with everything in the middle to keep us entertained.

Endless fun on Singal nala

Super steep Bubbur nala

Along with the Silverback section we’ve found another run for evening blasts when in Gilgit, on Karga nala (which has had at least one previous descent, but on one of the steeper sections in lower water). This has got to be one of the best sections of whitewater any of us have paddled, with nice steep boof moves, hole dodging and long wave trains, all in one jam packed half hour blast.

Scouting Karga nala

Evening blast of Karga nala

So, whilst I’d say yes, high water has made Pakistan a very different destination, it is by no means without vast amounts of whitewater (so much so we’ve sacked off our plans for North India and Nepal and we’re staying till mid-September). Tomorrow we’re heading west over the Shandur pass into Khyber Pakhtunkwa, which is probably the least explored part of Pakistan in terms of rivers and tourism, but from looking at maps we should be in for an awesome adventure of much the same: huge rapids and pristine tributaries!

Whilst we’re off doing that, have a look at some of the crazy portages we’ve found along the way:

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17
Jul

Vallecito creek video

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Finally had some time to edit. this is one of my favorite rivers in the world. Vallecito, Colorado, USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmWpDQwoYY4&feature=youtu.be

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10
Jul

Kids & Kayaking- U.S. National Whitewater Center

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I started kayaking at a young age, around eight years old.  Back then kids boats were scarce and youth paddling equipment was almost nonexistent.   Over the years with more youth involvement, youth specific gear became available and younger individuals began to make a scene in the kayaking world.  Recently I was able to travel to the U.S. National Whitewater Center and paddle with some young rippers.  Upon arrival, the younger boaters were rock/paper/scissoring over the small Jed and Rebel.  Off the van and into the water, Pyranha boats were occupied with a waiting line for most of the day.  A few of the young local shredders  showed me their skills and favorite lines down the different channels.  It is awesome to see where the sport is going and more youth involvement.  Big thanks to the U.S. National Whitewater Center and all of the locals for coming out to paddle with Pyranha.  Below are a few pics from the day:

-Ty

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10
Jul

RideThePlanet: Caucasus Whitewater

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The first movie of summer season-2012 from Russian freeride media project “RideThePlanet”
about travelling and whitewater kayaking around the globe.
Ride The Planet – the first Russian media project on action sport and travelling, brings together best athletes and mountain guides, professional filming team, action photographers and journalists to make a series of trips to remote regions of the planet, untouched by tourism industry, ethnically appealing and little known to wide audience.
Aim of project is to show, through the eyes of Russian riders, cameramen and photographers, the different mountain regions of planet, convey their beauty and possibilities for travelling and action sports.
In June 2012 the group of 5 paddlers together with filming crew went to Caucasus Mountains to capture their adventure thru different regions of Russian Central Caucasus mountains.
Regions: Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Northern Osetia.
Adidas / RideThePlanet kayak team: Egor Voskoboynikov, Tomass Marnics, Alexey Lukin, Vanya Rybnikov, Dmitriy Danilov.
Camera: Oleg Kolmovskiy, Konstantin Galat.
Edit & Post-production: Oleg Kolmovskiy & Konstantin Galat.

www.ridetheplanet.ru


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