Briancon, beer and boatercross So after the Teva race in Ivera (italy) Anton and myself headed over to the French alps to spend the week in L’argentierre.
During the week we paddled most of the classics in the area including the Guill (in on go) and the durance gorge
Anton also found a slightly more obscure run which included a hike, a rappel and a swim….
on our last Saturday the (un)official student boatercross was happening, with lots of carnage based at the l’Argentierre slalom course, Anton won the bloatercross race with a boat filled with rocks (I came 3rd)
We are now sitting next to the Brandseth in Voss getting ready for extremesportveko kicking off in a couple of days. (Anton also found another short run called Butt Crack Creek
The boys loaded up and set off for the unknown, traveling up north to find waterfalls and waves on the way to Wilderness Voyageur’s Beer and Gear festival. Along the way we managed to find a nice little park and huck on the Tygart in WV, paddle at the ASCI whitewater park at WISP in MD and Ohiopyle/Lower Yough in PA. This video captures a bit of the trip and shows the fun along the way.  Getting lost and making plans on the fly, this was an adventure to say the least.  Scouting for cheap hotels, acquiring parking tickets, and getting stalked at the local Taco Bell, the boys never miss a beat.  Hope you enjoy the video produced by big man Paul Butler.  -Ty
This post comes with great sadness in writing but I feel as though when an event happens that changes so many lives, it needs to be discussed. The paddling community is one that is small and with the sport, comes a time for horrible news. Saturday was a day I didn’t think twice about, as I was on my way to the Ocoee River in Tennessee for a fun weekend with friends. What I didn’t know at the time was this is a date that will never leave my memory. As many of you all know, Jennifer Watson lost her life on the Little White Salmon in Oregon. Jen resided in Oregon after leaving the Asheville area a couple years back. Still, Jen couldn’t get enough of the Southeast and we saw her smiling face frequently on these rivers.
I’m writing about this event because while Jen lived in the Asheville area, I grew to know her on and off the water. Let me give you a bit of background information. I was a California girl that moved to Asheville chasing whitewater and didn’t know a damn person. I had heard and read about the boating community, yet after a month of paddling with nothing but boys, I decided to make a rare post on good ‘ol boatertalk and ask where in the hell all the women were. Guess who responded? That right, Jennifer Watson. That post changed my life and I had no idea at the time. Funny how those things happen. At that point, I had barely been in a creek boat and just a couple of years in a playboat. Jen didn’t care. We hit it off instantly. Jen showed me just how great the Asheville boating community is.
Jen had an ambition to life that I rarely saw in people and I was attracted to it. She didn’t care what others thought of her on the river. If she wasn’t feeling up to it, she had no problem walking a rapid that we all knew she could run with her badass style. And of course, if she wanted to run it, she ran it with her badass style. Anyone that knows Jen, knew she loved to throw a boof stroke and man did she do it well.
Jen pushed me into believing in myself on the river. She also gave me a glimpse into her life off the river. To any woman, she truly was an inspiration. She was self-employed and knew how to make her dreams come true. She worked hard, yet played even harder. I was envious of this. Largely due to her, I have the same mentality.
I could really go on for hours telling you so many great stories of her but I want to only recount this one time on the river; It was my first time on the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia and of course Jen was part of the crew showing me down (as I had so many firsts on the river with her). You come upon Oceana pretty quickly and we got out to scout on river left. I got out, looked down, and instantly  looked at Jen and said “Fuck no!†and honestly thought everyone was crazy that ran that. Jen didn’t hesitate and signaled to all of us that she was running it. I of course turned my camera on and thought, “hell yah.†To this day I have not seen a smoother line run. Due entirely of Jen styling the shit out of this rapid, I gave it a go. It certainly didn’t work out for me like it did her, but I never regretted running that. I have SO many memories like this that truly inspired me to live my dreams and do what I want to do because I want to do it, not because society tells me they have a plan for me.
When one of your own is taken from you doing the very same passion that you so desire, it makes you question, and look at what you do from a different angle. I know I am not the only person to do this. What I hope everyone takes away from such a tragic event is that Jen lived a life many dream of. Jen lived more in her 38 years than most 99 year olds do. Jen sought joy by traveling the world via whitewater rivers. Jen has left an imprint on many of our hearts and her giggle will never be forgotten.
Wherever you are Jennifer, I know you have climbed to the highest point and boofed the shit out of it! I know you are singing big hair 80’s music at the top of your lungs and I know you are smiling down on all of us. I will never forget you and I will pay it forward to another Asheville rookie that is wondering where in the hell all the female boaters are hanging out.
It is with great honor that I can share some of my personal video and photos to you all. I of course need to show the story I told earlier and therefore, please be inspired by Jen running Oceana that gave me the confidence to run this myself.
Week before last my self, Tom Wakling, Joe Morley and Jen Chrimes headed out to Northen Italy for the 2012 Teva Kayak Race.
We went out a week in advance to train on the course and of course paddle some other rivers.
On arrival we met up with the Pyranha Team van being driven by Anton Immler and Andy Butler. Our first day was spent on the Chiusella paddling the whole run not knowing which part would be in the race. I immediately liked the style of the river with small technical drops allowing pacey sprints in between.
The following days were spent doing more training on the Chiusella as well as running the Atassa River in the next valley along. This was a really nice run with more technical drops than the Chiusella and a big 200foot slide to finish the run. The photogenic bridges over the river again amazed me as to how they still stand up, and how an earth they managed to built them so symmetrically across the steep gorges.
Coming to race day I felt I knew the race course well, and with low levels felt confident that my light weight would be an advantage for this run.
My first run left me in a strong top ten position but with aggregate scoring I knew I would have to do a good second run as well. My second run turned out to be 4 seconds quicker than the first putting me in a solid placing.
Next day was the team events. First we had the creek race which was held on a lower section of the river. Predominantly flat with 2 main drops, however these drops turned out more difficult than expected. I made a mistake on the first drop that cost the team some time however we picked up the pace and nailed the final drop finishing in second place behind the Kewi team. The Team slalom was held in the evening, where My self, tom and Joe raced as the GB representatives.  We had some issues on the first run, but so did everyone else.  Our second run was great, and finished us in first place and first place over all in the team event.
On the last day of racing we had the Individual sprint slalom and Boater X races. I again finished in a solid top half position with my second run including a role! Over all this put me in Tenth place, a position I am happy with being my second international extreme race!
We still had 2 more days in Italy before heading home so we went to Valseisia to run some more rivers. Without a guide book we really had no idea where to paddle so we got on and inspected each drop well.
All in all I had a fantastic trip, and it was great to see Andy and Anton out there whilst on the Team tour.
This spring I got to surf a few really good waves in West Virginia, and even better I got to surf them in the new JED. Â I still can not say enough about this boat, it’s fast, loose, and goes really big. Â Enjoy the video and stay tuned for another sick wave video from Skook, where Demshitz will be inventing tricks.
So demshitz has been wondering around the Colorado scene in the recent few weeks. From Paddlefest to a quick Durango creek mission (the vid from this is below), straight to Teva Mountain Games in Vail, to a few dealer visits and demo’s, to the Lyons outdoor Games and now we are back in Buena Vista Colorado for the FIBARK river festival. I guess we have had little time to blog, but we are going to try to get yinz up to date. For now I found out that the Boater X here will be canceled because of low water, but some folks are trying to make the play feature work in Salida for the freestyle. I know that sounds kind of bad, but we have been making the most out of low water in Colorado. Look soon for a short update from the events listed below, but for now I hope you enjoy our Durango mission video below!
One day in Buena Vista Co, Demshitz, Jed Selby and Mathieu Dumoulin loaded up in Orange Bitch and headed to Durango Co for 2 days of straight charging. We ended up doing 4 creek runs, a playboat session and drank 100 beers. Some great times with demshitz!!!
Gene17 and Pyranha joined forces this June to put on a kayaking festival of great proportions in the well-known and loved Val Sesia region of the Italian Alps. As well as the traditional fine pizzas, fine wine and delicious ice-cream, the festival offerred the many participants from the UK, Ireland, Germany and all over Europe as well as as far afield as New Zealand an opportunityy to take part in clinics and competitions. The Sesia Sprint section of the Sesia river was the location for a team race for teams of three paddlers, followed by an individual race. Team Pyranha took 3rd place (with Anton Immler, Dave Hollins and Andy Butler representing). The best times for the individual race were under 11 minutes for the 3km course of the class III/IV race course. In the individual race, I came second in the ladies category.
The Sweet Rumble boater-X saw another great round of competition, with exciting starts from the start ramp and nail biting finishes with the last two eddies counting for everything! I came second in the ladies section of this race.
The evening finished with a superb outdoor party with everyone getting into the party spirit and dancing away to the excellent DJ’ing provided by AS’s Ewart and Paul Robertson.
I leave you with a few pictures of the picturesque local creeks of Val Sesia and nearby Ticino region in Switzerland (photos by Max Siech and Dave Hollins)
It is around 10 days since we are visiting some Caucasus countries in order to investigate all these rivers, what would be suitable for the first part of summer’s Ride The Planet project. Rivers are sick, water is high and weather is good. More photos here —>>>
This weekend just gone has seen epic flooding hit Mid-Wales. Whilst for some it was a horrible weekend of swimming out of windows to safety or watching belongings get swept away, up in the hills a couple of kayakers had a great time on the upper section of the upper Ystwyth, a run that hasn’t come up in the last three years we’ve been at university. This was an incredible way to say goodbye to uni and Aberystwyth town, getting on the river at one of the highest ever recorded levels.
Last week the annual Teva Race – now called “Eporedia Active Days” – took place in Valchiusella and Ivrea/ITA.
The individual competition consisted of a downriver race down the shallow and rocky Chiusella River and a sprint and boatercross race on the slalom course in Ivrea with better water levels.
One of my two downriver runs was pretty bad – I was ending up on way to many stones -, which placed me into 15th position after that stage. Honza Lasko (CZE) won, Michele Ramazza (ITA) came 2nd, Pavel Andrassy (SVK) 3rd.
Fortunately, I was able to catch up a bit in the sprint race where I got 6th (Sam Sutton/NZL was 1st there, Jakobus Stenglein/GER 2nd and Honza Lasko 3rd) and in the boatercross, which was as much fun as almays. Finally I ended on the 8th rank, which is all right after my weak start in the downriver race. Overall, Honza Lasko won the event, Sam Sutton came 2nd and Filippo Brunetti (ITA) 3rd. Congratulations!
The team race couldn’t have been any worse for the German team, consisting of Jakobus Stenglein, myself and Markus Hummel. Last year we were able to win this competitions, but this time we had no chance at all after a popped off spraycover at the very first rapid. That cost a lot of time! The English team took the title, leaving France and Italy on the 2nd and 3rd rank, respectively.
My team mates and I had a great time paddling in Italy, especially when we were meeting up with the Pyranha Team Van crew there. I hope they’ll enjoy their further tour! See you on the river!
