After spending most of the spring and early summer training for and competing in the the freestyle world championships, I had a few options for places to go paddling in July.  I decided it was time for some paddling ‘just for fun’ and the best option would be to fly out to the Northwest and meet up with Demshitz for a couple weeks.  Dave and Nicole picked me up at the airport in Portland and had boats waiting for me- the full rockstar treatment.  Our first stop the next day would be the Little White Salmon.  Having never paddled in Washington, getting on such a classic run right off the bat was a great start to the trip, and of course, in true Demshitz fashion, we rolled down the creek with a stout crew- something like 16 people at the put-in.

Dropping Spirit Falls.

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Recently we lost one of our good friends, a team paddler, and all around a great person, Stephen Forster.  For those that were fortunate enough to know Stephen knew that he would brighten any eddy he was in and he always brought his big smile.  This year Demshitz were in Montana when we got the terrible news so we went to the Springdale Wave on the Yellowstone River and surfed for Stephen.  This session and video is dedicated to our buddy Stephen Forster.  Check out the video and make sure to take advantage of everyday you have.

Surf for Stephen

PaddleFest is organized by Mountain Equipment Coop every summer in order to give visibility to watersports in general. For Quebec City’s MEC, we have a terrific site near downtown with huge beach and stuff, next to St-Lawrence river. What was different this year?…the store agreed that it wasn’t the best spot to devellop the whitewater part so they asked me to set something up at a different place.

The Tewksbury section of the magnificent Jacques-Cartier river has what it takes for this kind of event ; calm/moving water for initiations, short class II/III for technical courses and nice stretch of class IV for a friendly boatercross, less than 20 minutes from the city! The local raft company (Rafting Valcartier) offered us their big put-in as the main place for exposants.

This first edition showed that whiterwater is growing up in Quebec area. All the classes were full (we even took lil’ more than the max capacity) for initiations and technics. 12 paddlers did the race and had a blast! Hopefully the first edition to a future classic!

After a good time in Sjoa the Team bus headed to sweden to visit a great event in the little town of Dala floda. James Venimore is the organizer of the “Masters of the Water”. If you want to compete you have to do three different kinds of competition. First a downriver race in a Pyranha “Speeder” boat, a freestyle session and at the end a boatercross. But the most important part of the day is for sure to have fun and a good time with nice people. So it didn´t amaze that one competitor changed his boat to an inflatable crocodile :-). At least i managed to become 1. in the boatercross and 3. place in the overall ranking.

Liz Forshaw accomplished the 4. place in the overall ranking at the women category. Good work !

After a good and relaxed paddling day, we visited the famous party in Dala Floda to see the “Burnt out Punks”. A bunch of crazy people doing a fantastic fire show with a lot of entertainment. If you ever get the chance to see them, do it, it´s really good and funny.

All i can say is, that it was pretty nice to be in Sweden and join this event. I hope i will make it again in the future…

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Hi all

Well over the last few week here in Norway there has been the Voss extreme sports week, Valldal summer games and Sjoa Fest. It is a pretty cool time of year to be a kayaker in Norway there are always great rivers to run, someone to paddle with and drink beers with…

The highlight for me after been stuck on a oil rig for a couple of extra days because of bad weather, was making it on the first flight back to Voss it time for the kayak races during Extreme sports week.

My favorite race of the event is is the Brandseth team race, where a team of three kayaks race down the legendary Brandsethelva which is full of long slides and drops.

Mike Abbott, Allan Ellard and myself where super stoked to paddle our way into second place even with no training, behind the super strong and well trained team of Sam Sutton, Michele Ramazza and Fillipo Brunetti.

Here is a Video Clip to give you an idea of the thrills of one of the coolest races in Europe.

This is a pic of something a little different and fun, surfing the Bulken wave that runs out of the bottom of the lake in Voss.

Having seen the great memories and photos paddlers have been uploading on www.pyranhafest.com to celebrate 40 years of the Fish, I was inspired to dig out some old photos on a recent visit to see my parents!

I was surprised at how many photos I found, taking me right back to 1997 when I was still at Primary School and my parents had sent me off to the local canoe club, Dereham Canoe Group!

As I continued to rummage though the boxes, it felt amazing to re-live my experiences in kayaks over the years. Challenges that seem so easy now bring back that feeling of stretching our comfort zones to extend the exciting reality we can create for ourselves on rivers!

I hope these transport you to the brilliant years when we were just starting out in kayaks and maybe to share some of yours over on the PyranhaFest site!

The picture above sums up these 10 years of fun! Read on to see the individual photos and stories behind each boat…

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Every year all the paddlers in norway head to one special place, the mighty Sjoa river festival. For sure one of the coolest and most relaxed events in the kayak business. As last year the Pyranha Team Van made in 2011 a stop in sjoa and  enjoyed good whitewater, nice people, exciting races and for sure the amazing “Pimp & Ho” party.

Some Pyranha Team members as Anton Immler, Andy Philips and Tom Parker  made their way through the qualification run straight to the extreme race on the Store Ula and the amazing “Sweet Rumble”. The Ula had not much water but the race was good fun to watch and the results were pretty close together.

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Matt Young chasing the race leader after Poop Chute

Over the years the Black River Festival in Watertown, New York has developed a reputation for being one of the most intense weekends of paddling and partying anywhere.  There is a race, a demonstration of ridiculous antics with pool toys at Hole Brothers (The Floateo), and one heck of a rockin party at Hudson River Rafting Company.

 

Chris Mo gettin down with the Great White Caps

As we were getting ready for the race to start, it was clear that this was going to be one to remember.  The race was extended this year to include the whole river.  It would be about a 30 minute race, and people were pulling all sorts of weird long boats out from everywhere.  2 Speeders were in attendance.  When the gun went off it was absolute chaos.  Try turning a 14 foot long boat around, with 30 of your friends trying to do the same thing is no easy task.  

Topo Duo gettin shot out!!!

 

Tony G. finding out that long boating takes concentration

The Floateo made myself and the other judges laugh really hard.  I am always impressed by everyone’s dedication to this fantastic event.  We rocked out to some awesome live music from the Great White Caps til the wee hours, then woke up and caught a few rides in Hole Brothers before heading home.

 

These guys showed some commitment in the floateo

After getting 2nd last year The Pool Bus stepped up and won it all in 2011

Right now I’m recovering from the weekend and resting up for Ironman Lake Placid.  After that it’s on to some relaxation on the Selway with the Fusion.  Stay tuned…

 

Special Thaknks to Sandy Payne, Brian Murphy, and Caroline Emanuel for the photos.

The British Universities Kayak Expedition 2011 team are in Venezuela! We´ve paddled two rivers since we got here on Saturday evening – the Sinaguise and the Canagua. For more photos check out the team blog – http://www.kayakvenezuela.co.uk/team-blog.html

This past weekend I got to spend time in  Ohiopyle  playing on the Lower Yough with my mom and friends.

Thanks to Wayne Gman for the photos

Although the level was kinda low, I was able to catch some awesome surfs while there (:

Can’t wait to get out there again!!!