Tidytrix

Kayaking Footage now online

2011-02-03T06:23:00.007Z

I finally got around to editing some footage I'd been collecting in the past couple of years.

The results are now on my youtube channel here

There are also some older edits dating back to about 2001, when I was competing freestyle and travelling the globe a bit more, supported by my older sponsors Perception and Nookie.

Check out the video's they're short and just for fun.

Here's a little teaser, enjoy!

Kayaking into 2011

2011-02-03T05:40:00.014Z

Last year I went back to university to study for 12 months, so I didn't get up to my usual escapades. However it was every bit an adventure of a different kind.

Being based in the UK for a year had its advantages, I didn’t have to pack and unpack my bags every couple of weeks for a start, and I managed to fit in some quality British kayaking, and I appreciated even more, the time I could spend on the water.

I got to paddle some classic Welsh runs the Melte and the Upper Mawddach for the first time, and in very high water. I have to say when those two rivers have high flows, they are world class!

I dusted off my old freestyle boat and entered a couple of the British championship events. managing a 7th and 4th place in each, despite being restricted to all of the moves I knew when I stoppped competing freestyle several years ago! Time to learn some new tricks!

Have a look at this to watch me try to get to grips with freestyle again and catch up with the kids. You may recognise some of the moves from...uh 2003 ish

Click on this for video

I worked for the rest of the summer on my dissertation project and finished my studies at the end of October, so at the beginning of November it was back to work, and I headed out to the best place for that time of year:

‘The Himalaya’

In the first weeks I warmed up on the Upper Bhote Kosi, then I led a commercial, self supported trip into the Tamur for Gene17. This is the second time I’ve been into the Tamur and the combined 3 day trek/4 day paddle lived up to its world class reputation once again.

7 days supplies for 6, importantly including rum!

Female porters on the trail taking a well earned break.

Our porters on the hike in, doing the 'real' hard work

Snack break halfway up the ridge on Day 1

1 of 4 Bivouac's on the beach

High levels meant most of the rapids for not so recognisable from my previous trip a few years ago and we were less than lucky with the weather. We were also often rained on as we slept on the beaches, but it was a great experience for everyone on the expedition.

Sara styling some of the Class IV

A sting in the tail. The wave gave a big kick, but less so than the hole!

Night lights on the Tamur

I finished 2010 with what could have been the final descent of the Subansari river in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The damn being built on this large tributary of the Brahmaputra will be one of the largest in the world and will flood over 30000 km² of jungle which is the home to Tigers, Leopards, Elephants and countless other smaller wildlife, not to mention several isolated tribes living in small bamboo villages.

The river itself is one of the most beautiful, pristine rivers I have ever had the pleasure to paddle on. Whilst it was not the hardest white water I’ve paddled, there was plenty of fun to be had on large volume Class IV rapids with abundant play spots for a big boat!

I was safety kayaking for a commercial raft trip and for the upper section this was a first descent for rafts, which provided plenty of entertainment and kept us kayakers on our toes more than once! After three days of travelling to get there, the river trip lasted for 8 glorious days, and it was a pleasure to spend that time in the jungle in a real wilderness with the Indian, Danish and Candian crew, we had great days on the river and mellow * evenings on spectacular beaches.

*(mellow until the rum appeared)

My final adventure of 2010 was to pick up the suit that I’d been measured for in one of Delhi’s many tailors and head home for a snowy graduation and Christmas. I’m now working in Banff enjoying some of Canada’s finest powder snow, but I’m looking forward to whatever 2011 has to offer!.

Norway again

2011-02-03T05:08:00.004Z

So here are the photos from Norway as promised...ooo...way too long ago.

I spent just a couple of weeks in Norway this year, so apologies all you hardcore kayakers, I didn't do anything new this year, the photos are from the accessible classics.

I arrived just in time for the Gene17 Ulla Extreme race, and placed 6th in the final.

The format was great, the finish line was the boof, over the last ledge drop, and the time didn't stop until you were upright and head dry, so sticking the last move was important! My practice run was my first time in a kayak for two months at that point so it was in at the deep end, and after just 2 mins of paddling I did my first race run, I was pretty pleased with the result considering, but felt I could have gone a bit faster, as I missed a couple of power strokes between key moves.

The finish line!

I couldn't race in the Sweet rumble, as I didn't arrive in Sjoa until after the qualifier, but we had fun watching it from the bank.

The following day I went with Simon, Sam, and Dr Paul to tackle both sections of the Skjerva, this reminds me of a West Coast NZ run, plenty of remoteness and committing technical rapids.

The water was a bit on the low slide, but it meant that almost everything was runnable, including much of the usual portages.

My final time kayaking in Norway was guiding and coaching on a G17 trip, we had a great bunch of Irish, Swedish and British kayakers this year, and we ran all the usual suspects of the Sjoa and Lora (in super high water) and Bovra. Happy days! I

also got to paddle with my old crew Dave Carroll and Sam Hughes for the first time in a long time, and had an interesting last run on the Washing machine rapid, after Sam forgot to put my paddle in the van. So hand paddling down through the Class IV in someone else's playboat is apparently quite tricky, but I survived much to Colin's disappointment as he'd got his video camera out and everything. It wasn't until the end when I felt a sinking feeling that I'd realised I'd left the drain bung out!! Cheers to Dave for the moral support!! He laughed at me the whole way down!! (but did watch me through the short canyon).

The Award

2010-08-27T19:20:00.005+01:00

About the badge on the right. I recently received this from Online Schools.org I'm not sure why, as I rarely update this blog these days. Anyway its clearly not actually the top award but in the top 50 as voted by the readers so a BIG thank you to anyone who actually reads this blog! Check out all the winners here. As you can see there are many other good blogs out there

Maybe this will inspire me to write some more posts. I've kept this running really as a one stop update for my sponsors to read and link to but, maybe I'll try and make this more of a resource with some tips and river reports. I've got some shots from a recent trip to Norway so I'll put those up soon, so watch this space!!! First though I have a thesis to write!

Movie & Sequence Shots from Italy

2010-06-09T13:04:00.013+01:00

This Spring I had a very short stint in Italy, guiding then paddling with friends, the cold weather meant the rivers were low even with a large snow pack. I put together a short video of us paddling in Low water just for fun. Below are some single and some sequence shots of some of the best drops and rapids in the area.

Egua

Sorba Slides

Cylindre sequence

Mastellone Sequence

Egua Hammer Sequence

Cylindre Sequence 2

Thanks to Tim McAfee and Rich Walter for the shots!

The Rest of the Winter

2010-05-05T23:08:00.008+01:00

The rest of the winter hasn't been great for kayaking. In October I went back into education after a 9 year 'break' and I'm now studying a MSc in Hydrogeology, most of my time is taken up studying so not much time for kayaking recently.

I did however spend most weekends after new year on the Dart or in Wales teaching WWSR, and Skills courses and I also got out kayaking a little for myself. Some highlights were:

A day paddling in the Lakes in the floods, 3 rivers Greta, Langstrath and Caldew all dispatched between 9 and 3 but also sadly a friends car driving through a flood which put an end to our ambitions of a fourth river that day!

Surfing at Porthcawl, short boats for big moves : )

Gene17's Adventure paddlers weekend, good water and paddling with the Palm crew

Taking second place and having a great laugh at the Flower pots rodeo as a card carrying student, paddling a 10 year old design. Report here and video here

and a few Hurley sessions and one Shepperton session at new year.

Right off to Val Sesia on Sunday for some proper spring melt : )

Sweet September

2009-11-03T18:42:00.009Z

The very beginning of September I was delayed in Delhi for a few days and as soon as I got home I left again to go and fetch my van from Slovenia.

The 2 day drive back wasn't the best having an unexpected stop in Germany to fix an alternator, but I did get to go kayaking with Nico at Bad Aibling and see my friend Antoine at his home in Lille. Arriving back in the UK I headed to the Bitches for some soul surfing with Deb Pinniger which is always a good idea.

The New Axiom was fun on the swirlies

and old skool in the hole....

..but fast on the wave

After the Bitches I drove with Nick up to the infamous Wet Wet Paddle fest in Scotland to firstly party and secondly paddle on the rivers of the highlands. There hadn't been a whole lot of rain but being spring tides though, the Falls of Lora were working a treat. WWPF report

After a weekend of paddling the Falls, the Morriston and the Garry I stayed in the Highlands for another day on the Falls of Lora and some of Scotlands finest white water in the run up to the Etive race the following weekend. The water was high all week so Dan Heyworth and I enjoyed some great runs on the Nevis and the Etive in preparation for the race, it was a little disappointing then to have low water for the race itself making the flat sections hard work, but Ed Smith and I managed a decent enough time to clinch 2nd place. A great event well organinsed. Report here Etive race

Final drop on the Nevis

Glen Etive looking gloomy

Glen Coe looking stunning in the morning

Hotel Volkswagen

Not Another Zanskar Trip

2009-09-14T13:27:00.020+01:00

Back in August, at the end of a particularly busy summer I returned to India for a third expedition in Ladakh.

On the 18th of July I finished 7 weeks of Guiding and Kayaking and competing in Norway. 2 flights, 2 busses and 2 trains later and I met Laburnum Boat Club in Slovenia on the 19th, for a week's guiding on the Soca. I finally got back to British soil on the 2nd August but by the 4th I'm standing at Heathrow waiting for a flight to Delhi with a group of 16 from Exeter School. By the time we reached India I needed some sleep! 4 Countries, 2 Continents, 4 flights, in just over a week, working all the time, but there was still work to be done, the 2nd Youth Kayak expedition to Zanskar, and there was a very good reason to be a part of it.

The subcontinent at its best

The planning for this trip had begun over two years earlier in a bar in Exeter. Ed Cornfield introduced me to Pete Scott and inspirational character and teacher from Exeter school, who had been enthusiatically running trips for the Kayak club at the school. It was a few months before I was running a large youth expedition to Ladakh and Pete wanted to know if it would be a good trip for the school, after the success of the first trip in 2007, things really started to happen, and we were on for 2009. For more information on the school canoe club click here

Jamie Conn, smooth lines on the Upper Indus

We were always planning on making a descent of the Zanskar river, a classic kayak expedition which has become increasingly popular in the last few years, but what really interested me on this trip was all the extra things we had planned for our month in India.

We had a brief stop over in Delhi where we explored the streets and visited a project for homeless kids, a great eyeopener for the Exeter school students, and after the flight up to Leh at 3600m we rested an acclimatised for a couple of days. Over the next week we visited the Druk White Lotus School (a local school powered by sustainable energy sources) and introduced some games to the kids there, Rugby and hackysac etc. We also warmed up on the Indus, and after a night out camping completed the last section of the Zanskar in high flows, looking back up the river there were many wide eyes made at the huge whirl pools.

One of the highlights however was a day trip up the Indus to paddle below the Tibetan border near Chumathang, permits obtained for all 18, we took the bus up and enjoyed some great technical class 3 and 4 paddling, which was more than exciting for some, (you had to be there!).

We had all the usual Asian bus shennanigans

Its a bumpy three day drive over to Zanskar, past the Pakistan border at Kargil and over a huge mountain pass. The trade off is the stunning high altitude campsites and mountain scenery.

Nun and Kun view from the Campsite, and impressive as ever

A major objective of the trip was to take part in a community project in Zanskar. In this case it was volunteering for the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG) helping to build a energy efficient community building for the Women of Gyapak, to work during the winter months. For more information follow the link http://www.ledeg.org/ In order to construct the building, we stayed locally with the villagers in Gyapak, amazing people, who were incredibly hospitable and fed us with some very interesting food throughout the week! Our days were spent lugging mud bricks from the river banks to the site, mixing mud and water for cement and putting the whole thing together under the supervision of Mr Chospel. The walls were insulated with used plastic bottles, and a Trombie wall/window used at the front to absord as much heat as possible into the building.

The work however was interrupted when the Dalai Lama arrived just 3 km away in Padum, on his first visit to the region in 10 years! It was a spectacle itself to watch thousands of Ladakhis streaming out of the mountains and setting up camp, many having trekked for over a week to be there!

We meet our surrogate Ladakhi families in Gyapak..

..and are shown to our rooms for the week.

The BIG event, in the event of a life time, thousands of Buddihsts travel to see the Dalai Lama

Building underway for the community workshop

Window frames being transported by people power

Nearly there. Just a roof to add, our work here is done.

With the building almost complete and just lacking a roof, we set off on the biggest and final part of our trip, a full descent on the Zanskar canyon. There are two days of mellow paddling at the top of the river, followed by a committing 3 day Class III- IV paddle to the confluence with the Indus. All our gear had to travel with us through the canyon as there is no road access.

The water was low this year which meant many of the play spots were in, and the canyon kept us fully entertained as usual with whirlpools, and boily eddylines. The team took it all in their stride having grown accustomed to the altitude and big volume of the river. Aquaterra a adventure company based in Delhi, did a fantastic job as always, transporting the gear on their rafts and providing 18 hungry kayakers with excellent fresh meals the entire trip.

Below Chilling on the Zanskar

18 Down

For most I guess the Zanskar descent was the big highlight of the trip, no matter what your standard, this is a world class multiday adventure in a true wilderness, and I'm sure everyone appreciated where they were and how unique the place really is. There were a mixed bag of emotions at the confluence of the Indus, for some completion of the greatest adventure of their lives so far, for some the climax of years of preparation and some simply only another 3 days before seeing Burgerking again! For me it was the end of a very big season guiding and a great feeling to complete the final trip of the season.

Axiom swallowing up the miles on the Zanskar

Classic Zanskar Lunch stop

The Team from ESCC

Big well done to all the members of the Expedition team, a huge achievement on many levels. and a big thank you to all the adults on the trip that made my life much much easier.

A coffee table style book edited by the pupils of Exeter school is available here there are some stunning photo's in this one.

Now the building has been finished! A new community building for the Ladies of Gyapak in the winter months. See the photos below.

Sjoa Fest & More teaching

2009-07-30T12:56:00.003+01:00

Returning to Sjoa, we settled back into the kayak camp with a late run down Amot canyon as standard. Nick Horwood and Lowri also travelled over from Voss to work on the Gene17 courses for July.

The first weeks of July were so busy it was all a bit of a blur, but needless to say we had a lot of fun showing people down some of our favourite runs in Norway.

There was a brief break in the form of Sjoa festival right in the middle. Many Norwegian and other nations paddlers showed up for a week of river paddling, competitions, fun and festivities. We were all really happy for the event to be run by the locals again, and Kay Arne and Jon Kristian and their crew put on a great event.

On tuesday a Simon, Erik, Andy, Morten and I, drove over to paddle the Sjorli. This is one of my favourite runs, all non stop action for the entire run, I had a little trouble remembering the lines, but with local Erik Martinson we made good time with only a couple of stops and a broken boat toward the end.

Back at the festival, first up for me on Wednesday was the freestyle held over at Sjaak. I was quite excited having not competed in a freestyle event since about 2004, and much to my surprize I made 2nd place behind Tyler Curtis in 1st.

Freestyling on Sjaak

Thursday evening we all headed down Amot for the time trials, it was a relaxed atmosphere down in the canyon, but we all knew that the seedings for the Sweet Rumble, boater cross were at stake, make top 30% and you'll race head to head on Saturday, if not you're out! So the chatting stopped and we put it into gear for the race. I've done well on the time trial in previous years, 3rd or 4th usually, but I slipped down to 6th this year (fatigue again, I'm full of excuses) More on the Sweet rumble later. Big surprise of the day was local favourite Martin Vollen caning the course with a super fast time, but then missing the last eddy at the finish and that was him out of the game!

The event everyone was talking about however, hadn't been seen in 6 years, the infamous Ulla race! Its fair to say that the rapids here are a big favourite among us, but due to the steep course and reasonable risk of injuries (isn't this what extreme racing is about?) understandably organisers have been shy on this one for some time, but the Heidal boys resurrected the race and made it the highlight of the festival.

Pre-race nerves hiking to the put in

Go fast in the flats, and clean on the slides is the trick here.

The racing was great fun although I didn't perform well for this one managing 11th or 12th? (fatigue from the last few weeks definitely setting in). One nice surprise was old bear Simon Westgarth making the final and finishing 3rd using his vast experience in the sport and of this race in years past. It was Martin Vollen who took a well deserved win though. Word in the valley was that he'd been training for this one, and it certainly looked like it, making up for his mistake in Amot and then some, Well done Martin!

Simon flying into the finish line

Satu also in the finals

Of course we paddled down afterwards with some friends to huck the Ulla falls perfect end to the day.

The main event Sweet rumble boater cross, went off with the usual jostling and drama, right to the finish. Myself, well I didn't make it past the first heat, (now truly exhausted and needing a break, there I go again) another local Morten Eilertson won the event and the big cash prize fending off many international racers with his strength and aggression to win on his home run. Notable other happenings, were Simon having taken a comfortable lead in his first heat, drop in the middle of the last hole and helplessly watch is competitors pass as he surfed it out, and Mariann miss the eddy in the final again! one year the women's race will be hers I'm sure.

Back to work and the rivers, we had to look around for some new runs as levels got way too high, but we struck gold on the Atna and various other obscure runs. There are photos up of the courses here

Steep creeking early July

Progressive early July

Progressive late July

There is also a blog post on the final course in Norway here

To finish off with here is a couple of video clips our guests took on the Ulla

The first is the final drop of the race course

and the second is Ulla Foss (Waterfall) 1

Northern Racing & Guiding

2009-07-07T13:11:00.000+01:00

As nice as Oppdal is for kayaking, the weather in June was miserable, and by the time we passed the Rauma, we had decided to get a Hutte for the night to hide from the rain. Finding the both the Myklebustelva and Langdelselva too high with the torrential rain we pushed on down South to Voss where the Sun was shining and we could dry our damp kit.

Ekstremsport Veko started the very next day and Mads and I spent a little time checking out the race course on the Brandseth before race day.

Race day was a great event with nice hot wea

ther, a riverside band that attracted the crowds and good levels in the river, meant that we could happily get on with the business of racing.

Final boof for the finish line

Despite a poor start I made the final with just a little time to spare. The 15 finalists hiked back up for a second shot at the race course and upped the game a little on the times. Its a tough race with a strong international field. In the end "Italian Stallion" and Dr of Hydrology Michele Ramazza took the top honours with consistent times, the rest of the final results were like this (combined times heats and finals) :

Men

1.RAMAZZA Michele ITA 3:19.17

2.SUTTON Sam NZ 3:20.30

3.ABOTT Mike NZ 3:21.13

4.VOLLEN Martin NO 3:21.93

5.CURTIS Tyler CA 3:25.50

6.ELLARD Allan UK 3:26.89

7.NEILSON Josh NZ 3:27.91

8.SANDVIK Dag NO 3:28.80

9.TIDY Matt UK 3:30.70

10.ØVREEIDE Eirik NO 3:31.33

11.PHILIPS Andy UK 3:32.14

12.RANDEN Kai Arne NO 3:33.62

13.SEDIVY CZ 3:33.70

14.BASSO Mark CA 3:36.27

15.THOMSON Dylan NZ 3:36.47

The favourite spectator spot: A tricky little drop

Lowri Davies pulls hard and wins a cheque in the ladies event.

With temperatures in the high twenties (in Norway!) summer had well and truly arrived and lots of water melted down of the hills, regular runs became a little too high for our interest and we started exploring a little. A little reconnaissance revealed the Teigdal in good form and, since the boat was in the van it seemed rude not to have a cheeky park and huck on the beautiful double drop. Shame the light wasn't too good for Mads behind the camera.

Back on the programme with Mads we returned to the upper Brandseth for some proper Steep creek tuition.

Mads styling the entry rapid on the Branseth

Over a picnic Mads contemplates which big thing to huck next.

Nearly Norwegian Summer

2009-06-20T23:21:00.019+01:00

May finished with a great week with the young paddlers from Laburnum boat club in the French Alps, then a final warm down in Piemonte, Italy with good friends & Irelands finest Simon, Ali Donald and Dave Carroll

June began with thousands of kilometres of driving. First from the Haute Alps to Slovenia then I packed up the big Silver Gene17 bus with 9 kayaks, 2 bikes, and loads of Italian food, and drove over 2000 kilometres from Slovenia to Norway.

The drive goes through Austria and the length of Germany from Munich to Berlin, taking a rest on the overnight ferry to Sweden then 12 more hours of driving to Sjoa in Norway. Somehow I just about managed to complete my final maths assignments during the week too!

Through the mountains of Austria.....

and the flat lands of Northern Germany...

and onto the shuttle to Sweden, the Huckleberry Finn

the road over Jotenheim National Park, Norway

Arriving in Norway 5th June the temperature was still recovering from the winter at a little over 5 degrees! The snow pack was still around but the cold meant the rivers were exceptionally low. Still we got stuck into things, this time running a 4 week intensive skills course, we braved the white water in the cold. Mads from Denmark and Spiros from Greece were joining me for the course and being an advanced course we warmed up on the Class IV Amot gorge, and the Sjoa Canyon.

Mads loving the pushy water in Amot

the centre line super boof...

and into the corridor

Next we hit up the exposed Ulla to get our gravity fix but immediately vowed not to return until it got warmer, snow at the put in is not a great motivator!

The boys on the course made use of their drysuits on the Advanced SRT Rescue course whilst I accompanied Satu VW to Sjaak for her training for the world championships this year, its been a while since I competed in freestyle but I have trained for WC's before so I hope I was some help to Satu. The wave was low as expected but still made for good training having to force the moves out. (watch the video, see the pictures below)

Front flip 1

and 3

Satu VW, brave on the wave, terrified of cameras!

Unfortunately after week 1 Spiros made a return to Greece with a troublesome old injury to his shoulder, he'll be returning to Norway next year though to fire it up.

Mads and I pushed on and as the weather got warmer the rivers rose and we completed some great classics of Norway and had some adventures in Oppland including the impressive Driva canyon, a great achievement for Mads and a guiding challenge to paddle 25kms of remote class 4 + at the limit of his ability.

I don't have much in the way of photos from the following week but lots of video footage to edit so watch this space!

Danish hard man Mads Udsen, see his progression in the next instalment where I drag him kicking and screaming to White water Mecca, Voss

Manic May

2009-06-10T23:44:00.013+01:00

Well that's it, spring is over and we should be well into summer now, but it certainly doesn't feel like it here in Norway, its still very cold outside, but what a spring its been in the Alps, I don't ever remember a season like this, with this much to do, the water levels have been incredibly good, with high water runs on old favorite's and new opportunities on usually dry creeks.

I've been really quite busy with guiding on rivers already this year, with 3 weeks in Slovenia for Gene17, a one week road trip around Piemonte and Tessin and a steep creeking course in Val Sesia also for Gene17. More recently I worked with Laburnum boat club from Hackney on their annual trip to the French Alps which was fantastic, they are a really fun group to be around, I'm looking forward to seeing them again in Slovenia in a few weeks.

We also did a photo shoot with Palm. Nick Horwood and Tim Trew came out to explore rivers in Tessin and paddle some new runs, their posts of the trip are here and here Simon and I even managed a sneaky run on the Sessera near Borgosesia which rarely has any water.

Put in on the Sessera

...and lower down

Enjoying high flows on the Vercasca

The hike in to the Basso took a while, not cos its that far, just cos every kept taking photos.

... the top however is spectacular

hmmm granite, 4kms of bedrock slides and drops to the Loana, this is the first rapid of the day.

Ninja boof into a shallow pool

The last cascade on the Loana, and time for a Pizza after 7 hours of Class V adventure.

The last thing for May was to paddle some of the Piemonte classics with friends, nothing beats a day on an alpine river with a good strong crew.

The 25 footer on the Gronda

Sermenzina

I'm now guiding in Sjoa, but heading over to Voss soon for Ekstrem Sport Veko, and adventures on the West coast of Norway, see you out there! : )

Rarely Run

2009-05-26T16:21:00.003+01:00

Last week I went with a small team from Palm, to test some new PFD's and get some photo's, we had great water levels in Ticino, and on the way back, bagged a seldom run, hidden gem in the Toce region. The Alpi di Basso and the Loana. I'd visited a few years previously and never found enough water, this year it was cranking, and well worth the hike in. Brief report here

http://www.palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/?p=701

The Place To Be

2009-05-18T11:33:00.002+01:00

My last post, I've written for the Palm blog is all about Piemonte and the Italian Alps, you can see it here

Click

Start of the season

2009-05-03T16:52:00.008+01:00

Spring is most definitely here, and on mainland Europe its all kicking off with high flows around Ticino and Piemonte.

At the end of March I swapped my ski's for my kayaking gear and headed over to the Slovenia to run some Gene17 courses on the Soca.

The last time on this Spring's snow

Changing allegiances & swapping the ski's for kayaks

The first week was an invitational training week for potential guides, I worked with a great team from the South West on guiding and coaching techniques in quite challenging conditions, as the Soca was running at 170 Cumecs! Not surprising with the huge snow pack this year, and the rain that fell that week! Check out the team's notes from the week on the Gene17 blog

Warming up, guiding and PFD testing on the Soca

The following two weeks were also busy, coaching and guiding with G17 courses, the high levels on the Soca remained throughout, with some boils and relatively pushy flows for the Soca. These weeks spent in Slovenia are always a welcome warm up for the season.

The last two weeks of April I took the opportunity to visit home, friends and family in the UK and also catch up with sponsors Fatface in Havant and Palm in Clevedon. I also met with Laburnum boatclub in London who will be arriving in France at the end of the month and Slovenia in July, I spent an entire day applying for a Indian visa through the new system in Victoria (very frustrating) and in Exeter, Ed Cornfield and I met the students, parents and teachers of Exeter school, and enjoyed the student presentations for the final meeting for our forthcoming expedition to India in August. My final trip was to Leeds University for an open day for the MSc I'll be studying from September.

The following morning I flew back to Milan, and I'm now ensconced in Campertogno in Val Sesia looking at an unbelievable snow pack above, its going to be an exciting season ahead!

Yesterday I enjoyed perfect levels on the Egua and punchy levels on the Sermenza even if there was still snow at the put in for the former!

Team Denmark arrive this evening for a weeks road trip around Ticino and Piemonte, so more to follow shortly!

Still full winter conditions on Monte Rosa from the South

The view from Campertogno

Plenty of snow hanging just above Alagna

Winding up the Winter

2009-03-22T21:33:00.005Z

Winter is officially coming to an end here in the Swiss Alps, I decided that as I can now wear shorts comfortably in the valley and there's puddles on the roads where there used to be snow. Still there is lots of snow still on the ground, and that only means there is an epic spring coming!

We've been lucky enough to have record snowfall this year, it seems every other day has been a powder day until this last week. The skiing has been awesome, I managed to go on some great back country, and glacier tours with some of the Peak Leaders students (who by the way all passed their BASI 2 exams!! 100% pass rate)

Its been fun, loving the skiing, but missing the kayak now. But with summer on the way I'm back on the water this weekend working on an Alpine river leaders course for Gene17, I'm looking forward it! Lets use the snow again as it melts!

Winter in Switzerland

2009-02-22T21:56:00.006Z

This winter I decided to make a little change to my normal programme and work with some winter sports for a bit. I've wanted to spend some more time in the mountains and specifically on the slopes for a some time now, so I was happy to have the opportunity to do just that, when I started a short contract at the beginning of January. So thats it I'll be in Zermatt, Switzerland until the end of March. The pictures describe the place quite well.

I'm running a ski instructors course for Peak Leaders in Zermatt, although not being a ski instructor myself I'm happy to let the experts in the Official Ski School here do the technical teaching bit! My job for 10 weeks is to help the course run smoothly and deliver a theory course in Leadership (ILM). The work has been challenging especially dealing with local politics here in Switzerland, but on the whole its going well and the students have been very successful so far in their qualifications. Just as I hoped however there has been plenty of time for hitting the hill myself!

A long time ago I learnt to Ski, then I decided that boarding was much better as I loved the way the board floats and carves over the mountain, things have changed since then however, modern skis have a much better shape and performance, and after trying to follow my skiing friends into remote gullies and spending a lot of time up to my waist in powder, it was time to turn back to ski's

I've been learning a lot in the last few weeks on the ski's, its great to be back on a steep learning curve, really rewarding. With the exception of moguls I'm pretty happy now I can go anywhere on the skis, that I've been on a board.

We've had some great conditions here in Zermatt, lots of snow this year, mostly we've had sunshine, but every few days a good dump of snow, to ensure the powder levels stay well topped up.

I'm happy to say the course is quite comprehensive, with lots ski training, but also training for back country skiing, avalanche rescue and freestyle etc etc Tomorrow we go Heli Skiing!!

I'm also posting on the Peakleaders blog at the moment for more detail on the course More updates soon.

Matt

Autumn Update

2009-01-31T20:30:00.009Z

There is a whole bunch of things that I was involved in during Autumn, and it was an exceptionally busy time for me hence the very late post.

The most important thing that happened of course was the arrival of Eleanor Faith,

my elder sisters first baby, she has the most gorgeous deep blue eyes, a really cute baby.

Eleanor with her mum

The big project I was working on was renovating my house, re-plastering, some plumbing, new flooring, knocking two rooms into one, was all in order, then of course there's all the suprise jobs that need doing along the way. At one point I was working through the night to stay ahead of ahead of Martin and Elwyn who've done a fantastic job on the plastering, on a house that's too old to have any square corners or straight edges.

Some before and after's

Screeding the floor

When I've not been working on the house I've been working on the river. This Autumn I've been involved in training the students of Exeter School Canoe club for their forth coming expedition to Ladakh in August that I've organised for them. So we've spent a nice weekend in Wales, a very cold weekend camping on Dartmoor and running the Upper Dart when the team made some great food collectively under the watchful eye of Tom K. Soon they'll be off to the Bitches for some whirlpool practice. The team are a really nice bunch of Lads who work well together and there's some skillful kayaking I've seen, so I'm really looking forward to going with them to India in the summer. Exeter School Canoe Club have been doing some amazing things over the last years driven by Pete Scott. This trip to India is the latest in a long list of expeditions the club have done, and like the others before this trip we'll be getting involved with the locals in the area and undertaking an aid project fitting sustainable energy systems, in a remote area of Ladakh before we hit the river.

Lastly I've also started to study again, this time Open University Maths, its all quite difficult having not really done any maths since GCSE, but after a bit of work it's understandable and I've been writting some crazy looking sums.

Belated Happy New Year to you all.

Weekend in Wales

2008-11-14T15:21:00.010Z

One weekend in November, I spent the the weekend working with a small group of 5 star hopefuls on a leadership refresher weekend. The team wanted to brush up on their skills before taking their qualification so we headed straight for the river for some practice. We'd lucked out with good water levels, near perfect on the upper and middle Conwy. The team took turns at leading and at intervals I gave some feedback and discussed problems and solutions on many rapids throughout the day. We also had a play around with some technical kayaking work, like a little service to get everyone running sweetly.

One day turned into two as the group wanted to do more so, I stopped overnight and was fed Chilli courtesy of the Uni Club (thanks), staying in a pretty crowded bunkhouse. And I had a go at the bunk house challenge, climbing the ladder upside down feet first. Best bit of that, was sliding back down the fire mans pole from the fire exit.

The following day, we spun over to the Ogwen, which was holding its water well, but not quite enough for Ogwen Bank falls. The team was now becoming slick with the leading, and I'm confident they'll all make great river leaders.

You can just see Paula on the run out. First canyon, Ogwen

I had a great weekend, thanks guys! We'll done to Paula for passing the 5 star a few weeks later, and for Sara and Ian, not sure if you've done it yet but best of luck! : )

Part of the job

2008-11-14T15:20:00.009Z

I'm lucky enough to have some great sponsors, many of whom have been supporting me for a number of years.

I've been with Fatface clothing for about 7 years, since they first signed me, when I was competing in Freestyle for the GB team. I've certainly got a lot to be grateful for, they make my life and work a whole lot easier and have supported all of my projects in the past.

Over the years I've seen the company grow from everyone crowded into a relatively small building in Havant, to a big high street name with well over 100 stores nationwide. I like the company's ethos, a few years ago I spent a week in South Africa on a photo shoot with Jules one of the founders of Fatface, unbelievably Jules and Tim (the other partner) started out selling T shirts out the back of a van to earn enough cash to stay skiing for a winter, look where that got them! Fatface have always stuck to their roots and are big believers in an active lifestyle, and make great clothes to hang out or have adventures in.

So sometimes I'm asked to do something in return in addition to the usual requirements of sponsorship, and naturally I'm happy to help. This time it was to attend a meeting with the design team to discuss clothing for coming year. I was a bit confused at my invite, as I can barely sew on buttons correctly and know next to nothing about casual clothing design. Anyway I was assured that I wouldn't be questioned on stitching etc they just needed our opinions on the end use of our clothing and to get an idea about what people like us want.

Aside from the design team (all lovely people doing a great job there) we were joined by other team riders, Scott Beaumont (Mountain Biker) Emma Lonsdale ( Freestyle Skier) and James Heraty (Triathlete). In the morning we each gave a presentation to the design team on our activities. Mine was a slideshow of a year in my life. Then we all aired our dirty washing (so to speak), we'd each brought with us a big bag of Fatface clothes to discuss, old favourites from the past and others that didn't work quite so well.

It was a productive day with lots of idea's being thrown around for future clothes. I'm looking forward to seeing the next range, to see it all come to life.

There we have it Fatface a company that really listens!!

Back Home New additions and renovations.

2008-11-14T14:49:00.007Z

At the beginning of September I flew back to the UK as quick as I could. My sister was about to have a baby, and just after I got back, she'd had a lovely baby girl. I was able to go over and see her straight away. I'm looking forward to spending some time this Autumn with my new Niece.

I had been looking forward to spending some time in the UK, and now I'm here I'm able to get on with some new projects. Firstly I'm renovating my house completely, so that's taking up much of my time.

Before

After

After, an Oompa Lumpa covered in orange dust from cutting the wall

The steel beam is now cast in place

Wet West Paddle Fest

2008-10-01T21:30:00.000+01:00

Shortly after returning to the UK, I had an offer to go up to the Wet West Paddle Fest in Scotland, to give Palm/Dagger a helping hand. No brainer really since I hadn't been to Scotland for quite a while I jumped at the chance.

Tim picked me up in the Palm bus loaded with boats including the new Dagger Greens and we high tailed it to Scotland, stopping only to pick up Luke from Leeds Uni on the way.

Arriving in Scotland we made a few runs on the Etive by way of a warm up, and from there it got more mellow.

The first day we set up the stand and played around on the Garry in our Greens, and had a fun cartwheel session in one of the pour overs, the Green doesn't play too badly for a boat that's plus 3.5 metres! I even took a amusing and quite enjoyable swim, after hand surfing a small hole that would not let go upside down or not.

The party was good but a little short, then the next day the whole circus moved to the Morriston for a release, the water arrived a little later than expected, but it was worth the wait, some nice wee rapids on that river.

It was super to see so many people on the water with some faces I recognised from other kayaking adventures.

I'd be there next September if I wasn't in India. A great weekend.

Thanks to Tim Trew for these pictures, and an epic drive from Scotland to Somerset.

Desperate Dan's daughter enjoys a ride in a kayak, one of many more I presume

Zipping around in the speedy Green's

Nice drop by the put in of the Morriston

Slovenia Take 2

2008-08-30T22:05:00.000+01:00

Returning to the UK from Norway I had a few days break before heading back out to Slovenia to end the season.

This year we had two groups over two weeks, all keen to sample the clear water of the Soca and to improve their kayaking. The weather couldn't have been better, big storms every Saturday like clockwork, kept the water levels topped up, but for on the water the Sun prevailed everyday for both weeks.

Needless to say the kayakers out in Slovenia were great fun to be on the river with and to share a few bottles of win over dinner, and of course it was great working with Dave, Kim and Deb.

There is a click here to read a report on the last week from one of the Greek students.

Warm clear water on the Soca

The fantastic Otona section

Trnovo doing what it does best, being picturesque

Stop for snacks and water on the beach

A little riverside repair for George from Greece

Cheers!!

Special Ops in the Agent

2008-08-10T21:57:00.000+01:00

Towards the end of July the last clients left the Sjoa valley and left Dave and I with a few days before our Ferry back to the UK.

We were both super tired after some hectic weeks in Norway, but the Jurgens wave was in, the sun was shining and we couldn't just stand there and watch the water run past! So despite our arms feeling like lead we spent a a few days surfing and making the most of the sharp rails on our Agents.

I do have a video of the surfing to post but blogger won't let me upload it, so maybe later.

Just before we left Norway we stopped at the Mountain Bike trails in Hafjell just outside Lillehammer. The trials were accessed from the cable car and designed by a ex bobsleigh rider so as you would expect there were plenty of steep bends and banks to throw our bikes around on. Saying goodbye to Norway for 2008 we boarded the Ferry from Stavanger and were on our way to Newcastle, this would be one of the last passenger ferries across the North Sea as from next year the route will be closed, I'm not sure how UK paddlers will now get to and from Norway?

Summer Heat in Norway!

2008-08-10T13:57:00.000+01:00

As the Sjoa road trippers left, a new group of students arrived for some more fun on the rivers around Sjoa.

They got very lucky with the weather, all week was blue skies and warm sunshine, in fact almost too warm for some as the thermometer's started topping out at 30 Degrees!!!

Still there is plenty of cool water for refreshment around the Sjoa valley, here are some of the photo's from the week

Chas wanting to take it on, on the Big waterfall, the nutter!

Its always good to meet the students on the courses, old or new there are some great personalities, and its a pleasure to spend a week kayaking with them. For this week Chas, a French Polisher from Surrey, Anna, a costume designer from Sweden and Mike and Electrician from the West Country all brought together by kayaking enjoyed a week on the water together.

The Team enjoying real summer time heat on Ulla

Recovery , Road tripping and Racing

2008-08-09T21:48:00.012+01:00

Just before leaving Voss I took a tumble down a simple slide, the mistakes seem to come when we are not concentrating, however I'd checked the line, but underestimated the rapid and was far too nonchalant on the approach.

I'd continued paddling that day despite having a painful arm where I'd taken most of the impact, and ignoring the pain I continued kayaking over the next couple of days then raced over to Sjoa to start teaching on the Steep Creeking week it was only then that the full extent of the damage became apparent.

On the water over the next couple of days my arm would go dead from the shoulder to my fingers after any sort of stroke or grip on that side. I managed to paddle for the first couple of days of the course, but was glad when I could take a break midweek and I was horrified to discover that there was bruising appearing all over my arm, a long way from the damaged area. even in my fingers!

I quickly organised an X-Ray although I had to wait for a couple of days, I was worried that it could be broken and that'd be the end of kayaking and work for the summer. Luckily the results showed that I'd not broken a bone, but I did have a big haematoma (internal bleeding) in the arm which was pinching the nerves. At this stage the only cure was rest so I grumpily stayed on the bank over the next few days as people surfed the now perfectly forming Jurgens wave.

The Irish lads celebrating a successful run

JJ visiting from the States stood in for me and acted as my stunt double on the last day of the Steep Creeking course while I coached from the bank and took photos, This allowed me almost full week of rest and I was very grateful for that.

Good to go! The Students line up for the 3 Falls on Ulla

I wish I'd been wearing my elbow pads, that would have saved a lot of trouble however I'd lost them in Corsica earlier this year, I won't be making that mistake again though!

JJ , Stunt double for the day

The next time I got on the water was for a Guided road trip around the Sjoa area, there were three lads on the tour, Mads from Denmark had been on the Telemark road trip with me and it was great to see the improvement he has made this summer. The other two lads Phil and John from England were in Norway for the first time, and they were keen on seeing what the country had to offer, I didn't think they'd be disappointed! They weren't! Read a blog post of the trip written by one of the road trippers here

Warming up on the Sjoa before heading out for the road trip

We paddled most of the classic runs in the area, the highlights being the Upper Jora and the Upper Rauma where both John and Mad's got quite a surprise on Mini Huka.

Phil, enjoying the clean Norwegian water

We had a fun week, once again being mobile and able to visit the rivers we wanted to go to was a huge bonus, as were the relaxed evening's around the campfire.

Evening hike by the Lora

During the last two days of the tour, we returned to paddle on more local runs of the Bovre and Lagen. The boys kindly decided that they'd like to see me race in the Sjoa boater cross so we made an early start on the Friday so that I'd get back in time for the race in the evening.

Fun day out on the Jora, John taking it on.

I wasn't that hopeful having had an injured arm, and been guiding for over a week and having paddled two rivers already that day, so I went to the time trial reasonably relaxed and rather tired.

I knew that not being full of energy meant that I'd have to hit clean lines in Amot canyon rather than rely on strength and speed, other wise I'd not make the next round. I hit all the lines and finished the time trial in 4th easily making the 30% cut and through to the next round. A respectable place considering the line up there.

The next day was the last day guiding and again we headed out early so I could again get back for the race. I got the start line just in time, after a long drive back from the Bovre equally if not more tired than the day before.

Mads second descent of Ulla Foss

The first couple of rounds went well and I made each cut until the semi finals. Only the first two in each head to head race get to go again! Spinning out trying to cut a corner in the first drop killed my speed and I watched my lead disappear and that was me out of the race....until next year.

Visit to Voss

2008-08-03T10:43:00.010+01:00

I arrived in Voss in the middle of Extrem Sport Veko, during this week every June hundreds of certified 'fruitcakes' from all kinds of adventure sports congregate in Voss to party the very short night away, then throw themselves over ramps, off cliffs, over waterfalls and out of perfectly good aeroplanes for fun! There are also some competitions and displays held for the many spectators too. I was too late for the main kayaking event, having finished guiding the Danish team over in Sjoa that day, but I went to Voss anyway because I think it probably has one of the highest concentrations of runable steep white water and waterfalls anywhere in the world, so why not?!

Accommodation Norwegian style

After the partying and the festival had died down, we were able to get some serious kayaking in. First I met up and paddled on the Myrkdalselva with almost all the crew from our 2006 Tibet trip, Eden Sinclair, Jason JJ Shepherd, Zak Shaw and Sam Hughes were all partying it up for Sam's 30th in Voss, Dave Kwant wasn't there though, he's busy being a Dad in NZ.

Over the next week Sam, JJ, Eden and I had some great paddling on some of the classics around Voss. Some of the highlights were revisiting Nosebreaker a big waterfall on the Raundelselva and the nice high levels as the temperature brought us more melt water. We met another couple of Brits hanging out by the river Ric and Tom who were over for a season kayaking in Norway. Couldn't have picked a better place! Check out the video for some Voss WW action.

Video from Voss

The 'Legendary' Eden Sinclair in Myrkdal

Sam and JJ try to decide which amazing river to paddle in the morning sun

Nosebreaker was a little crowded on the descent!

Money Drop, 'like landing on a big pile of pillows'

I left Voss quite reluctantly the rivers were high and the sun was shining, I'll be back next year!

Big thanks to Sam 'Pacman' Hughes for the photos and JJ for shooting the video

Palm Promo Video

2008-08-02T08:12:00.000+01:00

Rob Coffey put together this video and others for all the Team Palm kayakers.

The video's were filmed in Italy, Tessin (Switzerland) and Norway.

You can see all the team video's on Palm's website at www.palmequipmenteurope.com including this one

Palm also has a new blog which is well worth a visit www.palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs

Freestyling last year

2008-07-13T18:15:00.000+01:00

Since I'm going through my videos and cleaning up my hard drive, here is one from last year. Its a rough edit of some of the footage I collected to resource the new freestyle coaching syllabus for the BCU

Enjoy!

Telemark Tour

2008-06-29T21:11:00.006+01:00

Telemark Tour

In the middle of June I left the Alps behind and drove all the way up to Norway. After a couple of days R&R in Oslo and some kayaking with an American friend, a small crack team of Danish kayakers joined me for a guided tour of the rivers of Telemark.

Reindeer on Jotenheim

The rivers in Telemark at that time of year are usually dropping after the early melt, but this was ideal for the Dansih team tackling new terrain. Classic Norwegian kayaking on the Austbygdai let Mads, Niles and Karl get stuck into combo slides and drops but without too much pushy volume.

Witch burning night for Danish

After three enjoyable days on the in Telemark we headed north to Buskerud to paddle the Zambezi of Norway, the mighty Numedalslagen. The river drains most of the Hardangervida plateau so its a big volume run. Despite the wintery temperatures we had great fun on the big bouncy long rapids.

On the road!

The fifth day of the trip was devoted to giving a safety and rescue session on the Etna, the river was too low to paddle but was an ideal venue for rescue scenarios and practice, and a beautiful camping spot too!

The Danish invade Norway in fancy dress

For the last day of the trip the Danish lads requested we paddle Stor Ulla in the Rondane National Park. This low volume mountain creek has some of the nicest long slides and waterfall combos anywhere. The Danish lads all fired it up and made their first descent of the three big waterfalls at the end of the run.

3 Dansk doing the cooking

Mads on another combo on the Austbygdai

Niles dropping in

Austbygdai valley

An early corner rapid on the Numedalslagen

Big high five to the Danish boys, their enthusiasm and humour make this job alot less like work, thanks!!

France, High Water & Slopestyle

2008-06-29T14:17:00.010+01:00

Val Louise

At the end of May I made the short drive back over Mont Genevre and to Briancon in the French Alps. There I met a group of young paddlers from Laburnum boat club in Hackney, London. The kids all 12 of them aged between 18 and 9! were driven by their ever patient group leaders Beth, Dom, Rob and Owen from London to the Alps all crammed into one minibus with all their gear!

We paddled a high water run on the Durance which produced some very wide eyes on the water, then sadly due to high water that was the one section of white water we paddled for the week. Constant heavy rain pushed a few weeks worth of melt into the rivers, turning most of rivers in the area into no go zones, with big trees and debris being hauled down with the spate and landslides and minor roads collapsing here and there!

A rare break in the clouds above Briancon

Despite the disappointment the kids were very pragmatic about the situation and we spent the week kayaking on the lake, jumping out of trees, sledging and snowball fighting up one of the passes and enjoying the hot tub at the chalet.

After waving good bye to the group on their way back to London, with the rivers still officially closed by the authorities I managed a few great mountain bike descents in the area, shown around their local trails by the Bankes boy's from L'Argentiere.

A couple of days later frustrated with France Deb, Simon and returned to Italy for a couple of days paddling in the Lanzo valley and surrounding rivers. With all the rain we were treated to great levels on classic boulder garden runs, and were treated in the restaurants in the evenings to local Italian dishes.

I then flew back to England to attend to some jobs back at home for a week, and unexpectedly had a couple of days paddling on the Thames weirs in the sun and warm water!

Returning to France and it was time for the first ever Slope jam slope style contest! Organised by students, this strictly unofficial event went down, up at the Fournel a mountain creek with a few man made falls on.

The comp was a Jam session so fairly relaxed and with plenty of opportunity to display our best moves to the judges. The course was divided between two rapids the upper having a small fall, the rocks to spin on, and a grind rail made from a tree. The lower was a larger fall followed by a smaller drop.

Eventually the field was reduced down to a 5 man and 2 Woman final, we each had two runs to throw it down off the big drop in front of the spectators, the loudest cheer securing the win. Tim Trew made the croud scream the loudest throwing hammers in the Dagger Green race boat! There is also a report of the event on the new Palm blog here

Download the podcast from the link below to see the footage from the event.

podcast

Bella Val Sesia

2008-06-18T11:11:00.016+01:00

Early May was time for the annual pilgrimage to Val Sesia for the G17 steep creeking courses. With a heavy snowpack overhead at 2000m we expected the narrow bedrock runs to flood as soon as the hot weather started, this didn’t quite happen though and the melt happened slowly, sustaining reasonable water in the runs, ideal for our students!

As always we had a good healthy mix of students from different backgrounds and nations, they all had one thing in common though, they were there for the exciting steep creeks of northern Italy and they got stuck in. So big high five to all the students on the G17 courses this year it makes the work really fun, and for the crew from Portland, Oregon I will be taking up the offer and visiting when I get a chance!

In no time the students were boofing drops, cleaning steep Class IV lines and even freewheeling on one of the drops!

There were a whole load of British paddlers in Val Sesia this year making the most of the spring white water, and I spent a few extra days here and there, running some clinics and personal coaching, its great to show people around the rivers in the area and even better to watch students clean the lines after a bit of coaching and a few tries!

When we had a little time to ourselves Dave and I took to the water to put a little practice in for the slope style event we entered for June. Slope style in kayaks!? Ok so the name is ripped directly for skiing , but what that means for us in kayaks is grinds, rock spins and freewheels, or even pan ams and kick flips down drops! Basically descending with as much style and trickery as possible.

We finished up the season in Val Sesia with a high water run on the Egua with Dave and Simon, the rocks were well cushioned with water and the holes a little more pushy, and we had the river to ourselves, on the upper part we were nursing our various aches and pains after 3 weeks of guiding and two months of solid paddling, but by the road bridge we’d loosened up and were smiling all the way to the end, the perfect finish!

Ticino Diversion

2008-06-14T07:50:00.006+01:00

Driving up from Corsica the word in the valley was that Val Sesia was cold and the water low, so after a brief substitution in Milan (with Sam Hughes going back to the bench in Oslo and Dave 'The Bullet' Carroll coming on to fill his place midfield), we made a Beeline for Tessin, AKA Ticino in Switzerland.

Fresh snow overnight at Sognogo

On the way over a Gelato, we met up with the Devonshire contigent Doctor Paul, Roger, Ed Cornfield, Simon Westgarth and the Basso's from Canada, the rain was tipping down so we headed to a seldom run creek the San Giovanni near Lago di Maggia, we ran the pool drop section over and over until our sinuses were flooded and backs were sore. Great fun!

Ed lining one up on the San Giovanni

The next morning we woke to clear skies and fresh snow at the top of the Vercazca. The river is a real 'peach' dropping 20 or so kilometres through granite boulder gardens and slabs, the sun was shining and we wore our smiles all day : )

Thawing out and warming up for a full day on the Vercazca

All about team work on the upper boulder garden

Riding the curler on the NSG drop

Jake Holland dropping in on the lower section

Dave Carroll styling the entry on one of the more burly rapids of the lower section

Corsica Continued

2008-06-03T17:12:00.010+01:00

A few more Corsica images from Jake Holland

Busy Living.. another 4* Campeggio Libero

The Travo ampitheatre

The photographer kayaks too!! Sam Hughes follows us down the Rizzanese camera gear in the boat!

High water on the Vecchio nice lines, exciting times.

Beware the rocks in the Travo can unexpectedly bite

Daniella Tira, picking his way through the boulders and sieves of the Vecchio

Corsica Meltdown

2008-05-29T14:54:00.011+01:00

At the end of April, keeping a close eye on the snowpack we headed out to the Mediterranean Island Corsica for some steep creeking.

I collected the boys from Milan Sam ‘Pacman’ Hughes and Jake ‘The Boy’ Holland and we jumped on a ferry to Bastia.

At the Ferry port in Savona we bumped into Italians, Daniella Tira who paddled in Norway last year and Pierro who was along for the ride.

I’d not been to Corsica since 2002 mainly due to poor winters and lack of water in the spring season so we were happy to see that 20mins out of Bastia there was full snow pack and the sunny days kept the rivers full. We could not have timed the week better.

Corsica is the spiritual home of steep creeking in Europe. It was great to go back to some of the classics but in medium to high flows and scratch our heads and wonder how the pioneers ever got down in their 4 meter + boats!!!!

The paddling and the scenery were both amazing and despite a brief stop to help another kayakers arm back into its socket, trouble free.

Some of the highlights of our tour in Corsica were:

Evenings spent around the Campfire cooking with the Italians.

The Rizzaneze’s clean drops

Corsica’s stunning scenery and old towns

Classic paddling on the Travo

Big High Five to Sam, Jake and Daniella for the happy days!!! : )

Thanks to Sam Hughes for the photos, check out Sam’s blog www.adventuresinpacland.blogspot.com or Sam’s website www.paclandphoto.com for more amazing shots from weird and wonderful places.

April Showers

2008-05-18T15:38:00.009+01:00

Soca Valley

At the beginning of April after enjoying the good snow conditions of the Haute Alps I made the long drive over the plateau of Northern Italy to Slovenia. Arriving at the banks of Soca in Slovenia things looked promising, snow on the hills and 20 c temperatures was very welcoming, but sadly the rain began, and didn't really stop for the next two weeks!!

However the show must go on, and the show being a week of coaching and guiding on the Soca with the G17 crew Dave and Simon. As ever the students were a pleasure to work with and great fun in the bar too! We were going to get wet in the water anyway so the rain didn't do too much to dampen our spirits and we all enjoyed some great days kayaking on the Soca.

Clear water and white boulders make a perfect training ground.

March in the Mountains

2008-03-27T21:43:00.018Z

The European season started with an epic drive through France. Landing in Dunkerque and having snow on the ground there, set the theme for the route to the Alps.

By the time I'd reached Dijon the Autoroute was down to one lane as the continuing blizzard covered the rest. Late at night and almost in Grenoble having passed numerous abandoned cars I had an all too exciting emergency brake for a truck on the road in front, I slid left then right, then off the motorway and down the banking. Lucky that I'd hit no cars I was able to get back on the road with the help of the VW's four wheel drive.

The drive up to Bourg d' Oisans was also exciting enough making fresh tracks in the road. I didn't fancy my chances on the swichbacks up to Alp D' Huez so I spent the first night back in the Alps by the side of the road.

When the road thawed enough in the morning I drove up to Alp D'Huez to spend some time on the Mountains with my friends Simon and Julz.

I've known Simon a long time and been on quite a few missions with him in the Mountains so it was good to catch up. Simon works the winter season up there so Ski's everyday, being Simon he very quickly became quite an accomplished as he does with every sport he tries (it makes you sick) so he knew his way around all the back country routes off Pic Blanc.

Simon in his element, today = Snow

I borrowed an Avalanche kit from Simon and over the next few days we did some great off piste routes in good powder barely touching the pistes at all, which is the best way to do things up there. There was one snag though, many of the routes we did had either long traverses of even climbs to reach the entry so being amongst mainly skiiers I was often behind up to my thighs in snow whilst they cruised across. Thats it! I must get back on ski's!

About to Descend from weather station

The long traverse into the Condalieu

Another Couloir, another fresh track

Keeping speed over the basin.

Despite the walk in's (which were enjoyable anyway) the descents through the couloirs were amazing and it was great to be with and watch a bunch of very experienced skiers and snowboarders.

Snack stop half way down and extensive Pyramide run

It was all over too quickly and some thawing reminded me that this was the start of the kayaking season. I just love to be able to use the snow on the mountains, and then again when it melts into the rivers. The world is a giant playground.

I set off over the passes un-conveniently in more heavy snow through to Italy and then across to Slovenia which is where I'll start the Spring.

More snow falling on the drive over Montgenevre

Winding up the winter

2008-03-27T16:14:00.008Z

The water levels dropped off halfway through the winter as a high pressure sat over Britain bringing cold dry conditions. This meant that there was very little to do in the way of river paddling, however the Thames having one of the biggest catchments stayed up for a long time afterwards and this meant that I could go back to some of my old haunts on the Thames weirs for a some good sessions in the my playboat the Agent.

Making the most of the fast green shoulders at Hurley.

I've had the boat for nearly a year now but unfortunately not had much time in it as I was in a creek boat all summer and took a river running boat with me to the Himalayas, so I was pretty keen to get tuned into it and keep up with the freestyle paddling.

Over a couple a few weeks I managed to get over to Hurley at some nice levels with an exposed green shoulder and also Shepperton which rarely seems to come in these days.

One of the great design features of the agent is the evenly distributed volume and a welcome return to a twin tip design. The volume in the back means that the boat lands moves well and almost symetrical hull means that it'll go backwards just as well as forwards, look at the video below to see what I mean.

Coming into March I packed up all my gear for the summer and started to make preparations for the season ahead. The spring and summer are going to be very busy with coaching and guiding in the Alps and it looks like a bumper year for melt water with the amount of snow in the mountains. I timed my drive to the Alps just right as blizzards swept across mainland europe, I'll post more about that later on, but right now I'm just happy to be back in the mountains with plenty of fresh powder up here : )

Advanced Whitewater safety course

2008-03-27T15:34:00.001Z

Deb Pinniger and I recently ran an advanced white water safety course for Gene17. We used stretches of the Dart and Erme for this bespoke course.

These sort of courses could seem quite dull but necessary for river paddlers, however Deb and tried to make it as fun and as relevant as possible for modern kayaking, so we included plenty of practical exercises to keep people on their toes.

Over the weekend we had a great bunch of kayakers in to work with and we hope they left us with the skills and confidence to deal with almost every problem they might encounter on the river.

Please click the link above (title) for a full report.

Winter in the West Country

2008-01-23T09:11:00.001Z

It took some time to get used to the cold in the UK, returning from India in late December, but a couple of days in the murky brown waters of Hurley on 4 soon sorted all that out, and I was acclimatised to the cold again. Luckily for me the weather had gone all wet just before my return and everything was on. After a stag party in Liverpool and New Year celebrations up in Yorkshire I headed West to run some guiding and coaching in beautiful Devonshire.

Paddling in the UK is unique, the cold brown water, leafless trees and rejoicing in rain during a winter season seems quite unnatural, but by no means less enjoyable than a summer paddling season. The atmosphere of British winter paddling is probably only duplicated on the East

Coast of the States but then they don't have any warm country pubs or tea rooms to thaw your nose in after the river. Its not often that I manage to explore British white water, but when I do I'm usually pleasantly surprised, these last weeks have been no exception.

The River Dart

Between running skills courses and guiding for Gene17, the good water levels meant I was able to go river paddling for 11 days straight! The heavy rain on Dartmoor saw to it that the Dart stayed up at a reasonable level and I also checked out some smaller classics of the Walkham and the Erme, but the bread and butter of the last couple of weeks has been the classic Upper Dart. The Upper is a run that I've never quite got used to as I paddle it probably 3 or 4 times a year, but I am always happy to be on there at different water levels to see the lines change and last week there were all sorts of fun lines, grinds, spins, slides and boofs and with enough water to cushion the rocks it's basically great freeride kayaking.

English white water perfection on the Upper Dart

I was first introduced to the East Lyn on Exmoor last year when I paddled the run several times with my friends and with the river in spate one day Cheesy and I even managed a satisfying and exciting run on the Hoaroak and continued all the way to the sea. That's one of the beauties of the Lyn catchment, you can paddle a good steep run and then go surfing without even getting out of your boat! I know there must be other runs in the UK which finish in the sea, but to find one with this much quality white water, in a beautiful woodland and finishing on a good clean break? I'm not sure there's anything to match it. So last year my love affair with the East Lyn started and this year I was introduced to the upper stretch of the river which has even more quality white water! Over the last week we managed a few runs on the Lyn with locals Steve Doone and Steve Chivas proud to call it their local run.

Steve Doone at home on the East Lyn

The prognosis looks a little drier for the next week or so, the Thames weirs will be dropping into condition, I'm ready to whip out my play boat the 'Agent' and pounce.

Thanks to Cheesy for the photos!

Solo on the Marsyangdi

2007-12-18T09:35:00.000Z

Ever since I started kayaking I had been attracted to Nepal and seduced by articles & books depicting warm clear white water, the back drop of Himalayas and outstanding multiday trips.

One of the rivers that typifies white water in Nepal is the Marsyangdi. The river had been on my 'to do' list for many years. In short I'd wanted to paddle the river since I'd first heard of it, and due to the imminent damming of the upper stretch I was determined (if not desperate) to go a see the river for myself before the rapids disappear forever.

After the DoE team left Kathmandu I planned to head straight out to the Marsyangdi and further West to Pokhara to do as much paddling as time would allow.

Getting to the bus park the easy way

Solo kayaking is something I indulge in rarely, I prefer to paddle with a group of well trusted friends for support, safety and of course company and entertainment, but on occasion when I do decide to paddle solo I find it a liberating and exhilarating experience. I appreciate that there is no rescue cover on the river and no one to call emergency services and any mistake I might make could spell disaster for me, but whilst paddling solo and having no one else to look out for other than myself I am accutely aware of my surroundings, my body feels stronger, my paddling more precise and the intensity of rapids seems to increase. So in the hurry to get on the river and keen to experience it fully, I decided to go alone.

The approach to the river is a full day's drive up the valley allowing brief glimpses of the river below. The paddle back down to the main Kathmandu to Pokhara road is recommended to be a 3 day paddle or 2 days for a fast team, however talking with my Nepali friend Babu left me confident that if I was quick I could complete the run in a long day. For that reason I went lightweight, I didn't plan to spend any nights out on the river if I could help it.

I slept a the guest house at the put in where I met more kayakers starting the following day (hope it went well guys). At first light I changed and launched into the river making sure I'd make the most of daylight hours at about 6.00 am

Paddling alone I made quick progress, only rarely exiting my boat to scout a line, and although I berated myself a couple of times (for paddling over pour overs that were slightly too large to keep speed!) for the most part I was comfortable and happy to paddle alone.

Alone on the Marsyangdi

At the Dam I was beckoned off the water by the security guard who told me that kayaking on this part of the river is forbidden and demanded I leave to the road high above on river right. This was not an attractive proposition for me as it would have involved a long portage and a detour around the Dam sight that could have taken about 2-3 hrs with my loaded boat. We negotiated for some time before he agreed to let me portage the dam wall on river left with an escort and put back in below. (He had agreed that this was the quickest way to get rid of me off his dam site.)

The white water below the Dam was very pleasant classic boulder hopping and I'm sad that it'll soon be gone. On the way I passed villagers crowding the beaches and bridges during their Dewali celebrations, all of them seemed to be carrying fruit and I was thrown a few pieces from the bridge as I passed underneath.

Machhapuchare towering over Pokhara

The river slows towards the end of the run and I pushed on through the meanders enjoying the scenery but keen to reach the road which I did at 13.00 the complete run had taken 7hrs top to bottom. I changed and immediately jumped on a bus to Pokhara. The trip will certainly be amongst my best memories of the Himalayas in years to come.

Tamur Gold Expedition

2007-11-26T11:53:00.000Z

The second trip I worked on in the Himalayas this Autumn was a Youth Expedition with a difference. This time I went along with a small team of 4 young kayakers to observe and assess their Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition. Their choice was to make a descent of the remote Tamur river in Eastern Nepal. To approach the river it is neccessary to trek in over a ridgeline for 3 days under the shadow of Kanchenjunga. Once reaching the river the descent is four days of self supported white water paddling, with most of the action packed into the first and last day. Anyway as far as DoE expeditions go I thought this would be far more fun than hiking across Scottish mountains for 5 days in November!

After meeting the group in Kathmandu, we had a very quick trip out to the Bhote Kosi to warm up before buying supplies in Kathmandu ready for out trip out East.

Tim on the Bhote Kosi

20 hrs of Bus journey later we arrived tired and bedraggled to the start of the Trail in Basantapur in Eastern Nepal. Finding porters to carry our boats for the trek in was no problem they found us very quickly after we arrived with our big plastic craft.

Our luggage packed and ready to go

That evening was Dewali celebrations and the locals were having fun dancing, gambling and letting off fireworks in the street, the celebrations took a darker turn unfortunately after a skirmish between our Guest house manager and the police in the road outside. The next morning awoke with armed Police inside and surrounding the Guest house. Our hosts told us they'd come to apologise!

We made a slow start to the day, packing our boats with camping gear, rescue gear and 7 days worth of supplies. This also allowed our porters the chance to receive their Tikka's wth their families that morning.

Porters on the long ridgeline

The team pasing Yaks and their herders on the trek in.

Kanchenjunga in the early morning sun.

Another rest, another smoky tea house

The trek into the Tamur was very scenic. The trail rises on the first day to gain a long ridgeline where for the next day we had great views of Kanchenjunga and other Himalayan giants. On the final day the trail descends down to Dobhan and the put in of our river.

Day 1 was fairly slow for the porters I begun to wonder if we'd hired the right porters or if the boats were really too heavy, but for the following two days the porters sped up considerably, having recovered from their Dewali hangover!

Rice fields on the Descent to Dobhan

The first day on the water and the boys were getting used to their heavy boats, but still operated smoothly and made short work of the upper section through some entertaining white water.

As expected the locals appeared from nowhere to how an interest in our beach side campsite, and sat and watched patiently as we cooked and pulled out sleeping bags from the boats. The next two days were suprisingly uneventful with quite flat sections between campsites. This meant that the majority of gradient was in the last day. The final day proved to be the best white water with consistant quality rapids around every corner, mostly boat scoutable,so the boys made good progress to the confluence with the Sun kosi. As we turned the corner on to the bigger Sun Kosi we could see the landscape change as the valley widened dropping towards the Indian plains.

Dave entering Ashram, one of the bigger rapids of the Tamur

Our vehicle out of the valley to our drop off point in Biratnagar seemed sturdy on the track out of the river but 1940's parts quickly fell apart on the tarmac!

The DoE expedition team worked smoothly and confidently on the river, and made what I think is an excellent choice of venue for their expedition, I was right the Himalayas certainly beat a wet UK in November. I'm awaiting my invite to Buckingham palace when the boys go to receive their Gold Awards : ) !

First Youth Descent of the Zanskar 2007

2007-11-26T11:40:00.000Z

Returning from Norway I had just 10 days turn around in the UK before heading out to India and back up to the Himalayan region of Ladakh. This time I was to guide a Youth Expedition down the Doda and Zanskar rivers. The group consisted of 11 young kayakers and 2 of their coaches.

The group all from Hackney, North London had been working hard for the year building up to the trip. 24000 pounds had been raised through their hard work to fund the expedition, I had sorted the arrangements in Ladakh and the boats and kit were supplied by Dagger Europe and Palm Equipment. Everything had come together in the last weeks and this was it we were ready for the expedition.

Ladakhi in traditional dress, Leh

The team spent a few days acclimatising to the 3600m of altitude and warming up with a paddle on the Indus. I was impressed at how the team worked together on the water.

The drive over to the Doda river takes around 3 days give or take a few hours and is quite rough on far from perfect roads. Some of the kids kept everyone entertained though with perpetual singing!

The team at the Glacier on the drive in, 6000m peaks in the background

Just one of the amazing campsites in Ladakh.

The river trip itself is 5 days long with two days on the Doda river before it reaches the confluence with the Tsarap Chu. There then follows 3 days of great white water in the remote Zanskar canyon. All of the equipment and supplies came with us straped to the support rafts.

Ready to go, the put in at Remala

The raft team

The team decended partly by raft and partly by kayak, the craft were swapped regularly throughout the trip depending on energy levels and comfort zones. It was impressive to see the kids adapt quickly to the bigger white water in the canyon and continue to work well as a team throughout the trip despite the physical and mental challenge of a multiday river descent.

Kayak team charging through the waves in the Canyon

Food stop on the Zanskar and dressed for dinner in Palms finest.

The team about to set of on the last day of white water, to exit the canyon.

After 3 days on the road and 5 days of solid white water paddling and lots of fun we reached the confluence with the Indus. The team from Laburnum Boat Club and West Reservoir were the first group of teenagers to make a descent of the Zanskar river! Well done to you all!

Summer Melt

2007-08-04T10:58:00.000+01:00

As the weather warms we head North to catch more meltwater, so the European kayaking goes.

In this case the first stop on our long drive North is only just over the border in Tessin (Ticino) Switzerland, this little known Swiss province feels very Italian with a patchwork of vineyards on the steepsided valleys, and Pizzerias and stone churches, but its rivers are straight out of California, albeit a little miniturised.

We were hoping to build on our exploration of this area from previous years but as we looked up and down the valleys the low water showed that this was not the year to yeald new runs.

With bleak prospects in the Alps due to the lack of snow we cut our losses, stocked up on food and drink and begin the 1800km or so drive to Oslo.

This summer was the first time I'd arrived in Norway so early (end of May) and a good thing we did. Having checked the snow pack in Telemark we were confident that there would be good levels on the rivers there.

A relatively short drive out of Oslo and we camped by the Mar river below the 'Home Run' a series of five decent height waterfalls.

First drop of the home run.

Penultimate drop on the Home Run

The paddling in Telemark was classic Norway, big slides, waterfalls and clean water, there were several nice runs to do all within 20kms. For a few days we paddled different sections on the classics of the Ausbygde, Mar and the Goyst. We took a weekend break back in Oslo for some partying, then it all went off, the warm weather caused the massive snowpack on the Hardanger Vida to start melting quicker, the rivers rose, then torrential rain topped it up! With rising levels and a few scary moments on some of the bigger rapids Sam and I quickly opted for the lesser run lower sections, which were good enough fun with the swollen waters.

Yet another big slide, Ausbygde, Telemark

Spoenfossen on the Ausbygde

Escaping the high waters of Telemark we took a detour to the Numdedalsaagen Norways answer to the Zambezi. This too was in flood and very entertaining but very very cold quite unlike the Zambezi.

Returning to Oslo we also had the opportunity to paddle a reasonably steep creek in Down town Oslo. The dam above the run rarely releases, but we were in luck with the unseasonably high water and sun now on our backs. In the deep canyon it was hard to remember we were in the City. The crux and also highlight of the run is a 15ft fall into a small slide. We took out when the river dissapeared into a tunnel!

Driving further North to Sjoa, I passed yet more snow to melt on the fjells of the Jotenheim national park. After one day of paddling on the Sjoa this too started rising rapidly and very soon was in flood. Just as well there are plenty of other rivers in the area with more manageable catchments.

Lower Skerva

Hinking out of the upper Skerva after high levels forced a retreat.

One of my favourite waterfalls, Ulla # 1

Paddling the Sjoa in flood prooved to be just as entertaining as the surrounding runs. Using our freestyle boats we found big surf waves and surging boiling rapids. Several times we realised that the thunder we heard was in fact boulders rolling on the river bed, such was the power of the water.

Whilst kayaking I attempted to capture some head cam footage for the marketing team at Fatface, this was going to be used for promoting some of the new products. For a few days I paddled with a worryingly flimsy helmet with built in camera down waterfalls, big rapids. slides and surfwaves, but sadly the footage was not captured on the damaged hard drive.

I also spent time collecting freestyle footage at some of the rarer playspots to support the BCU Freestyle coaching awards. The footage will be used at courses to display and show examples of 3D movement in a kayak.

Luckily the levels had dropped to more resonable level for the Coaching weeks in July again with Gene 17 I enjoyed helping people improve their skills on our favourite runs in Norway. However the levels still weren't sufficiently low enough for the Sweet Rumble Boater Cross Race, the event cancelled for 2007. I'll be back next year.

Spring Melt

2007-05-27T10:57:00.000+01:00

Every spring holds new excitement, with the anticipation of river adventures and seeing old friends. This year I headed out to the Alps early, with the car packed to the brim and armed with my kayaks and my snowboard I floored it to the mountains, stopping just briefly in Lille for a house warming party with an old friend. Antoine and I had been good friends as teenagers, and had had many good times like cycling from Northern France to Holland just to party and then making the return journey, sleeping in fields overnight. It was good to catch up with him and his girlfriend Justine and my French was tested to its limits the more drinks were served.

Reaching the Alps it was plain to see the season changing with a rapidly receding snowline, however on the higher fields of Courcheval and Val D'Isere there was still good cover and even some good but slushy off piste action.

As the snow disappeared the rivers filled and I descended to the valleys and switched my board for my kayaks, I was happy to think I was using the same snow twice! I spent a little time staying at a friends place in Briancon kayaking by day, and writing the coaching syllabus by evening, these days with a little wireless it seems possible to work from almost anywhere.

Louise flew out for my birthday and we spent a pleasant few days heading to the Mediterranean coast and hiking around the Verdon canyon.

I made the long drive across Italy for Simons wedding in Slovenia afterwards. Simon and Satu married on the far bank of the beautiful Soca river in the Julien alps. The wooden bridge over the rapids became a make shift aisle and the situation made for a really special ceremony. It was nice to meet so many friends there and also paddle for a few days on the aquablue waters of the Soca. The river is a perfect learning ground for kayakers with huge white boulders everywhere and refreshing water temperatures.

Almost everyone at the wedding headed to Piemonte in the Italian Alps straight afterwards. Val Sesia north of Milan has become one of my favourite kayaking destinations over the years, partly because of the beautiful scenery and partly because the rivers are characterised by granite bedrock, clear water and pool drop rapids, quite different from the traditional style of rivers in the Alps, the food is also amazing! : )

First drop on the Egua

On arrival in the familiar Val Sesia the water levels were not looking good, with hot temperatures and lack of snow on the mountains the weeks spent there may not have been too promising. We were saved from a dry season quite dramatically a couple of days later, heavy rain and snow over the following week, left the usual creeks unusually high and we were forced to divert our attention to the main river in the valley the Sesia. During that time Ed Cornfield and I took a hike up the Gronda river high up past the usually run section, looking for new action. The following day we made a reality of our scouted lines in an early morning assault of the rapidly dropping section. My Car made hard work of the steep gravel track until the end, not suprising filled with 4 heavy kayakers and their gear. Then we shouldered our boats for a 40 minute hike upstream. Classic granite slides and drops were dispatched with big grins, a rare chance at some thing new and different in the area. We paddled all the way down to a big 25 ft waterfall with few portages, then each of us ran the falls on various lines. We finished off the day on the classic race section into the village which by then was back to normal levels.

Upper Gronda
Scouting a dynamic slot drop, Upper Gronda
The next week was spent paddling some of the classics of the area in good condition, and making a short road trip over to the Ciusella and Soana rivers (more classic granite runs).

Trumpet (Fan) on the Sermenzina

Ex Pat Patch and his Canadian wife Dee joined us on the most of the runs and were a pleasure to paddle with. They had travelled over for Simons wedding but after spotting some of the niceties in Piedmonte had decided to extend their stay.

Patch took a sequence of 6 shots on the Trumpet drop on the Sermenzina, this is one of my favourite rapids anywhere, and is the first of a double drop on the river. The approach is very fast with the water being funnelled in through a rock V, then as the water fans out over the drop the trumpet shapre is made. The choice of lines are to make the rock grind high on the left and you can clean a boof into to eddy, or stay in the centre and go deep with the water. A no brainer considering the impending drop below, my choice: stay on the surface all the way!

My Val Sesia season came to a close after a weeks coaching and guiding with Gene 17 on the classics around the Sesia. As always Dave and Simon were great to work with and we had good fun with the clients on the river and in the restaurant.

Winter fun

2007-02-27T10:56:00.000Z

Arriving back in the UK for the winter isn't always my idea of fun, but with plenty of water in the rivers and projects to follow up this December was a busy one. Heading out to Devon straight from Heathrow I spent a pleasant few days paddling on the Dart and working on skills courses and guiding for Gene17.

Next up meetings with both Merrell, Palm Equipment to catch up and give feedback on their respective products and also a meeting with Fatface in Havant kept me on the road for a couple of days, and of course stopping at Hurley for a paddle before heading into London to meet with the group I'd be taking to the Zanskar.

The rest of the month was divided between kayaking on the Thames weirs, guiding and coaching in Devon for Gene17, and meeting with the BCU to start on my new project, writing new coaching programs for freestyle kayaking.

Testing the new Dagger prototype at Hurley, River Thames

The water stayed around in January, but I headed out to France for a much needed snowboarding fix.

I've always found snowboarding so similar to kayaking, start at the top, finish at the bottom and use all the features on the way down for a smooth and fun descent and of course keeping the weight forwards.

Despite reports of a duff season in France we got lucky with 3 days worth of snow as we arrived although it nearly put paid to our new years plans visiting friends in Alpes D'Huez, I was happy to reach the bar after a few hours slipping around corners even with the snow chains on.

At the beginning of February I flew out to Dublin to start a Wilderness Medics course. First though I spent a great couple of days with kayaking friend Dave at his Redneck palace in Co Wicklow. We headed out to the west coast to catch some surf at Easkey where I narrowly avoided being smashed to pieces exiting the harbour in completely the wrong place (I still have the barnacle scars) We also played out on his motorised toys in the forest next to his place, with the trials bikes all taken I was left with a James Bond Moonraker style two stroke tri cycle!!

The 7 day Wilderness Medic Technicians course (WEMT) was hands down the best value course I've ever done, however very intense learning with about 15 hours of lectures and practical exercises each day. The tutors were amazingly knowledgeable and patient and I finished the course with my head crammed full of new information, but way more confident that I'd be able to deal with medical emergencies in remote area's.

Getting realistic conditions in the Wicklow hills for the Wilderness Medics course

From Ireland straight out to a small resort in Italy for some more fun in the Snow. Livigno is a relatively small resort in the Italian Alps and Tax free being on the Swiss border, no deep powder this time but good boarding all the same especially in the park. I spend some good days there with Louise and her friends.

Welcome to Tidytrix

2007-01-02T20:41:00.000Z

Hello everyone

Ok so I finally got around to putting up my blogspot! After a few months of dithering its here to update as I go.

There's no excuse for not having this really, I'd like to say that I haven't had the time, or that I've not had the access to computers due to the travel etc etc, but the truth is I've just had far more interesting things to do.... like going kayaking! oh and for the last few months I've been in Asia where most of the computers I've tried to use are oh soooo slow! Anyway here it is, the long over due Tidytrix white water adventures blog.

The first thing I've done is put up some shots from past missions as you can see. From now on I'm going to be posting on here fairly regularly about my latest adventures, enjoy!!

Matt

Eastern Tibet Expedition 2006

2006-11-27T10:55:00.000Z

7 Weeks in Tibet

Travelling over land through Nepal Sam and I caught the roof of a bus up the heaving post monsoon Bhote Kosi to the Tibetan border. This was the main mission for our season in the Himalayas, to explore the rivers of Eastern Tibet. In Lhasa we met up with the rest of our team for the mission: Film producer Dave Kwant an ex pat now living in NZ was making a film of the trip, Kiwi's Zak Shaw and Eden Sinclair and also Jason Shepard(JJ) made up the US contingent.

In Lhasa we had a little time to look around whilst the boys got used to the altitude, fitting in a visit to the Potala palace the traditional home of the Dalai Lama and also the Jokang Temple, the epi-centre of Tibetan Buddihsm.

Interview on a roof, on the roof of the world.

Hiking to the put in of the Drukla river

Local boy at the take out of the Drukla river, another gem in Eastern Tibet.

High up above the lake at Draksum Tso at over 4000m the Altitude does for Dave after a steep hike out of one of the first descents in the area.

8000 metre Nyala towers over our campsite and points us down the Dong Chu river.

Finishing the Dong Chu river, all smiles, this is one of my favorite rivers of the world.

The only way to travel in back country Tibet, by Dong Feng truck, this time on the first descent of the Jepu Chu

The Parlung Tsangpo

Chris Jones of Windhorse Adventures was key to our success in Tibet and pointed us in the direction of some amazing white water. On his recommendation the Parlung Tsangpo and its unrun lower canyon became the focus of our trip. Our full descent took us through some of the biggest most intense white water I've ever experienced. Twelve days of physical and mental exertion and we emerged successful from the lower canyon.

Pilgrims on the way to Lhasa along the Parlung Tsangpo only 600km to go!

The Parlung Tsangpo, increasing in volume every day. This is day 8! sneaking past the guts of a monster hole.

12 days, 200 km covered and 2000 metres descended and we complete the first full descent of the Parlung Tsangpo

Fresh snowfall reminds us of a fast approaching winter, our water begins to freeze at night, we head to the lower lands of China.

Despite past problems Tibetan people have hung on to their traditions and remain among our fondest memories of Tibet.

The documentary of our mission in Tibet is out on DVD from www.2at.com

Ladakh September 2006

2006-10-01T17:45:00.000+01:00

This is what the blog is about documenting kayaking adventures with good shots. Choosing these photos was a little difficult from Pacman's huge collection of quality shots he took on his ancient camera, but I hope these tell the story well.

The Ladakh and Zanskar ranges are tucked between the the Greater Himalayas and the Karakorams in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh is a huge barren moonscape, being part of the Himalayan plateau at and sits at an elevation of over 3500 metres. The area is littered with Monastery's (Gompa's) as a testament to the strong Buddhist history. Ladakh is also a place of harsh contrast with as little rainfall to almost qualify as a desert the day time temperatures reach over 30 degrees C and dropping below zero overnight. We made sure we were well kitted up for this mission.

Arriving in Leh I spent some time acclimatising and went for a warm up paddle for two days on the lower Indus. After re-supplying in Leh we left early morning for a longer multiday trip down the Tsarap and Zasnkar canyon, this choice was for two reasons; firstly when combined with the harder Tsarap tributary this trip is one of the most remote and spectacular multiday trips in the world. Secondly in 2007 I'd be leading a youth expedition to the Zanskar and I needed to check it out.

The 12 hour bouncy drive to the put in took us over two passes over 5000 meters, and induced several vehicle repairs.

Putting on at 4100m and feeling really unwell with altitude sickness, the quick ascent and high passes hadn't helped. The vehicle had left us in a remote wilderness with no choice but to descend the river. We packed 7 days worth of food and equipment into our 4 boats and started our descent.

On day 3 we reached the Phuktal Gompa, a monastery built in a cave high up on a cliff face, the monks here are a few days walk from the nearest road and have to be self sufficient for the entire year, the building itself is unbelieveable.

Extra cirricular learning The young monks checking out the footage.

The Tsarap is not the most technically demanding river but it is very remote, this coupled with the high altitude makes for a demanding days on the water physically and mentally.

Day 4. Heading to the river, the farmers collect the harvest for winter in one of the most remote farmland in the world, it'll soon be minus 30 and the food has to last until spring.

Like most trips its not what your doing, its who you're with, that really makes the trip, in this case Sam and I couldn't have better company. Babu a talented young paddler from Nepal and Shalabh one of India's most pioneering kayakers completed our four man team, and helped us broach the language barrier with the Ladakhis.

Shalabh

Babu

After 4 days of paddling a distance of 180kms the river converges with the Zanskar at Padum, our first glimpse of civilisation. Here the river eases to a fairly flat Class 1 up to the entrance of the Canyon, we saved ourselves a day long flat paddle by catching the only bus of the day down the valley.

Shalabhs sweet talking landed us a room for the night in the village at the head of the canyon. The kids help out with boats.

Entering the Canyon the rock closes in and the river compresses and is a consistent fun Class 3.

Paddling long hours we covered the 120km remote gorge in two days, all the way to the confluence with the mighty Indus.

Despite the AMS the trip was amazing, the Zanskar canyon was also perfect for the youth trip, I couldn't wait to get back there with a playboat, there must be more decent playspots on that stretch than the Nile