MassiveCock Productions

I have A Website Now!!

2009-08-18T01:22:00.003+02:00

Hey everybody. Well it finally happened... I started an actual website. This means that there will be no more updates posted here but all the latest happenings in my world can be found at www.allovertheshow.co.nz. I hope you all enjoy my site.

Norway Roundup

2009-07-05T16:44:00.009+02:00

AAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So I'm soon back to work for another month... sigh. But here is a quick roundup of how my two weeks in Norway panned out.

Thorpy on the first drop on the Brandseth

Colin styling the line in his $1000 NOK Embudo

ESKTREMSPORT VEKO: Classic times as expected. On my first morning in voss I teemed up with a British crew and we had a high water blatt down the Lower Myrdalselvi (click here for some pics) which turned out to be a little more 'full-on' than any of us really signed up for. Top start to the week, right what's next? Ah yes partying... and that pretty much filled the rest of the week.

Thanks to Colin filming there is some good video footage of me getting spanked on this run... it is good to take your medicine though because if you don't take your medicine you might get sick!!

Norwegians are not quite as boisterous on the dance floor was us kiwis and given there was an over representation of us fellas from the deep south we turned a few heads with our impromptu mosh-pit antics. On the Saturday night I had my own private mosh-pit going but I have a suspicion that not everybody around me was as happy about it as I was.

Thorpy taking the flying approach... nice line buddy!!

Voss is a good place to just turn up and meet new people... most of the people I hung out with for the week I had not met before arriving including a group of three rowdy ausies. Somehow we seemed to get along in spite of them referring to me simply as 'kiwi' (it's hard to think of that in negative terms though). After getting loud on Thursday night I joined them on a Upper Brandseth run although I probably shouldn't have been in a boat. I managed to get two good hole trashings and had to roll probably a half dozen times in all, oh and broke my boat to but that was coming for a while. Not the best trip ever for me but I did get some good photos which is what you're looking at.

This move belongs in a skate park... boof to wall grind. Colin showing how it is done

After esktremsports veko was done I headed to Sjoa to hangout at the Australian embassy as the aussie boys dubbed there trailer complete with 'pool room'. High water boating on the Åmot and Skjørva kept the days interesting... maybe a little to interesting for Leon. He got a couple of good rodeo rides but on the plus side he showed me where not to go ;-) The nights were filled with home brew, bbq's and parties. The party shenanigans got a little out of hand on my last night when I got blind sided by a Tasmanian Devil... my shirt will never be the same again!!

The camera angle doesn't do this drop justest, it is far more tricky than it looks.

Good times all round in Norway once again... this really is a great place so if you haven't been then it's time to make the pilgrimage, especially if you are a boater. Well it is back to work for me... not sure yet but the next mission might be a winter one in godzone.

The result of being was attacked on the sly by a Tasmanian Devil... he might have one the battle but I won the war!!! (Photo: Leon)

Yah I'm Extreme Racist

2009-06-26T19:26:00.002+02:00

Mikey on route to the top qualifying time

So I'm back in Voss for another Esktremsport Veko, my second to date and so far it has been just as good as the last. The sun is blazing, the water levels are up (maybe a little too much), and there are crazy people trying to kill themselves left right and centre!! Even at the kayak downhill competition we were 'swooped' by some sky divers... it seems even on the river people keep dropping out of the sky?!?.

The water fall in the middle of the course... not always so easy to get a fast line on

Base thumping looks awesome but they weren't running a try it and see if you like it program so I didn't 'give it a shot' and same for sky dying. Maybe I'll do a course some time... they don't really seem like the sort of sports that one can purchase the gear and just have nudge at. Something about the laws of gravity being the same for beginners and experts alike... some guy tried to explain it to me but I didn't really follow what he was on about. Oh and most of the other sports have races to see who can get down the fastest (like kayaking - fastest down wins) so why is there not a similar competition in sky dying?!? The rules would be quite simple - first guy to make it inside the finishing circle (alive) wins... I think it really has some spectator potential.

I'm not convinced... rock splats are not usually quickest way to get through a rapid

Anyway moving on to the kayaking as that is what all the pictures are of. Yes I did make up the numbers (can't claim to have competed) with a mid field finish from a rather average run. Eddying out is my secret to a slow time although it is not as glamourous as the tricks of others such as sliding backwards in the slot at the end. I did try that one two years ago though and it is a good wee time taker. You could really tell some people had put some effort into there slow times though, maybe even some practising. I think eddying out and rolling just above the waterfall was the most creative way I saw to add seconds to the clock... maybe I'll give that a shot next year. The real key to an outstandingly average time however is not practising combined with heavy partying the night before!! Works a charm

Some holes that just love to stall you or push you into an eddy

The race turned out to be a good one for the kiwi's with Sam and Mikey both on the podium and Sam had the fastest run of the day by a couple of seconds but just got piped on combined times. Top work fellows and don't worry I'll be 'not' practising for next year.

Probably the funnest rapid in the race section... yeehaa

Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh!

2009-06-14T13:29:00.003+02:00

There goes that crazy french man... look out!!

My buddy Luc, or the crazy french man as he is known in our circle of friends, is back in France and seeing as I have not been to France before I figured that he would be the perfect person to introduce me to a country I have heard many stereotypes about.

Krzysztof on line to glory

In standard fashion I didn't really organise any of the finer details like the address of the house we were staying or how I was going to get there. I took a train to Grenoble and figured I would text Luc when I got arrived and magically it would all be all right... quick bit of advice for the future - make sure that your phone is going to work before you attempt this approach. After that hiccup was straightened out we had a few beers, a nights sleep and headed up into the French Alps for a weekend boating mission.

Wood anyone?!?

Krzysztof, our guide for the weekend found us some sweet wee class 3-4 luge runs. Nothing stressful, just quality white water and beautiful scenery... perfect. That night I got to practice my French (well... my French laugh that is) while hanging out with the Grenoble kayak club who despite no one really speaking English made rather good company... or perhaps I was just drunk and having my own fun (the beers were very much cold and the G&T's very much G).

The French Alps are a beautiful place

Three runs the first day, two runs the second, one swim (don't worry Luc I wont mention any names), and good times all round. I finished off my flying trip to France by visiting the other crazy french man I know, Franck who fed me like a king. That is one stereotype that is very much true about France: the food is great and the cheese amazing.

Luc showing a bit of... dry top... hmmm

Cheers for the adventures guys, vous voir la prochaine fois

Does Kayaking Get More Unusual Than This?!?

2009-06-10T21:08:00.005+02:00

Looking up to the Jungfrau... pretty sweet mountain to be kayaking in the shadow of

Right now I'm hanging out in picturesque mountains of Switzerland. Work is over for another month and it is play time and what better place to start than crashing on Fraenzi's couch in the adventure tourist hot spot that is Interlaken. Balmers provided the entertainment by night and the days were filled with 'whatever' and that sometimes included kayaking on the Weisse Lutschine.

Oh my god it's thee Eden Sinclair... he's a pretty big deal around here!!

Eden and I managed to drag Stu away from his womanising long enough to go boating and through some inventive borrowing of gear we had enough kit and a crew to make it happen. First step... catch the train. It certainly is the first time that I have taken the train to go boating but they have them everywhere in this country so it makes sense... I guess. The train stops at Lauterbrunnen about 200m form our put in - a luge track!!

Eden making himself streamlined... maybe stupid fast wasn't fast enough for him!!

It is I... and dam I make this shit look good

Step two: put on. Doesn't sound so unusual... until you relies that the put-in is a water race complete with turns, low hanging branches, and even a small drop!! I took Eden's word for it that it was "sweet as bro" and heeded his advice that it would be unwise to roll - "just don't flip", cheers for the heads up. One question was nagging in the back of my mind though, "how do I steer" but apparently that is easy - "you just bounce off the walls"... glad I asked!!

Styling the boof -stomp... but hey I'm a pretty big deal around here

Step three: paddle the river. Finally some normality... by this stage I was half expecting to be told that we actually paddle this one up stream... fortunately the river was just good quality white water. Until the catch that is... you have to walk a section because it is illegal to paddle it. Well I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less on this trip!!

The level was kind and the stupid hole that I saw here two years ago was nothing but a playful pussy cat

Step five: paddle out. Yes I know I skipped step four but it was just some running, some good luck to get our boat shuttled for us, and some annoyance that a bunch of fisherman had prevented us paddling a sweet looking rapid. Moving on - the paddle out is just that a paddle out but it finishes 50m from Fraenzi's place so I can't complain. Another first for me, to paddle back to the house I'm staying at... like I said not your average trip but great fun all the same. The photos are from a few days later and they tell the same story... I have to apologise though as I have forgotten the name of the person who took the pictures, cheers for the effort though. Ka kite :-)

The rapids below the weir drop... not too shabby

Road Tripping in Aotearoa

2009-04-27T10:32:00.009+02:00

Driving into Milford Sound

So my trip back home has turned into one long road trip, the river gods of The Coast decided that kayakers had already had there share of perfect flows for the season and having sampled the boating at its best in years past I opted out of the low water scrape that was on offer and headed in the opposite direction with a new ally Ine (a backpacker Crusty and I commandeered during are goon train adventures that we shall not speak of).

Kea's... the gangster bird of New Zealand

It is all too easy to ignore the places close to home that are 'easy' to go to anytime. Before you know it they are not close to home anymore and you never went! One such place for me is the bottom of the South Island. In particular the Catlins so I was happy to be given a chance to redeem my previous apathy and mission it south in my trusty van, complete with 4WD stickers and all. 4WD stickers really are the way forward... it is like being given a free licence to drive places you really shouldn't without having to put up with the judging steers of those who have to help pull you out... "Cheers for the help mate... I would have got back up there but the 4WD broke (heeheehee)". The best part about the van though has to be the sweet as bed in the back... no camping in a tent for me, that's sooo last millennium.

Hey that's not yours, get off there

Our tour de south took us form Queenstown to the bottom (with mandatory stop in Milford Sound), around the bottom to Bluff, back up through the Catlins, inwards to the southern lakes and Aoraki, and finally through Arthur's Pass to the Coast. At times it was like travelling with another kiwi as Ine is pretty apt at taking the piss, something we kiwis pride ourselves on, so if I ever started to go on about how much I love being in New Zealand, Ine would begin telling me how great Australia is or try to make Belgium sound like there was more to it than beer and chocolate... yeah right. Ine never could tell me who the president of Europe was though... "It's the country you come from, how do you not know?!?" Good times all round ;-)

Ine having a stand-off with a kea. It lasted until the kea got board and started investigating what he could steel from my van

We learnt some important lessons in Fiordland such as the camping is free if they catch you in the morning. Apparently you have to pay or leave if they catch you in the evening because they can 'evict' you but that doesn't really work in the morning... "yeah sweet as mate we're leaving anyway". Parking the van out of site is also a good approach to avoiding the unwelcome and introduced pests that are the DOC rangers. However you may need the 4WD stickers for this to be plausible.

Fiordland rain forest

The bottom of New Zealand is well worth the effort to go and see and that goes doubly for the Catlins. South Westland is my favourite spot but the Catlins are an equal match with rain forest right beside the coast... all it needs is some world class creeking and I would have serious trouble choosing between the two. We found plenty of waterfalls, beautiful beaches, and even caves at the bottom of sea cliffs. My camera battery ran out of juice just before we arrived so I don't have any photos to show you... perhaps another time.

Mitre Peak - Milford Sound

Having completed our tour de south we headed to the Coast to catch up with thee Eden Sinclair. It was the first time I have seen Eden since he left Norway after we were there for five months, over two years ago, so made for quite an emotional reunion... ok so actually we just got pissed and talked shit like always. Eden was kind enough however to show us his 'secret' spot for gold panning and the three of us slaved away for an afternoon to secure no less that 1.5 grams of of the shinny stuff with a street value for up to 50 kiwi rupees... hmmm you might have to rethink your retirement plan buddy. Well at least Ine has a nice souvenir to remember how pointless hard work is.

Moss covered beech forests

So all in all New Zealand has continued to treat me well, I had a great time just by being here. The really beauty of the place is in the photos though so I'll let them tell the story of my travels. I will offer one piece of advice however for anyone travelling with someone form Belgium... don't call them German... well actually do, it's pretty funny (just be prepared for retaliation hahaha). Ahh good times Ine, your welcome back in New Zealand any time :-) Ka kite

Crazy fungus... Ine was to scary to try and eat it despite my reassurance that she would be 'cool' if she did

Wicked starry sky... I think it is the little things like being able to see this many stars which makes New Zealand such an amazing place

Nothing in particular, I just like this photo

Moeraki Boulders

Ine learning about waves... they are the things that wash up the beach and get your shoes and pants wet when you stand in the wrong place

Moraine from the Tasman Glacier at Aoraki

Heading towards Arthur's Pass

Castle Hill

Walking into Punch Bowl falls

Punch Bowl falls

An old rimu tree... one of my favourite types of tree on the Coast

Chilling in the Hokitika Gorge... good times

The First Of Road Trip Is...

2009-04-10T11:39:00.025+02:00

Crutsy doing... well you can decide for yourself!!

"Stuff this Crusty... turning right is not happening, we're going left!" I exclaimed after waiting not so patiently for nearly ten minutes at an intersection with constant rush hour traffic. Not the best time to leave Christchurch but when you only decide the 'roadtrip' is a go at 4:00pm there is not always so much choice in the departure time. "So where does left take take us then Crusty?" I ask all ready knowing the answer. "To the coast au" is his response empathised in colourful kiwi slang which I have missed so much while overseas... something tells me that good times await.

On the road

THE FIRST RULE OF ROAD TRIP: The two of us left Christchurch on a Wednesday afternoon with a van full of toys, fresh vegetables from Crusty's garden, top work Crusty, and a plan that hadn't progressed past leaving the city. The decision to head to the coast was made for us by our inability to turn right at an intersection and that is how the rest of the trip would would pan out. This is also when we decided that 'the first rule of road trip is... you do not talk about road trip' thus ensuring that the randomness would continue. And so there we were headed to the coast and into the unknown with neither of us truly prepared for what lay ahead.

Crutsy is sponsored don't you know... by Nippy's

ROCK SCISSORS PAPER: "Good old rock... nothing beats rock!!" I chuckled to myself as I cruzed round a sweeping left bend having just one and in the process decided that we would head south and not north at the first junction we had seen since leaving Christchurch nearly three hours ago. We hulled up for the night in the small South Westland town of Franz Joseph and set about making our presents known to all in sundry. The Kiwi Experience bus was in town, as it always is, and the drunken Europeans kept the atmosphere lively while the locals add a sharp contrast and made the place feel real. Crusty made 'not' friends with some fishermen passing through by discussing quoters but fortunately the locals were far more accommodating. I started talking shit with a helicopter pilot and as the beers drained we invented a new challenge of sorts, kind of like a real life survivor. The concept was simple, the pilot would drop us in the bush somewhere without much gear (and no idea of where we were) and we had to 'survive'. As fate would have it my new pilot friend was off for a flight in the morning to check out some 'stuff' and was keen for Crusty and I to give the 'survivor' game a nudge. "Sweet as mate... I'm sleeping in the van out there, wake me up" I cheerfully remarked not releasing that he was serious. And so at 6:00am Crusty and I were flown blindfolded into 'somewhere' and had to 'survive'.

Quality West Coast housing

SURVIVOR: Turns out the game is more fun to talk about than to actually play and at times it would be fair to say that we might have, if only a little bit, regretted our impromptu decision. "Well crusty, we got ourselves into this shit... we better get ourselves out of it"... "Soooo where do we start?!?" Our first move was to gain some altitude to get our bearings. This was not so hard as we had been dropped off rather high up and given the abundance of large mountains in South Westland, once we could see them our route to the civilised world become clear as mud... or so we though, it was actually a little murkier. The vantage point from the ridge we were saddling showed what looked like a plausible route down into the valley and out to what was probably the road... probably. The reality however was that descending into the valley got sketchy after about two hours and yet again we were at a junction but rock paper scissors wasn't going to solve. "Crusty old chap... I'm fraid to say old boy that you are going to need a rather large piece os earth moving equipment too get me to take one more step down this damned mountain" I calmly explained to Crusty. "Well Mr Ramsay Sir... I hope you slipped a club ski field rope tow in your back pocket before departing because such a devise will indeed be required to drag me up to the ridge line" Crutsy gently informed me. And so we did the only think we could do - traverse. To shorten a long story (or cut a long story short so to speak) we reached the road just as darkness was descending and started hitching back to Franz Joseph to recover the van and yarn to the pilot of our adventures. For 'surviving' he bought us a beer... top bloke.

Pass the goon bro

Yeah this man's on the goon train

THROWING CAUTION TO THE WIND: Next stop in our adventure was Jackson's Bay and a much quiter pub hidden away from the silly drunken tourists of the kiwi experience bus. The guy who picked us up when we hitched back to Frnaz was on his way to check out a cave that some buddies of his had found where a river apparently flows right through a hill kind of like cave stream but it could be you could float through in on an inner tube. He was impressed with our tails of the game 'survivor' and asked us to join him. "Sweet as mate... see you in Jackson's". So there we were sitting in a different pub, Rain by Dragon blasting on the dukebox, a older women dancing by herself, locals yarning at the bar, and us... discussing a different but no less foolish sounding plan to float under a mountain. "I suppose there are some things you just shouldn't say no to" Crusty summed up the situation and so for the second time in two days all caution was thrown to the wind and we set out on a caving adventure.

Which way is up?!?

CAVE TUBING: Our new friend Matt had a spear tube (Crusty had brought a tube with him... talk about prepared) and so with enough warm gear and a hand torch each we set out on next adventure. The cave wasn't too far, only a couple hours walk so we were soon peering into the vast opening into the mountain apparently which flowed into the next valley. Our plan was to float through the hill and then pretty much all the way back to the car... twas a good plan except that the underground river had different ideas. The level was 'higher' than what I imagine is ideal and had started to form 'rapids'. I do my fair share of throwing myself in amongst class five white water and this was by no means class 5 but when complete darkness and that uneasy sense of eminent death are in the mix, boy the pulse really starts racing. Matt assured us that it would be "sweet as bro"... well "that's all the assurance I need, how about you Crusty?" I asked sarcastically. "Yeah man, if he says it's good then I'm in" Crusty remarked with no less sarcasm in in voice. And so in a funny double bluff gone wrong we all ponyed up and floated into the unknown.

DANGER!!!

Hmmm rather and emotional photo... wouldn't you say?

REBIRTH: I emerged from the 20min luge ride into the blindingly bright daylight first. My terror was replaced with a sense of amazement and then laughter as I saw the look on Crusty's face. He exited soon after clinging onto Matt for dear life. A hole had 'eaten' him and then kindly shoved him in an undercut... lucky for Crusty Matt floated past at the same moment and gave Crusty something to hold onto and be dragged out with... Matt's leg. Matt probably though a taniwha had got him because he had some rather wide eyes too. "Classic... now lets never speak of it again!"

New Zealand ROCKS!!

CHICKEN WITH THE BEES: Crusty and I both agreed that we had had enough adventure on our road trip so it was time for some mischief. And as luck would have it we were joined by two German girls hitching around New Zealand... didn't there mummy's teach them not to accept rides from strange kiwis. We started out amusing ourselves with the little things, such as telling them all about our colourful history including killer snow chickens and hobbits. Pretending to drive off with all their stuff got some classic looks on their faces but still they did not take heed. Those Germans are suckers for punishment!! I think we finally convinced them we were not 'ordinary' when we started playing chicken with the bees. It's a simple game involving a hive of bees, a van, and a complete lack of common sense. One person exits the van... runs over the bee hive and bangs on the top five times thus getting the bees considerably 'agitated'. They then run back into the van and it is the next persons turn. The process is repeated until someone chickens out and has to do something predetermined at the start as a result. See fun for the whole family!!

Yeah I know some magic bro!?!

THE FIRST RULE OF ROAD TRIP: So this is where the story ends... and also where it begins!! If you remember the first rule of road trip is - 'you do not talk about road trip' and thus it follows that everything above is a complete work of fiction. "What is the real story?" I hear you ask... sorry cant say, it's a secret ;-)

Check it out... Hobbits

Soooo It Has Been A While

2009-04-08T01:00:00.004+02:00

Kia ora, kei te pehea koutou good people of interweb land... I guess you have all but given up on ever seeing an future updates of what is going on in MassiveCock land. Well there has been plenty and not so much at the same time. I have spent more time taking photos and chilling out on goon train than going on missions. Well not kayaking missions anyway and those are the ones that really get me motivated to share the adventure. At present I'm back in Aotearoa (New Zealand for those not in the know) and loving life. There are plenty of stories to share... but I'm not going to. Instead here is a photo I took of me the other day while on an... umm, entertaining road trip with a good friend Crusty (The first rule of 'roadtrip' is we do not talk about 'roadtrip'). Hopefully more to come in the near future. Ka keti akuanei

Swim Like A Fish

2008-08-02T13:32:00.007+02:00

This is in the middle of the longest tunnel in the world. There are three rooms like this that look more like a rave hall than a main road. I assume that it is to keep people awake and alert.

One river I was disappointed not to paddle last year while in Norway was the Sogndalselvi, particularly notable for three back to back waterfalls with no place to get out in between them. My buddies Mefford and Amos had also failed to paddle the river despite living only an hour and a half drive from it. Our mission to it last year only revealed water to low to paddle but we did get to scout the three waterfalls and dream of what could be.

Amos running the first waterfall which had a burly leadin

This year was to be different. While hanging out in Voss I received a call from Mefford - “Our trips for today have been cancelled so we’re heading for the Sogndal, you want to come?” And with that I was off on a two hour drive which nearly spent more time underground than it did above. I think the tunnel breakdown goes something like this - 2km tunnel, 11km tunnel, 5km tunnel, 24km tunnel, 6km tunnel, and ferry into a 3km tunnel (tunnels under 1km excluded because hey it's Norway). That's over 50km on tunnels on a 120km drive!! At the end of the 3km tunnel (after the ferry) I picked up a couple of Belgium girls hitchhiking. They had taken the ferry and then walked the entire length of the tunnel not realising how long it was.

Mefford discovering the challengs of the entrance and inventing a new style of boofing - the tail first plug!! You will have to ask him how it is done, I only took the photos.

Arriving in the small town of Sogndal I soon found Mefford and Amos. We had a quick reunion, set shuttle and were off to paddle both upper and lower sections of the Sogndal at the timely hour of 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Good thing it doesn’t get dark in Norway in the summer.

For once it's me not behind the camera. After Mefford swam on the first waterfall he become camera man (Photo by: Mefford Williams)

About the time we went kayaking is about the time things went astray for me. A kilometre into the upper section I got a right proper thrashing and swam like a fish. Amos jumped out for a quick scout in which he saw a big hole in middle of the river with 'good to go' line down the left... not so! I paddled the drop first to find the “go to go on the left” line ran into a wall of water kicking hard into the hole. Form the low angle slide I was on I had no chance of getting a boof so instead took my beating like a man and a good wee beating it was. I would like to claim that I was in there for over a minute because it sure felt longer but it was probably closer to 30-45 seconds. Long enough for Amos to place a throw rope perfectly on my shoulder signalling that it was to time to make hasty retreat.

Amos running the second waterfall (Photo by: Mefford Williams)

Swimming was not to be as easy as I anticipated though. To enable me to hold onto the throw rope with two hands tried to put my knee through my spray skirt but without any success... that little bugger was determined to keep my in my kayak! This left me holding onto a line trying to pull me of the river while me boat held me stead fast in the hole. Only thing for it - let go with one hand and pull my spray skirt off by its tag... easier said than done. Finally out my kayak and still holding onto the rope I things were surely looking up... until the rope went slack!! Amos had been pulled into the river just before I got out of my boat so I was on my own again. Luckily he had already pulled me over to the left side of the river and my swim to the sure was easy. I then got to watch my boat, with my camera inside, float past in the middle of the current where I had no chance of grabbing it.

Amos on his way to the bottom of the third and final waterfall (Photo by: Mefford Williams)

My boat made it a long way down the river before pinning about a km before the takeout of the upper. Having got all my gear back I wasn’t too worried about walking half the upper run and got straight back in the saddle. It didn’t take us long to get to the three waterfalls which makes the Sogndalselvi such a classic run. Amos and Mefford paddled the first waterfall while I took photos. Amos got stalled in the bottom but came out fine. After seeing this Mefford though he would head further right... a lot further right in the end and although he had a good line on the falls he got stuffed under an undercut just after the drop and had no choice but to swim like a fish (at least fish are good swimmers). Fortunately I was in a good position to get him a throw bag and help pull him out before the second falls. Not wanting to leave Amos the run the next two falls by himself I ponyed up and stuck the line to meet Amos waiting a small eddy just above the second drop. Which he insisted I paddle first but hey he been sitting waiting in his boat for nearly 30min so I was happy to do so.

Weeee... (Photo by: Mefford Williams)

The next two falls were all good and we found Meffod’s boat just downstream of the final falls so all were back on the water together for the rest of the run. The rest of the run saw only good lines and no dramas. While the paddling was not executed as well as we hoped it certainly was enjoyed by all.

Mefford reflects on the day that was

Raundalselvi - Lower Canyon

2008-07-30T16:17:00.001+02:00

The put in drop... what a way to start a run!

More of the Voss area goods... the Lower Canyon of the Raundalselvi which is probably my favorite run of the area (of those I have paddled so far that is). Then again it is hard a choice because all the runs are such high quality. The wonderful sunny hot day made for good picture taking too, a bonus to any good days boating that should be remembered. And too thoes of you enjoying the winter snow back home... well to be honst I am jelous but only a little bit because of rivers like the Raundalselvi and thirty plus degree days ;-)

Mark enjoying the entrance to a great section

Mickel playing games with holes... luck for him he was on the winning side

Mickel getting his boof on

Hendri same

More sweet drops... on this guy I though I would so a little dance with the left wall, not so graceful though I might add. Here Mickel makes it look far better than I did.

Greg paddled... um a drop while Hendri looks on... come to think of it I don't know the names on any of the rapids on this section. Maybe there aren't any?!?

Mickel, same rapid different line

Hendri looking for the melt down

The Lower Myrdalselvi a Little Voss Gem

2008-07-29T20:36:00.000+02:00

Greg on the first drop of Karma Cow Falls

Well, I'm back on the water again in Norway in one of my favourite places - Voss. Voss just seems to have it all, great rivers, awesome people to hangout with, and even great weather (well don't count on it but it has been 30+ everyday I've been in town). Essentially no kayaking trip to Norway is complete without a trip to Voss and these pictures should be a good indication why. They are all from the Lower Myrdalselvi at a wonderfully friendly flow where there is enough water that it's not scrappy but everything goes and nothing is too scary. Perfect

Hendri on the second slide of Karma Cow Falls

Greg on the same drop

Hendri hand paddling the falls after the portage... oh yeah there is one portage, a 100 foot waterfall which lands on rock. Apparently the one only gets paddled on Sundays, day of the Gods... or so Greg and Hendri would have me believe.

Hendri sticking witht the hand paddles at the weir drop

The grand finale, a scary looking drop that you 'just float down the middle'

Greg on the same drop

Endelig tilbake i landet med brun ost

2008-07-19T11:05:00.009+02:00

Sit down and relax... there is no need to rush in Norway

Well I have finally made my way back to Norway for some boating after far to long away from the place. The finer details of said boating are yet to be arranged but with rivers everywhere and lots of other kayakers about that shouldn't be too much of a problem. For the moment I am rather enjoying a relaxing time after five weeks of parting (I mean working) in Poland. Anyhow for your enjoyment I have some photos that I snapped that other day in Aker Brygge by the waterfront in down town Oslo. The weather in this part of the world has a habbit of continously changing and the day I took these photos on was no exception. The are shown here in the order they were shot in so you can see how different the sky is in each shot! Well enjoy... kayaking action to come shortly. Har det bra

Protecting the city from attack... by whom I wonder?!?

Some old buildings near the city center

There are lots of sculptures and statues all over Oslo... I'm not sure why they chose a bull for the waterfront though?!?

People relaxing at the waters edge

The weather made for some really nice lighting conditions. Here the buildings are lit up with a dark background sky. This is probably me favorite lighting conditions to take photos in.

Don't like the threatening looking sky... no problem, just turn around!!

More of the same amazing lighting. I love the way the tree almost appears to glow.

The lighting conditions are not only perfect for photo taking but also for sitting down and enjoying the afternoon sun

One of the many parks and fountains which are found all over the city. It really does make for an enjoyable place to be.

A close up of the sculpture at the base of the fountain

If I wasn't being so lazy I would probably darken the sky to the left of the statue to give a greater contrasting effect... but hey this is Norway and you are allow to be lazy here ;-)

This one is a personal favorite but I think you need to see the full sized original to full appreciate the subtle depth of field effect here. Just enough to make the statue standout without overly blurring the background - camera settings were ISO 200, 28mm, f 7.1, 1/400 sec.

Another favorite, in this case the composition of the photo worked out really well.

I had to wait a while for this courtyard to be clear of people, well almost clear (this was the best I managed). I feel the photo looks far better without people.

I couldn't believe my luck when I came across this boat lit up the way is was. This photo has minimal post editing... this is how it look as I took the photo. Actually none of these photos have had any post editing that changes the look/feel of the original shot... it was just one of those days when the light was kind.

Believe it or not this is actually half of a round-a-bout and probably the coolest I have ever seen! You can see the marks on the coble stones where the cars have been driving. Also note that I am standing in the middle of the road to take the picture. Luckly the cars in Norway stop for podestriens.

Gdansk - Poland

2008-06-19T11:00:00.010+02:00

So now I'm back at work which means no kayaking photos until I make my way to scando land to terrorize more Norwegians and do battle with their rivers. In the mean time I'll be making the best of what Poland has to offer and so far that has been a lot. Seeing as I'm living in a hotel with other guys from work we eat out most nights (at works expense of course) and that often escalates to a night out drinking but hey I'm not complaining. Not all has been remembered but I'm sure all was enjoyed!! Well before this turns into more drinking stories here is a quick summary of Poland so far... The food good and cheap plus there are places to eat out everywhere, beer is cheep and there are plenty of paces to sit outside in the sun and enjoy the fact that there are more beautiful girls in Poland than any other country I have been in to date, they are everywhere.... EVERYWHERE. The western bulge hasn't hit Poland yet that's for sure. The place has a very relaxed feel to it with many parks spread throughout the city and trees everywhere, more so even than Christchurch back home which is really saying something. Gdansk has a rather active night life in which day of the week doesn't seem to matter and all the best places to go are in a part of the city call 'Old Town' which looks like it was built hundreds of years ago, although I have no idea how many. This certainly adds to the atmosphere though. For the time being I don't have to work Sundays so I got a chance to get out and explore the city (and snap away happily even if I did look like a tourist). Right I best be back to work so I'll leave my brief description where it stands except to add that at face value Poland is a sweet place, much more so than I expected (and I was expecting good things). If you ever get the chance to visit then definitely take it... and make sure you include Gdansk in your exploring, especially Old Town. Enjoy the photos... the second half are of some graffiti that I found close to the center of the city and was also some of the best I have seen.

The South Merced

2008-06-05T00:55:00.008+02:00

One of the craziest flower I have ever seen... the stamen is over two inches high

Here are some pictures from our two day trip on the South Merced River, one of my favourites in California. Unlike Royal Gorge, the water level was far from low so we enjoyed punching holes instead of hitting rocks. I managed to rein in my under sized, overloaded kayak for all but one off the biggest rapids when she got away on me a wee bit. After (almost) styling the entrance I gracefully stern squirted my way down the middle of the rapid before plugging deep in the guts of a massive hole I had intended to skirt around… no worries for a small boat though with lots of gear in it though – straight underneath. The only down side is that Evan didn’t have his video camera out in time… bugger. Anyhow, before this becomes a story, I’ll leave it at that and show you all dem pritty pictures yo’ll love so much. Story to follow… maybe.

Weeeeee... Lizzy showing the guys how it's done

Chris G on the same slide

Chris G probing to see if the hole is as sticky as it looks

Where's Chris K... see if you can find him, he's up there somewhere and he says portage Once In A Life Time on the right!!

Evan hanging out with his new buddy

Before running the shit. His new buddy wasn't so keen though so the two of them parted ways

Chris K finding the tongue after surfing the wave above. Nice work buddy

Chris G styles this drop and so though he'd have a go at wave wheeling the next (see below)

Sure it looks good in the photo but not so in real life... ask Chris.

Royal Gorge

2008-05-31T20:37:00.007+02:00

Chris G getting his plug on

The last week saw us get skunked by the combination of weather, weather, and weather. The cold snap in Cali which we endured (not by choice I might add) not only made camping uncomfortable but also ensured that Dinky Creek dropped out on us and stranded us in Kaweah land with not a lot to paddle. A quick check of internet river levels revealed that Royal Gorge, a sweet three day trip, should come into a good level the next day and so we rallied north to where we had just been… three days earlier, dam this driving all over cali chasing water.

Chris K at Heath Springs

Evan same

Still at least we were going to get to paddle Royal Gorge… or were we?!? Waking early in the morning we rallied to the put-in but never quite made it. With persistent rain and temperatures hitting the high thirties (Fahrenheit not Celsius) we turned back at the top of the pass on the premise that camping in the cold and rain would be horrible, plus actually being able to start a fire was up in the air.

Royal Gorge has some cool box canyons and funky holes but Evan wasn't even going to give this hole the time of day.

However only the car I was in did so… Justin and Corey let determination get the better of them and decide to go paddling without us, rain or no rain. They even managed to rope Lizzy in on there shenanigans and so they started paddling while we drove back to Justin’s place and lined up an Indiana Jones adventure night out to make up for the lack of real adventure. We were not to make it to the movies… instead Corey’s girlfriend Aim arrived back at the house with news they had put on. Well we certainly weren’t going to be upstaged, “looks like we’re going kayaking boys!”

Lizzy getting her sideways boof on

Chris G deifying gravity

After some Colin McRae rally driving (in which we lost the boats not once but twice) we were putting on Royal Gorge at the crack of three thirty. Moving quickly to try to catch up with the lead group before dark we arrived at Heath Springs few hours later to find Corey with a massive crack in his kayak and Justin without a kayak at all. Although Justin he did have some very sore ribs from running a 50 foot water fall without much elegance. His boat got stuck in on a log in the gorge just down stream from the horrible boiling pool Justin ended up swimming in after being ejected from his kayak. Lucky Justin was able to climb up a crack to get out of the gorge although I’m sure he would have a different take on how his luck was going.

Lizzy heading to the lip of yet another waterfall

Over night the river gods were nice to us, gracing us with stars instead of rain and so we were all in reasonable shape the next morning. Justin without a kayak had no choice but to hike out while the rest of us continued on our merry adventure. Evan and Chris K fired off some sweet waterfalls while the rest of us were happy to walk… crazy basted Corey managed to put two new cracks in his kayak and Lizzy, Chris G and I ended the day at about par.

Evan taking his time to scout Rattle Snake

But while he wasn't looking Chris K snuck in and beat him to it

Evan was happy with Chris' line but past on his landing (and bloody nose)

The final day was not to be Corey’s favourite. His boat repairs barely even made it a mile leaving him to limp down to Giant Gap and hike out while the rest of the tired kayakers straight lined it for the finish. All in all it was a pretty sweet trip even if the river was low and two members didn’t make it all the way. Time for beer food and merriment I reckon. “Here Here”

Oh my... (photo Lizzy English)

Dam That's A Big Tree

2008-05-28T06:58:00.008+02:00

Photos sometimes make things look small... don't be fooled this tree is over three hundred feet high

So not a lot new to report from 'merica' but I did go and see some big trees, biggest in the world in fact in the Sequoia National Park. It was really foggy so we almost couldn't see the top of the trees but this probably only made them more impressive as the towered over us some three hundred feet high. Lucky for me I had my fisheye lens with me or you would only be looking at pictures of the bases!

General Sherman, the worlds largest tree by volume

To them we are but a blip as they live to over three thousand years old

And sometimes the camera makes things look huge... but it wasn't (well maybe a little bit huge). Evan trying to reach mach 10 while paddling in the park

"Go Where I Go... Don't Go Where I Don't Go!"

2008-05-26T20:23:00.009+02:00

Who said girls can kayak... See here Lizzy doesn't even know how to hold on to her paddle

So there have been some more adventures mostly involving far too much water and no photographs. Oh and even some rain... I know, in California!! But for you're enjoyment I have some more pics from The South Branch of the Middle Feather. Enjoy

Josh at Split Falls

Monkey boof... I wonder who that is?!? Evan working on a new style of kayaking

Justin and Even chilling in the sun

Well ok maybe girls can kayak some times... Lizzy showing the guys how it's done... again

Where's Josh?

And again!!

Justin firing off the normal portage

Oh there's Josh

The Big Kimshew

2008-05-15T07:04:00.010+02:00

Chris K firing off Frenchies

Here are a couple photos from the Big Kimshew river which we had a quick two and a half hour blat down today (including stopping to take pictures). It was our second time down this week so we had the lines mostly down which made for a reasonably low stress day... until I boof half a foot to far left on one of the bigger drops and landed my left butt check square on a rock... 'I've been tenderised'. Fortunately it only really hurt for a few minutes and then came right, not that I really got to take a break. I guess sometimes you have to take the good with the bad... or some other cheesy metaphor. Actually today was the first time I have taken my 80-200mm f2.8 lens on the river which is why the shots are cropped tightly. It certainly won't be the last though so look out for more sweet shots framed like these to come in the future.

T'was a good sized crew and only one van required - not to shabby

Travis at Big Kimshew Falls

Trip at the bottom of The Tripple Drop (and not in the eddy of death... ask Chris K how that goes)
And last but not least... what a way to finish the day

And Then There Were Three...

2008-05-12T05:21:00.004+02:00

Chris G firing of the first waterfall we came to

Having already tasted the delights of the first day of the South Branch of the Middle Feather we though we best see what the second day is like, I mean it would be rude not. Plus doing the two day trip involves camping on ‘The Island’, not quite as interesting as the one on Lost and the only ‘others’ are the masses of ants who were more interested in abducting our food than messing with us but that still didn’t make the prospect of camping on an island any less attractive.

More waterfalls... Chris G still enjoying the action

Yes you guessed it, still more waterfalls... this time Chris K in the action

Yep... more falling water, it just doesn't stop. Chris G attempting take-off

We rallied a big crew of eight keen contenders all set to dominate the abundance of falling water and one large portage at the start of the second day. The reality however was that most were dominated by the river and out of the eight that started all intending to paddle both days, only three actually made it to the water below the portage to start the second days paddle.

Now for the big stuff. The first day we paddled the run there was a bit more water and it was a bit softer at the bottom... Chris G was over heard saying "maybe I should have just got someone to punch me in the head and walked around it"

Chris K bracing for impact... or maybe just getting all the sponsors clearly in the shot?!?

The first casualty was Chris G who was in doubt from the onset. He fell victim to Riot Kayaks who didn’t send him his new boat when they were meant to and after hearing there was some ‘mank’ on the second day he was out. Then to push things beyond all doubt he shoved stick an inch into his foot while collecting firewood… ouch!! He at least managed to camp for the night.

Take that falling water... Chris K stomping his authority on yet another unsuspecting waterfall

Beware Chris the water remembers... and it's about to exact revenge

Darrin took and hit to the chin with his paddle on the fifty footer (and last drop of the day) which required some patching and Matt decided to join him although I’m not sure why?? Garrett took a hit on the fifty footer as well but mainly to his pocket when he broke his paddle. That also become the reason he walked out in the morning after having nightmares about having to paddle big rapids with a break-down.

Our campsite on 'The Island'

And perfect place for some boat repairs

Ryan only survived about forty feet of the two hour portage. The next foot send him downhill about ten feet hurting his shoulder in the process… ‘dropping like flies’ Chris K, Devin and I thought as we soldiered on.

Chris K and Devon inspecting the three two-hundred foot water falls we portaged around

Don't want to go off there aye Chris?!?

The second day was pretty sweet although not quite as brilient as the first days action but worth it if for no other reason than you get to camp on ‘The Island’

Day two action. Chris K styling the line all the way into the hole!!

Dev using his kayaking like a glider

See anything good in there? Chris inspecting the inside of the curtain.

Hanging with the Rednecks

2008-05-11T06:57:00.000+02:00

Our new friends Jeff, Paul, and Mike

One of the best parts of any kayaking trip to a different country is that you get to meet the locals and enjoy their culture… in this case the locals were a group of beer drinking rednecks and there culture, well… that’s drinking beer.

Mike had had a few that's for sure

We arrived at the takeout to Ben & Jerry’s section of the West branch of the Feather and while waiting for our buddy Darin we started chatting with some guys sitting round drinking beer… well actual they started chatting with us and we simply failed to resist. They were offering beers thick and fast though so we were more than happy to find out about there world.

Hanging out at Jeff's place for a bbq.

Three or four beers later Darin showed up and we went boating but not before being invited to a barbeque at one of the guys places. It would be rude not to attend I reckon so after paddling we enjoyed the company of our new friends while having one of the best meals of the trip to date. Bloody good show if I do sat so and in the end a ‘uniquely’ classic night.

Rock is Dead… Long Live Paper and Scissors

2008-05-05T01:51:00.001+02:00

Wow... pretty much that's all I can say

With funds for us extreme travellers running dangerous low (not actually but I think it builds a bit of tension so just go with it for now) we embarked on a grand plan to make our millions and rid ourselves of all those pesky pennies we had acquired… the bane of my American existence. Vegas here we come… look out.

All big money making plans require the right code of dress and I think Shaun and Chris really nailed it… party shirts with a twist – ’party glasses’!! So all was set for a million dollar night and because it was such a sure thing we though we might celebrate early with a banquette feast… error!! The over-consumption of food rendered us incapacitated with barely the ability to crawl out the door let along rage a million dollar night in Vegas. The crew put up a valiant effort cruising the strip, stopping at all the big casinos, but in all reality we were doomed from the onset. Oh well better luck next time we all though as we skulked away from Vegas, tails between our legs. At least I achieved my goal of leaving Vegas ‘penniless’.

Yes guys, looking good. Shaun and Chris ready to create a storm (in a tea cup) in Vegas.

She Wore an Itzi Bitzi Teeny Weenie Yellow Poker Dot Bikini

2008-05-03T01:47:00.001+02:00

This is a wee story I just had to share… particularly with Luc. There has been a long running joke that the Swedish Bikini Team would be waiting at the takeout… or pretty much wherever we were going to be. Actually maybe it is just wishful thinking. Well we didn’t happen across the Swedish Bikini Team but we found a very close second while camping just outside Vegas. Not long after we arrived at our poached campsite for the night a cute bikini clad girl, form the only other group staying there, came over and invited us to join there group and do some beer bongs (skulling cans of beer out of a funnel of sorts). With jaws hitting the floor we graciously accepted… and so began another good night.

Grand Canyon Adventures

2008-04-29T00:55:00.000+02:00

Go little guy, you can make it.

For the last two weeks I have been living a day to day (kayaking) existence while waiting for work to get in touch, probably with short notice plan tickets to Poland… however it never happened. Not that this bothered me too much as the are still paying me so if they feel I should stay on holiday instead of doing some actual work then who am I to argue!! However I did get a little frustrated at not knowing so I sent them an email to find out what was up… “We are a little delayed at present; you will not be required until June 11^th”… sold!!

Typical rock formations in the Grand Canyon

Sunset view from the canyon rim

With that little development I started scheming plans… the best of which was to catch back up with Shaun, Jacs, Chris, and Kate who I hadn’t yet seen since her arrival in the US. Bumming a ride with Chris K to Medford (in which our kayaks were stolen during our stopover in Corvallis – stink au), I caught a flight to Las Vegas… “vive las vagas”… to meet up with the gang on route to the Grand Canyon (some sort of big canyon I guess?!?). The way there took us over the Hover Dam which they are now building a massive bridge beside so the road doesn’t have to cross the dam anymore, and by massive I mean ‘massive’. The dam itself is something to behold as well considering it was built in (insert date here)!

The view of our campsite by day

And by night!! (fire added for effect... really... I mean who would be silly enough to start a fire in the middle of a tinderbox)

The Grand Canyon was pretty dam cool too except for the temperature which was hitting 25°C at the top and 35°C at the bottom!! We got a little shot-down on our first day when we tried to go for a day walk down a trial that was only accessible by a closed road although not all was lost. Walking back form where the shuttle bus had drop us off near the canyon rim we overheard someone exclaiming “the longer you stay here you really start to feel the tranquillity”… just as the bus was gronching its gears and revving its engine only 30m away - classic, some people have no idea. Stilling chuckling to ourselves we cooked dinner and watched the sun set from a good vantage point at the canyon rim.

The newly painted roof box... none to shabby

Having obtained the necessary permits we had a day to kill before we could start our walk so Shaun and Jacs decided to paint their roof box (under the expert supervision of Kate who’s an ‘artist’). Their roof box is now sporting a picture of New Zealand, the Southern Cross, some waves, a big yellow sun, and several stick-figures doing various extreme sports. Nice work guys… now lets go tramping (hiking to those living in the ‘United States of Freedom’).

Shaun checking out the view during our decent into the Grand Canyon

Spot the trampers!! Shaun, Jacs, Chris, and Kate standing on the ridge line.

One of the many cacti in bloom

The Grand Canyon is… well…’grand’ to summarise in a single word and to date I think it is the only ‘hike’ I have been on where the first day is solely down hill and the final day solely uphill. We stayed for two nights at Phantom Ranch camp ground so had a day to explore Phantom Canyon, a small side canyon which doesn’t see much action due to lack of a trail. That however wasn’t going to phase a bunch of Kiwis (and an American we would almost claim… you know, if we had too).

Walking up Phantom Canyon

When the going got tough... Chris when straight up the middle

Shaun enjoying our game of keep the pack dry... good work buddy

Kate takes an unintentional dunk while doing some impromptu canyoning

Even when the bush bashing turning to climbing straight up the centre of waterfalls we charged straight on through while playing an interesting game of catch with the backpack we had with us. The back stayed dry… not so all of us and Shaun’s valiant effort has to be commended. Right so long story short, Phantom Canyon was well worth the effort and it was nice to get away from the crowds (we had it all to our self) and the hike out the following day was an effort and very hot but as we started early to avoid the heat of the day we were out before lunch. Nice work guys… next stop Vegas - “vive las vagas”!!

Sunrise at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

A squirrel running down the trail with us. These guys were all over the place on the way up to the canyon rim.

Little White Race

2008-04-21T18:38:00.006+02:00

Coming in hot!! Chris K going big at Spirit (photo Keel Brightman)

Here are a couple of photos from the weekends Little White Race action. The race starts at the top of Getting Busy (the start of the run) and finishes after Wishbone Falls, only three hard rapids before the end of the run. The river is solid class 5 and racing down it solo is a little intimidating. A good time is sub 16 minutes but for me survival was the key because if you can imagine that paddling one class five rapid is hard enough then think about paddling that same rapid exhausted!!

Look it's me not behind the camera for once at Wishbone Falls and final drop of the down river race (photo Bo Wallace)

The waterfall, Spirit, was not included in the race but we all ran it anyway just because the sun was out. The race was sweet times too… maybe a little to long for me and as I still can’t remember all the lines there was a few times that I approached horizon lines still unsure where I should be headed. Fortunately I (and everybody else) made it down in one piece so no real dramas, just tired kayakers to fly off Spirit.

The finish line and one very happy to be done kayaker (photo Bo Wallace)

Lots of people boofed Spirit but landing flat off a 30 foot drop is not for me so I rocked the plug-it line. The only problem with the plug-it line is that I was rolling the dice with the boil at the base of the falls… and I lost. The boil stool my paddle and sent me into the cave behind the falls. Not a bad place to hangout but I would rather be still holding onto my paddle. Determined not to swim for the second time in a week I hand rolled, found my paddle (which was circulating laps of the pool I was in) and reappeared from the curtain to the side of the falls – hurray.

Me paddling Spirit (photo Keel Brightman)

On Sunday they had a slalom down a super fun class five rapid Bolder Sluice with one very hard to make gate (not helped my all the partying the night before). I had the first run of the day and completely missed it however kept everything clean on my second run to move into a middle of the field 10^th place overall. Not bad considering I only entered for the fun of it. All that was left to do was paddle out form the slalom course – down almost the entire length of the Little White (and drink some more beer).

LJ and Chris K at Chaos just after Spirit (photo Bo Wallace)

Party Party Party

2008-04-17T21:34:00.004+02:00

A cold one anybody?

Here is a nice wee collection of pictures from a party I was at last night. The main reason for the shindig was to celebrate Chris Gabrielli starting his yeah long trip of North America and Clare coming home for recent surgery. All in all it was a dam good time but I think the pictures speak for themselves so I’ll let them do the talking. Enjoy

Dress-up time... As you can see the photos start from later in the night!!!

"Look at what you're wearing!!"

Alanore looking stylish

Looks like these guys are having a good time.

Time for ice cream

Man down!! Chris K doing his best sea otter impression.

Channey lead the way to the fire

Wouldn't be a party without a fire

Or a banjo?!? Jeff keeping it red neck

Canyon Creek Race

2008-04-16T04:16:00.010+02:00

Looking backup to the last few drops of Canyon Creek (and the race)

After a week lapping the Little White and with same Green Truss and Farmland runs thrown in for good measure Chris Korbulic and I were good and ready for a change of pace on (and weather for that matter) so made our way to Washington’s Canyon Creek. Not that the prospect of a one last Little White lap wasn’t awfully tempting, we did try but nobody joined us for the shuttle and the walk was looking just a touch too long. Besides I really would like to have a run down the class four river I was to be racing on the next day (not that it helped… read on)

Chris Korbulic lining up for air time on the final boof of the race

We were joined by some buddies from Corvallis at the takeout where we were gratefully enjoying the sunny blue skies and warm temperatures, something we had not seen much of the previous week. With big smiles on our faces and the shuttle set we got down to the business of paddling the river (and scoping out the race lines). The run put an instant smile on my face which was only made bigger by the first box gorge and beamed form ear to ear by as I launched over the last three boofs on the run. The river also boasts probably the nicest 20 foot waterfall I have ever run (blind might I add… heehee, so soft and fluffy).

Chris Gabrielli leading the random facial expressions campaign (click on the photo for a bigger version)

Not to be left out Jeff doing his best 'ooh rapid' facial

Mean while I was hiding from the paparazzi "hee hee can't shoot my face"

With race day eve upon us we quickly got down to the business of drinking malt liquor (carbo loading for those in the know). Ok so only I was drinking malt liquor as Chris Korbulic left his bottle conveniently in the car… I guess we can’t all drink like Kiwis eh Chris. Well that’s the performance de-hancing drugs dispensed (and an uncomfortable nights sleep in the car) time to race.

Half naked boddies everywhere... it must be a good day ;-)

The guys getting their tan on

Not everyone was a fan of the sun however... Jacs hiding from the sun, or maybe she is hiding how red her skin was from the camera?!?

Then there were some who just didn't like the camera. Too bad Nick the paparazzi is everywhere

And there were even a few who just plan didn't know what was going on... "Who are you? What are you doing... You're not even my real mother!!"

The weather on race day was nothing short of stellar and we quickly found more people we knew including a bunch more form Corvallis and Shaun and Jacs. “It’s going to be a good day”. Eventually we all got ourselves to start line and did our best to beat each others times (none of us were taking it that seriously) although not all of us made it to the bottom in one piece. Paddling the run only once before racing down a class four river seemed like a good idea at the time but my memory of the lines was lacking one small but significant detail… the line through a sticky hole half down the run. Yep… as you have probably already guessed I got thrashed and pulled out of my kayak while fighting the beast. Well that was my race over, much to the delight of all my friends who are still letting me know about it… can’t blame them really I would certainly be doing the same.

Rafters at Champagne styling the line

Conner and Chachi not doing so well though - 'but I don't want to go over there!!'

Casey enjoying the action at champagne

A pretty sweet day all in all (even if I did swim for the first time in quite a while) and the after party was no let down either. In fact that statement doesn’t really do the party justice… it was up there with the best kayaking shindigs I have ever been to. So how to make a great weekend even better – paddle the Little White at 3’5’’, so that’s what we did. All that was missing was the petrol station pie on our way to the river ;-)

Dusty wasn't in the race but that didn't stop him getting some air time

And I think he's pretty happy about it

Little White Mission

2008-04-10T19:26:00.017+02:00

Chris Korbulic firing a nice line off Spirit

Well the pace of adventure in my world hasn’t slowed down at all. It turned out that I was ‘hard’ to contact by work and so instead of sending me back to rejoin my old crew for one last trip before I swap crews they simply found someone else. By the time I called work back they told me to ‘keep enjoying my holiday’. Maybe that’s Norwegian code for you’re fired or something but to me it simply means what it says and that’s what I have been doing. So after arriving back from Vancouver Island I made my way to Corvallis for a couple of days catch back up with Shaun and Jacs and everyone else down that way that I know. Shaun and Jacs had just purchased a stylie wee gas guzzler V6 van and were in the process of fitting a bed into the back of it. No worries guys, I’ll document and direct… actually just document (and drink beer of course) while you are hard at work. What a good friend I am ;-)

Shaun and Jacs working hard while I supervise

No power tools for these guys... Jacs doing it tough

I tell a lie... they had a power drill

The daffodils were enjoying the sunshine too

Job done... yet it needs a bit more charm, can never have too much charm

Right that’s the van done lets go kayaking… destination Hood River. A break away mob of four of us left Friday morning to get a sneaky wee run down the Green Truss, a beautiful class 4 run with a couple of bigger drops thrown in for good measure. It was also the perfect opportunity for Shaun to reacquaint himself with kayaking, it’s been a while aye buddy. It was also a chance for Richard to go 0 and 3 on Bob’s hole (he has swam out of it the first two times he has run the drop) but he wasn’t as keen on swimming as the rest of us were on seeing it happen and decided to walk… poor form Richard.

Moss covered trees of the Little White

EJ getting straight amongst it at Bolder Sluice

With a successful run of the Green Truss under our belts we were rejoined by the rest of the group from Corvallis bringing to total number to nine… Hood River had never seen the likes of it (well actually it has, many times even - the place is often descended on by large groups of kayakers and/or kite boarders but never let the truth get in the way of a good story aye Dave although I kind of just have… sheit). Right where was I, oh yes nine kayakers ready to paddle the shit but first they need a place to stay. Lucky our new buddy LJ let us use his house and we were set with a good nights sleep ready for adventure.

Chris Gabrielli getting air at Sacriledge

And I think he likes it

Chris K isn't so sure though (of what however, I think only he knows)

Maybe it is how many kayakers are on the run. Believe it or not, that wasn't all of us ;-)

Well all the rivers round Hood River are pretty well documented and get paddled all the time so it is not a true adventure in the sense of the word but we didn’t let that stop us!! Leave it to us to turn a hour long Little White run into an all day mission. First of all you need to start the day with the biggest groups you could imagine (so even the biggest eddy’s on the river wont hold all of you), then make sure there is a good ratio of people who haven’t paddled the river before and finally and perhaps key bring along pre-cracked kayaks with dodgy repairs and not enough split paddles.

Richard not missing out on his chance for air time

And sticking the whole line to boot (first time on the Little White and paddling it like a seasoned pro - nice going Richard)

Jeff searching for fish... I guess you have to go deep to find to best ones

Well we already had some dodgy pre-cracked kayaks and not enough split paddles but we felt that the group wasn’t quite big enough… no problem we’ll just find some more people!! “Job done” as my boss at work would say. So our expanded group of eleven put on the Little White for our wonderful adventure… five and a half hours latter the last of the tired cold hungry kayakers took off the river. Some egos had taken a bit of a bruising and a few pockets had taken a little hit but fortunately all bodies were still intact. Actually I’m making it sound worse than it really was but it still had to be described as a mission.

Eli doing some impromptu underwater caving... his buddy lost his kayak in the cave under the rock wall and Eli swam under there to get it back... what a good fella

The spectators enjoying the caving action. If you look at the bottom left corner you can just see Eli!!!

Right so here is the breakdown…

1) EJ got pinned at the first drop and swam. His boat made a much nicer platform to boof off than the rocks that trapped him. Way to take one for the team EJ!

2) Richard dropped his camera while helping to retrieve EJ’s boat. Lucky for Richard the camera was waterproof and five minutes duck diving saw him and the camera reunited.

3) I re-broke the kayak I was paddling just before S-turn rapid and so enjoyed some extra hole punching weight in my boat, at the expense of manoeuvrability. The trade was later described as ‘fair’

4) Shaun had a token swim and nice self rescue might I add, at Wishbone Falls. When you’re already in the eddy after the drop you can probably just roll up eh Shaun.

5) EJ lost his paddle at the top of the narrow gorge above Horse Shoe hole but managed to paddle the gorge and eddy out before the hole. A pretty good effort and it turned out the paddle he was using was one that we found that day anyway… easy come easy go eh EJ.

6) Rick broke his paddle at Spirit Falls and although he managed to roll up he ended up behind the curtain, got sucked back into the falls and went deep. He came out but his boat decided to stay… until we went and got it. That little break turned into over two hours of fun for everyone (except the half the group who bailed so they could return a demo boat in time).

7) The remaining group pull out some Macgyver tricks and fashion a makeshift paddle from a couple of pieces of paddle blade found at the bottom of Spirit Fall (while retrieving Rick's kayak) which Eli nominates himself to use.

8) The Macgyver paddle disintegrates at Master Blaster rapid and Eli swims... bugger au.

Rick flying off Wishbone

Nick going deep on the same droop... both lines are sweet, trust me I have tested each out (and a couple of other variations for good measure)

Jeff ready to rescue people from Horse Shoe hole... thankfully his services were not needed

Richard threading his way though a maze of holes in a cool narrow gorge above Horse Shoe hole

Shaun sticking the right side of Horse Shoe

Moments before disaster... Rick just before he breaks his paddle and goes deep at Spirit

The boat retrieval in full swing. Nick jumped at the opportunity to abseil down and get Rick's boat... the rest of us stood back and let him go to it... 'sure Nick I'll take pictures'

Well as you can see lots of little dramas but nothing to scary to really that serious… just another day on the Little White.

Van Is. Mission

2008-03-29T17:48:00.013+01:00

A cold one anybody?

So yes I have been doing a very good job of hiding lately, whether on a boat working in the Caspian Sea or playing in the best snow that Colorado winter has to offer. And I even managed to sneak in a couple of trips to the UK for courses and a flying visit to Norway. Some good times but nothing gets me motivated to let you’ll know what I have been up to like squeezing myself into a plastic tube and chucking myself into the depths of the whitest water I can find. And that is exactly what is have just been doing... and not just anywhere but on Vancouver Island, Canada. Anyhow more about that in a minute, for now I must backtrack a week to where the story actually begins.

What ya doing parked on the side of the freeway Shaun?!?

Location: Portland, USA. My good buddies Shaun and Jacs arrive to start off their North America adventure while I was checking out the white water in Hood River and re teaching myself to kayak… well as you know it has been a wee few months. I missed out on there arrival and subsequent ‘partying’ but the next day I found a ride to Portland and caught up with everybody which also included Emma and Chris. Shaun was given a fine introduction to freeway driving on the wrong side of the road when the truck Chris leant him ran out of gas about five minutes after it was acquired, you sure know when to leave a sinking ship eh Chris.

The rescue... maybe it would just have been easier to put a bit more fuel in there to start with eh Chris.

Fortunately backup was not far off and so were we and off to see Dusty before road tripping our way to Corvallis where Rich was waiting. Never before in a single day have I ever met up with so many people that I have not seen in for such long periods of time!! Good times all round but all good things have to come to an end and I left the lot of them planning a rafting trip as I heading off on my own adventure…. Van Is. here I come!!

The guys planning their trip... as you can see there was some concern over flows (it's always over flows)

Unfortunately my journey was to start without transport and I tried my hand, literately and rather unsuccessfully I might add, at hitchhiking for the first time in the states. Three hours of standing in the rain and the onset of darkness had me reconsidering when a super nice guy picked me up and gave me a lift all the way to my friend’s door - what a garry good… ‘guy’.

Heading out to 'The Island'

A couple of days later and with Canada in our sights six of us departed Hood River, bound for ‘The Island’ as it is called by the locals. There we were joined by four more and so our large crew of ten keen kayakers were all set to rock and/or roll. The only problem however - the weather wasn’t… the rain that we ordered turned up as snow (and in abundance). Cold we could deal with, the lack of water in the rivers, not so much. Still life was not so bad with a close little gem, Gordon’s Creek, flowing at an ok level with three sweet as sections for our entrainment. Each was paddled twice (except the first bit which was only done once).

Better clean the snow of your kayaks guys... there's boating to be done!

The putin to the middle Gordon

Todd running the first drop on the middle Gordon

Not to be out done - Jay getting amongst it.

Yep... it was cold!!

Christie collecting a little snow for the journey.

Spot the kayakers... in case you are wondering there are three

Rob lining up the deceptive hole at the bottom

Rob looking good on the exit drop from the middle Gordon.

Well I would like to say the low water levels were our only problem but that was not to be. Between the four vehicles we had with us we managed to get three flat tires and destroy a clutch. Luckily we forget that we were scumbag kayakers for a couple of days and hired a lodge complete with hot tub. Nothing makes your problems disappear like slipping into steaming spar pool. Due to low flows and lack of functioning cars we didn’t quite last as long as planned and certainly didn’t get to see much of what the island has to offer but I’ll be back, camera in hand ready to explore more rivers. We just need to get the order for rain instead of snow correct (and bring stronger cars).

Yes... work it baby, looking good Jay ;-)

Who Says New Years Should Be Remembered?!?

2008-01-02T18:33:00.001+01:00

Right first things first… yes I have been slack and not posted anything form my latest adventures in Baku (Which is in Azerbaijan if that make’s where in the world I am any clearer for you… probably not though). In my own defence I have been working 12 hour days and going out drinking 12 hour nights (well close to anyway) which doesn’t leave much time for other stuff. I if I really wanted to clutch at straws I could blame it on the difficulty in getting internet access… but that would be clutching so I’ll just stick to the tried and true excuse of “too lazy, couldn’t be bother”.

Before I get too far ahead of myself here is a one sentence description of Baku to put things in context. ‘The people are friendly, the streets are safe to walk around at night, the beer and food are cheap, and if you order vodka you are likely to receive enough to make you think they mistook your order for water!!’ Right that’s the formalities dispensed with, onto the story of New Years in Baku.

How my New Years unfolded hinged on one simple point of contention… the possibility that town might close early because of New Years!! Never happen, I hear you say but in some places that is just how it is done and nobody thinks any different of it. A few of us were out on the 30^th and found a new bar which we figured would be the perfect place to start our New Years eve at… I’m not sure why but someone asked what time they closed at on New Years and was told 10:00 pm. That seams rather unusual in its self but when you consider that this was at 11:45 pm on a Sunday night it really got us thinking… maybe Baku is one of these odd places where everybody goes home to celebrate New Years.

With all big problems come big solutions – “so if we can’t drink after ten then maybe we should just drink a lot more before ten”. This was by far my favourite quote of the night and exactly what we did. There was only one teeny tiny flaw in our plan… it was bollocks!!! Town didn’t close; the pub we started at stayed open until past 11:00 (I think on account of how much money we were spending) and the entire tribe of us ended up in quite a condition to phrase it nicely.

Because we are in this part of the world, vodka (straight of course) was the drink of choice and it was flowing like water – when in Rome. I realised that my night was headed down hill when I bough a round of vodka’s for some of the guys playing pool. While I was at the bar I also got vodka’s for some friends sitting there (actually before I managed to buy anything, a vodka was placed in my hand). Anyhow I left the guys at the bar to deliver the drinks and returned a few moments later to find they were still sitting at the bar, vodka’s in front of them. “What...aren’t you guys drinking?” “We are waiting for you” they replied. “But I just had one in the other room!!” “We didn’t see… get another one”… “Ok then, if I must”.

So before this story gets too long, here’s the quick summary. We left the bar at about 11:30, walked across the street into another place which wanted 50 manat each person as a cover charge… yeah right, that’s more than I spent all night so predictably we left and ‘apparent’ headed to the Corner Bar. I then looked at my watch and it was 5:00 in the morning, I was in a different bar and couldn’t find any of the 15 or so other guys I started the night with… time to head off I think and I finished my night with a crazy taxi ride home, probably the best since being here - and that’s my New Years… ta-daah

The next day when I woke up and dragged my sorry arse to work (at 11:00 instead of 8:00) I started trying to piece together the puzzle that was my New Years. Turns out everyone was trying to do the same… I was not the only one suffering for a little short term memory loss. The best I could get was that at some point I fell off a bar stool into a crowd of people and something about a beer squirting competition?!? I still don’t know what that is… hmmm

So was my New Years memorable… definitely. Was it remembered… not so much! I hope you all have your own great stories to tell (which include a few more details than mine) Over and out - Jono

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

2007-12-04T20:52:00.000+01:00

Craig clearing snow from his car in Glendwood Springs

Well my recent misadventure with missed flights (and what not) had one big upside, I arrived at Denver International Airport a few hours before my friend Helmo got in from Vegas. Thus I negated having to find accommodation in Denver for the night and instead only had to choose which baggage terminal to wait at. More of challenge than you might think when you don’t know the flight number, and as ‘Murphy’ would have it I chose the wrong one. Still it all worked out in the end and once again the two of us were reunited and ready to cause trouble.

I like snow!!

After a few days to sort my life out I was armed with a season pass to Copper Mountain and some new friends to share the adventure with, one of whom I ‘maybe possible could have at some stage possible maybe’ met in New Zealand a few years ago but neither of us are really sure. Only thing left to do is tackle to people slalom on the beginner/intermediate slops while dodging speed patrol. Necessary because early season conditions meant a lot of the mountain is still closed. Although to be fair, what is open would have still made most of the ski fields jealous in New Zealand after last winter. Anyhow I’m getting sidetracked and this story is supposed to be about the snow… and snow there is plenty (now).

I couldn't have said it better myself

For the last three days it has been snowing, day and night. Seeing that we are such extreme (ski field) athletes we were not put off and persisted with the perilous conditions. Visibility was down to only ‘hundreds’ of meters with the wind was ‘raging’ at up to 15 knots and the temperature was down to a ‘brutal’ negative five degrees (Celsius not Fahrenheit… silly Americans). Ok so it wasn’t actually that bad but the roads were another story… Helmo had his work cut out for him on Saturday night during the three hour drive home on an icy freeway with close to zero visibility on account of the snow. It was almost more exciting than skiing… but Helmo did well and all were safe and well upon arrival and ready to fix that with alcohol. Good work buddy.

See no shortage of snow here :)

The snow… what can I say, it was epic for such early skiing with heaps of new runs opened. And plenty to be poached if you’re that way inclined, although you might end up packing snow for your troubles… heehee. The beers at night were draining, almost literally and the crew of people were stellar. Craig even perfected his superman while learning to telemark (but I think it will look better when he incorporates it with a jump). All in all a great start to the season… booyah. Only problem is that I have to go back to work shortly. Stink au but I’ll be back and I even have a place to stay close to Copper… nice. Over and out!

Here's a picture just for Ben (and anyone else interested in Caterpillar diggers)

If You Aint There The Plane Leaves Without You!!

2007-11-28T00:13:00.000+01:00

Well it is Scotland

For those out there who just like the pictures and not the words this article can be summed up with ‘got wasted, missed flight’. Everyone else please read on... Hanging out in for the week in Edinburgh has been not too bad. I never though I would enjoy being in the UK very much but I must confess that it was at least tolerable. And as the week progressed the shenanigans increased. More than one hangover was fought off with coffee as I suffered through the mornings having been out drinking the night before. At least I made it to where I should be… however things went a little more astray on the final night.

There is no shortage of cool old buildings to look at/photograph

It all starts when I caught up with old friends in Edinburgh on what was supposed to be my last night there… you see where I’m going with this right. Before I left New Zealand I knew one person who lived in Edinburgh, however it turns out actually knew half a dozen (and now a few more). The whole crew of Scottish boating scumbags I met in

New Zealand

a few years ago have made the way back to where they come from and now can be found lurking in the seed depths of underground pubs. I forget the names of the places they took me too but they were all pretty classic.

Just like the people, the cool buildings are everywhere!!

As I still haven’t adjusted to the new time zone I made sure to have power naps throughout the night… one at each pub. Lucky I managed to keep my eyebrows and with each quick recharge I was ready for another assault. The night ended with gin and tonics at the place Paul and Colin work at. Oh yeah this was after they had closed the bar and kicked everyone else out. All we had to do was buy the manager a few drinks and bingo bango, our night of drunken debauchery continued.

Ah my own lane... excellent

In the morning I woke up just after eleven to be surprised at how light it was… sun shine… it should be sunny at six in the morning (the time my cell phone was set to wake me up at, and shortly before I was to head to the airport). My next reaction was to ask Dawson, who I was sharing a bed with (that’s another story) “what’s the time”…”ah it’s five past eleven”… “but it can’t be, my plane leaves at nine!!!”…. to which he replied “I wouldn’t lie to you man” and started laughing at me.

Along with all the buildings are a lot of statues, here's one of the many

It tuned out my cell phone battery died and therefore didn’t wake me up… error. In actually fact though I probably should have been heading to the airport before I even got home form town!! Oh well, at least it was a good night and because work buys flexible tickets it didn’t cost anything to change my fight.

Sunset over Edinburgh... only the lucky ones get to see it on account of the normally appalling weather

As a side note, it is the first flight I have ever missed and I think I really nailed it… I give myself five points for classiness and a bonus point because I didn’t even realise until two hours after the plane had gone. Booyah

Tis A Bonny Wee Toon

2007-11-18T02:30:00.000+01:00

There's people everywhere... EVERYWHERE!!

Well as I said there’s not much going on on a boat and the flat Caspian Sea with its permanently hazy sky wasn’t even interesting enough to make me unclip the buckles on my peli case, let alone get the camera out and start snapping away.

And while you might imagine that I’m in New Zealand at present having all sorts of adventures (as was hinted in my last post and because your reading this one I’ll assume that you read that one too so are indeed up with the current state of affairs… which makes this whole statement pointless really… interesting). Where was I, ah yes my present whereabouts. While on route home I checked my email – mistake!! Turns out I had to go to Edinburgh for a training course bang smack in the middle of my six week in New Zealand. And so here I am, sitting in a hotel room in down town Edinburgh at 2:37 am rather unable to sleep. Something about ‘jet lag’ or ‘time zones’ or something, I don’t know, but not being one to miss an opportunity I have change my return ticket home to Denver, Colorado. Shortly I’ll be shredding snow that is presently falling in the Rockies and there will be yarns to be told… peau peau

‘At present we are experiencing technical difficulties’ so I can show any of the few photos of Edinburgh that I shot before this ‘jet lag’ thing hit me like a freight train. On first impressions… aye tis a bonny wee toon, but with just one small teeny tiny flaw – MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. The buggers are everywhere, EVERYWHERE.

Off to Work in the Potassium Mines

2007-10-03T17:58:00.000+02:00

Looking over the city from the hotel. As you can see this is the flat part of Kazakhstan and there ain't nothing here but desert!!

Well ok I’m not actually going to be working in Kazakhstan’s, ‘Borat’ famous potassium mines but the next best thing… looking for oil in the Caspian Sea! “It’s veddy nice” but I’m getting ahead of myself so I’ll start at the beginning.

It all started with Eden and me heading for Norway with the basic plan to kayak/work/live happily ever after but I’m sure you’ve all got that bit by now. The hitch however was making all that come together and to throw in some distraction we had been hearing rumours of amazing amounts of holidays and good pay in the oil industry working offshore. I don’t know about you guys but once someone told me that they work two weeks on four… yes that’s right four weeks off there was no way that I could go back to working normal hours.

And so I started applying for jobs with Norwegian companies in the oil industry… turns out that it is not as easy to find a good job in the oil industry as I had hoped. ‘Apparent’ I’m not the only person who thinks two weeks on, four weeks off is a good idea. Anyhow not to be easily put off I stuck at it and wound up working for a seismic survey company who map out oil wells. I’m now a trainee navigator and your not allow to ask me what I do yet because I don’t even know yet but what I do know is that I will be working five weeks on five weeks off… not quite the dream but a jolly good start.

And as for being in Kazakhstan, My new employer has sent me here to learn the art of seismic navigation in the Caspian Sea. Now I bet you’re all wondering what Kazakhstan is really like and to tell the truth I don’t really know yet because I’ve only been here long enough to be driven from the airport to the hotel – an experience on its own. Traffic lights are more of a guideline as apposed to a rule and the same goes for lanes… whether someone is coming the other way or not (ie you don’t need clear road to pass). Oh and other cars can be treated as a salmon course, Mike would love it.

Here is one of the many people who were out sweeping the streets. Apparently there Prime Minster (or someone similar) was coming to visit so everything was being tided up and there were police everywhere which was a little intimidating. When I first got here someone from the company I work for took my passport and gave me a photocopy because the police are far less likely to bother you if they have to talk to someone who knows the system to get your passport. Even having a cell phone helps because you can call someone to help you out... the message I got was simple though - avoid the police, so I was a little nervous taking this photo right in front of them.

No real hiccups so far though. The plane did sit at the gate for two and half hours before we left Amsterdam but it did make it all the way with out crashing so good on ya Air Astana… “Number one airline in all of Kazakhstan”

Despite the bleak landscape there is no shortage of colour here... some of the many flags and ribbons flying in the breeze.

Anyhow I’m going to be working on a boat for the next five weeks so there will be not much action here until I’m back in New Zealand for a month of adventure in which I’ll introduce you to the co-creator of MCP – ‘That Guy’. Oh and if I die avenge my death!!!

Ah the Serenity…

2007-09-20T00:14:00.000+02:00

So I have been hanging out in a small place called Vassended in Jølster and enjoying the last of the Norwegian summer which has two weather states and one temperature. The states of weather are ‘raining’ and ‘about to rain’ and as you have probably already guessed the only temperature that the weather comes in is ‘cold’. For example yesterday I went boating and we put on the river in sun shine… ‘cold’ sun shine but sunshine none the less and then twenty minutes latter is was hailing… ah and yes that was the ‘cold’ verity of hail too.

The weather is not without its charms though and it certainly does make for some wonderful scenery. These are some photos I shot today on my drive back to Oslo. They are taken looking down Fjærlandfjorden which is part of Norway’s biggest fjord, Sognefjorden.

When I came out of the tunnel (which was a mere 4 km) and got my first look down the fjord I couldn’t stop the car fast enough because while the photos are really cool, the real thing was far better. Anyhow to rap things up, I think black and white real suits these shots on account of the amazing contrast between the mountains, sky and water. Enjoy

There’s Always Time to Stop and Pick the Blueberries

2007-09-09T11:19:00.000+02:00

(Photo Mefford Williams)

Norway

is a wonderful country for so many reasons and not the least of which is the wild berries that grow everywhere. Although there are all different kinds of berries growing on the mountains and in the woods, one of the most common is blueberries (at least in the places we have been kayaking). In case you have never came across wild blueberries they grow in small bushes that cover the forest floor and at the right time of year are covered in delicious little berries. I tell you that there is nothing better than being half way down a river, feeling a little weary, a little hungry, a little nervous because of the big horizon line you have just come to, and then while scouting the rapid you get to snack on blueberries till your hearts content… wonderful country!!

At the put in to the Hornidal (Photo Mefford Williams)

Eden showing us how it's done (Photo Mefford Williams)

(Photo Mefford Williams)

Yours truly letting the river do the work (Photo Mefford Williams)

I can fly!! Or is that fall?? Amos either doing one or the other (Photo Mefford Williams)

And he's pretty happy about it ladies and gentlemen (Photo Mefford Williams)

Here's that scary horizon line I was talking about... just round the corner (Photo Mefford Williams)

Must be time for some blueberries (Photo Mefford Williams)

Time to get on with it. Eden back on the water after a healthy feed of blueberries (Photo Mefford Williams)

Checkout Where We Have Turned Up

2007-09-03T22:16:00.000+02:00

After a fun trip down the lower Myrkdalselvi we called into the Voss Rafting Centre to catchup with some buddies and orginise the afternoons kayaking… yes that’s right Rolf, we have been paddling more than one river in a single day… crazy I know but true. Just after arriving I heard someone exclaim “hey I know those guys… they’re in a magazine”… or “you boys are famous” or something, I forget but there point was simple – our picture was in a Norwegian extreme sports magazine!!!

There we are... and for those wondering 'BRATTVANN' means 'Steep Water'

They showed us the offending photo which was taken on the Home Run section of the Mår in Telemark. Pacman had sold the photo to the good people at FRI FLYT and they chose to use it on there contents page. Apparently we are 'worth' something after all... who'd thought. Now if I could just learn to speak Norwegian I might know what they are saying about us!!

Back To Voss

2007-08-25T12:41:00.000+02:00

Paddling on the lower Myrdalselvi (Photo Mefford Williams)

So there hasn’t been much action on the blog posting front but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been on the rivers… it just means that I have been too lazy to talk about it. That and it has either been just Eden and me so no photo taking or we have been paddling with the locals and trying to keep up (again no photos).

Warming up with a nice Norwegian ski jump! Amos going for maximum distance (Photo Mefford Williams)

Anyhow to bring ya ol back up to speed, we are back in Voss again with both favourable river levels and favourable weather (the later is not to be expected in Voss). Mikey and Allan have been looking after us with plenty of “go there… paddle this” advice which led us to the Raundalselvi and Myrkdalselvi for some of the best kayaking we have done so far in Norway.

Hanging out in an eddy (Photo Mefford Williams)

If you remember we have already paddled an open section of the Raundalselvi with plenty of water but the rest of the river is quite tight yet still has a big volume feel with 40 something cumecs. Lots of holes, lots of must runs, and a questionable lack of scouting mainly because you can’t. We were thankful to have Allan show us down the lower Raundalselvi but we did manage to workout the train station section all by our lonesome.

Mefford running the second slide in karma cow falls

Method and Amos put in an appearance after we had been here for a few days so we showed them what we had found starting with the train station section which leads into the rafting section which has contains timber hole. Of course because they hadn’t paddled it yet we didn’t let them look at it. Instead we gave them concise instructions “Start on the right and hold on!” Their facial expressions at the bottom were priceless.

Looking back up at karma cow falls... don't you hate when the camera angle makes the drop look small. (Photo Mefford Williams)

On to the lower Myrkdalselvi which has many big slides/waterfalls and lots of holes to keep the eyes nice and wide. The main rapid is karma cow falls which is three biggish slides stacked on top of each other with some juicy holes at the bottom of each. Legend has it that on the first trip down the river a cow, spooked by the people scouting the rapid, fell in and washed over all three drops. Apparently the cow swam to the side at the bottom, shook itself off and carried on its merry way… leaving behind it the rapids name. The run ends with a seven meter vertical slide which appears to land on rock and is pretty intimidating. We all walked but we were back there a few days ago with Mikey and Allan and they called us pussies so we had to run it…I don’t think that we had a choice.

There is no doubt, it's a cool run. Amos enjoying the scenery as well as the white water (Photo Mefford Williams)

In other news some old friends from uni, Gabriella and Karolina, have just done a tour of Norway and were kind enough to include us in their flying visit. More good times, just like those good old uni days.

Later folks

We Found the Sunshine

2007-07-26T20:00:00.000+02:00

Little Huka on the upper Rauma

When I first told people I was heading to Norway it was always met with “Why Norway?!?” Abruptly followed by “It’s really cold there!” More often than not this was from people who had never been near Scandinavia so at first I didn’t give there comments much concern. Then slowly the growing number of people who delighted in telling me I was going to freeze started to worry me a little and I splashed out and bought a dry suit. Still I though to myself ‘it’s going to be summer… the weather is warm in summer’

The first rapid... a cool wee mini gorge with a juicy hole in the middle

We arrived in Telemark to be greeted by temperatures in the high twenties/low thirties with non-stop sunshine and I started to think I had wasted my money… it wasn’t to last however. A week later and we were huddled up cooking tea with our down jackets zipped tight and several thermals on underneath!! The change in temperatures took less than a day and wasn’t forewarned by an increase in wind or even the presence of rain. It simply happened and with it everyone who had warned me about the temperatures was proven correct whether they were guessing or not.

Multi-angled picture taking... a new technique I have been working on involving mirrors

Rolf paddling the drop above little Huka

And that is really how the weather has been for us in Norway. When the sun is out, it’s warm… when it is not it’s cold. As you might have guessed by the title, or for the more observant of you the lack of vibrancy in many of the photos posted here, that for the last week or so we haven’t seen much of the sun. Only fleeting glimpses in fact… we weren’t put off kayaking but it is never as good when you are cold (thank god for my dry suit or I would have had to type freezing instead)

Me running little Huka... named after its larger New Zealand counterpart

The other curious thing about the weather in Norway is that it changes from cold to hot almost as seamlessly as it gets cold. One afternoon the skies steadily cleared and the temperature increased. The next day was glorious without a cloud in the sky!! Down jackets and thermals were replaced with tee-shirts. Bare feet were replaced with… ok so bare feet remained but the point I’m making is that it got warm so let’s not get too distracted by my non-sensible ramblings. Where was I… ah yes, it was going to be a good day on the Rauma (our river of choice) and I had my camera at the ready

Lookout for the rock in the bottom... Rolf and I paddled the run twice. The second time there was an extra serving of water in the river and Rolf was able to precision locate the rock using the latest in underwater kayak exploration techniques.

That’s the other great thing about good weather, you are able to take great photos. Many of you know that photography is a passion of mine and just as you might jump with delight at seeing a foot of untracked powder on a deserted ski field, the bright sun put a grin on my face from ear to ear as I glanced to the drops on the river I would soon get a chance to shot.

Rolf paddling Flemming Fossen... no camera tricks here what you see is what Rolf got

Well the river didn’t disappoint and the photos came out very well indeed but you are looking at them so I’ll let you be the judge. The second to last photo is of Rolf paddling Flemming Fossen, an 18 metre waterfall which has a reputation for breaking people. Rolf did well but still was not without injury. Click on the last photo, taken just after he got off the river, and have a closer look at his right eye… the early signs of bright black and blue shiner are already visible!

How's the eye buddy?

Thee Epic Game of Cards

2007-07-26T09:05:00.000+02:00

The put-in for the upper Valldøla

For about a week and a half we have been travelling with Clare and Greg (our friends from New Zealand… oh also Dad, Clare is Murray Hawk’s niece which I found out randomly the other day – small world ay). To pass the time in the evenings, games of five hundreds become standard and the invincible team of Clare and I almost always won… well Greg either doesn’t like to stop on a losing hand or really likes playing cards because he often dealt the next round before anyone had a chance to realise how late it was and make their escape to bed.

Anyhow the other day we started a game at around eleven, after we had finished cooking/eating/cleaning/and putting wee Rolfy to bed. The first two hands took about an hour with Clare and me easily dispatching our inferior opponents… not much competition at all really. But then on the third hand Clare decided to make things a little more interesting and reneged effectively handicapping us 500 points – ‘cheers Clare!’

At one stage things were not looking good. Around two hours into the hand the result looked a forgone conclusion with the scores at 540 to -460 (we play you have to make it to go out). Greg’s confidence was showing as he casually replied “too low to matter” when we asked what our score was. Nothing for it… it’s time to bid big and dance with the backdoor. “Let’s go down in flames Clare, there’s no point in being cautious!”

Rolf 'the bear' Kelly looking ready to pounce

Maybe some Gin and Tonic will help our performance… “Yes please, make mine a big one… and easy on the tonic!!” I tell you that we haven’t drunken much in Norway as it is cost prohibitive so a couple of G&T’s nearly put me on my arse. Perfect… now if I can just focus on the cards we might have a chance.

Rolf styling the hardest rapid on the run
(unfortunately the crux can not be seen in this photo)

Our big break come as the light outside was rapidly brightening and Eden got tired of being out bid. We pushed him up from Misere to Open Misere and took him down. The next two hands hand saw us climb nearly 500 points and the scores were all but tied… game on! With Eden and Greg looking a little bewildered at how they could have blown a 1000 point lead it was time to bury the sword a little deeper and we dispensed with the formalities to finished things off quickly. The hand still lasted well over three hours!!!

Of course Greg dealt another round and we played on until morning. Time to go kayaking I think… so that’s what we did which explains the photos you are looking at. Pictures of us playing cards would be a little boring now wouldn’t they!

The Finne – Go There (Don’t Listen To Pacman)

2007-07-25T13:23:00.000+02:00

The perfect MacPac catalogue photo of us camping by the Skjørva... now if I can just get someone to give me some money for it.

The Finne is now one of my favourite Norway runs. We paddled it on what we though was the high side but it turned out that is what you want… more water the better (within reason of course). If you make the same mistake as Pacman and paddle it too low then you might end up hating your day and never go back - and you don’t want that now do you!

A drop on the upper Skjørva

Having already paddle the lower Skjørva and found it pretty cruisey we formed the ambitious plan to paddle the upper Skjørva, lower Skjørva, and then the Finne (which the Skjørva flows into about a kilometre after the takeout). Ok so Rolf formed the plan but he’s bigger than us so we have to do what he says. Clare and Greg were along for the ride with Clare to meet us at the start of the lower Skjørva.

Just after climbing out of the upper Skjørva

To give you some background the Skjørva lies deep in a valley with the road high above the river. It’s not much of a problem carrying the boats down but as we discovered carrying them up to the road is not much fun. The upper Skjørva is quite a bit trickier than the lower run with a few portages and not easy ones at that. We made it as far as the main portage about a kilometre form the lower put-in when we discovered the eddy we needed to catch to be able to portage on the left side of the river was not there! The river was on the high side and it had simply washed away. All we could do was try to portage on the side we were on… the result was that we bashed our way up the steep slope for a couple of hundred vertical metres and ended up on a farm not far from the road. Well that was us done - “we’ll do the rest tomorrow”.

Being stalked by Norwegian killer sheep... with bells on!!!

The next day we awoke to find ourselves being stalked by a mob of vicious Norwegian killer sheep with bells on!! Fortunately we noticed their advance and were able wave to our arms. Once more peace was restored to the camp… and the peasants rejoiced.

They surrounded Eden but he was up to the challenge

Right where was I… ah yes… kayaking. We put on the Skjørva in the morning and had a mostly sweet trip to the road bridge. There was one nervous moment when Clare decided to play chicken with a sieve… I call the result a draw as the sieve only claimed a paddle. Clare got the glory points and a story to scare her parents with.

Clare on the lower Skjørva

Clare figured she had had enough excitement for one day and drove our shuttle while the rest of us paddled on into the Finne. The Finne is basically bigger volume read and run with some steep sections thrown in for good measure. We paddled the nine kilometres in just over two hours with only one portage (although Rolf still paddled it).

Rolf paddling a must run rapid on the Finne

The finial rapid was probably my favourite. It starts deep inside a canyon with no portage or scouting options and a blind horizon line. There are three big rocks which form three distinctive channels and we could see that the canyon narrows for several hundred meters. Eden and I glanced at each other for a second and our faces said it all… “Down the middle don’t fiddle” Eden exclaimed with a cheeky smile on his face as he paddled off the horizon. ‘My thoughts exactly’ I said to myself as I followed him into a cauldron of white. The rapid was almost as big as the smiles on our faces and marked the finish of the run when we excited the canyon.

Eden on the Finne

Bloody good day I reckon.

Ok So We Are Still Tourist

2007-07-24T19:15:00.000+02:00

Here is a collection of dreaded ‘tourist’ photos for you all to enjoy. The captions give the places (for the ones I can remember) and the pictures say the rest.

A dead tree I came across while walking up the Tora River. Not really anything special but an interesting photo never the less - hey these are 'tourist' photos you are looking at, you can't expect too much now can you!

This has a cool name but I forget what it is... but who needs to know the name when you can simply look at photo

Trees that look like trolls

First class lunch on one of the many ferry's in Norway

Playing cards while the pot of tea boils (Clare and me won if you are wondering)

Yet another fjord!! Scenes like this are all over Norway

Looking down into a valley from the road many hundreds of metres above

The road down Trollstigen. The wall opposite is vertical the side we are on is not that far from vertical either. The old pack horse trail still remains and is incredibly steep.

Clare being a rock-star

A partially frozen tarn on the walk up to Trollveggen, a 1500 metre vertical wall popular with base jumpers

Hanging out with some base jumpers we meet on the walk up to Trollstigen. It is illegal to jump off the wall so they normally do it at night!! However the weather had been a little average and they decided to take their chance while they could.

A base jumper with a wing-suite taking off from Trollstigen. He flew right next to the cliff until we couldn't see him any more... I guess he was ok?!?

Cooking tea in the golden evening light. This is definitely my favourite light for taking pictures in... you can see how everything seems to glow.

Show Us Your ‘O’ Face

2007-07-24T18:54:00.000+02:00

At the put-in

My mystery illness has finally departed (hopefully never to return) and it’s time to get back on the river… destination the Skjørva. We heard rumours of the run being just like the kayaking in New Zealand – tight, technical boulder garden with slides. Slides?? We don’t have any or those back home but just the mention of New Zealand was enough for us and we were off.

I'm back... time to perfect my own brand of submarine boating

After nearly having a fist fight over where we should start walking down to the river from we followed Rolf and his straight down the mountain side approach… “Wasn’t there meant to be a trail somewhere Rolf?” We’re still alive so I guess it worked ok and we found the correct put in.

More river action action action

The river was an instant favourite and did indeed remind us very much of the Styx back home. The only complaint was that it was a bit short… the three to six hour run took us one hour twenty. Well that’s what you get when you paddle into class five rapids without scouting… aye Rolf. I guess he could ‘feel’ the line.

Onwards kiwi soldiers

In my break form boating I managed one productive thing – to ability to take my camera on the river. Unfortunately the lack of scouting meant no photo opps but at the bridge I got a great ‘O’ face shot of Eden and Rolf (but I think Rolf’s faking it)

Eden's 'O' face

Rolf faking it

Paddling into class five rapids without looking wasn’t Rolf’s only speciality… he had also told our shuttle driver to “take a hike”. So Fraenzi had a nice walk while we waited. Rolf idea to past time – “lets carry on down stream into the Finna”. That’s a great idea Rolf, it’s only flowing at twice the recommended flow and then I’m not sure how that will help us with our missing shuttle driver problem. Back to the drawing board buddy

Waiting at the take-out... for three hours!!

Sjoa Festival… Could Have Fooled Me!?!

2007-07-24T18:43:00.000+02:00

The boys boating without me :-(

After the extreme sports festival in Voss we were amped to get to Sjoa for the Sjoa river festival… well that was a mistake. The east of Norway had received an unusual amount of rain with flooding all over the place. Sjoa didn’t miss out on its share either with all the river levels much higher than normal.

Bastards!!!

We figured the high river levels would make the action even better… the organisers figured it would be too dangerous and cancelled over half of the festival. About the only thing they didn’t alter was the price for participation… that remained – we didn’t!!

Look they're still doing it

Instead we spent our money on a log cabin and lived in style in spite of the persistent heavy rain. Good call team, which had grown to include Fraenzi as she had injured herself working in Switzerland and for some reason though Norway would be a good place to recover. Could Eden have had anything to do with that Fraenzi?!?

I hope you swim

Again this is about as interesting as this entry gets from my point of view because I was still recovering… but the others went kayaking so you can ask them all about it if you wish.

Whatever...

Into the Fields with You

2007-07-24T15:03:00.000+02:00

Sunset over Rygg

The cheap immigrant work force was once again put to work by Rolf’s relatives. This time we were toiling in the fields and only allowed to use traditional implements. “What do you mean rake the hay and then collect it with a pitch fork?!?” Anyhow, because they fed and looked after us so well we didn’t mind.

Toiling in the fields

Unfortunately that was about as good as Rygg got for me, within a day of arriving (and after tolling in the fields) I acquired the most bazaar illness I have ever had. It felt like I had a bad cold without a blocked nose or cough and only very slight headache and sore throat. The most interesting thing about it was that I seemed to have no ability to regulate my own body temperature… it ranged between 35 and 38^OC but it got as high as 38.4^OC and as low as 33.2^OC (oh and I didn’t feel cold either)!!! It was quite amusing really, if I eat tea just before going to bed I would heat up and start sweating heaps for half the night then I would start to get cold towards morning. Well it kept me amused as least while Rolf and Eden when kayaking.

Ahh... what a nice group photo

Anyhow Friday night rolled around and the boys decided to sample the night life in Sandane (the nearest town to Rygg). We had seen a lot of pretty girls around but we figured that most of them were either at school or had just left… perfect. In Norway you go to school until 19 so that last sentence is not quite as bat as it sounds but Rolf summed up how pointless the night out was going to be even better when telling Eden to shave his moustache off because “you don’t want to look like a dirty old man when your chasing 16 year olds!” Now that’s an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one. Yes and as you guessed already town was a big disappointment. I dropped the boys off and hung out for about an hour (which was when they were ready to come home too). Hot tip everybody - if your in Norway don’t include Sandane in your list of must hit party spots.

Margret and Kristoffer Arnestad who own the collection of Old Norwegian relics

Rygg was not without an interesting side though. One cool thing we did was to have a look around the house of an older couple we met through Rolfs relatives. They had turned the place into a museum or sorts with a massive collection of Old Norwegian relics. The collection included a 4000 year old stone axe and some 1200 year old letters written on dear skin.

Kristoffer giving a history lesson. He didn't speak any English so I'm not sure how much we actually learnt

Rolf holding a 1200 year old letter

Their back yard was also the site of an ancient Indian burial ground… no wait I’m in Norway… Viking burial ground (which I think is even cooler anyway). The Vikings buried their leaders in an upturned ship with all the servants so they had them for assistance in the afterlife (seems like some good motivation to keep you master alive). “So how did they get the ship up here” was our first question as the fjord was about 50 meters below the house. “They didn’t” was the reply… “the sea level was higher back then”

Spot the Geologist... hundreds of things to look at and Eden picks up the one rock in the room

Rolf was well entertained though

I don't think this guy was so happy to be an exhibit however

Kristoffer is also a keen artist and was happy to show us his collection of paintings

Causing Trouble Kiwi Style…

2007-07-11T14:45:00.000+02:00

I can see your up to no good sunny!!

Well the time had come to test out what the Norwegian sense of humour is like and what better way to find out than to draw kiwis on there stuff!! Plus we can make ourselves feel more at home in the process.

Kiwi's on the prowl

When we bought our car in Switzerland one of the first ideas we had was to paint a silver fern on it and so we acquired a can of silver spray paint. The car still doesn’t’ have a silver fern on it but silver seemed like the perfect colour to paint our kiwis with.

These foolish people left their boats on the ground... how silly of them

All we need now is a kiwi design and a stencil. We found some cardboard and after five minutes looking on the interweb had a sweet as kiwi design and stencil. Booyah

Kiwis can't fly but with some help they can climb!!

Deciding not to do any actual damage to people’s property we limited our tagging to kayaks only and although there were heaps of kayaks where we were staying there was one major floor in our plan… cover of darkness. It doesn’t get dark in Norway in the summertime!! Oh well I guess we will have to just be supper cheeky about it and tag peoples kayaks right in front of them. And so that’s what we did! It is amazing what you can get away with when you are blatant about it. My favourite lines included “its water based spray paint it will wash straight off in the river” and “don’t worry it will look good, here I’ll show you”. If you can imagine us explaining to people (who don’t want a kiwi on their boat) that it is a good idea while then drawing a kiwi on in the process you should be in hysterics because we were.

Don't worry you get one too.

On the whole it went down really well. People were ever getting us to put kiwis on other stuff like there cars and skis and paddles motor bikes but not everyone saw the funny side of it. One group of Norwegians took exception and got fired up which we found rather amusing. Who would have though that people would get upset when you spray paint there stuff?!? The more upset they got the more classic our responses become. Such as: (Angry Norwegian) “This boat is for sale, I have to sell this” (Eden) “Ahh well you’ll be able to get more for it now”.

A sponsored kayakers boat... you little beauty

Anyhow because they were going to call their mummies or the cops or something we cleaned off the kiwis form their boats (which took about five seconds each one) and we continued on our merry way to find more victims including thee Steve Fisher (he got a few more than the most because he’s so extreme).

Excellent… another job well done. Now how do I get this silver paint off my hand? It wasn’t me honest!

A job well done!!

And You Though Kayaking Is Crazy…

2007-07-11T14:36:00.000+02:00

Any chance to fly the flag in Norway

We spent the week camped at the skydiving club and so met lots of sky diers and base thumpers. It was classic to have these people tell us we were crazy for kayaking… I mean come on they jump of cliffs for fun!! There were also the tell tale signs of the increased injury risk with sky diving and base jumping from the number of people limping around on crutches. To be fair though I do know of three people who dislocated their shoulders kayaking during the week and one who dislocated a rib.

The helicopter pilot with his own version of base jumping

Anyhow we though we should checkout the action first hand so on Friday afternoon we cursed out to Gudvangea where there is a spot they jump from with an eleven second free fall… ok so to take advantage off the full eleven seconds you have to hit the ground but you can imagine that it is pretty high. It’s all so a nice place to hangout in the sun for a day.

Two at a time...

Most of the jumpers were getting helicopter rides up but you can also walk to the top. Eden and I had no such plans but Rolf made the trek straight up the valley and got all the wonderful photos you see here while we hung out with all the hot Norwegian girls in the pleasant sunshine. Rolf was rewarded with a free helicopter ride back down… we were waiting for him to appear in a parachute having jumped off but I guess no one had a spare.

Upside down...

Probably the coolest guys to watch were the dudes in the wing suits. We have been told that they can slow their vertical decent down to about 70 kph while travelling horizontally at 140 kph. All my doubts were laid to rest when the first guy in a wing suit flew over our heads and pulled his chute before crashing into the other side of the valley!Or ever nude... it didn't seem to matter to these guys.

The Kayaking Downhill Race

2007-07-11T14:00:00.000+02:00

"Oh my god" - "it's...it's... Rolf 'the bear' Kelly!!"

Well you have all heard of the downhill ski racing… now introducing downhill kayaking racing!! As part of the ekstremsportveko competitions they have a kayak down river race on the lower bit of the Brandsetelvi (the closest thing to a skate park for kayaks you could have – see a few posts back for photos) and with 56 competitors going hard it should be a good day.

The waterfall half way down the race course

The competition is run just like a ski race too… they even have the same gate system to start your time and an inferred beam for the finish line. Plus they did a split time half way down the course at the top of the waterfall… yep that’s right waterfall. It's not that high but sloping and therefore easy to go deep on and get slowed by.

More racest day action

The kayak downhill was one of the main events at the ekstremsportveko and so on top of measuring our times to the nearest 100^th of a second they had hard core live TV coverage for the race too including having cameras on big arms to get footage from the centre of the river. They even employed Norway’s cutest girls to hold the cameras (well ok it’s Norway – all the girls are cute) good on ya Norway.

It's Dave's dream camera... sorry Dave for some reason I didn't get the whole camera in frame?!?

As far as competing goes we were never really out to compete. Participating was what we were all about, besides entering made the ticket into the main festival tent and concerts cheaper. All in all we didn’t do too badly though. Eden placed eleventh missing out on the top ten by 0.3 seconds (the top ten raced again) and Rolf was thirteenth. I was doing sweet until the final and easiest rapid of the course which I went to far left and ended up in the slot (not a very nice place to go). I didn’t get hurt but instead of flying across the finish line I had to paddle out of the slot against the boil so my time wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. I ended up twenty-first, six seconds of a top ten finish… bugger.

Allan going hard... but not hard enough and he had to go back to work for the afternoon (the fastest time from the Voss rafting boys got the afternoon off - claimed by Mikey)

This year the water was at a perfect level for racing. Apparently two years ago it was ‘really high’. To cross the finish line you have to enter the final rapid which has a pretty juicy hole at the bottom just waiting to eat tired kayakers. The year it was high just about everybody who made the top ten and raced twice swam in the bottom hole!! One exception however was Allan… who swam at the waterfall and never made it to the finish line… not how’s that for a spectator sport.

Mikey enjoying the podium with third place