Back in Canada 2008!

allright!

i don't even know where to start!

i'm back over in canada, three weeks already! i had a great winter in augsburg, hanging out with some of the best people ever. it's been four and a half years in that city, i had such a good time! nevertheless i really wanted to get back for another summer on the ottawa and for the next years wanna keep traveling, see a bit of this world. so here i am, gonna be working for owl and mkc, rafting and instructing and trying to boat as much as i can.
i got a bunch of shiny new gear this summer, so this is gonna be fun!
thanks to kober for the sweetest paddles i've ever owned. scorpion foam core neutral bent, nice!
artistic is keeping me warm and dry while it's still cold on the rivers, riot keeps me floating in style and tatonka is helping me out with some tough bags, jackets and other stuff. thanks so much!

even though things didn't really start out the way i had planned, it still was awesome so far.
i came to canada with tendonitis, and the way i am i didn't really take the time to recover, always went out boating at least one day too early. so in the end i missed out on a few things, creeks were already too low when i finally found the time to head out, i couldn't even go on the roadtrip i had planned. the good thing was that this made me set up my place for the summer real good. i was the first person to show up at owl, had a free choice about where i'm gonna stay and had so much time that i built a house! well not literally, but at least it's wood instead of tarps as walls, i got a proper bed, shelves, a deck... yes!

and i still got out!
i first went to montreal, got my brand spankin new riot boats, astro 58, magnum 80 (that thing is huge!!) and a thunder, ran the super high mulet river with vince normandeau, hung out with fabi and almut (thanks guys!) in montreal, went to chambly just to see tons of divers swimming down the wave (they call it frog day i guess, so no boating there). got my car back, it survived the winter!
i also did quite a bit of boating with stephan "foerster" paetsch who's gonna be back on the ottawa, too, as well as with some of the other riverrun guys. ran the main and middle channel in super high water, got mangled, caught a few sweet surfs and even had to swim after a good beatdown in the lost channel! i went to ottawa, surfed a new, epic and super sketchy wave called "heavy d". imagine garburator on steroids, just huge and fast! not too many surfs on that one, as it was hard to catch and if you miss the eddy it would take half an hour to get back to the wave. big thanks to alex davies for always being in for a mission and erin rayton for some sick photo skills and a lot of patience with us and ten million angry seagulls!
this is one of the few times were i really would've appreciated a jetski, such an annoying eddy...
also been out to the rouge again, hippie canada rules! i love coming back to that place!

anyways, i got a bunch of pictures to share, guess i'll stop babbling now.
throughout the summer i'm gonna try to get quite a few updates up, gonna be writing for the riot blog and will write some travel reports for tatonka (in german). i'm pumped! enjoy the shots!

this is gonna be my summer residence
when i'm coming back it's gonna be all grown in!

stephan "foerster" paetsch styling highwater dragon's tongue, ottawa

river rundomness, wylie and andy are so cool!?

heavy d!
photos: erin rayton

seagulls dig boating... not!
photo: erin rayton

urban kayak: champlain rapids, city of ottawa, facewash
photos: erin rayton

look at alex's grin... creepy!

shoot'em up!

saddler's wave, ottawa
photo: alex davies

alex catching some air!

mr alex davies again. big bus!

ocean surf? big buseater, ottawa!
photo: alex davies

rouge river, sweet session we had!
photos: alex davies

lovin' it!
photo: erin rayton

peace, out

Sven