Chippewa Falls and Grand Canyon!

WOW! The last month and half flew by in a hurry!
After spending not even two weeks back in Canada we headed out to the Grand Canyon, then Vegas and now back in Winter Wonderland!

First off was a descent of Chippewa Falls. To anyone doing the drive across Canada it might be known as a great sightseeing spot about 50 km past Sault Ste Marie, heading North.

We're not sure whether this has been run before, chances are low though. Waterlevels in this area are really touchy and the drops are rather sketchty in a few spots with shallow landings, cauldrons and sieves.
I know that none of the locals have attempted the set!

I personally first saw the drops in 2008 during our drive out West, they were running way too low then.
I looked at them again in 2009 and when I came back this year there was way too much water. With slowly dropping waterlevels I kept coming back and eventually found what I thought was the perfect flow.

With a few calls I got the Sault Crew to help with safety and photo/video and after a few more hours of scouting managed to pull this off the day before we flew out to Arizona!
All these shots are taken by Tiia on my Camera, I didn't even get to collect the rest of the pictures. So maybe there'll  be more updates.

The first rapid is rather long and has a few moves to it, going from this twisted slide...

straight into a series of ledges

The second half, a double slide lands on rocks just to the left of where I ran it and has some deep cauldrons on the right side.

I am stoked to live in an area where there is so much to explore! Though now it's all covered under snow and probably will be for another three months at least! Time to bust out the board for the meantime, haven't used that in a few years, hehe. But as soon as it melts... Can't wait!

Alright, so Grand Canyon now...
I always said it'd be something I'd do when I'm 50 or something.
But when I got the chance to join Tiia and her old Manitoba Paddling Crew I got pretty excited. One of the best decisions I made. We had an amazing team of 14, all with big outdoor, kayaking and rafting backgrounds. We did the trip in 23 days, starting at Lees Ferry going all the way to Pearce Ferry traveling a total of 279 miles through the fall facing some pretty wild weather to start with, -7 at night, 100k winds...
I was in charge of one of the gear rafts but was able to bring my little Nemesis and got lucky to run some nice and pushy rapids and even got to surf a bit in it (there is barely any playspots on the whole run!).
The Grand Canyon is not about the rapids alone anyways, the whole trip is an experience for a lifetime.
Traveling more than a mile below the rim for a period this long you get into your own rythm with the river!
It's hard to put this experience into words, I recommend to anyone who can though to go and see for themselves!
I won't do a full write-up on this and there's not really any action shots yet, as all the pics I have are from my own camera and I focused more on off river photography, so here's just a few teasers.
Within the next year there will be a film of our trip hitting some of the Filmfestivals though. We were lucky to have Renaud Lafond on the trip, who owns his bucks filming some very ambitious projects for the canadian TV... I'm excited to see what all the effort he's put into capturing our mission will turn into.

gorgeous campsites all along

the tabernacle view, looking down towards unkar rapid

Granite Rapid. The pebbles on river left are overhead tall!

Renaud, a fully loaded 16ft raft, his onboard camera and Granite Rapid

Deer Canyon

some ledge

And that's that!
Almost.
After the Canyon we hit Las Vegas...
And this blog is not where I wanna get too personal, but:
Tiia and I GOT MARRIED!!!
We already got engaged in the Canyon and decided that this would be the perfect end to an amazing trip and year!
I am super excited about that and our future together in Canada!

Merry Christmas,
Sven

The Baldhead River - Lake Superior

After a few weeks back home...

Mark and my sister and some norther german `creekin`

I headed back to Canada. While getting ready for 23 days on the Grand Canyon I got lucky enough to get a run on the Baldhead river near Wawa in.

Sault Ste Marie, where I`ll be spending my winter, is not necessarily a kayaking destination. The seasons are short, the drainage is pretty small, but there are a few gems to be had around here. Every river in the area  drops off pretty steep at some point as they all have to make their way down into Lake Superior. With the local Crew around Jorma Paloniemi there are also some keen boaters around that are always good for missions.

We found the Baldhead a little on the low side but had our fun anyways. Some good bedrock rapids made the day and with the levels we had and some lines cleared from wood with the last highwater we even got two first descents in.

myself going first on the menster`s runout

Jorma trying something new

Emre Bosut and the Menster

Jorma demonstrating why they call this one F.U. drop. He broke his boat.

roostertail boof...

Emre, same drop from below

dead end used to be a total logjam - can`t wait to hit that in higher water!

Jorma loving his backyard

The run ends with a beautiful but awefully long paddle along Lake Superior`s coast to get to the takeout. A long day left us all tired, but keen to see some of those rapids in higher flows.

Out for some more scouting...

Sven

Finally gone! Roadie: Ottawa - Sault Ste Marie - Michigan

Working on the Ottawa sucks!
Luck at this posh place we call home.
People are so closed minded here!

I mean really!
Look at those sunsets. Bah!

Blue skies? Not needed!

And those lame warm water waves?

I mean, how are you supposed to paddle like this.

And then having to not only spend you worktime...

but also your sparetime here. Eww!

So...

...Matt Hardy and myself decided to screw all that.
Pack a car and run.

But then we came across some ugly whitewater.
The Dumoine.

And gave in to paddle it.

No, we didn't smile! It was a favour to the river!

I tripped.

We had to camp out.

Only to come across boring Canadian Wilderness.

And then it rained.
I gotta admit, the following swim was fun though.

I blame these leaves.

Matt decided it looked awesome and followed.
Aux Sable.

OMG

It rained some more!

Matt thought it'd be a great idea to make sandwiches and go boating again!
Ridiculous.

And Tiia concurred. So I had to go again.
Tiia, Achigan.

Somehow they convinced even more people to do the same.
Connor.

Well, I thought that leaving the country would maybe help.
Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan.

And I gotta say...

after looking at all this high water...

IT DID!!!

Thanks a lot to Tiia Koskela and Matt Hardy for the pictures and motivation to go boating.

Oh, and OWL Rafting for four amazing summers, I'm gonna miss those carefree times!

Counting down. Grand Canyon in a month from now.

Peace,
Sven

Ottawarougelachinecarbonhoot!

Oh the summer!

Since 2007 I've spent every summer on the Ottawa. None of the previous seasons have been anything like this one though. Usually, when I get back in April, the Ottawa is a freezing cold huge river, running high and powerful. Same for all the runs in the area.
When I came back this year I couldn't believe what I saw! It seemed as if we skipped a whole season and went straight into low water fall boating.
The non existent snowpack and a dry and warm spring had brought the river down to minus levels already.

Now, for the ones that know the area that is not necessarily a bad thing!
Sure, we weren't surfing Buseater or High Tension or were going through huge raft carnage on blown up Coliseum Rapids, but there is actually more play to be had in lower flows.
And even more important for us riverfolks, you can access quality playspots by car instead of having to run the whole river to the few spots that are worthy when the real big ones are not in (buseater for example has a very small window where it is good and is the only good park'n play in high water).

Instead we were already surfing waves like the Garburator:

yep, this is it!

In combination with a new boat that made for some wicked sessions. Most of the summer saw four easy access features in at all times: Cornerwave, Babyface, Garb and Pushbutton.
Enough to entertain yourself, that's for sure!

Oh, right, back to the boat:
I got myself a composite boat for the first time!!
Fluid Nemesis M in carbon/kevlar layup.
There is a little writeup on that right here: Carbon Please!
So stoked on that little thing!

all garb pics by tiia koskela

Low water also means that a nice little creeky section on the rouge river drops low enough to be runnable! Good to be practicing those boofstrokes again...

all rouge shots by wes, tiia and myself

somehow weird posture, eh?

josh burton

tiia koskela

wes mcallister

great times!

and if that is not enough then you can head out to montreal, where the lachine rapids are getting better - aka greener and steeper - when the water decides to stay away.

My good friend Daniel Krummreich came over from back home and stayed with me for two weeks We went for quite a few surf sessions over in Mtl and around the Ottawa.
Lachine is a lot of work for every surf but as soon as you learn to be patient definitely worth it! Big Joe can give you some good lift if you hit it right!

oh right, that's the ottawa again! daniel cleaning up after himself on cornerwave.

cornerwave is unique! so small but steep fast and glassy, so that you can throw all those fancy tricks on there.

so glassy!

Anyways, gotta head back to "work" -as in play with rafts for a little while and then maybe go boating again? We'll see. Life is hard out here, so don't get jealous folks!

Peace,
Sven