Check this out!

Alright, fall is officially here!

Or does it count as winter if we had the first snow already?

So with slow and icy mornings in our beautiful little cabin…

…right on the Ottawa I am slowly going through footage of this summer.

And while all of my filming went into my last video “One more time: CANADA”, I did stumble upon some more things I would’ve wanted to use.

Check out this piece shot by filmer, guitar hero and friend, Dave Hartman from Hayfiremedia! A beautiful edit and showcasing shots of his past season – and I am stoked on the little appearance I got in there!

And while you’re at it I also recommend taking a peak at Dave’s Bugz for life – Well worth the time wasted – pretty hilarious…

 

Another thing I found is a sequence my brother Bjoern shot while he was over in Canadia.

This is a helix on Cornerwave, probably my favourite low water wave on the Ottawa.

Fast and steep with a challenging eddy Cornerwave is one of the spots that pushes a lot of the Ottawa boaters to the next level, forcing you to throw quick and clean in order to get your moves right…

Alright, time to get back on the water! The good thing about cold days is that you got the waves all to yourself….

Peace,

Sven

Video : one more time - CANADA!

I finally got all this summer's footage together in an edit! Put some work in this one and am pretty stoked about it!
I hope you enjoy it.
The first part is a bit of a mellow creeking one around Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and area that not a lot of paddlers get to see with water in the rivers. Thanks to the local crew there I got to do some fun classics like the Achigan, Goulais and Harmony as well as some 1sts on a couple drops in the area.
The second clip is from my summerly vortex, the Ottawa. As soon as I get there all communication slowly dies down, updates stop happening and I disappear in a bubble of good times from May to September. Well, a lot of that is due to the lack of internet (or even power in our guide ghetto) around as well as boating just being too easy! Work, play, eat, chill, drink and sleep. Awesome!
Anyways, this year I actually got my camera out a few times and am quite happy with what I can show you. Got the Element surfing buseater at levels where playboats can barely stay on, took my composite Nemesis out a few times and got to throw my plastic one around quite a bit, too. Preferably on Cornerwave or Garburator when in.  And apparently, after 12 years or so in playboats I still learn a bit every year.
Oh yeah, not to forget Habitat 67 in Montreal. Only did a day out there in less than ideal conditions, but that being said that wave is still WAY too easy!
Well, what's the point of writing about a video? Really, just watch it, not gonna waste your time any longer!
Though...
Nah, just kidding.
Actually wait!
If you do this please make it worth it. HD on and crank the sound!
Now.
Go!


Peace,
Sven

First Descent Minnehaha - The time and effort put into...

This is Minnehaha Falls in the Hiawatha Highlands right outside of Sault Ste Marie at "normal" flows May 2010.

Crystal Creek is a tiny creek going through this rather nice recreational area, the falls are just below a dam going into a gorge with several more little drops and rapids.

I first looked at those drops last fall in really high water and figured that if you could get into the first pool it would be doable and actually fun.

Now with the winter we had it took a while to actually make anything in the area runnable. Early April there was not a single creek, rapid or river that didn't have a massive icepack on it.

So I had to wait for this...

to turn into this

And this

into this.

And not just that.
Once I figured that the flows were high enough to make this worth it there were other things to consider.

Like wood on the lip...

And no access to the pool. Or eddies or ledges to put in on..

And no eddies at the bottom pool either.
And an ice blocked exit rapid...

Oh yeah, and it all being fenced in didn't help either...

Well, thanks to rain and melt the water stayed high for a few days.

I kept coming back in the evenings after other more common runs in the area and throwbagged the wood out, roped into the pool, kicked the ice out and after lots of scouting figured out the only way to put in.

Luckily there were enough of the local crew keen to see this paddled and helped me out - thanks guys!

After everything was figured out, Jorma did this sketchy, rope assisted climb right into the first drop, we let my boat down to him and I followed.

With him holding my boat I was able to get in, slide into the pool, turn around, ferry to the river left to line up for what I though was the cleanest line...

And cash in the rewards with a boof to reconnect.

Was it worth it?
I think so.
Definitely not your everyday boating mission though and if this was what kayaking was I'd probably get tired of it pretty quick. But having an unrun drop 15 minutes away from home running at reasonable flows made the whole adventure worth it.
And to be honest, even the scrambling and climbing around beat sitting at home, right?

Out to hopefully find some big water further south,
Sven

Costa Rica! This time: Surfkayak!

What an odyssey!
So this is my first short international flight, first dedicated surfkayak trip, first HD video, first boating in 2011, first... SO. MUCH. FUN.
I actually gotta give a big THANKS to brother and sister in law, who invited us on their Costa surf trip as a wedding present and covered the beachhouse, my wife's flight...
Well, I still wasn't gonna go, raftguides are on a bit of a tight budget in the winter I guess. And I don't have a surfboard or -kayak. Couldn't justify it.
Until about a week before that trip I got a mail from Fluid!
They upgraded my team status (Yay A-Team!) and my mind started spinning. I contacted Gavin Rains, our North American distributor, he still had an Element in stock. Now getting it to Canada would have been impossible so after a bunch of calls and emails he managed to get it sent to Detroit - 6h drive from here and the airport we would fly out of.
I booked my flight a few days before we would take off.
The boat arrived on a Wednesday, I picked it up on Thursday, we kept in our hotel in Detroit and flew out with it on friday (or was it Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Who cares.). I didn't even unwrap it before checking in.

Well, the rest of the story... Chill times.
Costa Rica was beautiful, a totally different experience from the 3 months in 2008 that I spent there broke in the middle of recession waiting around in the mountains for work.
The places we stayed at were gorgeous, Kon Tiki at Playa Negra, run by amazing people for a few days and then a beach house with a private trail straight to the break. And our own pool. So all we really did was hang, have beers and rum, bbq fresh fish and go surfing. Twice a day. Conditions were not world class but there was something every single day of the trip.

One thing though. Reefbreaks are something else in a kayak! On a few occasions at Playa Negra I had to literally surf slalom between the rocks if I didn't get off the wave early enough. So here's all my respect to the kayak surfers out there!

As I said, this is my first video in HD. For the first time in 3 years I have a camera and a computer that are fun to work with. Makes me pretty motivated for the season here in Canada.

Anyways. Judge yourself. Here's the video. Ideally go to vimeo, put it on HD, watch it full screen, crank up the sound and take a break from winter.



Peace,
Sven

Video: The Snapshot Edit

Well, originally I called it the snapshit edit...
Here's why.
My first video in two years. After wrecking my trusty old miniDV on Corsica two years ago I had all the good intentions for 2009 and decided to buy a new cam.
Well, with a raftguide's budget I kinda fell for the cheap option - HD, waterproof, optical zoom... Sounded all good, until I tried to edit the footage. Adobe wouldn't read the codec, computer too slow and all kinds of hassle brought my enthusiasm to a standstill. I did get some pretty decent play footage, but some time in 2010 I got so frustrated with the editing issue and the video quality that I deleted a whole bunch.

Well, so this winter I found a few things that survived (Cornerwave and Babyface on the Ottawa) and figured I'd give it one last try. I stumbled upon  Sony Vegas, it worked decent with my computer and camera, found some more footage we got on GoPro and a few short clips from a true snapshot cam of Chippewa Falls.
With a bit of time on my hands during the Sault Ste Marie winter I played around and this is what came out of it.
With only a few sessions to work with this is not even close to giving a good review of my last year, but it's something. And it's good to practice my editing while I'm waiting for my new SLR - with full HD, 60fps and all those gadgets. Then the computer will once again be the issue...

Okay, I'll shut up now. Here's the vid.


The Snapshot Edit from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

Peace,
Sven