getting the shot

due to the last "warm" days we went out for a photoshoot yesterday.
our crew consisted of daniel krummreich, seppi strohmeier, jens klatt and myself. jens had the idea of taking some shots of the rissbach for the upcoming kanumagazin issue and so off we went.
there have been tons of pics already, but it's really hard to get good shots as the gorge is so narrow that you barely have good light. so jens installed a pretty sick remote flash system to enlight us!

the whole crew

2nd and 3rd drop

the rissbach gorge is a super classic run. there certainly is a bit of a hype about it, the reason being the first and highest drop. it would be the most relaxed boof ever, if it wouldn't be for those nasty undercuts. even at those low flows we ran it at it's quite pushy at the bottom and you definitely don't want to land too far left as you'd probably have a mean encounter with the deep deep undercut that goes all the way behind the drop.
it's one of these simple move - bad consequences drops, but if you can trust your boof it's good to go. you just should be 100% sure that you can do it, cause a swim would be horrible, especially as you can't get out of the gorge once you're in.
then there are two more smaller drops. at higher flows you can simply boof the first to the right, at our level it was a bit more tricky but still okay as it wasn't that pushy. the last ledge is a nice little ramp into a narrow channel, pretty fun.

we ran the whole thing four times, walking back up after every run.
during the AKC-meetings people have run it up to 25 times in one day. they didn't wait for cameras and it was quite warm in fall, but still i wouldn't even try to walk up there that often. respect.

all in all it was a super nice day, sunny weather, still so much ice in the gorge, everybody had sweet lines and i think jens got quite a few sick shots.
so enjoy jens' pics and my video.

wintertime

first drop

seppi sailing into the fridge

daniel lining up for the first one

verry nice, i like!

La Malate!

saturday, sept 2nd, 4 o´clock in the morning. martin's trying to pick me up, deaddrunk...
well, at least we´re finally on our way. us that is ahoi-riders martin koll, micha schomann and myself. the last three days we were hoping for the water to come back up for la malate on the river doubs in northern france. we constantly checked the gauges and weather forecasts for doubs area. at first it looked as if we wouldn't have too much luck. we already were ready to go throughout the week, but then the levels dropped on us.
so it wasn't until friday evening until some heavy rains brought the already high water back up to perfect levels for the wave. we immediately decided to drive that night, 600 km to go, three guys in a tiny opel corsa, a weekend to spend.
it took some time though til we got there. we were not on the water before 2:30 in the afternoon, spent too much time picking up my astro 58 and trying to avoid the expensive highways in switzerland and austria didn´t help either. oh, and no worries, martin got sober again, he seemed to enjoy a pretty good sleep in the trunk of his car...
nevermind, this wave is one of europe's best, a huge green wave feeding into a massive hole.
at levels of around 500cm³ you kinda have eddy support, but you don´t really wanna go through this hole. so we carry back up after every single one of our rides.
and it´s so worth it!
after getting used to the sheer size of the hole we´re all fired up and everybody tries to push themselves a lot. but i guess pictures can tell a bit more, and how about a video?
also check out ahoishop for some more pics of the other guys.

all pics courtesy of micha schomann, freestylefoto

peace, out
sven

Video Canada 2007

okay, it's been a while...
the summer´s been crazy, i´ve made many good friends, had a hell of a time on the ottawa and in montreal and the best is: i'll return next summer!
i´m back in germany since october, having a blast hanging out with friends and enjoying the good life. also quite a bit of boating, though it took my astro ages to make it here. guess my idea of sending it through a friend via container wasn´t the best at all.
i´ve edited a clip of my canadian summer, it's already been published on ahoishop, and now i finally got it into the right format and pretty decent resolution for my blog.
enjoy!

peace, out,
sven

Lachine...

hmm, sunshine, montreal, good waterlevels...
this seemed to become a good morning, and it was.
went out to lachine rapids today for a relaxed surf and had the wave almost for ourselves.
the astro is so at home on these waves...
all pictures by dave pierse and myself. i love this spot!

the waves... the st. laurence is kinda wide.

big joe, the right shoulder launches...

just to give an impression on how wide the river is! spot me...

good night,
sven

Magnum and Rouge!

yey, i´ve had the magnum out for the first time last week!
i´m super stoked about that boat, pretty much feels as if riot´s built a boat exactly for me...
fast, responsive, everything just fits.
we ran the seven sisters section on the rouge river in quebec at probably around 30cms, nothing too hard, but a fun run!
pictures are not the best as it got dark while we ran the last and steepest section, a sweet gorge with six drops.
enough said for now, gotta get some breakfast and go boating at lachine. enjoy!

first drop in the steep section

going straight into the 2nd

entrance to the third

storing boats downtown montreal, fernando´s lovin it

peace out,
sven

Dumoine River, Quebec!

hmm, season´s almost done.
two more days at owl rafting and then i´m off to quebec, montreal and hopefully some creeking, too. i´m exited, as i just got a magnum, can´t wait to bring that baby out.
last week we already were out to run the grande chutes of the dumoine river, about 1 1/2 hours away from the ottawa.
this section of the dumoine, which apparently is a really nice touring and canoeing river is usually a pretty long portage. the whole section is about 1 km long and offers some excellent whitewater.
so five of us went to see wether it´s worth it. that is stephan "foerster" paetsch, andy, lachie and wylie from riverrun and myself.
took us close to two hours including filming, pictures and safety to run everything, plus two crashed boats and some minor bruises. unfortunately i didn´t make it to montreal before to get my own creeker so i had to borrow emre´s jefe. did the job, but i can´t wait to be in my own boat!
all pictures are by myself, wylie or lachie, thanks to you guys for some wicked shots.

locky scouting the 2nd big one

foerster running the first slide
the put-in is just above that bridge

lachie in the first slide

this and next shot: me running the 1st slide

foerster entering the crux rapid of this section

this and next shot: me running the must-make boof out of the entrance slide
the landing zone is a little bit shallow...

foerster coming out of the big one

happy foerster, yeah

foerster styling one of the bigger rapids a bit further down the run
a really nice boof into s-turn slide

andy in the same rapid

did i mention that the big one is kinda shallow?
yappa´s boat had to take a beating...

peace, out
sven

summer`s gone?

not quite, but days are getting shorter again, we´re actually wearing tops again on the ottawa and i finally found some time to update my poor blog.
i bought a new camera last week and had it out on garburator at some really nice levels. it´s probably an hour until i go again and i just can´t wait.
so for those who don´t know about the wave: it´s on just above the infamous buseater wave, which at summerlevels is basically just a pourover. garburator is extremely fast, got some really weird shoulders and it´s definitely a wave to go big on.best levels are probabl around minus 1 1/4 feet on the ottawa gauge, i´ve surfed it from zero to minus 2 1/2. i love it.
my best shots are just video, and i probably won´t make it through with my vid in the next week so it´s just pics now. please enjoy.

oh, and just to make everyone at home a bit jealous, this is how i wake up in the morning and how i go to bed in the evenings. life is good

peace out