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

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