bootfahrer

8/12/2010

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

5/08/2010

Goodbye NZ. Hi US and Canada. Can we please boat now?

Welcome back to the amazingly uncoordinated and rather random photodump.
There I am, running around with a camera around the world and barely ever manage to use the shots I'm taking. So they pile and pile and all of a sudden start flowing over. Out of my camera, spilling all over my computer, soaking my hardrive, dripping out of the WiFi, into a router and into this place. So take a look around, enjoy wonderful places and lots of colourful little boats falling and flying...
This time:

The Upper Kakapotahi - again

Rocks on a beach and a bunch of hippies playing with them.

The result of an attempt on highwater Monkey Creek on the Hollyford.
Wasn't me.

No campfires.

Milford Sounds. What a waste of gradient!

Red Granite Creek.
It defeated me. Not the creek but the walk.
Legs too weak to walk (for the 3h up a jungly slope)
Ditched the boat, brought the camera and canyoned it...

Kev England f^%$in stompin it!

Tyler Fox

The flying monkey!

Upper Kakas again. This time sunny and with local legend Barny Young on it.

No NZ without these cheeky little bastards. Kea!

Also: A roadtrip without water from NYC to the Ottawa
Everything over here is ridiculously low, we're pretty much running on August Levels... We'll see what the summer brings - Garb and Lachine should be in a lot!

Ottauquechee

Otter Creek. It was snowing.

It was snowing! Adirondacks.

Watertown.
Urban Boating.
Route 3
Tiia.

Trying to wash away the playboat rust.

So. That's it for now. I'll keep running around, will keep bringing my camera and keep stealing pictures of others to keep this going. Now get off the computer and go boating!

Sven

3/26/2010

Pelorus Sounds - A change of pace

All the posts on this blog so far were about whitewater.

Not this one.

Even though I spent the last ten years almos exclusively in whitewater boats I come from a background of seakayaking. I guess growing up a few km's from the "beach" in Northern Germany made that a pretty obvious way of getting into kayaking in an area without any mountains (my parent's house sits below waterlevel) or even hills.

Now New Zealand has not a only a big reputation for amazing whitewater but also a huge system of sounds and bays, cutting far into the land, bordered by mountains raising right from sea level.
The possibilities are endless, there are incredibly famous destinations like Milford Sounds, pristine and rather crowded ones like Abel Tasman to the very remote areas of Fjordland.
There also is a big system right at the northern end of the South Island.
Most travellers experiencing NZ will have seen a tiny bit of it from the Interislander Ferries while approaching Picton.

With limited time on our hands and the idea to do something that neither of us had done I teamed up with long time Milford Guide and Paddlerzone Sea Kayak Instructor Matt "Tex" Walker to explore the area around Pelorus Sounds. Our time frame was roughly a week, weather seemed to be alright and with a week of hectic organizing we made our way North. Pretty stressed at that point to be quite honest.
It took us until the second day to shake off the daily grind and start enjoying the unique area.
Options are endless and after listening to some of the Mountain Radio forecasts we altered our plan to mission D'Urville Island and rather have a proper holiday.
Days still averaging around 20 to 30 km's after that decision (instead of a daily 40) we spent a lot of our time exploring, fishing, relaxing, eating well and lots.

After having had my last longer seakayak trip in 2003 it took me a while to get back into enjoying the special eventfulness of seakayaking. You are traveling at a rather slow pace and thus have tons of time to enjoy what is happening around you. And other than the fast paced whitewater part of our sport it is all of a sudden more about the little things that entertain you.
Wildlife was a big one, penguins, seals, stingrays, kormorans, seeing (!) king fish all made us stop for bits and just observe.

Fishing from the kayaks was another big part.
Matt was trolling pretty much throughout the whole trip, with tons of enthusiasm but very limited success. Well, he did catch a good sized and really mean looking Barracuda - until it put its razorsharp teeth to work and snapped the line.
As soon as we would stop at the rocky points where the tides stirred up the water around the steep rockbeds we would get lucky. Baitfishing it wasn't uncommon to pull up two blue cods at once! Delicious!

The moment I will remember the most though is one that was impossible to get on camera.
Close to the end of the trip we were battling a strong southerly wind all day to make it to the campsite. In a place where the hills are shooting right out of the water it is hard to find a good spot to sleep, so we stuck to the excellent little DOC campsites.
We had an hour or so left before sunset at this point, about seven kms to go but now both tide and wind in out back. We were sure we would make it.
We didn't.
Matt decided to climb up a somewhat accessible spot in a little bay, tying his boat close to sea level. I wasn't sure how high the tide would go in that spot, didn't want to risk my gear and the thought of climbing in almost darkness just to not find a flat spot for my thermarest didn't seem appealing either.
Though exhausted from the longest day we had I was still fit enough to do another few km's, do the last crossing to the campsite. By that point it was almost completely dark.
And then it all came together.
Lining up the stars I had marks on where I should end up. Headtorch flicked to red above my visor so it wouldn't blind but I'd still be seen I left shore.
A warm evening land breeze was blowing against me, but only mildly so.
After a while of paddling, just listening to the sounds, enjoying the blurred reflection of the stars I realized something had changed.
I could see my paddlestrokes! I had seen it before, but never in an area this big and a setting like this. Bioluminescense is caused by microorganisms that are stimulated to light up through motion or touch. What that meant for me was that not only my paddlestrokes but my whole boat and the waves coming of it where ILLUMINATED!
And to finish it off I did find a good campspot, had a little fire and enjoyed a small nightly hike.

I often find it hard to not spend time off on whitewater and it is still where my passion is, but I would go for a trip like this anytime again!

Another good thing by the way was that I spent some more time with my camera, playing around with pictures more challenging than the obvious action of whitewater kayaking.

Enjoy the shots!