A group of 6 kayakers from the UK have recently returned from a successful expedition to explore the white water in Sri Lanka. There have been a couple of previous trips to Sri Lanka before, but this one was the first to be held in August, during the heart of the monsoon
After having a great new years eve in Pucon paddling the upper Palguin, having barbecue, watching the fireworks over Lago Villarica and partying hard with the whole Pucon kayak crowd we left the awesome little Chilean town and headed over the boarder to Argentina towards Bariloche. Two days later we arrived in Futaleufu back in Chile. So my first river to paddle in 2011 was the Futa – paddelers paradise, not a too bad start! And I still had two months left in Chile…
Northern Norway is becoming a favorite late season destination, while spending a summer in Norway. There no more festivals or competitions and the waterlevels in the classics are coming getting low. Time to head North for some exploring and rivers that do not get run so often. Last year I got to Northern Norway for a first time with Rush Sturges, Steve Fisher and Ben Brown. It had been a great trip and I was keen to return there soon.
ZET team did awesome job again during European Open extreme race this year. First two women paddled Veloc (Anne and Luis), second and four place took Raptor (Viktor and Palo), three Raptors in kayak cross final (Jamie, Tomo, Viktor), ZET team won team race, well done guys. here is result list and photo gallery made by Kuba Suchy.
Sopotnice event was during second weekend in August. This czech competition is really popular even for international kayakers. New Sago did great job and two of them went all the way to final. Thanks to Honza Spindler and Ondra Krivanek. here is few pictures from this event. Photo made by PePe.
Spring 2011 in the alps could have been better seen from the kayaker‘s or skier’s eye. Dry winter months, the smallest snowpack since many years, hence no water in the rivers during the spring time. Checking the water levels online was mostly frustrating, except from a few weekends when long-awaited rain fall helped to raise the flow on some creeks. For sure, this year`s kayaking wasn’t as exiting as most other years in the alps.
It´s been a bit quick trip to Norway for me this year. I flew to Norway for only eight days and I hoped that it would be still enough to paddle some good rivers around Otta and compete during Sjoa river festival. So I took a plane from Prague to Oslo Monday midday and I found myself paddling Amot section on Sjoa river during the evening.
