Photos Piemont

Ok, time for a new update. Life;s been good. After coming back from Chile, I spent a great week of skiing in the French Alps followed by a week of coaching and kayaking in Slovenia with Gene17 and Simon Westgarth. Soca valley is beautiful and I spend a great week, paddling on the Soca river everyday. After the course was finished, I went back home to Czech to catch up and hang out with my friends and family. Despite the spring time the kayaking in Czech and Austria was on the low side. The usually month long window for kayaking on my local rivers narrowed to one week and some of the classics did not flow at all. Bummer. So there was not much paddling in the last month to be done. I went to the King of the Wave firs czech indoor kayak contest and spent a great day in the biggest aqua-park in Central Europe. Fun times :D

Finally after almost a month of flat water training and some sessions on slalom courses in Czech I was so ready to hit the rivers again. 

Having fun on the Egua

As a part of Gene17 staff, I am on the road again teaching kayaking in a beautiful Val Sessia valley in Piemonte. So stoked. Italy is awesome. 

The first week was little unusual due to very high water levels and loads of rain. This had changed the steep creeking course into a bigwater skills test course for couple of days. After those, the rain eased up a bit and the levels dropped enough to do some creeking. The rivers here are just great. You get great steep bedrock drops and slides in beautiful gorges with roman bridges. And that's not all. After a day of kayaking, there is always a cup of amazing cappuccino or italian wine followed by the best pizza in the world.

Campertogne- this village is my home for 2 weeks:) Check out all the new snow in the mountains

The Gene 17 van

***** staff accommodation love the amazing trailer. Mainly in rainy alpine weather:) Thanks Simon

Loading and reloading the boats of the roof- getting better everyday

Nick Horwood leading Ian down one of the rapids on Mastallone.

Mastallone boofing

Saming on Egua

Joe lining up for the first drop Egua

Egua, scottish style:)

Lower Egua

Egua

Office time:)

Gronda and Egua, check out the cool waving on the Ophion paddle. This my first trip trying those on the real whitewater and I DO like them. review to come soon.

Also thanks a lot to Kokatat and Snap Dragon for a great dry suit and the best possible gear out there. There is nothing else better then getting off the river in a rainy and cold day dry and warm. Cheers guys.


Here are some photos from the first Gene17 week in Piemonte Italy by Simon Westgarth. Great week of coaching, good kayaking, italian food and wine. Viva Italia. More to come... :)