......Jakub Sedivy.......

Thule Bherri Update Nepal

2011-01-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, there is a new webpage with updates and so on

www.jakubsedivy.com

Please check it out with new photos and updates from the last adventures in Nepal and Chile

Thanks

Jakub

Gene17 Nepal trip

2010-09-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
there are still places on the Nepal trip with Gene17. Check it out and sign up if you are interested. The crew is getting together and looks already like a great trip not to be missed;)

More info on www.gene17.com and updates here.

Devils Extreme Race

2010-09-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

River Moldau (Vltava) is the longest river in the Czech Republic and so is mostly dammed, but on its top part right under the Lipno dam is an amazing stretch of Class 4-5 whitewater called the Devils Streams. Most of the year this amazing part of the river is dry and has enough water to wash your hands. The last weekend of August, it's all different story, boaters all over the Czech end Central Europe come under the Lipno dam to enjoy the annual release of warm water.

Devils streams were also a site of the 4^th annual Devil's extreme race. This year we have seen many competitors from and also other countries than Czech Republic. Friday was reserved for training, registrations and also catching up with old friends over a jug of great czech beer.

There was a ZET kayaks stand ready for the whole weekend for anyone wishing to test the new Raptor for free. Most of the Raptors were on the water the whole weekend and sometimes there was even a line to demo this kayak. Raptor is surely turning heads.

The competition started on Saturday with individual slaloms. Spectacular ramp and quite a big hole at the gates 3 and 4 did not leave the crowd quiet and everyone got cheered at. Combination in the gates 3 and 4 also shook with the expected results as some of the favorite paddlers did not make it and ended low on the time sheet.

The slalom was followed by a sprint. Sprint was started also from the ramp, but went on through some of the greater rapids downstream, as well as the famous “window dam” chute. After the race most of the competitors enjoyed the rest of the river running through rapids like Bloody fingers or Stairs and experiencing easy shuttle option by the local train. Simple and easy. After the water was switched off, we all met in the camping ground to celebrate and party hard.

The most expected boater cross took a place on Sunday with the first half of the competitors going into the battle. After a few rounds Viktor Legat took the first place, closely followed by Palo Andrassy, both on their Raptors showing off the speed of the Raptor design.

After we all regrouped and got ready, the competitors lined up for the great team race, paddling the Devil's streams top to bottom through all the rapids including the infamous Bloody fingers rapid which had seen a lot of carnage, broken paddles and peeled off skin. The winning team was of Honza Lasko, Palo Andrassy and Tomo Andrassy, all on ZET Raptors, closely followed by team of Viktor Legat (ZET), Honza Kolar and Jakub Sedivy (ZET).

After the race, there was a prize ceremony at the campground and with promises about the next event most of the competitors got on their way home.

It was great to see so many Raptors at once on the river. Not only amongst the competitors, but also amongst many of those who just went to paddle and enjoy this festival of great whitewater in Czech. Nice to see the Raptor going so strong and fast...

Cheers

Jakub

Raundal never dries :)

2010-08-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Norway this year is awesome.

After coming back to Voss I got back to rafting and safetykayaking on the Raundal. Sweet. The rivers here go up and down with almost regular rain and so far there has been always something to paddle. The water was low, so we went to run the lower canyon of the Raundal as the waterlevel dropped quite a bit. Teamed up in the morning with Eirik Overreide, Dag sandvik and Julian Stocker and drove a short while to the put in. According to the boys the river was on the high side of good and we cruised through the lead in rapids to entrance of the canyon. This is a must run rapid/ waterfall with a sieve at the bottom. The river was pretty high so we decided to hike out.

Some photos from the same day

The next we were about to drop back in the canyon, but the motivation was kinda lucking the drive so we settled down for the local hole which got into the prime level, check out the photos.

On my way to Czech for a visit soon and then back to Norway for a wee while :) Life's good :D

Gene17 roadtrip photos

2010-08-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from the first week Gene17 roadtrip in Norway. There is also and article about the trip on the Gene17 blog and whole bunch of photos worth checking out...

The dates for next year's trip are 31/14 July/Agust 2011 :)

Gene17 roadtrip

2010-08-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to my report on a roadtrip with Gene17. Great trip with amazing group and nice quality runs. More in the article on the blog. More photos soon :)

Noruega Nord photos

2010-08-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hey,just a quick photostory from the trip North... enjoy :D

photos by Jakub Sedivy and Lucie Sediva

2010-08-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

After the Veko, Rush was staying in my our house and after few days the rest of the group turned up consisting of Steve Fisher, his bro Dave and Ben Brown. After some regrouping, the boys left up north and I was busy catching up on sleep and working.

I was planning to go to Sjoa as my days off were coming up. Sometimes during the week I got a message from Rush to join them up north so I managed to repair Rosie Jr ( my small red Skoda Felicia), pick up my sister from the station, get some more days off and soon I was on the road again heading up far north. Stop over in Sjoa to say hi to friends, followed by full night of driving and by midday next day I was meeting up with the crew for heavy Redbull, rum and coke bender after which we all found out that the whole bunch of koffein drinks can spoil and shorten normal sleep to couple hours and looong time of watching the ceiling, trying to fall asleep.

From morning it was on and we were off for some kayaking. We found pretty cool canyon close to the road with interesting lead in drop, waterfall, small gorge and fun boogie class 4 lead out. The run turns out to be super fun. Everything takes little longer because of the cameras and filming.

The waterfall turns out to be trickier than anticipated.

I went second, my decision for the line was to use the autoboof but try not to land so flat. The lead in goes all good, but I eneded up[ little bit further left in the waterfall and I didn't land flat but fully corked. Landed almost on my head, but soft and unscattered. Roll and back on the game.

Rush boofed and Ben took his time scouting from both shores and styled a sweet 45 degrees line.

The run followed by sweet 6m drop and fun WW4 bogie water run out.

The rest of the week followed in similar pattern. There had been thoughts of an overnighter first D mission but we had to postpone it, because of rainy weather.

Nevertheless we found sick slides , nice drops and many rivers to be paddled in lower flows. After almost 2 weeks I had to go back to work and the boys hiked to the first D. Overall there had been loads of scouting and driving around, but totally worth it. Northern Norway really delivers. The crust of the potential has been just scraped off and there is tons more to do. I am already looking forward for next summers mission North. So much to be done there...

More photos soon... stay tuned

Ekstremesportveko 2010

2010-07-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

After two days spent in my car, I turned up to Voss, my summer location this year. Voss is sick, so many rivers to run on such a small area so there is always stuff to paddle, even after a full day of raft guiding. The summer almost never sets here, so it's not a problem to put in for the local runs around 9pm. I had been enjoying Myrdalselvi and Raundalselvi runs with the local crew and experiencing unusually warm Norwegian spring in Voss.

Voss is also hosting the annual Ekstremesportveko event, one of the biggest extrem sport festivals anywhere, attracting hundreds of athletes and thousands of fans and spectators. This is my favourite week in the year. The festival tent has always great atmosphere and is you can meet almost anyone from you friends all over the world.

There are competitions and events held in BASE, Skydiving, Paragliding, Hanggliding, Multisport, Rafting, Big Air, Freeride, Kiting, MTB\ BMX, Climbing, Longboarding and also Kayaking. All the athletes and fans meet every evening the big festival tent to watch the today's video from the day's event, share stories and party big style indeed.

This years Veko has been little different for me as I had also been working most of the week for Voss Rafting. This has turned the Ekstremeveko also in an endurance week, but I also managed to compete in few events. On Monday I entered the Hogri Ned multisport event. This race usually consist of skier, downhill biker and kayaker. This year, there has been not much snow in Voss, so the skiing part had to be abandoned and it looked like I will not have a team as my team buddies from last year could not turn up. One day before the event I got a call from John Indrebo, one of the local bikers and on Monday I was awaiting his arrival at the start. After slower hand over of the relay bib we became 3^rd overall. Cool, my first veko podium this year.

The main kayaking event was held at the Mjolfjell race course. This had been a big chanche from the traditional Branseth course, which was out due to low water levels.

Mjolfjell has been rising on the contrary so most of the competitors had been welcomed by a very sticky hole at the bottom of the section, which made almost one third of the field to drink a bootie beer by the end of the day. I had couple great training rides and felt pretty strong for the race. The first part felt very fast and on the track, but I got pushed behind the rock by the bottom hole and so lost any chances for the finals like many of the others who went through the “back door”. Anyway, it got all better for the team race as I teamed up with my ZET kayaks mates from Czech Viktor Legat and Jiri Kopecny and we managed to get second behind the Italian team.

The rest of the Veko followed with amazing parties, great everyday events and loads of stories to be shared. Already looking for the next year. Thanks for the amazing competition photos by M. Kroupa

Myrkdalselvi

2010-06-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Few cool shots from one of my home runs this year. Voss creeking at it's best. Lowe Myrkdalsevi has become one of my favourite runs anywhere and it's only 30 mins from from my place. Packed with action and good whitewater. Yeehaaa. The pictures were shot last Saturday before the Veko. Good teaser for the action and great week, that is just about to start. We are pretty busy at work, but hope to get as much racing as possible. So far so goog. Stay tuned for more soooooon... (All photos by me, except of those of me, those are taken by andy Phillips).

Benjamin Hjort going for the boof

Andy Phillips- first drop

Benji- first drop

First slide of the triple combo- Benji

Mark Basso at the first slide

Benji- second slide of the triple

Mark at the third slide- just hold on and enjoy the ride, also good to go right at the bottom, hole is super sticky

Benji- second run double fun, 2nd slide

Third slide

From triple slide into a triple drop, Andy Phillips styling for the cameras.

Mark Basso at the so called Dirk Diggler slide

Andy Philips

This one is called Grandioso, one of my favourite drops anywhere

Me at the Grandioso, middle line

Boof it

This your ast take out drop. Sweet boof onto a slide with a big hole at the bottom and right hand turn at the lead out

Me at the last drop

Norway Raundal

2010-06-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update from Myrkdalselvi an Raundalselva paddling with Benjamin Hjort, Dag Sandvik and Eirik Ovrreide. This river is in danger of being dammed which would destroy more than 40kms of an excellent whitewater. Check out the movies taken by Benjamin Hjort and couple guys with pretty cool "model helicopter cameras". Amazing footage.

The River from FPV-Leif on Vimeo.

Also one photo on the Voss Kajakk Klubb webpage

Photos from Myrkdalselva and full report coming very soon. Also first party of Ekstremsportveko 2010 today.

Straightdownstriit 2010

2010-06-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Another weekend, another adventure. After getting back from beautiful Sessia Valley and leaving Italy, I spent just 5 days back home getting organized and left for some weekend fun kayaking with friends on Trnavka slalom course in Czech.

This is artificial channel under one of the bigger dams in Czech and every release always attracts many paddlers of different abilities to this site. This year

I came back to Trnavka after almost 3 seasons and was happy to meet many of my old friends. Fun times. For the fact, that Trnavka is a slalom course it is quite steep, technical and pushy, which was a great combination for me to try my new ZET RAPTOR. First of all, I was amazed how fast the boat is. It took me couple laps to get used to the boat's dynamic and different shape, but it was getting more predictable and easy to control after every lap, mainly after I tweaked the seat around a little bit. Trnavka is the longest artificial slalom course in the Czech Republic and also the hardest delivering solid class III- IV whitewater in concrete channel. Very good playground for testing a new boat. I was not solo with the same idea and so Marek Basta and had about 4 more Raptors for testing and free use and those were gone most of the time. So great 2 days of paddling, sharing stories, partying BBQs and also but not least sharing and discussing our feelings about the new toys. Good times.

After coming back from Trnavka I had couple very busy days getting a lot of stuff ready for my mission to Norge and by Thursday I was back on the road to Switzerland. Love to travel to new places to meet old friends. I was accompanied by Viktor Legat and Honza Lasko heading to Elm for the Straightdownstriit 2010. We slept over in Viktor's cousin place and rallied to the trainings rested and in good mood. Nothing better than sleeping in a real bed and having real coffee and good cake in the morning. Life get's even better.

The event tents

For competitors...

The event was held over three drop on WW4 stretch of the Striit river with the secong being particularly tricky forcing many competitors to roll. Next big trick was the ramp. This one proved to be very moody, sending people into rocks or onto each other. Ouch.

Honza in the training

...and on the ramp

Me, Honza and Viktor had all good qualification runs and went into the main boatercross event.

... rest time...

Honza was not very lucky with the ramp launch and the course did not offer many places to pass the opponent so unfortunately got knocked out nevertheless being one of the fastest kayakers of the event. Me and Viktor won our duels and went to next round.

Me in the race...

Viktor, leading his round

I had pretty unlucky collision at the start of my next run and after couple mistakes the race was over for me.

Viktor proved to his racing abilities and kept winning until he made a mistake in semifinals and finished 4th overall. Congratulations.

Chinese race, fun, fun

After the race we headed for a BBQ in the Circus Town. There was a party that followed the event, but Honza was leaving for TEVA games in Vail the next morning. This put us in a bit of time stress so after saying bye to all new and old friends and with promises of see you soon, we headed to Augsburg and the same night back to Prague.

Overall amazing event and a great occasion to meet friends, get some paces through good racing and enjoy the lifestyle we all love so much. I am on my way to Norway and the boys are going to represent at the TEVA games in Italy. Good luck hope to see you all at the Veko.

Photos will be added 2moro

Egua party tricks:)

2010-05-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Couple photos by Simon Westgarth from a day of sunshine and fun whitewater on Equa:) Full report and more photos soon.

Photos Piemont

2010-05-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

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... :)

2010-05-02T01:31:00.000-07:00

Just a short note from a slideshow in Prague. Amazing event and many people followed by a great party. Thanks to everyone. More slideshows to come. Next maybe Pilsen and Mlada Boleslav.

Baker

2010-05-02T01:25:00.000-07:00

Photostory of one of the biggest rivers I have paddled so far...

On the way to...

First night

The lake in the morning, almost like a mirror

Four days on the dusty roads in the dusty spider van... Pura Vida

Chile - tyre repairs, all the time...

Asado!!!!!

Happy crew...

Aniol...

Baker

2010-03-05T10:36:00.001-08:00

Just a short update. Back from Baker safe and sound and on a mission to get to Santiago soon.

Honest

2010-02-20T15:48:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, one of my best mates from Czech Jakub Nemec just came out with a new movie. Check it out. More on his blog

HONEST from WW8 expedition group on Vimeo.

Puerto Montt

2010-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

One day in Puerto Montt on my way down to Futaleufu.

Enjoy :)

Hard at work :)

Back in Pucon for the stouts

2010-02-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

Pucon is like a an immense sive/ eddy. Once you enter, it's just way to hard to get out . It started raining again and I found myself in Puerto Varas, chilling in my friends Pepe's casa, drinking beers and preventing some chileand drunk fighting. as well as spending some time on the beautiful Petrohue river. It was raining and cold though and I got the message the stouts in Pucon are back in. Feeling quite good with my back back in order I jumped on the bus for couple days of Pucon hucking. I love this place. You just never get enough of it.

Volcan Villarica guarding the town, beautiful sunrise

The first day we hit the Nevados again and it proved to be the bomb. The Todo Nevados is one of the best creeks I have ever paddled. It's packed with action. There was a big group hitting the river this time and after everyone styled the upper, we eddied out above the infamous Demshitz Drop. The first D of the drop was made last year and it is an impressive 50 footer with a stout lead in. I watched couple guys go to learn the lines and then it was my turn :). Hard right to the small eddy, catch a breather, peel out, boof and the edge which comes pretty fast. 50ft of waterfalling and high fives with the friends in the pool below... :)

Demshitz drop, Evan Garcia, photo by Candace Sanders

Demshitz drop, LJ Groth, photo by Candace Sanders

After this, the Diablito follows. An interesting 15 ft drop leading into a right angle drop in a crack. Boof it and turn hard right. This drop threaten to pin you if you do not turn fast enough. Well all was good and we found ourselves smiling in the eddy above the sive piled rocks above Nutrients.

EG at the Diablito, photo Candace Sanders

Nutrients drop is a combo of two sweet boofs into another 15 footer. Hold on to your paddle and boof hard.

The Nutrients, photo by Candace Sanders

After that there are 2 more drops and you get out of this impressive gorge.

One of the best days on the river I can remember. running the stouts with friends, no carnage and almost no scouting :) Thanks for the lines boys.

Thanks Candace for the photos. At our trip there was no cameras so those are from the previous trip, well the river hasn't changed and it does deliver the same :)

The next day I slept in and enjoying the beautiful weather I left to town to find out what is going on. Well Aniol and Nico were up for the Palguin Medio and I felt it is a good timing to celebrate 3 months in this amazing country. Well off we were for some more goods.

Aniol " The Spanish kayakista model" / yep that's a photo of him

Me and Aniol ran the Stout 10ft drop right above the main fall...

Aniol styling the Stout 10, check oput how close hte odge of the big one is...

My turn going far left...photo by Nico

Taking a deep breath in the microeddy, photo by Nico

... and off the big one...photo by Nico

...and Nico lined up nice line through the medio.

happy crew (photo Isaac Lewinson)

The spanish rata mobile

...and back to Pucon for the beers

all the other photos by me :)

Back in Mystic

2010-02-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Just a few photos from Pucon area rivers, back in the Bliss Stick Mystic. Thanks to Hans Denk and mainly Manfred Riedel to get the boat here to Chile for me. More on http://www.bliss-stick-kajak.de/2010/01/28/chile-update/.

Pictures are from Palguin

First rapid combo (photo by Logan Greyling)

(photo by Tyler Curtis)

Exportacion (photo by Chris Baer)

Middle Palquin waterfall (photo by Chris Baer)

...and Nevados...

Nevados slide (photo by Logan Greyling)

Nevados crack drop (photo by Chris Baer)

Nevados (photo by Chris Baer)

Nevados del Amore (photo by Chris Baer)

Cascade Idaho River Kids road trip

2010-01-27T11:07:00.000-08:00

Life should not be only about hardcore kayaking and I spent the first week of January working for Cascade Kayak school coaching Idaho River Kids trip to Chile. There were 9 kids coming down to Pucon, Chile to kayak as much as they could and have fun. I joined the kids for their road trip up north and couple days after that. After a day spent on the Liucura, we packed a truck, van and filled up a trailer for the next morning early leaving. The next day we left to Pichilemu for 2 days of kayak surfing and some typical chilean discotheque experience. The wave were pretty big and there were some cool moves as well as beatdowns to be seen.

After 2 days in Pichilemu, we packed all our stuff again and went to paddle the rivers around Los Quenes again. Perfect weather and kayak conditions for all the kids on the trip.

The last day of the roadtrip was dedicated to infamous Siete Tasaz section of the Rio Claroa and after a short hike most of us went over the super clean lips of this section. The short but steep hike in was a little mission with group of this size but all went without problems and was well worth the fun.

Back in Pucon I spent couple more days coaching and paddling with the group on the Trancura river.

It was cool to see the kids super fired up to paddle and motivated to kayak as much and as often as possible as possible. I had a great time and hope to see them on the water around the world soon.

Upper Palguin Kayak Cross

2009-12-20T14:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first Upper Palquin boater cross race. The competitors meeting was set up around 10 AM in Kayak Chile. After we signed up for the race and after some time we all head up to the Upper Palguin put in.

TC and Logan signing up

There were 9 heats of 3 people with the fastest kayaker going to the next round. The Upper is amazing for such a race. There is a technical double drop (where most of the carnage happens), followed by a left hand 12ft waterfall with a nasty hole. After clearing those, there is a nice clear fall and couple rapids to the finish. Mix it with 3 racing kayakers and you get an amazing racing course. There were 9 heats of 3 kayakers with the winner progressing to the next round.

Evan Garcia leading his heat

The "carnage" heat, Aniol, Jared and Ian

I was doing quite well until the first double drop where I touched a rock that messed up my line and was passed by Ian Garcia. Overall the race was great with a lot of action and carnage. Six more swims were added to this years Pucon swim club.:)

Ian/ Skirt implosion

Ladies support

The second drop

Finals- EG dropping on Keegan

After getting through the rounds, EG (USA), Aniol (SPA) and Keegan (CAN) made it into the finals and Keegan took the gold. Congrats.

The race was followed by a BBQ at the Ben's house right at the Take out/ Put in and a crazy night in down town Pucon...

Andy shooting a bootie...

Todd...

Just chilling afer a great day...

Overall this was an amazing event. Today I have been just chilling and getting ready fro a road trip with TC, Logan and Anton. Still waiting for the car- today or tomorrow, then we should finallu hit the road...

Outdoorshow 2010

2009-12-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, just got to know about an interesting race in slovenia in May. So, if anyone is touring Europe or planning a trip this way... Kayakcross through Kobarid sounds like fun:)

Outdoor Show Kobarid 2009 from Planet Šport on Vimeo.

Rio Trafanpui

2009-12-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

This river was a first D. Yeeehaaaa.... We loaded Mariann's truck and together with Steve Fisher, Val Grollemund, Mariann and local legend Kurt Casey, we were off for another mission in Pucon area. Well not exactly, first of all the 2.5 hour drive stretched a bit due to flat tire. Getting so typical for Chile doesn't it?

Kurt and Steve at work

Mariann getting her hands dirty :)

Volcanisacion?

Our search for nearest Vulkanisazion (tyre repair shop), took a while and we due to a locked gate we were ready to start walking to the river by 4pm.

Mariann "fishing" for reception

The plans were made to put on in after like 1 hour walk. The walk was on a nice road, so no bushwhacking and after an hour or so we put on on the lower stretch of the run.

Resting on the way up

It contains of mostly technical chilean style riverruning and couple gorges with nice drops.

Steve scouting the portage

Portage

Me at one of the drops (photo Steve Fisher)

Valentin running the clean drop at the lower part of second gorge (photo Steve Fisher)

The run was really cool and with two portages, we made it down to our take out in like 2.5 hours. There is still the upper part waiting for us.... Some good stuff to be done.

Rio Ancoa

2009-12-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

This was mixed feelings mission. After we were turned out at the Maule by an armed guide

with a spanish explanation we could not understand. Well, the gate remained closed and we

headed to our another destination- river Ancoa.

Mike stoked with a local stash of Coke...

The dark caught us on the way and with rain

falling steadily, we were looking for a shelter. No cabanas around, so after some searching we

settled down for an old barn. Stylish kayaker bums accommodation. Well, we were dry which

counts.

Barn, ***** accomodation

On the way to put in

The morning was sunny and after a short drive we got to Ancoa. We were really surprised

by the site. Instead of the typical beautiful Chilean valley, we encountered industrial site full of

heavy machinery building a possible dam. So sad and irritating. After a while we found our

put in.

Mike Goglin, leading into first rapid

Mira Kodada going for it

Me at the first combo (photo Mike Goglin)

The run was interrupted by the building site and at some points the river was

channelized in artificial channel. There are still some fun rapids scattered in the gorge but

taking out at construction zone with trucks around you kind of ruins the experience.

Artificial river

Construction site

Mike showing his opinion

So overall another river soon to be destroyed by the progressive damming. Such a shame :(((

TRES (DOS) Saltos

2009-12-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hola everyone,

just a quick update from yesterdays trip to Tres Saltos waterfalls. Those drops are amazing site of 3 drops and couple mandatory portages. The whole mission started in front of Kayak Pucon shop, where the group steadily grew until we left in Rodrigo's van and one truck. After paying the 700 pesos each for the entrance, we were ready to get our boats and hiked up the trail to the put in. The and the most famous drop was unfortunately too low to run so we settled up for the first two. The first drop is a tricky entrance into a slide ending with like a 15ft drop.

The first drop/ me

Jerad styling it

There is a second drop just after it which is a photogenic but quite messy slide drop which tends (and does) kicflip you at the bottom part. Just hold on...

Second drop slide/ me

Valentin on the second drop

After the second drop, there is another portage and in our case the take out. THe get out of the river is almost impossible without a set throw-bag from the top. Really scetchy take out...

Jake after he hit the water and his glasses smashed his face

Smoking volcan Villarica- amazing views

Middle Palquin fall

2009-12-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Today after some typical chilean planning and couple text messages I met Steve Fisher, Mariann Saether and Vallentin Grollemund in front of the Kayak Chile shop again. The weather was great and we left to paddle the upper Palguin. Steve and Val went to check the upper drop but the lead in is quite ugly, there is not a clean line into the lip and yep... it's pretty tall to be upside down there.

View from the top

Looking for a possible line

Upper Palguin was again a great fun run. We were done in like 20 minutes and after short ride turned up to the Middle Palguin waterfall.

Me at the top of the waterfall (photo Val Grollemund)

This fall is around 7o ft (21 metres) tall. The whole adventure starts with a tricky seal launch straight into the boly water above the fall itself. The boils are pretty tricky at this water level. From there on, the way is just down.

Mariann running first after she won her round of rock/paper/scissors :) (photo Steve Fisher)

My run (photos by Steve Fisher)

Valentin styling it (photo by Steve Fisher)

ChileAno

2009-11-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

On the road again...

One month and couple days after I came back from Canada, there is another mission under way. On the 11th of November I left from Prague to Frankfurt, spent an amazing November day with a hot wine and in the evening boarded a TAM flight to Sao Paulo and finally Santiago. The most rad thing on the board was the movie selection. Guess what? Among all those Friends, soap operas and romantic movies I found a kayaking movie. No kidding. The Nomads featuring Tao and Rodrigo Tuschner took me straight to Pucon for some great creeking and waterfall times. That's what I call motivational movies:)

The beatiful surroundings of Los Quenes

Anyways, at the Santiago airport I got picked up by my friend from Czech Mira Kodada and after a short detour to Santiago off we went to Los Quenas to visit my friend Todd Ericson. Todd has got an adventure company in an amazing surrounding of high mountains and two sweet rivers so Chilean Adventures and Hosteria Los Quenes became our base for the next couple days.

Our dogs :)

Mira Happy after his first paddle in Chile

Shuttle to put in Rio Claro of Teno

The rive Teno was pretty high and a sweet warm up run. Pretty pushy class 4/5 run with brown water, not many eddies and almost 30kms of whitewater.

Rio Teno, way high up

One of the first rapids/ me (photo Mike Goglin)

Yes, we had flat...

Todd, giving us some instructions and tips where to go

After few days of acclimatization and Pisco jet-lag treatment we were ready to start travelling to Pucon. Joined by my friend Mike Goglin alias Turbo, we headed firstly to the infamous Siete Tasaz on Rio Claro. This river is one of the most amazing environments I have been to. Simply wow. I don't know if there could be a better example of super clean pool-drop/waterfall river.

After some typical kayaking mucking around and asking directions in Spanish, none of us really can speak, we met Dave Hughes and The New River academy, who helped us to find the Put in for the 22 waterfall section.

On the way to Tiese Tasaz...

Tiese Tasaz- pure fun run

The 22 waterfall section is around 2.5 kms long and put huge smiles and few freightened expessions from bling edges on our faces. The run starts with short hike in (depends on ability of your rental car) and an interesting seal launch straight into the first drop. From there on it's just a pure fun to the take out. Drops and waterfalls all the way. I have tried to count but you have just so much fun you forget the numbers. There is one specially interesting blind 30 footer that just sneaks on you. Looks the same as all the other edges until you actually go over it and see the green water 10 meters below :). This fall is followed by blind narrow box canyon with few rapids. Pretty cool. For the rest of the run we're left with more clean drops in deep volcanic canyon. We left the canyon laughing like small kids. Sweet

Second drop in 22 teacups (photo Mike Goglin)

One of many, forgot the count.... (photo Mike Goglin)

After having so much fun, me and Mike decided to run the Cinco Tasaz (5 teacups) just downstream, portaging the 2 blocked and manky canyons bellow the bridge.

Finally Cinco Tasaz/me (photo Mike Goglin)

We left for the famous Siete Tazas for (7 teacups) the next morning. This section has 7 of the cleanest drops and pools you have dreamed about. Nothing scary, just pure fun.

Visitor :)

B.C. trip 2009

2009-10-23T01:52:00.000-07:00

B.C. Trip 2009

This trip started, when I met my friend Honza “Zajic” Lasko while working and paddling in Norway. I have been thinking about Stikine for quite a while and Honza was keen to go. We begun looking for a team and were joined by Jakub “Kubos” Drnec, Braden Fandrich and meeting Corey Boux in Terrace. So after some frantic trips to Vienna to get the newly established visa and all necessities, we left to Vancouver in mid-September. The flight and the following drive to Terrace was rather long and we were pretty happy to see Corey after almost 3 days of traveling and super keen for some boating.

The Stikine was pretty high and during the week we were hoping for it to drop. So while we were waiting, the decision was made to paddle around Terrace. I had no idea how many great creeks and rivers are around Terrace. Most of the paddlers just travel up to run the Stikine or stay around Whistler or Vancouver Island area. I reckon, that is quite a shame, as Terrace offers some great paddling. The Stikine was still rising quickly and with more rain to come everyday it was soon clear that we were not going to get on it this year.

Corey became our guide and host and we paddled a different run around Terrace every day. This was my first time in BC and I was stoked with variety of boating all in one hour drive from Terrace. The weather was not cooperating much with loads of rain and sometimes flooded rivers (ruining our multi-day trip plans), but we had a great time with good kayaking and some pretty adventurous bush walks.

I am not used to much kayak bush-bashing and was pretty amazed how thick the forest can get and how hard it is to get through with the boat. I did some kayak bush walking in New Zealand, but paddling mostly around Europe and Norway, where most of the rivers are easy to access, I certainly got some taste of BC experience.

After a week or so we said bye to Corey and headed down south again as Braden and Kubos needed to be back for work. We stayed in Kumsheen rafting for couple nights, helped with cleaning the river on the BC rivers day and paddled some great bigwater rapids as well as some creeks in the area. After that we parted and with the plans for the next year mission, me and Honza left to Whistler and Squamish for some more boating.

This was my first trip to BC and I was amazed with the quality of whitewater and remoteness of the place. During the time I was there I got just a taste of the real BC, but I can't wait to be back in close future for some multi-day trips.

California section

2009-10-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

Another day ou from work. It was raining for more than 3 days and the rivers came up. This is California Section on the Austbygdai river. It's harder and more continuous than the upper section. Let's say one of my favorites in Norway.

Austbygdai

2009-10-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

One day of my outings from Dagali to Telemark. Good party, Paula's birthday and next day Austbygdai. Good fun run with some nice slides and fun waterfall. Simply fun day on the water

Ric on one of the first rapids

Slides

More slides and one of the biggest on the run

Lead in to the Spannenfossen

On the way home

Upper Austbygdai is good fun run, with amazing slides and fun waterfall. Also I was pretty stoked about how the weather could differ from Dagali which is 70kms away. Way warmer here:)

Teigdalen, Doubledrop, Norway

2009-08-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

Teigdalselvi doubledrop

This has been the most amazing boof I have done so far.

Sam Sutton styling it

Jamie Sutton, following his older brother

Me, in the pool

...and on the edge...

More photos taken by Josh Neilson, thanks

If you get lucky to catch the flow the Teigdalen doubledrop is one of the most amazing drop I know.

Nevis Bluff

2009-08-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Myrkdalselvi

2009-08-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

One of the best creeks I could paddle around Voss, Norway

The view from the put in bridge

Eirik firing up the first drop of the section
Torkel boofing the second bigger drop

Me and Eirik running the triple drop

Boofing the last drop, Eirik behind me
Eirik leeds into one of the bigger slides

Torkel...

Doubledrop combo, me

and Torkel...
Portage
Myrkdal was an amazing steep creek packed with drops and slides. We had a higher flow, but all next to the triple slides was manageable and fun. Thank guys

Nevis River

2009-08-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Spring trips to Voss

2009-08-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

GUDFARFOSSEN, Numedalslagen, Dagali, Norway

2009-08-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Lead in, the first rapid before the main slide

The main slide

Lead out from the main slide

Scouting the second drop/slide

Paddle out of the rapid into the lake