Cheers Norway!

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My last week here in Norway has gone really fast! Hanging out in Sjoa is super sweet! The Sjoa river has plenty of fun waves on the playrun and with the high water levels the run down Aamot has become pretty full on!

So today we had the Ulla Extreme Race down some wicked slides on the Ulla River. The race took the fastest man 1mintute 35 and for the fastest Women (Myself and Sandra) 1minute 39. I had an average 1st run loosing time at the top of the course but pulled out a good second run to finish in 2nd place behind a British Downriver paddler- Sandra. 3rd place went to an American chick and Toni George finished in 4th. It was a super fun day of racing! Sam Sutton won the Men’s with Jamie Sutton in 2nd and Tomas Andrassy in 3rd.

With the event coming to an end we did a good river run from the run above the playrun on the Sjoa (Orsing or something) all the way down to the campsite. This took around 2hours and with the high water levels was a lot of fun!The event finished with the Sweet Rumble. And this was taken out by Toni George in the Women’s and there was a tie with Sam Daddy Sutton and a Slovak Dude- Pablo Andrassy.

Now it is time to hit the water with a lap of the playrun and Aamot before cruising to Oslo later tonight and beginning my long journey to CANADA!

Norway in short- Light all the time- so heading out to go kayaking at 9pm is legit, unlimited coffee at Statoil, camping for free anywhere, doing recycling pays for your lunch and dinner.

Massive Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so much! Mariann Saether, Nini Bondhus, Ron Fisher, Benjamin Hjort, Jakub Sedivy and the many other people that looked after me!

Sjoa River Festival

 More sweet times in Norway! Loving Sjoa. Here are some pictures from Ula river. We are racing on it tomorrow!

ValDall and Sjoa!

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So after a good 10days or so in Voss it came time to depart and head towards Valdall for the next competition. This meant a totally scenic drive through the snowy mountains and included a ride on the ferry! We stopped off to do the Sangdelsegre along the way and decided to jump on the lower section due to the high flow. Toni decided to walk out early on as she had a sore shoulder but Willz and I continued. Unfortunately because of the high flow we had to walk the triple drop and a few other man eating rapids and holes. There were some really fun rapids and sections on the river too though which made it worth the trip. We got out a few hundred metres before the takeout as it was all roadside and turning a bit manky, which was lucky for us as you need a permit to be on the river due to the Salmon farms in the area! We then carried on to the beautiful valley where Toni lived and worked last season- Josterdal. Here we stayed with our friend Emily from the rafting and her boyfriend Andreus. It was really nice of them to have us and the waffles from their waffle maker were amazing! The next day I did a riverrun with an Auzzy dude called Adam down the local Upper raft run. The run then led into what the locals call ‘Ugly canyon’ (Renamed by Toni ‘Fluffy Bunny Gorge!’) The river was up a lot and the first big rapid provided a rather large hole. I got lucky and went through it well Adam took a tricky swim. Fortunately he ended up in a cave on the right that was easy to get out of and I was able to help him out of the gorge before following myself as we could not scout below.  After this small epic we headed to ValDall which is a very small little farmers town in the Norwegian Outback. Once again we came across high waters and after a quick run down the middle section we were into racing. The race which is meant to be held on some steep slides had been moved to the middle section of class 2/3 white-water. A 2minute sprint down this section saw Toni take gold with me in 2^nd and a Norwegian chicka in 3^rd. In the mens it was Sammy Sutton who was crowned king!

Now we have arrived in Sjoa and it is awesome here! Toni and I went with Jakub Sedivy for a run down Aamot last night and I did some instruction with a group of rad as Norwegian Chickas today, they were owning the river which was awesome to see. Big thanx to Tom and Tilzy for having us to stay last night. Looking forward to a good week here in Sjoa and enjoying my final time here in Norway.

Voss, Norway

My time here in Norway continues to be rad. With my sister Izzy coming to visit for 5days it has been really nice to get some chill time with her:)
Stoked to get on some more rivers too though. Yesterday Benji, Toni, Willz and I paddled the Raundalselvi: Urland Run (Playrun) last night which was super fun class 3 high water in the evening. In the morning we joined up with the Suttons and B to paddle down the Lower Myrkdalselvi which was a fairly full on class 4/5 section of white water that was flowing quite high. A good run.

Norway!

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Imagine beautiful mountains, hundreds of incredible rivers and stunning scenery...Norway!!! After losing our kayaks off the road just out of San Francisco we travelled day and night to reach the beautiful lands of Norway! Totally stoked to be here! From day 1 we have been on the river! Hitting up Teigdalselvi first, a rather rowdy run that became BIG with the water rising quickly from put on to the first rapids. I was sooo tired I walked out at half way. The crew of Toni, Nouria, Benji and Mikail carried on. The second river I paddled here was the Upper Myrkdalselvi and this was super fun! High again from the rain so some big volume technical rapids that we enjoyed a lot. We had a good crew of Nouria, Eric, Anton, Jakub, another dude and me.

The water here is crazy cold, which is not surprising with all the snow on the riverbanks. And recently there has been a lot of rain!

The extreme Sports Veko here in Voss kicked off on the Monday and has been full on since then! I am totally stoked to be here. Voss boosts a primo atmosphere of extreme sport athletes from all over the world, from mountain bikers, base jumpers, paragliders, freeskiers to white-water kayakers.

Our first completion was the raft-race and I teamed up with Nouria, Toni and a Canadian girl Emily. We owned the Womens class and beat all of the Mens teams in the slalom section, well all minus the Germans.

Next up was the Creek Race down the Brandsetelvi! The course was at a low flow but has nice slides and drops and many viewing platforms for spectators. Nouria Newman threw down some very fast runs to take out the Women’s class ahead of myself in 2^nd and Toni George in 3^rd. In the mens class Eric Deguil of France was seconds ahead of Sam Sutton with Jamie Sutton coming in 3^rd. This race was followed by a team’s race that was taken out by team NZL!

The head to head race followed on the Saturday held on the Stranda and with the river flowing 20cumecs higher than the days before due to heavy rainfall there was a smaller field of competitors. In the Womens class there was only 5 on the start so after 2heats the final results were made. Nouria Newman once again took out the Womens with myself in 2^nd and Toni in 3^rd once again. The mens results were the same again with Eric in first, Sammy in 2^nd and Jamie in 3^rd.

It has been so awesome to be here in Voss and I have so many people to thank for helping me out. Benji organised a Kayak and Paddle for me to use. Mariann sorted my helmet and lifejacket and gave me a bed for the week which has been amazing! Ron also lent Nouria and I his car to use to get around in this week! Also Nini for letting me stay in her room! Big thanks to all of them, absolute legends! Mariann was unfortunately out of action this week after she damaged her right shoulder on a mountain bike in one of the multi-sport races at the start of the week yet has still put up with us!I will definitely be back next year! Photo credit Nouria Newman and Izzy Jull.