Pyranha team blog
You can change a lot in 30 years. Just look at us back in the 70s.
Team Pyranha was a bit different then, and so was paddling. To find new rivers in the Himalaya, you had to drive there with a bus full of glass fibre boats. That didn’t stop the Dudh Kosi team who took a 5000 mile round trip to run Everest’s main drainage. And don’t forget the competitions: Albert Kerr won the world slalom champs in ’77 and Richard Fox started his reign as five-time slalom world champion.
Fast forward thirty years. You’ll skip some outlandish rivers, a handful of world freestyle medals and a clutch of world record waterfall descents. And you’ll get to where we are now.
We’re truly global. We’re not just about Britain. Or the USA. We only choose paddling’s real ambassadors: the most inspiring coaches, the most committed freestylers and the most adventurous river paddlers. And this is where you’ll find out what we do.
March 8th, 2010
Unsurprisingly, quite a few of us at Team Pyranha were keen to volunteer to help out at the biggest kayaking competition of the year – the National Student Rodeo at HPP in Nottingham, UK. It is a superb event, with freestyle competitions for all ability levels – as long as you’re a student! There were also lots of other fun events going on, like the inflatable sofa race, the topo duo race, the “old school” rodeo – which saw a lot of schlegels and ribbed BA’s being dug out of the back of the canoe stores at many unirversities!
We had a huge amount of demo boats at the Pyranha stand – and some really comfortable bean bags so we could provide some respite for all those hung over students who started the party on Friday night (which didn’t really finish until at least Sunday evening!). Lots of people came to chat to us and demo the new molan – we had the small and the medium size for all to try. Lots of people were keen to get into the small 2010 burn as well which is now also available.
On Saturday night the evening was started off with a showing of the amazing new kayaking film “Dream Result” – with Rush Sturges and Tyler Bradt on hand to personally introduce the film – show us some of their rapping skills and even sign a few autographs. The film was all that it had been hyped up to be and 900 students gave it a standing ovation – what more can you ask for!
Then the party really got started and the theme of “Ancient Worlds” was taken very seriously with a HUGE range of different inventive costumes – I saw people dressed as vikings, greek gods, a castle, the easter island heads, cavemen, mummys, egyptian gods – although my “greek goddess” costume was obviously a bit lacking as everyone thought I had come as wonder-woman!
Hugh Graham ripping it in the Molan at the men’s expert final.
The Pyranha Stand
Sunday morning certainly saw a few hang overs – some universities resorting to megaphones to get their student compeititors out of bed. (I was unfortunately camped near Leeds Uni’s “uptime” megaphone!)
Sunday saw all the finalists showing some great moves in the novice and expert categories alike.
Thanks to the organisers – what a great event, I hope I will be there again next year! Cheers everyone.
Posted by Paula Volkmer
March 2nd, 2010
Yes !!!
Stephanie cooked a long time.
It’s just out of kitchen.
Green Race 2009 from stephanie augras on Vimeo.
Thanks a lot Dinver for the boats.
I wish you a good viewing, like Nicolas and me in the Green river.
Cheers,
Eric
Posted by Eric Deguil
March 2nd, 2010
After three month of kayaking in Chile I am finally back home. I am glad I made it back before the earthquake and feel really sorry for all the aggrieved people.
I must admit three month of paddling was exactly what I needed, day after day with nothing else to do apart from kayaking. Isn’t that great?! 
During my first month some german friends and I ran the rivers from Santiago down to Pucon. One big highlight was for sure the Rio Claro, we jumped down the ventidos saltos about 5 times – the last run took us only 19 minutes from the putin to the final drop – germans like the autobahn.
Not as lucky was I after my run down the caracol in the Entre Saltos section, I landed flat and ended up with a broken paddle, a broken nose and two blue eyes … at least I kept my smile.
Entre Saltos Section Rio Claro
After my german friends left, I met two kiwis, we rented a nice camioneta and were ready for new adventures. This time to Argentinia and South Chile. One of my favorite runs was the Los Alerces Section on the Rio Manso, but at the same time it was a bit scary as we were just the two of us, had a lot of water and not much information about the river. So we ended up being in a canyon infront of a rapid which looked pretty big, but was impossible to scout and to portage. That was an explosion of emotions after we two made it through the big hole at the bottom.
It was a really rainy season in Chile, so we encountered high waterlevels on the Futa and further down south. One thing remains obvious, it was for sure not my last time on this incredible beautiful rivers of Patagonia.
What a wonderful playwave …… unfortunately it is situated just infront of the Petrohue waterfall
Gymnastics on the Rio Palguin
Pancakes for breakfast
Park Nacional Rio Laja
Posted by Anna Jankowfsky
February 22nd, 2010
Inspired by some previous winter trips to Portugal on the Pyranha Blog, in 2007 and 2008 a group of friends and I headed out there to see what we could find…
Beautiful scenery, kind people, good food, wine oh and lots of steep granite fun!
Read the full article for more on the rivers… for just the pictures here are galleries of some of the different rivers we paddled: Vez, Castro, Cavado.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Stuart Watson
February 6th, 2010
Here is the start to the Pyranha Promo. A little teaser here, enjoy and paddle hard folks.
Posted by David Fusilli
February 1st, 2010
With low water and freezing weather, we didn’t have the ideal conditions for paddling on Dartmoor at the weekend – but lure of a great party won the day, and this weekend – paddlers from all over the UK filled the River Dart Country Park, as Pyranha hosted their first ever Dartfest there. Mitchell paddles and Peak UK also supported the event.
There were a number of courses running through the Pyranhafest program and in the evening Mark Rainsley entertained with a slide show and talk about taking your local club a bit further afield than the alps – with Indian and Californian trips being showcased. Max Bilbow wowed the crowd with his adventures in the little known territories of Russia. After all this inspiration for our boating adventures, Dave Hazell hit the decks and we all hit the dance floor. The amount of water in the rivers was probably doubled by the beer that flowed at the party – it was an epic night – what great party. Thanks Pyranha!!!
Pyranha had brought along a huge number of exciting demo boats: the new Molans, the new large 2010 burn and even the very first prototype small 2010 Burn. Despite the low levels I was able to get out on the river – and really put the first prototype of the small 2010 Burn though her paces on the Upper Dart. Here are some pictures of her in action. I really do love the new 2010 design. The boat is much nippier and whilst retaining the forward speed of the previous Burn – I found it much easier to nip around in, more rocker means that it is easier to boof as well. As one of the smaller paddlers around, I also found the slightly narrower design suited me down to a T. I am eagerly awaiting the small production version which will be around in shops very soon. For all you lucky people who are bigger than me, the Large and Medium 2010 Burns are available in the shops now…
Thanks for a great Dartfest weekend to Pyranha for hosting and everyone who came along for making it into a great party!
Posted by Paula Volkmer
February 1st, 2010
Finished up filming and boating in Hawaii and raced back to AZ to catch the tail end of a massive storm. Flows reaching record flows a couple days earlier, there was just enough left to get some boofs in the desert. Photos by Paul Wackowski
Posted by Cody Howard
January 30th, 2010
For the past few weeks, we’ve only had one Molan in the US. As a result, it’s been getting passed around from team member to team member. I finally got my chance to try it out this week. I met up with Matt and Graham at Scudders to see how the boat performed in a hole. Since we were all sharing the boat, I didn’t get a great chance to figure out how it works, but I’ll say it loops big!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jeremy Laucks
January 27th, 2010
Check out the Demshitz Blog for a bad ass update from Pucon Chile!
Here is a Teaser for our Next Demshitz Movie ¨Dashboard Empanada¨
Run the Shitz! Looking forward to the NEW BURN and the NEW PLAYBOAT ¨THE MOLAN¨!!! PYRANHA WORLD DOMINATION!!! DEMSHITZ!!!
Posted by Jared Seiler
January 21st, 2010
2010 start very well in Pyrenees.
First, happy new year everybody !!! I wish you a lot of rivers steep, big, in a wild nature.
Second. After a long and hard work, my friend Stephanie Augras finished my last crazy trip movie in Cap Verde.
You should never seen it….
Volcano Ride from stephanie augras on Vimeo.
Have a good time.
Eric.
Posted by Eric Deguil
January 20th, 2010
The first word that everyone learns upon arrival in Nepal is the ubiquitous greeting ”Namaste”. Our trip however was to be different. The first word we learned was “Banda”. Banda is the Nepali word for a strike. These strikes aren’t quite the same as you’d get back home, where a line of disgruntled workers stand at a factory gate, they are much more extensive and indiscriminate. Traffic is not allowed on the roads, shops aren’t allowed to open and the whole country effectively grinds to a halt.
We arrived in Nepal at 10pm the evening before three consecutive days of these strikes. One day of waiting may have been acceptable, but no matter how you look at it, 3 days of a 2 week holiday is a lot! Despite stories of the rather violent enforcement of the banda by the Maoists, on day 2, a local guy we met in the street said he could get us a “landcruiser” to take us and our boats off to the first river under cover of darkness. Obviously this would cost us dear, but we figured it was worth it. When the “landcruiser” turned up, it turned out to be a tiny car, and the driver wouldn’t go without his mate, but by then we were beyond caring, so we crammed 5 guys three boats and 2 weeks worth of kit into and onto the machine and set off into the night…
Although December is the low water season, there is still some great paddling to be had, especially if you venture further up the valleys of some of the rivers normally done “in season”. Whilst dodging strikes, we ticked off upper sections of: Bhote Kosi, Marsyandi, Kali Gandaki along with a few other nice runs down some of the classic sections of these and other rivers.
Anyways, enough spiel… To the photos!! Here’s a flavour of the trip:
Ominous Gorges:
Good Lines: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tim Burne
January 20th, 2010
Posted by Paula Volkmer
January 18th, 2010
Team P’s Richard Brooks putting the new Molan to work at Marsh Weir on the Thames, UK!
Two exciting things happened as the weekend approached last week. Richard Brooks got his much-awaited Molan, the new Pyranha playboat, AND as if it had been planned, the snow started to melt and the heavens opened to give us a hearty dose of H2O.
THE MOLAN
We headed to Marsh to test out what the Molan was like on the wave. Marsh weir is near Henley on the Thames in the UK (for more information and weir levels, see www.tvfreestylers.co.uk), and water levels had risen hugely over Saturday night – so we had perfect levels. Rich loved the Molan – I took a few pictures for you all to see what it looks like on a wave. He is working on some video footage he took as well – so stay tuned for the update!
Richard on the far side on Marsh
 I have a go too…although, I am waiting for the SMALL MOLAN I think!
UPPER TAWE
On Saturday we left London at 5.30 in the morning and headed to South Wales with plans to run the Mellte – however when we got there, we found levels to be massive and decided to go elsewhere. The result was a superb run on the Upper Tawe (all of our first times down). The river has some really cool drops and slides which kept us entertained for many hours. There was plenty of water and the snow hadn’t quite melted, but it felt positively tropical in comparison to last weekend when we were boating in practically sub-zero temperatures! What a great weekend. Bring on more rain and even warmer temperatures.
One of the many small boof drops on the Upper Tawe!
Fun slides too.
For more photos check out www.worldkayakblogs.com/paula .
Hope to see you all at Pyranha Fest at the Dart in Devon!
Posted by Paula Volkmer
January 12th, 2010
2010 is here! Ski-ing in the woods is the best bet as the rivers are frozen. Need to plan the summer but just taking a moment to reflect on the womens paddling we did last year. A lot of fun, met some fantastic women paddlers and we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone, tried new things and faced a lot of fear together.
In 2009 we introduced women only whitewater development coaching, played about with the model and evaluated the impact. Overall women say they love the all girl environment (extra male coaches welcome if there name is Brad!) and find it easier to accept their fears and challenge them amongst others who can cope with tears. The dynamics are awesome! To see a group of women come together aho may never have met develop and bond as a group in just a few days is incredible. Immediately caring and supporting each other and celebrating each others sucess.
Sometimes it does not really feel like coaching, more like guiding their learning in a student centred way.
Using the Findhorn as our training venue is a stunning setting. The variety of conditions on the section means there is challenge for every grade of paddler and sometimes the gods help with water levels too.
Developing leadership skills on the river can be difficult for women, how many of the girls you know will push to lead on a club or social trip? Taking turns to inspect, analyse the water and lead with support from a coach is a development journey. It takes time, sometimes we call it tea and cakes at each rapid, but everyone has the chance to really understandd what is going on and how it will affect them when they are there.
We accept that women are not pretend men and have different styles and pace of learning. It is good to see women in the outdoors taking on more advanced water and leading, we need more though!
If you fancy taking part then perhaps here at Pyranha we can pull something together for the girls, let us know!
The recipe is always the same, no matter what grade we paddle. Equal measures of skill and confidence and a sprinkle of brave dust when required.
Mags
Posted by Mags Duncan
January 10th, 2010
We’re filming some whitewater in Hawaii. Just landed and are looking for some rains… got some surf in while kickin it. Dipper Creek update also available on http://www.huckinhuge.com
Posted by Cody Howard
January 8th, 2010
Despite the bitterly cold whether, I’m sure it must have been -5 on the water! The testing of the New Pyranha Molan continues. The boat has reached it’s 5th incarnation and is now in it finally pre production prototype stage, these boats have shrunk a fair bit as they are the first from the mold and the hull of the boat has been changed a smidgen to allow it to release quicker. But apart from that that what you see here is pretty much how it will look. Over the Christmas period the boat has made it out to most of the popular Thames weirs and has been performing well, the later prototypes have been tested a fair bit on and in holes around the UK & across Europe over the summer but it has been nice to finally get the boat back out on some good waves to see how the modifications that had been implemented over that time would work on a wave, personally I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out. The Molan is just a bit longer than the new 2010 All Star and you do notice that on a wave. I wouldn’t say that it’s a fast boat, But it sure dose accelerate fast! And the new sharper rails really allow you to drive the boat hard down and across the face a wave and release with razor sharp precision, far far better, easier and cleaner than Pyranha’s of old. The fit and outfitting of the Molan is like you would except from an Anderson & Sheppard suit, clean, smart and very comfortable. All in all things are looking very promising from this little chap. Bring on the production boat.
Posted by Peter Scutt
January 6th, 2010
As anyone living in the UK can’t have escaped noticing, there’s been a fair amount of water falling from the skies recently, however it’s not the kind that’s filling the rivers… Not yet anyway, so to while away the time ’till the melt starts, people have been getting creative.
I was quite proud of last night’s creation: Snow-Dude. However, my weenie brothers saw this pic, and being students decided to go one better with a full-on snow boater (see pics below)!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tim Burne
January 6th, 2010
Last week I was able to get the new Molan out and about. I fit in the medium Molan very well. I was able to where shoes in the boat at 6 foot and 170lbs. The boat was very easy to through around and looped with ease. I think you all are going to be very excited about this one. Here is a video I made from the day!
Posted by David Fusilli
December 30th, 2009
Here are some impressions of my time in Chile. Up to know I travelled from Santiago down to Pucon, and had an awesome time on the chilean rivers with friends out of Germany. It was also a great pleasure to meet and join Adria, Leland and Jeff on the Rio Claro. We did a lot of hike in runs, so I was glad to use pyranhas portaging system, but even more glad to hire horses .
Posted by Anna Jankowfsky
December 23rd, 2009
Posted by Leland Davis
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