A province known for it’s beautiful women, it’s good food (poutine being one of the main food groups around here!) and it’s great whitewater…

At this time of year, the weather that put our sport on ice is leaving… SPRING!  Finally!

To start the season off with a bang, the Quebec RIP cup is back for it’s second year!

This little known race takes place in the Jacques-Cartier National Park on the “Caché River”.  It’s is a team race.  The rules are simple: the two fastest paddlers to make it down this 1.3 km, class V, section win. 

Last year, was the first edition of the Quebec RIP Cup and the water levels were great!  It was pushy, scary and steep boating.  The winners had the honnor of having their names engraved on the tombstone like trophy.  14 participants took part in last years race and the team to beat is one made of Steve Fisher and Tyler Curtis.

The second edition of this race will be seeing great boating skills.  The Quebec locals didn’t like getting beat on there home turf so this year, were back with a vengeance! 

In addition to the honor of having your name on the trophy, we’ve stepped it up a notch… this years winning team gets a pair of tickets to fly to either one of these paddling destinations : Zambia, Norway or New-Zealand.

For information on the race, go to : www.quebecripcup.blogspot.com

For a few pictures and a resume from one of last years participants go to: http://www.redbullusa.com/recon#page=ArticlePage.1147816545687-925416145.2

and look up may 16-21 2006.

Hoping to see you there!

Creeking in Quebec is alot of fun and a local TV show called “La nouvelle école”  (the new school) took creeking as one of their show topics. 

This show was on air for a week in a large par of the Quebec Province, Canada.

If you wanna see a part of the show you can go to this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV9VKC_iZQY

and you’ll see 5 minutes of it.  It will give you a glimpse of what creeking is like back home!

 I love the Burn!

Have a blast!

Dominic L

It started off in April when I left the snowy Montreal with a few friends to head down into the south eastern states.  A month of paddling was in front of us!  Ouf! what relief after a long and cold winter.

After that month long warm up, it was time for Quebec’s creeks.  Some friends and I organised a creek race on the basse caché river in the Jacques Cartier Parc ( half an hour north of Québec City).  RedBull sponsored the event.  It was a small but very intense race.  The aim of the game was to get the quickest time from top to bottom in teams of 2.  Each team was responsible for their own safety.  Teams were sent one at a time at a 5 minute intervals. 

The race took place in May and the water was high.  Out of the 7 teams that raced there were : 2 swimmers, 2 broken paddles, 1 opened eye brow (mrs Gragtmans!), 2 broken boats and plenty of stories.   

Results : 1 st place Tyler Curtis and Steve Fisher, 2nd place David Laroche and David Émond, 3d place, Chris Gragtmans and Max Kniewasser.

The other teams were: Shanon Caroll and Vincent Dupont, Alain St-Arnaud and Gilles Arsenault, Dominic Fournier and Dominic Chaput, Vincent Ratté and Dominic Lavallée.

you can see pictures of the race on http://www.redbulli.com/recon/May16_21/

If all goes well, the Quebec Creek Cup (that’s the name of the race!) will take place next May.  Stay tuned for more info!

After the racing and the creeking came the playboating.  Having moved in Verdun (in Montréal) the Lachines were now my backyard.  mmmmm!  Here are a few picks of a great summer with plenty of water and sun!

the 4-Twenty M/L is defenetly a machine!

look at the drivers face!  Is he even holding on?!!! The Jet boat guys are great pilots!

So, on these words, hope winter won’t be too long!!!!!

Cheers!

Dom