Continue reading »]]> Here are some more of my favourite Pics from Our Mexico Trip in December….

World Class Whitewater on the Big banana Section of the Alseseca River !!

Shortly bevor I brole my paddle on my helmet . Had to hike out of the valley for good one hour, because we didnt had a splitpaddle this time :/                                                     Pic: Lukas Strobl

The big Pillow on the Bukaki Rapid of the Jalacingo River                   Pic by Todd Richey

First Drop of the Rio Oro                 Pic by Todd Richey

Thanks to the round hull of the Shiva. Otherwise this boof would hurt much more !!!

Pic: Seth Ashworth

Hope also to get a lot of water in Austria soon !

Cheers Robert

Continue reading »]]> The kayaking world isn’t like the mountaineering world. Traditionally being gentlemen of high regard, mountaineers have always kept accurate records of their achievements. Kayakers, traditionally being scumbags, have not.

This has led to much pub (and internet) based based banter over who ran what first. It’s getting more and more difficult to find that elusive first descent, usually having to go harder, go more obscure, or go more remote to be able to conclusively “Claim it” – if that’s your thing.

I came back a couple of months ago from a trip where we took the latter option – go remote!

The trip in question was a month long expedition to one of the remotest and inaccessible parts of the world – Indonesian Papua. We’d heard stories before going about previous trips to Papua New Guinea (the other side of the island) and how they were fraught with logistical difficulties, and we accepted that we would have to deal with a number of these ourselves. The Indonesian side of the island is even less developed than PNG, and less politically stable, with many Papuan’s wanting independence from Indonesia. More obscure? Yep! More remote? Yep! We were on to a winner!

Negotiating one of the many obstacles on the jungle walk-in

As such, using the well accepted approach of “if I can’t find evidence of it on the internet, no-one’s paddled it before” we bigged it up as a first descent expedition and raked in generous amounts of cash and kit from our awesome sponsors.

Chris’s diary cam

Unfortunately the expedition itself was not the very model of success as a catalogue of unlucky events saw us off the river only 2.5 days into what we’d planned to be an 8 day descent. Separated from our boats, with food and equipment stolen (do not underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle), and police reluctant to let us even leave the police station for fear of capture by Papuan Separatists, we were forced to abandon our kayaks and return to civilisation.

First rapid of the expedition

Kayak fashion vs Papuan fashion, Photo: Pete Woods

Still, we consoled ourselves that we can at least claim that coveted First D title for the section of river we did manage to paddle! Awesome.

Or could we…

Whilst on the trip we discovered that the name the locals use for the river is Kemabu, rather than Derewo as we had been using.  Now back home, I decided to stick Kemabu into Google and see what appears.

It turns out that back in 1995, a Russian chap, Vladimir Lysenko set himself the challenge of rafting down the highest peak of every continent. His last peak to raft from was Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Oceania, and the source of the Kemabu/Derewo river.

Interestingly, it seems he shared many of the same experiences we did, on our trip fifteen years later… except that he generally had it worse – and was paddling solo, so had no one to complain to! Whilst some of our food was stolen, all of his was stolen (he survived off scrounged potatoes and tea). Whilst my shoes were stolen, all his rafting clothes were stolen (he still manned-up and got on), we both had issues finding a plane which would take us to the correct airstrip in the interior, Pete got ill as a result of infected cuts on his hands, Vladimir also got ill from infected cuts picked up on his walk-in. In short, I think we were schooled in the art of manliness.

Here are a few of Vladimir’s photos of his solo descent:

Brilliantly this isn’t even the first time I’ve claimed a remote first descent, only to later find that we’d been beaten to it (again, by Russians). I guess the moral of the story is: no matter how remote your venture, no matter how unique your idea, no matter how gnarly the rapid; someone (undoubtedly a Russian) has been there before you and solo’d it in his one-man raft and homemade kit.

Respect is most definitely due to the pioneers of our sport!

Many thanks to the following generous organisations, without whom we’d not even have got anywhere near the river: Transglobe Expedition Trust, Welsh Sports Association, Canoe England, RawCut TV, Pyranha Kayaks and Palm Equipment.

Continue reading »]]> This year we spent 3 weeks in Mexico in the winter, to escape all the snow in austria. Some rivers have been to low, some others may to high, but anyway we had great fun on and outside of the rivers.

Is there a better place to test my new SHIVA then on the mexican creeks ??

pic by Todd Richey

the warm up run on the first evening and a good place to test a new boat as well … pic by Lukas Strobl

The roadside section on the Alseseca offers sweet drop an pool water.

Continue reading »]]> Rivers come and rivers go, one eddy flows to the next wave – we make our choices and move on. Never stopping, restless and awaiting. It is the drive to go with the river that takes us to its heart – moving us onwards to its end.

Dirty and dusty after over night bus rides, sand in our eyes and hair from our beach beds. Pokhara with blue sky and ice white peaks hides a lesser classic run. Many will have heard tales about descents of the Bhote, Sun or Tamba kosi. Stories and tales from the Humla and Arun are also spoken of around camp fires but the polished rock and clear water of the ’secret’ Burundi Khola falls are seldom whispered.

Away from the street hawkers and close enough to town for a days paddle,a side diversion of the Modi Khola. Perfect falls and detailed environmental formations enclose us, a magical landscape. The falls are now accessible by road, one of the new roads interlocking the villages, its a bump and scrape of a ride but the joy of the fall is just around the corner. That moment when nothing matters and everything is still and in focus.

Continue reading »]]> A week ago I made it back home to Clarion, PA in search of some much needed rest.   I had been on the road for about five and a half months.  I must say it was another amazing summer in the Pyranha van!  Anyway, so I’m back home.  Mike, a friend that helps my dad out at the house starts talking to me about paddling the Upper Yough.  The Yough is a great well known class 4 river.  This is where I honed most of my creeking skills as a younger paddler.  Knowing Mike as a strong fired up dude, I looked over at the Pyranha van, and thought ….. yes this will be a great test for the new Shiva.  Knowing how user friendly the Shiva is I was confident that Mike would have a great day on the Upper Yough.  This was Mike’s first time in a creek boat and first time on something as difficult as the Upper Yough.  Mike did not even flip over!  Click here to watch Mike paddle the Upper Yough!

Mike browning after National Falls

Lining up Meat Cleaver

Continue reading »]]> Tshletshy Creek had been on my mind for 10 years. It was one of those trips that seemed to be just far enough out of reach each year and hard enough logistics that most paddlers wanted to wait and hear how it was from someone else. Tucked away in the Olympic National Park, this trip tuned out nothing short of a true adventure.. Click Here to see the Video Trip Report

Continue reading »]]> Late summer in the southeast doesn’t leave a whole lot of options for kayaking except on dam release runs. Wanting to get on something new, myself and a small crew went and checked out North Harper Falls, a waterfall in the Upper Wilson Creek Drainage. After a 2 mile hike/bushwack, we found a huge runnable waterfall with a somewhat green landing but after a little scout decided it was good to go even at, oh about 12 cfs.

Turn out the hit was not even that bad, and its a great place to practice paddle tosses and stomping down, because it does want to kick you flat. This would a really awesome, high quality drop with a lot of water, so I am hoping to get back out there this year with water.