PEK team

Together with French friends from the North side of the Pyrenees we united forces to create a new crew of Pyrenees paddlers, together we gonna organize events, participate in competitions and organize kayak expeditions around the world, documenting all our adventures by articles, videos and photos.
To follow our adventures and met the the paddlers of our team , visit the PEK webpage.


Con los amigos franceses del lado Norte del Pirineo, hemos decidido unir esfuerzos y crear un  equipo de kayakistas, conjuntamente organizaremos eventos, participaremos en competiciones y organizaremos expediciones de kayak alrededor del mundo, documentando todo a través de artículos, videos y fotos . Para seguir nuestras aventuras y conocer a los integrantes del equipo, visita la página web de PEK. (pulsa Pek).

De Izq. a Der. Thomas, Aniol, Gael, Fafa y Eric

La abreviación PEK, en francés significa "loco", que define perfectamente el estado mental de este grupo de kayakistas!! 
PEK means "crazy" in french, this word defines perfectly our style!

Eric Deguil, disfrutando de una
cascada perfecta! Truchas.

Y para empezar el blog bien, aquí os dejo con un video del team PEK remando lo mejorcito de México!

Here is the 1st video of the PEK team, enjoying the beautiful and exciting rivers of Mexico!

Video made by Thomas Thabarant. 
Paddlers: Aniol Serrasolses, Eric Deguil, Fabrice Pueyto, Gael Caride, Bastien Dantin, Eneko Yarza, Iker Beristain.


Don't forget to visit:      PyreneesExtremKayak

Mexico trip 2010 Overall

It’s almost one month now since I left Mexico, anyway, there’s not any day I don’t think about that country and the people I met. This have been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, my trip has had ups and downs, with lots of serious injuries that kept me away from kayak for a while, and changed my initial plan (Mexico – Costa Rica), so I had another point of view in this trip, enjoying more the place, the food, the scenery and the people , who is incredible.

Cobra in the Bukaki slide.

Mexico is the fifteen biggest country of the World, with a surface near to 2 millions of km2. In 2010 Mexican population was around 112 millions of persons.

Big city life! Mexico DF the biggest city

I've ever seen with 27 millons of persons!!

Best dates: Season starts in October and goes to February, as the season keep going the rivers lose lots of water. Best months, October y November.I flew with aeroméxico  company, only the go 700 euros!!! As good thing they only made me pay 44 euros for a heavy kayak over 60 kg. the plane back home was way cheaper and I it cost me 430 dollars, cool! But the whole ticket was so expensive, next time I have to do it better!

Beautiful Mexico!

MAIN KAYAK IN MEXICO

Cd. Valles, San Luis Potosí: Beautiful scenery and crystal water rivers, “saltos de micos” is the perfect place for everyone who wants to run a drop for the 1^st time. It becomes more sketchy as north you go, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León… keep your eyes open out there!

Tlapacoyan, Veracruz: Little town and the Mexican gem of white water. Waterfalls and slides are all around the are. This is my favourite place of Mexico and where I paddled some of the hardest and biggest waterfalls ever.

Kayakers owning the streets of Tlapayork!

Jalcomulco: A really big part of the rafting  companies are based on the rio Pescados and Antigua. Good place to visit as well.

Chiapas: Is far from everything but some of the best rivers are hidden in this area. Sto. Domingo is the most pendent river ever kayaked. Give work to the local people as driver, or staying in a place,.. makes everything easier with the zapatistas, things have to be done carefully!

Le Pek team in the best aguardiente factory of the area! 

INJURIES:

2x visits to the hospital

1^st place: Eric Deguil (FRA), broke his back on tomata I at low low water… 15 ambulances, 3 planes and 6 hospitals before to arrive back home…

2^nd place: Aniol Serrasolses (SPA), broken ribs + noise + and a big haematoma in the pelvis, it have been 2 months now without do anything! I’m doing recuperation for the ribs and hope to paddle soon!

Cobrita getting drunk to calm the pain... 

BEST CARNAGE / CRAZY LINES

Cobra: 4th run tomata I (broken ribs)

Evan Garcia: Tomata II (broken kneee) –

Todd Wells: Mandatory Falls, (knock himself alter a big impact on his head)

Rafa Ortiz: Tomata II ( no injuries for Don. Sánchez)

Cobra going for the line of his life, broken ribs!!

BEST RAPIDS RUNNED

Tomata II

Texolo falls

Big Banana falls

Silence rapid

Rush Sturges cleaning tomata II with absolute steeze.

photo by lucas gilman

NATHALIES

Cobra (1x silencio drop, 1x Tomata I, broken rib)… 2

Iker y Rafa (Topo duo Big banana section)… 2

Gael Caride (2x silence drop, 2x tomata, 1x micos)… 5 

EG (1x tomata II, 1x Jalacingo)… 2

Thomas ( 2x big banana section, hombro dislocado)… 2

Bootie day!!!

The number, the quality and the variety of rivers in Mexico, makes of this country a true creeking paradise. If you go to Mexico get ready for a incredible experience in the jungles with lots of waterfalls to run and high quality sections!

Cobra contemplating an ugly rapid that we

all run in the rio Jalacingo. 

Rivers I couldn’t run, to be done next year

Río Verde

Río Santa María

Lower Jalacingo

Sto. Domingo

Río Agua Azul

Sección del Ahuacate

Enjoying the rio Jalacingo, one of Veracruz gems.

1st Descents, NEXT TRIPS

Encanto falls

Eyipantla falls

Jentaxki falls

Encanto falls, how tall is this thing?

BEST OF:

Best Waterfall: Big Banana (128.6 feet)

Best Rapid: Tomata II / Meatlocker

Best boof: Silencio drop

Best lines: Big Banana & Texolo waterfall

Favourite river: Alsesseca

Best day of kayaking: 1st full banana section / tomata’s day

Favourite beer: Modelo

Best place to eat: Comida corrida, everywhere!

Party: Jalapa and Halloween in Mex DF

Best food: fish and meat tacos

Place to stay: Tlapacoyan, aventurec!

The crew enjoying Vel-Vic tacos, the classic spot in Tlapacoyan. 

THANKS TO:

I have to thank a lot of people after this trip, because without your help nothing in my trip could have been possible.

Family Ortiz and Beristain, and all Mexico DF crew, thanks for all the help given during all my trip you guys are awesome, go kayak with you it’s always laughs and fun.

estas ratas!! que buena onda son!

To Rush Sturges, thank you for gave me your boat and everything else you did for me!

Antonio Reinoso de Aventurec por toda la ayuda prestada en mi vuelta a Tlapacoyan, y durante el accidente de Eric en el hospital.

Gael, Nina y Netta for all this good moments in Aventurec.

And thanks to all the other people with who I had the pleasure of kayak, or shared good moments, beers and wine.

Rats enjoying their meal!

Viva Mexico! The new creekboating paradise!

Useful web pages:

Do you want to learn kayak in Mexico? Contact with the best

professionals:

Kayak School Mexico

Red Bull Athlete Web Page:

Rafa Ortiz 

Working for Aventurec rafting company

and paying my stay in Mex.

Searching for a place tos tay in Tlapacoyan? Aventurec is the place!

Aventurec

Two weeks more of recuperation and hopefully I will start kayak again, really motivated with the upcoming season wich can be the best ever If everything goes right!!! Keep checking the blog, next update, creek expedition in Portugal, let's see what we find!

                                                              SPANISH VERSION

PHOTOS by my friend Joel Kowalski .

Big Banana Falls

This is a belated update from the past month of October. My first week in Mexico was completely crazy, hucking lots of waterfalls with the best creekboating crew I’ve been. Anyway, we don't missed the party and we had really good benders and funny moments in the 2 weeks we spent together.

In my 1st day kayaking in Mexico, we hucked Tomata I, next morning we hucked tomata I and II, and the next day kayaking was Texolo waterfalls ( 30 mts.) people started to get hurt since the second day, with EG fucking up his knee in tomata II and Mr. Todd knocking himself on a blind 50 ft. In the 3^rd day. Anyway we where super fired up and ready to go scout the Big Banana waterfall, the one everybody was talking about…

Happy crew, after lay treats on tomata's.

Deep inside the jungle of Veracruz, hides a 128.6 feet tall waterfall. It has never been paddled before, it’s dark and after a scary gorge only scoutable and accessible with your kayak or rappelling into it. It’s got a tricky entrance, with an auto-boof just at the lip that makes everybody feel scared. Land this drop flat would be fatal for your back. It looks massively big from the top, there’s a perfect pool below the waterfall a bit undercut wall on the left but all good to go.

Rafa Ortiz rappelling down
the beast!

I knew I wanted to run this drop since the first time I scouted it. I slept really bad the night before to run It, I couldn’t stop thinking about the waterfall, I imagined myself a hundred times going in to the beast before fell sleep.

We woke up early, it was cloudy for the first time in a month and starting to rain, bad signal, I was feeling really bad, couldn’t even eat anything for breakfast. I felt better as soon as we started walking to the put-in.

The machines ready to go!

All the team went down at the pool of the waterfall to do safety and set the cameras while Rafa, Rush and myself walked uphill. It took us an hour or two to find our way to the top of the waterfall, set the rappel, camera… Once we figured out it was all super fast, gave a big hug to my friend Rafa and a few seconds later he was rappelling down to the gorge, then we loaded his kayak. Took some strokes on the mini-eddy, gave the signal and a few seconds later I saw him flying high, he stomped the line and didn’t swim, the waterfall looked even more perfect to me after that.

Rafa Ortiz 1stD of BB falls, he looks so small! 

I was really fired up to go for it, took me less than a minute to get changed and start rappelling down, I haven’t done more than one or two rappels before so I was a bit afraid about it, feels great to rappel and it’s so safe!

I got in my kayak as soon as Rush sent it to me, warm-up in the mini-eddy, and focused on what I was going to do. The gorge was completely dark, you could see the light in the lip of the waterfall.

Rush gave me the signal to go, everything was ready, I was ready, there was only one thing on my mind, stomp that shit! Took some strokes, splashed some water in my face, and immediately after that I was facing the lip of the waterfall. It was an incredible moment that I will never forget, I have that image stuck in my mind, getting out of the darkness and getting in to the light, I got to see for a little moment the most beautiful landscape ever. Held, held, passed the auto-boofer without boof, connected with the big water line, took a big breath and threw my paddle away, grabbed my Lucky Charm skirt as hard as I could, with all my body straight forward to plug it instead of boof it, one, two, three, BOOOM! It was the longest freefall of my life, it felt so long!!! The impact was brutal but nothing hurt me at all, thankfully I had a great line and I was completely forward with all my body compact to absorb the impact.

Myself running BB falls, biggest drop ever in my life! 

As soon as I rolled up I got to see my friends Evan and Todd, I was completely excited and I couldn’t stop laughing and shouting around. It was a great feeling to realize that everything went smooth for both of us, we had such clean lines over the beast, luckily we where bringing IR spray decks so It didn't implode! I got to see Later that my buddy Rafa had some blood all over his eye, but anyway nothing could make us feel bad as we had already completed the second tallest waterfall ever run in a kayak with no injuries and swimmings!

Don Sánchez and cobra stoked! Sometimes dreams comes true!
BB falls down!

After chill a little bit in the pool, and measure the size of the waterfall (128.6 feet) we kept it going with Todd and Evan to the take-out of Tomata Falls I, Rafa took-out a little bit before because of his eye. This was my first time running the BB section, wich is amazing! Silencio was an incredible drop as well, a beautiful 40 ft. with an ugly undercut in the left, you can boof it, the landing is really soft!

Styling silencio,  softest  landing ever!

It was raining so hard and when we made it to the take-out the river was getting big really fast! That was the first descent from top of BB falls to tomata. Such an epic day of kayaking that I’ll remember all my life.

Storm in the Alsesseca, great run
with young stars EG and Todd!

Nothing of what me and Rafa did could have been possible without the help of all the group, I feel reallythankful to each one of them, Evan walked all the way down to Big Banana pool with a broken knee just to be there making safety for his friends, Lucas and Matt kicked their asses during all the trip to get all those sick shots. Todd became an idol for me after paddling to the take-out of Texolo falls after knocking himself on the mandatory. Rush was always there to run the shit, record, make safety and help the team even when he was sick as shit, Israel more of the same, taking care of us all the time! And to Rafa, thanks for being my brother on Big Banana showing me the line and letting me be part of your dream, - he has been looking at this waterfall for the last 4 years, it was his waterfall even before to run it, so I felt really lucky to run it with him. Thank you all guys for such an epic trip!

Todd the player and Cobra waiting
for a ride from Israel.

Since that day I came back to BB section many more times!
 But everytime I arrive to the put-in pool I do I remember that one
day we hucked this waterfall and lots of good memories go through my mind!

I am really thankful to Immersion Research for design the best spray-decks out there, it’s great to know that if you are using and IR spray-deck it’s not going to implode.

Check River Roots to see the teaser of the new movie, FRONTIER coming in march 2011!




VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL

-Photos by the famous extreme sports photographer Lucas Gilman  you can see the footage in SPN Magazine.

-Other pics by Todd wells and evan garcia, thank you ratas!! Missing Mexico and the good times!!

Cursos de formación y tecnificación con SBP

Desde SBP, estamos sacando unos cursos de formación y tecnificación para esta primavera.

Cursos de freestyle, creek, iniciación, perfeccionamiento, esquimotaje... todos los cursos relacionados con el kayak! 

Contactanos en: serrasolsesbrothersproductions@gmail.com

CURSOS DE FORMACIÓN Y TECNIFICACIÓN PIRAGÜISMO DE AGUAS BRAVAS DESCENSO DE RÍOS ALPINOS – CREEK NIVEL I – INICIACIÓN/BÁSICO (III-IV+)

Descarga e imprime el documento completo PDF con el temario del curso aquí! 

• Fechas:02-03 de abril de 2011

• Instructores: Aniol y Gerd Serrasolses 

• Plazas: 10 plazas 

• Lugar: Sort y alrededores - Pallars Sobirá (Lleida) 

• Precio del curso: 200€ por persona 

• Horas de práctica aprox. en el agua: 10-12 horas 

• Horas totales del curso: 21 horas 

• Alojamiento: Escola de Piragüisme de Sort - (media pensión o pensión completa)

* Atención: curso intensivo de fin de semana con mucha carga horaria tanto de teoría como en el agua. Se recomienda traer muchas ganas y un poco de forma física para sacar el máximo provecho al curso!

Objetivo

Curso destinado a todos aquellos palistas de clase III+ con un buen dominio del esquimotaje en aguas bravas que quieran iniciarse en el creek o descenso de ríos alpinos de una forma segura y controlada. Este curso pretende aportar todas las nociones básicas y avanzadas a conocer para la práctica del creek y para una buen progresión; rápida pero sobretodo de forma controlada, con conocimiento y segura.

El objetivo a largo plazo del curso es preparar y dar el conocimiento suficiente a los palistas para que una vez realizado el curso estos puedan evolucionar y disfrutar del creek con toda seguridad.

Programa

Viernes 01 de abril

o Llegada al alojamiento y cena en la Escola de Piragüisme de Sort.

Sábado 02 de abril

o 08:30h · Desayuno 

o 09:00h · Presentación del curso (presentaciones, programa,

funcionamiento, objetivos...)

o 10:30h · Descenso fluido desde Llavorsí a Rialp. Objetivo: evaluación de los participantes, familiarización con el grupo e instructores. 

o 13:30h · Transporte y subida hasta Borén 
o 14:00h · Comida de pic-nic en Borén 

o 15:00h · Descenso del Alto Noguera hasta Borén 
o Revisión del vídeo y clases teórico-prácticas en las aulas de la Escola de Piragüisme 

o 21:00h · Cena en la Escola de Piragüisme de Sort 

o 22:00h · Pase de vídeos de creek

El Alto Noguera es un clásico que hay que hacer, unos 15 km de rápidos continuos.

Domingo 03 de abril

o 08:30h · Desayuno 

o 09:00h · Transporte al Valle de Tavascan 

o 11:00h · Descenso del Palomeres

o 15:00h · Comida de pic-nic en Tavascan

o 16:00h · Valoración final y fin del curso

 

El Palomeras, es un barranco de unos 500 m. con muchos saltos, rampas y rapidos divertidos!

Requisitos del curso

• Estar federado a la RFEP. 

• Ser palista de clase III con un buen dominio del esquimotaje en aguas bravas.

• Material: disponer del material necesario y adecuado para la realización del curso. En caso de necesitar material específico contactar con nosotros al realizar la inscripción.

• Material recomendado: kayak de creek (largo y con volumen), pala resistente, casco sólido o integral, coderas, protección contra el frío (neopreno, pantalones secos...), anorak

Media

Desde SBP consideramos muy importante el aprendizaje a través de los videos, por eso todo el curso estará grabado desde nuestras GoPros (cámara de casco) y videocámara HD. Por la noche analizaremos el descenso y corregiremos los errores. Por supuesto cada uno podrá llevarse sus imágenes a casa una vez finalizado el curso (traer un USB grande o DVD).

Alojamiento

Alojamiento en la Escola de Piragüisme de Sort. Más en: www.epsort.com

Para reservar el alojamiento indicarnos vuestra opción: pensión completa, media pensión, dos noches, etc y nosotros reservaremos el alojamiento haciendo un pack total para el curso+alojamiento.

* El curso es independiente del alojamiento en caso de querer ir por libre en alojamiento y comidas.

Instrucción por palistas profesionales
en su ámbito.

- Los descensos programados en el Alto Noguera y en el Palomeras pueden ser sustituidos por otras secciones en caso de problemas de agua, nível de los participantes no recomendado para correr el Alto... etc.

Para inscribirse mandar un mail con los datos personales cumpliendo con la información requerida en el apartado requisitos del curso.

Para cualquier duda acerca del curso, sugerencias, aspectos/temas específicos a tratar... contactar con nosotros a: serrasolsesbrothersproductions@gmail.com

Para más información y actualizaciones consultar:

www.serrasolsesbrosproductions.blogspot.com

 Descarga e imprime el documento completo PDF con el temario del curso . PDF