miércoles, 31 de julio de 2013

Paddling the Pyrenees with Aniol - Kayak the world with SBP EP.3





amazing spring of kayaking in the Pyrenees!! everybody start praying to have one like this for next year!!
THANKS EVERYBODY INVOLVED ON THE SHOOTING OF THIS VIDEO:
Aleix Salvat, Albert Aixas, Mikel Sarasola, Marc Parra, Marsal de la Fuente, Alfonso....

lunes, 29 de julio de 2013

Norway stories #1


It’s been an epic one month trip to Norway!! The water levels have been way lower than in our first year but that hasn’t been bad at all cause we got to run different sections which normally are too high!!  Lots of good times with my friends, amazing paddling and the most fun I’ve had kayaking in the last few years…  

good times with EG the killer... so much learnt after kayaking one month with this guy!!
What  I love most about Norway is the amount of possibilities you have when deciding to go kayaking. Everywhere you look there’s water falling off the mountains, it doesn’t take much rain either to make the rivers rise up. That’s because everything is so wet already and there’s not much soil to drain the water.
Anton & Mathias walking back from a sick park-huck!

Yeah this is the place !!! Paradise for any kind of kayaker, from class II to class VIII Norway has it all and it has it on big amounts.  

MR. Flemming is the most bad-ass kayaker I have ever met... 
We been doing lots of shooting with Evan and Fred the creators of Substantial media house. They just bought a Sony FS which shoots at 240 fps. so make sure to check out their new Scandinavian episode, It’s going to be next level!!!

driving back from Rauma after a really good day of kayaking!
good camping next to the Songdal. stoked to have a motivated Pyranha team this year  that wanted to do crazy stuff everyday instead of sticking to the class II....
EG running a nice waterfall next to Sjoa.
camping in Norway!! so good!
scouting a really good rapid in Polfossen... lost my paddle after the entrance and beatered the rest of the rapid..
upper rapids in the Tora Bora... quality!!
Marsal running the last part of rapid #7 in the Rauma

Nosebreaker!!! such a powerful waterfall!
#5 of the rauma!
following my buddy down the polfossen! 
the pro's getting close to double drop!
really good crew this year!!
1st rapid of the rauma..
flemming's screenshot!! such a rowdy drop!

who's going first??? this one looks great in this picture.. but it was so scary/powerful. 
MR. Immler loving the teigdal section!

Here’s a recap of our mission:

Swimmers count:
David Bain x4 swims
Matt Cookie x2 swims
Aniol & Fred 1x swim

EG enjoying the views!

Broken Gear:
6x broken/lost paddles
3x broken kayaks

Injuries:
-       1x broken back “unfortunately there was a major injury for wich I feel so bad cause I really know myself what is like “ heal up well Matt !
-       big cuts on hands, tendinitis on elbows & busted fingers.

Anton on the #2 of the Rauma!

EG sequence!

Best day of kayaking: Second run on the Rauma (EG, Flemming and myself ran all but Flemming’s drop with 10 min).

Best food: Cookies thai food or Fred chicken rice!! It was fucking awesome!!

Best waterfall: 1st D of “sick boaten falls” somewhere around Valldal was my favorite!!

Best rapid: Tyler’s rapid in Valldala was a really stout/scary one!

Joregen becoming a man!!
Best river: Rauma and Skjoli at high water are my favorites!!

Best party: Sjoa party followed by a late play run to Amot 5 AM run !!  

Best carnage: French guy line on double drop was insane!!

Major fuck up: running Karl’s car out of gas after taking his car without asking him… sorry man!!!

Best present: Sweet protection dry suits and the Homeless jacket are the most expensive/bad ass piece of gear that I will probably ever own!! Thanks so much Goran for treating us like kings every time we come to Norway!! So stoked to be part of the team sweet!!


Norwegian playing our Baker video on my way back from Oslo!!! STOKED!!!
Getting my stuff ready to travel to BC pretty soon!! Can't wait!! More news soon!



lunes, 8 de julio de 2013

Pyrenees stories 2

Spring in Spain is pretty much over or at least it is for me. It’s been a really good one, long and with lots of different levels. I got to see some rivers higher than ever and I am pretty sure it’s going to be hard to see any of those runs with the same flood. But I am a little bummed that we didn’t go as hard as we could and we didn’t get the best of a season wich was unbelievable talking about water levels.


some high water Noguera so good to boof some waves and throw some kick flips!!
This is a list of what we been running:
- 50+ runs on  the Upper noguera (70+ creppes) + 30x Muleta - Pontdepedra
- 8x runs on the Palomeres
- 5 x runs on the Arreu
- 3x runs on the Boavi
- Cinqueta (3x red gorges + 1x classic + 1x upper upper cinqueta)
- Ara (5 x Bujaruelo + 1x Torla-Broto)


high ass water in the Romadriu. this thing was scary!!
the first drop in the Palomeras. so much fun!
boof that curlier!!
this avalanche has been blocking the first drop of the palomeras for so long... but as soon as there was enough space to go under it we gave it a go!! 
la lanzadera en el rio Arreu.
stomping la creppe! this year I took a massive beatdown + swim doing some bad downriver freestyle...


freestyle afternoon with the master Cristian Lamiel. bad-ass climber and freestyle kayaker who trained  me and Gerd and many other when we where at the spanish freestyle kayak team!


We had a crazy flood a few weeks ago and I almost lost my car when sleeping next to a river!! Super crazy experience !!! 
flooded Noguera!!

good times with the princess "aleix salvat" in the Bujaruelo section, rio Ara 
PHOTO BY MARSAL DE LA FUENTE

As you can see we haven’t done anything crazy or new this season but it’s really hard to do when you only have one other person to go kayak with. No excuses, you can still do it, but paddling without safety sucks. Big shout out goes to Marsal & Aleix for being the biggest pussies I have ever seen… barely paddling this whole spring and showing 0 motivation for this sport. FUCK YOU !!! 

the crew: Aixas, Aniol, Vilber, Edu Clapes  setting a record for the highest flow  the Noguera has ever been paddled.

extasis gorge in the upper noguera!
Got the opportunity to shoot a profile with Verve Audiovisual & Heli Films all around the Pallars area Rivers featured on the video are: Boavi, Palomeras & Noguera! Really excited to see how it comes out!

had a super good time filming with these people!! they are super motivated and crazy good at what they do!
la olla at 125 cm. Boof or get a good beatdown!
trying my first backflip ever. funny that I only know how to do them when I am sitting on a kayak...  
getting some sick shots with the Heli. 
another high water record run on the "Limbo" rio Boavi

Heli films are the sickest drones fliers I 've ever seen!! 
sweet 20 footer in the boavi!
Love paddling in the Pyrenees and getting to see all this amazing scenery!

getting into the third rapid of the upper Zinqueta
love this boof!
The Z in the rio Palomeras
I am in Norway now paddling/recording with the Substantial Media House & Pyranha team awesome to meet up with people who is just as motivated or even more about kayaking as I am.  Watch out for some sick footage coming out of this trip!!! 

some party time in Voss!
getting some EG lean in the Skjoli!!

Gracias a Albert Aixas, Alfonso Perez, Arnau, Marc Parra por toda la ayuda con el safety en la grabación de Redbull. 

Photos by Albert Aixas, Marsal de la fuente, Fred Norquist, Alfonso, Noe & Aleix Salvat. GRACIAS!