Whilst Nick was out hucking Double Drop on the Teigdal, I was at Palm photographer Tony Gilbert’s studio shooting our 2010 product range (to be launched at Kanumesse in September). Why we picked the hottest week of the year for the shoot is a good question, but we certainly pushed the breathability of the suits to their limits! 

Perhaps a bit overdressed for 31ºC – getting my bead on in the hood.

Posted on July 2nd, 2009 by Palm HQ
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Jam in Sjoa, and the funky new Sweet Wanderer

Hello all, I’m now back in residence on the banks of the beautiful Sjoa, with high water and beautiful weather, having just arrived after traveling up from the south for a week in Voss, the waterfall capital of Europe.

Hanging out on the banks of the Otra

The annual Voss Ekstremsportveko is a huge festival attracting thousands of athletes and spectators from all over the world for an incredible week of showing off at various dangerous and spectacular activities. From BASE jumping through longboarding to Kayaking, Mountain Biking and Skiing, the week has it all. We were of course there for the kayaking, and high water levels combined with unseasonably hot weather made for good times all round.

Lowri Davies on a meaty meltdown move, Raundalselvi

Much of the week was spent paddling on the Brandseth, one of Norway’s most beautiful rivers, and home to the downhill race, Ekstremsportveko’s biggest kayaking event. Water the colour of Bombay Sapphire, clean enough to drink flows down waterfalls, slides, and some tricky combo moves to create a kayaker’s paradise, albeit one with several possibilities for a beating.

Lowri and Paula. It's rare that a baby blue mamba is camouflaged.

Good flows made for a fast and exciting race, with good representation from the UK. A bad start on my part knocked me out of the finals and down to position 22 out of 80 competitors, however given the standard of competition and time only for a single practise run I was happy enough. A mention must go to Lowri Davies and Liz Bell who paddled to 2nd & 3rd place in the women’s race, after Norwegian machine Mariann Saether, who as always beat a significant proportion of the male field. In the Men’s race the slalom paddlers cleaned up again, with Italian Michele Ramazza winning on average, despite a blisteringly fast final run from Kiwi Sam Sutton.

Lowri Davies on the final drop of the competition run.

Towards the end of the week, News started drifting through that the elusive Teigdal was flowing, a rare treat indeed , and home to arguably the best paddleable waterfall combo in the world, the infamous Double Drop. Having psyched myself up for this waterfall every year but never found the right flow, I decided this was too good an option to miss, and after a big day’s boating Ric ‘the northern bullet’ Moxon and I headed over for an evenings hucking…

Yours truly. It's not often you get to boof from 22m above your landing pool. Photo: Will Clark

The drop consists of a 9-10m mandatory boof into a tiny (it’s smaller than it looks) pool, before plunging directly over another 12-13m drop with one or two rocky ledges waiting to punish any mistakes. You cannot see the halfway pool until you are right on the lip and it therefore feels a lot like boofing off the edge of the world. Ric Moxon went first, charging hard as ever, and after breaking his paddles across his deck on the first landing, pulled off a sweet two handed stroke over the lip of the second. Gnarly.

Northern bullet Ric Moxon: This guy's a big deal. Just ask him. Photo: Will Clark

I was up next, and feeling quite lonely by now in the eddy at the top. I pulled out of the eddy into the sunshine, took one last glance at the view, and prepared to fly. my first landing was soft, and within two strokes I was out of the mist and in freefall again. I landed more vertically than I had planned, resurfaced in the base of the fall, and another broken paddle later I hand rolled up in the pool feeling a little dazed, but buzzing nonetheless.

Nick & Ric: "Sick Line" (in ze german accent of course)

I’m now settling down once again to life in the Sjoa valley, and have been enjoying the classic Aamot and Store Ula runs, so stay posted for more pics to come. Anybody heading out this way over the summer, come and stop by the Kayak camp for a paddle and a cup of tea. There have been exciting new changes and some renovations this year, and with the Ula race making a comeback, the Sjoa festival is looking to be a good one.

Cheers, see you there,

Nick

Posted on July 1st, 2009 by Nick Horwood
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Last week Team Palm paddlers Matt Tidy, Nick Horward, and Lowri Davies were in Voss for their annual extreme sports festival ‘Ekstremsportveko’

For one adrenaline fueled week long event, skydivers, BASE jumpers, skiers, bikers and kayakers from all over the world congregate in the small Norwegian town of Voss to go huge off cliffs, waterfalls, ramps and of course at the parties.

One of the highlights of the week is the Brandseth downhill, an individual sprint down a steep little river. This year the Brandseth had fantastic water levels, and the competition was fierce.

Amongst a big international field of competitors from Canada, US, Italy, Czech, Norway and UK,  Nick, Matt and Lowri and Palm sponsored Andy Phillips and Mike Abbot slogged it out through the prelims with Lowri winning a place in the Ladies finals and finishing an overall 2nd (and taking home a big Norwegian Cheque!) and Mike, Matt and Andy winning a place in the Mens finals and places of 3rd, 9th and 11th respectively.

After the sprint, teams of 3 had it, on the full length of the Brandseth over about 3kms of steep rapids and slides, locals Mike Abbott, Andy Phillips and Allan Ellard won top honors yet again this year.

The best thing about being in Voss though is the surrounding rivers and we all took time away from the crowds to go big on the huge Norwegian white water and ‘Foss’ (waterfalls)

Full results are here http://www.ekstremsportveko.com/?page=16&news=262

Results and video are here http://www.friflyt.no/index.php?pagenr=12&articlenr=57157

The next big race is the Sjoa River Festival, also in Norway, from the 15-19th July. It looks set to be massive, hopefully we’ll see some of you there.

Posted on June 30th, 2009 by Palm HQ
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It’s that time of year where the Etive levels are a wee bit low, for more experienced boaters there is however a more challenging alternative. Pushy enough for a bit of excitement and short enough to do some ‘laps’ the Dallness Section is a saviour in drier times.

Starting off, the first drop has two obvious options, both are nice but watch out for the undercut on river left in slightly higher levels.

Just down from the here, a drop with both a tight intro and exit keep you on your toes, watch out for the holes tow back and have a live bait ready!

A nice section of rapid follows and although it looks quite rocky, you cruise around smoothly.

The next drop which looks slightly precarious with a hole pilling up against the bank directly in front of it, is actually a beautiful move.

And then to finish off the section, Dallness falls itself provides quite a horizon line and at slightly higher levels the little hole just above the lip is not to be underestimated (as I did on this occasion). Either way be sure you have plenty of safety cover for the undercut at the base of the drop on river right.

Take care and enjoy it!

Ed      

Photographs courtesy of Graeme Cowan

Posted on June 6th, 2009 by Ed Smith
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Pah!

We had a fairly new Dagger Approach returned for a check over this week after it fell off the car on the Motorway. Written off right?

Apparently not. When we checked the depth of the plastic in the most worn areas we found it was still thick enough to be classed as a first quality boat. It’s survived (albeit with a slightly battered sense of pride)!

A new security bar and it will be (almost) as good as new!

Check out the wear on the bolts!

Posted on June 5th, 2009 by Palm HQ
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Arkangel Chemical Weapons Facility (Aka. Verzasca Dam)

Hello there, so I’ve just returned from a beautiful week in the Italian and Swiss Alps. After spending a day on the middle section of the Verzasca, we stopped off for lunch on its unfeasibly large dam, before heading to the rarely run Loana and Basso for an epic day’s hiking, kayaking, and some gnarly portaging (see Tim’s post).

Your truly in a cheeky flair move on the Middle Verzasca

Simon Boofin' on the Basso

Having previously only experienced Valsesia during the monsoon, it was a revelation to arrive there in glorious sunshine. Although levels were still slightly too high for many of the steeper runs, we spent a thoroughly civilised few days enjoying the high water, relaxing in the valley’s gelateries, and arguing over how to pronounce stracciatella. Fot those stilll unsure, it’s pronounced ‘Stracciatella’.

Matt Tidy plugging hard on the upper Gronda

Relaxing at the bottom of the Gronda racecourse

Dropping in on the Sorba Slides at 'man levels'

Tim in the meat. Sirloin I believe.

The Mastallone river is not considered by many to be one of the classic runs in the area, however when the water is high and the sun is shining it makes for a grand day out, offering some fun bouldery rapids, an incredible pristine gorge, and if you head a little further up the Valley a cheeky Park ‘n’ Huck on it’s lesser trib the Landwasser. On this occasion we were lucky enough to catch a fish.

Jared Meehan and Jim Cummings: Park 'n' Fish 'n' Huck.

Simon on the Landwasser drop.

Dave Carrol from above.

On my last day in Valsesia, Simon and I entered the Valsesia River Contest downriver sprint, which due to high water on the Sermenza was to be held on the Sesia at Piccolo Canada rapid. The sun shone, we paddled hard, and despite a moderately controversial choice of line on my part, Simon and I won first and second places respectively in the ‘International’ catergory.

The Sesia in high water

Yours truly, sporting the victory bling. Solid Silver.

All in all a cracking week in one of the world’s greatest paddling destinations, and a sweet warm up to what looks to be an incredible season. I’m now back in the UK, preparing for further adventures in France and then Norway. I can’t wait.

Safe paddling, see you on the water!

Nick

Posted on June 2nd, 2009 by Nick Horwood
Filed under: Latest Gear, River | 1 Comment »

A potential problem with working in the paddlesport industry is that you often don’t get as much time in a boat as you’d like. So when team paddlers Simon Westgarth, Matt Tidy and Nick Horwood invited me out for a week’s boating and photoshoot in Ticino, Italy, it seemed rude to say no! 

Full report coming soon but for the meantime here’s a few shots from the major mission of the week – the Loana and its sidecreek, the Basso. 

We were lucky to catch the Basso with plenty of water and were rewarded with a truly spectacular run. From the epic hike in, to the endless bedrock slides, to the horrendous portages – the whole river had the feel of a high Sierra Californian creek. 

After a full day of sunburn, dehydration and 200m slides aplenty we finally reached the Cascada di Loana - the takeout. Matt chose to run the first fall and, after an exciting takeout just above the second ‘gutter drop’ (in the background of the second shot below) fired up the third as well! 

I’d definitely recommend the run if you’re in the area and there’s water – but bring some decent shoes, there’s a lot of hiking!

Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Palm HQ
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Last week I was elected Aberystwyth University’s Sports Person of the Year, a great honour which makes me extremely proud. Usually all the awards go to traditional field sports but this year myself and the canoe club dominated:

• I won Sports Person of the Year : This is awarded to the individual who has excelled in their chosen field of sport and has enhanced the reputation of sport in Aberystwyth”
• I was nominated for the Gwyn Evans Shield : Awarded in memory of a former PE lecturer and club coach, the award recognises personal dedication, commitment and commendable sporting attitude towards achievement in sport
• I was awarded one of 18 College Colours (an award I also received last year) : Awarded for long service & loyalty to a club and/or university sport in general and/ or outstanding performance
• On top of all of that, the Canoe Club also won Most Improved Club, which fills me with just as much pride as the personal awards, my friends and I have put in so much time and effort over the last five years to make the club as inclusive, fun and active as possible. (We also won the “Spirit of PGL Award” at the National Student Rodeo this year)

More information on the Awards can be found on the Aberystwyth Guild Website.

I am awaiting official photos from the evening, but as my housemate is a photographer he took the above photo to make sure I have at least one nice one! Thanks to Rob Clark for the photo.

I hope you have exciting summers planned, I know I do… Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland for the World Freestyle Championships then to finish off I am heading to Tibet for an expedition exploring two previously unpaddled tributaries of the mighty Tsangpo.

Over the summer, both on my travels and at home, I will be doing loads of coaching, including a Kids Camp and several Ladies Specific FlowFree courses. Oh and in July I’ll be donning a mortar board to graduate from my Masters Degree. Happy days…

See you on the water,

Lowri Davies

Posted on May 22nd, 2009 by Gear 4 Women
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The West Coast of New Zealands South Island is world renown for its steep creeks. During the Southern Hemispheres summer months the West Coast ranks amongst the worlds premier paddling destinations. What is lesser known is that the North Island also has some world-class creeking hidden amongst her rolling hills….

During the Autumn in New Zealand, South Westerly Low Pressure systems tear up from Antarctica bringing with them strong winds and heavy rain. Whilst this weather is not really conducive to many outdoor activities it does grab my attention because with this rain comes the possibility of some of my local creeks starting to flow…

The rains have been battering New Zealand over the past few weeks and with the Northern Hemisphere adventures rapidly approaching I was pretty eager to get amongst my local runs for one last time before heading North.

Here are a few shots for you to check out from my backyard…

Ben Brown - www.benbrown.co.nz

- Heavy Rain Warning for the North Island…. Game on!

- Just down the road and in my opinion one of the best runs in the country.

- Pausing to take it all in. Not a bad part of the world.

- Drive North and there are some hidden gems!

- The Bay of Plenty living up to its name.

- Holding on for the ride…

- and coming out in one piece!

- NZ might not be famous for her big drops, but look hard enough and you’ll find them.

Posted on May 20th, 2009 by Ben Brown
Filed under: General Nonsense, River, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Driving our big events van to Scotland in high winds was pretty eventful – you felt like you were surfing the road at times but eventually we got there.

The Big Van surfed to Scotland

Cam and Lawrence from Brookbank

The Brookbank guys are all keen paddlers so after the event finished on Saturday we pilled into the vans and headed up to Perth to paddle the classic river Tay. It’s only a short blast of a few miles but less than an hour from Scotland’s major cities it is a brilliant section full of on the fly play. Hats off to Canoe Scotland for working with other local users (especially the fishermen) to secure access to this spot.

Stanley Playwave

The weapons of choice were longer faster surf boats so Cam the Brookbank Scotland store manager took the Axiom for a rip whilst Lawrence, store manager from Lancaster, got the Juice to make the most of the wave trains that you could catch on the way down.

Check this little video of one of the sections on the Tay

Posted on May 19th, 2009 by Paul Robertson
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