Myself, Niamh Stack, Dave Hollins and Fran Kohn are two weeks in to our month here in Colombia. We’ve been stunned by how beautiful it is: dramatic moutains covered in thick, lush jungles and huge canyons… a landscape that makes for some very committing sections of river!
So far we’ve paddled some amazing white water, including the big volume Suarez that really got the heart racing and the stunning multiday canyon of the Chicamocha. But the big story so far has been how one river that should have taken us 3 hours ended up taking 4 days – including two gruelling hikes out through the jungle in the dark! (read more about this epic on our trip blog)
The new Mamba is treating me very well and fitted all my multi-day gear plus camera gear in the back no worries. And it handles really well both with and without kit. Its really hot here so my Zenith shortie cag is probably my favourite new piece of kit as it doesn’t let water into my boat but also keeps me cool. That said, with all the jungle hiking we’ve been doing I’ve been pretty glad of how sturdy my Gradient boots are too… you can never underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle 
Surfing a big wave on the Suarez in the Mamba
Getting from one place to another has been an adventure in itself as we are hiring 4x4s and trucks of all shapes and sizes for our shuttles and have been squeezing our kayaks into the luggage compartments of buses for transit between regions.
We spent the past 2 days on buses to reach Villavicencio and paddled a really pretty canyon on the Guayariba today. In the next couple of days we’ll be heading out into the hills to paddle a river that requires hiking for 3 hours, but this time we’ll have mules to carry our kayaks! Pretty excited about that!
Until next time, adios!
Last weekend was full of exciting antics in Dartmoor, Devon, and I took a break from working in Oxford and made my way down. Two days of paddling, filming and partying (sometimes at the same time, no word of a lie) all summed up in this short little video I’ve put together.
Big thanks to Hugh Graham for his mad filming skills throughout the weekend, DJ Fromage who’s deck maneuvers made the party and to Simon of Gene 17 for hosting such a great weekend event.
I’m going back to work now, but at the end of the month I’ve got to catch a flight to Chile, which should be a real hassle.
Finn
Continuing where our last blog post left off, we found ourselves at the small village of Bilai deep in the Papuan jungle. With the help from some locals, we had just taken 9 hrs to portage the our kit around 10km of mostly-unrunnable gorge, and needed to go back (or indeed send porters back) for our boats.
Unfortunately for us, one of the porters we’d used to carry kit to the put-in (at extortionate expense), had appeared in Bilai, and immediately told the locals that had been helping us how much the rich westerners had paid him. Now these locals wanted paying the same. “The same” amounted to about £300, and this was before they’d even consider helping us to get the boats back. Negotiations went on for a number of hours, before they accepted half of what they were asking and disappeared into the night. However, these bow-and-arrow wielding tribesmen had left a message with the people of Bilai that if we wanted our kayaks back, we’d have to cough up the remaining cash before we’d be allowed to take them. To add to our woes, it was about this point we also discovered that our carefully planned food-drop we’d arranged to be at Bilai had been raided, and about a quarter of all the food had been taken. There being no shops up here, this would cause big problems if we were to continue.
The next day Pete and Chris went to check-in at the police station and investigate what could be done about the food situation, whilst Tim investigated the availability and price of porters to retrieve the boats (ignoring the ransom issue for the time being). Upon meeting up again, Tim had good news, but Chris and Pete had bad news. The local police had decided that they wouldn’t let us continue downstream, even if we recovered the boats, as they were worried we may be kidnapped by Papuan Separatists. Worse, they wouldn’t let us even go upstream to collect the boats for the same reason. In fact, Chris and Pete had to negotiate with the police to even be allowed to leave the police station. This left us with little choice but to swallow the bitter pill of defeat and retreat from the jungle, leaving our boats behind. The icing on the cake was waking up the following morning to find Tim’s long suffering Gradient Boots had vanished into the night, leaving the choice of a bare-foot 2 hour trek to the air-strip, or someone (Pete) manning up and bringing back Chris’s shoes from the air-strip thus doing the journey three times (thanks Pete!).
Reflecting on the trip it’s so easy to play the “what-if” game. Events playing out in a slightly different manner could have made an immense difference to the outcome of the expedition. However, further reflection highlights how well we did to even get out there in the first place with a credible and safe plan that could have seen us all the way down the river. Thanks to generous sponsorship we managed to raise over £6000 towards the trip; filming for TV isn’t permitted in Papua, yet we got away with that; the permits issue can change at the drop of a hat, and we got the right stamps to allow us in to right parts of the “interior”; the charter-planes agreed to take our kayaks, and we despite a shortage of planes (one had crashed the previous week) we managed to secure ourselves one within the timeframe; we overcame major disagreements with porters; we’d even blagged free accommodation in Papua and a free helicopter ride out of the river from a start-up mining company in the area.
So, whilst the expedition’s goal wasn’t completely fulfilled, each one of us is confident that our trip wasn’t wasted. We met some incredibly friendly, helpful people, had a glimpse into true Papuan life and saw places that very few westerners have ever seen.
The Kanumesse 2011 show opened this morning, the Palm team spent the day showing off the new range of kit, meeting and talking with dealers and traders and in the evening were giving out snacks and free beer to visitors of the stand…
Me & Katya have been taking photos of whats going on and todays video target was the three new Dry/ Immersion suits in the range:- the Spark, new ladies Element & the touring Aleutian.
Here is the New ladies Element suit:-
The Spark edit is up in the post below more to come as we get through the footage 
Until then check out all our beautiful new kit!
Pringle
As the good(ish) weather officially comes to an end here in Europe, I thought i’d put up a post with some of my favourite pictures of the spring/summer season. I managed to squeeze in two trips to the Piemonte/Ticino regions, before heading north, as ever, to Norway. This season we did some more exploration, both in central Norway, and further north, as well as paddling a number of rivers which have been secretly documented in some detail over the past few years, and since the publication of this online guidebook are set to become classics.
These are some of my favourite shots, huge thanks go to the photographers, as well as the people in them!
First up – I finally caught the Devil’s slide at the perfect level, in the right mood. Huge thanks to Adam Dumolo for taking this photo whilst simultaneously doing safety for this one.
Next, an excellent shot from Tom Parker of a sweet boof in the Lower Sermenza Gorge. I’ve been absoulutely loving my Harlequin Fuse Jacket, definately the comfiest shell garment ever, and coloured to match everything!
Lakeside camping in Hattfjelldal, Norway. Is this the best paddling destination in Europe?
Next up a shot by Hugh Graham, of Finn Burrows lining up for a rinsing. Dusj-boof (Shower-boof in Norsk)on the Susna. One of the most fun rapids anywhere, especially in high water, when it becomes Wipeout-boof.
This shot was taken by a friendly local, who regularly fishes the pool below this fall. Yours truly, on the first descent of Storfossen, on the Herdalselva, near Valdal.
Due to the trees being harvested on the right hand bank of the Mikkemus-elva, there was excellent light for photos for the first time tis year. Here Hugh Graham hits the perfect line. Watch out for Hugh, he’s one of those people who makes everything look a bit too easy.
Finally, a shot of Finn I took on the incredible Tverraga, another first descent and a true gem of a river way up inside the Arctic Circle.
I’m now back in the UK for a while, waiting for storm fronts to roll in and dump their goods in the hills. The new Mambas will be arriving soon and I can’t wait to get mine out and flying.
See you on the river!
Nick
Hi all. We’re back in the UK and work has begun on the film we’re making of this summer’s Norwegian Odyssey.
It’s called Vaniljesaus (Pronounced Vanilla Jesus), and will be released online here on the Palm Blog within the next few weeks. For now here’s a sneak peek….
Vaniljesaus – Trailer from Nick Horwood on Vimeo.
Vaniljesaus – Trailer
More coming soon…
Finn & Nick
On Earth Day (April 22) of 2010 Dave Freeman and I began a three year, 11,700 mile journey across North America by kayak, canoe and dog sled. Our goals are to increase awareness and promote conservation of North America’s waterways and wild places while actively engaging over 100,000 elementary and middle school students in the journey though our website and live school assemblies.
The odyssey began by kayak on the Pacific Coast studying temperate rainforests and marine life of the Pacific Northwest, but this was just the first in a series of six stages on their quest to highlight North America’s wildest places.
After kayaking 1,400 miles from Seattle, Washington to Skagway, Alaska, we progressed over the history-studded mountains in the footsteps of the Klondike Gold Rush, to the Mackenzie River delta. From there, we dog sledded south and are currently canoeing from Great Slave Lake toward Ontario. Then we will kayak through the Great Lakes and follow the annual whale migration past the salt marshes and sea turtles of the Atlantic Coast, finishing in the mangroves and coral reefs of the Florida Keys.
As you read this, we are somewhere in central Canada, working our way south and east in our canoe with our travel companion and favorite sled dog Fennel. To follow our progress and virtually immerse yourself in the expedition, check out www.NorthAmericanOdyssey.com. We are very excited to join the Palm Equipment Team and we will post regular updates on the blog.
We left the UK two weeks ago to head out on our European migration and after a leisurely 5 day drive we arrived in Frieira next to the Rio Mino on the Spain/ Portugal border.
So far we’ve been spending most of our time at the wave below the Dam in Frieira.
It works best in the morning and ussualy drops off in the afternoon although the dam releases have been a little unpredictable so far.
The wave at the right level is probably one of the best in Europe, and a reasonable hole at lower flows. The only downsides is that you need to catch it from above which means after each ride is a tough walk back up over jagged rocks and through thorny gorse bushes to get back in, but luckily the wave really makes up for the hard walk back to the top.
The area of Galicia we’ve been in so far has been pretty warm with beautiful lush scenary all around us, a really great place to kayak.
This weekend just gone we drove to the Portugese coast to head out in our brand new as yet un-used Axiom in some very violent hefty storm surf. The boat handled great in the rough conditions and I had a very short session getting battered around before it got too big and I retreated back to the beach.
Check the photo gallery below to see more of what we’ve been upto…
Pringle
I have just returned from an awesome expedition in Iceland where we were filming for Rush Sturges and Tyler Bradts upcoming feature ‘Dream Result’. Along with Rush, Tyler and Patrick Camblin we headed to the Land of Fire and Ice in search of big waterfall adventures!
We spent three weeks circumnavigating the entire Island and found some amazing drops. As well as dropping a few of Iceland’s more postcard drops we also knocked of several sweet first descents.
Camping in Iceland during the summer months is always a challenge due to the 24 hour sunlight and the extremely changeable weather. Luckily for us Iceland has a constant stream of natural hotsprings offering welcome refuge to the weary kayaker! Luckily for me on the water I was wearing the Sidewinder Top and Pant Combo as well as the new SIS Immersion Suit which both performed exceedingly well keeping me warm and dry in all conditions.
This was one of the most enjoyable trips I have been on for a long time. The combination of an awesome crew, unique location and epic paddling made for a memorable adventure. We filmed a great segment for Dream Result and got a ton of amazing images so be sure to check back here and on www.benbrown.co.nz for more tales as well as a video blog from the adventure.
