Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2019 i Kayak Session Magazine

The ICF Freestyle World Championships just took place in Sort, Spain, returning to the small town in the Pyrenees Mountains for the first time since 2001. For us at Kayak Session, it is a very special place and an occasion to celebrate. It is where we launched 18 years ago. When we presented the very first issue of Kayak Session Magazine next to the river in Sort, little did we know that we would be here 18 years later. Our goal, our vision was to produce a quality whitewater magazine. As readers turned the pages of Issue #0, presented to the public for the first time in that Catalunyan mountain resort, there was the thrill of finally seeing whitewater portrayed the way it deserves to be. But many wondered about…

DURANCE FESTIVAL, DURANCE VALLEY, FRANCE, JULY 2019 With a record attendance of 199 registered paddlers, the 2019 edition of the Durance Whitewater Festival will be one to remember. Kayak Session Magazine is proud to partner with NRS to inspire a revival of sorts in this remarkable French river valley. It had been over a decade since the Rabioux campsite was filed by cars and vans with watercraft perched atop their roofs.The festival has become the mid-summer European rendez-vous for whitewater paddlers. This year rafters, supers, open canoeist and a big turnout of packrafters, all came to take part in the races or just enjoy the vibe.The new creek race – the Gorge Guil Chrono attracted 72 racers in multiple classes.The prize money for the win in the short boat class…

Evy Liebfarth is about to take the world by storm, if she hasn’t already by the time you read this. This summer, Evy became the youngest competitor to earn a medal at a World Cup after placing third in the women’s canoe category at Ljublijana, Slovenia, in only her second World Cup competition. The weekend before in Bratislava she finished top 10 in both K1 and C1 in her first. Not bad for just turning 15. The Bryson City, North Carolina athlete already had a reputation at the U.S. National level, having previously qualified for both the K1 and C1 women’s national teams - twice. Despite qualifying in 2017 and 2018, her age (below the ICF’s cap of 15) kept her from being eligible to compete. But that is all…

MARIEKE VOGT & FREE RIVERS FUND Kayakers rocket into the eddy, all smiles and laughs after an autumn lap down the Moška section of Slovenia’s Soca River. One kayak drifts past this last-chance-eddy, floating backward toward the opening rapids of Katarakt, a grade V section known to kayakers worldwide. A smile peeks out from under the helmet of Marieke Vogt, the lone kayaker committing to the run. ‘Come on guys,’ she shouts toward the eddy, where paddlers are already out of their kayaks. Through her grin, she yells, ‘Aren’t you coming?’’ before pivoting downstream, oblivious to the flurry of activity as her friends hop in to catch up. Watching Vogt paddle, her connection with rivers is clear. She appears to be friends with the river. Perhaps this friendship is…

NEWS AND HAPPENINGS PADDLE EXPO, NUREMBERG, GERMANY, OCTOBER 4TH-6TH 2019 The 2019 PADDLEexpo, in partnership with the German Canoe Federation, will once again take place in Nuremberg, Germany, from the 4th-6th of October 2019. See the latest and the greatest in the Paddle Sports Industry, from the newest gear to the hottest trends and innovations. PADDLEexpo is the leading, paddle-sports exclusive trade fair in the world. More than a chance to show off new products, the Expo is a global meetup and networking event for buyers, manufacturers, importers, retailers, athletes, media, and associations. PADDLEexpo also functions as a hub for information distribution regarding rentals, event management, incentives, and watersports tourism.With over 1400 visitors and 140 booths in 2018, 2019 is set to be even bigger and better.For more information, visit…

PADDLE PEAK INITIATIVE, PEAK DISTRICT, UK Pete Astles of Peak UK has recently set up the Paddle Peak initiative to help to promote paddle sports in the Peak District area of the UK. The initiative aims to meet a wide range of objectives, including access, inspire, care, share, and promote. By engaging the local communities, Pete is hoping that more access can be granted to the multitude of rivers in the area, allowing more paddle sports to happen. Astles hopes to encourage everyone to take part in caring for the river; to inspire them to pick up rubbish instead of pretending it is someone else's problem. However, he doesn’t want to do this alone. By reaching out to local angler clubs, businesses, and communities,Astles hopes to have everyone involved in…

ORIGINS OF PAIN, NUMBNESS, AND TINGLING IN THE NECK, SHOULDERS, AND ARMS! Pain in the neck, shoulder, and arm, accompanied by numbness and tingling, can have its origins in nerves that serve the muscles in those areas. The nerves that work outside of our brain and spinal cord or central nervous system are known collectively as our peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nerves that operate in the shoulders and arms are referred to as the brachial plexus. Stimulation of peripheral motor nerves causes the muscles they innervate to contract. If nerves are over-stimulated, they can become hypersensitive. Overstimulation can result from overuse of muscles, poor posture, or injury to peripheral nerves themselves. Once these nerves become hypersensitive, the muscles surrounding them contract in order to protect them. Hypersensitive nerves, together…

PRIJON | COCAINE You want to paddle fast in whitewater? You want to sit in an agile kayak? Then the Cocaine is the right one for you! It will make you paddle ridiculously fast, and after one taste you will be addicted to paddling. Its length of 275 cm and its long waterline make it fast, the flat bottom offers excellent agility. Adapted for the needs of paddlers looking for a fast whitewater kayak and for participants in boatercross races.This kayak is that fast and a lot of fun! LENGTH: 275 CM | WIDTH: 62 CM | WEIGHT: 22 KG | VOLUME: 305 PRIJON.COM WHETMAN EQUIPMENT | OROSI THROWLINE A river rescue throwline designed to be compact and light. It has a unique integral webbing extender…

BIGGIE SMALLS, HIGH WATER ROUGE RIVER, QUEBEC, CANADA, APRIL 2019 During spring run-off, Stakeout connoisseurs frequent the Rouge River to paddle a short section with a roughly one-kilometer-long highlight rapid. The aptly-named Gauntlet has hosted both the Whitewater Grand Prix and Unleashed boatercross events, yet neither has managed to hit it at peak flows. Yes, you are reading that right. What you have seen gets bigger. The section roosts as the water rises, keeping kayakers hooked and craving more. In 2019 the water levels rose and rose, roads were being cautioned, and homeowners were driving through the river in their front lawns. On April 25th, the area was emergency evacuated because the decommissioned, 100+-year-old Bells Falls Dam was at risk of failure. The dam was engineered to withstand 1000 cms.…

Stuck on a highway along the Kaligandaki River in 2017, an intense sadness washed over me as I watched an excavator chip away at the mountain, sending debris down, destroying the rapids below. I felt my past and my future slipping away, and a sense of urgency built. I decided that I wanted to see what remained of the rivers and the mountains of my country before it was all destroyed by human need and greed. As a young struggling kayaker, my only relationship with rivers was through paddling. My dream was to tick rivers off a list - to be the man who had paddled them all. But a cross-country river expedition seemed out of reach and felt more impossible with each passing year. My favorite rivers, the Bhotekoshi…

When Ben Stookesberry and Silvio Gurrieri first paddled the Tunuyan together, few had heard of or seen the deep chasms hidden in the Andes. For Stookesberry, it was a trip that defined expedition kayaking: a logistic-ridden, hiking intensive, off the beaten path adventure; an extremely challenging, multi-day river passage only possible in a whitewater kayak. 14-years later, little had changed, other than the imminent reality that hydropower will likely soon submerge the river’s raw, powerful beauty. Motivated by Nouria Newman and Robert Derias to experience the river at least once more, it was time to return to the Tunuyan. A flood of memories fills my mind as we make our way down from the near 15,000 foot-Andean mountain pass, our boats balanced precariously on the backs of donkeys. Nouria Newman,…

Epic places like the canyons carving and slicing their way between the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains on the border of Montana and Wyoming, a land affectionately known as Montucky, are epic for a reason. They are remote, inaccessible, and everything out there seems larger than ordinary life. Cascades crash through thousand-foot, sheer canyon gates blasting misty rainbows into the sky with no one to lay eyes on them for miles. And so it was that very few knew of the incredible landscapes threatened by a proposed dam on the Clarks Fork River in the early 1980s. Fortunately, kayakers were curious about what lay hidden deep in those foreboding canyons, and they brought their cameras. Armed with awe-inducing images of paddling inside the Box, a champion emerged. The Forest Service nominated…