Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2020 i Kayak Session Magazine

Across the globe, protests are taking place in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for equality, social justice, social change, and reform. It is a call that has struck home for many in paddlesports, highlighting what we already know. Kayaking is a White, male-dominated sport. It is a phenomenon not exclusive to whitewater kayaking but is pervasive across outdoor and leisure sports. The factors for this are many. We have critiqued the exclusive nature of the sport, bemoaned the high barriers to entry, from the cost of gear and travel to the steep learning curve. Ours is a leisure sport, and leisure needs both spare time and money. Still, we need to think more critically when asking, "why?” Why is it that people of color, or more women,…

"Ötz"! That name alone! One umlaut plus two hard consonants. A name of brute shortness, of crude sound. Many rivers in our European countryside have enchanting and poetic names. The melodious "Verzasca" in Switzerland, the "Krikellopotamos" in Greece, or the "Raundalselva" in Norway, for example, boast fairytale names that are 100% in harmony with the amazing quality of their whitewater. Not so, the Ötz! Her name booms like an inflammation of the throat, like a cough with sputum. Even before I first paddled the Ötz about 35 years ago, when I was a hopeful teenager with modest whitewater experience, I had a pretty accurate picture of this Tyrolean alpine river. The Ötz could not be a crystal-clear torrent with gentle rock formations. It had to be frighteningly wild and glacier…

It’s not news that the outdoor industry, perhaps particularly in the United States, has a systemic diversity and inclusivity problem. Though there has been an increase in various meaningful efforts to increase diversity throughout the industry, it is clear that we still have a lot of work to do. If you have never personally experienced exclusion, discrimination, or racism, it might be difficult to understand and point to examples of how and why outdoor recreation activities and outdoor spaces may not be welcoming to all. Even for those who are educated on the topic, racism and exclusion remain hard to define. For those who have not had the privilege of formal education or training around diversity, equity, and inclusion, it can be incredibly difficult to understand and identify the many…

“IF YOU DON’T HAVE A POSITIVE WAY TO DEAL WITH THE STRESS OF THE UNCERTAINTY RELATED TO CORONAVIRUS, YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO GET SICK NOT ONLY FROM CORONA BUT FROM OTHER THINGS AS WELL.” One thing coronavirus has created a lot of around the world is uncertainty. Our brains do not like uncertainty and have a hard time coping with it. Since none of us have lived through a pandemic before it’s a new and different kind of uncertainty, a greater uncertainty. This has contributed to a lot more stress in people’s day to day lives. All the talk of if there is a treatment for corona and how to prevent corona has left out a key component, which only now is starting to get some attention, namely stress…

PYRANHA | RIPPER M #PlayTheRiver is back.With enough volume to take on all your favorite runs, in the Ripper you’ll be stern squirting out of eddies, dip turning around rocks, and soul surfing every wave… after all, kayaking is meant to be fun! Paddlesport Product of the Year 2019. Available in S, M, and L. LENGTH: 274 CM/9’ | WIDTH: 62 CM/24’’ | WEIGHT: 20 KG/44 LB | VOLUME: 234 L/62 G | MAX. CAP.: 90 KG/198 LB | MATERIAL: MZ3 (ADVANCED ROTOMOULDED SUPER-LINEAR HDPE) PYRANHA.COM SELECT PADDLES | WILD COLORED Considered as the small sister of the famous WILD Carbon, the WILD Colored brings a touch of fun with its new eyes-catching colors. The WILD Colored paddle is at the same time the most stylish…

NEWS AND HAPPENINGS SOFT POWER HEALTH INNER CITY KIDS CAMP NEEDS YOUR HELP 19 years ago, 911 inspired Jessie Stone to try to increase diversity and access to whitewater kayaking. Jessie realized that for city kids, especially ones without the chance to leave the city and see a different landscape or touch nature in some way, the post 911 world might look like a scary and unpredictable place over which they had little control. If these kids could be introduced to kayaking and the outdoors, life might look a little more optimistic, a bit more fun. They might even feel like they have a little more control over their futures. Stone started the Inner City Kids Kayaking Camp in NYC in the summer of 2002 and has run a program…

The Ötztaler Ache - "the Ötz" - is Austria's largest free-flowing glacier river; 13% of its catchment is covered by glaciers! They are the most important water source for the valley in summer as the valley receives little precipitation. In 2005, Olaf Obsommer and Bernhard Mauracher founded the Ötztal Festival, which later became the legendary Sickline Extreme Kayaking World Championships held on the Wellerbrücke section, to draw the public's attention to the construction plans of the TIWAG, the Tiroler Wasserkraft AG.Though the annual race no longer continues, the rivers of the Achstürze are currently threatened by new hydro projects. In spring 2020, construction for the first run of river HEP called "Tumpen-Habichen" in the small village of Tumpen started.As Tyrol was under lockdown, nobody could go outside to protest. So,…

“IT TAKES JUST AS MUCH TIME AND ENERGY TO LIVE A BAD LIFE AS IT DOES A GOOD ONE, SO CHOOSING WHAT KIND OF LIFE YOU WANT TO LIVE IS THE FIRST STEP.” Things are challenging these days, to be sure. For me, the challenges I experienced right before the pandemic reduced my income substantially and took my ability to control my destiny away if I let it. There are many ways to play the cards we are dealt; I used some of my lifelong mantras to help me stay positive and look to the future. I chose to start a new kayak company, Apex Watercraft, to be in charge of my destiny and pursue something I am very passionate about. I worked hard to secure funding, a factory, and…

“I WANT THERE TO BE MORE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN WHITEWATER KAYAKING, BUT IT’S A LEGACY SPORT.AS A NEW PADDLER, SOMEONE HAS TO INTRODUCE YOU TO KAYAKING AND LITERALLY HOLD YOUR HAND AS YOU DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO STAY IN THE SPORT.” Adam Edwards finds delight in doing hard things, physically uncomfortable things. On his 33rd birthday, he celebrated by hiking and running 33 miles. When we first started dating, we goaded each other into training for our first marathon with only six weeks to do so. We trained in the Pacific Northwest winter and raced in 84-degree humid Bahamian weather. Knowing Adam was ahead, I fought through tears and cramps to finally collapse across the finish line where his uncles and a sea of Junkanoo dancers immediately swept…

The Indus. Just thinking about this river is enough to give almost any class V kayaker chills, but, for those who have been there, it evokes a flood of emotions and memories of a far-off place where you were once so present. The river begins from a perennial spring near Mount Kailash, one of the holiest mountains in the Himalayas, which holds religious significance in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. As it cuts through the tallest mountain range in the world and the northern reaches of India, the river grows, gradually descending to Skardu's high desert valley. Here the roughly 90-mile journey through the Rondu Gorge begins. Deep in the canyon of the Rondu Gorge lie some of the biggest and most powerful rapids ever run in a kayak. The water…

We continue our journey of discovering freestyle with one of the most versatile and crowd-favorite moves, the stern squirt! This is one of the most fun cross-overs moves in kayaking, applicable running whitewater, doing freestyle, or racing slalom. With the recent growth in popularity of boats with slicey tails, this skill becomes a signature way for many world-class paddlers to show off or have fun. A stern squirt is a quick, at least 180-degree turn on the tail, moving from edge to edge to bring the bow vertical. This can be practiced on flat water but is most often performed using eddy lines and the current to push the tail under the water. DOWNRIVER – EDDYLINE TAILIES Beautifully exit the eddy, stylishly catch it, or just play around in the…

Day 4, a half-mile away from padding my resume/ego with another first descent when WHAM, a double overhead lateral folds me and my smiley-faced vessel faster than a taco in Mexico City. SMASH! ROLL! Fuck! And all of a sudden, I’m washed up. Yet, thankfully, gloriously, against a pocket of granite bedrock that I grab in wonder, "Is this California!?" I blink away confusion and reality speaks loudly, "NO, YOU’RE IN IDAHO OLD MAN, AND ONE THOUSAND BOULDERS AND A HALF DOZEN LOG JAMS DOWNSTREAM WILL TRY TO END YOUR LIFE IN ADDITION TO YOUR CAREER IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF THE RIVER!" "Frank, I need help" I mouth to my partner, who, luckily, is out of his boat on shore. In the blink of an eye, I’ve been…

Whitewater kayaking is not the most diverse sport. The barriers to entry are high for many. It expensive and equipment heavy; the sport predominantly takes place outside of cities; instruction is primarily handed down from peer to peer, generation to generation; self-instruction can be unsafe and challenging; it has an incredibly steep learning curve. But as I write down these barriers, they just feel like excuses. As a community, as an organization, as a tribe, we simply have not done enough to encourage the growth of our sport — and what undoubtedly becomes a relationship and a love for rivers — among diverse populations. There are many shining examples of paddlers working to introduce whitewater recreation to under-represented communities and using the river as a tool for healing. There is…