Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2023 i Kayak Session Magazine

What if the next (cool) thing to do was to do things more simply? If simple was synonymous with better, or better synonymous with simple? Every year and season, we look to raise the bar and find new challenges as we push limits with new rapids, bigger tricks, and taller waterfalls. This drive for progress is part of our nature as humans. In seeking the rush and the high of progression, of brushing against the edge of our capabilities, we push our skills, driving for greater precision and finesse, to go further, longer, and faster. Too often, we are drawn to do things on a bigger, grander scale, forgetting there is also progress and challenge to be found in doing something more simply. Simple, after all, doesn't mean easy. When…

The 12th annual Little White Salmon took place on March 25th, 2023. The sun was shining over a dusting of fresh snow as racers took to the course at a low flow of 2.9 ft. Since 2022, the LW Race has been open to all boat lengths, an evolution inspired by the popularity of Pyranha's Scorch X. In the interest of not limiting kayak designs and allowing the Scorch X paddlers to race their regular kayak, the organizers and community decided to open the race to all designs. This year, the boat of choice was Dagger's new Vanguard. Of the top ten men, nine were in Vanguards, as were the top three women. Local hero Evan Garcia took the win with a time of 14:30, just one second ahead of…

The 18th annual Myllykoski Bigwater Festival was held on April 22nd, 2023, bringing close battles, a few gnarly swims, and big smiles. The Myllykoski Bigwater Festival is the biggest extreme kayaking race in Finland. The competition occurs soon after the ice melts from the rivers in the south. It's the first event of the season, so kayakers are always excited to be on the water. For many, it is their first kayaking session of the year. The racecourse is a 150-meter-long stretch of Class IV-V Whitewater with 10 meters of drop. The main features include an entry slide, a one-meter drop with a stout “pot-eddy,” followed by a technical entry into a sticky hole. The racecourse works with a wide window of different water levels. The lowest competition levels have…

Though Ontario is widely known for its big water, there was one freefall gem just waiting to be done, Lower Balls Falls. About an hour outside of Toronto is Balls Falls Observatory, which has two back-to-back drops. The first is about 30 feet, which had been done numerous times, but the second drop sitting at around 90 ft, had not. “I was first shown a photo in 2018. I thought the drop looked epic, and I knew I wanted to get it at some point," says Dane Jackson. A few weeks ago, one of the locals sent a message that it was in. Unfortunately, Dane couldn't rally a crew together in time, but he knew he had to keep an eye on it this spring. Then luckily, a few days…

In Utah, the traditional pursuit of Whitewater requires many hours of driving, more often than not, to a different state. This winter, record-breaking snowpack has brought about the rare backyard runs with consistent flows not seen since 83'/84', when the streets of downtown Salt Lake were flooding. From Salt Lake City, it is a 30-minute drive north to the Scrambled Eggs section of the Weber River, where we find the Utah locals Sean Abel, Tashi Hackett, and Ruben Castren pulling boats and layering up. After a quick safety chat, they put on a very short Class II warm-up. Rounding the first bend, Sean leads out into the continuous Class IV+, around a sweeping lefthand bend of big pushy laterals with few eddies. The trio runs cleanly through the bend to…

After an unseasonably dry and warm winter at the Wintering Grounds on the Chattahoochee River, which is nestled between Columbus, Georgia, and Phenix City, Alabama, the rain finally began to fall. Cars and RVs full of kayakers from all parts of the US and Canada checked the gauges every 15 minutes, waiting to see if the elusive big waves of the Chattahoochee would appear. Higher and higher, the river rose, as did the stoke of everyone in the parking lot. The crew ran down to the river once the gauge read 30,000 cfs to check out a wave called Donkey Kong, located right past the 13th Street bridge above Cut Bait. This fast, dynamic, bowl-shaped wave had only been surfed a handful of times in the past, as all the…

NEW WAVE Sophie Gilfillan has learned a lot about kayaking over her 17 years. From slalom to freestyle to river running, Sophie provides a model for other ambitious juniors to follow: hone your technical skills in slalom, dial consistency with freestyle, and strengthen your mind river running. Rotate and repeat. A Canadian slalom and freestyle team member, Sophie has National Championship wins in multiple disciplines and has represented Canada at world championships in freestyle and slalom in addition to descents on notable rivers around the world. I caught up with Sophie in Northern Italy, where she is finishing her senior year with World Class Academy. HOW DID YOU DEVELOP INTO SUCH A WELL-ROUNDED KAYAKER? I first started when I was 12 years old at a Whitewater kayaking camp in downtown…

DOCTOR RIVER WHAT'S UP DOC? Have you ever gone for a stern squirt or flipped unintentionally only to wake up the next day with painful pressure in your face water still dripping out your nose? Sinusitis is a common problem for many paddlers. The good news is that it can often be prevented. WHAT ARE YOUR SINUSES? The sinuses are four air-filled cavities located on either side of your nose and above each of your eyebrows. They connect to your nose and provide mucus to lubricate and help clear pathogens from your nasal passages. They also help humidify the air you breathe. Since they are warm, moist environments, they are perfect culture mediums for bacteria and other pathogens that may get trapped there. WHAT IS SINUSITIS AND HOW DOES IT…

PADDLE SPORTS SHOW MOVES TO STRASBOURG, SEPTEMBER 27TH - 29TH, 2023 As you probably know, the Paddle Sport Show will be held in 2023 in Strasbourg (France), on the border with Germany, allowing the whole industry to relocate and refocus around its main markets and an even greater number of visitors and industry players to join the annual Paddle Sports industry “get together.” Join in person or virtually, September 27th through September 29th, 2023, for three days of trade, conferences, talks, presentations, heavy media coverage, the debut of new products, the annual Best of the Paddle Sport Show awards, and a film festival! www.thepaddlesportshow.com MALABAR RIVER FESTIVAL KERALA, INDIA,AUGUST 4TH-6TH, 2023 Malabar River Festival, Asia's largest and most vibrant Whitewater kayaking competition, is back for its ninth edition. Join us…

A record 49 people turned out to race in this year's Isaac Ludwig Memorial Top Yough Race. Racers launch at one-minute intervals and are treated to an uninterrupted 1.25-mile stretch of tight, technical Class IV rapids on a free-flowing river. The race course culminates at Suck Hole, a notorious Class V rapid with an insatiable sieve. This year, mother nature threw a curve ball, with an extra half inch of rain and 50-mph wind gusts, resulting in a guick spike in the gauge for race time. Racers who launched first began their sprint downstream with a flow of 270 cfs, while racers in the final seeds launched with discharges topping out around 560 cfs. This natural spike in flow resulted in a unigue leveling-of-the-playing field between the long and short…

Bullerfest: a Kiwi classic. This Whitewater kayak festival, named for the Buller River, which runs through the sleepy town of Murchison on New Zealand's South Island, is part family reunion, part competition, and part party. This year, the Awanui film awards kicked off the festival and set the tone for the coming days. A collection of films celebrating the adventures had in New Zealand and beyond was presented at the small theatre. The films showcased skill over mind and body and expressed the important relationship between people and the flow of nature. This delicate relationship was given further insight by the New Zealand Whitewater Association and Whitewater legend Mick Hopkinson as they discussed the ecological impact on rivers, urging kayakers to care for what many consider the lifeblood of the…

Located in Northeast Wisconsin, the Peshtigo River Roaring Rapids section is a longstanding favorite among Midwest boaters. The river has supported rafting companies such as Kosirs Rapid Rafts since the 1970s. The five-mile run courses through true Northwoods beauty. A mix of coniferous and upper woodland deciduous trees line the riverbanks contrasting with the tannin-stained river water. The run features six named rapids, First Drop, Second Drop, Third Drop, Five Foot Falls, Horserace, and S-Turn. American Whitewater defines the difficulty as Class II-IV+ depending on flows. In between named rapids are sections of read-and-run boogie water. The last 1-1.5 miles is a flatwater paddle to the take-out. The put-in and take-out remain publicly accessible at this time, but scouting or portaging the rapids is compromised due to property owner issues…

Popular amongst surfers for its world-class conditions, endless beaches, and excellent local cuisine, Morocco is one of the less-known countries for kayaking. Drawn by stories of prime conditions, extreme freestyle kayakers Leon Bast and Ole Wagenbrenner decided to meet up in Marrakesh to find some wave gold. Along their 1500-kilometer journey to the Sahara, they stopped at some of the world's most famous surf spots to catch big waves and get some airtime. First on their list was the infamous killer point located north of the small village of Thagazout. A long paddle from the sharp rocky beach and the current on big swells can make it a challenge even for experienced kayakers to reach the bomb sets far offshore. After a few days of surfing and a bunch of…

Uganda was once known as kayaking paradise, but after the Isimba Dam was finished in 2019, some of the best parts of the river were replaced by a massive lake. While this caused the number of freestyle kayakers traveling to Uganda to drop, the remaining Whitewater still provides some of the best big-volume rapids in the world. Rookie or expert, Uganda still offers many world-class freestyle features, from forgiving holes to massive bouncy waves. Bubugo is probably the best-known rapid on the river. This is where Superhole resides, a smooth wavy hole with eddy service and a lovely little island where you can take a break between surfs. But Bubugo offers much more than Superhole—this is also the section where AHHH Wave forms at high flows. Located in the central…

This past April, Rios to Rivers Paddle Tribal Waters held a four-day kayaking and educational college tour in Eugene, OR in collaboration with the University of Oregon (UO). Paddle Tribal Waters is a Whitewater kayaking and environmental advocacy training program for native youth that provides a series of programs to build indigenous youth leadership in the Pacific Northwest. The collaboration with the University of Oregon gave students a unigue opportunity to connect with multiple Native American programs on campus, including the Native American Student Union (NASU) and the Sapsik'walá Teacher Education Program. The University also hosted students for multiple on-campus events, including a dinner at the Longhouse with the Native American Student Union and a campus tour led by Sam Stroich, the Assistant Director of the UO Outdoor Program. During…

Kayak Session: In April 2022, you set off on the Grand Salmon Source to Sea Expedition. Tell us more about it. What was the ultimate goal? Brooke Hess: The Grand Salmon was a conservation campaign, promoting the removal of the four lower Snake River dams and a moratorium on the Stibnite Gold Project to save the rapidly dwindling Snake River Basin salmon populations from extinction. We used the narrative of our expedition to reach as many people as possible and encourage them to get involved in the political process that will be the deciding factor in whether these salmon species go extinct or not. KS: What did the trip entail? BH: Following the natural migration of anadromous fish from their spawning/hatching grounds to the ocean, we skied and kayaked for…

NRS MY HOME RUN The Fairy Glen Gorge of the Afon Conwy is lost in time, a piece of the past, where kayakers travel a river accessible only to them that looks and feels the way it did before humans first discovered this place. But only because they have fought to keep it this way. Snowdonia National Park, or Eryri, covers 823 square miles and is Wales' largest National Park. Eryri's landscape is steeped with culture, history, and heritage. Its towering mountains and breathtaking valleys have fostered some of the world's greatest climbers and mountain bikers—and one or two decent kayakers. At the heart of Eryri flows the Afon (River) Conwy. From the high moors of the Migneint to the medieval port town of Conwy, its 55 km provides some…

Over the weekend of April 15-16th, hundreds of kayakers and their favorite inflatables gathered in North Wales for the inaugural DeeFest in a fun weekend of silliness, friendship, and celebration of the River Dee. Shuttles all weekend allowed paddlers to participate in the fun-focused events as desired. The weekend started with a bang as three Mass Start Races took to the water (novice, intermediate, and expert). The Mass-Start finished at the rapid known as Serpent's Tail, where the DJs from Extreme Events had the festival vibes well underway. Beats pumping, sun shining, and big smiles, and it was over to the guys and gals at Pyranha for Taily Jam, a half-hour of madness on the best seam-line on the river and the chance to earn a prize for being impressive,…

The crazy team over at No Pasa Nada & the Nomad River School once again organized the now classic SPB River Fest kayaking event on April 8-1 Oth at St Pierre de Boeuf Whitewater park (south of Lyon, France). While it was a French Freestyle Cup Stage, it has also become an international early-season event for the European freestyle scene. The high-level freestyle featured the talents of Quim Fontane, Tom Dolle, Agata Sobieraj-Jakubie,Tim Rees, and more. Participants could also take part in the Boater Cross in sit-on-top kayaks (carnage without a doubt) and the iconic Boater Cross Duo, where even complete beginners had the chance to paddle with someone experienced down the course, an afternoon of guaranteed good vibes and laughs for both paddlers and spectators. One thing worth noting…

The Río Santo Domingo is a beautiful turquoise mess of cascades and rapids. Located in Chiapas, Mexico, and accessed from the community lodging at Las Nubes and Ecoturismo Xbulanjá, the tiered drops had long been a goal for Dane Jackson, Bren Orton, and Adrian Mattern. Says Dane, “The Santo Domingo is a section that all of us knew we had to get to one day, and coming up on 10 years since anyone had done it, we knew it was the year. Once we were finally there, looking up at the sequence for the first time, it was truly hard to believe that sequence even exists." The main sequence is made up of four drops, each iconic for its own reasons. It was clear upon arrival that they had higher…

Iran's breathtaking landscapes and untapped potential for kayaking have long caught the attention of the adventurous team WW-SCHOOL, comprising Sergey Ilyin, Ivan Kozlachkov, and Alexey Lukin. Their journey began with exploring the Elbrus mountain range in the country's northern region. However, the team discovered that the April floods had yet to arrive, making the area's rivers impossible to run. Undeterred, the team set their sights on their primary objective, the Zagros Mountains. The Zagros Mountains stretch across western Iran, showcasing stunning natural beauty and challenging Whitewater. The adventure commenced with a 70-kilometer journey along the Karun River. On the final day, they experienced the most exhilarating section of the river after heavy rainfall, encountering a formidable flood. Additionally, they successfully tackled the 50-kilometer Harsan River in a record-breaking time of…

Tidal Power T hey say two types of people get into trouble sea kayaking. The first type is the complete beginners. The second, Whitewater kayakers who think they know their shit. It was 5 am, and the first light was beginning to brighten the sky at St. Justinian's car park, the launching point for the Bitches, where five experienced Whitewater kayakers were doing their pre-paddle routine. After looking out to sea for a short while, Josh told us he was off back to bed, as it was too foggy to paddle out. The rest of us naively carried on, assuming the heat of the sun would burn off the clouds obscuring Ramsey Island and the tidal race running alongside it. We put on, waiting for the sunshine to burn the…

DANE'S WORLD Some of you might remember the 2022 Little White Race, when, just below Boulder Sluice, my paddle caught on a log and stayed there, resulting in a handrail or two and a minor delay as I waited in an eddy for my paddle to float downstream. It wasn't ideal if I wanted to win, but for me, it wasn't a moment to panic. A massive factor in my confidence to run the Whitewater I do comes from my dad and other paddlers making sure I focused on the small details as much as the big things growing up. My dad constantly made me do things like surf features with or without a paddle, seal launch instead of putting in at water level, and catch hard eddies. He made…

FRINEND OF THE FEARLESS When a fellow gringo at Gina's yelled across the restaurant, “Hey Stookesberry, is this like your go-to destination now?" I didn't know what to say. I'm embarrassed that it took me 18 years of international kayaking to realize this exceptional place existed and then hop on the bandwagon many gringos have known about for decades. When I turned to reply, Gina came out of nowhere with a big hug. Better late than never. On my first day in the country two and half years ago, we paddled on the river closest to Gina's front door. Abe Herrera loaded us into Danny's taxi and said,“Casa del Queso por favor!“ the way a magician might say, “Abracadabra!" Instead of winking and whisking us away like I expected, Danny…

Addressing our most pressing societal-wide challenges, like water security, rising rates of natural disasters, and climate change, requires a visionary approach. We don't need to invent new technology: the answers are already in front of us. Nature-based solutions offer a framework for harnessing the power of natural features and processes to promote adaptation and resilience in our humanshaped environment. A return to working with the world around us can improve efficiency, combat climate change, reduce flood risk, improve water quality, protect coastal property, restore and protect wetlands, stabilize shorelines, reduce urban heat, and add recreational space. Just like protecting and restoring coral reefs and mangrove forests, preserving grasslands, and sustainably managing forests, restoring instream flows to rivers impacted by hydropower operations, dams and diversions, and upstream pollution is an effective…