I'm back!
Lets think about it like a gap year, last year seamed to fly by with work, moving house and injury - all in a bit of a write of in terms of going out and having fun :o(
Oh well here's a years catch up in a few pictures...
Monday 14 February 2011
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Camera Randoms
I've really broken my indestructible camera! But just for pure comedy I've just pulled these from the memory card, They're from Norway I think?
...pot hole, a river feature you wouldn't want to find!
Second thought's maybe this is what broke the camera? Cheers Rich!
Oh yea it's chrimbo
Merry Christmas, Lets see what 2010 brings...
Ben
Sunday 20 December 2009
Pyranha's New River Boat the 2010 Burn
Pyranha took full opportunity of the recent Gene17 weekend to release the new 2010 Burn and it'd be rude of me not to take advantage to go pick up my new creeker and catch up with a lot of friends.
With the Dart flowing at good levels and more rain forecast it was an ideal time to put the boat through its paces. So Saturday arrived and I headed up to the Upper Dart with some of the Pyranha & Plas-y-Brenin guys & some Upper dart virgins.
All was well until My house mate, James, flipped, hit a rock and dislocated his shoulder! Many hours later, James in Ambulance, many miles of hiking out of the river and back in again. we could all have a bit of a laugh about it at the bar...
Saturday night saw beer, dancing, tall stories, beer, rain, beer, rain and more beer, oh & some more rain. Thick headed Sunday with massive amounts of water, it was time to head off to one of Dartmoor's other gems, the Erme.
A river littered with many drops and slides, some a little trickier than others as a certain few Team P paddlers will tell you ;o)
A great day to put the new boat through it's paces, head over to the Pyranha team blog to hear what I think of the 2010 Burn...
Adam railing it round in the Everest
Stay Safe
Ben
Thursday 17 December 2009
Autumn Swell
Time's a funny thing, it passes relentlessly, and there's no 'undo' button. I spend most of it sat at a desk in front of a computer, which is a depressing necessity. So it's always good to get out and do something I love. October bought some impressive swell, so with some precious time off I headed home, with the surf boat of course...
Checking the line up
Offshore winds held the lip up for what seamed like an eternity
A good day out of the office ;o)
see you on the water...
Monday 17 August 2009
Norway Part III - The Journey Home
The journey home, after a week of no sleep it was time to head back south toward the ferry. But hey this is Norway, and no trip to Norway would be complete with out dropping into Voss, the extreme sports capital of Europe.
The Jori was at primo levels as we were driving past and it would have been rude not to have a sunset [at last 24 hour sun had driven us all mad!] blast down this class IV gem.
The pure amount of hours spent in the car and the flurry of rivers in the past couple of days meant we were all exhausted. With varrying excuses we had all opted to take a day out and rest up at Skjak - I think mainly the excuse to have a 'proper' bed, a shower and toilets ;o)
Skjak Wave - I think kayakers have been here before?
Soul surfing
An afternoon of surfing, sun bathing and beer managed to revive the group so we pushed onward
The brilliant Blue skies, caved in under thick black clouds, offering stunning landscapes as we crossed the Fjords
Then it broke, the storm set in and the only place we could find to sleep was unshelterred & above the snow line. As if a cold wet and windy night wasnt bad enough, we grew increasingly concerned as the lightening bounced off the mountain sides around us!
Dropping down into Voss the next day we were met with grey skies and high water levels, so getting some advice from Allan Ellard & the guys at Voss Rafting we headed to the 'play run' which was described as 'going off'. If you've been to the Play Run, you know, its about as far from a play run as you could possibly get! We arrived at the get in to find a nice high level with crystal teal water. Sods law, as soon as we start untieing the boats from the roof the mother of all thunder storms roll's in! Jumping in our boats the river quickly turns from teal to brown and thick with mud, slightly concerning when you see what happened here last year. Unfortunately we ended up walking most of the big rapids as they turned from pushy to leathal. But still, a good pushy big volume day, on river 20 cummecs above the max level in the guide book!
With a day and a half left we headed out to get another 2 rivers under our belts.
John Running the 2nd drop on the Myrk. Unfortunately Andy who was up next, missed the kicker and ended up in the big recirculating hole in the right of this picture. Lucky guy, lets just say it ended our day's paddling as we had to get him to the local quacks to get him checked over...
With 1/2 a day left before heading home we wanted one last river. With the help of Andy Phillips, what a day! The Stranda and Money drop...
Myself and Tres running the entry rapid above the bridge
Check out the colour of the water!
Inspecting Money Drop, not perfect levels meant getting the line spot on to miss a rock jutting out of the cliff face and a rock sticking out of the main fall, both of which impossible to see from the top! So a quick game of Paper, Sissors, Stone meant I was up first
Nailing the Line...
Or the full Veiw...
Andy boofing the sweet, sweet, drop below Money drop - so sweet we ran it twice!
Ah well, that's it the end of another trip.
Now back enjoying another British summer, dreaming of my next Norway trip...
Ben
Friday 7 August 2009
Norway Part II - 24 Hour Sun
The mini heat wave of the first few days had taken it's toll, pushing many of the rivers around Sjoa too high to paddle - after meeting up with some locals - Tore and Life, we headed North. Far, far, uh, very far North!
As we said goodbye to vague darkness we entered the unexplored rivers of the land of 24 hour sun. What we found was a wealth of rivers rarley run, some unrun! For 6 days we paddled world class white water. Day turned to night, night into day, until we didnt know what time it was, apart from boating time! Two / three rivers in a 24 hour period, getting on @11:30 at night getting off @3:30am it didnt matter the sun was still shinning!
Andy styling the 'big one' on the Ena
Thursday 30 July 2009
Norway Part I - The Return
This trip had been a long time coming, It seam's an age since we first started talking about it. This trip for me, my first return to Norway in over 6 years, for some of the others in the group, an anual pilgramage and for two guy's, their first visit!
A frantic few days prior to the trip sorting out my brand new Burn - Thanks Pyranha and the day before we left a package arrived at my desk containing Nookie's brand new Assassin Drysuit. All geared up we were finally set...
You've got to make sure your boat's outfitting is sorted!
After packing and repacking the cars in two different cities around the UK we were set, well, almost? Half way to the ferry, Nat remembers he may need his Passport to leave the country, which he's left at home, Doh! Taking it to the wire we eventually board the ferry...
Obviously they dont know us very well, they let us on the Bridge
And let us drive [eeeks!]
And we get to check out the safety precautions!
Landing in Sweden, we made our way up through Norway on our way to the mighty Stor Ula getting a run down the Setninga, a session on the play section of the Sjoa and a high water run of the Amot en route
Arriving late we camp high up at the get in for the Stor Ula
The stunning walk in to the Stor Ula
The Team, R to L Me! G, Tres, Rich, Andy Unfortunately we are missing Nat as his recently broken leg mean he has to give this classic a miss - hopefully next time...
Take off from the cliff cushion wave
Tres, nailing the mini drop between the slides
Over shoulder view of the 2nd slide
Bosh!
Rich trying to find the pot of gold, final drop of the slides
Tres flying on the last drop of the Slides
G, moments before his celbratory hand roll
The view up of the famous Ulla Falls
check back soon for instalment 2 - 24 hour sun...
Ben
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