Valsesia 2015

Here is my video from my recent trip to Valsesia in Italy. Its mainly shot on the Middle Sermenza and the Egua that were probably the 2 hardest runs I did out there. We spent 9 days there in total staying on a campsite packed with Kayakers in Campertogno. They also did amazing Pizza's! I would highly recommend this destination to anyone that loves steep technical creeking full of bedrock slides.

Hope you enjoy!

Jake

Chilaaay

All winter I had been looking forward to the end of December but not because of Christmas but because Jacob and I were to be heading out to Chile on the 28th. Some of the Australians, Jarred Pickers and Dan that we had met in Uganda had invited us to come along and get some airtime in kayaks, of course we were up for this. We decided 2 months would be a good time to be out there exploring.

Our first flight was to Madrid, and then on to Santiago. We got a very nice overnight bus to Pucon which is the center of kayaking in Chile and was to be our base. We were staying at the Pucon Kayak Hostel were we would meet our friends. It was New years eve when we got there so we went to watch the fireworks over the lake at Pucon and then went looking for a party but it turns out nothing happens until about 2 or 3 in morning, even on New Years!
The next day we got out on the water and went to run the Trancura, a river that runs right past the hostel. We ran the Lower in the morning that was a nice bouncy grade 3, a perfect warm up. Then in the afternoon went to run the Upper that is a nice grade 4. It was a great read and run section strait to our beds! We decided not to run the grade 5 portage rapid just then though.

The next day we decided it was waterfall time. So we headed up to the Upper Palguin, an iconic river to kayakers. It consists of 3 perfect falls. The first being a sweet double drop, the second a 10 foot late Boof and finally the third is the cleanest 20 foot imaginable. These are all packed into a tiny stretch of river so you can walk back up and lap it.

 We got lucky and got invited on a trip to the Rio Fuy. We ran the Upper Fuy that was one of my favorite creek sections in Chile. We go to a 30 foot waterfall called Salto de Leona. This was my biggest waterfall I had done up till then. It was followed by a sweet section of slides and drops. Some of the boys wanted to do the Middle Fuy, this sounded a bit too committing for us just yet. It consisted of a must run 50 foot fall followed by a grade 5 gorge. We decided we would walk in to just below the gorge as we had some directions. So we started walking and walked and walked.....and walked. We ended up at the 50 foot fall we knew this was way too far upstream. By this time it was getting too late to put on a river, so we gave up and walked back. We had just hiked for 3 hours with boats in the sweltering heat. When we got back to camp we found out we were supposed to go downstream when we got to the canyon rim, not upstream, bloody directions!
The water level was low around Pucon and we had exhausted the runs nearby. Dan arrived and we decided we needed to rent a pick up and go on some road trips! Once we had our shiny Chevrolet we headed North to the Rio Claro. We knew this probably wouldn't have any water in it but we wanted to at least see this iconic river and see the region. We were right about the level, no water. We went swimming and cliff jumping and the day after decided to go for a paddle. We put on to what we though were the 7 tea cups that would have just about been runnable. We got about a kilometer into the run when we hit a steep boxed in section that was too low to run and we didn't know what was round the corner. After some discussion we decided it best to try and climb out one section that didn't look completely vertical. Jacob and Pickers were the best climbers so the climbed up the first 15 meters free climbing until they could find an anchor point. They then belayed the others up the 30 meter cliff. We got the boats and paddles up and finally me. This took us about 3 and half hours to climb out. This was definitely not the teacups section. Ahh well it's the epics you remember.
We decided to start heading back South but on the way down hit up a river called the Laja. The first day we got there we couldn't find the put in so stayed in some blokes Chalet. The next day we found it and boy were we glad! This river was dam released and was damn fast. The guidebook said continuous with no eddies. It was right, this is what you call combat paddling, it was one of my favorite runs in Chile, we did the 3 km in 12 minuets on our second run.
Back south and back to Pucon to show Dan some of the runs. We also did a new river for us called the Maichin that was a bit low but great fun grade 4 boating!
It was time to head further South to find some treasures. The first run we got to was the Rio Gol Gol a grade 5 waterfall run. This river is such a gem with 7 sweet falls. A volcano erupted here a few years ago so the river is a grey colour with lots of floating rocks. We ran this river about 5 times in total throughout our trip because we couldn't get enough.
After the excitement of the the Gol Gol it was time to head to Patagonia to paddle the Futaleufu. We paddled a pretty river on the way down called the Petrohue that was a wide grade 4 river with lots of different channels.
It was time to take the 3 ferries and lots of driving to get to the Futa we had almost made it when we got a flat tire but we soon sorted that and found some accommodation
for the night. The next morning we nervously put onto the bridge to bridge section. We were immediately treated with huge waves and holes to crash through and this continues in pool drop style for 8km! It was so good we went strait back up to do it again. The next run we did we found a guy who was staying in the area for a couple of months and said he would show us the terminator section and 2 of the biggest rapids on the river just below bridge to bridge. It was called Mas Y Menos and the waves were the size of houses!
 Unfortunately we didn't have long to spend at the Futa as the Aussies needed to catch a flight to Peru. So we headed back up north to Pucon running the Gol Gol on the way up again.
Jacob and I were dead keen to go and look at Middle Palguin (A clean 70 foot waterfall). It had been raining so the levels were up and it looked perfect. The only problem being I was the only one wanting to run it. The Aussie boys wanted to get drunk in the hot springs for their last day in Chile which is fair enough in my opinion so I joined them and thought I would be able to get there the next day, I couldn't so it had to be the day after. By this time the level had dropped back to it's usual low level. There was 3 of us wanting to run it and we thought it might be our last chance so we took it. Jacob went first getting a good entry into the water unfortunately failing his hand roll with an imploded deck and with a bit of a bloody nose but he was still stoked!
 It was my turn. For this waterfall you can either run a sketchy rapid into the pool above it or do a 15 foot seal launch into the pool. We all chose the seal launch. I had a good entry in with the seal launch and tried to forget all my fears as I knew there was no going back now. I tried to paddle over the lip but there was a weird boil at the top that pushed me back so I had to turn around and try again. I went further left this time and it worked I took my last stroke and breath and the falling started, I chucked my paddle away as you don't wan to land a fall that high with a paddle in your hands because you are much more likely to get injured with one. I then tucked up and felt the hit as I plunged in the pool at the bottom. My deck imploded so I was swamped, I still tried the hand roll but that failed, luckily one of our UK friends helped me up with a T rescue. I had done it, I chucked my hands up in the air with triumph. I then emptied my boat and paddled over to the other side. This is when something weird happened, I started to forget things. I couldn't remember how we got there or where we were staying, I couldn't even remember running the fall. It turns out I must have hit my head pretty hard against the cock pit of my boat and had minor concussion. I could remember everything after 15 minuets.
Finally it was Pete's turn to take the hit and boy did he take it. He had a roll in the top pool after the seal launch but prepared for the drop, it looked like he had a good line but he didn't chuck his paddle. He came up swimming strait away but something was obviously wrong as he looked very shocked and dazed. He lifted up his arm and that's when we saw his wrist limply hanging from it. He had broken his wrist on impact. We soon got him over to the other side, out of the canyon and off to hospital but that was the end of his trip which was a great shame.
All the Aussies had left but Jacob and I still had a month left. We met another guy called Pete Wood also from England and decided to go on another road trip down south. This road trip was very different to the last as we wild camped and cooked all our own food this was perfect and Jacob and I were running out of money.
On the way south we hit up the Fuy again but this time doing some other amazing sections such as the Whitney Houston section as we were paddling with a French safety kayaker called Charlie that knew all the lines. This time we decided to go through Argentina to get to the Futaleufu as Pete wanted to paddle the Manzo. While wild camping one night by the Manzo we woke up to a lot of our kit stolen out of the back of our truck, this was a right bummer! We had to go to the Futa to find new kit so no Manzo for us. This on the Futaleufu though we met some Germans and they showed us down the Inferno canyon section that was just incredible with steep sided gorge walls and huge whitewater! We did Todo Futa that day which is 45km of whitewater in 5 hours. Pete only had 3 weeks in Chile we had to get back to Pucon to catch his flight.
We still had a  couple of weeks but with no money so Jacob and I decided to buy a load of food an d wild camp next to the Upper Palguin as this was the only run you could lap on foot. It was nice but got very boring after the first 3 days so we only stayed a week there then went back to the hostel to spend the rest of our money but not before doing a moon lit night lap at 4am on the upper palguin!
One more run on the upper Trancura this time doing the grade 5 portage rapid Meriman, that was intense! So finishing on a high it was time to head back to the UK for tea and medals.
What an awesome trip it was, thank you to all who was involved and I'm sure I will be back soon!

Uganda to Chile

So after my trip to Uganda I decided that I would get more into Creek boating and river running. I brought a Zet Veloc (awesome boat). I was working for PGL in the Ardeche over the summer and thought I might be able to get a bit of boating in over there. I tried to get to the Alps once but we crashed the car on the way up there, so that plan failed! Luckily I managed to do some flat water playboating on the Ceze river right next to the center. I also brushed up on my open boat skills leading school groups down the Ardeche gorge. Plus the party lifestyle is great there! At the end of the season my canoe club  joined me so we went to the Allier to do a bit of grade 3/4 paddling in the sun that was enjoyable. I enjoyed PGL so much I have decided to go again for a full season next summer.
It was here in France that I first decided I would like to join in on a trip to Chile in the new year.
When I returned from France I decided I would need a bit of practice at some steeper rivers so headed off to North Wales for 10 days to see some college friends that are now in Bangor Uni living an outdoorsy lifestyle.

Unfortunately the rivers were pretty low the entire time we were there but we had some fun running some waterfalls and slides that can be run in low water. Of course there is always the might river Tryweryn that is dam released. While I was there we ran Pont Cyfyng falls and Swallow falls that were both great fun introduction to waterfalls and slides!
After this trip I took up a job as a groundwork laborer to earn some dollar for my next trip.
On the weekends I traveled to Dartmoor to run the Upper Dart  and other rivers.
Me and Jacob decided we needed a bit more waterfall practice before we headed to Chile so we went to hit up the Mellte in South Wales. This is another great introduction to waterfall running with some other great pool drop rapids.
I have also been trying to do a bit of play boating to keep a balance and brought the new Wavesport Mobius, I love this boat! I tried it at the Hurley classic and decided strait away it was the one to buy. It was a great event. I didn't do so well in the freestyle as I was pretty rusty. I did however get trough to the finals of the Boater X and came 4th out of about 40 or 50 paddlers, which I was very pleased about as there were some world class paddlers there.
I had a great Christmas and now it's time for me to head off to Pucon, Chile! I will be there for 2 months traveling around to all the great rivers including the Futaleufu. I should be able to post updates on here and on Facebook so keep an eye out!
Thanks for reading!

Tryweryn Edit

Haris Hardern or Hardern Media agreed to make an little video of me competing at the Tryweryn for the Younguns freestyle event. I came 2nd in this competition but unfortunately I won't be able to attend the rest as I am working for PGL canoeing on the Ardeche in the South of France!

https://vimeo.com/66247363

Conquering The Nile at 17

Uganda is somewhere I wanted to go as soon as I got into playboating but thought I would never have to skills to do so. I would watch videos and see pictures of these professional kayakers styling it and thinking "if only I was good enough to paddle that sort of water".
It just goes to show if you want something enough and keep at it you will get there.
In summer 2012 me and my friend Jacob would talk about future trips on our to do list. Uganda came into the question, we did a bit of research on how easy it would be to organise a trip there in the winter. It all looked pretty simple considering this is Africa, but that's often the view of an optimistic 17 year old.

It was a possible maybe for a few months then surprisingly became a definite when we bought our flight tickets! Jacob decided he wanted to go for 2 months as it was his gap year, I was still at college so I couldn't go for that long but I decided a month of paddling should be enough!  I had a message before the trip from Edd asking if he could join us. Three is a nice group size.We booked a 3 day guided course with Kayak the Nile as we didn't want to get out there not knowing anything about the area or the river.

Anyway, when the time came for us to leave home, it all felt very surreal not to come back for a month.
We met Edd at the airport; all of us very excited.
We had a flight to Brussels then to Entebbe. We arrived in Uganda about 1am but were still surprised when stepping out the plane to the hot earthy African air.
Jacob had booked us into a hotel that night, the taxi picked us up, shoving the kayaks on the roof (not tied on!). The hotel was a site of paradise, and it was one of the cheap ones!

Kayak the Nile picked us up in the morning, this time tying the kayaks down. It was a 3 hour journey to Nile River Explorers (NRE) This is where we had our first taste of the culture of Africa. It was mad! Everywhere was so busy coming through Kampala, it was full of people trying to make a living with whatever they could. The roads are just crazy there! This lasted for about 2 hours then we reached the countryside which was full of farmed fields, lush green vegetation and banana plants with mud huts tucked away in the greenery.

When we finally reached NRE Sam showed us around the place. We were due to be spending 3 days there while we were on the course. NRE is a beautiful camp overlooking the part of the Nile that used to be white water until the Dam that was put in that made it into a lake. Sad times.

 Our first day of white water was upon us, we met our guide David (one of the locals) and drove downstream to below the dam to set off on day 1. I was very surprised when one of the local children started walking off with my kayak, they walk them about 500metres to the river for you and David paid them a bit at the end. They are mighty strong for 6-10 year olds!

We got on the warm yet refreshing water and set off down the first rapids. I have never paddled any big volume rivers so this was a shock to the system, being pushed about a lot and not being able to roll so easily. It was at this point when I was worried I might not be good enough for the river and wondered if I had made a mistake coming here so young.
We paddled our first proper rapid that was called Overtime. This could be on a British river as all the volume is going over the other channel known as Dead Dutchman. Jacob asked if we would paddle Dead Dutchman, David said "only if you want the rapid renamed to the Dead Englishman". There is a simple lead-in rapid going on down to a simple 12 foot waterfall. After a few more rapids you come to superhole which is a fun little hole/wave to practice cartwheels and loops. We arrived back at camp nervous what tomorrow would bring as we were told day 2 was a lot bigger.

Day 2 was bigger. We started at Super Hole then to Itanda. Itanda is one of the biggest rapids on this stretch with huge waves and nasty holes all over the place. We decided to wait a while to run this and only ran the chicken shoot starting halfway down the rapid, and even that was huge! Then came Vengeance that was a sequence of big holes and waves, this was our first proper feel of big wave trains and we loved it! Hair of the Dog rapid was next, this is one big long wave train with a meaty wave to surf if you're brave enough. Kula Shaker is the next big rapid that has lots of fun waves and holes to play on. Then comes a bit of a flatwater trek on down to Nile Special and Club waves.

It generally goes that Club wave works in the lower water in the morning and Nile Special works at higher levels in the evening. The levels change throughout the day due to the dam release. We spent a lot of time here at the waves with the Hairy Lemon Island just 5 minutes downstream.

We reached the Hairy Lemon Island and campsite at the end of day 2 where we would be staying for the rest of the month. This island is literally paradise, there are monkeys jumping above your head in the palm trees, pools to swim or play volley ball and chill-out shacks to relax in.

We knew that the US Jackson Team would be staying on the island with us so we were pretty stoked when EJ and Dane Jackson came up and introduced themselves to us. I had only ever seen these guys in kayaking videos on the Internet so it was very surreal to be paddling with them. There were also a lot of other talented and professional paddlers there such as Nick Troutman, Bren Orton, Clay and Stephen Wright and Martin Knoll.

Day 3 of our guided trip saw us get a lift up to Kalagala rapid. This rapid is parallel to Itanda and Hypoxia, as they are in different channels and are all huge rapids. We decided to wait a bit to paddle it and have some more practice first. We paddled on down to the Lemon using some different channels this time.
David decided to give us some coaching on getting on Nile Special using the rope. There is a rope clipped onto a rock upstream of the rapid with a handle at the end to hold onto. With the right technique you can drift out to the wave, which you can't paddle onto it at these levels. You would usually pay one of the local kids to pull the rope back in for a couple of hours. I got onto the wave first time but this must have been beginners luck as I only got onto the wave a few times again that evening. A few more practice session and I had it dialled.

After a fews day of full on paddling you definitely feel as if you need a break. Jinja is the nearest big town to the Island at about an hours drive away. We took a taxi that got caught speeding, of course he got away with it somehow, this being Africa. Jinja is a nice town if you visit the right places. Jacob and I found ourselves in a dodgy, run-down machinery market were a man followed me with a metal pole. When I turned round he just smiled at me and laughed. We did find the right market in the end and it's mad in there, you can easily get lost! Jacob had a great shopping list consisting of a mattress, washing bowl, phone, pillow, biscuits, tarp, ruler, needle and thread. He managed to find everything! It was then time for some Westerner food in Flavors Internet Cafe and then off to the Lemon for a sunset Special session.

A lot  of our time was spent on the waves just upstream from the Island. Once I had got used to the rope I could actually concentrate on trying to handle this wave! After a few evenings on it I was starting to get bigger bounces and bigger blunts. It's rather amazing, yet annoying, to see some of the pros do tricks you can't do, but they manage without a paddle! I had a few beatdowns on Club wave and was close to swimming a couple of times but luckily it never happened.

The Lemon suddenly got a bit noisier one night. This was down to the party goers coming to stay (the Aussies). Pretty much everyone on the island decided they wanted to run the river from Superhole down one day. We fixed up a truck as there would be 13 of us. We drove with 3 on the top of the cab, 4 in the cab, 7 in the back with 13 people's kayaks and paddles and Jacob was on top of the boats. It was about an hour's journey down some bumpy dirt tracks; not the most comfortable of rides. It was worth it in the end when we had a mass paddle down the river. Superhole was a bit crowded with 13 paddlers on it so we headed down to Kalagala with full intention of running it today. We spent a bit of time scouting it then 11 of us decided to fire it up! This was by far the biggest rapid I had ever paddled and I was pretty nervous but well up for giving it a go. As long as you make a crucial ferry glide to river right and have a bomb proof roll at the bottom you're all good. It's a great feeling when you do roll up and look back at what you have just run. It's just about dropping in and tucking up, it was a surprisingly soft landing. Everyone was good that day and lots of fun was had! We all paddled down the rest of the river playing on any waves possible.
It was great paddling with such a mixture of nationalities. We had 5 Aussies, 3 English, 2 Americans, 2 Norwegians and 1 South African in the group.
I was getting used to the big wave trains by this point and they are so much fun!

Unfortunately Edd didn't make it to this paddle, he was feeling ill so we decided to get to the medical centre in the morning. We went to town while Edd was getting checked out and by the time we went to see if all was finished we were told he'd gone on a boda boda (motorbike taxi) to have a warm bath (he had been craving one). We found him again eventually, although he was unimpressed as the bath wasn't that warm. Luckily he didn't have anything seriously wrong with him so we headed back to the Lemon. Unfortunately he went home a couple of days after as he just wasn't feeling it.

We had heard all of this talk about Itanda so decided to go and see what all of the fuss was about. The Aussies had the same idea so we had a team to run the rapid! We scouted for a long time looking and memorising the line down this monster. In the end me and Jacob said we would go first, we did rock, paper, scissors to see who would have to go first. I lost so went first. We both trekked back to our kayaks and started ferrying across to the lead in. This was definitely the most scared I have ever been before any rapid because I knew if I got it wrong it would not be a fun swim and I would get a lot of down time. Jacob and I decided to train it one after the other about 25 meters apart. I went first, dropping in to the big lead in ramp and capsizing, but rolling up still with time and still on line. You then have to paddle like crazy river right and hit the line just behind Pencil Sharpener, a huge diagonal curling wave, without going in it! Then you have to charge hard right to miss the Cuban which is a big crashing wave/hole. I missed it and Jacob just clipped, getting flipped but was far enough right to wash out of it. The next challenge is to cut behind a nasty hole called Ash Tray and this time charge left to miss another monster of a hole called the Bad Place. Both me and Jacob missed these holes and came out of the rapid alive and still in our boats. It was the best feeling, looking back at what I had just completed successfully, as I always thought this would be way out of my league.
We got out and celebrated with the others. It was now Tom and O's turn. They also both had successful lines even if Tom did overtake O mid rapid. The others portaged with the idea of maybe doing it another day.

Something very special about Uganda is the abundance of wildlife there. We were continuously seeing bugs and birds but had no idea what any of them were. There were also little green snakes that you would see in the roofs of the huts trying to catch the geckos. One time when Jacob was happily chilling out reading in the Bern Cave hut, I heard a thud and then saw Jacob jump a mile. A snake had fallen from the roof right beside him and was poised ready to attack. We were told these snakes are not poisonous but will bite. On the first night of staying on the Lemon I looked out at the outer of my tent and to my surprise saw a big praying mantis just chilling out in my tent, it was still there in the morning. The monkeys jumping around above your head all day, luckily, are good monkeys and don't cause any trouble whatsoever.

As you can imagine, transport over there is pretty hectic. One of the cheapest ways to get around is by boda boda and we used these quite a bit to get up the river and to and from town. We would strap two kayaks onto one boda boda and then both sit on another. They were also by far the most fun form of transport, especially if you're with a big group as they love the race. It's definitely more dangerous than the river! Another cheap way is to use a matatu, this is a Kind of mini bus where they cram as many people inside as possible. And there is the truck to hire out but that's definitely not the most comfortable of rides and takes a long time! We had a lot of arguments about money with drivers but that's all part of the fun, always trying to get the price down as they are charging you 'white peoples' rates.

As soon as the Aussies arrived the parties began, there were a few of them! I didn't really drink at all before I went out here but the Aussies soon had me doing Bujagali Sunsets. This consisted of lighting the Zappa on your hand, tipping the fire into the double shot metal cup, sticking it to your nipple, then you do a little dance followed by drinking the shot then put the cup down on a straw on the table and suck up the fumes.  There was a lot of talk and planning for the legendary 'booze cruise'. This was a sunset boat Cruise for $45 buying you the Cruise, food and all the booze you could drink. It was to be fancy dress so we all headed into Jinja market to find some ridiculous clothes. It was looking like the boat would be full of professional kayakers with all the Jackson team there and Anton Immler would be joining us. The Aussies turned up on bodas in their slutty costumes. The party got messy pretty quickly with jumping, dancing and nakedness, not naming any names. They said this was the biggest and noisiest booze cruise they'd had in the 8 years it had been running. Nothing to do with me. After the cruise a few of us decided to head over to a local bar across the road from NRE. It was an experience to say the least, with funny things being smoked and chewed. A few people were in too much of a state to venture out. Dane was out of it by about 8:00pm and had to go to bed.

We did quite a few more river trips while we were there, I did Itanda 3 times in total, all successful! I witnessed a couple of people going straight into the guts of Cuban on the biggest day. One of them managed to roll up in the foam pile and surf it out and the other just got pushed out the back and rolled up just missing Ashtray. I ran Kalagala a total of 5 times I think, again all successful. The big waves just became more and more playful as I got more confident with them.

I would definitely recommend it to any white water kayaker with grade 4 experience and a reliable white water roll. We went at the right time of year as there were so many other paddlers on the island to paddle and party with. It's great for a little winter's retreat to get away from the frozen finger paddling in the UK.
I will definitely be back to Uganda, but not sure when, as I want to focus on some creek boating for a little while.
Thanks a lot for reading!

Jake 

Here a video of my time spent there. Editing by Dan Eags!

snow day

So here is day out on the hills. Video made by Harris Hardern

Venom

 A big thanks to Venom for giving me a sponshership! The new blades look sweet, fully carbon blade and handmade carbon shaft. They only cost £175 new because Peter makes them in the shop. Absolute bargin! Cant wait to test them out on the river.