What I have found in kayaking is an element in which I can play to such an extent that the fuzz of the world around me goes quiet. What you find in kayaking I do not know. Nevertheless there is something we kayakers share: A profound sense of belonging in the current of a flowing river. The reasons why this is so, are individual, private and intricate. They can not be put in a category and labelled. Except from one. FLOW. I think it was Evan Garcia that once posted this in his blog, in regard to Bomb-Flow. For Love Of Water. Simple. As. That.

I once in a while hear the following: “Technique can be learned, guts can not”. I call bullshit. This supposed truth blocks a major part of women from becoming their best. And a significant amount of guys. On the river, just like most other times in life, you need to be able to break it all down. Sometimes we need to analyze what went wrong. Then you need to get back on that horse. It sounds simple. It isn´t. But it is doable. If your mistake is due to lack of skills, then step back. Was it just a mistake, well then do not beat yourself up over it. Shake it off, and maybe even walk back up and try again. But never ever ever believe that you will not get better, because you “have no guts”!

Courage is not something we are born with. It is something we achieve. And damn, it is hard work! To build courage you need to put yourself into situations where it is in play. Start with small drops, rapids, slightly more technical rapids and waterfalls. If you find yourself stuck in your comfort zone then it does take an effort to pull yourself out of there. The first step is to find a goal just outside of it, yet not too far away. It doesnt have to be a 10 meter waterfall. It can be simply chosing a different line down a rapid you have run 100 times. But most imporantly: YOU have to actively change your path.

Yes, ladies, the men are born with more testosterone. But we are born with more brains (fact) and finesse (fact). I am not saying it is easy to build courage. But to blow off your potential with ” I have no guts, so I will never get better anyways” is just not good enough. It all starts with small steps. They are the most important ones. In addition, when you run something smoothly and how you wanted to run it, step back and analyse. Why did you manage to pull it off? Recognise how well you have done, and be proud of yourself.

Eventually you will find that by building courage in one discipline, it can transfer into other disciplines. I just tried my first backflip on skis. Not because I am crazy. I am not even a good skier. But it was a resonable step outside of my comfort zone that I was ready to take. More important though than having it transfer to skiing, is that building courage on the water can transfer into your life off the water. The potential gain is immense: Improved self-esteem, an alerted ability to cease chances when they arise, standing up in difficult situations and not at least: To fulfill your potentials.

In my opinion, we do not need to paddle like the guys. We need to paddle like girls. Embedded in this statement is a profound belief that we can do exactly the same as the guys, but we need to figure out our own ways to do so. In other words, we can not just follow in the footsteps (paddlestrokes) of men.

No more excuses, ladies. Time to get to work.

First backflip ever tried.

barbecuing it up

Rental car "reddick" totally loaded ready to rally

Sweet drop on upper Llancaue

Making podium in a big race on Lower Trancura

Working on the roofreck

Stomping 20ftr on upper Palguin

Sending a boof off Princessa falls on Golgol during whitewater Grandprix

Chlllin by the Lake

Pictures courtesy of Nicole Mansfield Thanks!

In August the Gull River in Minden Ontario was host to the Canadian National Freestyle Team Selections for the 2013 World Championships.
For me this particular event was one of many focuses for my 2012 season, as it would provide a huge goal for me to attain. Let me explain why.
I have been a member of the Canadian National Team since 1998 and during this time have claimed the title of 5-Time National Champion. I have placed in the top 10 athletes in every World Championships I have competed in and I am not done yet.
In 2008 I made a big move to spend my time in the country of Norway. I had a great opportunity to be involved with the Norwegian Paddle Federation and its freestyle Team to act as Head Coach. This amazing opportunity provided me with the ability to create a residence in Norway and build the freestyle kayak scene. Coaching and competing is a huge part of my kayaking career and with this work opportunity it seemed like a good idea to apply to the International Canoe Federation (ICF) to compete for the Norwegian National Team. For the 2009 and 2011 World Championships I put on the colours of the Norwegian Flag to compete at the international level. During this period I always felt a little remorse leaving the Canadian flag and constantly wondered how long my competition days would continue and if paddling for another nation was in my best interest.
In the past year I have made some big life changes and wanted to get back to my roots of kayaking and spend more time in my house on the Ottawa River. After another request to the ICF I was granted the ability to once again compete for a spot on the Canadian National Team.
My main focus for the summer was to paddle everyday, paddle hard, and paddle with motivated people. I surrounded myself with youth (next generation teenagers) who helped me realize my immature side and the great happiness kayaking brings me. As the event drew closer I felt that I was paddling to the level I wanted to be at and registered myself in the event.
The event was great. Former Team members from my early days, World Champions (Ruth Gordon), parents, juniors and the next generation, all turned up to support the event and the Canadian paddle competition scene.
The feature was difficult and sometimes frustrating yet provided some amazing rides as well as some freestyle struggles.
For me personally….it couldn’t have gone better. I managed to improve throughout the competition and finished 3rd to once again claim a spot on the Canadian National Freestyle Team.
This achievement brings me full circle back to my roots of kayaking and competing for the greatest country in the world. CANADA.

Check out a few images from my rides.
Thanks to Robin Butler for the photos.

Tyler Curtis
www.riverplay.ca
Riverplay Army.

As the weather starts to feel like fall I have found myself looking back at the spring and the new locations I was able to paddle.
After the early spring melt of Eastern Canada I headed to Sweden to explore some of the northern paddling. Sweden had experienced a huge snow pack, which provided some epic paddling.
After hearing about a ‘hidden wave’ in the north I reached out to the local paddle community to find out where it was located. To my surprise this wave was located a short 5min drive from Kittelfjall where I stay with my girlfriend.
As the rivers grew in volume I immediately loaded my playboat and headed to check it out.
As I arrived the excitement was out of control. All this time a quality Big Wave was in my back yard.
The rumours in Sweden were that the wave only ran a few days each spring while the rivers were in flood. Wow were they wrong…
This wave called ‘Gomda’ which means Hidden Wave actually runs for a few weeks. The higher the water the better and I managed to surf for 8 days before I had to leave.
I have already made plans to revisit next spring in hopes of finding a few more features to showcase what Sweden has to offer.
Here are a few images and check out this link for a n edit of the wave.

https://vimeo.com/43471914

Tyler Curtis
www.riverplay.ca

This years Hiko Devils Extreme Race was a next level event for all the international scene that showed up. Fourth stage of AWP World Series was very well organized, with electronic timing, 115 racers from 15 countries, professional entertainment program and great positive feel glowing around town of Loucovice all of last week.

Pictures from race here: http://jakubsedivy.smugmug.com/Kayaking/Devils-Extreme-Race/25190321_N6C8QN#!i=2066666654&k=r3575NF

Pricegiving: http://abu.ath.cx/JKB/devils/

Results: http://www.sportsoft.cz/cs/zavod/overview/823

Enjoy some shots from this summer, shot on different locations in this BEAUTIFUL country:

Sweet team mate Fred Norquist crossing off another one of list... Flemming's drop on the Rauma!

Me running the double drop on the lower section of Austbygdåi in Telemark! We did this river in the mid of July due to the Norwegian summer weather (RAIN). Photo: Evan Garcia

Local hero Morten Bergsland about to drop down a perfect waterfall on the Eidsåa river. Photo: Evan Garcia

Me running THE rapid on the Stordalselva! Photo: Jørgen Thoresen

Me running the swimming hole slide on Stordalselva! Photo: Jørgen Thoresen

Morten Eilertsen and myself doing some fishing while waiting for the ferry at the northwest coast. Photo: Gerd Serrasolses

Me being soooo stoked at the bottom after good lines down the triple falls in Sogndalselva! Photo: Gerd Serrasolses

My house for the last three months! Summer time in Norway includes plenty of rain, so the bed in my beloved van is the best shelter!

More updates to come!

Mathias

Firing up Ball Crusher my favorite rapid in the canyon

Stomping the F**K out of the 20 foot drop

Sweet views while chilling with Noel

New Generation one of the biggest rapids in there

Pictures courtesy of Will Stauffer-Norris – Thanks!

On Monday i am off to Europe for Devils Extreme Race then Stikine (with crossed fingers) work for a month and a half and then off to Mexico and Chile for kayaking this winter!

]]> http://teamblog-ww.sweetprotection.com/?feed=rss2&p=2120 0 http://teamblog-ww.sweetprotection.com/?p=2114 http://teamblog-ww.sweetprotection.com/?p=2114#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:15:40 +0000 evan http://teamblog-ww.sweetprotection.com/?p=2114 So Here I am at the end of another epic summer in the life and times of a gypsy kayaker! Life can be described as good, fair, hard, and inspirational. The more I live and learn, the more I appreciate every moment I have on this crazy planet. This summer has taken me from the freezing water of some early season BC creeking all the way to the Fjords of Western Norway! We have some serious media stacked up on our hard drives and are busy editing away to bring the world more free videos to enjoy and share! Right here we have the Teaser for Episode 10 “Substantial” and the link to the Episode itself! Take a peek and enjoy, (The link will take you to the real episode on Vimeo!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

FULL EPISODE 10 ON VIMEO HERE

Later in the summer we hit a West Coast creeking tour and followed the race series around. Hitting the LW race and then moving to Idaho for the North Fork Championships! Good times were had and some cool video came out of these amazing comps! This is all accented with some Montana creeking and A huge update from the Baby Bird on 2 of the seasons biggest first descents! Enjoy Episode 11 ‘Merica!!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

FULL EPISODE 11 ON VIMEO HERE

More to come from Norway very soon!!!!

Later E.G.

The summer started out perfect. Moved to the capital of norwegian whitewater, Voss, into a house situated at the take-out of one of the best runs on the famous Raundalen river. This river flows for more than 40 kms of untouched whitewater, including gems like Nosebreaker waterfall and Marine canyon. The valley is lush and green, snowcapped peaks poke the sky, and even the local playrun involves two decent horseshoe drops, making many creekboaters walk.

Eirik Øvreide`s childhood huck slide!

Mariann on Double Drop. Photo: Anton Immler.

Nouria Newman (FRA) flew in one week before the Extremesportweek in Voss, and we spent the days kayaking, kayaking and kayaking. Nouria is one of the few women I have ever paddled with whom I feel  looks at the whitewater exactly the same as I do. The first creek we ran together, just the two of us, some years back, was the Lower Rauma. We continued into the infamous canyons of the Utla, a 3-day misson through the deepest canyon this country has. It turned into an epic, but what an adventure!

Now, Nouria and myself were busying ourselves with hucking waterfalls like Moneydrop and Double Drop, with many more lined up. I was looking forward to racing the Branset Extremerace like never before, knowing that I would have to nail my lines and give it all with Nouria as the biggest competition.

The first competition of the Extremesportweek is also one of the newest additions, and most likely the most hardcore one. You get flown with a helicopter to the peak of Lønahorgi, then you ski down the mountain, change to downhill bikes and race down a difficult trail before finally finishing the race with a kayak stretch of 3-4 kilometers.

Biking. Oh yeah!

Only four girls were doing the hole race, and I was super excited to be one of them! I was doing ok on skiing, but got passed by local charger Gry Bystøl on the biketrail, just before a trickly little bridge that saw me go over the handlebars and straight onto my shoulder. Standing up, I knew I was injured, the pain was definitely telling me that much. However, I could kind of lift my arm, and I decided to continue. So I biked the rest of the trail, changed to my kayak gear and actually made it down to the finish line, crying the entire way. I could not help but to think constantly ” I am going to make it, I am going to make it”, as if I was on some superhard expedition and had to make it back to civilization to survive. Silly brain. Coming in third, Red Cross was on me right away. I guess  missing the eddy, leaving the boat to float downstream while I ran for the finish banner, crying and then collapsing as I touched it, is not normal competition behavior.. A few of my friends had realised as well that something was wrong, and ran over to help. Thanks everybody! Especially to the ambulance people giving me lots of morphine on the way to the hospital..

I guess that explains the pain.

With the gear taken off me, it was clear that my shoulder was bad. The collarbone was standing in a sick angle, and the x-rays revelaed and AC 3 shoulder seperation, category five. That means that all muscle attachments were torn, and the trapezius muscle was damaged by the bone standing up. A 5 hours surgery later, and I was on my way to recovery. Hell yeah! It has now been almost 4 weeks since surgery, and I am well away on my re-hab. No doubt, I will come back stronger.

Thanks to everybody helping me out at the time of the accident, thanks to Nouria and Louise Jull for taking care of my dogs, and thanks to all you people out there that have been injured, and made good recoveries. You are all my inspiration for getting quickly back into the game.

Enjoy the summer!

Mariann

Nouria grabbing on the play run...

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View from the office.. summerTwenty12 from Soria Moria Adventures on Vimeo.[/vimeo

Enjoy!