Valldal Summer Games

Valldal is a small town located on the Norwegian national tourist route between Geirangerfjord a UNESCO world heritage site and Trollstigen. Apart from it's famed strawberry cake the main reason we visited Valldal was to take part in the annual Valldal Summer Games.

Katya improving her time down the race course (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Me stoked to be back in a fast boat (photo by Melissa Parminter)

The Valldal Summer Games includes a mountain bike race, a kayak race, and a hillbilly farmer hard man competition. The kayak race is normally down the Myklebust (or 'micky mouse') rapids but due to high water levels the race was moved to the middle section of the Valldala river.

The substitute racecourse (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Results from the men's competition:

1st Sam Sutton

2nd Dag Sandvik

3rd Mikel Sarasola

Results from the women's competition:

1st Toni George

2nd Louise Jull

3rd Maria Berdal

All set up for the hillbilly competition (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Hillbilly grandstand (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Following the kayak racing there was the farmer competition. The race went as follows: first you have to put on a coverall and hat over your clothes, next you wheel a wheelbarrow filled with sandbags a certain distance, then with a stake you had to dig a hole then use a mallet to hammer a post into it, then you had to flip a tractor tire a certain amount of time, then drink a glass of milk, then take the wheel barrow back to the start.

Yes I'm from Auckland, no I have no idea how to hammer in a post, but I'll give it a go, participation is key (photo by Melissa Parminter)

good times watching a games (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Lulu giving it a go (photo by Melissa Parminter)

After getting the competition explained to us I decided it sounded like a good laugh and signed up to give it a go. Unfortunately for Lulu she didn't know I'd already signed up and she agreed to participate if I did it. Muahaha. The hardest part of the competition was drinking the milk, as I'm allergic to milk I got to drink beer, bonus! Lulu wasn't so lucky but gave it her best shot and chugged it down like a trooper only to bring it back up seconds later. 10 points for effort and 20 points for comic value, its all about getting amongst it.

What a machine (photo by Melissa Parminter)

I think some of these guys train all year for this event (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Chugging it back (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Willz would have had it if he could only figure out how to get his pants on (photo by Melissa Parminter)

A local raft guide, go figure (photo by Melissa Parminter)

The podium (photo by Melissa Parminter)

The women's farmer champion (photo by Melissa Parminter)

The men's farmer champion (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Bonfire and beers at midnight (photo by Melissa Parminter)

Next stop... Sjoa River Festival!!!!!

Ekstremsportveko!!!

So our first day in Norway kicked off with waking up in a farmers field we had crashed in the night before after arriving in Voss around 3am. We immediately set off to buy Statoil mugs with skjolade (best idea ever, buy a mug for 199nok then free refills for the rest of the season). Delicious beverages in hand we then headed to Benji's house to see if he wanted to go paddling. Benji is definitely one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life (and I've met a lot of good people) he sorted us out with kayaks and paddles and took us straight to the Teigdal, a really good run about 45 mins out of Voss.

Everyone getting ready for the raft race (photo by Greg)

We had a bit of an adventure on the Teigdal with rising river levels and Lulu having a bit of a gnarly swim within the first few minutes of putting on the run. All was good though and after the run we got to watch the american boys doing some laps on double drop with Anniol even pulling a spectacular back freewheel off the second drop!

After that I managed to convince Nouria and Lulu that they wanted to be in a rafting team and with Emily Bakker as our captain we managed to win the Raft Slalom (we beat all of the boys teams too), take 2nd place in the Sprint, and then win the head to head to take out an overall win and beat the defending champions on their own river! They did dispute our win because one of the Voss girls fell out during the head to head race but as you can see from the photo below she fell out completely of her own accord and we didn't have anything to do with it.

Awesome carnage! (photo by Greg)

Everyones friends in the end (photo by Greg)

Me product testing the Pyranha M3 on a big slide (photo by Peter Vander Meij)

Raft Slalom (photo by Peter Vander Meij)

Some German carnage (photo by Peter)

making it through the gate (photo by Peter)

Us beating the locals yeyah (photo by Peter)

Riverboarding race (photo by Peter)

There was also a sledging (riverboarding) race which was pretty fun. You had to do a 15 meter sprint on dry land in your flippers at the start then grab your sledge and race to the end. I got pretty owned and was in almost last place after the sprint (I'm gumby enough at walking normally let alone running in flippers) but managed to overtake enough people to place first in the ladies and 4th overall.

Party tent!

Willz styling double drop

cute little tame bird (photo by Nouria Newman)

Me on the Teigdal (photo by Nouria)

Sledge X (photo by Nouria)

Dag on the Brandseth Downhill (photo by Nouria)

The next race we did was the Brandseth Downhill, I almost missed the start because I was being useless and couldn't find the kayak and paddle I was supposed to be using but luckily for me Jakub lent me his boat and paddle and I got to the start line just before they said go. It was cool to try out another new kayak the Zet Raptor which is a good boat but not as fast as the Bliss-Stick Tuna which I did my second race in and beat my previous time by over 2 seconds.

Chilling out at the lake (photo by Nouria)

Then it rained and our tents flooded but what would Voss Veko be without a good tent flooding. It brought the river levels up nice and high for a very exciting boater X organised by Mark and Michelle shot guys!!! What followed was an awesome night in the party tent, then Mark was kind enough to let me Pete and Willz sleep on his couches so we didn't have to sleep in a puddle and the next day we woke up to the best Canada Day breakfast ever cooked for us by Mark and Emily, life is awesome! Can't wait for Ekstremsportveko 2013!!!

Last week in the USA

Our last week in the United States of America we had run out of water to paddle on so we decided to try out a few other activities. We went skydiving and it was SICK!!!! We spent a day wrecking havoc at a water park. We visited some granite waterfalls that you can slide down. We went to Reno River Festival. We broke some laws in Yosemite national park and we destroyed a large amount of paddling gear. Heres some photos.

Reno river festival me an Jordie won the SUP X races even though neither of us had been on a SUP on a river before!!!

Kiwi places for Reno River Festival: Lulu 1st SUP Slalom, Josh 3rd SUP slalom, Jordie 1st in SUP X, me 2nd Boater X, 1st SUP X

Jordie and Christy checking out the view

Team shot on top of half dome

When we arrived at Yosemite National Park and enquired about permits to climb half dome we were told we definitely weren't allowed to camp anywhere in the park and we definitely wouldn't be able to summit half dome as permits have to be pre booked in March. We decided to take this as a challenge and hatched a cunning plan to camp out on a rock (safe from mountain lions) then get up at 3.30am and attempt to beat the ranger up half dome thus mitigating the need for permits.

Christy stoked to be going downhill

Jordie taking a break

We successfully beat the ranger up the hill and had a mean time on top of the dome admiring the view. Unfortunately while we were up there the ranger appeared and started checking people's permits. Jordie had managed to sweet talk a bunch of girls we met up there to give us one of their permits so we sent Lulu down first to scout out the situation while we hid behind a tree. The plan was that she would walk down past the ranger and if he checked her permit she would signal us no go and we would sneak around the ranger. When she reached the ranger she signaled not good so we decided to sneak around the ranger one by one. Its pretty hard to be sneaky when you're alternating between climbing down granite cliff and smashing your way through manzanita but the ranger either didn't see us or gave us points for effort and didn't chase us.

Mean waterfall half way to half dome 

Team shot with half dome in the background

Carapicho on the awesome slides

Team kiwi and friends

Ouch

Then on the way to the airport the roofracks fell off the car in the middle of the motorway resulting in two completely destroyed boats and a number of smashed paddles. Not sure how we are going to race in Norway with no boats and no paddles but fingers crossed for everything working out. It usually does. Main thing: no one got hurt!!!!

the prognosis for these paddles... Not good

Lulu checking out the damage

Bald Rock Canyon

Bald Rock Canyon is the lower section of the Middle Fork of the Feather River. The section begins just after the confluence with the South Branch at Milsap Bar and ends in Lake Oroville. It is "one of the most spectacular canyons in California" according to the Californian guidebook and with Cherry Creek's flow rapidly dropping out we decided to flag that option and get on a new run instead.

After picking Jordie up from the airport we pretty much dragged him straight to the river. Our crew consisted of Nick and Jordie (rafting) and Chris, Ryan Mac, Christy, Katie, and myself (kayaking). Only Katie had run the river before and that was 6 years ago so we didn't have much beta, we knew that the run had been rafted once before but wasn't recommended, so the scene was set for a great adventure.

 Shot WWC for providing the raft

The first day has plenty of sweet stress free rapids, similar to the Devils Canyon section which we had run a few weeks earlier. There was one small portage and one slightly longer portage where all the water goes under a mansion sized boulder then sieves out between various smaller rocks.

Portage no1 - unfortunately all the water pushes straight into an undercut on the right

Portage no2, apparently you're supposed to lower your boats down river right then ferry across and continue portaging but we found a more enjoyable option

Interesting

Our campground (photo by Ryan Mac)

We camped halfway though the portage which left us heaps of time to go swimming, jump off rocks, try to climb up waterfalls, and make an awesome fire. 

Chris with a balanced diet

No Jordie, that log is too big for the fire

Crazy sieve on river right here

Day 2 the gradient increases and so do the sieves. We had one hairy moment when Christy got pushed into a sieve and just managed to jump out of his boat and scramble up the bank before his entire boat went straight under a pile of rocks and luckily popped out the other side. Unfortunately his paddle disappeared never to be seen again.

Ryan Mac hanging out in the middle of the river

Katie looking styly

What are these boys up to?

The only other bit of carnage involved the raft. The boys had been styling every single rapid but when they got to the waterfall they decided to portage it. Instead of lowering it down the side of the waterfall they opted to throw it over the edge then jump in and ride it down the wall... Apparently the idea was that the raft would slide down the granite then skim out into the pool. What actually happened was the nose of the raft stuck to the granite, the raft then folded, unfolded, catapulted Jordie onto the granite and Nick straight onto Jordie (at least Nick got a softer landing) then the raft flipped on top of them and started getting sucked back into the waterfall. Jordie still came up saying "that was AWESOME", so much for portaging being the easier option.

Oh boy

me taking the more conventional line (photo by Ryan Mac)

Chris with a styley boof 

Christy huddling under the poison oak for shade

Bald Rock Canyon is an awesome run, I think the only thing that might deter people from paddling it is the 13 mile flat paddle out over lake Oroville. A much better option is to get in touch with Gerard. He dropped us off at the put in, drove our cars to the boat ramp, and picked us up at the end of the river on his party barge with cold beers and margaritas. What a great way to end a sick run!

Party barge (photo by Ryan Mac)

Gear transportation (photo by Ryan Mac)

Christy appeasing the river gods, good man.