Coming home from Africa to the coldest days of winter was a bit of shell shock for me. Honestly, I was excepting spring to be rolling in and in full affect. I was maybe a bit too optimistic to think that it would be sunny and all the rivers would be running. Instead of all those fluffy dreams, I came home to snow and an ice storm that shut down most of the Southern states. Though the weather took a bit to get used to, I did find the silver lining, which was that the water that wasn’t frozen was still running. Myself and good friend and photographer Peter Holcomb took on the challenge to face the cold and try to hit the river. We quickly found it wasn’t as easy as we had thought it would be. The ice storm had shut down all access in and out of the Rock Island state park with downed trees and frozen limbs blocking road access. Though after being cooped up inside for several days we weren’t going to give up so easily. We drove to the other side of the river and clambered down a couple hundred feet and icy slick river embankment. Once down the steep hill and at the rivers edge we were rewarded with an epic view of giant icicles hanging from the cliffs and a frozen wonderland surrounding the waterfalls. I ended up getting six laps of the falls trying 4 different lines across the wide horizon and multiple waterfalls. Peter had it hard as he stood out on the edge of the lip with his camera gladly capture some amazing moments. On the last lap he ran down with me, trying a new line for him and getting a personal first decent. As it got dark we decided it was best to takeout and start our long hike back to the car. With the roads being iced over and blocked with downed trees we couldn’t set shuttle and were forced to hike back up the hill. Though along to road was a much easier (and safer) route then our slick hill enter, and the hike with out creek boats did warm us up. I felt very fortunate to have a friend like Peter to motivate when most would refuse. In the end it turned out to be a great evening of paddling and one I will not soon forget.
Uganda has been a top winter destination for kayakers around the world. Thought this we inter it was very obvious with the sheer number of paddlers and various different nationalities. I can think of two main factors for this, firstly being that people are looking for the best place to train for the upcoming worlds, and secondly and more importantly people are trying to flock to the banks of the White Nile to experience this amazing river being it will be turned to flat water forever with it’s current dam project.
For me seeing the influx of people was bitter sweet, I love the fact that I am able to paddle with all these amazing kayakers and friends, though it is a bitter reminder that the amazing whitewater and epic island living of the Hairy Lemon will be short lived with the dame project underway.
Though is the river is going to be flooded we might as well go out with a bang, and in that sense kayakers around the world are living it up on a little island, known as the Hairy Lemon, on the worlds longest river.
The island was a perfect training ground for the upcoming World Championships with the who’s who from top paddlers around the world like Mathieu Dumounlin, Dane Jackson, Kalob Grady, Stephen Wright, Bren Orton just to name a few. It made for a great atmosphere of on water and off water training and games. On water was filled with mock competitions, filming, photo sessions, big rapids and huge aerial maneuvers, while off water consisted of frisbee golf, water volleyball, bocce ball and ultimate frisbee.
It was a blast being back on the island and living the simple life, no running electricity, no internet, just afternoon games and lots of kayaking. After three weeks of some of the best wave surfing on the planet I am know super excited for the 2015 tour to start and even more excited for the 2015 World Championships at the end of the summer on the Garburator wave on the Ottawa River.
Coming home from Africa to the coldest days of winter was a bit of shell shock for me. Honestly, I was excepting spring to be rolling in and in full affect. I was maybe a bit too optimistic to think that it would be sunny and all the rivers would be running. Instead of all those fluffy dreams, I came home to snow and an ice storm that shut down most of the Southern states. Though the weather took a bit to get used to, I did find the silver lining, which was that the water that wasn’t frozen was still running. Myself and good friend and photographer Peter Holcomb took on the challenge to face the cold and try to hit the river. We quickly found it wasn’t as easy as we had thought it would be. The ice storm had shut down all access in and out of the Rock Island state park with downed trees and frozen limbs blocking road access. Though after being cooped up inside for several days we weren’t going to give up so easily. We drove to the other side of the river and clambered down a couple hundred feet and icy slick river embankment. Once down the steep hill and at the rivers edge we were rewarded with an epic view of giant icicles hanging from the cliffs and a frozen wonderland surrounding the waterfalls. I ended up getting six laps of the falls trying 4 different lines across the wide horizon and multiple waterfalls. Peter had it hard as he stood out on the edge of the lip with his camera gladly capture some amazing moments. On the last lap he ran down with me, trying a new line for him and getting a personal first decent. As it got dark we decided it was best to takeout and start our long hike back to the car. With the roads being iced over and blocked with downed trees we couldn’t set shuttle and were forced to hike back up the hill. Though along to road was a much easier (and safer) route then our slick hill enter, and the hike with out creek boats did warm us up. I felt very fortunate to have a friend like Peter to motivate when most would refuse. In the end it turned out to be a great evening of paddling and one I will not soon forget.
