Kayaking - pure zest for life

Help us to win money for Soft Power in Uganda - just vote for our video!

2011-11-14T14:27:00.001-08:00

I just edited some footage from ourlast trip to Lapland this spring. Excuse my quick and dirty editing, but timewas short to get the video online for the contest. After the contest I will cutone properly and publish it in HD!

Please vote for my new Lapland-Videoin this Sportscheck-Video-Contest, because the winner will get 10.000 EURO (=around 13.600 US Dollar) shopping-voucher for this sports-shop “Sportscheck”and if my video wins, we will sell all the products on ebay and donate themoney to a charity of your choice! We guess the money will accumulate to around6.000 - 10.000 US Dollars. You can vote for the charity the money should go to here on my blog at the top of the right navigation.
To support thischarity-project just like the “Sportscheck”-Fanpage on facebook and vote (=click the button "abstimmen") for my video.

Vote here: Our Video in the Sportscheck-Video-Contest

Two possiblecharities you can give your vote for on my blog are Soft Power Health or SoftPower Education in Uganda.

If our video wins we will keep you updated about the auctions and the money raised here on the blog.

Please vote and spread the word!

Thanks a lot foryour support!
Markus

Reichenbach-Wave update

2011-01-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

The city of Munich is working hard on the river banks of the last Isar stretches in Munich around the Reichenbach-Bridge in the city center. Yesterday we had a peak of the river level as it rained and it was really warm so all the snow melted as well. Therefore we had the chance to see how the work on the river-banks so far has influenced the wave. The good news, there still is a wave/hole. The bad news it is not so good anymore. It is less steep and the green is less smooth, coming in with many bubbles. In the last two days we had a level between 2m and 1,6m and you can see the according wave and the construction work on the following pics (the "panoramic" pics at the higher level and the surf pics from today at the lower level).

And we still need all your online-signatures here! www.rettet-die-reichenbachwelle.de

Thanks for your support!
Markus

Season 2010 closing at La Malate and Hawaii Sur Rhone

2011-01-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

In the middle of Dezember the temperature suddenly rose in France and a lot of snow in the mountains melted. In addition it rained and the water-levels of the Doubs and the Rhone shot through the roof. Hence we adhoc took two days off work and did our season 2010 closing 4 days paddling-trip to France. Well first we had to wait in Munich for our friend Toby Hüther who had quite an odysse with the ICE (fast train in Germany) through Germany and therefore we started our trip a little late around 4 o`clock in the morning instead of in the evening the day before. And as you can see in the picture it was cold in Munich.

Our first destination was the La Malate wave on the Doubs. Unfortunately we missed the perfect level for the La Scie wave by one day. But when La Scie goes down La Malate starts to kick in and La Malate is the sicker wave anyway. Just the small hole next to the shoulder gives your head some kind of tense feeling when throwing some moves ;-)
We met at the wave with "local" Stephane "Stefun" Pion. The hole looked too intimidating for Maria and Toby, so they left for the Deluz-Wave which is situated around 30 Minutes upstream. The wave is really nice and smooth, easy to throw moves and land them in the foam. On top the feature provides a nice eddy service. They both got company from two Munich board surfers who also had made a short trip to the waves. Check out the pics from the Deluz-Wave:

So Stefun and myself were left by ourselfes to surf the La Malate Wave alone. I have to say, really nice without queing but although quite physically and mentally challenging to shred that wave without long breaks. See here some pics from the session:

On the second day the water had dropped some more and the wave had gotten much smaller and the whole as well. At this lower level one can enter the wave through the hole and therefore an eddy-service is possible. Now also Maria and Toby joined in and Maria had her first La Malate session. Wicked!

After the session we decided we would leave for Lyon for the next two days as the level should be good there. Stefun lives just between La Malate and Lyon and he invited us over to stay at his place the night. What a lovely place he has built himself and his family I have to say! Thanks again for the hospitality of the whole family! The next morning we left for Lyon straight after we`ve played a football match in his garden. And the picture gives a false impression, we
did not all play against his small daughter, I was in her team ;-)

In Lyon we teamed up with David Arnaud and I got to paddle his carbon Nemesis M. What an awesome boat, so light, stiff and fast. I had so much fun although the wave was really difficult. The middle part with the foam was really trashy and it was hard to do moves on the shoulder as the green was quite flat. As well it was really hard to get on Wall B.

After the session we were invited over by Sonja Jankowfsky and Vincent Mercier, big thanks as well! The next day after another session it was unfortunately already time to hit the road again and head back home.

Goodbye France, cu again in 2011!

All pics by Maria Stelzig and Stefun Pion

Power on,
Markus

One battle lost but still fighting!

2010-11-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

Again with some time lag I finally had the time to cut the footage of our Reichenbachwave-Sessions on the Isar-River in Munich this summer. Probably it was the last season that paddlers and surfers could enjoy this awesome wave like you see it in this video. The excavators are already working and most likely the wave will never be as big again or even more likely will be totally gone when they are finished with it! But as we are still fighting for other surf-spots on the Isar-River please keep on signing this online-petition, if you haven´t already and keep spreading the word, link or youtube-video as every signature helps us!
Thanks for your support!

Sign the online-petiton here: Save waves on the Isar-River

Power on!
Markus

Nice new webbased tool to share and integrate different content (pics, videos etc.) online

2010-10-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Scandinavian Paddle-Trip - Wave hunt from Finland to Sweden and back

2010-08-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Arnd just posted our travel-diary on the Teva-blog. Go check it out here: Teva-Blog

Power on!
Markus

Help save the Reichenbach-Wave in Munich (Germany)

2010-07-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

During the kayak freestyle world cup tour this summer the Reichenbach-Wave was already working and showed its potential. Paddlers like James Bebbington aka Pringle stated that it was one of the best waves they`ve ever surfed. The last weekend we had the pleasure again to surf it as the water was high enough. Many surfers and paddlers shared the wave and the bridge was packed with spectators the whole day. Now that the Eisbach-Wave is saved, we got the next destruction of one of the best inner-city-waves worldwide approaching. The city plans to destroy this awesome Reichenbach-Wave this autumn as they alread have renaturated most of the river-banks which where channeled before. I.e. the river got more wide and the features changed totally or rather mostly disappeared. And exactly this widening is planned for this autumn for the area around the Reichenbach-Wave. Generally we also support the renaturation, but we would prefer it, if it would be done with the consideration of the sport culture and tourist attraction element for the inhabitants and visitors of Munich. Therefore when the work at the ground sill is done it should be tried to preserve the wave or rather change the sill so the wave could run the whole year and not just when the river is flooded. As exactly the renaturation would be the perfect time to do this with a minimal effort. Please help to prevent this and sign this online-petition! Forward this link to your friends and everybody you know!

Sign the online-petiton here: Save the Reichenbach-Wave

Here some impressions from the past weekend:

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Thanks!
Markus

Trenčín aka the wave hunt on the river Váh in Slovakia

2010-05-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

After we´ve seen Peter Csonkas video last week from their sessions on the Trenčín wave our misson was clear. Skip the Soca testival for another year and pray that the waterlevel stays up enough on the Vah. We had three days holiday last weekend and after around 7 hours drive we arrived in Trenčín. But unfortunately the water has gone down around 1m during the last few hours before we got there and we just missed the perfect level of one of the waves. The only thing that calmed me down was that apparently the level was just perfect for maybe 15 minutes. So when we got there the level was around 400 cubics, i.e. the just mentioned wave is not any more in as it gets too hole-like and trashy (you can check out that wave below on the pics with the entry moves). So we waited a few hours the level fell another 10 cm or so, as the margin there is really small and then a smaller wave with a nice foam pile on the other side of the river kicked in . Besides the wave you see a really large hole in the middle which covers nearly half of the river but does not quite invite to get a beating in it and at the other end of the hole you find the "entry move-wave/hole".

During the next two days the level rose and fell again between those 10 centimeters and we had a lot of time for talking shop with our local guide Miloš Trnka ;-)

Well as said before the trashy wave was ideal for doing high out entry moves. Here a sequence.

On Monday our third and last day, suddenly the water rose and the wave started to open up and it really got superb. So I sticked this nice clean helix and it was generally nice and smooth to launch nice wave moves. But unfortunately the wave was in for maybe 2 Minutes, no kidding. As I walked up (oh yeah, all waves have to be catched on the fly) the wave was totally gone.

Just one minute ago there was a huge hole/wave at this spot! So now a really crazy thing happened and it was the first time for me to experience something like that. I.e. the weir-gates were opened up totally, the water rose around 1,5 meter in just a few minutes and we experienced all the different waves which are at offer. And I have to say those few minutes were worth it and I want to be back, when they are in for longer! After those few minutes the gates were closed again and the water dropped even further than before (i.e. below 300 cubics, which is too low to have decent waves) but it didn´t matter for us cause it was already time to head back home again. Check out the pics below and mind that nice castle in the background of the first pic. Trencin is a nice town with an old inner city and the Palatschinken are just delicious!

Here still with closed gates

You see the two middle gates are opened up and the water starts floating in

Even nice waves before the main hole/wave row come in so you have two sets of waves behind each other.

And this is the formerly small but wide hole. Now the hole rather resembles La Malate and the shoulder is an equivalent to the Wittelsbacher wave in Munich in the good old times at its best level.

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Power on!
Markus

Sign online-petition and thereby help save an awesome river!

2010-05-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

Once again your online signature is needed to help stop the damming of another awesome river in Austria: the Untertalbach

sign here: online-petition

here the explanation for the data you have to enter:

Name = surname
Vorname = first name
Straße und Hausnummer = street and house number
Postleitzahl = zip code
Stadt = city
Land = country
Ihre gültige Email-Adresse = your valid email-address
[] Checkbox = tick it if you want the owner of the petition to see your email-address
CAPTCHA = type in the numbers/letters you are shown which should help to tell that the signature is done by a human and not done automatically

Thanks for your help!

power on,
Markus

Easterweekend in Lyon - Hawaii sur Rhone in Dutch and German grip

2010-04-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

What should we do over the easterweekend when "all" French paddlers are on Corsica? We thought let´s see, maybe Lyon is because of that not too crowded. And you won´t believe it, during four days of paddling we just met one frenchmen, fellow Nookie-team-member Leo Carpene of the DK-Boys who was travelling with Dutchy Casper van Kalmthout. Leo was checking out his new GoPro camera and even made an interesting wooden pole-construction to film himself on the wave (check out pics of the construction in action below). All in all the wave was clear in German and Dutch grip over the Easter weekend as a few more Dutch paddlers arrived and most of the Kanu Freestyle Team Baden invaded Hawaii Sur Rhone. Check out the best pics of the weekend below:

Maria throwing a massive air-blunt

Big Cheeks

Maria airborne

Leo and Casper having fun

Daniel Riedmüller going for the donkey

Sandrina Hornhardt doing an air-blunt

Philipp Hitzigrath having fun

Thanks to the photographers:
Maria Stelzig, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Eric Bui

PowerOn!
Markus

Worthy European season opening in La Malate and Lyon

2010-03-06T03:19:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah baby, last weekend it was the first time when we started our big wave hunt in 2010. During the week the French rivers Rhone and Doubs where going up and it was just the question if the level would hold until the weekend. We took the gamble, hit the road and got lucky. The level was enough. Not the best level it can be but still sweet, especially after the whole construction work which was done most of last year just above the wave to build a bridge across the river. Which is now finished and thank god didn´t destroy the wave! La Malate had around 375 cubics and the level in Lyon was between 0,9 - 0,7 m. So first we drove to La Malate and paddeled there on saturday. Then continued to Lyon where we met Seppi and Sarah and paddeled Sunday and Monday. After three days of big waves it was time to drive home again. Check some impressions of the weekend below.

La Malate (Doubs, Besançon):

The one and only La Malate wave with the attached humongous hole

I also took the Element for a few speed turns, man it is fast

All pics by Maria Stelzig

And I couldn´t believe it, the firemen from Besancon parked their firetruck besides the wave, cheered me on and had an awesome time watching. What a difference to the firemen in Munich who normally threaten you off the wave.

Hawai Sur Rhone (Lyon):

Maria throwing her first Air Blunt in Lyon

Seppi going for the pistol

Some lifestyle impressions:

Believe me, we had some wind

Pics by Maria Stelzig, Sarah Hangartner, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Seppi Strohmeier

Power on!
Markus

Uganda - The same procedure as last year, Miss Maria?

2010-02-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

As last years paddle-trip to the White Nile was so great and we had so much fun, we decided to visit Uganda again this winter. And by no means it was just the same procedure as last year, the same destination yes, but everything else was even better.
To start with, as last year Marias luggage and kayak arrived two weeks late, we decided to not take Egypt Air again this year. Instead we flew with Emirates and what a pleasure it was. No lost luggage, no problem with the kayak (no extra charge; just keep the weight limit), awesome food and a huge library of movies to choose from, to just name a few of the advantages of flying with Emirates. In contrast to that Egypt Air still hasn`t repaid our expanses we had last year because of the delayed luggage. Well, there is never anything better than good customer service and caring about word of mouth.

Anyhow, we arrived in Uganda safely and drove straight to Hairy Lemon to get as much wave time as possible. I have to admit I´m a wave addict and altough I love big volume rapids like on the day one section, I prefere big waves, as all in all you just get more air time if you sum up all your airmoves and bounces ;-) So if you ever meet anybody at the Nile who spends three quaters of his time in Uganda on the Hairy Lemon, that will be me.

So what was different this year to last year. Well, besides getting all our gear there with us in one time we had much less water this year. Last year the Nile Special Wave was in every day all day long and we just had once Club Wave level. This year on the contrary the level was so low that we had Club Wave every day from morning to late afternoon and around 3-4 pm Nile Special was coming in. But I have to say that last year I didn´t remember Club being so good. I think this year was different as I really loved it. One more sign of the features being different was that when the water level was going up Club Wave got really trashy and even quite little foamy and between Nile Special and Club another wave built up: Bell-Wave. At a lower level Bell is a really nasty big hole you rather want to avoid but when Nile Special kicks in you can start catching three wave after another in one run. And Bell-Wave sometimes really builds up high and steep and one can get massive air. As you can see on the pic below, which was my sickest air I got on this trip.

Taking off on the right bounce - unbelievable big air on Bell-Wave

What else was different? Well Maria was able to handle the rope to get on Nile Special really fast, so she was enjoying surfing the biggest wave she has surfed so far and she loved it. Already trying hard to go for the blunt. Roundhouses already being a piece of cake. Hence she also could run day two section this year and loved Silverback on the day one section. I also found the time to run some backchannels this year and was super stoked.

Besides from paddling the food on Hairy Lemon got much better as they had a new cook, Michael, on the island. And this year, as Maria was paddling most of the time as well, we hired two of the local kids, Ivan and Michael, to shoot photos and the video footage for us. They did a great job and especially Ivan can anticipate the moves and everything. He also attended a photographer-course which Jessie, a female American paddler and photographer was giving to her American clients, which helped him a lot. Further down we got pictures of them, so if you need somebody to help you out look out for them. This time they got the same amount of money as the rope boys got for a session. And as they sometimes had 2-3 cameras from different people their earnings piled up and they were happy.

Over Christmas we had a night session at the wave which was really cool, although the local kids promised quite a lot (a generator with flashlights etc.) and somebody paid them all the money up front and in the end there were no lights and the money was gone... Well anyway, they organised some local food, the camp-fire and a few crates of beer, so we had a lot of fun anyway! ;-) Here I just posted the best pics of the trip, check them out and enjoy.

To start with a few pics from Club-Wave:

Pics from good old Nile-Special:

getting lost in the spray

the must-pic: big cheeks ;-)

Although I love my PowerBar Energybars a lot, I can´t say no to a pineapple-session ;-)

Marias first roundhouses, blunts, big airs and big smiles:

Some impressions apart from kayaking:

Ivan Ngobi the master of the camera (especially stills)

Michael "our" videographer

Michael getting the camera introduction

Somehow ended up in the businessclass lounge in Dubai transit ;-)

Some kids showed us around Bujagali and we saw the awesome work from Soft Power Health

Unbelievable, but we really witnessed dynamite fishing! First the guys threw in bait from some rocks in the middle of the river, then waited for around one hour and then threw in the dynamite and collected the dead fish afterwards.

Christmas-Dinner & x-mas Nile-Special Night-Surf party:

Wildlife:

All pics by Maria Stelzig & Ivan Ngobi and me

If you need some more input just check out our 6 blogposts from the trip last year:

1. Uganda, Nile Special or just beeing a crazy Muzungu
2. Christmas at Hairy Lemon
3. Africa Revolutions Tour & Sun Catchers Project
4. Uganda Part 4, Isar Renaturation & WRSI
5. Change of Camp - Uganda Part 5
6. Finally: Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips"

Enjoy the river and cu,
Maria & Markus

Kuchl Season Opening with a Test of the Fluid Element

2009-10-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Fluid Element = Extreme Speed = Extreme Fun!
Last weekend we started our autumn Kuchl-season and we had perfect weather for three days.
I also had my first goes in the Fluid Element. It is such a fast boat, unbelievable. The perfect choice for Kuchl if the level is too high and the wave is green, i.e. too flushy for "normal" playboats. Therefore in my opinion not just an ocean kayak but the right boat if your regular freestyle boat is too slow for a river-wave. I never had so much fun carving a wave and the sidekicks and flipturns were so dynamic that I was superstoked and couldn´t get the grin out of my face.

Flipturn

Maori playing with his miniature kayaker

Spray bigtime

Toby going fot the tow-in on the surf-board

Another Sidekick

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Cu on the river,
Markus

Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria!

2009-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

70% of the rivers in Austria are already influenced by power companies and are not flowing naturally anymore. And because of the growing energy demand the big energy corporations rather want to get hold of the remaining 30% instead of using the existing stations more efficiently or push renewable energy sources.
To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips

2009-09-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

The day after the canoe trade show in Nuernberg the first int. Munich kayak-freestyle championships were held in Munich at the Flosslaende, a small artificial canal in Munich which has two small holes for just two weeks every year when there is a slalom competition as well.
The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were spread under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, shit I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

Uganda Episode II

2009-09-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Episode II is just a pure kayak freestyle-porn clip!
Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

Lipno WhiteWater-Festival 2009 & Uganda Episode I

2009-09-01T14:34:00.001-07:00

After many years of waiting and an endless count of legendary stories people told me, I finally made it to Lipno this year. For everybody who does not know what I´m talking about, once every year the dam on the river Moldau near Lipno (Czech republic) is opened for two days for a whitewater festifval. There are a slalom-, downriver- and raft-race. Since a few years there is as well the Devils Extreme Race which is comprised of a Extreme Slalom, Boater Cross and Team-Race. And what can I say, everything I heard in advance was true. First of all there are huge amounts of paddlers and rafters on and besides the river. Competitors but many recreational folks as well.
We left Munich on Friday night after work and after 3,5 h of driving arrived in VisyBrod which is the take out village and has one camp site, where we met 3 other fellow paddlers (Sebastian Striebl, Klausi Süssmuth and Simon Seeberger) for a good night beer at the happening pre-competition-party. The next morning the group was finalised by Jan Haluzka and Lars Hilleke. After a nice breakfast at a hotel (the prices are really cheap compared to Germany, therefore eating out is a really good alternative to the common kayak outdoor cuisine) we left for our first run. Originally I wanted to take part at the Devils Extreme Race (www.devilsextremerace.com) but as all other friends opted for the relax-version of the weekend I gave in and concentrated on trying to make Marias first whitewater river run a memorable event. A really good premise for that is the temperature of the water of the river. It is really warm as it has had time to warm up in the dam-lake. I almost felt like in Uganda ;-) The river is really nice, nothing too difficult and every hard rapid can be easily portaged. The hardes rapid being "die blutige Hand" (bloody hand) and I really have never seen so many bloody hands during one day. Well on the first day I managed unharmed twice through the rapid but on Sunday I omitted the bloody hand as I wanted to secure an unharmed hand. Sometimes it is better to take no chances. In the evening after a long and extensive dinner (make sure to eat the Palatschinken with ice cream for dessert!) there was the big party of the Devils Extreme Race with a sweet live concert of a Czech Ska-Band. Rock`n Roll baby! On Sunday you can follow the same procedure as the day before if your head is up for it ;-)
Check out some pics of the weekend below:

Jan preparing the boat for Lars

Last small boof on one of the main cataracts

Eddying out after the boof and you can see the river banks are always lined with paddlers the whole river

Bus-Crew on the way to the second run

Hang loose! Happy days!

fighting dehydrogenation before the Devils Extreme Race Party (at the party half a litre beer cost around 1,-€!)

Cu there next year!

As we´ve just booked the flight to Uganda for this winter again I thought it would be time to cut the footage from last year ;-)
Here the first Episode:

Eiskanal Boatercross, Outdoorshow Catwalk and Lahn Touring

2009-07-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago the first invitational boatercross race at the Eiskanal took place in Augsburg as part of the slalom world-cup program. Organized by Arnd Schaeftlein and Jakobus Stenglein, strong boatercross paddlers like Mike Dawson (NZ; winner of the creek race at the Teva Mountaingames 2009 in the USA), Dejan Kralj (SLO; winner of the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2009 in Italy) and Thilo Schmidt (GER; winner of the Sickline-World-Championchips 2008) took part and fought for the 1st place! In the end, it was taken home by slalom local Hannes Aigner, who had a stunning final. Second came Dejan Kralj (SLO) and third Jokobus Stenglein (GER). In the womens category Mira Louen won, second came Jessy Decker and third Katja Frauenrath (all GER). I myself had a really bad start and after that couldn´t fight my way back to the first two places to make the cut to the next round. So I enjoyed watching the finals - just like 1000 (!) other spectators. All in all the race was really a lot of fun and I´m looking forward to more of these races at the Eiskanal! Here are a couple of shots:

Getting ready before the race

Really bad start

The ramp was fun anyway

Charging full on but in vain

Last weekend we first made a short stopover at the Outdoorshow in Friedrichshafen (see below) and after that headed to the Lahn River for a two-day long kayak/canoe-touring trip.
The Lahn River is a 245.6-kilometer-long, eastern tributary of the Rhine River. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in the Rothaargebirge, the highest part of the Sauerland. It meets the Rhine at Lahnstein, near Koblenz. Important cities along the Lahn include Marburg, Gießen, Wetzlar, Limburg an der Lahn, Weilburg and Bad Ems.
Our first day stretch started in Löhnberg and went for 12 km until Gräveneck where we stayed at a campsite straight by the river. On the second day we continued from Gräveneck for about 14 km until Runkel. On the first day we paddled with our freestyle boats to have some fun doing flatwater tricks but as the other paddled open canoes their speed was quite tireing in the short boats ;-) Therefore on the second day we switched to a canoe as well, which was my first open canoe paddling I´ve done so far. If you like really beautiful nature, natural riverbanks, no white-water and don´t mind to meet other paddlers the Lahn is an awesome paddle destination. Check out some pics below:

One of the many sluices on the Lahn

Maybe we did first descents over many rocky weirs as normally
all the other paddlers go through the sluices ;-)

The city of Weilburg is wrapped by a marked loop of the river. The neck of this noose is traversed by a boat tunnel, unique in Germany.

Two ladies helping Maria and me conquer the furious Lahn River on the second day

In the evening Maria had her first three kayak-pupils. Celina (9 years), Marie (11) and Lea (15) wanted to try to do the eskimo-roll. Once again I was astound how fast young people can learn. If we would have had a few more hours time I bet they all would have learnt the roll.

Lea

Marie

Celina

Befor we headed to the Lahn last weekend we made a quick detour to the Lake of Konstanz to help out Arnd Schäftlein and Teva at a athlete-based runway show. In short: it was really fun to showcase the new shoe-models.

Seppi put on the most extrovert show of us all

Maria

Anne

Hanna in the focus of her boyfriend paparazzi Jared

Kim

Beat

Me myself and I

David Arnaud on a flying visit to the Teva booth

Pics by: Arnd Schäftlein, Maria Stelzig and me

cu on the river,
Markus

Status of the Brudermühl-Bridge Wave on the Isar (Munich)

2009-07-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

Over the last weekend we had finally enough water in the isar for the fist time in 2009. Unfortunately the waves at the Wittelsbacher- and Reichenbacherbrücke are still gone. Either from the renaturation of the riverbanks or because of the construction site in the water by the Reichenbacher, which dams up the water and even might dam it back up to the Wittelsbacherbrücke. But instead over the period of three days we could paddle the wave/holes at the Brudermühlbrücke at three different water levels. Each level caused different features. Check them out below.

First (highest) level: 230 - 240 cm

First wave is too flat for a playboat. The second wave is catchable from the eddy and turns into a wave-hole. The further surfers right you go the meatier it gets.

Especially surfers with oldschool longboards were enjoying the first wave

Meaty foam-wave

200m downstream there is another wave which you can just catch on the fly

Second level: 180 - 200 cm
At this level the first waves breaks at the surfers right and holds a paddler as well. The second wave opens up more and it gets more wavy. Whereas the third wave turns into a river wide hole which is not too retentive.

Blunt setup

Blunt initiation

Do it

Landing

Relaxing or queing in the eddy

Maria carves up the second wave

Third level: 150 - 160 cm

At this level the first wave breaks even more and is the most retentive. The second wave is nearly gone as it has flattened out in the middle. Just the surfers left shoulder is still working. And the third feature has become a quite sticky hole where McNastys are possible, so probably all moves.

Left shoulder of the second wave

Urban put-in

First wave

Double surf in the first wave

Pictures by Mathias Blitz, Maria & Ellen Stelzig

Greetings from:
the Jolly Paddlers of the "Happy-Nookie-Van"

PS: We went to the Eisbach two days ago and Maria made it over the wooden planks by her own on her first session really fast, awesome stuff!

First goes at the Wave Monkey in a hole ;-)

2009-06-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I saw the new move for the first time in a short vidoe-clip by Steven Wright. Funnily nearly the next day I passed through Augsburg and met Daniel Krummreich, a fellow Fluid paddler, for a session in the washing-machine and he went for the move, so I had to as well ;-) Never thought that I would first try that wave-move in a hole, but you can practice it there or say at least the basics of it. In a hole you go up the incoming green and go for the "blunt" but instead of the blunt you throw the initiation of the Phoenics Monkey into the green and there you go. Be careful as the move can be much harder on the body than doing it in the foam of a hole. Check it out if you can spot the efforts:

power on & have fun on the river!
Markus

Radetzky Wave on the Mur in Graz (Austria)

2009-05-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Seppi Strohmeier, Maria and myself left for a prolonged paddle-weekend in Graz on the river Mur. The level of the Mur was quite high between 3,5 and 4m and therefore the spot under the Radetzky-Bridge worked well. A kind of slow wave with foam. Therefore basically all wave moves were possible although catching air was quite hard, i.e. Helixes rather resulted in Felixes and so on. The feature offers an eddy service on surfers left although you have to roll fast to catch it. If you can´t make it there is easy eddying out and walking back up on river left.
As on most river waves in Europe also in Graz river board surfers are enjoying themselves on the wave. But guess what, unlike in Munich all the surfers we met in Graz were all really friendly and there was no problem in taking alternate turns in the wave. There is still hope! ;-)
For more information on the playspots in Graz and the freestyle events there chech this out:
Kayak Freestyle in Graz

feature overview; eddy ends on the height of the paddler

familiar view for Munich paddlers; surfers ripping the wave

old school shudder rudder

nice angle from the bridge

first phase of the backstab

PanAm

Fisher King entry move

Fisher King from another angle

Cleaning it

Pistol Flip from the bridge

Pistol Flip from the shore

And if we got bored we played some ball

All pics by Maria Stelzig

cu on the river,
Markus

Easter on Hawaii

2009-04-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Over the easter-weekend we started our big wave hunt 2009 in Europe in Lyon on Hawaii-Sur-Rhone.
Unfortunately the level was not perfect and it changed a lot, to our dismay it went up highest during the night. The gauge changed between 0,9m and 0,5m and unlike in old times the wave didn´t run all the time in that range. Apparently one of the concrete pillars in the middle of the river above the wave has broken which has changed the middle wave. Sometimes the foam was big enough to hold you and sometimes it totally greened out and you couldn´t catch the wave as you were too fast coming from above. It appeared that the wave was more retentive when the level was stable or falling in contrary to the time when the level was raising. So don´t be surprised if you get there at a level which normally would have guranteed you perfect fun and now you might not be able to catch the wave at all or maybe just every other run. But still Lyon is one of my favorite waves even at a suboptimal level like this. Here some pics from the weekend:

Cleaning it up

PanAm

different angle from the island

Still lovin the backstab

And the well-deserved sip from the magic potion

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Enjoy the river!
Markus

Finally: Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips"

2009-04-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Finally I came around to write my last part of our Uganda-Story. After a really awesome stay at Hairy Lemon for nearly two and a half weeks we`ve taken a Matatu
full of kayakers to change camps to Eden Rock which is located at the beginning of the day 1 section of the White Nile. Left with a few days we run as much of the
whitewater as we could in that short time. Unfortunately we didn´t shoot much footage as our time was quite limited. Below you can find some impressions.
Besides the nice White Water lines the day 1 section also offers a really big variety of good food opportunities compared to the good but limited choices at
Hairy Lemon. If you´ve tried everything what the bar/restaurant at the NRE (Nile River Explorer) has to offer ask for the Green Latern. On our last night we
were really lucky and got invited to the home of Harriet who works at the NRE bar and got serverd the most delicious foods I had during the whole trip,
7-9 different dishes, all really tasty. Big props for the good food and thanks for your hospitality Harriet.

Here my top 10 Uganda-Tips:

1. In my opinion Malarone is the best Malaria Prophylaxis at the Moment. And in addition to Malarone never pass out drunken in a bar and always wear longsleeve shirts and long trousers after it get´s dark.

2. Change 100 US Dollar to Uganda Schillings before you travel and pay attention that the notes are not older than from the year of 2000.

3. Arrange a driver to pick you up from the airport before you leave your home.

4. Properly tag your luggage with your name and address before checking in at the airport. Ideally take all essentials in your hand luggage.

5. Take with you your old shirts and cloths and give them to the local kids before you leave.

6. While paddling the day one section stay at Eden Rock if you prefer the more quiet place (just 5 Minutes walk to NRE) and if you prefer the direct party location stay at NRE.

7. While paddling Nile Special stay at Hairy Lemon!

8. If you want to have a dorm alone with your better half make sure to book in advance: http://www.hairylemonuganda.com

9. If going to Hairy Lemon take out as much cash from the ATM in advance as getting to an ATM from Hairy Lemon and back will cost you one day. Hairy Lemon will cost you around 35.000 - 80.000 Uganda Schilling a day, depending if you stay in a tent or what kind of dorm and also depending on how many beers etc. you´re going to dring in the evening...

10. Last but not least always shake out your paddling shoes properly before putting them on, i.e. beware of the small frogs ;-) And be careful where you dry your paddling gear as the termites like to make small holes in your gear.

In the entry of the hump

Going for a kinda wavewheel after the main part of the hump

Throwing some ends in the wrestling-hole

Final hole on the right side of bujagali falls

Cutting the diagonal above the final hole

Hitting the bottom hole at the far left while running bujagali blind at the first time

The Bottom hole flipping a raft

Having dinner at Harriet`s place

Harriet`s Family loving the digital camera

Nice air roof rack on our shuttle back to the airport

Back home I just can tell you, go visit the White Nile as long as it is paddleable and not every rapid is flooded because of a damn-project!

All pics by Maria Stelzig or myself

Power on!
Markus

Change of Camp - Uganda Part 5

2009-04-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

This time I´ll devote the second last blogpost about the Uganda-Trip to the people in Uganda and the country.
Talking about the country what is amazing is the number of kids with so young mothers it is hard to grasp, actually being just kids themselves. Check out the pictures we mostly made on the trip from Hairy Lemon to Eden Rock, our base camp at the day one section.

women excursion to Nile Special with their kids

Many fishermen working on the nile

Always people washing their clothes at the river

bird flying low

resting on a tree

beaming cloud

Apes just in the trees above our hut

Monkey in mid-jump

Beautiful sunsets

Boat shuttle of the island

Loading of the Matatu at the Lemon departure

Full Kayaker shuttle

Mostly dirt roads

And long roads

fast food along the road

local high school

Getting water

can you find the canister in the picture?

yellow is one of the favorite colours of houses

the other one being pink

old Singer sewing machinge still in use

The only public transport - Mitsubishi Mini-Buses all over the place

We never saw any herds but one finds cows flocking around everywhere

driving school transformed into a shop

butcher African style

food at the market

getting busy at the market

premises at Eden Rock

Last but not least always check your shoes for frogs in Africa

All pics by Maria Stelzig or Jan Grünwald

Happy Paddling!
Markus

Uganda Part 4, Isar Renaturation & WRSI

2009-04-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Because of the current snowmelt the German Team trials for the Kayak Freestyle Worlds in Thun (CH) this year had to be postponed. Spontaneously Seppi Strohmeier, Maria and myself decided to use the free time on Saturday to check out the Isar south of Munich, from Unterföhring to Garching. The level was quite high (around 140 cm) and there should be some riverwide small playholes on that stretch. We never paddled that part of the river before at this level as before the renaturation there have always been nice waves and holes right in the middle of Munich. As the renaturation in the city has by now destroyed all playspots we thought it would be time to check out something new. Well wishfull thinking, we encountered on that app. 7km stretch around 10 small weirs or rather the spots where they have been. They would have been playspots in the past, now renaturated there was nothing, just a small rapid grade 1. Well done, Munich is on its best way to degenerate from Germanys Kayak Freestyle Capital No. 1 to in worst case szenario a city without playspots at all. We´ll see.

Anyway I was able to check out my new WRSI helmet and I´m super stoked as it fits really snugly on my head. 100 % no more shifting of the helmet on your head, which means more security on the river! Big props and thanks to WRSI (Whitewater Research & Safety Institute)!

The other day I also posted the fourth part of our Uganda story on the Fluid blog. Check it out here.

Pic by Maria Stelzig

Stay safe, power on and have fun!
Markus

Uganda 3, Africa Revolutions Tour & Sun Catchers Project

2009-02-22T06:29:00.000-08:00

Before I divulge in my fond memories of Uganda here a most recent update.

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend the 12^th International Kayak Film festival in Rosenheim. Besides some really interesting newcomer clips, Bernhard Maurachers documentation about his Nanga Parbat expedition, the classical »Family Mad« movie from Jochen Schweizer, the quite intense big water “creeking” movie »Empire« from Vasili Porsev it was the most outstanding new movie »African Revolutions Tour« by Rush Sturges which claimed the most props at that evening. Check out a clip of the movie here: watch video clip

Also very appreciable is the fact that all the money from the sales of the movie will go into the Sun Catchers Project which is a non-profit organization dedicated to supplying developing countries with the ability to use solar technology to cook food and boil water. Check out more of their work HERE.

Their work in Africa leads me back to Uganda.
I think this last year was the quietest New Years party I had so far. Most of the people staying at the Lemon decided to go up to NRE (Nile-River-Explorer) for a couple of days, which is one of the camps at the day one section, and by far most the camp with the biggest party potential as there are often loads of raft and other tourists to party with. But don´t be surprised or shocked, it really can get quite wild at those parties a the NRE ;-)

Well as our time in Uganda was quite limited with three weeks we decided to stay put and enjoy the empty eddy at Special and get more air time on the wave.
So it was a really exclusive company we had our New Years dinner with and the obligatory shots at 12 o'clock (if you ever encounter flaming sambucha, make sure that you put out the fire with the full palm of your hand and not with half of the palm and half of your fingers, as the fingers may not close out the air properly and you might get some burnt fingers ;-). The company was comprised of Lee, Vito, Pete, the Wall-Family with Sam Ward, Maria and me.
Before New Years Maria went to town with Pete to do some shopping for the feast. Here some pics from the tour to get a picture about the life outside Hairy Lemon:

With an AK 47 armed guard sitting in front of each supermarket

Believe me, you don´t want to see the butcher stands in action

Uganda style fast food: chapati-time

Very refreshing and inspiring to see how happy one can be with so little

Getting some more pigs

Getting back the groceries to the island

New Years dinner

Lee and Vito preparing the flaming sambucha

Once again some more Nile Special action:

All pics by Maria Stelzig

peace and out!
Markus

Christmas at Hairy Lemon

2009-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

After New Zealand in `99 this was my second hot Christmas without snow. Always a hard decision what to do in the winter-holiday, as I love skiing but paddling in winter with warm air temperature and as now in Uganda even really warm water is just fantastic as well. Such a good feeling to paddle with as little kit on your body as possible. Often it is so warm, that you just wear your PFD, spray-skirt and a boarder-shorts. This is a good cue, as you might notice at the pictures that I sometimes have got on some long sleeve shirt and this is just to give your skin a break from the intense sun exposure on the water all the time. I experienced that I got the most sun and felt it on the skin the day after I paddled Day2 section. Probably caused on the various flat water stretches on that section. So after the white water sections I always wore long sleeve on Nile-Special for 1-2 days to give my skin some recovery time.
Back to Christmas at the Hairy Lemon. It all started with Pete, Vito and Lee (all staff at the lemon at that time) giving out a big basket full of Christmas decoration. After that the girls got all exited and spread the Christmas decoration to get in the right Christmas mood. I have to admit I really got a hard time feeling like Christmas. Nevertheless Jan and me came up with the Idea of decorating an old long boat ,which normally is stuck to the roof of the eating area, as our Christmas tree substitute. Food wise Christmas was the highlight of the stay at the lemon with a special breakfast and the biggest variation of dishes during lunch and dinner we had there.
Before lunch it was time for a kind of secret Santa. The difference was just that the staff had bought all kind of stuff, wrapped it up in Christmas paper and then handed out the parcels to each guest. You could be lucky to get an aerosol of artificial snow, body hygiene products, Barbie dolls... but the real treasures were Pringels, chocolate and anything special to eat what you otherwise have difficulties to get hands on on a remote island ;-)

Christmas-Kayak as Christmas-Tree substitute

Enjoying Christmas dinner and some bubbly with Jan and Will

Will getting a snow-shower

Tom aka Santa

Peter, Vito and Lee giving out Secret Santa presents

Finally some more loaded action pics:

Rope-Boy doing his thing

They also like taking a ride

At Special more than the boats are upside down

All pics by Maria Stelzig

peace and out!
Markus

Uganda, Nile Special or just beeing a crazy Muzungu

2009-02-04T11:08:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago we came back from our first trip to Uganda. We, that is Jan a friend of mine from Munich, Maria my girlfriend and myself spent three weeks at the White Nile. Awesome three weeks I have to say!
Before we went to Africa and after the trip I´ve seen and read quite a few interesting websites and blogs about the different campsites and rapids and things to do etc. Therefore I won´t describe all the different places in vast detail but as I was asked some questions from friends who plan to go to Uganda in March I´ll try to recap them and write them down here so it might be of benefit to some other paddlers as well. Most of them are really basic things and you just realize you don´t know what to pack when you start wrapping up your "suitcase".
As I´m quite limited with time at the moment I´ll divide my Uganda story in 6 parts (each part of course packed with stunning wave action pics ;-) :

1. Arrival
2. Christmas
3. New Years
4. Day-Two Section & Local Paddlers
5. Change of Camp
6. Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips"

So today I´ll start with the Arrival-Part:
First of all, if you arrange a driver to pick you up from Entebbe airport with one of the kayaking- or raftcompanies beforehand (my recommendation would be to arrange it with kayak the nile), which is a really good thing to do, as there are loads of shady looking cab drivers at the airport waiting to rip you of and believe me, even if they are telling you "yes, yes, I know the place veeeery well", they don't have a clue what you're talking about, make sure you also print out the telephone-number of that guy or the company before you fly. As it is always possible that the driver does not show up, which happened to me. Guys, this is Africa which means everything is slower to say the least.
But if everything works out and you get your lift to Hairy Lemon straight (which is what we did) you can get on the wave straight on the first day, after around 3-4 hours drive. Oh boy, I tell you driving is an adventure on its own in that country.
Really scary driving habits, loads of shitty dirt roads, cars with nonexisting suspensions and a public transport system solely existing of Mitsubishi Minibuses. I`ve never seen so many Mitsubishi Minibuses in my life before, let alone so many people in one minibus.
So after an exciting drive you get to the Hairy Lemon Island. In order to get to the island you´ve got to bang on an old car rim and then wait 5-20 Minutes until somebody comes over with a wooden longboat and gives you a ride over.

hut with "calling-device" for shuttle-boat

The boat-beach clearly signals where to take of for Nile Special from the island:

After just 10 Minutes of paddling, the ideal warm-up, you´re already at your desired destination. And in order not to bore you, now that we´ve reached our main destination Hairy Lemon here some first pics of the wave:

righty Air-Blunt

sidekicking it

right Pan-Am

left Pan-Am

midway helix

One of my Ugandan goals: get safer with the cleans:

cleaning it on the left side

doing the same on the right

still one of my favorite moves: the airial backstab

low paddle-position to protect the shoulder at the california-roll

a concentrated face always helps ;-)

All pics by Maria Stelzig

almost after each session it was time to visit the chill-out-area to get some rest and relax your muscles

peace and out!
Markus

Ammer river in danger - You can help!

2008-11-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

I just saw on the website of the Kanumagazin an article of Judith Prechtl, where she writes about eleven planned small power stations on the Ammer river, one of the favoured creeks in the Alps, which would endanger this classic Bavarian white water run. The river is mostly rated as class II with some spots of class III-IV.
Those power stations would not just endanger the river but also the wildlife habitat and many plants. And for what, just a really small power gain which does not justify any of the drawbacks.
If you have ever run this classic river or want to run it in the future please help to stop the destruction of it. In order to do so, just print out the pdf of the “Ammer Alliance”, take it to your local club and sign the petition with as much people as you can. And maybe the Free State of Bavaria can be convinced of the stupidity of the idea to build the power plants.

As the pdf is in German I give you the meanings of the data fields in the order of appearance:
Last Name; Street & Housenumber; Email-Address; [checkbox for further information]
First Name; Postcode & City; Signature

Download the PDF for the petition here: petition

After you have signed it please send it back to the following address:
Ammer-Allianz
c/o LBV
Klenzestr. 37
80469 München
Germany

or fax it to this number:
+49 – (0)89 - 200 270 88

Last but not least something enjoyable. Just before the first snow arrived in Munich we had a last weekend in Kuchl and I could for the first time try my new dryjacket “Assault” from Nookie. Man, I was so stoked, an awesome jacket. Very good fit, splendid material and workmanship. Not to forget the guaranteed Nookie style factor ;-)
And unbelievable, Kuchl is the perfect example for a friendly coexistence of paddlers and river-surfers. Everybody waits in line until it is their turn. Check it out below:

Pan-Am with surfer waiting in the background for his tow-in

Chowing down a deserved Powerbar after a long session

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Happy Paddling!

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Help save the Rizzanese river in Corsica island!

2008-10-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just got an email of Peter Lintner concerning the dam-project on the rizzanese river and the effort to save the river. Read the email below and please sign the online petition at the bottom:

Stop the building of the dam on the Rizzanese in Corsica island
If we do not react, a 131 feet high dam will tower over the bed of one of the most beautiful wild rivers of Europe.
We call for a halt of the works on the Rizzanese, in order to discuss properly other options less harmfull for the island.
The hydro-electricity is said to be green and sustainable: it is not so obvious.
The truth is that a river with a dam is a dead river.
The works on the river's site have started, justified by a technocratic gibberish that tries to turn this looting into a good thing.
The Rizzanese doesn't belong to us, neither it does to politicians and opportunists.
The Rizzanese belongs to nobody, it is a free river and a treasure that we should be able to share with our children, great-children, great-grandchildren...
Big dams are the last resort, when there is no other possibilities, when different choices have been discussed; this is not the case in the Rizzanese.
In order to face the real energy problem in Corsica without destroying an exceptional river.
In order to face the real employment issue while being respectuous of the nature, producing sustainable jobs outside the cities.
In order to avoid the desertification of villages becoming a fatality
We ask for the cancellation of the works, in order to discuss properly other options less harmfull for the island.

Please give your "signature" here:
Online petition

And here some pics of our Kuchl-Session in Austria last weekend:

Mid Air in the sidekick

Landing of Pan-Am and Toby in the waiting position

start of Cali-Roll

can you spot Toby? Nice sun-set in the mountains

tired at the end of the session ;-)

all pics by Maria Stelzig

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Hawaii Sur Rhone at a low water level

2008-10-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Finally I got around to edit the footage of my first couple of sessions in my new Fluid Nemesis M early this summer on the right channel of Hawai Sur Rhone at a low water level.

Check out the video-clip:

Happy paddling!

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Augsburg World Cup Pics and Low-La Malate - Salzburg - Saar-Splash Video-Mix

2008-09-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Just got a few pics from Peter Lintner of me at the Augsburg World Cup (Thanks!). Although I was quite dissatisfied with my rides as most of my moves got a little of track and were not counted by the judges, I on the other hand was really stoked about the fact that I started to stick phoenix monkeys and mc nasties at my "offside" during practice rides.
Below I put together some video-footage of the La Malate wave at the lowest level I`ve ever paddled it this spring, some action rides of the hardcore rodeo at Salzburg and the final rides of the German Big Air Championchips at the Saar-Splash.

All pics by www.peterlintner.de

check out the video:

cheers,
Markus

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La Malate Spring-Session 2008 Video clip

2008-09-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

After the first day of surfing on La Scie the water droped and the level for La Malate reached the optimum. Here the video clip of the second day of surfing and flying high on the Doubs river at La Malate.
Enjoy:

cheers,
Markus

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La Scie Spring-Session 2008 Video clip

2008-09-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

This last spring it was time again to react fast, the Doubs was high and we decided to leave for La Scie and La Malate immediately for the weekend.
Unfortunately I´didn´t have my own boat ready to leave at my place and therefore I was really glad that I could borrow the boat of Ingrid. That´s why I cut this short clip to say thanks again!
Although it was a kind of quick and dirty job check out the clip of the first day of the weekend at the La Scie-Wave. It was the warming up for La Malate the following day (I´ll try to cut that footage in the coming week). As it was the second time I was there that we got too much water for La Malate on the first day, therefore having a blast on first and getting the right level for La Malate on the second day, which is equivalent to time for collecting airmiles. On that weekend Stephane Pion also organized that the French TV was there covering the story about the "fight" to save the La Malate-Wave (www.sauvonslamalate.org) and filming the board surfers and kayakers having the time of their lifes. So check out the clip:

happy boating,
Markus

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Dutch Champs Freestyle/BoaterX & Best of Thun pics

2008-09-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Just got an Email from my bro Casper van Kalmthout and he told me that the shit is going down soon in the Netherlands. Here his short intro, a letter from the organizer and at the bottom my best of Thun pics.

"Read the txt below! It is going to be the biggest kayak event in Dutch history :) a perfect opportunity to visit the Netherlands for once to go kayaking!!"

Hi paddlers!

We’re organizing the Dutch Championships Freestyle, Slalom, DownRiver and BoaterX at our whitewater course Dutch Water Dreams.

This event will be on 19, 20 and 21th of September, @ Zoetermeer, the Netherlands.

For Freestyle, DownRiver and BoaterX it’s an OPEN Dutch Championship.

Dutchies can subscribe at:
Subscribe here

International paddlers can subscribe at:
Subscribe here

You can find the program here(it’s Dutch):
Program

You can stay and sleep at our area. There will also be a big party with DJ MAC FLY (David Arnaud).

So, hopefully we see your subscription @ WWW.KAJAKFESTIVAL.NL.

Friendly regards,
Paul v Boerdonk

Best of my Thun pics:

Nick Troutman backstabbing

Peter Csonka cleaning it up

Simon Strohmeier lands the backstab

Mat Dumoulin cleaning it up

Nick Troutman going for the airscrew

Markus Hummel C1 style

Dustin Urban in mid Helix

What would be Thun without a busy eddy? ;-)

Flying high again, guess who, Jason Craig

Emily Jackson at the backblunt

Ruth Gordon throwing down a backblunt

Stephen Wright going huge: air loop deluxe

Nouria Newman at the big air contest: who needs a paddle?

All pics by http://soulboater.blogspot.com

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Thun World Cup wrap up and DEVILS EXTREME RACE

2008-09-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

I just got back from 1 week of "paddling" in Thun. Unfortunately I got ill on the second day and coudn´t paddle for the rest of the trip. Nonetheless it was an awesome event and it was nice to see a lot of friends again. The wave was better than last year (see pic below) and should even get better next year for the worlds as the city is building an extra tunnel to regulate the waterlevel of the lake. Therefore I got really motivated to qualify for the worlds next year. We´ll see. For sure the competition and performed moves will be at a very high level, as the US boys already stuck impressive massive and highly dynamic pistol flips/mc nasties and combo moves like air blunt into pistol flip/mc nasty this year. It will be interesting to see how far the level will be pushed next year.

paddler: Mathieu Coldebella

I also met my old czech friends around Jakub Nemec and Jirka Kopecny who are organizing a superb kayaking event the coming weekend. The Devils Extreme Race on Vltava river (moldau) at the Lipno dam. The event consists of a extreme slalom race, a team race and a boatercross. Besides the races the social framework of the weekend is really big, with good food, music etc.
Check out their website below for more information and a video of the race last year.

http://devilsextremerace.com

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Outdoortrophy 2008

2008-08-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure to make a kind of guest appearance at the kayak endurance race of the outdoortrophy in lingenau (vorarlberg, austria). The kayak stretch is about 6km long and the fastest pro paddlers do it in around 31-32 Minutes. I needed 35,19 min and considering the fact that I didn´t have the time this year to paddle any distance training sessions this year I`m relly happy about the time and I´m highly motivated to cut the time by some minutes next year. Our amateur team "DJ´s Bikeshop" consited of the following athletes: Thomas Summer (mountain running, AUT), Reinhard Höfle (paragliding, AUT), Markus Laeppaenen (kayaking, GER) and Daniel Flatz (mountain biking, AUT). The different sports have to be done according to the appearance mentioned above. Check out the results and more info about the amazing and challenging event here: http://www.outdoortrophy.com/home-engl.htm

Last but not least the event had an amazing closing party. Cu at the race and party again next year!

Right after the start there is a small weir

In mid way and at the end you got a few slalom gates to master (up- and down-river)

Our "Dj's Bikeshop-Team" at the party

Still rocking

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Saar-Splash 2008 - Big Air Contest take two

2008-08-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I came back from two days of big air competition in Saarbrücken where the second German Kanu-Freestyle-Big-Air-Championchips were held. The Saar-Splah is integrated every year into the Saarspektakel a really big town-festival with a dragon-boat-race, music and all kind of stuff. Over the period of three days there are around 350.000 thousand people visiting the event.
For me it was the first time ever going over a artificial ramp with a kayak. Therefore I started slowly and tried to get used to the height of the ramp. Additionally I found it not to easy to initiate the moves without an active edge change. But after a few tries I started to get the hang of it and made the final with Martin Koll and Tobias Hüther. Martin, who has been able to start training on the ramp one day earlier with Tobias who is one of the organizers of the big air contest and therefore even had some experience from last year pushed the moves to a really high level. And I think that even with the same amount of training I wouldn´t have been able to challenge them both this year as I was too hesitant to initiate the move on the edge of the ramp. But next year I know what to expect and I´ll be back for sure! ;-) In the end it was a really close desicion with the happy ending for Tobias who is the German Kanu Big Air Champion of 2008 leaving Martin with the Silver Medal and me with the Bronze-Medal.
Besides the competition Saarbrücken is a really nice city and has to offer a sweet night life which we had the pleasure to experience as Tobias showed us some bars and clubs. Thanks for that Tobias and the effort you always put in the event!
Here some impressions:

Getting ready on top of the ramp

Amphibian cars in different styles in the background

Martin Koll going for the back loop

Toby working the mike

Toby in mid air going for the title

Martin and Toby after the last jump

Toby receiving kisses at the prize-giving

The boys happy about their prizes
Third place: ipod nano 4 GB, Second place: ipod nano 8 GB and first place ipod touch

Nadine Krämer happy about her new Teva shoes which she got because she was the only girl brave enough going down the ramp with a snowboard

All pics but last one by Nadine Krämer

cu there next year!

Saar-Splash - go big or go home!

2008-07-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hi,

if you´re in Germany on the weekend of the 01-03 of August or travelling back to the north of Europe after a paddling trip to the alpes check out this event in Saarbrücken, a town situated in the middle-west of Germany. The second Saar-Splash at the 10th Saar-Spectacle in Saarbrücken.
Check out this video of the event and the nice kicker/ramp last year. It will be the stage for a kayak-contest and besides you can throw down with your MTB, skis or board. In addition there will be a lot of things going on, e.g. a skydiving-show and one can try scuba-diving... Not to forget the famous After-Party...

Video Saar-Spektakel 2007 from Concept Lifestyle on Vimeo.

If you can read German or French, check out the official website of the event:
www.saarspektakel.de

For the registration send an email to: saarsplash2008@yahoo.de
Including your Name, Address, date of birth, sex and boat category. Because of a tight time schedule the number of participants is limited. The registration fee will not exceed 25 €. There will be just two classes, i.e. women and men. If you are underage, you need the signature of your parents.

Here some pics:

Pics by Jakob Käfer

Pic by Flo Jäger

cu there,
Markus

Nemesis test in the Washing Machine (Eiskanal)

2008-06-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I just have to agree with David Arnaud, the Fluid Nemesis loops like hell. I just had my first session in Augsburg at the washing machine, the spot where one of the three world cups will be held this year. What is really outstanding is that besides standard loops the boat goes really well with phoenix monkeys and McNasties. To cut the story short, here some pics from the loop-festival (and yeah I think a loop is the most photogenic move in a hole ;-) :

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Testival at the Whitewater-Course L'Espace Eau Vive (France)

2008-06-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

On our way home from two weeks of paddling in Lyon we stopped at the Whitewater Course L'Espace Eau Vive on the Isle de la Serre (www.espaceeauvive.fr) next to the village of Sault Brenaz for one day of paddling.
We were invited there by Jean Francois Fevre (aka Jeff), the French rep for Fluid, who had organized a public testival of the whole Fluid range of boats. It was also really nice to meet two of the French Fluid Team paddlers and friends, David Arnaud and Mat Coldebella.
The course is man-made but really beautiful as it looks like a natural river, no conrete-walls like in Augsburg. They also got a nice playhole where one can do all hole moves, not as big as the Washingmachine in Augsburg but easier to control. Just watch out while doing loops as it is quite shallow. Besides the course is ideal for beginners as there a a lot of big nice eddies. My girlfriend just learned the eskimo-roll in Lyon and was able to paddle down the whole course. No swim, one roll and a lot of adrenalin!
Here some pics of the whitewater course and testival:

Paddlers watching at the top hole

The main hole at the course

The smaller hole/wave after the main hole

Nice shute

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Surfing Hawaii, Haring and Quenelles in Lyon

2008-05-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

One week ago I came back from 10 days of surfing Hawaii Sur Rhone in Lyon. We went their to get my new playboat Fluid Nemesis in order to test it to the fullest on the wave and my new creeker Fluid Solo. We had medium/low levels but all moves were possible and anyway the spot was better than anything running at home. Besides we visited friends (had some local food like Quenelles, make sure you try it! Thanks to Romain and Kaki!), made some sightseeing in the old city of Lyon, did some sit-on-top paddling and visited the museum. If you´ll pass through Lyon in June, make sure to check out the Keith Haring exhibition (www.moca-lyon.org), which is running until the 29th of June.
My first impressions of the Nemesis on a wave in short:
The boat is really forgiving, easy to handle, very bouncy but still fast. The edges release really easily, so helixes etc. go smoothly.
So here all the pics from the trip, enjoy:

Outfitting, a matter which you should always devote enough time to in order to be able to control the boat to the fullest

Backstab

Pistol-Flip part 1

Pistol-Flip part 2

Backstabbing once more

To relax the worn out muscles from the wave-action Jeff, the french rep for Fluid, took us on a river trip with the Fluid sit-on-tops, Chumani (single) and Synergy (double). It was my premiere with sit-ons and a lot of fun, especially with the awesome scenery on the Saône, the Lyon city buildings and the magnificent weather:

Jeff the chef himself

The Keith Haring exhibition (www.moca-lyon.org)

Quite original Asian food eatery at Lac de Miribell
Thanks to Jeff, Miriam and Alice for their local support and hospitality!

Thanks to Maria for all the pics!

PS: Even fishermen are using the fanciest watercraft nowadays ;-)

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Last but not Least Maria learnt the Eskimo-Roll and afterwards went straight for a paddle through Hawaii Sur Rhone in the middle of the river. Respect!

Finally one picture by Markus Leppänen ;-)

Last Time on the Reichenbacher-Wave (Munich) as it used to be

2008-05-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we had a nice level on the Isar in Munich and the Reichnbacher-Wave was in. Below you see some pics of the sunny session. Just a few days after the session I crossed the bridge and what did I see, the "city-workers" had thrown in the river some tons of rocks in the process of their renaturation of the Isar and thereby created a huge additional eddy which nearly flooded the wave, made it rather small/flatt and there was no way in catching it on the fly anymore as it had shifted to the middle of the river. We´ll have to see how the wave is when there is less or more water and maybe they are still in the constructing process of the new river banks so further things might change... I´ll post pics of the "new" wave, when I get there the next time.
Besides I paddled that day my new Nookie gear for the first time. Awesome snug fit of the 3/4 neo pants and really super comfortable neck and wrist seals on the Airhead Dry Shell Jacket. Last but not least I honestly have to say that the Rivermonster Buoyancy Aid of Nookie has the best fit of a life vest I have ever tried.

Going for the Pistol-Flip

Flipturn
All pictures by Maria Stelzig

Take 2 - Big Wave La Malate 2008

2008-04-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

The last two days I got eMails from Jules Gallais and Stéphane Pion with additional shots. Especially some nice lifestyleshots.

La Scie:
Munich surfers, French and Munich paddlers eagerly awaiting their turn at La Scie

Stéphane aka Daron himself throwing down a huge flashback

pictures by Aurelien Bruet

La Malate:
Just above the drop in into the La Malate Wave

Nice close-up side-kick from a different angle above the wave

Same angle different move: going for the california-roll

pictures by www.dkayaking.net

Same move different angle and still catching airmiles...

After the first session we had lunch. Just perfect, sun and sitting right in front of the wave with the action going on without pause.

A lot of onlookers and paparazzi whatching the show

Food, so good after a hard paddle! ;-)

Waiting to get back in the rumble

Always amazing if you see the point of take of left in the top of the wave.

Seppi enyoing the bounce or being amused that he just missed the bounce of his life. But the good thing is at la Malate the next perfect bounce is just 10 seconds away... ;-)

Even on the other bank people where enjoying the spectacle

The not surfable whole on the other side of the river

Did I already say that I love spray and air ;-)

Oh, nearly forgot one of my favorites: the helix (oh boy, on Malate it´s soo fast)

And last but not least thanks to all paparazzi, as without you we couldn´t show anything to our grandchildren

pictures by Aurelien Bruet

PS: I was doing a boat-colour-check on that weekend (red, yellow and green) and I think red won or maybe yellow...

Watch this movie! - www.sharkwater.com

2008-04-20T03:39:00.000-07:00

We´re back - La Malate 2008 - French TV helping to save the wave

2008-04-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

What a weekend. The level of the Doubs was going up and we decided to hit the road. After 6 hours drive we arrived at La Scie (the upstream wave of La Malate) at 2 o`clock in the morning. We checked the waterlevel and it was already nearly optimal for the La Scie wave, which means "too high" (= not optimal) for La Malate. Therefore we stayed the night there and the next morning we got perfect level for La Scie. Besides we met again a lot of good old friends from France and Switzerland.
Unfortunately I wasn´t able to bring my own Riot Astro, therefore I had to paddle different boats, which wasn´t too bad, as checking the other designs is a lot of fun as well.
Besides the French TV came to get some footage about the efforts to save the La Malate Wave. Check the TV footage here: TV Clip

Here some impressions of the weekend:

Just after waking up. Tress standing in the water, in the front and in the background.

Taking a quick breakfast so we get on the water before the crowds arrive.

Also some Munich Surfers ripped the wave.

Warming up before the first session.

Getting used to the wave and boat.

Throwing a PanAm
Going for the pistol-flip

Somehow looks funny. Like I just got hammered into a cream pie ;-)

Simon doing his thing.

Mathieu going big.

"Old Man Jan" doing the sidekick.

Nice profile of the other Jan.

Sunset of the first day.

La Malate auto-bounce.

Sidekicking all the way.

Nice spray.

One of the best places to fly - the La Malate Wave.

On the third day the level at Malate had dropped 100m3 to around 400m3 and it was less big, less steep, quite flushy but still great. One advantage was that one could enter the wave via eddy-service and one hadn´t to worry about getting trashed in the whole next to the wave.

Much smaller but still enabling all moves.

After a sunny session it was time to head back home.

All pictures by Maria Stelzig

Surf étiquette at the Eisbach-Wave in Munich

2008-01-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

When I first posted the story about the plans of the city of Munich to close down the Eisbach-Wave I got a lot of positive feedback out of the paddling world. But nonetheless there were also a few negative responses about helping those surfers to protect the wave they claim for themselves and don´t want to share with others. In addition I got loads of questions about the status of the situation between the surfers and kayakers at the wave and on how to prevent trouble at the wave.
First of all I have to state that I think there are mostly cool surfers at the wave or at least most surfers would tolerate kayakers. But although the percentage of intolerante surfers is quite low it often is enough if one surfer is stubborn and denies you the entry. Probably I should shortly explain here that in order to enter the wave paddlers have to push themselves over two wooden planks (see in following video clip). The same planks where the surfers await their turn and if they leave no space for you on the plank you can´t get yourselve over the wood.
As you see in the clip you can be lucky and there are up to 10 surfers present who are not complaining and let you enter when it is your turn. But the climate can change immediately if just one kusipää enters the sceene. Other surfers might follow his example and you wont get the chance anymore to enter the wave. In general I would
suggest to not go there with a kayak if there are more than 3 surfers. On the day of filming I just got into the boat because a friend of mine needed to
make a short movie for his studies. Well I got lucky, just cool surfers around. But for sure the possibility of one black sheep increases with more surfers
on the water. One of the arguments of some surfers is that the kayakers destroy the wave when they hit the wood ramps on the bottom of the wave while doing blunts etc. And thereby induce more adjustment work of the wave and even the wearout of the ropes (the wood ramps are attached to ropes) is higher. Well I think most of the kayakers would be more than happy to contribute to the material cash box or help hands on keeping the wave in good shape if the result would be a friendly coexistence.

Very important are a few rules which should be followed when going to surf at the Eisbach:

1. with a kayak, never pull yourself in the wave alongside the wooden planks. As it takes ages and during that time no other surfer can enter the wave and all have to wait for you.

2. Always keep in line and just enter the wave when it is your turn.

3. Don´t stay in the wave for ages. Do a few moves and then go for a big exit move. Try to keep the wave-time similar to the time the surfers take.

4. Don´t practice flatwater stuff in the area where the surfers swim back to the shore, as they are apprehensive of paddles and boat-ends.

5. If you do vertical moves, do them airial and don´t go deep. As otherwise you might touch the wooden planks on the ground which in turn may change the wave to the worse, i.e. it starts to break the whole way and there´s no green part left. No good for wave moves and certainly not appreciated by the surfers.

How to enter the wave:

Happy Surfing and Oh, Behave - together for one cause!

Tribute to la Malate: One of the greatest River Waves

2008-01-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

Last year I was with friends twice at the la Malate wave and we had loads of fun.
Because of the news that the wave is endangered I cut a small video clip:

Please take a few minutes, read the news, send the letter and spread the word to your friends!

French Information:
French

English Information:
English

Thanks a lot for your help!
Markus

Save the Malate-Wave in France!

2008-01-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends,

I just got an eMail from my friend Stephane Pion out of France with the disturbing news that the awesome la malate wave is in danger.
Therefore please have a look at his letter (below) and support the cause in every way you can.

Here the official letter to print out in English:
English Version

Here the French Version:
French Version

Thanks,
Markus
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

Please help us defend the wave of "la Malate".

For the last years, a lot of kayakers (slalom paddlers and freestylers) have been paddling on this wave, probably one of the biggest in the world (I believe so ! J)

But now, this spot is threatened by a micropower station project which will destroy the wave !!

That's why I ask for your help by sending the letter attached to this email to the city hall of Besancon in order to have an international support with a maximum of letters against this project ASAP.

We have an association and a web site:
www.sauvonslamalate.org

Sorry but for the moment it's in French only. ( you can translate the web site with google of course)

Please send this email to all the Presidents of the kayak club you know, all the professional kayakers and to the different forums in the world.

We need your help !!

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards

Stephane pion

ps: happy new year my friends ;)

Lyon impressions 2007

2007-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

Last year we had awesome days at Hawaii sur Rhone (Lyon, France). First in the preparation for the worlds in Canada and later just for fun. Unfortunately we didn´t get the wall and wall B on tape, but I´m looking forward to get them on film next year.

A few impressions from our sessions this year:

Happy New Year!

Video of Big-Push Wave (Skamsar rapid, Otta river, Norway)

2007-12-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

Finally it is done, my first homemade video is finished ;-)
After promising to publish the footage after the summer trip it took me some time to get the hardwear together. Well, last week I bought a new laptop and got straight to work and although it is just a really simple and rudimental clip, it was huge fun cutting it and spending the first hours with the cutting programm.

Check it out:

Here some information about the feature:
blog post Big-Push wave

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Stop the B.A. Surfboard Ban

2007-12-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

in brief:

British Airways has announced that as of 6th November this year it will no longer be carrying surfboards on any flights.

For the sake travelling surfers, windsurfers, canoeists and kayakers worldwide, the British Surfing Association strongly objects, and asks for your support.

online petition

Thanks!

River access for all: sign online petition

2007-11-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

The Welsh Canoeing Association (WCA) are currently lobbying the Welsh Assembly to introduce a Land Reform Bill for Wales which would give the right of responsible access to the open countryside and inland waters of Wales. The power to introduce such legislation was transferred from Westminster to Cardiff last July, and we are currently in a position where Assembly members are seriously looking at the WCA proposals. If passed the pressure would greatly increase on Westminster to follow suit for England.

Although the law regarding access to the countryside in England and Wales was recently clarified through the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000), this, however, did not include inland waters. As such water sport enthusiasts often face uncertainty as to their legal rights when utilising non-tidal waters. There is no guarantee that a canoeist, for example, will not be committing an act of trespass by simply traveling down a river where they have not obtained permission from all those who own land along the stretch being paddled. Introducing a Land Reform Bill would remove such uncertainties and allow all to enjoy their natural heritage rather than making it the preserve of a privileged few

If you support idea of a Land Reform Bill for Wales, please sign the online petition at http://petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=2856. The Government of Wales Act (2006) requires the Assembly to act on petitions received if an issue falls within their powers so, if we get enough people to sign, this petition can make a difference .The Welsh Assembly have confirmed that signatures from anywhere in the world are appropriate, so please sign up. It only takes a matter of seconds. Similar lobbying helped in getting the Scottish Parliament to pass the Land Reform Act (2003).

Many thanks for your support. For more information please visit http://www.canoeingisnotacrime.org.uk.

Best regards

The Canoeing is Not a Crime team

Reminder for the Open Dutch Championships Freestyle & Boatercross

2007-10-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

NK FREESTYLE KAYAKING!

Saturday 13 October: Dutch Championship Freestyle Kayaking and Boatercross
Location: The Wild Water Complex at Dutch Water Dreams, Zoetermeer.
Subscription fee: Boatercross €15,- Freestyle/Boatercross € 30,-.

Contact: www.tevaplayboatcup.nl

The Dutch Open Championships in Freestyle Kayaking and Boatercross will take place at Dutch Water Dreams in Zoetermeer on Saturday, 13 October. The event will be rounded off with some spectacular side events. The Dutch Championships mark the end of the Teva Playboat Cup 2007 and promises to be Holland’s greatest wild water spectacle of the year. BE THERE!

The freestyle competition will be held on the upper wave, while the boatercross goes down the whole course. Training possibilities are on Friday night from 10:00 -12:00 pm followed by a party in Dutch Water Dream’s Beachhouse.

Freestyle prelims start on Saturday morning 10:00 am. After an afternoon break the Teva Skydive Team will officially open the evening schedule, together with dazzling demonstrations by the Go Fast Jetski Team.

In a fully enlightened course the racers of the boatercross will fight their way through to the finals and the freestyle kayakers will amuse the public with their great variety of moves.

From 6.30 pm until midnight the competitors and the crowd will be entertained by the beats and sounds of nightclub DJ Oscar Allgood, while X-treme sports reporter Seb van den Berg (Eurosport) compères the proceedings.The whole evening’s activities are open to the public.

You can find more info about the schedule and subscription on:
www.tevaplayboatcup.nl

CU THERE!!!

The Dutch Championships are organised by Kanoshop in co-operation with Teva, Dutch Water Dreams, Salt Magazine and the Dutch Canoe Association (NKB).

Save the wave - sign up now!

2007-09-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Two Munich Newspapers announced on the 15.09.07 that the city is planning to shut down the Munich Eisbach Wave. This wave is an artificial wave in downtown Munich, which has been there since the seventies. And has brought much delight to surfers and kayakers for decades. As well as to Tourists who stop by in huge numbers.

Although I got issues with around 30% of the board surfers at the Eisbach it is worth supporting the rest 70% of them who are cool and easy going guys and girls. Besides it would be a pity to loose that splendid small wave. As it is always good for a late night surf, when the 30% mentioned above are not around.

Therefore I appeal to all of you to go to that website below and put down your names in that online collection of signatures in order to try to prevent that disaster:

Signature collection: www.rettet-die-eisbachwelle.de

PS: maybe good to include something about kayaking in the "Profession" field [e.g. Manager (passionate kayaker)]. Just to make a statement: Surfers and Kayakers can/should work and have fun together!

Thanks a lot!

cheers,
Markus

Help to improve the protection of eyesight on the water!

2007-09-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

The girlfriend of a good friend of mine is doing her masterthesis about the visual situation/correction amongst kayakers/canoeists/rafters in view of specific conditions for water sports.

If you got time please fill out the online-survey. It just takes 3 Minutes and might help to improve products for our vision on the water.

Survey:
English: http://www.kayakvision.com/
German: http://www.kayakvision.de/

Feel free to forward these links to your friends! ;-)

cheers,
Markus

Die krasseste Welle "La Malate" was back!

2007-08-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

This time it was their turn and I love the Strohmeier-Bros for giving me a call! "The Doubs is up and probably on Saturday La Scie will be in and on Sunday La Malat..."
Therefore we packed the car and headed for La Scie. Unexpectedly the level for La Scie was already too low when we got there in the morning but knowingly that this would mean La Malate would soon be in, we continued our way downstream. And after approx. 40 km we reached the wave which was still too high, which means too flat. So we chilled and after a couple of ours the perfect wave was in. As well as the Swiss friends Simon, Luc, Flo, some Dutchies, and Marco from Freiburg. As well the legendary two parts of the 3 French Riders, Stephane aka Daron and Romain.
All in all, we had a blast of a time and will be back for the next La Malate session, period!

The hole was big as usual ;-)

On Sunday the waterlevel has dropped and I had my premiere at LaMalate with entering the wave via the eddy and through the hole. And as another friend would say "Easy"! At lower levels the wave is not so high and steep anymore but on the other hand you got nice eadyservice.
I also tried the big Astro 58 of Arnd for the first time and I really liked its fastness on the wave. But nevertheless it is too big for me (173 cm, 67kg) and I prefer the Astro 54.

all pictures by Marco Schlink

picture by Simon Hirter

for a short video check this out: Big Wave Hunting