By: Adam Chappell
When the line ups are long on the Ottawa why not take a trip to Montreal? There are a few world class waves with no line ups AWESOME!!!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Summer Creeking and a Raquette Head's Up
By:Philip Kompass
Summertime, and the livings easy. Corny. Whatever. Its true. Here in Ottawa we are lucky to have so many whitewater options, seriously lucky. What people often overlook, once the summer low Ottawa playboat season hits, it the absolutely stellar creeking options that open up in the later season.
This past week, a few of the OPS lads (Eric, Mike and myself) and a handful of friends headed down the 416 to the grand ole' US of A and the Raquette River, Stone Valley Section in Colton NY.
A 90 minute drive brings you to one of the hardest rivers in the East - or at least one of the steepest. But with guaranteed water due to American Whitewater's negotiated releases, we bored creekboaters can get our fix.
There will be several more releases this summer, so make sure you check it out.
As well, on the Labour Day weekend, there is plenty of dam release whitewater to go around, as the taps turn on for the Moshier, Taylorville, Black, Eagle and Raquette. Options from Class III to Class V. Go get some.
Raquette Race Wrap-Up 2010:
Five2Nine Productions - Events - The Raquette Race 2010 from Five2Nine Productions on Vimeo.
Raquette Update:
The mid-point staging eddy on Colton Falls has changed substantially, ad is worth a scout. Without going into too much detail, several racks have shifted in high water events this spring and the staging eddy below the small boof now flushes quickly into the slide. Give it a scout before running next time, as it may well affect your line choice.
The landing of this boof (see below) now flushes quickly into the main slide, and / or into unintended rock splats on the boulder at the lip.
LIQUIDLORE RAQUETTE GUIDE - CLICK HERE
++++
A 90-minute drive the other direction brings you to the Seven Sisters of the Rouge River, another great, but more forgiving, set of Class IV/V drops located near Calumet, QC (across the Ottawa from Hawkesbury). Runnable at levels of below 50, and prime between >35 and 15 cms, this section just dropped in. OPS paddler Marcos Gallegos got a high water run on Thursday, and McKay and I were able to on it on Sunday (37). This is a stellar section for those interested in practicing their boof stroke, or just dealing mentally with new rapids on a creekier type of river.
LIQUIDLORE ROUGE RIVER - 7 SISTERS VIDEO GUIDE - CLICK HERE
Summertime, and the livings easy. Corny. Whatever. Its true. Here in Ottawa we are lucky to have so many whitewater options, seriously lucky. What people often overlook, once the summer low Ottawa playboat season hits, it the absolutely stellar creeking options that open up in the later season.
This past week, a few of the OPS lads (Eric, Mike and myself) and a handful of friends headed down the 416 to the grand ole' US of A and the Raquette River, Stone Valley Section in Colton NY.
A 90 minute drive brings you to one of the hardest rivers in the East - or at least one of the steepest. But with guaranteed water due to American Whitewater's negotiated releases, we bored creekboaters can get our fix.
There will be several more releases this summer, so make sure you check it out.
As well, on the Labour Day weekend, there is plenty of dam release whitewater to go around, as the taps turn on for the Moshier, Taylorville, Black, Eagle and Raquette. Options from Class III to Class V. Go get some.
Raquette Race Wrap-Up 2010:
Five2Nine Productions - Events - The Raquette Race 2010 from Five2Nine Productions on Vimeo.
Raquette Update:
The mid-point staging eddy on Colton Falls has changed substantially, ad is worth a scout. Without going into too much detail, several racks have shifted in high water events this spring and the staging eddy below the small boof now flushes quickly into the slide. Give it a scout before running next time, as it may well affect your line choice.
The landing of this boof (see below) now flushes quickly into the main slide, and / or into unintended rock splats on the boulder at the lip.
LIQUIDLORE RAQUETTE GUIDE - CLICK HERE
++++
A 90-minute drive the other direction brings you to the Seven Sisters of the Rouge River, another great, but more forgiving, set of Class IV/V drops located near Calumet, QC (across the Ottawa from Hawkesbury). Runnable at levels of below 50, and prime between >35 and 15 cms, this section just dropped in. OPS paddler Marcos Gallegos got a high water run on Thursday, and McKay and I were able to on it on Sunday (37). This is a stellar section for those interested in practicing their boof stroke, or just dealing mentally with new rapids on a creekier type of river.
LIQUIDLORE ROUGE RIVER - 7 SISTERS VIDEO GUIDE - CLICK HERE
Saturday, August 6, 2011
OPS paddler Adam Chappell's Worlds Championship experience
This year was one of the biggest events in freestyle kayaking, the 2011 World Championships which took place about a 1 hour train ride from Munich, in Plattling, Germany. This was my second trip to Germany, since I attended the World Cup last year in Augsburg and Plattling. I placed second in the Junior Men’s division in Augsberg behind Dane Jackson, but the Plattling portion of the competition never took place though, due to heaving flooding that sweep through Germany as a result of nearly three straight weeks of rain.
I trained very hard leading up to this year’s event, spending every free minute I could manage on the water, at any hole I could find. I also spent a lot of time at Champlain because that feature is the most similar to Plattling that we have in Ottawa. I didn’t know if I would be able to go to the World Championships until early March, since I was the second alternate on Team Canada. However, luckily for me, 3 people dropped out, which meant that Joel Kowalski and I got to compete at Worlds. I didn’t want to miss my High School Graduation ceremony, so I ended up arriving in Plattling much later than everyone else on the Team Canada. It did not take long to see how much of a mess 300+ paddlers could make of a town. There were paddlers everywhere!
I was in town for less than 30 minutes before I got on the water. I had only 5 days to train before the competition began, so I planned to make them count. I attended team training which was only a one hour session each day, but I also paddled from around 9 p.m. each evening until 1 a.m. in the morning to try to learn the feature in the little time I had.
The first time I got on the wave my confidence dropped! I had a lot of trouble sticking even simple tricks, like air loops and could barely get any big tricks going. After a few sessions on the wave, Nick Troutman of Team Canada, and the World Champion at the time, had a few quick words with me.
The things he said boosted my confidence and the next time I went out on the wave, I started throwing my big tricks. I just focused on slowing everything down and throwing everything by the book, one thing at a time. Thank you Nick!
When competition time came around, I was super excited to get out on the wave and to get at it. Not that I nervous, I was just anxious to get my results and see how I could do against the world’s best paddlers. My first heat I was super excited! I have never been as happy as I was when I was paddling towards the wave with hundreds of people watching. I was confident in my training and I threw down my best ride of the competition. My second ride was not as good unfortunately. I got a bit over confident, I think, and cut some corners. I didn’t set my moves up the way I’d practiced and ended up in 23rd position, barely making the first cut. The cut off was at 25th place so, luckily, I got to move on to the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals, I managed to move up in the rankings from 23rd to 17th place, but that wasn’t enough to make the cut for the semi-finals. At first, I was disappointed with my placement, but I realized, I’m still only 18 years old and I plan to go back and do even better! So, I spent the next few days cheering on the Team Canada members that were still in the competition and partying at Volksfest.
All in all, it was a very, very good time. Great paddlers from all over the world in one place, it can't get much better than that. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to learn a lot and I know that next time will be different. I will be even more prepared.
I’ve been training hard almost every day since I got back from Germany. Hard enough, I hope, to take first place at Canada’s next team trials, and who knows, maybe first place at the next Worlds!
I trained very hard leading up to this year’s event, spending every free minute I could manage on the water, at any hole I could find. I also spent a lot of time at Champlain because that feature is the most similar to Plattling that we have in Ottawa. I didn’t know if I would be able to go to the World Championships until early March, since I was the second alternate on Team Canada. However, luckily for me, 3 people dropped out, which meant that Joel Kowalski and I got to compete at Worlds. I didn’t want to miss my High School Graduation ceremony, so I ended up arriving in Plattling much later than everyone else on the Team Canada. It did not take long to see how much of a mess 300+ paddlers could make of a town. There were paddlers everywhere!
I was in town for less than 30 minutes before I got on the water. I had only 5 days to train before the competition began, so I planned to make them count. I attended team training which was only a one hour session each day, but I also paddled from around 9 p.m. each evening until 1 a.m. in the morning to try to learn the feature in the little time I had.
The first time I got on the wave my confidence dropped! I had a lot of trouble sticking even simple tricks, like air loops and could barely get any big tricks going. After a few sessions on the wave, Nick Troutman of Team Canada, and the World Champion at the time, had a few quick words with me.
The things he said boosted my confidence and the next time I went out on the wave, I started throwing my big tricks. I just focused on slowing everything down and throwing everything by the book, one thing at a time. Thank you Nick!
When competition time came around, I was super excited to get out on the wave and to get at it. Not that I nervous, I was just anxious to get my results and see how I could do against the world’s best paddlers. My first heat I was super excited! I have never been as happy as I was when I was paddling towards the wave with hundreds of people watching. I was confident in my training and I threw down my best ride of the competition. My second ride was not as good unfortunately. I got a bit over confident, I think, and cut some corners. I didn’t set my moves up the way I’d practiced and ended up in 23rd position, barely making the first cut. The cut off was at 25th place so, luckily, I got to move on to the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals, I managed to move up in the rankings from 23rd to 17th place, but that wasn’t enough to make the cut for the semi-finals. At first, I was disappointed with my placement, but I realized, I’m still only 18 years old and I plan to go back and do even better! So, I spent the next few days cheering on the Team Canada members that were still in the competition and partying at Volksfest.
All in all, it was a very, very good time. Great paddlers from all over the world in one place, it can't get much better than that. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to learn a lot and I know that next time will be different. I will be even more prepared.
I’ve been training hard almost every day since I got back from Germany. Hard enough, I hope, to take first place at Canada’s next team trials, and who knows, maybe first place at the next Worlds!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)