Video :)

Through Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty-four Corsican Curves

Right before Easter holiday, me and a group of THE best Slovene paddlers set off to enjoy the beautiful rivers of the magical Mediterranean island Corsica. After hanging around for a day in the cozy and clean docks of Italian port Livotno due to a delay of the ferry, we had finally seen the bank of Corsican shore at the sunset.

Our warm up river was the Travo, because it was one of the few which got water at the time and partly because its allowed to be paddled only mondays and fridays. Nevertheless, the water level was more than satisfying and our rather large multicultural crew of 8 Slovenians, myself and one Hungarian practiced to get nicely organized, so that there was no need to split into smaller groups after all and we could enjoy all together – the rivers:).

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Next in the row was the Fium Orbo, river which floats through the most magical valley I have ever seen. For this one, we teamed up with Jakub Šedivý, Jakub Němec and his charming wife Meg Smith, who refused to paddle with anyone else than our cool group with Fizo in the lead :) 

This is the entry rapid to Upper Orbo gorge, which every sane earthling portages and the Jakubs just style..Unfortunately, we got here one dislocated shoulder, practiced the rescue action and first aid and Filipko had spent the rest of the trip drinking and smoking like a hell, just not to get mad of watching us all paddling..

Pretty narrow toboggan on lower Orbo. Just do not get scared and hold your paddle on the side so that you don't get stuck...

Enjozing the numerous playful drops in the lower gorge...

After raising our naked bums from the natural hot spring in the middle of a tiny french village, we put on the Taravo in the middle of another warm sunny day. This completely white rapid was one of the sort of "just for the Jakubs and few brave ones" as it got pretty tricky entry and nasty looking rock right under the surface just at the bottom. You don´t wanna flip there...

Here is me and Štricko running the famous "Five-finger Rapid", great fun and as some would say whoop whoop;)!

Chilling like gypsies on da road after lower Taravo.

When we reached the Rizzanesse, we greeted our donkey acquaintance, hesitated a little over the water gauge and than determinedly put on. Despite the low water level, the great slides were simply delightful. 

You can see many sober faces at the scouting of a Rizzanesses´ well known seven meter waterfall but also you can hear many shouts of victory at the bottom. Our group made it with only one broken paddle blade, which can be considered as a success.

However, the dam is almost done, so most of the upper part will be flooded together with some rapids of its tributary the Codi. Moreover, the lower part water level will be dependent on the power station, which means, as we all know, sadly dry most of the year...How can they ever allow it...

 The beauty of Corsica - the nature changes every few kilometers (from Canadian deep forests to central Bohemian groves) and it takes less than an hour to reach the snowy mountain tops from the sandy sea shore -heaven on earth!

Our last one was the Codi - steep narrow creek running through a "lord-of-the-rings-charming-elf valley". Though it looked like having no water at all from the bridge, it was more than fun when the brook cut into the narrow crack and we were just laughing like mad after every waterfall and slide (except the one where I hurt my back landing too flat...).

To conclude, Zet-sunset taken on the most romantic beach at the north shore of the Corsica island:) 

Photo courtesy of Jakub Šedivý ( http://jakubsedivy.com/) . 

Check out other pictures on https://picasaweb.google.com/bbrabcova/Corsica2011# .

On New Veloc

   When my babyblue Veloc arrived from the Czech bakery directly to Slovenia, I was all but eager to finally try it out in the emerald rapids of Soča river. Well, this is the outcome in form of my first feelings about this new boat for girls and lighter boaters. Already after the first few strokes, it is quite obvious that speed won't be a problem for Veloc. This becomes evident also while surfing on a smaller waves (guess it applies to a big ones too:) The boat is stable on one hand, so that one feels pretty safe, however it is really lively and playful on the other hand. For instance, catching eddies is one great joy with Veloc. In comparison with Raptor it has a more rocker, which makes it stay on the surface while running through holes and allows the paddler smoothly escape even from a rather tight spots. The shape of Veloc is nicely balanced, which means that when the seat is well adjusted, it is not tail funky. Thanks to its hull and front edges the boat keeps the intended direction on a big water, although it's nimble and easily managable even with lighter strokes on narrow creeks. The same counts for boofing that is sound and sweet with Veloc. The proof might be admiring smiles on the faces of slovenian spectators after every drop I've ran so far. After all, I'd say we're gonna be a good team together with Veloc:)

Photo courtesy of Jakub Šedívý and Gregor Zadravec

Neeepal 2010 - Halo Dunga Expedition

After all the flight arrangements were made, couple of meetings by few pints of beer were held and all the things were packed up to 30 kg weight limit(including boat, paddles and gear), our group took off for Nepal for one month. A bunch of guys and myself were heading to a beautiful country of the Himalayan mountain range and pretty wide spectrum of amazing wild rivers in the heart of jungles.


As the rest of the boys are still there in Nepal, its take some time but many more shots are coming. However, I ve managed to gain at least the first set (picts altogether out of three cameras) of an amazing pictures from our trip, soooo here we go;o)

Delhi airport transfer. We ve experienced some pretty desperate and too long moments sitting there with only one checked out boat, having no clue whatsoever where the other six and two large packs of paddles are. Luckily, all the naturally overloaded boats finally arrived and we could smoothly continue further to Kathmandu.

I was particularly stoked for the completely different culture and overall alien lifestyle which you experience out there..So I literally forced that bunch of lowbrows to explore at least some culture:o) The complex of the Pashupatinath temple, most important Hindu religious sight.

The Sadhus “holy men” called Shaivas for their dedication to Shiva, most significant Hindu god. Here waiting for an alms...

Preparations on put in on the Upper Sun Kosi, nice playful run with huge crazy waves..It takes some time to get used to the crowds of people just standing and staring like u were the best Tv show...

Jakub Sedivy in the rapids of the Bhote Kosi, guess its the scary “The Wall”.. We unfortunately caught the late monsoon, so the water levels were higher than usual in that season..Especially for me were some of the things surely in the category “not for me”, few even in the category “only for Jakub” - judging by my not solitary portages:oD

However the ones I did were mostly pretty huge... Was just paddling my best through those sparkly bubbles of massive waves and holes which pushed me somewhere deep together with my tiny cute Chico... I was really ecstatic when we finished the run (and also terribly exhausted:o)

How can the Nepalese and the European dresses match :o)

Incredibly cheap and incredibly uncomfortable. Despite that, rides on the bus roof racks are soooo exhilarating, you need to be well wedged in , so you don t catapult off when the bus swerves or lurches. You also need to be aware of the low-hanging wires and branches zooming over your head. Did I mentioned the fellow goat- travellers (literally!) and great views?

For Marsyandi river the Bassos joined our group and we made together with Michelle some pretty cute girls rides, getting caught by sticky holes, smashed by massive waves , but still smiling like the hell for the pictures:o) Almost our whole crew here on the pict .

Mark conducting me trough one of the wilder rapids...The only instruction: „You don t want on be on the left...“ Well, I rather was..but still, to get blasted by huuuge diagonal wasn t so bad as one would think, quite sensational feeling:o)

The second day of the Marsy was not only demanding but loong as well. We ve paddled till darkness first on a fancy whitewater, later on beautiful panoramic flow..I was still truly happy they provide the Chicos with soo comfy seats, like really, cant imagine sitting on something else practically for the whole day...

The Madi was other jolly good trip, amazing two days with an epic oversleep. The times by the warm, almost family fire were just good, but to bundle in a Nepalese storm and heavy heavy rain fully dressed in paddling gear were for most rather strong experience:o) Naturally, who would take a tent or a tarp on a multiday...

Moreover,you can meet fairly monstrous rapids there too! And I must admitt that I was really glad that „Chicky“(nick for my boat:o) was still behaving so well even stuffed with kilos and kilos of food, sleeping bags, mattresses and many more unnecessary rubbish. I felt just a little difference and was still gliding smoothly over the white wild rapids:o)

Here is just a little teaser for another stories from our awesome Annapurna trek and adventures from the Himalayan creek Modi.
Matěj and Vojta carrying the boats up and up and up...

Snižák in the rapids of Modi:o)

There are definitely more pictures coming, also a presentation of all the picts is being planned and we ve also made rather pretty shots for some video, sooooo stay tuned ;o)

Bety

Thanks for an amazing pictures to "© 2010 Pepicek" http://wwzeny.blogspot.com/ .

Other pictures on: https://picasaweb.google.com/bbrabcova/Nepal12010#

Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2010

The first half of June is becoming a traditional time for great and prestigious outdoor competition Teva Outdoor Games. That‘s why we filled our van with friends and kayaks and went off to Italian Piemont.

Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa

On the long way from Prague we stopped on Brandenberger Ache, which had a nicely huge 70 cm (the gauge is changed - 70 was about 95 on the old one). Than we moved to Swiss on Versasca, which had very nice higher water (about 25 cumecs), so we greatly enjoyed all the astonishingly bluish rapids and jumps. Finally, we arrived to the area of cozy Italian city Ivrea, ran nearby river Soanna and started practicing on Chiusella – the river chosen for the competition. The 72 competing men joined Matej Sottner, Jirka Srbek, Mira Kodada and Jirka Kopecny from our group and I registered among the 9 girls.

Versasca, foto by Matej Sottner

The two kilometer long racing part for sprints was the same for men, girls and teams. It included many nice jumps and rapids, few sifons, nice slide and an about 5m high rocky waterfall. There could have been seen quite nasty falls head down, backwards and even before the race a dislocated shoulder of our Slovenian friend, which prevented him from competing. Otherwise, the steep river hadn’t got much water, despite a horrible rainy weather, and therefore were all the runs rather stony.

Last drop on Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa.

The sprints were held on Thursday, starting with jump from a three meter high rock and with the system of one half of the competing field making the rescue, which was sometimes needed:o)

Chiusella, foto by Matej Sottner

First twenty top men from the sprints moved up to the waterfalls of the much more difficult part of the river for the King of the Falls competition. This race was very exciting, especially for the audience, thanks to a 6 meter high and very tricky waterfall. From our group qualified for the race Honza Lasko, who ended up on a wonderful 3rd place, Palo Andrassy and Jirka Kopečný, who went both pretty well too. Hero of that competitions was a french guy Eric Deguil who ran the first fall almost head first, broke the paddle, swam out and bravely finished the competition single-bladed, as he is french representative for slalom canu:o)

Upper Chiusella, foto by Honza Lasko

The team sprints took place on Friday and as far as I‘d noticed nothing special happened there, cause all the teams went really great. Interesting where four mixed teams, which were, however, out of competition.

The French team, foto by Michal Kroupa

After two days on the river the race moved right to the center of Ivrea, on a slalom course. The slalom course, however, didn‘t make the racing less hard core, even though the slalom paddlers had definitely a big advantage here. Despite no real sticky holes, many competitors were struggling with the powerful stream and the wildly circulating eddies could have been classified by level WW IV:o) About 30 cumecs run through the otherwise steep and considerably short course, and this was approximately the water level we had during Friday training runs.

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

Unfortunately, the water rose to a flood rate until Saturday morning, so that the course shortened even more, the current was much more powerful than and the floating grown-up trees and trunks didn‘t really lowered the level of difficulty.


China race, foto by Honza Lasko

The two sprint runs were than in a rather strained spirits, especially in the girls category. Because it was pretty hard to eskimo roll in the tricky waters, we could have seen one swim. Also the Italian water rescue, unlike the Austrian one, didn‘t convinced anyone when they threw the throwbag from a rather unsuitable place right into the slalom weirs, so that the swimming girl was rescued by other competing girls.

Girls racing.., foto by Michal Kroupa

Further on, after a tasteful lunchbox, the individual and team slalom races started. Not many paddlers managed to pass all the poles thanks to the pretty unreadable streams and because it was nothing unusual to get washed out of the right eddy or, in some cases, even run the whole course head down ;o)

Kayak X, foto by Michal Kroupa

The bouldering finals were to be seen in the evening and they were followed by a nice party underlined by free red bull vodka drinks and Djs‘ under a Red bull tent. After a hard morning for some, the tough kayak-cross races of the first 28 men(from overall results) an all girls started. Many exciting actions were performed, for the fact that four riders were now hitting each other in a course where even individuals had problems. We can just guess why were the semifinals held, when the result didn‘t even counted, but what wouldn‘t we do for the audience:o)

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

The results are as follows K1M 1. Mike Dawson (NZ), 2. Fabian Doerfler (D), 3.
Dejan Kralj (Slo)
K1Z 1.Anne Hubner (D), 2. Nouria Newman (Fr), 3. Jen Chrimes (VB)
TEAMS 1. New Zealand, 2. Slovenia, 3. Czech Republic
Our team, including Honza Lasko, Viktor Legat and Jirka Kopečný, bravely shined on the third place in team races. I ended up on the 5th place in the overall girls’ results. Quite sad was the division of the prize money when the first man won nine hundred Euros and the firs girl got just a pack of crisps and a backpack, but don’t let my judgment throw a bad shadow on the otherwise great competition. Finally, it suits to thank to all the organizers, especially Francesco, Carla and Michelle, for a great job and nice time spent during the competition.
Looking forward to next year!