Merry Christmas!

Just a little something to celebrate Christmas!

Paddler: Luke Spencer

 Photo: Brian Shulz

2011 Hobuck Competition Video

 video produced by Ginnette Marberry

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Italy / France Team Trip part 2: The Guil

Our next target on the Fluid Team trip was the Guil. The Guil seemed to be a popular summer destination for Europeans paddlers. With great scenery and solid intermediate to advanced paddling I could see why. We paddled two sections of the Guil the "Combe de Chateau-Queyras" and the "Combe de l'Ange Gardien", which I'm told means "Guardian Angel Gorge".

The first section was very unique, with an old French castle perched high above a narrow gorge. The spot was a major tourist attraction with castle tours, rafting, and some cool canyoning in the gorge below the castle.

Looking out over the Guil River from high on the hill just below the castle

The Guil River with the castle high above the gorge

The Castle

The Gorge

Canyoning in the Gorge

Paddling towards the bridge and narrow canyon

Celliers Kruger in the Gorge

Fluid Team Paddler: Val Grollemund

Looking back up the Gorge

Celliers and David below the Gorge with the castle in the background

A nice boulder garden below the Gorge

 Val Grollemund

Fluid Team Paddler: Hugh De Preez

Val Grollemund paddling through a very tight spot. This was a sketchy rapid and would have been a mandatory portage at higher water.

After paddling the Upper Castle Gorge and the rapids below it we continued downstream to the Guardian Angel Gorge section which had more great rapids.

The Guardian Angel Gorge didn't have any castles perched above the canyon walls but it provided great whitewater and solid scenery!

 Guardian Angel Gorge

Hugh De Preez

Fluid Team Paddler: David Arnaud testing Fluid's new creek boat the "Bazooka"

Val Grollemund

 Hugh De Preez

 Val & Hugh

We were stoked on the late summer paddling that Paul and Val turned us on to in the Durance River Valley.  The French Alps are a worthy summer destination for intermediate to advanced paddlers and provided a awesome testing grounds for the prototype Fluid creek boat we were testing "The Bazooka"!

Check Back Soon For Part 3 of the Italy France Team Trip!

Part 1: 2011 Fluid Team Trip ~Italy & France~

Torrent du Chichin / French Alps

 Let me just start by saying the French Alps are an amazing place! The scenery, food, and the history in this area is hard to beat! I was lucky to have been invited by the owner of Fluid Kayaks to join himself and 5 other Fluid Kayak team members to paddle in the French Alps and test a new creek boat design.

The trip started with a short drive north to Seattle where my little brother Nate was kind enough to drop me at the airport and see me off  to Italy. From there I made the 9 hr flight to Amsterdam where I had a 6 hr lay over before connecting to my final destination a small airport in Caselle about 45min out of Torino Italy.

Everything went unusually smooth for me and I arrived in Italy tired but stoked. I touched down late at night, which was a bit disorienting due to my lack of sleep and inability to speak Italian. The airport at Caselle was small and deserted when I arrived around 11pm. With the help from a local who spoke a small amount of english I was able to hop on a bus to Torino.

When I arrived in Torino I quickly found a hotel, celebrated with a beer at a local pub and hit the sack to try to sleep off some of the jet lag from the long flight. Italy is 9hrs ahead of the NW so the first two days were a bit rough.

 My 1st beer in Italy

I woke up late (11pm) and with a day and a half to burn before meeting the the others I decided to cruise Torino and take in the sights. Torino was a busy place, stuffed with shops that were broken up by old Italian buildings from the 1700  and 1800's.

Sights around Torino 

 After seeing some of the sights in Torino I hopped the bus back to the airport where I met Hugh and Cellier who flew in from S. Africa and David a local paddler, guide, and interpreter. We hopped in David's car and drove to his house where him and his girlfriend ran a small European style bed and breakfast.

A nice home away from home!

Looking up the valley into the Italian Alps from David's house.

The pool with a view!

At David's we got our gear in order and the next morning took off to the Alps for some paddling! The boarders between Italy and France are pretty much non-existent. The only way I knew we were in France was because the writing had changed from Italian to French. Soon we were in the scenic French Alps making our way over a pass, through a ski town headed for the Durance Valley.  

The French Alps

The crew

 The roads were narrow, curvy, and crowded. Motorcycles using an imaginary middle lane and passing on the tight mountain corners almost out numbered the cars. Cyclist who seemed to think they were on the Tour De France braved all the motorized vehicles for an epic self torture mission to make the steep passes.  

After descending the pass we arrived at a French fortification. Similar to a castle, fortifications were designed to keep towns safe from invading armies. Inside the walls of the fortification lied a small village with shops and restaurants.

The Fortification

The fortification entrance

Behind the walls of the fortification

After descending the pass we dropped into the Durance River Valley where we got our first taste of whitewater.

At the Torrent du Chichin we met up with two French Fluid Team paddlers, Paul and Val. With no prior warm up the Frenchies led us straight to a French Park & Huck. The 1st drop was a 10-12 ftr with a tricky entrance.  The 2nd was a 15-20 ft 30deg slide that spouted up like a fan and off the final small ledge. We all met at the trail head which was popular with hikers, we geared up and made a short hike to the top of the falls.

Torrent du Chichin

Hugh below the falls

David headed down the funnel

 Hugh in the lower spout

After the Park & Huck we headed to the Fournel. The guys told me this was a hard one to catch and that we were lucky to paddle it in August. The Fournel was a small creek with a bunch of man made structures designed to slow down the water during the high season. For us it was a chance to test our boofs!

Me running a drop on the Fournel

Hugh

 David

 Val

 Free Wheel Sequence

Hugh

On the way up I noticed the canyon below our take out looked steep and deep When we got done it was obvious that there was undoubtedly some steep rapids in there. Unfortunately the water was diverted and apparently there was not much info on it. Val told me it was better for canyoning. 

The canyon below

The next day we headed to the Guil River which was very cool!The Guil offered great scenery and quality rapids!

Stayed tuned for Part 2 ~The Guil~