Hot Mess Kayaking: September 2009

Friday 18 September 2009

No Dam on the Slave!

With the White Nile being dammed kayakers will be looking for alternative rivers for playboating. The Slave River in the NWT, Canada offers world class play spots, river running, and even creeking with first descents still to be run! This video shows the 4 sets of rapids on the Slave and the features each set of rapids has to offer as well as making people aware that this unique river is at threat of being dammed.

Slave River 2009 from Jacqui Whitehead on Vimeo.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Return to Skooks and High Levels on the Ganga River

Micha going for a blunt with Drew on surfer's right Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Last week of August John and I decided to hit the Skook one more time before I left BC. The levels ranged between 12.0F-12.97F which meant we had hours on Skooks without it greening out on us. The other advantage was there were very few boaters at Skooks this time around which meant on most days the wave out-surfed us! Like always we had a big adventure with our second Skookumchuck trip - beginning with the ferry ride!

John Rathwell on 'the Skook!' Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha & Drew competing for the wave behind Skooks Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha going for an aerial blunt Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

BC ferries wanted to charge us an extra $30 for being 4cm ''overheight''. John really didn't want to pay this so he forced his creekboat inside the jeep and only minutes after I stated we would probably crack the windscreen....the windscreen cracked! When we left the Sunshine Coast again like always another adventure to be had, this time we made the ferry with only about 2min to spare, being hungry kayakers like most we were so desperate on the ferry to eat anything that we ended up eating re-fried beans out of the can on the hood of John's jeep with wholemeal wraps and cheese.....it tasted so good at the time!

Moments after I told John we would probably crack the windscreen! Photo: John Rathwell

The first week of September I flew out of BC and landed in Delhi, India. The following day I braved a long car journey to Rishikesh where I will be spending the fall guiding/safety kayaking at HRR on the Ganga River with strong possibilities of also doing expeditions on the Saryu, and Kameng Rivers. Another possibility though is the Siang River Festival in November which I am looking forward to (especially after seeing some of the footage in The Last Descent!).

So far I have been out kayaking on the Ganga River which is at it's highest flow for the season. I've seen some ridiculous looking boils so far and opted to borrow my friend's creek boat for the first 3 days of paddling so I wouldn't get completely smashed and gave the Project 52 a go in high water yesterday which was both exciting and fun!

Although I am sad to have left BC I'm looking forward to the next 3 months of big water boating in India. I have met so many great people in Canada this season who were always willing to go out of their way for me and will be people who I will call friends for the rest of my life. Those people know who they are and I can't wait to see everyone again next year season!

Photo: John Rathwell

Epic Tofino & Victoria Road Trip

After spending 4 days paddling at Skooks last August my mate Sonny and I decided to head over to Tofino and Victoria to check it out. Somehow we managed to miss the ferry in Powell River over to Vancouver Island by 5min and had to wait 5 hours for the next one. This meant we drove into Tofino sometime after 11pm and in the dark had a lot of trouble finding the campground. We decided to turn back and as Sonny made the U-Turn we somehow found ourselves in a massive ditch!...no way to get out except with the assistance of a tow truck! We thought all was lost and after an hour a tow truck eventually came and we were able to have some sleep.

The town of Tofino itself was just mainly cafe after cafe, all the real surfing is down back about 20km. We decided to surf with our kayaks at Long Beach. Usually you have to pay for day parking here but the cost was covered with our camping. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera with us surfing but it was pretty fun and a new experience surfing in the ocean.

Before heading back to Vancouver we stopped for one night in Victoria and had some really nice Mexican food and indulged ourselves with ice-cream and bakery goods. A nice reward after a week of kayaking a Skooks and Tofino!