My Job.....Better than Being a Dietitian!

So I never really talked about what I am doing in Norway this year. Well as the title of the post says 'better than being a dietitian' I now have the perfect job! This year I'm working in Sjoa again but instead of being a raft guide I am now a photo kayaker at Sjoa Raftingsenter (NWR). It's perfect I get to kayak everyday, earn money and keep creative by taking photos.

I'm planning on getting my own website up and running soon but in the meantime here are some photos I've taken from May and June on the Sjoa River.

Fun with Toys

Last Friday Nina from GoRafting organised a ‘Floatila’. What’s a ‘Floatila’ you may ask? Well it’s basically a surfing competition with ‘anything that floats’.

So we all bought our blow up toys and tried to surf Faukstad on the Sjoa River. Becky and I aimed to get a tandam surf on our dragon but everytime we both tried to sit on it we ended up swimming.

There were prizes for longest surf, best effort on the river, best effort with the floatation device, best trick etc. Just a fun relaxed social gathering for a few laughs.

Thanks to Nina and Tallis for organising the evening and thanks to all my work mates at NWR and GoRafting for supporting the Floatila!

Sjoa Festival 2011

A week to recover from Voss then it was the Sjoa Festival (in Sjoa of course!). We were super busy at work during the festival week (and basically all of July and even now in August) so I couldn’t participate in all of the activities but made it to the infamous annual Pimp and Ho party at Pensj and managed to convince my boss to let me have a day off work so I could do the Steep Creeking day course run by Gene 17.

My friend Jakub ran the Steep Creeking course and I was pretty lucky there were only 2 other men from Sweden on the course with me. We went to Upper Ula to practice some ‘boofing’ and then run a drop and small slide.

When I say ‘small’ they would have been baby size for someone like Jakub but for me and it being my first time really attempting to run any drops they were pretty intimidating. Once I got over my fear I realised that running drops is pretty simple but it’s just getting over nerves which is the hardest part.

I definitely took home a lot of lessions from my day with Jakub on the river and highly recommend Gene 17 to anyone who wants to improve their kayaking skills or has a particular goal they want to achieve.

Ekstremsportveko Voss 2011

On the last week of June the Ektremesports Veko was held in Voss Norway. Luckily that week we were quiet at work in Sjoa so I was able to go from Sun-Thurs to Voss to kayak, party and do a few rafting races.

I stayed at my friend Anvesh’s house which is one of the 3 Voss Rafting guide houses. I must say the houses rented out to guides in Voss seem like mansions! Def a 5 star rating! Anvesh owns his own rafting company in India called Expeditions India (he trip lead the Sarayu/Kali expedition which I went on last October) so it was nice to see him after 7 months.

There had been a lot of rain so all of the rivers were super high and super fast in Voss. Unfortunately on my first day paddling it was my last day kayaking in Voss for the week. Misjudging where to be on the R lead to me getting beat down in a hole and swimming. Luckily I was okay but my boat and paddle went down the class 6 gorge below the section we were running. I never saw my paddle again but sky divers saw my boat floating in the lake about 3 days later so I got that back and surprisingly my boat only was missing a few screws and had a dinted nose.

The other days in Voss I participated in drinking sessions in the Festival Tent and entered the Rafting Adventure Race with 2 guides from Troll Active and 2 Norwegian men. Our team ‘Troll Mountain’’ came third so I was lucky to get a Bula beanie as a prize. Following the race we also had an amazing BBQ at Voss Rafting – it was the best burger I have had in Norway so far!!!

I had so much fun in Voss I didn’t want to leave but had to return back to Sjoa for the weekend. Good to be working an earning money but pretty gutted I missed Fat Freddies Drop and Swollen Members perform on the Saturday night in the Festival Tent…….maybe next year.