Here is our new Flash Banner ad, being used on Playak and soon to be UKRGB.
What do you thing?
The D4DR Class V is all about taking your kayaking to the next level.
D4DR Class V gives you the opportunity to advance from occasional Class V kayaker, to kayaking challenging rapids on a regular basis and leading groups on committing white water adventures.
The D4DR Class V is held in Norway for a reason. This course cannot be run just anywhere. To make the next step in your kayaking you’ll need exposure to supreme white water so we could go no where else but Norway. Not only that, but we’ll be mobile too, so we can move with the best water conditions.
You’ll be kayaking with professional kayakers and guides. They are kayakers first and coaches second so you can be sure that what you learn, is what works.
For 4 weeks we’ll tour from classic bedrock runs in Telemark, and Sjoa to the steeps of Hordaland and the West Coast, covering a comprehensive programme, to squeeze the last drop out of the fantastic locations there are in Norway.
During the course we’ll sharpen your skills on white water, until you feel at home on steep rapids. We’ll teach you how to find your limits and to become independent so that you can feel confident and comfortable in any white water environment.
We will evaluate decision-making processes until this becomes second nature to you, to enable you to make sound judgments on the water for yourself and amongst groups of paddling friends.
The course culminates in Voss on the West coast during Extreme Sport week, where you’ll have the chance to acid test your kayaking not only on the steep classics of the area but also against the clock in the downhill sprint race on the Brandseth or face to face with other kayakers in the boater cross.
Whilst on tour you’ll learn advanced leadership on white water from the best guides in the industry. You’ll complete officially recognised tuition in REC for First Aid and Safety and rescue in the form of SRT Advanced, plus where requested BCY 5 Star WW Kayaking Leadership award.
Whether you would like to become a top-notch kayak guide or just want to become the kayaker of your dreams, the D4DR Class V can give you the tools and the techniques you need for the job.
More details to come……
I can now confirm that we will go ahead with the 4* Trainer Training;
>>Generic 4* Trainer Training day – 15th November
>>4* WW Kayaking Trainer Training – 16th November
All details how to become a 4* Trainer BCU 4* Trainer Training PDF. There are a number of pre-req’s required by anyone wishing to part take in this course, including central registration. The Generic Training Day is open to all disciplines. Each day costs £50GBP payable to the BCU.
Regards
Simon Westgarth
SLOVENIA, TRNOVO OB SOCI- AUGUST 2008
What a better start for a kayaking week in Slovenia, Soca river, than that.
But let’s take things from the beginning. It was May 2008 when a friend of ours and a great kayaker recommended one week in Slovenia with Gene17. Indeed it was an opportunity to visit Slovenia, ‘the Green piece of Europe’ and paddle with the Gene17 team in the crystal clear waters of Soca.
Our meeting point was Trnovo ob Soci, a beautiful small village by the Soca river where one can notice that people are really keen to sports such as kayaking, rafting, biking and paragliding.
That week had it all. Every single day was full of kayaking, good company, beautiful natural places, delicious cuisine and lot’s of fun. Every day a different part of the river was filling our desire for paddling, for new kayaking techniques and for more fun in the crystal clear waters of Soca.
From the Gene17 team, Matt, as the coordinator, had everything in place, always with a smile and with a feeling of safety, Deb was really inspiring her team for more fun in the river and Kim with her incredible patience managed to move her team to a higher skills level. Finally, Dave was only few hours with us but made his presence memorable with his jokes (in Greek).
We want to thank both Gene17 and the Irish team of kayakers for the great week we had this summer. We hope we meet again.
Christina Dimitradi – Greece
In a recent email from Graham Milton, Gene17 can confirms 60° North from the Fat Cats will headline this years Adventure Paddlers Weekend at the River Dart Country Park in Devon
Following on from Ali and Si amazing trip last year – infact I think it was APWE last year when they asked me if I was keen.
They had scouted out this river on google earth and it made for one river mission of an expedition.
After quite a mission getting boats and people to Narsarsuaq in south Greenland we set of on the 75km journey to get to the fjord where the river flowed into. This journey took 3/4 days, most of the distance was covered sea kayaking in our loaded Eversts but there were 3 land crossing which were very tough - one in particular involved shuttling our kit over the first hill and then slogging over shallow lakes and mosquito infested marshes, bashing down a stream to finish off a 15 hours day. The last 10 km sea crossing was none stop as the wind was heavily against us.
We re supplied with food in the down of Sletten for 9 days and managed to get a boat the 22km to the back of the fjord where the river came in. It was 2 days shuttling our kit base camp where the river split into two. Another 2 days of slogging our boat up the the glacier ( we returned in base camp each night). we found 10km of incredible white water and slides. From base camp down we did very little paddling few bits that weren’t mental we not worth the mission to get to which was a bit of a shame. We run out time time/food/energy to explore the other trib but from google earth it looked to loosed all the gradient in a few places!. We paddles the 22km back to sletten.
We spent a day or 2 looking at a hyro electric dam in the next fjord and them got a speed boat to the town of Qaqortoq where we hung out with the local kayak school and the only chap in Greenland who still makes the boat in the traditional way. We got a ferry back to Narsarsuaq – we met Olaf and team addidas at the ferry port who were off the do the same river- always good to beat the Germans to it. It was interesting to see how those boys do trips – they had an unbelievabele amount of kit – i think they just got speed boat every where cos they are a bit soft. They got stuck in the ice pack and had to hike to land as well!! hahaha
Ali and Si have put togtther a brilliant film about the trip – 60 degrees North, I have a few copies and i think its just about ready to go on sale.
and the trailer http://www.fatcatsproductions.co.uk/degrees.html
In addition Gene17 can confirm the recently remastered icon 1980’s steep creeking movie “Family Mad” will be showing to start the night off.
More details to come….
With the help of those nice people at Vimeo, Gene17 has managed to upload almost all past productions online, including;
Neva Foreva
Genetic
Destination Nowhere
Genotype
Adventures in Loonerland
Check out these and other new developments at G17K
With the help of those nice people at Vimeo, Gene17 has managed to upload almost all past productions online, including;
Neva Foreva
Genetic
Destination Nowhere
Genotype
Adventures in Loonerland
Check out these and other new developments at G17K
I’ve had a few good days of paddling recently. In the UK! In summer!
Well, it was new to me anyway. Access problems seem to be mellowing and there’s been lots of summer rain. I’ve had a couple of weekends in Wales paddling drops and feeling comfortable in the creek boat. Part of this is down to another great trip with Matt Tidy, and Gene17, which I went on in July.
After enjoying the creeking adventure and culture in Val Sesia last year I was looking for another trip to challenge me and work on my river running and creeking skills. Simon offered the Road Trip starting in Sjoa. This offered flexibility of itinerary and sat somewhere between the progressive and steep creeking courses that have been offered in Sjoa over the last few years. I have been hoping to get out to Norway for a few years, but it still has an intimidating reputation in the UK so it seemed like a good idea to get some professional instruction and guiding. I arrived in Sjoa and was instantly impressed by the rivers, the people, the scene and the amazing grocery prices. The climate was not quite as exciting and reminded me of a dull day in Scotland or North Wales. Still, we are used to that. I was surprised to learn there were to be just 3 of us paddling with Matt as our guide and was pleased I had come prepared with a tent so we were able to travel where the water took us. After sorting out our boats and a quick chat about our past experiences and our aspirations for the week we headed out onto the water.
First, was the Sjoa play run. I always seem to find the warm up section of trip the most startling. Paddling bigger water in a creek boat is not always much fun and the slalom course would be a shock to anyone used to training at Teeside. Still, there were lots of pleasant waves and pop out spots and the boat felt good and the group seemed to get on well.The next day we paddled the Ulla. This was something I was expecting to work up to for the end of the week, it was the only river I’d heard of out there so I was expecting it to be pretty hardcore. I minced a bit, but also spent some time working on technique and confidence on the dazzling array of drops and slides. There is still plenty for me to run next time I get back there, hopefully soon as it is a breathtaking location.
Over the next few days we paddled a range of rivers, from bigger volume to steep runs, canyons and gorges, waterfalls and slides. We had a choice of what to paddle and what to concentrate on. Matt was always keen to carry out and impromptu safety seminar or boofing clinic. Cooking and evening entertainment and banter was a relaxing partner to the adrenaline of the river. My highlight was the Upper Jori, where I felt I really pushed myself and benefited from the coaching of this and the previous trip. Lowlight was finding a rip in my cag after laughing at Mads when he found out he’d ripped his dry suit on the Upper Bovra a river that reminded me of home for the best and worst reasons it was a cold but fun but rocky ditch with some great rapids.
Hopefully next weekend in Wales I’ll be paddling and thinking about keeping good form, getting some decent paddling strokes in and using some lateral momentum rather than worrying what hole or rock I will be stuck against getting beaten. If you are thinking too much about the second rather more than the first I’d definitely recommend some of the excellent coaching from Matt Tidy and the guys at Gene17.
The week after the course I stayed out in Norway to do a little more paddling, meet up with friends and explore the countryside. It was hot and sunny all week and still good water levels. What more could you want?
Phil
I’ve had a few good days of paddling recently. In the UK! In summer!
Well, it was new to me anyway. Access problems seem to be mellowing and there’s been lots of summer rain. I’ve had a couple of weekends in Wales paddling drops and feeling comfortable in the creek boat. Part of this is down to another great trip with Matt Tidy, and Gene17, which I went on in July.
After enjoying the creeking adventure and culture in Val Sesia last year I was looking for another trip to challenge me and work on my river running and creeking skills. Simon offered the Road Trip starting in Sjoa. This offered flexibility of itinerary and sat somewhere between the progressive and steep creeking courses that have been offered in Sjoa over the last few years. I have been hoping to get out to Norway for a few years, but it still has an intimidating reputation in the UK so it seemed like a good idea to get some professional instruction and guiding. I arrived in Sjoa and was instantly impressed by the rivers, the people, the scene and the amazing grocery prices. The climate was not quite as exciting and reminded me of a dull day in Scotland or North Wales. Still, we are used to that. I was surprised to learn there were to be just 3 of us paddling with Matt as our guide and was pleased I had come prepared with a tent so we were able to travel where the water took us. After sorting out our boats and a quick chat about our past experiences and our aspirations for the week we headed out onto the water.
First, was the Sjoa play run. I always seem to find the warm up section of trip the most startling. Paddling bigger water in a creek boat is not always much fun and the slalom course would be a shock to anyone used to training at Teeside. Still, there were lots of pleasant waves and pop out spots and the boat felt good and the group seemed to get on well.The next day we paddled the Ulla. This was something I was expecting to work up to for the end of the week, it was the only river I’d heard of out there so I was expecting it to be pretty hardcore. I minced a bit, but also spent some time working on technique and confidence on the dazzling array of drops and slides. There is still plenty for me to run next time I get back there, hopefully soon as it is a breathtaking location.
Over the next few days we paddled a range of rivers, from bigger volume to steep runs, canyons and gorges, waterfalls and slides. We had a choice of what to paddle and what to concentrate on. Matt was always keen to carry out and impromptu safety seminar or boofing clinic. Cooking and evening entertainment and banter was a relaxing partner to the adrenaline of the river. My highlight was the Upper Jori, where I felt I really pushed myself and benefited from the coaching of this and the previous trip. Lowlight was finding a rip in my cag after laughing at Mads when he found out he’d ripped his dry suit on the Upper Bovra a river that reminded me of home for the best and worst reasons it was a cold but fun but rocky ditch with some great rapids.
Hopefully next weekend in Wales I’ll be paddling and thinking about keeping good form, getting some decent paddling strokes in and using some lateral momentum rather than worrying what hole or rock I will be stuck against getting beaten. If you are thinking too much about the second rather more than the first I’d definitely recommend some of the excellent coaching from Matt Tidy and the guys at Gene17.
The week after the course I stayed out in Norway to do a little more paddling, meet up with friends and explore the countryside. It was hot and sunny all week and still good water levels. What more could you want?
Phil
Leo had long since pestered myself to take young gun Rob Lineham, our kayaking star down the Siphon Canyon, on the Soča River just 200m from our house in Trnovo. So when I needed to fly into Slovenia from Norway to complete the importation of the new Sprinter, we had a golden chance to take Rob on his first outing into the famed Soča Siphon Canyon.
Here is Rob waiting for the off, a little nervous and slightly excited!!
The Siphon Canyon, is what it says on the tin, a canyon completely full of Siphons. The moves are not at all demanding for an experienced Class IV paddler, yet its no place to be uncertain of your roll, as the consequences are serve. So Leo gave myself the role of getting us all down safely. We started at the top of the Slalom site in Trnovo, and the now familiar moves of this excellent Class III/IV course whistled by with ease. At a pool above the broken bridge we paused for a moment, and entered the Canyon. The drops are small, with a twisting line, normally such lines as right to left and back again. The 8 of so drop above the Solomon Pool set the tone of the run. If there are any problems experienced here, the right bank and a river side goat trail can take you back to Trnovo.
Rob on a typical drop running down to Solomon Pool.
The crux of the run soon comes after Solomon Pool, first a short rapid, then another pool, before the river is compressed by the gorge into a Labyrinth of large boulders, and tight channels. It is here where your skills need to be supreme and your wits sharp. Through the maze to the major double drop on the right to left and back to the right again.
Leo on the entry on the double drop at the Crux of the run.
Mid point on the crux, looking from left to river, Siphon everywhere.
Rob running the left to right move.
Rob about to boof the exit drop on the Siphon Canyon Crux move.
Re-grouped and stoked
Just below the double drop is Berg Up, this rapid had until 2002 a line where you needed to climb the central rock slab and slide off the other side. In 2002 there was a big flood, and the Berg Up became Berg Down, and as such is a great 5m slide.
Leo on Berg Up.
From the major action there are a few tight rapids to key you alert, especially the last one into the pool at Otona, a mountain stream pushes fresh rock falls into a boulder choke rapid, making the rapid a little sharp and edgy. At Otona, we meet Deb and co and played the river to Kobarid.
A short boof from Deb Pinniger at the start of Otona