Jul 26, 2015

| School of Rock...

Beautiful Sunday in Verdun and mini-surf trip at the Rock Island, we departed from the Natatorium and it took about 35mn to reach the it, i was slightly delayed because of the G-Rocker being pulled behind me. Pat rented a board at KSF and really enjoyed the day.
The view of Montreal is really something, you need to be there to understand it's worth the effort it takes to get there, the island even has some camping areas with tables and fire holes :)
The little waterfalls are easily accessible and offer a free spa, or you can take off your fins and start to bomb drop them on your SUP! Anyway there is plenty of choice and lots of things to do there.
There are 2 small waves to ride and lots of short drops to play with on the south shore of the island. It's like a fun natural whitewater park. I've surfed a while and found that my Astro Stream was better for that environment than the small one.
It was the last time that we rode the G-Rocker as i've decided to sell it in order to buy a hardboard for surfing, more news coming soon!
‪#‎sup‬ #‎whitewatersup‬ #supbail

Jul 7, 2015

| Festival SUP Riviere Rouge...

Today I've opened a G+ community > SUPWWQC to mirror its FB counterpart. we are starting to get more attraction now as the whitewater paddleboard community is finally starting to grow around here.
I went to the very 1st whitewater SUP race in Quebec last weekend at Rafting Nouveau-Monde; the Festival SUP Riviere Rouge, it was a beautiful day full of emotions, bruises and laughs in some amazing rapids (class 2+ - Family rapids section). A big thank you to the organizers of the event, volunteers and security team, sponsors and to all the participants! It was an honor being part of this event and the 2nd edition will sure be way bigger.
In the morning i was a bit tired due to a cold and didn't feel like racing but i eventually signed in and tried my best to follow Corran in the turbulent rapids. It was a good idea because i finished 1st of the amateurs and got a GOLD medal ;) fortunately Corran didn't race for real or we wouldn't stand any chances.
Even for a class II+ those rapids were scary and the 1st run was a disaster, most people never tried paddle-boarding on whitewater before and i was the only one after Corran who cleared the two 1st buoys (the last one was too difficult to reach for us mere mortals). The organizers then changed the formula for a straight down race which was already difficult for the average level.
The only problem is that i am limping right now, my left knee is swollen and blueish because some rocks destroyed my kneepad, the rest of my body is really sore too, it was fun and worth it but the water level was low and we all got some minor bruises!
Women podium:
PRO Harmony Dawn
GOLD Emmanuelle Jacques
SILVER Shanie Normandin
BRONZE Sonia Loiselle
Men podium:
PRO Corran Addison
GOLD Thierry Doizon
SILVER Daniel St-Pierre
BRONZESantiago Berrueta

Jul 1, 2015

| Ottawa Whitewater Clinic...

Here are some photos from the Ottawa whitewater clinic we jointly organized with Paddlefit and POP Spirit last weekend, it was a blast, a big thank you Jodi for the course and all the useful tips, can't wait to go back to the Pushbutton rapids in a few weeks. Our student group was amazing, the food/service at Owl Rafting was very good and it's the best start of the season we could have hoped for. It's raining today but i wish y'all a HAPPY CANADA DAY on Turtle Island.
Jodi surfing waikiki, a fast and scary wave...
On the last run of Saturday we decided to run down a scary wave train above waikiki, when i realized where we were going i was honestly scared to death and we all ended up drinking lots of water after the huge 1st hole. I couldn't breath at all after resurfacing under my board, lost my paddle in the action and basically just tried to hang on my board (bottom is slippery) until I could ferry in the last eddy to rest for a bit. I ended up pretty beat up, hurt my knees on some rocks and also a few fingernails, sprained my right thumb and learned a valuable lesson:
Lesson #1 always scout if possible and get the most accurate information on the river and flow.
Lesson #2 rapids are way stronger than you! ride at your level.
On Sunday the weather wasn't as good and the water level was at zero, everything looked different, the waves were much bigger too. We spent some time working on our bracing and this is one of the most important thing to learn for whitewater SUP i can tell you, especially if you want to surf.

| Snowskate quiver...

This winter has already broken all the records in terms of cold, snowfall and ice storms, thank you  El Niño ! We have been snowskating quit...