Schladming, am 19. Juni 2010 – Vielleicht zum aller letzten Mal wurde an diesem Tag ein Wildwasserrennen der Extraklasse veranstaltet: Dutzende österreichische und internationale Paddler befuhren mit ihren Kajaks die Wasserfälle und Katarakte der Untertalbachklamm.

Mit FÜNF Befahrungen krönte sich Lokalmatador Daniel Egger aus Schladming zum „Talbachkönig“!

Wildwasser Rennen der Extraklasse am Untertalbach
Protestaktion für Naturjuwel Untertalbach

Die folgende Protestaktion gipfelte in ein großartiges Zeichen für die Erhaltung des Naturjuwels Untertalbach und gegen das geplante Wasserkraftwerk in der Untertalbachklamm!
Über 100 „Talbachretter“ - Einheimische, Touristen und Wildwassersportler aus nah und fern drückten ihren Unmut unter dem Motto “Finger weg vom Naturjuwel Untertalbach” aus und pfiffen die Landesregierung samt ihrer Naturschutzbehörde aus - NATURSCHUTZ ROTE KARTE!

Unerwartete Verstärkung erhielt die Protestgemeinschaft durch zwei Wassernixen die wie aus dem Nichts aus dem Untertalbach auftauchten und versprachen, den Politikern den Kopf zu waschen, Mauschelei zu bestrafen und die Projektwerber zu verhexen. Mehr demnächst!

DI Markus Ehrenpaar, Geschäftsführer des Naturschutzbundes Steiermark ist entsetzt über die Vorgangsweise der Behörden: „In der Steiermark haben wir bereits ca. 1000 Kleinwasserkraftwerke, die unsere Gewässer schwer beeinträchtigen, aber nur wenig Strom produzieren. Die Wasserkraft wird auch bei den kleinen und kleinsten Gewässern bedingungslos über den Naturschutz gestellt. Wir zerstören Schönheit und ökologische Intaktheit für ein paar Promille Stromproduktion.

Christoph Litschauer, Flussexperte des WWF meint: „Der Untertalbach soll erhalten bleiben. Die Energiewirtschaft kann auf diesen Bach leicht verzichten, die Natur der Region nicht! Die Beschneidung des Naturdenkmals erscheint als Kniefall der Politik vor der Energiewirtschaft… Der Untertalbach ist nicht nur ein touristischer Höhepunkt der Region, sondern auch eine ökologisch hochwertige Fließstrecke, wie sie in Österreich bereits selten geworden ist! Eine räumliche Einschränkung des Naturdenkmals Untertalbach ist für den WWF nicht vertretbar.“

Peter Feldhammer, kajak.at Gewässerschutz fordert: “Der Untertalbach darf nicht im Rohr verschwinden! Dieses natürliche Kleinod wurde vom internationalen KANUmagazin unter die 10 schönsten Flüsse Österreichs gereiht. Wir wollen lebendige Flüsse, keine ausgeleiteten Restwasser-Rinnsale mit unrentablen Kraftwerken die nur dank öffentlicher Förderung für Investoren lukrativ werden.”

Auch der ehemalige Bürgermeister von Rohrmoos, Peter Pilz, spricht sich entschieden gegen ein Kraftwerk am schönsten, noch ungestört fließenden Abschnitt des Untertalbaches aus: „Wir brauchen unverbaute Gewässer für unser touristisches Aushängeschild, den Wanderweg ‚Wilde Wasser‘. Es ist ein Armutszeugnis für unseren Umgang mit Natur, dass die geplante Unterschutzstellung von 1,5 km Länge auf die Hälfte verkürzt worden ist.“

Rückfragehinweis:
DI Markus Ehrenpaar, Geschäftsführer Naturschutzbund Steiermark, Tel. 0316/322-377
Peter Feldhammer, kajak.at Sprecher Gewässerschutz, Tel. 0680/1281150

Pictures by kajak. at and Florian Hartmann

Nach dem Start mit Olaf Obsommer setzen wir (globepaddler.ch) unsere monatliche Fotoshow bzw. Filmreihe in Huningue direkt am Wildwasserpark fort. Am 8. Mai berichtete bereits der Schweizer Ron Fischer über Kajaktripps nach Nepal und Parkistan sowie Chile und Kolumbien.
Nun ist Ben Jung am 12. Juni(diesen Samstag) bei uns zu Gast. Er zeigt den machbaren Spagat zwischen dem Job als Raftguide und seiner Leidenschaft für das Paddeln. Kajakepisode nennt sich seine Filmaufführung und er zeigt neben schönen Flussbefahrungen wie einfach es ist, mit dem Boot unterwegs zu sein und währenddessen sein Geld als Raftguide zu verdienen. Unter anderem zeigt Ben Jung spannende Filmaufnahmen von Anton Lehner aus Norwegen und Chile.

Infos und Reservierung unter kanal@globepadler.ch

Text:
globepaddler.ch
lorenz@globepaddler.ch
0041 (0) 79 24 79384
0049 170 78 26260
www.globepaddler.ch
Basel - Bielersee - Huningue - Simmental

The Straight Down Striit is one of the wildest weekends on the boatercross calendar, this year was no exception. An amazing amount of racing and competitions was fitted into one day, time trails and seeding for the boatercross, a fun race, a mass start Chinese race, a photo contest, the boatercross and a crazy party with clowns in a circus tent! Kiwi slalom paddler Johann Roozenburg set an incredible fastest time of 59seconds to win the time trial, the first round of boatercross produced some upsets with several favourites including Fabian Dörfler and Honza Lasko being knocked out. Undefeated champion of the Straight Down Striit Ron Fischer cruised through to the last round where he met Jakobus Stenglein. Jakobus had a better start than Ron and led the way down through the first drops, Jakobus’ speed was too much for Ron and he was unable to catch the flying German, a new Straight Down champion was crowned! In the ladies final Anne Hübner went up against Anna Jankowfsky, just like in the men’s event Anne took the lead going into the first drops and was able to stay in front, overtaking was very difficult in the second half of the course and Anna had to settle for second place.

It was not all hardcore kayaking and serious racing, there is a race for everbody at the Straight Down, up and coming paddlers competed in a boatercross on the lower part of the course and everybody was invited to take part in the Chinese race, over 20 paddlers made a mass start on the fun race course, chaos was expected and nobody was disappointed, paddlers went forwards, backwards and sideways down the river as they battled to finish in the middle.

With the racing done and dusted it was high time to head on down to the circus tent for dinner, the Nookie photo contest, prize giving and most importantly the party. Straight Down Striit is known for its awesome boatercross course and its even more awesome party, this years theme was clowns and fancy dress was the order of the evening.

Big thanks go to Silvan and his team for an amazing problem free event and sponsors Teva Nookie and Red Bull for supporting the Straight Down Striit. I am already looking forwards to next years race, bring on SDS11.

Report by James Weir
Pictures by Florian Hartmann

Auf der einen Seite stehen die Kraftwerkbetreiber EDF, der französische Staat sowie die Industrielobbies (Beton, Turbinen usw.) auf der anderen die Bewohner der Insel und der Umgebung, Umweltorganisationen und einzelne Aktivisten und Kanusportler. Ein wahrlich ungleicher Kampf, zumal auf Korsika vergleichsweise wenig Menschen wohnen. Unverhältnismäßig erscheinen die Dimensionen. Mit geschätzten Kosten von 150 Millionen Euro und einem prognostizierten Jahresproduktion von 80 GWh würde gerade einmal 4% des Strombedarfs der „Ile de beauté“ gedeckt, so der WWF. Dabei stehen die Produktionskosten in keinem Verhältnis zu denen eines konventionellen Kraftwerks. Auf der anderen Seite zerstört der Damm den unvergleichlichen Reichtum an Flora und Fauna des Rizzanese.

Die ökologische Durchlässigkeit für wandernde Fischarten, wie Aal und Forelle, wird komplett zerstört, denn die versicherte Restmenge Wasser wird nicht für einen fließenden Fluss reichen. Das Wasser wird wohl auf halber Strecke versickern. Die Grundlage für Kanusport, Sportfischerei und ein Bad an einem warmen Sommertag gehören damit der Vergangenheit an.

Dennoch waren wir auch in diesem Frühjahr wieder auf Korsika um unseren Hobby zu frönen und der Bevölkerung von Korsika zu zeigen, dass sie nicht allein ist. Auch wenn dieses Projekt nicht mehr verhindert werden kann und die Schäden im Tal offensichtlich sind.

Wir waren auch in diesem Jahr ein letztes Mal im Rizzanesetal, um unvergessliche Bilder vom Codi und dem Rizzanese zu schießen und für immer in unseren Gedanken und auf der Festplatte zu speichern.

Ich führe nun seit mehr als 10 Jahren kleine Kajakgruppen auf den Flüssen Korsikas, vieles habe ich dort schon gesehen.

Eine riesig große neue Straße anstatt der idyllischen Bergstraßen, kleinere Kraftwerke an verschieden Flüssen, die Veränderung an der Natur Korsikas und wilde Mülldeponien, die auftauchten und wieder verschwanden. Ich hoffe, dass es sich für alle Korsikaliebhaber noch lange lohnen wird, jedes Jahr auf´s neue um die Osterzeit auf Korsika ein paar Tage zu verweilen.

Fotos: Ronald Krummrich und Peter Weide

Text: Ronald Krummrich

Have you ever been in Korsika? If you haven´t been there you have to go! Korsika is a little island beetween Italy and France in the Middlesea. Just next to Korsika is Sardinien. It´s a island as well but totaly dry…so the right place to be for kayaking is defentetly Korsika….you wanne be there in Spring around April…So check out the preview to get some nice impressions of kayaking in Korsika!

Schon diesen Winter haben wir uns Gedanken gemacht, mit welchen Filmen wir Euch Lust machen können auf die neue Saison. Natürlich darf der Bericht zur adidas sickline nicht fehlen, dem extremsten Wildwasser-Rennen, das alljährlich an der legendären Wellerbrücke im Ötztal stattfindet.  Und Ben Jung und seine Freunde zeigen Euch, was man in….more

Low wages, no pension and no real career prospects; does this sound like a job you want? I’m talking about raft guiding. This summer will be the start of my 10th year as a raft guide. Obviously money has not been the motivating factor in my career choice, rivers have. Being a raft guide has given me the opportunity to paddle many great rivers across the world. Not only on weekends or on a week or two holiday but on a daily basis.

This can be the local home run after work or a road trip on your days off. Another advantage is always being able to find willing paddling partners whenever you want to go huck.

The story started when I was 13 and I paddled my first white-water back in Scotland, I was hooked. After graduating from university it seemed a natural step to ditch chemistry become a raft guide.

I had done many paddling trips in Europe and had some friends who worked for Faszinatour in the Tirolean Alps so I headed out to Austria on the start of my big adventure.

The Ötztaler Ache and its tributary the Venter Ache were my playground out there. After two epic and almost disastrous runs of the middle Ötz with Jim Cummings in my first season the section eventually became one of my all time favourites. The upper Ötz when the river is over the rafting cut-off is also worth a mention. The only sections to elude me were the Achstürze and the infamous Kühtrein gorge above Sölden. I knew people who had paddled the Kühtrein gorge but they were not too keen to go back!

I did 2 winters on the White Nile quite a few years ago now then a few in Costa Rica. Coming from Scotland and the glacial rivers of the Alps the warm water of the Nile was a revelation, you could paddle here without layer and layers of thermals.

Costa Rica took things one step further; warm water creeking! I was lucky enough to hook up with Ferdinand Steinvorth who is the most active creeker in the country.

As well as introducing me to classics such as the Rio Patria and Rio Chirripo Atlantico we did the seldom paddled Saripiqui gorge and had a few first descents. Even now Ferdinand is still exploring and has many first descents waiting to be fired up.

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work in Norway on the Sjoa. Norwegian white-water needs no introduction and the only limit on paddling here is how brave you are.

While here I discovered that winter could be fun too, free-ride skiing can be similar to creeking in some ways. In the spring it is possible to be skiing one day and paddling the next. In fact this country seems suited to all outdoor sports.

So 3 years later I am still here in Norway, working on the river in the summer and now running a dog-sledding company in the winter.

So 3 years later I am still here in Norway, working on the river in the summer and now running a dog-sledding company in the winter with my girlfriend Live. I have a feeling that it will not be too long before I find myself paddling in warm water again.
And years from now I will be able to look back on all the places and adventures life has led me on and I will know how lucky I have been and that it was all worth it.

Text by Greig Mccolm

Pictures by Greig Mccolm and friends of Greig

The first drop seemed to be the deciding rapid for the win.
I had a really fun first heat with Chilean hero Miguel “Zoro” Ruiz and Spaniard legend Juanjo Ortiz. These two powerhouses got out in front of me right off the start but they were no match for this Diablito! My next heat was equally fun with La Cobra and the boss, Ian Garcia. Aniol and I had it in for Ian and the plan was to take him out… and we did. Ian got boxed in as I went for the pass on the Cobra in the first drop and Ian pitoned got worked and swam! Great Success! After which I could not catch up to the Cobra as he taunted me the entire way to the finish line, fuckin’ Cobra!!! So after the race we all celebrated heavily I think someone ate a candle in Mamas… maybe it wasn’t that night… All in all epic first ever Upper Palguin Race, can’t wait for next years!!! Thanks Ben May of Kayak Chile for putting on the event!
Vigorous paddling seemed to help my injury… and so the next day we went to the Puesco, a run that consists of paddling 9 km of pure boofing and maneuvering through endless boulder rapids! I was feeling nice and sore after that. Then we hit some runs on the Desaghue for what we thought would be the last time… and soon it was time to go back and clean up my mess on the Nevado. This time joined by the likes of LJ Groth Todd Richey Evan Garcia Battel pro and the Swiss boys Ron Fisher Severino and Dude i cant remember his name.

Todd Richey running the Demshitz Drop
What a nice day for a huck! And this time around I stuck that Diablito shit…for the first time, 1 for 3, that rapid made me work for it! Evan and I got some sweet helmet cam footy with the New GoPro HD, blue angeling a little too close sometimes but what great shots we got! You will be able to see the footy from this year in our next Demshitz movie… “Dashboard Empanada”, it’s gona be good! Heres a little teaser. Mostly Chile and California and some East Coast USA.
So we said Good bye to the Nevado for the season, happy to have left it on a good note.

And then it was Christmas day, probably the scariest day of the year for us extreme yakers’ living in Pucon … Christmas to us “Puconinos” means Todo Palguin!!! For all you non spanish speakers Todo means ALL and when you put that word in front of Palguin, we all get a little twitch in our cojones. This Christmas we did the most complete Todo Palguin in the history of kayaking the Palguin. Kayakers have been calling out the Todo Palguin for years, but it has only ever been nearly completed once by Brennan Guth who unfortunately drowned that same day in the very last rapid, now named Brennans drop. His rapid we don’t even really consider running mostly out of respect but also, its a bad ass rapid. So we decided to put in at the very top and scout the recently first D’d Salto Palguin, the very first drop on the run and the most stout for sure!

Push-ups preparing for the hit. I was so fired up…I was nearly hyperventilating just considering it, and I actually drank a beer to calm my nerves… LJ drank two… one was a booty beer from an ejection on the Nevado two days before.

And there she is… pretty good reason to be nervous…So there Demshitz was, at the top of one of the most ridiculous stouts in the lands. Thankfully LJ went first and showed me how to do it, with a perfect line, paddle still intact, and in the boat, what more can you ask for?

I followed right behind him roosting through the technical lead in and boosted a boof off the 80 footer and went flying through the air and was swallowed by the vail. Chris Baer photo check out his blog!

I landed a little corkscrewed to the right but bow down and got what I like to call, Hienz 57’d. What feels like the hand of God pounding the bottom of your kayak to get you to eject as it would feel to be ketchup smoothly exiting a giant bottle of Hienz 57 ketchup! My paddle smashed in two and I went deep! I popped up elbow pads around my wrists, practically unscathed, very excited to be at the bottom in the safety of my buen amigos.

I pulled out my breakdown paddle pounded out the massive dent in the bottom of my kayak and continued with a group of 12 down the river. We bebopped our way through the familiar upper section, with one skirt implod, from LJ freewheeling the 20 footer, and we soon arrived at the Exportacion! This rapid is about as close to being flushed down a toilet as you can get!

And in the words of local Rodrigo Tuschner “its not a portage anymore!” Evan the only one with carnage here, broken paddle, 3rd time for him on that same rapid!

Sweedish heart-throb Anton Immler pluggin in!

LJ using hand paddles. why not?
We all crashed through and continued downstream. We portaged the next two drops in the middle, Turvina and Boof to Swim. We decided it was a little too high for these two. And then, there we were at the top of the classic 70 stout on the Middle.

About to set the record for most bitches to fall off her in one day! Ian Garcia of course going first on this famous waterfall, he first descented when the waterfall changed in 2006 from a 30 to a 70 , when the old possibly more bad ass 50 footer below collapsed and drained a massive pool creating the 70 we all know as one of the best big waterfalls there is! Ian had a steezy line but somehow got ejected and broke his paddle!

Always nice to see right before you are about to go… This year the entire Garcia family was here for Christmas and Mom and Dad got to watch all the boys paddle the shit together, ok…see we celebrate Christmas with our families sometimes… and so…The huckfest continued and some boys couldn’t wait and fired it off as I looked back to see LJ once again contemplating madness!

The same look I had recently seen above Salto Palguin had come back into his eyes and he announced he was going to run the lead in 10 footer to the 70. Which has not been done since the rapid changed.

This one is another one of those rapids we always talk about doing but opt for the seal launch below it in fear of getting beat down and god forbid swimming the 70 footer! LJ lined it up at the top, splashed a little water in his face, and charged what we call “Stout 10”.

Wouldn’t you know it, he boofed the shit out of it stuck it so good he had time to look up throw up the brown spin around and plug the 70.

This dudes got the steeze and the ganas, and ladies, hes single! After seeing LJ crush stout 10 without much hesitation I marched up above and decided to give it a go. I had what I thought to be a perfect line but was a little too far right and the nightmare struck.

Todd Richey photo

I got backendered and held in the hole of Stout 10 for what felt like minutes. I struggled to roll and felt as if I was being sucked off the 70 footer upside down!

Safety crew ready…

Finally I rolled up and gathered my whereabouts, still on line with plenty of time I lined up the stout and had one of my best lines ever.

At the bottom I raised up my hands to the River God and thanked him for the rights of passage and grabbed a seat for the ensuing huckfest.

All the boys had great lines, paddle tossing, plugging, boof stomping.

EG/After all was done we had 4 more swims a lost paddle and two broken paddles.

We paddled out the rest of the run and completed the most run Todo Palguin descent. 5 paddles claimed, 5 swims (one skirt implode…) and 12 high on life dudes.

The next day I took the day off with a good case of waterfall neck. LJ went to work I’m not sure how… and then it started raining….TURBIO!!!The Turbio is a pure volcanic run that drains right off Volcan Villarica, the rocks are sharp and the water is cold but at the right level its one of the most fun runs around…. kinda like OBJ

EG ready to stout!

Our group this day was pretty big with some Chilean boys Nico Buenaventura and Sergio Vidal and the Spaniards Battel Aniol and Pinxo and gringos Todd Evan and I.

Aniol lacing the stout at the put in.

Laying some treats.



Carnage…A little Jason Hale “Grab that Bitch”

Que lindo el Turbio Todd Richey photography

So with more water in town we went back to Nevado with high ass water, and a week or so later ran Demshitz and Diablito again and got some more laps on Desghue and Puesco… what a season it has been here in Pucon!

Keegan Grady riding switch off demshitz!
We then went to the south and found high water and only ran Florin. Some of the boys stayed in Pucon and went back to Salto Palguin. Now 9 people have run the Salto Palguin and 5 out of 9 have swam. Even bad ass Evan Garcia got ejected… you should’ve seen his face too! Check out his blog its been flowing good! EGCREEKIN.BLOGSPOT.COM EG and I are teaming up on Dashboard Empanada. So since all the shit runnings I have started to settle down a little and am now working with Kayak Pucon a lot. We do sometimes two trips a day, herding kayaks duckies and rafts down the lower Liucura and Trancura rivers. Its a beautiful place to work and equally nice for a first timer on the river. Check out Kayak Pucon online. We also just finished up an excellent “Run the Shit” trip. 4 kayakers learning the rivers of the area with the help of Rodrigo, Pucon native, showing them the ropes!

We all had a good time paddling with these boys, and I encourage anyone looking for a care free bad ass paddling vacation to consider booking a “Run the Shit” trip with Kayak Pucon! Ok so Im off to work. Soon we are visiting the south to paddle something… Check back for updates, peace….DAMSHITZ/BLOG

DAMSHITZ THE MOVIE
Click “DAMSHITZ” to watch the trailer/treaser

Text by Jared Seiler www.DAMSHITZ.com
Fotos by Friends

Norwegen machte seinem Ruf alle Ehre und bescherte uns jeden Tagen Regen und kalte Temperaturen.
Auch wir versuchten, unserem Ruf alle Ehre zu machen.
Naja, wenigstens sind wir mit einer ausgewogenen Bilanz zurück gekehrt: 21 Tage – 21 Schwimmer. Was wir alles verloren oder zerstört haben: 3 Paddel, 2 Autos, 3 Boote, 2 Wurfsäcke, 2 Helme, 1 Oberschenkel
3 Rippen,1 Wirbelsäule und sonst was bei nem Trip kaputt gehen kann.

Trotzdem sind wir nicht als Krüppel heimgekehrt und haben den Urlaub in vollen Zügen genossen.”Norwegen ist immer wieder eine Reise Wert. Nicht nur das Paddeln sondern der ganze Trip lässt Norwegen unvergesslich bleiben.”

Insgesamt waren wir im Juli und August 2009 drei Wochen lang im Land der Trolle unterwegs: Helga Lehner, Anton Lehner, Florian Zaczek, Talbachkönig Florian Hartmann, Christian „Prokajak“ Boczkaja, Marion Müller vom Berge, Markus Nietsche, Max Eberl, und Martin Kaltenbach. Ein paar Tage lang hat uns Michael Motz begleitet und uns am Abend mit lustigen Geschichten unterhalten. Zum Schluss sind noch Julian Mihè und der Basti zu uns gestoßen.

Mit Jonas Grünewald und Andy „Mo“ Kennedy wurde auch noch gepaddelt.

Im Jahr zuvor war bereits Anton zusammen mit Toni Otter, Helene Otter, Simone Junker, Benjamin Mauracher, Florina Zazeck und Mike Mitterer, in Norwegen unterwegs. “Nach diesem Trip stand fest, dass auch 2009 Norwegen ganz fett im Kalender markiert wird.”

In Norwegen, ein Land nur weniger kleiner als Deutschland, allerdings mit nur vier Millionen Einwohnern, beginnt die Wildnis gewissermaßen vor der Haustür. Reisende schwärmen von den kristallklaren Flüssen, den atemberaubenden Wasserfällen, der einzigen Leuchtkraft der Landschaftsfarben und der herzlichen Gastfreundschaft dieses Landes, das vor noch nicht allzu langer Zeit noch von Eis bedeckt war. Graeme Addison/Abenteuer Wildwasser

Pictures by
Florian Hartmann
Florian Zazcek
Markus Nietsche
Helga Lehner
Anton Lehner

Text by Helga Lehner