The Open Canoe Festival edition 2011 is over.

For me it was the first time to drive up there, not knowing what to expect. There was a 50€ subscription fee, which I intially found kind of high, but the organisation proved me wrong.

Anyhow, it's a huge (over 200!) gathering of paddlers. Not only single-stickers are welcome, other water crafts are also very  welcome, but open canoes are the majority of the boats on the river.

The OCF to me is something totally different in comparison to the Armada. Where at the armada it is still fairly possible to get to know most or even all participants, that's totally impossible at the OCF, even though I think Paul, the organizer, did a brave attempt.
There is also a commercial part at the Festival, a part that, having the idea, made me a bit nervous. But it ended up with a nice presence of Esquif, Mad River, Hiko, not to forget Pentax, ... . But all that presence was not bothersome at any way. And I must say I was really pleased by the amount of test canoes being provided by Esquif and Mad River. There even was the new L'Edge to try!

Another advantage of going a bit commercial, was the really cool group setup by Tent Tipi:

That being said, in such a large gathering, people group together. And even though there were quite some old friends, the 6 Belgians present joined for beers, wine and paddling.  For the first day, some mini-trips have been foreseen. Not guided, but if desired, a shuttle service was available for those who wanted.
4 of us decided to paddle the upstream section so we could get out again at the camp-site. Though it was said to be only a 10km section(?) and a 2hour paddle, we took largely 3 hours to paddle that section. But with a prelude, a spanish fly and a zoom present, it's playtime on a river, even at rather low water levels. Our 17 foot companion had to wait from time to time on the 9 and 10 foot playboats.
No paddling here without swapping canoes. That way I ended up in a spanish fly, a canoe I already know I like and a zoom. Wow, compared to a prelude it's stable, fast and tons of fun. I should be able to give it a more thorough test and review it!
This little section has close to the endpoint a really nice little surf wave. Side surfing in it is a blast, and 360's go rather easy in those little playboats. Sure that's one of the spots where we did spend some time ;-).
It's a pity that due to the low water level, the last, very short rapid was unrunnable. It's kind of a 2 stage drop, but seen on the pictures from last year, a fun ride and probably impressive for those who haven't been on such a rapids before.

The evening is filled with a good meal and the evening filled with good talks and wine.

Sunday is the big-trip day, a 28 (which appeared on a gps to be 32km). The spanish fly is replaced by the L'Edge, and off we go. We take of as one of the first groups, but end as one of the lasts. There are not many fools around there, that do such a long stretch in playboats. We refrain from playing and catching too much eddies, since there is a lot to paddle. But some nice rapids are served as a reward, and there of course we play.

The surf wave cannot be left aside, and even though we are all pretty tired, we do play a bit more in there. And that's the place for me to give the L'Edge another short try. Sidesurfing, 360's and rolling. I don't want to say too much about it, since I want to test this canoe on more pushy water before reviewing it. But the general remarks I can support, slower then the prelude, stable and forgiving, and did I mention stable?

The evening serves yet another meal for us, followed by a tombola. I think at least one thirth of the participants got to win something. Some of them were not really practical (a small t-shirt from Teva, I don't even get in...), but there were really cool prizes as well: kokatat PFD, helmets, pentax waterproof camera's and as main prize, a fully fitted Esquif pocket canyon!

Monday is clinics day. There were sessions on rescue,  poling, tandem canoe technique, ... . I did not join either of them, I already had 5 days of intensive whitewater paddling before I joined the festival, and decided it was a good time to break up the camp, and start moving to Belgium, "I'll see where I end up"

Don't mind my complaining above, about the Teva T-shirt, that was too small, I've got a much more pleasant and really unexpected present afterwards:

Paul selected one of the pictures he took of me, to create a cover for the French magazine "Canoë et Kayak", edition june 2011. So I made my first cover picture ;-).

There are lots of other pictures available, and some video footage too. Here are the two created by Paul Villecourt and his colleagues:

Open Canoe Festival 2011 - Trailer / Bande annonce from Open Canoe Festival on Vimeo.

Open Canoe Festival 2011 - Diaporama / Slideshow from Open Canoe Festival on Vimeo.