This year I went back, for the course I should have been taking last year. Not really fit, neither mentally nor physically, I went down the 1200km drive to Roquebrun.
With a group of 4, we are a small but really nice group of paddlers, as always all with a different background and a slightly different skill level.
The first day is, just like with the basic whitewater course, a flatwater day. Repetition and finetuning of the basic strokes is part of the day, together with a focus on carving, boat tilt and backward paddling. Especially that last part appears not to be that easy for some of us! But hey, if we can't do it on flatwater, we certainly won't be able to do it on the river.
The first day of river paddling starts with focus on basic river manoevres, using the current, stroke minimalisation, set the angle right, timing, ... . But at the same spot we also work on our backferries. After spending a large part of the forenoon on that same playspot, we continue after lunch downstream. Still the same section as I paddled last year (Vieux - Ceps) but it is as always a nice section and water levels are good. On our way down we get to practice how to catch eddies in the outer curve, controlled ferries with angle controll, surfing, backferrying, it's all there. And of course a couple of swims are not excluded either :).
From Ceps to Roquegrun there is another short section, but interesting to combine when starting in Vieux. We did not play that hard at the beginning, but extra hard during the trip down. The most beautifull part of the extra section is a river-wide rapid. On the right side, there is a relative easy pass through but you end up in the outer curve and some bushes might annoy you. On the left side, there is a small drop, but great to boof into the eddy on the right side. We all go for the left side and boof into the eddy. The drop also provides a really great sticky-surf hole. Effortless I could have passed the rest of the afternoon there, surfing.
But we are in Roquebrun for a whitewater course, so it's time to drive down to Réals and go for a paddle on the slalom area. Last year was great, and the lower section with ww III-IV is on my agenda. But there appears to be an astonishing bunch of water in Réals. The water pressure is much higher then it was last year, and many eddies that were present last year, were now just vanished. Some waves were flatened out, other features were a lot meaner. And water levels were still rising. Just paddling down is not that hard, but hitting the eddies en making all the moves appears to be quite challenging. We can anyway count on a good rescue setup before the drop, in case of a swim.
Paddling in Réals is so rewarding that we had to go back another day. The water level was a bit higher then the day before. But we were used to the section, so we could handle a bit more. Though from my side fatigue came in, which resulted in a offside-tilt-swim in what looked like a harmless hole. That hole appeared to be much more retentive then I estimated at first sight, and kept me and my boat in the hole, boat against the rock, I downstream, still int he rock. The first reflex is to swim out backwards, such a small thing. But I didn't manage. To get out, I needed some dead mass in the current, which could be me, or my boat. I first tried to move on the side to the boat into the current. Unfortunately that was not a successfull move. So the alternative was to drop that boat into the current, which it did after some attempts. The boat got into the current and dragged me out. But no really good eddy was near, rescue post was closeby and I was getting really tired of fighting my way out. So I let go of my boat, being captured by the rescue post, and made it to shore. I stacked my paddle in the bushes and swam over to join the rest of the group. Ralf was so kind to recover my paddle. After that fight, energy levels were almost empty from my side. But we weren't ready for the day. We still had to do a rescue exercise. A lined jumper should recover Heinz from the river, on the rescue post - it means, just above that nasty section where you'd rather don't swim down. Just to be sure, we put up 2 extra rescue posts even closer to the nasty thing, but not to close to loose every chance to recover someone. That extra security proved worhtwhile, if it wouldn't have been a scene from dr throwline. The lined swimmer got on the loose with line and rolled over the stones right upstream from the drop. The 20m of line got stuck between the rocks, which luckily kept him from drifting further down. While Heinz was making his way out, he yelled at me: "Zeil". I was aiming for the unfortunate swimmer, trusting Heinz to swim his way out. But that 1second yell blew my throw, I missed. It appeared to be very difficult to stuff a throwbag with neo gloves, so they are no good in rescue situation. Rethrowing an unstuffed bag goes pretty well on the lake or on a calm exercise set, but appears to be a lot harder in a real rescue situation. Heinz kept calm, stuffed a throwbag and recoverd the swimmer. Then someone had to get over to recover the 20m rope from the stones, since we couldn't leave that in the river. Now energy levels were completely empty. But, no one got really hurt, and we recovered everything and everybody. The only damage was a bit on the rope of the throwline.
After that incident, non of us felt like paddling the downstream section. So it's still on my agenda!
The last day we went for the lighter upstream section, upstream of Vieux. My energy levels prooved to be really empty, so I blew the most easy manoevres. Just paddle downstream, try to survive. I know I can do it, just not that day.
The conclusion of this week was that it was again very rewarding, for all of us. And we all learned from it, the good and the bad. But most importantly for me: if you want to do some serious whitewater paddling, you have to have a decent condition.
No images for this week, but I did compose a video:
Rolling is a nice to have skill when paddling whitewater. Even though most of us try to keep the open side up, everyone ends up talking to the fishes sooner or later. Being able to roll back up is a nice skill to have, saving you a swim and keeping you in the relative safety of your boat on harder rivers.
Learning to roll is not the easiest part of paddling, even though I believe one can't learn this particular skill soon enough. (Watch the kajak paddlers, they learn it soon, they have plenty of time to bomb-proof it, and push themselves harder because they know they roll up again). Anyhow, learning to roll is learning to work against your instincts to lift the head up, and push yourself upright with the arms.
I've been strugling with my roll for over a year, being instructed by Kris from canoeadventure.be, having watchet the Bob Foote video, Kent Ford video, ... . And still not mastering my roll. Time to try another instructor to see if he manages to teach me. So I went for Heinz his course in Lippstadt.
Well, it was an amasing weekend. As with the other topics I saw covered by Heinz, there is a profound theoretical explanation behind it, yet brought with a sense of humor. We started, as usual, theoretically and watching some good rolls on video. Moving over to some short dry land exercises to end up on the water.
The first exercise was to get the hip-leg motion memorized. We did that by floating our upper body on a foam plate, trying to minimize the pressure. Going smaller and smaller with the plate was the eventual target. Later on we moved to use light pressure by an assistant hands to roll up, or in low water and see the amount of sand we brought up rolling. Finally some exercises on setup were done.
None of us managed to get that roll nailed down reliable on those 2 intensive days of practice. But we all went home with a decent basis of where to pay attention for, and how to make progress.
I learned some important trics and some common pitfalls. Now I know them, I can avoid them. But most importantly I learned I need more muscular training. That hip/leg movement that is needed to roll the boat aint just working for me. So I'll have to work on that. Once finished you'll be able to find those exercises on this website. So maybe some of them could be of use to you.
Europe accounts for a small group of Open Canoe paddlers. The number of them that is paddling whitewater is even smaller. A couple years a go, the idea was founded to try to get those paddlers together on a meeting, an Armada, to American example.
This years armada was the first one I could join, and was organised in Lofer. It was a pleasure to notice I actually did know some of those people in real life. I did meet some of them a the Orb in France, but anyway.
We drove up from Belgium to get the maximum out of it. Driving up on Wednesday, 4 days paddling and back home on Monday. Not a bad idea to drive up on Wednesday, especially since it was a 900km drive and we had a nice traffic jam in the Muchen area. But no worries, we ignored the gps-thingie and took the tourist drive around. Being lucky to see part of the Lofer bach before arriving in Lofer! We did meet some kayakers on the Lofer bach, and they said it was heavy, a nice class IV run at that water level. Anyway, way too small for my viper11 canoe.
We arrived at the camp site, and apparently there were several groups of paddlers. We noticed when we arrived at the camping plane. Lots of boaters, but only one group of (O)C paddlers. I immediatly met some known people, having a nice chat. Getting to know other people from wildwasserboard and so on. The arrangments for the whole week. The evening we deiced which groups would go where the next day. Only the first day was prearranged.
The first day we were told, we would paddle something light. Ok, light, so no pump required I thought. Now I must say at that moment I had a different understanding of light. Not that this section was really pushing my limits, but I had something smoother in mind. Anyway, the Saalach from Au till Unken is a classic, and it's the name classic worth. There is some smooth flowing water, spiced up with some class II and class III sections. And yes, I did swim a couple of times, pushing the limits myself, by playing river features. Paddling downriver with a group of 30-40 boaters is a bit tricky, but soon some sub-groups were formed and watched out for each other.
The next day 2 groups would paddle something different. One would go for the Salzach, another for the Konings Aache. Salzach was pretty heavy. Still class III, but having close to or even high water. I thought it was wise not to push the limits with such a water level. Konings Aache then. After having some issues to find the put-in, or especially following the others of our group, we made it there. The section at the put-in was also having plenty of water, was quite rocky and there was some pressure on the river. Swimmers would have a nasty swim right at the start.
Not a section which made me afraid, but also not a section of which I was fond to start with without warming up. I forced my ventral muscles last year, and I don't want to go trough that misery again. Some other people really dind't want to paddle this section and suggested to paddle from Unken to Schneitzel-reut. I decided to join in there. Ok, it was a bit too calm, but I had my fun with the other Jan guiding the group down, setting up security and shooting some nice pictures and video.
Day 3: Entenloch klamm. That's my definition of something smooth. Although we got in, paddled 15 minutes, and then concluded we were 2 days too early to paddle that section and we should have taken the next put-in. Leaving us with a mixture of people getting cars, people walking 2km, people carrying boats for 2km. Anyway, as good paddlers we did not paddle the forbidden section but we went around it over land. Back in the boats for some really nice paddling. It made me think of the Ammer in Germany. Ok, the Ammer has some harder sections, but the Enteloch klamm also has his deal of river nasties. Especially curved currents, and unexpected river behaviour.
After this nice paddle we went once more for the Saalach: Au-Unken. It's a really nice stretch, and just as many others this time I wanted to get more out of it. And we did, playing around some more, catching harder eddies, ferrying at harder places, ... . On the way back we stopped to watch the slalom competition and had a glance of the devils gorge. Devils gorge is one nasty place where I wouldn't want to be, with many siphons and undercuts in it. The slalom area looked ok from the road level, but once we got down there, it would be pretty chalenging. Some nice class IV paddling would be required.
Day 4 some of us would go down to the slalom area. I decided not to. No need to push the limits, build up some river experience at first, next to the artificial whitewater experience. After that they would paddle Au-Unken once more, as we would do from the start. Pushing the limits some more on a section we were getting to know quite well. Water levels dropped a bit, but not that much. I found it a really nice paddle this time. Catching eddies in the harder sections, even attempting a surf (but failing and needing some serious work not to swim). Really nice was to paddle not just down at the cataract but play it, using eddies, current differentials and so on.
That evening already people were leaving to make it home that night. But not without leaving our addresses on a list so we could contact each other. The camp site was getting empty. But the remaining part of us had a nice dinner at the camping restaurant, talked over our 4 days of paddling and got to sleep.
I've put a video together from the material I gathered from the armada, and many people posted their links to their images. I've put them all together here:
The second course I took with a German instructor. I had already heard that Heinz Götze was top class amongst the open canoe instructors. So why not give it a try. I e-mailed a bit with Heinz, showed him some video and we decided I could go for the advanced and the basic course. Since I still had no idea of the skill level in Germany, I decided to play on safe and go for the basic course.
The Orb is quite a drive from Belgium, so I decided to leave after work and drive to Luxembourg, taking of already 2-300 km. That would leave another 1000 to drive the next day. Unfortunatly I didn't realise that I would end up in Lyon at the evening traffic jams. Resulting in an arrival at 22.00h. No problem there. Heinz was there, guided me around and I also got my first meeting with "the Orb gang". A bunch of paddlers that go to the same camp place to paddle and play around every year in the same period as the courses.
Since I had to drive so long, I also subscribed for the technique tuning day. 2 other participants would also take this course. The next mourning they arrived and we started our technique tuning on a flat section of the Orb, right underneath our camp.
To estimate our skill level, Heinz asked us to paddle a figure-8. Since at the course with Armin Burzlauer I couldn't use the strokes I wanted, I did check if I could use the technique I preferred. I could, so I carved my 8. A good start, but the wrong course. Apparently my boat control was a little to advanced for what was taugt at this course. But no problem, one is never too old to learn, and fine-tuning is always a good thing to do.
The next day the rest of the group joined us. Though pretty differentiated in skill level (from a ACA flatwater instructor to people with some whitewater experience to people with very few whitewater experience). For the first day of the course, we were working on the basics. Heinz did a short test on my teaching skills and then got me assisting his course, since he knows I'm also interested in teaching.
It's really nice to see how different teachers have different approaches. I've been paddling with a lot of instructors now, and each has his own style. Some things I like, some I don't. But the point is that we made a whole lot of progression that first day. One of the strong parts of Heinz courses is that he is having a theoretical section before noon, every day as well. I personally liked it very much, but thought it might be heavy for people who are not really into whitewater paddling. But they also liked it, all of them! Just the analyses at the evenings after a theoretical part, a couple of hours paddling and a delicious meal where sometimes a bit too much.
Before hitting the water with our boats, we did hit the water with ourselves. We did spend a whole day on rescue exercises. Swimming, capsizing, boat recover, throwbags, even jumping to recover someone. Build with confidence, we were ready for the river!
Gradually we moved out to moving water, some mild class I water and at the end, for those who wanted some class II whitewater. Yes of course, I've got my deal of fine tuning. Instead of doing forward ferries and forward paddling, I've been working on back-ferries, backward paddling and so on. But I also got more involved in the course. I did get the chance to explain some things to the group, work with some of the paddlers individually on some focus points I identified. It was a real pleasure to assist Heinz with this course as well. You can see he has tons of experience with teaching people and pointed me some important things.
Once we decided to paddle a section of the river it became a bit harder to assist since I had no idea of what he was planning to do on the river. But anyhow, I was the sweep boater, ready to go and pick up some paddlers and/or gear. On the play spots I had fun trying out some surf waves, back-ferries and so on. Also making some video sequences that we could analyse later. Of course I did also work on the jet-ferries, C-manoevres and stuff like every body else.
With one of the harder rapids, Heinz and paddled down first, to setup a rescue. It's nice to have an experienced paddler in front of you, who knows the section. But I did eddy-hop down, picking my own lines. When the rest of the group came down, the rescue setup prooved worthwhile. We had to recover some swimmers, but all with a smile and a firm grasp on their gear!
The next day we did paddle the same section. Some more playing, playing and playing. A little too much for some of us, so Heinz got out with those people, and asked me to guide the rest of the group down. Now that was really nice. A small group, a section we all had paddled the day before, and great weather. At the interesting spots, I pointed a line, paddled first and the rest followed. I never needed to do a recovery of people/gear, but we all did have a great deal of fun, and added a whole lot of exercise.
Because of the low water, we did go for the Réal slalom course the last day. Normally the basic course doesn't go there, but this year we did. At a safe distance before a class IV section a rescue was setup, to prevent people or gear to flow through.
What a nice slalom course. The people of the "Orb gang" were also there so there was a really nice atmosphere with lots of open boaters. I did notice the difference of the week paddling. My timing on whitewater got better, and Heinz did point me out some fine-tuning and some more advanced techniques. Réal is the place to test those new skills.
The week ended with a little "summary meeting". All of us had a good time and learned a lot. I was pleased to hear that the other people did appreciate the time I did spend to explain them some things. But I was outmost impressed by the progression all of the participants made on this one week.
After a discussion with Heinz, I decided to stay one more day and go paddling with the people of the "Orb gang" one more day at Réal. I was planning to go to Sault-Brénaz to paddle one more day up there, but eventually no-one ended up there, and Réal is way more fun then Sault-Brénaz. That saturday rain was really pooring and we did notice that on Réal. There was a whole deal more pressure on the water. Ideal for me, now I could test the same manoevres on the same river, but yet different since there was more pressure.
I exchanded addresses with the people of the "Orb gang", and will probably see them again next year, when I take the advanced course. After that I might join the "Orb gang". Nice company, nice river and good wine. What can one wish more for?
In Belgium it is quite hard to become a certificate for canoe instructor or guide. Once upon a day, there was an initiator course. But that disappeared as fast as it came. Meanwhile people from NKV and VTS are working hard on a new version of this course.
Since I didn't want to wait, I looked around for something that could get me on the way. BCU stars is an option. My major problem with BCU is that bcu is focussed on traditional boats. Being used to a Viper 11 playboat I'm not a big fan of paddling traditional boats, especially on whitewater.
I ended up with Canadierkurs.de, doing a guide certification program that works according the ACA system.
Right now I have my level 3, and I must say I haven't regretted a second or a penny of it! Armin Burzlauer is a great instructor with an incredible eye for detail. As you could expect from a guide course, not only your personal paddling technique is improved, but also different rescue techniques are trained and explained. And don't you think you can always take the easy solution. Armin pays good attention to what you do, and will challenge you to try the harder option as well. Both for rescue techniques as for paddling techniques.
If you believe you can use the strokes you like you're also wrong. A limited set of strokes and techniques is trained and used. You'll have to do your manoevers with those strokes. And yes, they are feasable, but maybe not always as easy as other fancy strokes.
To make a long story short: this guide training is definetly worth his time and money! If you're interested in becoming an instructor it's also a great way to start your instructor training and test if you're ready for it. Large parts of the instructor training are also covered in this guide course.
Before hitting the water with our boats, we did hit the water with ourselves. We did spend a whole day on rescue exercises. Swimming, capsizing, boat recover, throwbags, even jumping to recover someone. Build with confidence, we were ready for the river! 
