Sep 08 2009

“Old run, new life” [rauma experience]

Published by at 3:08 pm under Uncategorized

leon1st

Leon droppin´the 1st one

Lower Rauma is not an “everyday” run in Norway. Even when some of us did it before, everytime you go there to run it, you feel different, before and after.

That day was one of those days. Our crew for that run consisted in Leon Bedford, Colin Furmston, Josh Firth, and Thorpie Thorp from Australia; Jussi Tanskanen from Finland Gigo Castillo from Chile and myself.

Lower Rauma really shows the highlights of Norway in one single run. Big slides, drops, more slides and a massive waterfall called “flemming fossen” at the end of the run for those feeling inspired.

jussi2ndjussi boofin´the 2nd

From the first moment you will feel small as you run those beautiful and powerful rapids.

josh3th

josh holding his breath @3th

The good thing about Rauma: everything is happening in a pool and drop type of run which gives an extra sense of confidence when you make your decision to run each rapid.

Faces of high tension, happiness, fear and joy are there during the run….all the time

colin5th

Colin getting the precious boof @5th

For us this was a different run…After some good lines through most of the rapids, we arrived to the “big slide”. This looks awesome, and it feels even better when you run it, but yeah, from time to time it claims for victims. Last year I was there with my friend Diego Castro doing a double run on this rapid, I was right behind him when I saw him dissappearing under the horizon line formed by the “autoboof” drop at the end of the slide…too far right! And Diego ended up with two broken ribs.

thorpie7th

Thorpie riding the 7th, my faivourite

This time was Josh turn, who first went upside down on the slide making some good marks on his face, then, after a quick roll, his boat went vertical down the last drop and hit the rocks at the bottom making his foot looks like a big football the next morning.

After he got some help to get out of his boat, we were quite happy to know that nothing serious happened. But there was something else waiting for that run. Flemming Fossen is right there and some of us looked at this waterfall many times waiting for that moment. We stood up by the lip of the waterfall just trying to find that “inner voice” that tells you what´s right and what´s wrong. Gigo made his mind to run it.

joshfoot

josh getting some help after a bad line @7th

This is a technical entry and a high freefall of nearly 20 mts I guess. You start by an eddy right above the lip, and you have to ferry across all the way to the other side to escape from a death line, then, almost by the lip, you hit a curly wave, trying to get on top of it, and then drop with the flow as you feel the adrenaline rush all over your body….awesome….

Gigo took a pretty good line, but the curly wave on the lip, launched him into the air, making an unvoluntary boof and landing flat at the bottom. Luclky the only one that got hurt then was the boat as we saw gigo smiling and celebrating…

After watching Gigo´s line it was difficult to decide….i had to think about it twice more, but I was feeling calm and confident with myself. And so, I got the line pretty well over the lip, and went with the flow with no problems….happy days…

gigoflemmings

Gigo opening @the monsterous flemming fossen

Thorpie also made his mind to run it. Gigo and myself were waiting at the pool below the waterfall and we saw him going over the lip and down….at first it looked like a perfect line, though, his boat kept rotating forward and we saw him disappearing in the mist. We waited those long seconds until we saw his boat coming out, and his paddle, but no signals of him. I started paddling hard to the waterfall and gigo went for the boat, realizing that Thorpie was still there unconscious. This was one of the most scariest kayaking images I saw so far…we pulled him up and to the rocks on the side. He was sleeping there for some good 5 minutes until he woke up. Finally after some stitches on his head and one night in the hospital Thorpie is out there back on the game.

santiflemmings

myself going for the biggest horizon line in rauma

From time to time you will have those “calls” that put you in your place. That day was one of those. Kayaking is a sport that motivates your spirit, and the will to take care of your life as well as your friend´s, family….

flemming2

and droppin´

Many people thinks there is no point on risking your life in that way, interesting topic, but, there is another face of the story… stay tuned, we will try to show this in our next movie coming up!!!

Santiago Lo Greco

screen shots

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