Shaneslogic

Okay back on track! No really I swear. Its been a while since the last update. I kind of let it slide there. My fault.

Where was I… Oh yeah I was in France at the Lyon River Festival, but before the festival happened. I had a few days to be able to get away and paddle some in the French Alps.

David Arnaud, Creator of the Video In-Flux

I met up with David (Dah Veed) Arnaud and took off for the mountains. Its pretty amazing how the mountains just come out of nowhere there. Lyon is really down in the flat lands and you go through a fair bit of flats before you start getting close to Grenoble and then all of the sudden it all changes.

Church on the way up L’Onde

I love the bread in France. Notice the Bread Co. Year Started

The Alps are like Colorado but even bigger where we were. Maybe its just that we were further into the mountains on our way into the Briancon valley but it seemed to me that all the views were extremely large. One of the things that was really cool about the drive was driving over a route that is often part of the Tour de France. It was a super small road winding its way up and over a huge pass. I could see the bikers givin’ it up there.

We ran into Raphael Thiebaut near the town of Briancon. Raphael is an incredible paddler who lives in the Alps with his family, and pushed his paddling on the creeks around the area. We checked a few options out and settled on an incredible run on the Onde river. We drove up above the popular run and put in on a tiny super steep technical run just below a big snow bridge over the river.

These Paddling Photos Were Taken By Raphael Thiebaut.

About 5 strokes and here you are

The landing from the first drop

L’Onde was pretty much like paddling moguls. One rapid lead right into another and the eddies weren’t really eddies. Most of the time we just paddled ourselves on shore to stop. It was incredible paddling, super steep, with great moves, and fun boofs for a couple kilometers.

Thanks For the Photos Raph.

The photos and video speak the best about the rapids themselves to here is the video of: The Onde River in France, Click It

Standard Pat Air

So after a quick tour of Colorado it was off to France for the Lyon River Festival and a little paddling in the French Alps. Kayak Session Magazine along with Canoe and Kayak Magazine France have put on the Lyon River Festival 3 times now and every time it gets better and better. This is so much more than a freestyle event. You have seen the photos of the huge ramp. There is also a skate competition, a multi sport race, and a funky rides area for kids supposedly. But all the kayakers were in on the trampoline machine.

The Boys Hanging Out on Hawaii Sur Rhone

These guys were head and shoulders above the competition during the week. Obviously there are folks throwing moves as hard but these guys are doing it almost every ride, both throwing super complex moves and sticking them. Unfortunately the water dropped out for the event so the fellas weren’t able to show their latest moves during the event. However it was a great time and now that I say that the winning ride still included a Pan Am a Back Blunt and an Airscrew so in fact the wave was still really good it just wasn’t the Hawaii Sur Rhone that we hoped to see. There was a great crowd there both days. Huge party Saturday night and then the water came back up on Monday which made for more good boating.

Here is a video of the first day hanging with these guys.
First Day on Hawaii Sur Rhone, Click It

Pat and Anthony did updates during the event here is the link to the Playak page with the updates. You may need to sign up on playak to make it work for you.
Link to Pat and Anthony’s Event Update Videos, Click It

Next will be a few river updates from the French Alps.
Check Back.
Shane