forever Norway
A week late after trying to import my new Sprinter into Slovenia, I headed to Norway for the 14th Summer in a row. Now its nice to make claim to such a wonderful thing, yet sad will be the day when I do not go to the fable land of Norge. This year was all work and little play for us at Gene17, three weeks back to back after driving from Slovenia in a single hit. That pretty much sums up this bumper year for G17, its been busy.
Matt got to Norway by late May, and headed up a weeks road trip through Telemark, which in ended up in Voss in time for the Extreme Week. So when I catch up with Matt he was still buzzing from a month of hucking on the West coast. Now I enjoy what I do, but a month in Voss would be a welcome distraction for this Summer. Still Straight into the action Dave and I went. Six drop hungry boys from Wicklow were fired up for Ulla and Jori action. And action they got…..
Its always ace to have a bunch of mates so fired up for river fun. In the evenings between the river work we managed to beg, borrow and steal some boats for Jørgen Wave Sessions.
July in Sjoa is not without its off the water fun, and the annual Sjoa fest has become a bit of a none event in terms Saturday night party, although perhaps that may be because everyone is still recovering from the Wednesday night Pimp and Ho! Party…
Further action was had and lots of laughs. Still Norway draws ever more paddlers looking for fun, and my like the cruiser less powerful paddling of the Southern Alps, Norway brings increased gradient and considerably more power in the river flows. Again this past Summer was eventful in terms of mis-adventure on the rivers, yet for the first time in many years, there was little serious incident. To quote Willy Kern, “the river is forgiving until its not”.
Here is a parting shot of rising star Nick Horwood. Nick along with Tim Trew are two of the coming generation from the UK. There are many stars within each successive wave of new paddlers on the scene, and these two have something a little special both on and off the water. Check out Nick firing it up for Flemming’s famous drop on the Lower Rauma, impressive stuff….
As soon as I arrived it was almost time to leave Norway, so on a plane I flew to import that same van into Slovenia, so the D4DR WW 2008 course could go to Montenegro, whilst I returned to Norway, visited Sweet to see all the nice Autumn 2008 gear, and then on to Finland and to my wife for most of August.
Ciao
Simon
