Jasper PolakWhitewater kayaking

The summer has arrived here in the Netherlands, the tan lines are starting to take shape and the flipflops have replaced the shoes. All this has motivated me to figure out where to go this summer season and finish up the plans. The schedule turns out to be as follows, however this is of course a rough estimate and I’m still a kayaker, so everything is due to change…

• May 31st – June 6th: ICF ranking race – Merano Italy
• June 7th – 24th: study, study and study.. time to finish my exams!
• June 25th – July 4th: Voss Ekstremsportveko, Europe’s biggest extreme sports festival in Voss, Norway including three big kayak races!
• July 5th – 14th: Roadtrip up north in Norway on the hunt for some sweet lines and big drops
• July 15th – 18th: Sjoa festival with the Sweet Rumble boatercross race and the Ula extreme race
• July 19th – 24th: DaFlo, Sweden’s finest festival & Masters of Water competition
• After DaFlo I’ll end up where ever there is water left.. somewhere north I guess!
• August 9th – 15th: Slalom training week in France
• August 16th – 22nd: ICF ranking race – Bratislava Slovenia

Hope to see you on the water!

While most of the European boaters were heading to the Alps for their early season fix, I decided to head up North early this year. Most Norwegians were still on their skis and a bit shocked to see the first boats of the season, but I couldn’t care less – puffy jackets, dry suits and a fire can get you a long way.

The initial plan was to go to Telemark, Norway’s southern region with good whitewater that usually runs early season. A week before I was leaving, king winter was still ruling and there was no sign of snow melt or rain. After a few calls to some Northern friends it turned out that a lot of rain was expected in Voss, so the plan was adjusted and Voss it was.
Upon arrival in Voss the temperatures were still low but it had rained for 3 days straight, so the rivers were full of water. The weather forecast looked promising, the temperatures were on the rise and the sun was going to be out for the full week! Although the locals were a bit shocked by the early arrival of the first foreign boaters, shock quickly turned into excitement when we all headed for the rivers and started knocking off the season’s first runs down local pearls like the Myrkdalselva and Raundalselva.
Ten days of solid action followed with local friends including Benjamin Hjort, Mark Basso, Mariann Saether, Dag Sandvik and Andy Phillips, knocking off most of the popular runs in the first few days. After the high water was gone and rivers were dropping, we also got the chance to venture into some of the rare low water runs like the lower canyon on the Raundalselva – a cool mission including some rappelling and tricky lines.
Good times were had and cold swims were taken (I took the time to test my Sandiline drysuit by taking not one but two swims in a week after staying dry for years!) and soon it was time to leave Voss and head for Sweden. Good thing I’ll be back in this Mecca in less than two months!

In Sweden I drove straight to my “home-away-from-home” Dala-Floda for some paddling and Mats’ 25th birthday party. A couple good days of catching up with everyone, paddling, partying and making plans for the summer and winter season later it was time for the last stage of the trip, Ljusnanfestivalen! I was asked by the Swedish paddling federation to give a course about freestyle judging in Ljusdal and help them out with their first competition of the year, and who would I be to deny that offer? The course went smooth with 7 motivated people and they ran the competition flawless the next day. After this it was time for the most feared part of the trip, the 1900km drive back home…

And here I am now, trying to figure out video editing (harder than it looks!) for the footage from my new GoPro HD helmet cam and finalizing studying for this year. I’ll be back on the road in 5 weeks, heading straight back to Voss for the annual Ekstremsportveko and a sweet road trip up North after that.
Special thanks to my co-driver Roy for being such a good DJ and making good sandwiches along the way!

Enjoy my first helmet cam experiments and some photos taken by Mark Basso.

Season 2010 kicked off with a good festival and some hot slalom action.
After 2 months of organizing, the Kajakfestival turned out to be a great success showing the Dutch national championships in freestyle, boatercross, downriver sprint and slalom. The weather was great and the competitions ran smooth, much to my relief. Apart from being part of the organizers, it was also my first race of the season in slalom. Unfortunately things did not run as smooth as the rest of the festival, I had two bad runs with hits and missed gates… I felt disappointed, but after all it’s just a race.

After the Kajakfestival I drove straight to Markkleeberg in Germany, where we had the Dutch qualifier races for the slalom team and all the major international races. I drove up a week before the race together with Robert & Michelle, because I had never paddled the course and it was a good opportunity for a nice week of training.
The training went smooth, learning new moves and getting to know the course. Also, with training going well I got the ‘good feeling’ back again after the bad race the weekend before. So far, so good and on to the race weekend.

The weekend consisted of 2 different races over 2 days, where all the Dutch slalom boaters were a pre-run block in 2 of the German qualifiers for the Worlds in Tacen. This meant a big show up of world-class boaters including former World champions and the current Olympic champion, challenging courses and of course some pressure along the way.
On Saturday I started bad once again, having bad runs both in the morning and the afternoon. It felt bad to paddle like this after such a good week of training, but I got a good pep talk and fortunately I managed to man up and get my head together overnight. Sunday was the second race day, and my first run was safe and solid. I chose relatively safe lines and did not take unnecessary risks. This gave me a good opportunity to go full-risk in the second run, since there was a solid base. The second run was good, tight lines and full risk which seemed to pay off! I paddled a full 8 seconds off my previous run time, and it put me in third in the U23 field.

Even though the run was good and I had a good race feeling, it was not fast enough for a ticket to the U23 Europeans, which was the initial goal. This sucks obviously, but I can live with it. I learned a lot about both slalom paddling and myself and showed good progression throughout the week. I paddled a good race, made a plan and rolled with it showing people what I have in store, and if that is not fast enough.. well.. so be it! And now for the good news – this means more time for creekboating!

I am leaving for the first creeking trip of the season tomorrow, heading to Norway and Sweden for a good 2 weeks of action. In goes the spandex and out comes the drysuit, puffy jackets and camping gear.. roadtrip time! Stay tuned for some good footage of early season goods.

It’s cold and miserable outside. Most kayakers are sitting inside next to the fire with their laptop reading blogs and watching kayak porn until the temperatures rise and the rivers fill up. If you’re one of those, maybe you should stop reading here.

The are also people who like to stay active year round, and I happen to be one of those freaks. There are many reasons to do so and even more ways to do it, and in the next few weeks I’m going to write some articles about different types of winter training, for those of us who are not fortunate enough to travel to the southern hemisphere and seek for warmer weather and full rivers as soon as autumn arrives.

Why would you?
There are many reasons to stay active in the winter, what’s your reason? For me, this winter there are a couple. First off, the Dutch national champs and qualifiers in slalom are as early as April. If I’d just jump in to my boat in March when the ice melts, I would never be fit in time. Second, and even more important I think, is by continuing to work out I hope to stay injury free this season. Staying injury free for sure is the main goal for me, and what’s it for you? Become stronger? Look better? Feel better? Big paddling plans? Whatever your reason might be, with the right motivation everything is possible.

How?
Alright, you have decided that you want to train trough the winter and set your goals, but paddling is not possible because everything is frozen solid. This calls for some alternatives, related to you training objectives. If you just want to stay fit, you can pick virtually everything from bike riding and running trough swimming or skiing. If you want to become stronger, you’ll have to go to the gym. I personally like to do a whole variety of things, including running, weight training, core stability, climbing & paddling whenever possible. Of course these are just a few of the numerous things you could do, and whatever you choose, make sure you have fun doing it.
In this upcoming series I’ll try to give some insight into effective and fun winter training, accessible for any level of paddler, explaining how to make the best of this kayak-unfriendly period.

It’s a long and cold winter here in the Netherlands, with more ice and snow than we are used to. This means delayed trains, chaos on the roads (how many Dutch people have winter tires?? hah!) and of course, no paddling because everything is frozen solid. I’ve been doing all sorts of things to keep me off the streets and kill my energy overdose, from running and training in the gym to climbing and bouldering.

A good week ago luck was on our side, the snow started to melt and kicked up some river levels quickly. We thought it would be enough for the infamous “BROWN MASS” wave to come in on the Ems in Germany, but it turned out to be a little too low and flushy. Heck, we had a good laugh in the car and it kept us off the streets another day.
That night Raoul and I did some research, trying to break the pegel (which is quite far upstream) Enigma and we thought we solved it, and that it would be way better the next day. We took the gamble and drove over again in the cold, but the wave was loads better and we had a good session! Check out the pics below.

Last saturday it was time for another winter mission as I headed for the small slalom course in Hohenlimburg, Germany with Robert. We had both not paddled slalom on moving water (can’t really call it whitewater..) for a month or two, so it was a bit wobbly but good fun. The only downside was getting changed in 10cm of snow on the parking lot…

As january turns into february, it is only a month till DWD will re-open it’s doors (and pumps) for a new season, I can’t wait to get back into some real whitewater again! Until then, let’s hope for some warmer temperatures..

Right, 2009 is over and that means that everyone starts to write their 2009 recaps and long stories about what we all missed. Instead of doing the same ‘and then I went here and then I did that’ story, I’ll just keep it short and visual. After all, a picture says more than a thousands words.
These are not just the the ’sickest gnarliest most brown’ drops of the year, but these are things that I regularly think about and instantly put a smile on my face. I think that it’s not just what you do, but also where you go and who you share your experiences with. I’ve learned a valuable lesson last year because I didn’t take nearly enough group shots, I’ll try to do better this year because those are the ones that end up on your wall after all.

So after the whole Chile debacle, I decided to head north for the holidays instead. Staying home when you have two weeks off just sounds weird, doesn’t it? So after finishing uni I took some time off work and flew out to Stockholm with skis instead of a kayak. After a smooth flight and bus transfer Miss Liss was waiting for me with the car, perfect! Dinner was cooked, Micke came over from Uppsala and we had a nice evening on the couch.

The next day everyone from my ‘hotel’ in Stockholm had to work, so I headed into town with Micke instead. After a mandatory visit to System Bolaget, we took off for a night out in Uppsala. Micke took me to a good house party and straight to a club from there on. After a good party a long and cold walk I managed to find his place again, passing out for the night. The next few days were spend like a proper tourist around Stockholm, walking around town, shopping, taking pictures and so on.
Wednesday evening after Karin was done working, we took a train up to Borlange where her father picked us up and dropped me off at the Walstedts. Christmas time in Floda!

As always, I received a very warm welcome at the Walstedt family and got to enjoy the fine ecologic kitchen straight from the farm’s own fields. Christmas day was spend as it’s supposed to be, eating. After a couple of big meals, unwrapping Christmas gifts and drinking special Christmas beers, we went to bed fairly early to prepare for the next evening.
In the Netherlands, you spend the 25th just like you did the 24th, eating with the family. In Sweden however, boxing day is spend in the bar! Turns out that the biggest parties of the year are not on the 4th of july, not on new years eve or whenever, but at Christmas! And a big party it was… Thanks to the whole Floda gang for that night – sure one to be remembered!

The next day Micke rolled in with the pimp van, and we started the journey up north towards Åre for a week of skiing. The trip took a little longer than planned, due to bad visibility AKA big snowstorm. Thank god for spikes, 4×4, caffeine and house music! Åre was amazing, although it was slightly colder than I’m used to (-30 is fairly normal up there..) the skiing was pretty good and we had a lot of fun. Fooling around on the slopes, getting lost in the trees, fika here, fika there and of course new years eve was a good night. All good things come to an end, so after a week of skiing we packed the van and drove back to Uppsala, where I left for the airport the next morning to fly home and start studying for my exams!

So to sum it up, i’ve had a great time in the country where dogs eat knackebrod, they have more pretty girls than Volvo’s and 5 euros for a beer is cheap. Thanks to all the Swedes for their unmatched hospitality!

So here we go, no way back. The site is done, or live at least. I’m sort of a perfectionist so it could look purple with green next week, if I decide I don’t like it after all. There are a couple of things coming up already, so it actually looks like this will stay up-to-date!

To Chile, or not to Chile, that was the question for months. I ended up pulling the plug and not doing it, because I could not get enough time out of university. A few weeks after this decision, I miserably failed one of my exams, which resulted in a resit on the 7th of january. Thank god I didn’t book a ticket..

So there had to be a backup plan, because sitting at home when you have 3 weeks off just feels wrong. Very wrong. Not much boating to do in that time of the year here in Europe, and the course in the Netherlands is closed.. What now?
After my trip to Sweden and Norway this summer I was not only convinced to come back up there for more boating, but I also had the idea that it could be fun to ski up there some day. And so it went, I started contacting some people up in Sweden and a few hours later I had a ticket. I’m flying out on the 18th of December, checking out Stockholm and then heading up to Dala-Floda, home of Sweden’s finest festival DaFlo. After celebrating Christmas there, I’ll be driving up north with Mikael, to ski and celebrate new years up in Åre before flying back home on the 4th of January.
Coming home on the 4th, I have 4 days to study and do my exam and continue dreaming of Chile’s big drops. Good thing is, those drops won’t go anywhere, so I’ll save them for next winter…

Right, a blog.

I figured it was about time to get something online that allows me to share my antics, with a little more than just a few photos like I had on my previous site. So, what now? Well, I’ll try to keep it up to date in the first place, and that would be close to a worlds’ first in the blogging business. Therefore, I put a lot of effort in making it as easy to update as possible, so who knows.. I might just do it.

This blog won’t change the world, it won’t solve the climate problem or make me a better boater. However, I hope to share some interesting stuff here, or at least things that I consider to be interesting. You can expect reports from trips, river info, competition results and so on. And what else? A review? Something stupid? Movies? News that’s actually interesting? Hilarious stuff? Info about gear? Photography? Quite possible, yes. Only time will tell, and checking back every now and then is the only way to find out.