Corda Blogg: River kayaking and packrafting

Monday, 20 June 2011

River kayaking and packrafting

We have been paddling on rivers for 2 weekends in the last 2 weeks: first a river kayaking course, the same we took last year but now on local rivers. We didn't do any river kayaking after the course last year so wanted to refresh our technique and get some confidence back. We paddled on the rivers Målselva and Divielva. The second weekend was a river paddling gathering, a gathering to try to get local river enthusiasts together; a very good way for us beginners to get more experience. Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera (yet), so I don't have any photos from the paddling itself, but only from the (lunch) breaks and evenings. But a good account of the river kayaking course, in Norwegian, but with some action photos, can be found on the blog of one of the other participants at http://oddsvend.blogspot.com/2011/06/urs-i-elvekajakk-pa-malselva-og.html.

River kayaking theory lesson in camp

Theory lesson

At camp after the first course day

Tipped kayaker helped ashore

Last weekend there was a 'padlesamling', a river paddling gathering, in Målselv. Eighteen people turned up, while another 8 were doing a river kayaking course and joined us the second day on Divielva. There was a good mixture with 5-6 canoes, 5-6 river kayaks, 3 Alpacka packrafts and 1 swimmer with a riverboard. The first day we paddled a relatively quiet stretch of the upper Divielva and stopped for lunch and rescue training at a gravel bar. The second day we did a shorter section on the lower Divielva, but with some more interesting and challenging white water for us beginners. Great to try out our packrafts on these rivers and nice to know that there is at least one other packrafter in Troms! A very pleasant and instructive weekend in beautiful summer weather. One of the participants made a great movie summary of the weekend for the local newspaper the Nordlys: http://www.nordlys.no/web-tv/article5646476.ece