The Lastest Blog By soulboater

The Lastest Blog By soulboater http://www.powerbar.de:80/blog/soulboater.aspx Lastest Blog By soulboater en Help us to win money for Soft Power in Uganda - just vote for our video! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/14257/Help_us_to_win_money_for_Soft_Power_in_Uganda_-_just_vote_for_our_video.aspx 11/14/2011
I just edited some footage from ourlast trip to Lapland this spring. Excuse my quick and dirty editing, but timewas short to get the video online for the contest. After the contest I will cutone properly and publish it in HD!Please vote for my new Lapland-Videoin this Sportscheck-Video-Contest, because the winner will get 10.000 EURO (=around 13.600 US Dollar) shopping-voucher for this sports-shop “Sportscheck”and if my video wins, we will sell all the products on ebay and donate themoney to a charity of your choice! We guess the money will accumulate to around6.000 - 10.000 US Dollars. You can vote for the charity the money should go to here on my blog at the top of the right navigation.
To support thischarity-project just like the “Sportscheck”-Fanpage on facebook and vote (=click the button "abstimmen") for my video.

Vote here: Our Video in the Sportscheck-Video-Contest

Two possiblecharities you can give your vote for on my blog are Soft Power Health or SoftPower Education in Uganda.

If our video wins we will keep you updated about the auctions and the money raised here on the blog.

Please vote and s***** the word!

Thanks a lot foryour support!
Markus]]> Reichenbach-Wave update http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/9683/Reichenbach-Wave_update.aspx 1/15/2011

And we still need all your online-signatures here! www.rettet-die-reichenbach welle.de
Thanks for your support!
Markus]]> Season 2010 closing at La Malate and Hawaii Sur Rhone http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/9682/Season_2010_closing_at_La_Malate_and_Hawaii_Sur_Rhone.aspx 1/7/2011

Our first destination was the La Malate wave on the Doubs. Unfortunately we missed the perfect level for the La Scie wave by one day. But when La Scie goes down La Malate starts to kick in and La Malate is the sicker wave anyway. Just the small hole next to the shoulder gives your head some kind of tense feeling when throwing some moves ;-)
We met at the wave with "local" Stephane "Stefun" Pion. The hole looked too intimidating for Maria and Toby, so they left for the Deluz-Wave which is situated around 30 Minutes upstream. The wave is really nice and smooth, easy to throw moves and land them in the foam. On top the feature provides a nice eddy service. They both got company from two Munich board surfers who also had made a short trip to the waves. Check out the pics from the Deluz-Wave:

So Stefun and myself were left by ourselfes to surf the La Malate Wave alone. I have to say, really nice without queing but although quite physically and mentally challenging to shred that wave without long breaks. See here some pics from the session:

On the second day the water had dropped some more and the wave had gotten much smaller and the whole as well. At this lower level one can enter the wave through the hole and therefore an eddy-service is possible. Now also Maria and Toby joined in and Maria had her first La Malate session. Wicked!

After the session we decided we would leave for Lyon for the next two days as the level should be good there. Stefun lives just between La Malate and Lyon and he invited us over to stay at his place the night. What a lovely place he has built himself and his family I have to say! Thanks again for the hospitality of the whole family! The next morning we left for Lyon straight after we`ve played a football match in his garden. And the picture gives a false impression, we
did not all play against his small daughter, I was in her team ;-)

In Lyon we teamed up with David Arnaud and I got to paddle his carbon Nemesis M. What an awesome boat, so light, stiff and fast. I had so much fun although the wave was really difficult. The middle part with the foam was really trashy and it was hard to do moves on the shoulder as the green was quite flat. As well it was really hard to get on Wall B.

After the session we were invited over by Sonja Jankowfsky and Vincent Mercier, big thanks as well! The next day after another session it was unfortunately already time to hit the road again and head back home.

Goodbye France, cu again in 2011!

All pics by Maria Stelzig and Stefun Pion

Power on,
Markus]]> One battle lost but still fighting! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/8819/One_battle_lost_but_still_fighting.aspx 11/9/2010 Thanks for your support!

Sign the online-petiton here: Save waves on the Isar-River

Power on!
Markus]]> Nice new webbased tool to share and integrate different content (pics, videos etc.) online http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/8818/Nice_new_webbased_tool_to_share_and_integrate_different_content_(pics,_videos_etc)_online.aspx 10/27/2010 ]]> Help save the Reichenbach-Wave in Munich (Germany) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/8139/Help_save_the_Reichenbach-Wave_in_Munich_(Germany).aspx 7/26/2010
Sign the online-petiton here: Save the Reichenbach-Wave

Here some impressions from the past weekend:

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Thanks!
Markus

]]> Trenčín aka the wave hunt on the river Váh in Slovakia http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5608/Trenčín_aka_the_wave_hunt_on_the_river_Váh_in_Slovakia.aspx 5/27/2010

During the next two days the level rose and fell again between those 10 centimeters and we had a lot of time for talking shop with our local guide Miloš Trnka ;-)

Well as said before the trashy wave was ideal for doing high out entry moves. Here a sequence.

On Monday our third and last day, suddenly the water rose and the wave started to open up and it really got superb. So I sticked this nice clean helix and it was generally nice and smooth to launch nice wave moves. But unfortunately the wave was in for maybe 2 Minutes, no kidding. As I walked up (oh yeah, all waves have to be catched on the fly) the wave was totally gone.

Just one minute ago there was a huge hole/wave at this spot! So now a really crazy thing happened and it was the first time for me to experience something like that. I.e. the weir-gates were opened up totally, the water rose around 1,5 meter in just a few minutes and we experienced all the different waves which are at offer. And I have to say those few minutes were worth it and I want to be back, when they are in for longer! After those few minutes the gates were closed again and the water dropped even further than before (i.e. below 300 cubics, which is too low to have decent waves) but it didn´t matter for us cause it was already time to head back home again. Check out the pics below and mind that nice castle in the background of the first pic. Trencin is a nice town with an old inner city and the Palatschinken are just delicious!

Here still with closed gates

You see the two middle gates are opened up and the water starts floating in

Even nice waves before the main hole/wave row come in so you have two sets of waves behind each other.

And this is the formerly small but wide hole. Now the hole rather resembles La Malate and the shoulder is an equivalent to the Wittelsbacher wave in Munich in the good old times at its best level.

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Power on!
Markus]]> Sign online-petition and thereby help save an awesome river! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5607/Sign_online-petition_and_thereby_help_save_an_awesome_river.aspx 5/12/2010
sign here: online-petition

here the explanation for the data you have to enter:

Name = surname
Vorname = first name
Straße und Hausnummer = street and house number
Postleitzahl = zip code
Stadt = city
Land = country
Ihre gültige Email-Adresse = your valid email-address
[] Checkbox = tick it if you want the owner of the petition to see your email-address
CAPTCHA = type in the numbers/letters you are shown which should help to tell that the signature is done by a human and not done automatically

Thanks for your help!

power on,
Markus]]> Easterweekend in Lyon - Hawaii sur Rhone in Dutch and German grip http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7163/Easterweekend_in_Lyon_-_Hawaii_sur_Rhone_in_Dutch_and_German_grip.aspx 4/11/2010

Maria throwing a massive air-blunt

Big Cheeks

Maria airborne

Leo and Casper having fun

Daniel Riedmüller going for the donkey

Sandrina Hornhardt doing an air-blunt

Philipp Hitzigrath having fun

Thanks to the photographers:
Maria Stelzig, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Eric Bui

PowerOn!
Markus
]]> Worthy European season opening in La Malate and Lyon http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7162/Worthy_European_season_opening_in_La_Malate_and_Lyon.aspx 3/6/2010
La Malate (Doubs, Besançon):

The one and only La Malate wave with the attached humongous hole

I also took the Element for a few speed turns, man it is fast

All pics by Maria Stelzig

And I couldn´t believe it, the firemen from Besancon parked their firetruck besides the wave, cheered me on and had an awesome time watching. What a difference to the firemen in Munich who normally threaten you off the wave.

Hawai Sur Rhone (Lyon):

Maria throwing her first Air Blunt in Lyon

Seppi going for the pistol

Some lifestyle impressions:

Believe me, we had some wind

Pics by Maria Stelzig, Sarah Hangartner, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Seppi Strohmeier

Power on!
Markus]]> Worthy European season opening in La Malate and Lyon http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5605/Worthy_European_season_opening_in_La_Malate_and_Lyon.aspx 3/6/2010
La Malate (Doubs, Besançon):

The one and only La Malate wave with the attached humongous hole

I also took the Element for a few speed turns, man it is fast

Hawai Sur Rhone (Lyon):

Maria throwing her first Air Blunt in Lyon

Seppi going for the pistol

Some lifestyle impressions:

Believe me, we had some wind

Pics by Maria Stelzig, Sarah Hangartner, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Seppi Strohmeier

Power on!
Markus]]> Worthy European season opening in La Malate and Lyon http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/8135/Worthy_European_season_opening_in_La_Malate_and_Lyon.aspx 3/6/2010
La Malate (Doubs, Besançon):

The one and only La Malate wave with the attached humongous hole

I also took the Element for a few speed turns, man it is fast

Hawai Sur Rhone (Lyon):

Maria throwing her first Air Blunt in Lyon

Seppi going for the pistol

Some lifestyle impressions:

Believe me, we had some wind

Pics by Maria Stelzig, Sarah Hangartner, Jean-Pierre Benacchio and Seppi Strohmeier

Power on!
Markus]]> Uganda - The same procedure as last year, Miss Maria? http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7161/Uganda_-_The_same_procedure_as_last_year,_Miss_Maria.aspx 2/6/2010 To start with, as last year Marias luggage and kayak arrived two weeks late, we decided to not take Egypt Air again this year. Instead we flew with Emirates and what a pleasure it was. No lost luggage, no problem with the kayak (no extra charge; just keep the weight limit), awesome food and a huge library of movies to choose from, to just name a few of the advantages of flying with Emirates. In contrast to that Egypt Air still hasn`t repaid our expanses we had last year because of the delayed luggage. Well, there is never anything better than good customer service and caring about word of mouth.

Anyhow, we arrived in Uganda safely and drove straight to Hairy Lemon to get as much wave time as possible. I have to admit I´m a wave addict and altough I love big volume rapids like on the day one section, I prefere big waves, as all in all you just get more air time if you sum up all your airmoves and bounces ;-) So if you ever meet anybody at the Nile who spends three quaters of his time in Uganda on the Hairy Lemon, that will be me.

So what was different this year to last year. Well, besides getting all our gear there with us in one time we had much less water this year. Last year the Nile Special Wave was in every day all day long and we just had once Club Wave level. This year on the contrary the level was so low that we had Club Wave every day from morning to late afternoon and around 3-4 pm Nile Special was coming in. But I have to say that last year I didn´t remember Club being so good. I think this year was different as I really loved it. One more sign of the features being different was that when the water level was going up Club Wave got really trashy and even quite little foamy and between Nile Special and Club another wave built up: Bell-Wave. At a lower level Bell is a really n**** big hole you rather want to avoid but when Nile Special kicks in you can start catching three wave after another in one run. And Bell-Wave sometimes really builds up high and steep and one can get massive air. As you can see on the pic below, which was my sickest air I got on this trip.

Taking off on the right bounce - unbelievable big air on Bell-Wave

What else was different? Well Maria was able to handle the rope to get on Nile Special really fast, so she was enjoying surfing the biggest wave she has surfed so far and she loved it. Already trying hard to go for the blunt. Roundhouses already being a piece of cake. Hence she also could run day two section this year and loved Silverback on the day one section. I also found the time to run some backchannels this year and was super stoked.

Besides from paddling the food on Hairy Lemon got much better as they had a new cook, Michael, on the island. And this year, as Maria was paddling most of the time as well, we hired two of the local kids, Ivan and Michael, to shoot photos and the video footage for us. They did a great job and especially Ivan can anticipate the moves and everything. He also attended a photographer-course which Jessie, a female American paddler and photographer was giving to her American clients, which helped him a lot. Further down we got pictures of them, so if you need somebody to help you out look out for them. This time they got the same amount of money as the rope boys got for a session. And as they sometimes had 2-3 cameras from different people their earnings piled up and they were happy.

Over Christmas we had a night session at the wave which was really cool, although the local kids promised quite a lot (a generator with flashlights etc.) and somebody paid them all the money up front and in the end there were no lights and the money was gone... Well anyway, they organised some local food, the camp-fire and a few crates of beer, so we had a lot of fun anyway! ;-) Here I just posted the best pics of the trip, check them out and enjoy.

To start with a few pics from Club-Wave:

Pics from good old Nile-Special:

getting lost in the spray

the must-pic: big cheeks ;-)

Although I love my PowerBar Energybars a lot, I can´t say no to a pineapple-session ;-)

Marias first roundhouses, blunts, big airs and big smiles:

Some impressions apart from kayaking:

Ivan Ngobi the master of the camera (especially stills)

Michael "our" videographer

Michael getting the camera introduction

Somehow ended up in the businessclass lounge in Dubai transit ;-)

Some kids showed us around Bujagali and we saw the awesome work from Soft Power Health

Unbelievable, but we really witnessed dynamite fishing! First the guys threw in bait from some rocks in the middle of the river, then waited for around one hour and then threw in the dynamite and collected the dead fish afterwards.

Christmas-Dinner & x-mas Nile-Special Night-Surf party:

Wildlife:

All pics by Maria Stelzig & Ivan Ngobi and me

If you need some more input just check out our 6 blogposts from the trip last year:
1. Uganda, Nile Special or just beeing a crazy Muzungu
2. Christmas at Hairy Lemon
3. Africa Revolutions Tour & Sun Catchers Project
4. Uganda Part 4, Isar Renaturation & WRSI
5. Change of Camp - Uganda Part 5
6. Finally: Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips"

Enjoy the river and cu,
Maria & Markus

]]> Uganda - The same procedure as last year, Miss Maria? http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5604/Uganda_-_The_same_procedure_as_last_year,_Miss_Maria.aspx 2/6/2010 To start with, as last year Marias luggage and kayak arrived two weeks late, we decided to not take Egypt Air again this year. Instead we flew with Emirates and what a pleasure it was. No lost luggage, no problem with the kayak (no extra charge; just keep the weight limit), awesome food and a huge library of movies to choose from, to just name a few of the advantages of flying with Emirates. In contrast to that Egypt Air still hasn`t repaid our expanses we had last year because of the delayed luggage. Well, there is never anything better than good customer service and caring about word of mouth.

Anyhow, we arrived in Uganda safely and drove straight to Hairy Lemon to get as much wave time as possible. I have to admit I´m a wave addict and altough I love big volume rapids like on the day one section, I prefere big waves, as all in all you just get more air time if you sum up all your airmoves and bounces ;-) So if you ever meet anybody at the Nile who spends three quaters of his time in Uganda on the Hairy Lemon, that will be me.

So what was different this year to last year. Well, besides getting all our gear there with us in one time we had much less water this year. Last year the Nile Special Wave was in every day all day long and we just had once Club Wave level. This year on the contrary the level was so low that we had Club Wave every day from morning to late afternoon and around 3-4 pm Nile Special was coming in. But I have to say that last year I didn´t remember Club being so good. I think this year was different as I really loved it. One more sign of the features being different was that when the water level was going up Club Wave got really trashy and even quite little foamy and between Nile Special and Club another wave built up: Bell-Wave. At a lower level Bell is a really n**** big hole you rather want to avoid but when Nile Special kicks in you can start catching three wave after another in one run. And Bell-Wave sometimes really builds up high and steep and one can get massive air. As you can see on the pic below, which was my sickest air I got on this trip.

Pics from good old Nile-Special:

getting lost in the spray

the must-pic: big cheeks ;-)

Although I love my PowerBar Energybars a lot, I can´t say no to a pineapple-session ;-)

Marias first roundhouses, blunts, big airs and big smiles:

Some impressions apart from kayaking:

Ivan Ngobi the master of the camera (especially stills)

Michael "our" videographer

Michael getting the camera introduction

Somehow ended up in the businessclass lounge in Dubai transit ;-)

Christmas-Dinner & x-mas Nile-Special Night-Surf party:

Wildlife:

]]> Uganda - The same procedure as last year, Miss Maria? http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/4576/Uganda_-_The_same_procedure_as_last_year,_Miss_Maria.aspx 2/6/2010 To start with, as last year Marias luggage and kayak arrived two weeks late, we decided to not take Egypt Air again this year. Instead we flew with Emirates and what a pleasure it was. No lost luggage, no problem with the kayak (no extra charge; just keep the weight limit), awesome food and a huge library of movies to choose from, to just name a few of the advantages of flying with Emirates. In contrast to that Egypt Air still hasn`t repaid our expanses we had last year because of the delayed luggage. Well, there is never anything better than good customer service and caring about word of mouth.

Anyhow, we arrived in Uganda safely and drove straight to Hairy Lemon to get as much wave time as possible. I have to admit I´m a wave addict and altough I love big volume rapids like on the day one section, I prefere big waves, as all in all you just get more air time if you sum up all your airmoves and bounces ;-) So if you ever meet anybody at the Nile who spends three quaters of his time in Uganda on the Hairy Lemon, that will be me.

So what was different this year to last year. Well, besides getting all our gear there with us in one time we had much less water this year. Last year the Nile Special Wave was in every day all day long and we just had once Club Wave level. This year on the contrary the level was so low that we had Club Wave every day from morning to late afternoon and around 3-4 pm Nile Special was coming in. But I have to say that last year I didn´t remember Club being so good. I think this year was different as I really loved it. One more sign of the features being different was that when the water level was going up Club Wave got really trashy and even quite little foamy and between Nile Special and Club another wave built up: Bell-Wave. At a lower level Bell is a really n**** big hole you rather want to avoid but when Nile Special kicks in you can start catching three wave after another in one run. And Bell-Wave sometimes really builds up high and steep and one can get massive air. As you can see on the pic below, which was my sickest air I got on this trip.

Pics from good old Nile-Special:

getting lost in the spray

the must-pic: big cheeks ;-)

Although I love my PowerBar Energybars a lot, I can´t say no to a pineapple-session ;-)

Marias first roundhouses, blunts, big airs and big smiles:

Some impressions apart from kayaking:

Ivan Ngobi the master of the camera (especially stills)

Michael "our" videographer

Michael getting the camera introduction

Somehow ended up in the businessclass lounge in Dubai transit ;-)

Christmas-Dinner & x-mas Nile-Special Night-Surf party:

Wildlife:

]]> Uganda - The same procedure as last year, Miss Maria? http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/8134/Uganda_-_The_same_procedure_as_last_year,_Miss_Maria.aspx 2/6/2010 To start with, as last year Marias luggage and kayak arrived two weeks late, we decided to not take Egypt Air again this year. Instead we flew with Emirates and what a pleasure it was. No lost luggage, no problem with the kayak (no extra charge; just keep the weight limit), awesome food and a huge library of movies to choose from, to just name a few of the advantages of flying with Emirates. In contrast to that Egypt Air still hasn`t repaid our expanses we had last year because of the delayed luggage. Well, there is never anything better than good customer service and caring about word of mouth.

Anyhow, we arrived in Uganda safely and drove straight to Hairy Lemon to get as much wave time as possible. I have to admit I´m a wave addict and altough I love big volume rapids like on the day one section, I prefere big waves, as all in all you just get more air time if you sum up all your airmoves and bounces ;-) So if you ever meet anybody at the Nile who spends three quaters of his time in Uganda on the Hairy Lemon, that will be me.

So what was different this year to last year. Well, besides getting all our gear there with us in one time we had much less water this year. Last year the Nile Special Wave was in every day all day long and we just had once Club Wave level. This year on the contrary the level was so low that we had Club Wave every day from morning to late afternoon and around 3-4 pm Nile Special was coming in. But I have to say that last year I didn´t remember Club being so good. I think this year was different as I really loved it. One more sign of the features being different was that when the water level was going up Club Wave got really trashy and even quite little foamy and between Nile Special and Club another wave built up: Bell-Wave. At a lower level Bell is a really n**** big hole you rather want to avoid but when Nile Special kicks in you can start catching three wave after another in one run. And Bell-Wave sometimes really builds up high and steep and one can get massive air. As you can see on the pic below, which was my sickest air I got on this trip.

Pics from good old Nile-Special:

getting lost in the spray

the must-pic: big cheeks ;-)

Although I love my PowerBar Energybars a lot, I can´t say no to a pineapple-session ;-)

Marias first roundhouses, blunts, big airs and big smiles:

Some impressions apart from kayaking:

Ivan Ngobi the master of the camera (especially stills)

Michael "our" videographer

Michael getting the camera introduction

Somehow ended up in the businessclass lounge in Dubai transit ;-)

Christmas-Dinner & x-mas Nile-Special Night-Surf party:

Wildlife:

]]> Kuchl Season Opening with a Test of the Fluid Element http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7160/Kuchl_Season_Opening_with_a_Test_of_the_Fluid_Element.aspx 10/9/2009 Last weekend we started our autumn Kuchl-season and we had perfect weather for three days.
I also had my first goes in the Fluid Element. It is such a fast boat, unbelievable. The perfect choice for Kuchl if the level is too high and the wave is green, i.e. too flushy for "normal" playboats. Therefore in my opinion not just an ocean kayak but the right boat if your regular freestyle boat is too slow for a river-wave. I never had so much fun carving a wave and the sidekicks and flipturns were so dynamic that I was superstoked and couldn´t get the grin out of my face.

Flipturn

Maori playing with his miniature kayaker

Spray bigtime

Toby going fot the tow-in on the surf-board

Another Sidekick

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Kuchl Season Opening with a Test of the Fluid Element http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5603/Kuchl_Season_Opening_with_a_Test_of_the_Fluid_Element.aspx 10/9/2009 Last weekend we started our autumn Kuchl-season and we had perfect weather for three days.
I also had my first goes in the Fluid Element. It is such a fast boat, unbelievable. The perfect choice for Kuchl if the level is too high and the wave is green, i.e. too flushy for "normal" playboats. Therefore in my opinion not just an ocean kayak but the right boat if your regular freestyle boat is too slow for a river-wave. I never had so much fun carving a wave and the sidekicks and flipturns were so dynamic that I was superstoked and couldn´t get the grin out of my face.

Flipturn

Maori playing with his miniature kayaker

Spray bigtime

Toby going fot the tow-in on the surf-board

Another Sidekick

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Kuchl Season Opening with a Test of the Fluid Element http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/3070/Kuchl_Season_Opening_with_a_Test_of_the_Fluid_Element.aspx 10/9/2009 Last weekend we started our autumn Kuchl-season and we had perfect weather for three days.
I also had my first goes in the Fluid Element. It is such a fast boat, unbelievable. The perfect choice for Kuchl if the level is too high and the wave is green, i.e. too flushy for "normal" playboats. Therefore in my opinion not just an ocean kayak but the right boat if your regular freestyle boat is too slow for a river-wave. I never had so much fun carving a wave and the sidekicks and flipturns were so dynamic that I was superstoked and couldn´t get the grin out of my face.

Flipturn

Maori playing with his miniature kayaker

Spray bigtime

Toby going fot the tow-in on the surf-board

Another Sidekick

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/3069/Help_save_the_last_30_of_free_flowing_rivers_in_Austria.aspx 10/2/2009 To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/4574/Help_save_the_last_30_of_free_flowing_rivers_in_Austria.aspx 10/2/2009 To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5602/Help_save_the_last_30_of_free_flowing_rivers_in_Austria.aspx 10/2/2009 To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/2836/Help_save_the_last_30_of_free_flowing_rivers_in_Austria.aspx 10/2/2009 To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Help save the last 30% of free flowing rivers in Austria! http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7159/Help_save_the_last_30_of_free_flowing_rivers_in_Austria.aspx 10/2/2009 To oppose this madness please visit this Austrian Website and leave your electronic signature on this online petition for the preservation of the last natural flowing rivers in Austria. The site is in German but it is quite simple to fill out the form at the bottom. The fields are as follows:

Name
Street
Post Code
City
Email
Year of birth

[] The checkbox is not mandatory. Just tick it if you want the Newsletter of the WWF.

Go to the online petition here:
fluessevollerleben.at

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1598/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/27/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticked to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1597/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/27/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Lipno WhiteWater-Festival 2009 & Uganda Episode I http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1596/Lipno_WhiteWater-Festival_2009__Uganda_Episode_I.aspx 9/27/2009 Czech republic) is opened for two days for a whitewater festifval. There are a slalom-, downriver- and raft-race. Since a few years there is as well the Devils Extreme Race which is comprised of a Extreme Slalom, Boater Cross and Team-Race. And what can I say, everything I heard in advance was true. First of all there are huge amounts of paddlers and rafters on and besides the river. Competitors but many recreational folks as well.
We left Munich on Friday night after work and after 3,5 h of driving arrived in VisyBrod which is the take out village and has one camp site, where we met 3 other fellow paddlers (Sebastian Striebl, Klausi Süssmuth and Simon Seeberger) for a good night beer at the happening pre-competition-party. The next morning the group was finalised by Jan Haluzka and Lars Hilleke. After a nice breakfast at a hotel (the prices are really cheap compared to Germany, therefore eating out is a really good alternative to the common kayak outdoor cuisine) we left for our first run. Originally I wanted to take part at the Devils Extreme Race (www.devilsextremerace.com) but as all other friends opted for the relax-version of the weekend I gave in and concentrated on trying to make Marias first whitewater river run a memorable event. A really good premise for that is the temperature of the water of the river. It is really warm as it has had time to warm up in the dam-lake. I almost felt like in Uganda ;-) The river is really nice, nothing too difficult and every hard rapid can be easily portaged. The hardes rapid being "die blutige Hand" (bloody hand) and I really have never seen so many b***** hands during one day. Well on the first day I managed unharmed twice through the rapid but on Sunday I omitted the b***** hand as I wanted to secure an unharmed hand. Sometimes it is better to take no chances. In the evening after a long and extensive dinner (make sure to eat the Palatschinken with ice cream for dessert!) there was the big party of the Devils Extreme Race with a sweet live concert of a Czech Ska-Band. Rock`n Roll baby! On Sunday you can follow the same procedure as the day before if your head is up for it ;-)
Check out some pics of the weekend below:

Jan preparing the boat for Lars

Last small boof on one of the main cataracts

Eddying out after the boof and you can see the river banks are always lined with paddlers the whole river

Bus-Crew on the way to the second run

Hang loose! Happy days!

fighting dehydrogenation before the Devils Extreme Race Party (at the party half a litre beer cost around 1,-€!)

Cu there next year!

As we´ve just booked the flight to Uganda for this winter again I thought it would be time to cut the footage from last year ;-)
Here the first Episode:

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Eiskanal Boatercross, Outdoorshow Catwalk and Lahn Touring http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1595/Eiskanal_Boatercross,_Outdoorshow_Catwalk_and_Lahn_Touring.aspx 9/27/2009

Getting ready before the race

Really bad start

The ramp was fun anyway

Charging full on but in vain

Last weekend we first made a short stopover at the Outdoorshow in Friedrichshafen (see below) and after that headed to the Lahn River for a two-day long kayak/canoe-touring trip.
The Lahn River is a 245.6-kilometer-long, eastern tributary of the Rhine River. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in the Rothaargebirge, the highest part of the Sauerland. It meets the Rhine at Lahnstein, near Koblenz. Important cities along the Lahn include Marburg, Gießen, Wetzlar, Limburg an der Lahn, Weilburg and Bad Ems.
Our first day stretch started in Löhnberg and went for 12 km until Gräveneck where we stayed at a campsite straight by the river. On the second day we continued from Gräveneck for about 14 km until Runkel. On the first day we paddled with our freestyle boats to have some fun doing flatwater tricks but as the other paddled open canoes their speed was quite tireing in the short boats ;-) Therefore on the second day we switched to a canoe as well, which was my first open canoe paddling I´ve done so far. If you like really beautiful nature, natural riverbanks, no white-water and don´t mind to meet other paddlers the Lahn is an awesome paddle destination. Check out some pics below:

One of the many sluices on the Lahn

Maybe we did first descents over many rocky weirs as normally
all the other paddlers go through the sluices ;-)

The city of Weilburg is wrapped by a marked loop of the river. The neck of this noose is traversed by a boat tunnel, unique in Germany.

Two ladies helping Maria and me conquer the furious Lahn River on the second day

In the evening Maria had her first three kayak-pupils. Celina (9 years), Marie (11) and Lea (15) wanted to try to do the eskimo-roll. Once again I was astound how fast young people can learn. If we would have had a few more hours time I bet they all would have learnt the roll.

Lea

Marie

Celina

Befor we headed to the Lahn last weekend we made a quick detour to the Lake of Konstanz to help out Arnd Schäftlein and Teva at a athlete-based runway show. In short: it was really fun to showcase the new shoe-models.

Seppi put on the most extrovert show of us all

Maria

Anne

Hanna in the focus of her boyfriend paparazzi Jared

Kim

Beat

Me myself and I

David Arnaud on a flying visit to the Teva booth

Pics by: Arnd Schäftlein, Maria Stelzig and me

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';

]]> Status of the Brudermühl-Bridge Wave on the Isar (Munich) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1594/Status_of_the_Brudermühl-Bridge_Wave_on_the_Isar_(Munich).aspx 9/27/2009

First (highest) level: 230 - 240 cm

First wave is too flat for a playboat. The second wave is catchable from the eddy and turns into a wave-hole. The further surfers right you go the meatier it gets.

Especially surfers with oldschool longboards were enjoying the first wave

Meaty foam-wave

200m downstream there is another wave which you can just catch on the fly

Second level: 180 - 200 cm
At this level the first waves breaks at the surfers right and holds a paddler as well. The second wave opens up more and it gets more wavy. Whereas the third wave turns into a river wide hole which is not too retentive.

Blunt setup

Blunt initiation

Do it

Landing

Relaxing or queing in the eddy

Maria carves up the second wave

Third level: 150 - 160 cmAt this level the first wave breaks even more and is the most retentive. The second wave is nearly gone as it has flattened out in the middle. Just the surfers left shoulder is still working. And the third feature has become a quite sticky hole where McNastys are possible, so probably all moves.

Left shoulder of the second wave

Urban put-in

First wave

Double surf in the first wave

Pictures by Mathias Blitz, Maria & Ellen Stelzig

Greetings from:
the Jolly Paddlers of the "Happy-Nookie-Van"

PS: We went to the Eisbach two days ago and Maria made it over the wooden planks by her own on her first session really fast, awesome stuff!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> First goes at the Wave Monkey in a hole ;-) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1593/First_goes_at_the_Wave_Monkey_in_a_hole_;-).aspx 9/27/2009 A few weeks ago I saw the new move for the first time in a short vidoe-clip by Steven Wright. Funnily nearly the next day I passed through Augsburg and met Daniel Krummreich, a fellow Fluid paddler, for a session in the washing-machine and he went for the move, so I had to as well ;-) Never thought that I would first try that wave-move in a hole, but you can practice it there or say at least the basics of it. In a hole you go up the incoming green and go for the "blunt" but instead of the blunt you throw the initiation of the Phoenics Monkey into the green and there you go. Be careful as the move can be much harder on the body than doing it in the foam of a hole. Check it out if you can spot the efforts:

power on & have fun on the river!
Markus
addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Radetzky Wave on the Mur in Graz (Austria) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1592/Radetzky_Wave_on_the_Mur_in_Graz_(Austria).aspx 9/27/2009 As on most river waves in Europe also in Graz river board surfers are enjoying themselves on the wave. But guess what, unlike in Munich all the surfers we met in Graz were all really friendly and there was no problem in taking alternate turns in the wave. There is still hope! ;-)
For more information on the playspots in Graz and the freestyle events there chech this out:
Kayak Freestyle in Graz

feature overview; eddy ends on the height of the paddler

familiar view for Munich paddlers; surfers ripping the wave

old school shudder rudder

nice angle from the bridge

first phase of the backstab

PanAm

Fisher King entry move

Fisher King from another angle

Cleaning it

Pistol Flip from the bridge

Pistol Flip from the shore

And if we got bored we played some ball

All pics by Maria Stelzig

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Easter on Hawaii http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1591/Easter_on_Hawaii.aspx 9/27/2009 Unfortunately the level was not perfect and it changed a lot, to our dismay it went up highest during the night. The gauge changed between 0,9m and 0,5m and unlike in old times the wave didn´t run all the time in that range. Apparently one of the concrete pillars in the middle of the river above the wave has broken which has changed the middle wave. Sometimes the foam was big enough to hold you and sometimes it totally greened out and you couldn´t catch the wave as you were too fast coming from above. It appeared that the wave was more retentive when the level was stable or falling in contrary to the time when the level was raising. So don´t be surprised if you get there at a level which normally would have guranteed you perfect fun and now you might not be able to catch the wave at all or maybe just every other run. But still Lyon is one of my favorite waves even at a suboptimal level like this. Here some pics from the weekend:

Cleaning it up

PanAm

different angle from the island

Still lovin the backstab

And the well-deserved sip from the magic potion

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Enjoy the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Finally: Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips" http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1590/Finally_Day-One_Section__My_Top_10_Uganda_Tips.aspx 9/27/2009 full of kayakers to change camps to Eden Rock which is located at the beginning of the day 1 section of the White Nile. Left with a few days we run as much of the
whitewater as we could in that short time. Unfortunately we didn´t shoot much footage as our time was quite limited. Below you can find some impressions.
Besides the nice White Water lines the day 1 section also offers a really big variety of good food opportunities compared to the good but limited choices at
Hairy Lemon. If you´ve tried everything what the bar/restaurant at the NRE (Nile River Explorer) has to offer ask for the Green Latern. On our last night we
were really lucky and got invited to the home of Harriet who works at the NRE bar and got serverd the most delicious foods I had during the whole trip,
7-9 different dishes, all really tasty. Big props for the good food and thanks for your hospitality Harriet.

Here my top 10 Uganda-Tips:

1. In my opinion Malarone is the best Malaria Prophylaxis at the Moment. And in addition to Malarone never pass out drunken in a bar and always wear longsleeve shirts and long trousers after it get´s dark.

2. Change 100 US Dollar to Uganda Schillings before you travel and pay attention that the notes are not older than from the year of 2000.

3. Arrange a driver to pick you up from the airport before you leave your home.

4. Properly tag your luggage with your name and address before checking in at the airport. Ideally take all essentials in your hand luggage.

5. Take with you your old shirts and cloths and give them to the local kids before you leave.

6. While paddling the day one section stay at Eden Rock if you prefer the more quiet place (just 5 Minutes walk to NRE) and if you prefer the direct party location stay at NRE.

7. While paddling Nile Special stay at H**** Lemon!

8. If you want to have a dorm alone with your better half make sure to book in advance: http://www.hairylemonuganda.com

9. If going to H**** Lemon take out as much cash from the ATM in advance as getting to an ATM from H**** Lemon and back will cost you one day. H**** Lemon will cost you around 35.000 - 80.000 Uganda Schilling a day, depending if you stay in a tent or what kind of dorm and also depending on how many beers etc. you´re going to dring in the evening...

10. Last but not least always shake out your paddling shoes properly before putting them on, i.e. beware of the small frogs ;-) And be careful where you dry your paddling gear as the termites like to make small holes in your gear.

In the entry of the hump

Going for a kinda wavewheel after the main part of the hump

Throwing some ends in the wrestling-hole

Final hole on the right side of bujagali falls

Cutting the diagonal above the final hole

Hitting the bottom hole at the far left while running bujagali blind at the first time

The Bottom hole flipping a raft

Having dinner at Harriet`s place

Harriet`s Family loving the digital camera

Nice air roof rack on our shuttle back to the airport

Back home I just can tell you, go visit the White Nile as long as it is paddleable and not every rapid is flooded because of a damn-project!

All pics by Maria Stelzig or myself

Power on!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Change of Camp - Uganda Part 5 http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1589/Change_of_Camp_-_Uganda_Part_5.aspx 9/27/2009 This time I´ll devote the second last blogpost about the Uganda-Trip to the people in Uganda and the country.
Talking about the country what is amazing is the number of kids with so young mothers it is hard to grasp, actually being just kids themselves. Check out the pictures we mostly made on the trip from H**** Lemon to Eden Rock, our base camp at the day one section.

women excursion to Nile Special with their kids

Many fishermen working on the nile

Always people washing their clothes at the river

bird flying low

resting on a tree

beaming cloud

Apes just in the trees above our hut

Monkey in mid-jump

Beautiful sunsets

Boat shuttle of the island

Loading of the Matatu at the Lemon departure

Full Kayaker shuttle

Mostly dirt roads

And long roads

fast food along the road

local high school

Getting water

can you find the canister in the picture?

yellow is one of the favorite colours of houses

the other one being pink

old Singer sewing machinge still in use

The only public transport - Mitsubishi Mini-Buses all over the place

We never saw any herds but one finds cows flocking around everywhere

driving school transformed into a shop

butcher African style

food at the market

getting busy at the market

premises at Eden Rock

Last but not least always check your shoes for frogs in Africa

All pics by Maria Stelzig or Jan Grünwald

Happy Paddling!
Markus
addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/2835/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/26/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/3068/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/26/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5601/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/26/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/4573/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/26/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> 1st Munich International Kayak-Freestyle Championchips http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7158/1st_Munich_International_Kayak-Freestyle_Championchips.aspx 9/26/2009 The organizers were expecting around 30 participants for the premiere and were quite surprised when over 50 competitors showed up. As many things were improvised (no PC was used, just a original calculator) the awesome atmosphere was guaranteed by the many volunteers who helped the organizers (Maria being injured and not able to paddle had her first job at a comp as a scribe and liked it). All in all it was a spirit like in old times when the comps were still called Rodeo. I.e. food and drinks were s***** under the participants and a fun-race was held for everyone, in which the prizes (Paddles, Kober Paddle-bags, Teva-Shoes etc.) were given to the paddlers, guaranteeing that not just the sponsored paddlers take something home. So I really hope the comp will be held again next year and they will preserve the perfect atmosphere of the event! The comp was held in a session format (2 minutes per paddler --> normally 10 min. heats with 5 paddlers) which was well perceived by all participants and spectators as pauses were held to a minimum.
In summary I was really happy to have made the final of the best 5 (final result K1 Men: 1. Seppi Strohmeier, 2. Martin Koll, 3. Val Grollemund, 4. Olli Grau, 5. Me). But my McNastys and Phoenix-Monkeys were just too inconsistent or rather the landing was too often not straight enough so I couldn´t compete with the points of Seppi or Martin. But well considering that I just had 3 hole-sessions this year I`m really content with my paddling and might reconsider my aspiration for the qualifications for the next worlds in Plattling ;-)
Below some pics and check out the official website of the event for the full results:
freestyle-muc.de

Going for the Fisherking entry move

Super Cleaning it

Here a nice Loop-Sequence:

Going deep for the Loop 1

Loop 2

Loop 3

Loop 4

Loop 5

Phoenix-Monkey Initiation

Phoenix-Monkey Second Step

Going for the Space Godzilla

Fun Race

One of the organizers Julian Mihé going for the loop

Julian Mihé doing his speaker job

The fun race started with a mass start on the shore and as I saw Olli Grau taking off wihtout closing his spraydeck I thought, s*** I´ll have to do the same and hurry to get one of the limited plastic ducks which functioned as the ticket to the prizes. Well it worked out to the extent that I got one of the first ducks in a eddy downstream but after a few other racers torpedoed my boat it started to sink ;-)

Throwing the duck into the crowds

Finally another Fisherking entry move as exit move for this blogpost

All pics by Andy Klotz, Christian Handtke, Maria Stelzig & Manuela Stockinger

cu on the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1453/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/8/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Lipno WhiteWater-Festival 2009 & Uganda Episode I http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1452/Lipno_WhiteWater-Festival_2009__Uganda_Episode_I.aspx 9/8/2009 Czech republic) is opened for two days for a whitewater festifval. There are a slalom-, downriver- and raft-race. Since a few years there is as well the Devils Extreme Race which is comprised of a Extreme Slalom, Boater Cross and Team-Race. And what can I say, everything I heard in advance was true. First of all there are huge amounts of paddlers and rafters on and besides the river. Competitors but many recreational folks as well.
We left Munich on Friday night after work and after 3,5 h of driving arrived in VisyBrod which is the take out village and has one camp site, where we met 3 other fellow paddlers (Sebastian Striebl, Klausi Süssmuth and Simon Seeberger) for a good night beer at the happening pre-competition-party. The next morning the group was finalised by Jan Haluzka and Lars Hilleke. After a nice breakfast at a hotel (the prices are really cheap compared to Germany, therefore eating out is a really good alternative to the common kayak outdoor cuisine) we left for our first run. Originally I wanted to take part at the Devils Extreme Race (www.devilsextremerace.com) but as all other friends opted for the relax-version of the weekend I gave in and concentrated on trying to make Marias first whitewater river run a memorable event. A really good premise for that is the temperature of the water of the river. It is really warm as it has had time to warm up in the dam-lake. I almost felt like in Uganda ;-) The river is really nice, nothing too difficult and every hard rapid can be easily portaged. The hardes rapid being "die blutige Hand" (bloody hand) and I really have never seen so many b***** hands during one day. Well on the first day I managed unharmed twice through the rapid but on Sunday I omitted the b***** hand as I wanted to secure an unharmed hand. Sometimes it is better to take no chances. In the evening after a long and extensive dinner (make sure to eat the Palatschinken with ice cream for dessert!) there was the big party of the Devils Extreme Race with a sweet live concert of a Czech Ska-Band. Rock`n Roll baby! On Sunday you can follow the same procedure as the day before if your head is up for it ;-)
Check out some pics of the weekend below:

Jan preparing the boat for Lars

Last small boof on one of the main cataracts

Eddying out after the boof and you can see the river banks are always lined with paddlers the whole river

Bus-Crew on the way to the second run

Hang loose! Happy days!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Eiskanal Boatercross, Outdoorshow Catwalk and Lahn Touring http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1451/Eiskanal_Boatercross,_Outdoorshow_Catwalk_and_Lahn_Touring.aspx 9/8/2009

Getting ready before the race

Really bad start

The ramp was fun anyway

One of the many sluices on the Lahn

Maybe we did first descents over many rocky weirs as normally
all the other paddlers go through the sluices ;-)

The city of Weilburg is wrapped by a marked loop of the river. The neck of this noose is traversed by a boat tunnel, unique in Germany.

Two ladies helping Maria and me conquer the furious Lahn River on the second day

Lea

Marie

Seppi put on the most extrovert show of us all

Maria

Anne

Hanna in the focus of her boyfriend paparazzi Jared

Kim

Beat

Me myself and I

David Arnaud on a flying visit to the Teva booth

Pics by: Arnd Schäftlein, Maria Stelzig and me

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';

]]> Status of the Brudermühl-Bridge Wave on the Isar (Munich) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1450/Status_of_the_Brudermühl-Bridge_Wave_on_the_Isar_(Munich).aspx 9/8/2009

First (highest) level: 230 - 240 cm

First wave is too flat for a playboat. The second wave is catchable from the eddy and turns into a wave-hole. The further surfers right you go the meatier it gets.

Especially surfers with oldschool longboards were enjoying the first wave

Meaty foam-wave

Blunt setup

Blunt initiation

Do it

Landing

Relaxing or queing in the eddy

Left shoulder of the second wave

Urban put-in

First wave

Double surf in the first wave

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> First goes at the Wave Monkey in a hole ;-) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1449/First_goes_at_the_Wave_Monkey_in_a_hole_;-).aspx 9/8/2009 A few weeks ago I saw the new move for the first time in a short vidoe-clip by Steven Wright. Funnily nearly the next day I passed through Augsburg and met Daniel Krummreich, a fellow Fluid paddler, for a session in the washing-machine and he went for the move, so I had to as well ;-) Never thought that I would first try that wave-move in a hole, but you can practice it there or say at least the basics of it. In a hole you go up the incoming green and go for the "blunt" but instead of the blunt you throw the initiation of the Phoenics Monkey into the green and there you go. Be careful as the move can be much harder on the body than doing it in the foam of a hole. Check it out if you can spot the efforts:

power on & have fun on the river!
Markus
addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Radetzky Wave on the Mur in Graz (Austria) http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1448/Radetzky_Wave_on_the_Mur_in_Graz_(Austria).aspx 9/8/2009 As on most river waves in Europe also in Graz river board surfers are enjoying themselves on the wave. But guess what, unlike in Munich all the surfers we met in Graz were all really friendly and there was no problem in taking alternate turns in the wave. There is still hope! ;-)
For more information on the playspots in Graz and the freestyle events there chech this out:
Kayak Freestyle in Graz

feature overview; eddy ends on the height of the paddler

familiar view for Munich paddlers; surfers ripping the wave

old school shudder rudder

nice angle from the bridge

first phase of the backstab

PanAm

Fisher King entry move

Fisher King from another angle

Cleaning it

Pistol Flip from the bridge

Pistol Flip from the shore

And if we got bored we played some ball

All pics by Maria Stelzig

cu on the river,
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Easter on Hawaii http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1447/Easter_on_Hawaii.aspx 9/8/2009 Unfortunately the level was not perfect and it changed a lot, to our dismay it went up highest during the night. The gauge changed between 0,9m and 0,5m and unlike in old times the wave didn´t run all the time in that range. Apparently one of the concrete pillars in the middle of the river above the wave has broken which has changed the middle wave. Sometimes the foam was big enough to hold you and sometimes it totally greened out and you couldn´t catch the wave as you were too fast coming from above. It appeared that the wave was more retentive when the level was stable or falling in contrary to the time when the level was raising. So don´t be surprised if you get there at a level which normally would have guranteed you perfect fun and now you might not be able to catch the wave at all or maybe just every other run. But still Lyon is one of my favorite waves even at a suboptimal level like this. Here some pics from the weekend:

Cleaning it up

PanAm

different angle from the island

Still lovin the backstab

And the well-deserved sip from the magic potion

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Enjoy the river!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Finally: Day-One Section & "My Top 10 Uganda Tips" http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1446/Finally_Day-One_Section__My_Top_10_Uganda_Tips.aspx 9/8/2009 full of kayakers to change camps to Eden Rock which is located at the beginning of the day 1 section of the White Nile. Left with a few days we run as much of the
whitewater as we could in that short time. Unfortunately we didn´t shoot much footage as our time was quite limited. Below you can find some impressions.
Besides the nice White Water lines the day 1 section also offers a really big variety of good food opportunities compared to the good but limited choices at
Hairy Lemon. If you´ve tried everything what the bar/restaurant at the NRE (Nile River Explorer) has to offer ask for the Green Latern. On our last night we
were really lucky and got invited to the home of Harriet who works at the NRE bar and got serverd the most delicious foods I had during the whole trip,
7-9 different dishes, all really tasty. Big props for the good food and thanks for your hospitality Harriet.

Here my top 10 Uganda-Tips:

1. In my opinion Malarone is the best Malaria Prophylaxis at the Moment. And in addition to Malarone never pass out drunken in a bar and always wear longsleeve shirts and long trousers after it get´s dark.

2. Change 100 US Dollar to Uganda Schillings before you travel and pay attention that the notes are not older than from the year of 2000.

3. Arrange a driver to pick you up from the airport before you leave your home.

4. Properly tag your luggage with your name and address before checking in at the airport. Ideally take all essentials in your hand luggage.

5. Take with you your old shirts and cloths and give them to the local kids before you leave.

6. While paddling the day one section stay at Eden Rock if you prefer the more quiet place (just 5 Minutes walk to NRE) and if you prefer the direct party location stay at NRE.

7. While paddling Nile Special stay at H**** Lemon!

8. If you want to have a dorm alone with your better half make sure to book in advance: http://www.hairylemonuganda.com

9. If going to H**** Lemon take out as much cash from the ATM in advance as getting to an ATM from H**** Lemon and back will cost you one day. H**** Lemon will cost you around 35.000 - 80.000 Uganda Schilling a day, depending if you stay in a tent or what kind of dorm and also depending on how many beers etc. you´re going to dring in the evening...

10. Last but not least always shake out your paddling shoes properly before putting them on, i.e. beware of the small frogs ;-) And be careful where you dry your paddling gear as the termites like to make small holes in your gear.

In the entry of the hump

Going for a kinda wavewheel after the main part of the hump

Throwing some ends in the wrestling-hole

Final hole on the right side of bujagali falls

Cutting the diagonal above the final hole

Hitting the bottom hole at the far left while running bujagali blind at the first time

The Bottom hole flipping a raft

Having dinner at Harriet`s place

Harriet`s Family loving the digital camera

Nice air roof rack on our shuttle back to the airport

Back home I just can tell you, go visit the White Nile as long as it is paddleable and not every rapid is flooded because of a damn-project!

All pics by Maria Stelzig or myself

Power on!
Markus

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Change of Camp - Uganda Part 5 http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1445/Change_of_Camp_-_Uganda_Part_5.aspx 9/8/2009 This time I´ll devote the second last blogpost about the Uganda-Trip to the people in Uganda and the country.
Talking about the country what is amazing is the number of kids with so young mothers it is hard to grasp, actually being just kids themselves. Check out the pictures we mostly made on the trip from H**** Lemon to Eden Rock, our base camp at the day one section.

women excursion to Nile Special with their kids

Many fishermen working on the nile

Always people washing their clothes at the river

bird flying low

resting on a tree

beaming cloud

Apes just in the trees above our hut

Monkey in mid-jump

Beautiful sunsets

Boat shuttle of the island

Loading of the Matatu at the Lemon departure

Full Kayaker shuttle

Mostly dirt roads

And long roads

fast food along the road

local high school

Getting water

can you find the canister in the picture?

yellow is one of the favorite colours of houses

the other one being pink

old Singer sewing machinge still in use

The only public transport - Mitsubishi Mini-Buses all over the place

We never saw any herds but one finds cows flocking around everywhere

driving school transformed into a shop

butcher African style

food at the market

getting busy at the market

premises at Eden Rock

Last but not least always check your shoes for frogs in Africa

All pics by Maria Stelzig or Jan Grünwald

Happy Paddling!
Markus
addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Part 4, Isar Renaturation & WRSI http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/1444/Uganda_Part_4,_Isar_Renaturation__WRSI.aspx 9/8/2009 Because of the current snowmelt the German Team trials for the Kayak Freestyle Worlds in Thun (CH) this year had to be postponed. Spontaneously Seppi Strohmeier, Maria and myself decided to use the free time on Saturday to check out the Isar south of Munich, from Unterföhring to Garching. The level was quite high (around 140 cm) and there should be some riverwide small playholes on that stretch. We never paddled that part of the river before at this level as before the renaturation there have always been nice waves and holes right in the middle of Munich. As the renaturation in the city has by now destroyed all playspots we thought it would be time to check out something new. Well wishfull thinking, we encountered on that app. 7km stretch around 10 small weirs or rather the spots where they have been. They would have been playspots in the past, now renaturated there was nothing, just a small rapid grade 1. Well done, Munich is on its best way to degenerate from Germanys Kayak Freestyle Capital No. 1 to in worst case szenario a city without playspots at all. We´ll see.

Anyway I was able to check out my new WRSI helmet and I´m super stoked as it fits really snugly on my head. 100 % no more shifting of the helmet on your head, which means more security on the river! Big props and thanks to WRSI (Whitewater Research & Safety Institute)!

The other day I also posted the fourth part of our Uganda story on the Fluid blog. Check it out here.

Pic by Maria Stelzig

Stay safe, power on and have fun!
Markus
addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/4572/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/5/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/5600/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/5/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/3067/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/5/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/2834/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/5/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Uganda Episode II http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/7157/Uganda_Episode_II.aspx 9/5/2009 Do you spot the move I worked on? To give you a hint, it starts with clean and ends with air blunt ;-)
Nile Special, looking forward to see you again.
Check it out:

cu on the river!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Lipno WhiteWater-Festival 2009 & Uganda Episode I http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/2833/Lipno_WhiteWater-Festival_2009__Uganda_Episode_I.aspx 9/2/2009 We left Munich on Friday night after work and after 3,5 h of driving arrived in VisyBrod which is the take out village and has one camp site, where we met 3 other fellow paddlers (Sebastian Striebl, Klausi Süssmuth and Simon Seeberger) for a good night beer at the happening pre-competition-party. The next morning the group was finalised by Jan Haluzka and Lars Hilleke. After a nice breakfast at a hotel (the prices are really cheap compared to Germany, therefore eating out is a really good alternative to the common kayak outdoor cuisine) we left for our first run. Originally I wanted to take part at the Devils Extreme Race (www.devilsextremerace.com) but as all other friends opted for the relax-version of the weekend I gave in and concentrated on trying to make Marias first whitewater river run a memorable event. A really good premise for that is the temperature of the water of the river. It is really warm as it has had time to warm up in the dam-lake. I almost felt like in Uganda ;-) The river is really nice, nothing too difficult and every hard rapid can be easily portaged. The hardes rapid being "die blutige Hand" (bloody hand) and I really have never seen so many bloody hands during one day. Well on the first day I managed unharmed twice through the rapid but on Sunday I omitted the bloody hand as I wanted to secure an unharmed hand. Sometimes it is better to take no chances. In the evening after a long and extensive dinner (make sure to eat the Palatschinken with ice cream for dessert!) there was the big party of the Devils Extreme Race with a sweet live concert of a Czech Ska-Band. Rock`n Roll baby! On Sunday you can follow the same procedure as the day before if your head is up for it ;-)
Check out some pics of the weekend below:

Jan preparing the boat for Lars

Last small boof on one of the main cataracts

Eddying out after the boof and you can see the river banks are always lined with paddlers the whole river

Bus-Crew on the way to the second run

Hang loose! Happy days!

addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='soulboater';
]]> Lipno WhiteWater-Festival 2009 & Uganda Episode I http://www.powerbar.de:80/post/soulboater/3066/Lipno_WhiteWater-Festival_2009__Uganda_Episode_I.aspx 9/2/2009 We left Munich on Friday night after work and after 3,5 h of driving arrived in VisyBrod which is the take out village and has one camp site, where we met 3 other fellow paddlers (Sebastian Striebl, Klausi Süssmuth and Simon Seeberger) for a good night beer at the happening pre-competition-party. The next morning the group was finalised by Jan Haluzka and Lars Hilleke. After a nice breakfast at a hotel (the prices are really cheap compared to Germany, therefore eating out is a really good alternative to the common kayak outdoor cuisine) we left for our first run. Originally I wanted to take part at the Devils Extreme Race (www.devilsextremerace.com) but as all other friends opted for the relax-version of the weekend I gave in and concentrated on trying to make Marias first whitewater river run a memorable event. A really good premise for that is the temperature of the water of the river. It is really warm as it has had time to warm up in the dam-lake. I almost felt like in Uganda ;-) The river is really nice, nothing too difficult and every hard rapid can be easily portaged. The hardes rapid being "die blutige Hand" (bloody hand) and I really have never seen so many bloody hands during one day. Well on the first day I managed unharmed twice through the rapid but on Sunday I omitted the bloody hand as I wanted to secure an unharmed hand. Sometimes it is better to take no chances. In the evening after a long and extensive dinner (make sure to eat the Palatschinken with ice cream for dessert!) there was the big party of the Devils Extreme Race with a sweet live concert of a Czech Ska-Band. Rock`n Roll baby! On Sunday you can follow the same procedure as the day before if your head is up for it ;-)
Check out some pics of the weekend below:

Jan preparing the boat for Lars

Last small boof on one of the main cataracts

Eddying out after the boof and you can see the river banks are always lined with paddlers the whole river

all pics by Maria StelzigThanks!Markus

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Thanks!
Markus