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Saturday offered my first descent. Johan and I opted to check out a dry bed that I have been eying for a while through google maps and google earth.

Scouting report weekend before from Sam at Bergslagens forsränning, company where I am to work as a freelance guide this season, said that water level was high and that the run was about 1 km long, and classified as class IV.  This couldnt be passed out on.

When Johan and I got to the spot, Sam turned up with Carlos, one of the guides and our safety chief Mikael, who flew in from Umeå day before. It turned out that they were scouting this stretch as a prospect for next season. We parted our ways and Johan and I went down to the river for some scouting. And boy was there a lot of work to be done.

From now on, this stretch will be called Beaver Creek. Judging by the logs in the river, blocking the main current as well as the amount of beaver-eaten logs, the population must be dense. Extra care had to be taken not only for the lines we aere going to take as well as safety points but logs in the water and open eddies. It took us roughly two hours to scout the whole stretch good enough so that we could get into the boats and have a safe way down on the first run and scout it out that way. Way cool as this is what I have been wanted to do for a while, and along with my wingman Johan, it turned to be a whoel lot of fun.

All in all, we managed two runs with a little footage and film.

Johans run

My run
Scouting film

/D

So here they are, two short clips of an exciting bitty on the Kolbäcksån.

/D

Phu, finaly the flood was perfect for some creeking, simple enough for paddlers used to creeking, but for me fun enough.

Saturday gave us fun in the sun. No clouds in the sky, 60 cubic flowing out in to the Sörkvarnforsen in Hallstahammar and 4 happy-go-lucky kayakers. Lisa, Johan, Tobias from Eskilstuna and myself hit the rapids at around 1330 and I didn’t come out until 1630, it was just one of those days.

We found a little wave that everyone could surf at the end of the middle rapid, at the take-out and we took a few runs down the not so straight-on rapid. Portage sucked, as nettle has really hit the bloom, that plus those blood-thirsty mosquitoes.

By the time everyone had their share of surf and runs down the rapid, Johan and I changed into larger Wavesport Y’s and opted to do a run on the left side of the lower Sörkvarn, down two chutes and a few stoppers. One of them took me on a little sideways trip I didn’t anticipate, but it being a gentle stopper, it didn’t bother me one bit. Johan was surprised though, he thought I was of for a surf when I was supposed to run it first. He manged down just fine though and we opted to do another run. Tobias, mobile cam handy, captured both our runs so will post those as soon as I get hold of the film.

That sums up the fun part of the weekend.

/D