Ekstremsportveko 2014. An intense kayaking week in Norway

The Ekstremsportveko, one of the biggest outdoor festival on earth, has come to the end. The challenging rivers in Voss hosted different kayak races during the week and some of the world best kayakers were there for a great week of hard kayaking.

This year we had low flows, the warm temperatures came earlier to Norway this year and most of the snow has already melted in the area. We also had no rain so the rivers didn’t come up. Fortunately there are so many rivers to run in the area and when some rivers are too low there are still so many other sections to run.

The first race of the week was the sprint race, which counted for the World Cup (AWP Series). This race was supposed to take place in the Bradseth river, but it had no water so the organizers decided to move it to the Myrkdal. It was a short but very technical section, with two hard boofs that made it so interesting for the spectator who came around to see the race.
It was a tough race with so many kayakers having really good and fast runs.I raced well, making a big mistake in the qualification run but having a really good run in the final. Both runs counted so I finally ended up on 5th place , so it was not too bad.

Sam Sutton won without having the fastest run, but being very regular in both runs. Following him Eric Deguil finished second and Mike Dawson (also racing with a Karma) closed the podium.

• Sam Sutton (NZL)
• Eric Deguil (FRA)
• Mike Dawson (NZL)
• Michele Ramazza (ITA)
• Mikel Sarasola (EUS)
• Ciarán Heurteau (FRA)
• Jamie Sutton (NZL)
• Adrian Kiernan (AUS)
• Philip Gibbins (AUS)
• Mark Basso (CAN)
• Julian Stocker (SUI)
• Benjamin Hjort (NOR)
• Dag Sandvik (NOR)
• Antoine Dupuis (FRA)
• Rory Woods (GBR)

The next race was the team race. Two kayakers racing together in a 5 minutes long hard class V section on the Lower Myrkdal. This time Michele Ramazza and Mike Dawson won, followed from very closed by the bros Sam and Jamie Sutton. I raced together with Eric Deguil, but we both didn’t know the section very well and made some big mistakes that kicked us out of the podium.

To close the racing week we had the H2H race. 4-5 kayakers fighting against the other down an easy class III river section in the Strondelvi. The french machine Eric Deguil won it for the third year in a row, showing that he is almost impossible to beat when you have to paddle hard.

Apart of racing we have kayaked quite a lot during the week, running many rivers in the area like Myrkdalselva, Raundalselva, Rjuande, Money Drop…

Now the Ekstremsportveko is over, but we are still so many kayakers in the area, so it is time to enjoy the many rivers that this country has to offer. We have planned to stay about two more days around Voss and then we are heading North because we know that river flows are higher there.

Norway is a kayaking paradise and all this rivers are out there waiting to us, so it is time for more kayaking!