That's it, the festival is over. According to all, it's been a huge success. The conditions were excellent, even if the level was a bit lower on sunday. But it wasn't much of a problem for the hordes of paddlers who had came to battle for the title...

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Last week-end saw the third edition of the Ubayak Festival, one of my favourite event of the season. As its name suggests, this festival takes place on the beautiful Ubaye river, located not very far from Gap in the southern alps. This time, the competition was made very particular by the high waterlevels, which were 3 to 4 times higher than the previous years. With approximatively 70 m3/sec. flowing, the "Fer à cheval" rapid, where the contest usually takes place, was quite intimidating !


Both the Extrem Slalom and the BoaterCross provided great paddling, and on a more personal note, it was my third win in a row at this event ;-)

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Next week-end, the Lyon River Festival will take place on the famous Hawaii/Rhone wave for the second time. One week prior to the festival, the wave is already crowded with international paddlers from Canada, the US, England, Ireland, Germany... I was there yesterday to enjoy the good conditions, and to spend some time with the many that flew overseas to attend the festival. It's pretty cool to see what people are ready to do to surf your local spot ! And it makes you realize how lucky you are too... but I have to admit, I've only been there 5-6 times this year, spending more time than usual in my creekboat. Reaching the podium again is gonna be hard !

The waterlevel is a bit higher than last year (fortunately the snowmelt is late !), and competitors should fly even higher. Paul Villecourt was there too to capture some of the action, and he just sent me these two shots of myself from yesterday.


The show's gonna be good !

Nice weather, good waterlevels, and great people to paddle and party with : that could sum up the 3 days I've spent in the Durance area, in the French Alps. A lot of paddlers are already there, coming from various countries accross Europe. Most are from Germany or England, but you're also very likely to meet Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Spanish... on the many rivers of the area. A true European rendez-vous !

The conditions being perfect, it was hard for me to refrain from filming. I went to the Guil with a few friends to shoot the famous "Combe de Chateau-Queyras" with my headcam. This is a very spectacular and pleasant section located into a deep narrow gorge. It's not very long but very intense, as the water keeps pushing you from one wall to the other. I've edited a clip from it, that you'll find in the videos page. I'd like to thank Romain Henrard, Xavier Lacroix, Romain Pignon and Roland Davau for their help during the shooting. I owe you a beer guys !

Here's a direct link to the video : Thinkliquid_guil.mpg

TF1, the most important french TV channel, recently showed a report about the wave in Lyon. You can find this report on the TF1 search page by clicking here
and then click on "Canoe-kayak sur le Rhone".

Of course it's in French, but no need to eat frogs to enjoy the footage.

After the huge success of Salomon's first "Adrenalin Hunters" outdoor movie (more than 500 000 copies distributed worldwide - for free! - and several awards won in various festivals), now comes the second edition of this DVD. It still features some of the best outdoor riders in such disciplines as base-jumping, climbing, mountain biking and... kayaking.

Wanna get your copy ?

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For the second year, Salomon invited some of its team-riders to spend a week together in a cool destination ; this year’s chosen spot was Corte, in Corsica. Beginning of april, my brother Sylvain and I joined the trip as the two kayakers of the tribe; the other guys there were mountain bikers, climbers and two base-jumpers/paragliders, all being world-travellers, expeditioners and hardcore riders at the same time.



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