Spring time

Spring brought a lot of water and some serious inundations along the Richelieu river and never seen levels at the Chambly wave, around 1500m3/sec. I went at 1340m3/sec and the wave was pretty boily and trashy with about no slope but a small shoulder surfer left. The nice part was the warm 23 degrees and chatting with the locals coming here for a walk in the park or a family BBQ. The main wave does not have eddy service, but it's a nice short walk from the stairs of the take-out to the put-in through the park. I went again on June 11th at around 1120 and the wave wasn't as boily and trashy. Got a couple of decent rides as I was getting used to the wave.

Spring also brought the WW Grand Prix organized by Pat Camblin and our own little Julie Crépeau-Boivert. Lots of video and an amazing competition stretching the WW sport and humbling a few of the best paddlers. I got to see the last and final run down the Rouge at 500, but the most amazing for me was the Petite Bostonnais. They had 7 swims during the competition day... It seems like the event set a new line for extreme kayaking competition. The Rodeo World Championship in Platting, GE is going to look a little bit bleak compared to that.

Whitewater Grand Prix - Stage 3 - Steep Creek Time Trial from Tribe Rider on Vimeo.

I accumulated a few new rivers and sections during the spring; Hudson, St-Régis, all 3 sections of the Ouareau, Doncaster B. I also did the Rouge at 165.

So far, St-Régis and Doncaster B stand out as the best runs. The St-Régis as the Hudson is in NY state. The St-Régis is a long continuous section with about only 200m of flat water. Lots of continuous class III and a few spots of class IV. Not much time to doze off and the couple of spots spice the river well. We ran the river at high level thanks to the good timing from Bill and the Ottawa CdB crew and a few very good waves could be surfed on the fly, especially closer to the canyon section.

Not much surfing as the water levels on the St-Laurent was above 10000 a lot. I went to Habitat 67 a couple of times at 9800, the left wave is then pretty nice. Trevor, Alex and I went once to the Big Joe section at those high levels, the waves to get there were really big and we almost missed the entrance. With barely enough rock island to stand on it with our kayaks piled up and not much chance of paddling back up, we opted for a quick run through Pyramid. Big Joe looked very trashy and no slope. As the guys flushed right through, I managed a surf on Pyramid, but leaning forward most of it.

Back in Quebec, the trail end of winter

Getting back to winter life and Quebec was rough. Post traumatic syndrome or such. Day dreaming about the good and exciting times in Chile; mostly paddling and such, but the countryside, strange vegetation, bugging Billy-Bob. But we're back in Canada and we'll make the best of it...

My wife is hoping to do sea kayaking; good way to spend more time together. Our first major outing was in Grandes Bergeronnes for a weekend of whale watching and sea kayaking in mid July last year. Our youngest daughter, who was grounded for prior instance of poor judgment and behavior, was forced to come with us. With oceanic conditions and saline water temperature around 4degC, my wife limited paddling abilities were restricting her paddling to say the least. We managed to see small and common humpback whales, marsouins and white belugas and a seal or two. At one point, a couple of belugas circled my daughter's kayak; for some unknown reason, this daughter tremendously enjoyed being grounded for the weekend.

Anyway, toward improving my wife's paddling skills, we attended a few of the CCKEVM pool sessions over the winter months and we worked on improving her kayaking skills. Transitions from terror to amusement and her first rolls.

With a better snow base built of the winter we ought to have a decent creeking season, but everything is still pretty much frozen as I write these lines. Spring surfing is on though and I had a couple of sessions at Habitat 67, also had my first 2 visits to Chambly. Not overly impressed on my first visit; the main wave surfer right is not very interesting; once on the right side of the pit you can hardly come back with the foam pile angling significantly downstream. On my second visit, the balmy 9degCand big sunshine turned into windy wet snow falling at sharp angle with the temperature quickly dropping to a mere 1degC. Clack, clack, clack was the sounds from my unprotected ankles. This time the level was around 720m2/sec and the surfer left side was beautiful with a tall green shoulder. I also dropped into the secondary near-shore mostly-green wave once or twice. This mostly-green wave was deserved by a shore eddy. One of the unknown paddlers on the site was bravely only wearing shorts; no dry pants nor neoprene legging or any sort. Brrrrr. After 1.5hr, my feet and ankles were frozen overwhelming the surfing smile out of my face.

That weekend I participated in a Masters age segment volleyball tournament in Ottawa (that's 50 and over) and afterward, went for a surf session at Bates Island in beautiful sunshine and around 12degC. The Champlain waves looked so small!!! The chat with the familiar faces largely compensated. The short wearing dude was there again and we had a long chat in the warm sun about Chile where he (Marcos) comes from. Clearly, Chile is sticking to my skin...Not a bad feeling at all...

On to spring now...