Sjoa ('Shooa' for us kiwis) is yet another epicenter of a high concentration of rivers good for paddling in Norway. Sjoa fest is a week long chilled out event, with a steep creek race and a big water boater cross, and lots of hangin out and paddling in between.
Sam and Kat had left us for Germany (Sam temporarily), so it was just me and Jamie. The car seems so spacious, and we have turns at driving. Life is good.
Since they've gone, we've had a week of beautiful sunny weather, something we haven't experienced in Norway yet. Before this week we could have counted the number of hot sunny days on one hand.
Arriving at Sjoa fest, I havn't paddled for 3 weeks, my back is still sore, I went to the chiropractor, he didn't fix it, I'm sick of resting, sick of taking photo's. My solution? I'm going paddling anyway, and damn it was good! So stoked to be back in a boat. I'm still weak and sore, but as long as I'm not landing any big drops flat, I can get down the river. If I do land flat then it just means a couple days before I paddle again.
At Sjoa fest there's an awesome vibe, with paddlers from all over the place. On the days with no competition you always find yourself in big crews for floats down the river meeting heaps of new cool people.
The racing schedule went as follows - Qualification Thursday, Ula creek race Friday, and Sweet Rumble boater cross on Saturday. With so many paddlers at the festival they hold a race qualification time trial, and take the top 40 paddlers into the creek race and boater cross events. I'm not sure why, but the qualification time trial is held on a 1min long, class 2 big water section on the Sjoa river. This means that out of about 80 paddlers, there's not going to be much to separate the field, and accuracy of times is questionable with manual stopwatch timing.
Anyways, I qualified way back in 28th place, just stoked to qualify having not paddled the last 3 weeks. Job done. Jamie Sutton had a quick time qualifying in 2nd place.
Ula Creek race
The race section on the Ula is so much fun. Norway has so many good racing rivers. We were lacking a bit of water on race day but the course was still fun, we just had to be a bit tighter on our lines. Who hits least rocks wins.
The race was about a minute and a half long, with a couple of slides on the way, so the unfit (me) can catch your breath before powering to the finish. Out of 45 paddlers, only the top 10 made it through to the final, with a combined time of your 2 runs determining your position. Luckily for me I sneaked through to the final in 10th place. Jamie was a rocket down the course, nipping at the heels of Honza Lasko all day, and went into the final in 2nd place.
Sweet Rumble Boatercross
We'll I should have taken the qualification more seriously, as little did I know, that your placing in qualification determined where you start in the eddy for the boater cross. And little did I know that pole position out of this particular start eddy is a serious advantage. You have your work cut out for you if you're 3rd or 4th back in the eddy, and I had mine.
In the first round I was up against 2 very quick Italians, and despite having a couple of opportunities to pass them and seal the deal, I came up short. Out in the first round, awesome.
Jamie however stayed strong for the kiwi's making it through to the final, kicking out race favourite Honza Lasko on his way, but just missed out on the money finishing in 2nd behind Phil Gibbons of Australia. This guy is a power house.
Full Results of all Sjoa fest races can be found on the Striestrommer website, check it out
http://www.striestrommer.no/sjoariverfestival/
Here's a couple of vids from Finn Burrows of the two races...
Gene17 Ula Extreme Race 2011 from
simon westgarth on
Vimeo.
Sweet Rumble 2011 Sjoa Kayak BoaterX from
simon westgarth on
Vimeo.
