Voorjaarskamp 2023
Sailing, Waltzes and a broken paddle.
Spring camp day 1: Bolgenach.
Thursday morning after a long drive on Wednesday, it was finally time to start my first day of spring camp, we went kayaking on the Bolgenach. At first glance it didn't look very good, because the river was quite low in terms of water level, so the stones were already clearly visible. The tension was well present, because it was my first spring camp day after all.
We could scout the first passage quite well from the bridge, a good line was nowhere to be seen, because there were stones sticking out everywhere that ruined a line. The first group had left and then it was time for us to go. One by one we went down the passage, one more beautiful than the other. Because you had an advantage here with a boat that was a bit higher on the water.
After kayaking less than 100 meters, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Elisa's paddle. Her paddle was broken because it ended up under her boat, after this oopsie, the break paddle was taken out of Ron's boat and we were able to continue.
Then we arrived at a dam where you could choose which side you wanted to go off on, on the right was a cute hole that you didn't have to put much effort into and on the left was a sturdier hole. Because I didn't want to make a mistake yet, I chose the easy side to stay a bit more safe.
At the next passage we went eddy hopping, because there were many small eddies where there was only room for a maximum of 1 or 2 people. Ron led the way and I was chosen to go after, the first bit went well, but after the first corner there was a drop where you got sucked back a bit, and of course that happened to me. I flipped over but luckily I was able to roll immediately and find one eddy lower. After that it was a long wait because the group behind me saw me flip over, so Tom came down to check. He also didn't pay too much attention when he went off that drop and flipped over immediately, so of course that made me feel better.
After that we calmly went down the river without too crazy things (or I forgot it already, oops). So all in all a good first day to warm up and get some boat feeling.
- Jochem
De befaamde Aueleklamm
Spring camp day 2: Ostrach.
Het is 7 uur in de ochtend dat mijn wekker gaat. Vanwege mijn buikkrampjes van de broccoli creatie van de voorafgaande avond, besluit ik toch maar dat het tijd is om uit mijn heerlijke bedje te kruipen. Er vroeg bij zijn is goed, want als commissie van het voorjaarskamp heb je namelijk een hoop te regelen. Zo verzorgde ik deze ochtend de koffie, thee en ging ik boodschapjes doen om alle buikjes te vullen van al die hongerige kajakkers die nog lagen te tukken. Na zelf een sloot koffie in mijn gezicht te hebben gegooid, ging ik dan ook samen met mijn top-team-inkopen, Jochem en Elisa, op pad. Dit maal hadden we de Lidl uitgekozen. Erg leuk voor de afwisseling want alle Aldi’s in de regio hadden we al uitgespeeld. Ondanks dat we bijna de mueslirepen vergaten, waren we ruim op tijd bij de uitstap van de Aueleklamm. Iedereen was content met het ontbijt, echter ik iets minder, aangezien de plakjes kipfilet en kaas verspreid lagen over de bodem van mijn kofferbak. Dit mocht echter mijn pret niet drukken, want er stond iets speciaals op het programma. We zouden namelijk met onze kajaks vervoerd gaan worden naar de instap MET DE BUS!
Ja, zoals de oplettende lezer allicht was opgevallen parkeerden we bij de uitstap in plaats van de instap, om vervolgens met de door Ron geregelde burgerrups de berg omhoog te rijden. Fijn was dit, want anders werd het een dikke 4km lopen met een creeker op je schouder waar denk ik niemand blij van wordt. Bij het busstation werd al snel duidelijk welke Okawanen een bedrijfskundige achtergrond hebben, want het inladen verliep smooth. Er was niet genoeg plek achterop de bus dus we mochten de boten ‘gewoon’ bovenop de stoelen leggen. Zo gezegd, zo gedaan. Met een rode Waka tegen mijn wang gedrukt, vertrokken we en realiseerde ik mij al snel dat ik vergeten was een parkeerkaartje te kopen van €10. Gelukkig is een boete voor wildparkeren uitgebleven.
Eenmaal aangekomen bij de onzichtbare bushalte stopte de buschauffeur en gaf ons ruim de tijd om ook weer alle boten uit te laden. Van deze imposante operatie had iedereen honger gekregen, dus moest er eerst gelunched worden voordat we in de boot konden stappen. Tijdens de twee uur durende picknick hebben we met name genoten van de lekkere broodjes en natuurlijk de mooie omgeving.
Maar Jeroen, ’Hoe was dan het varen?’ hoor ik je denken. Ja, dat hebben we uiteindelijk niet meer echt gedaan op een klein stukje ww II na, omdat de kloof niet echt overzichtelijk was. Al met al een leerzame dag.
Tot de volgende trip!
Jeroen
Flipping and almost getting kickflipped on the Oetz
Spring camp day 3: Lower Oetz.
(188-187 cm @Tumpen)
During spring camp, normally you paddle a lot of stuff the first few days. Only this year that was not the case, since the first 2 days were quite rocky so less paddling than usual.
Full of untapped energy I stood before the lower Oetz. Quite big, quite fast, and a lot of big rocks swimming would not be fun.
Polo (and Tom) then had the amazing idea to first paddle the slalom part of the Wellerbrücke section of the Oetz, which is even more big, fast and has a lot more big rocks. This was even more extreme than I had anticipated.
First of Chiel, Ron and Mick went down the section. They all went of it great with a big grin on their face when pulling into the final eddy.
I was feeling great so not to skip any opportunity to get in my boat I entered with a high spirit besides Daniel, Mervyn and Jeroen..
The warm up was quite impressive. You were able to look at 3 huge drops of the Wellerbrücke section beneath which you could catch some eddies.
If I had to paddle those drops I would have definitely said no.
But the downstream part of it was still big but not extremely big. So, I and the others were warming ourselves to get ready for the full slalom part.
And then we went. I was paddling behind Polo which was super fun, left right and a boof straight over that hole.
Only at a certain point the tip of my boat got a little too horizontal and I got flipped by a hole. luckily after recollecting myself I was able to role up and quickly pointed my boat downstream to paddle the last 2 rapids. The point of view of Meike can be seen here around the 1 minute mark.
And then we were there high of the adrenaline rush we all got out our kayaks and it was great. Then finally Jochem, Hugo H and Meike paddled this section. Meike however got out of her kayak halfway (on the side) and Mick got in instead. And then when standing besides Chiel and Daniel ready with our throwbags above the final eddy this conversation happened: “Who is that?”, “Is that Meike with a different helmet?”, “Wait, that is Mick!”. As you can gather from this conversation we were a bit confused.
Then the actual lower Oetz section started.
This was less fast and furious so we were able to change the forepaddler so more people could hone their skills.
Besides some nice holes and the hole in which Roderik apparently lost his shoe in many spring camps ago. And a picture moment for the group of Polo.
The downstream part went without a hitch. Up to when we got to the last full passage/rapid.
There we all got out of our kayaks and inspected the rapid "uitbundig" and one by one down we went.
Some people got their planned line, others got a line chosen by the river.
But we all got downstream and the final part was just floating downstream, although Mick almost kick flipped me in my face. Which was an experience. (I would not advise paddling besides Mick in fun kick-flippable sections 😉)
We quickly got out of our boats to still be able to paddle the upper Oetz for which Chiel has written a story.
All in all the day was very fun and exciting. And I definitely want to go back.
-Thomas
A reminder to pay attention and show your butt to the current
Spring camp day 3: Upper Oetz.
After a while of looking for the rights words about a challenging day in a funny newspaper, I have ended up with the mess you see spread out across this page. So let me tell you about what happened on the upper Oetz.
For those of you who are familiar with the river, you know that the Oetz rightly deserves its name as one of the most famous and beautiful rivers of the alps. To those of you who don’t know, try and get out there as soon as you can. Across its many different sections it covers difficulty levels ranging from 3 well in to 5 (also depending on water levels of course) all of them beautiful runs in their own right.
After we dropped down the lovely lower Oetz a small group of us went up to the upper part of the river for a very sweet dessert on a great day. However as many of you heard not every run goes perfectly every time, which is of course the reason I (Chiel) am writing this piece. In this case what happened was a bit on the nastier side and I should preface this by saying that everyone involved came out without any real hurt, physical or mental, but stuff like this should be avoided rather than cured.
So what the hell happened. TLDR: I fucked up and I ended up underneath an undercut wall.
Late in the afternoon the 9 of us dropped into the upper Oetz and set off. Me and Mick were following behind Polo dashing down this beautiful chaotic river at a relatively low water level. Corners were tight, rocks were everywhere, the whole thing was fantastic. Polo found a very sweet balance in challenging me and Mick with fun lines and occasionally still giving us a moment to catch our breath. By the time we were getting quite close to the take out (a good half an hour after we’d gotten in) I was enjoying myself tremendously, but also getting very tired and really finding myself at the edge of my so called ‘adventure zone’. I followed Polo into a nice looking turn and accidentally got my nose angled wrong and shot forwards away from the line Polo took. No big deal. This had happened a bunch of times in the last few minutes and I had always corrected for it (sometimes prettily, sometimes a bit less pretty). However, in this case I was very quickly reminded of a personal trait I was vaguely aware of. When I get tired and into adventurous territory my awareness shrinks, I don’t really see much more than just the next drop. In this case there was no drop, just a wall.
For those of you that don’t know undercut walls (see picture) are nasty things. They are places were water can flow underneath rocks and potentially drag paddlers along with them. In this case I quickly found myself flushed underneath this wall. I dropped my paddle and luckily did what I have tried to teach to many a new paddler, ‘showed my butt to the current’, as I grabbed a hold of the rocks I managed to slowly edge myself sideways along the wall until Polo, who somehow managed to stay by my side, grabbed a hold of my boat and pulled me out. After Polo managed to get me to safety he was also nice enough to retrieve my paddle and we all managed to reach the take out safely minutes later. All is well that ends well, and doesn’t leave anybody scarred in the process.
But remember kids, keep your eyes
open, make sure you actually process
what you see and when in doubt,
show your butt to the current.
- Chiel
Paddling with grandpas and grandmas
Spring camp day 3: Loisach.
On the third day of the advanced spring camp, I was not really comfy for that day to peddle on the Ötz. The river Ötz is a long river with more pressure and rocks and a long drive from our campsite.
Therefore, i asked nicely to other group who called himself elderly or seniors or in other words a old members who likes to cuddle which each other and smile a lot. The members were Bas, Jorn, Laureen and Chaneequa. Because of my age, they called me grandchild because I was the youngest in the group. As my new name I was happy to join.
The grandparents chose the river loisach (I do not remember the real name of the traject). It is a whitewater 3-4 river with many big rocks with not too much pressure in some parts of the river. The river started slowly on a wider part of the river. also Jorn found a nice hill to enter the river. However, like a good grandchild I choose a safe spot on the beach.
When everyone was in their boat, our journey has started. After 100 meters of peddling, the river was smaller and the bigger rocks became visible. This was really beautiful. The water was clear and the sun was shining. however, this river makes it difficult because you do not see what is behind the rock. So we had to peddle to each eddy to look if it is safe or not and which line we have take to peddle down stream. Bas the grandfather was really kind to peddle for me to peddle the right lines because the day before the grandparents already peddled on the river. However, some part of the rivers were still a surprise for me. because these parts of the river were going down with more water pressure. There were more rocks to avoid.
After all the parts with a happy grandchild in the middle of the group, the grandparents brought me safely downstream to the parking lot.
-xxx- Grandchild Elisa
P.S as a grandchild, I had to take care of one of my grandmothers because there was a big hairy caterpillar in the boat of Laureen (see photo). As a little child, i searched for a stick were i could defense myself to safely grap the caterpillar because he was not so happy anymore. All in all, Laureen’s was freed from the caterpillar
P.S.S. As a grandchild i could not drive and drink alcohol ;) so the grandparents had to decide which one have to drive and other could drink beers on the way back to the campsite. so in the picture you can see which grandparents are happy and who had to drive.
