April's not for Fools!

Whoa, chilly! Straight after coming back from Uganda, we've had season opening at Kolna course. It was big shock for me to get into COLD water just a day after Uganda! brrrr. Freezing! But I was very happy i took a part in it, we've had dozen of people from all around the Poland coming and despite the weather conditions everybody had a great fun paddling after long winter break in their boats!

Then I've spent over a week hope and was supposed to stay one more but i was asked to join an intermediate kayak trip to Czech. I've just checked my calendar and find out i would miss only a little bit of school, so not hestiating too much i decided to go! It's always better to spend a day on the river then sitting home!

The trip was very fun and new experience for me. We did some small creeking, just easy rivers which were aimed to teach the group members to take care of their own group and to be able to look after them. It fit my plans perfectly as it was few days before Kamienna creek race where i wanted to go for few years now but couldnt managed it earlier. This time levels looked promising so  i put my equipment into creek boat and departured with my cousin - Bestia as second instructor and 6 more folks from AKTK Bystrze. On first day after we arrived, we found out that water was droping in the region.. while mumbling but chilling at sun at getting water pipe we 've had that crazy idea to call the dam at Kamenice and ask for a little bit more water. Sounds crazy but actually, why not? I'm always saying, in the worst case you can win. So we made a call and they said that we need to talk to director but after literally few minutes we noticed double release at dam! No idea whether it was our phone call, coincident or what but not wasting the time, we left for the river! Uppon arrival we've had no idea if it was higher or lower and while shuttling it didnt seem to change but as it looked runnable after chilling at slackline and playing with pojis we kicked off! River was beatiful and it felt so good to get out there to kayak for all day with bunch of friends so with nice sun and smile on the faces we've spent our day.

The next day we wanted to go for Mumlava but all of rivers rised a bit and we got luckly runnable water for Jizera so we dropped our Mumlava plans as we predicted it should be still on the next day and went for nice run at Jizera. It had one nice place unfortunetly full on blocked with the tree straight through the entry run. Anyway i was dedicated to do it so i smuggled myself between the strange line of the rocks and did a small drop. On the evening while coming back we were hooked up by our friend Topik and went for Kamienna - the race river. We've had nice water level which really impressed me. I didnt run that kind of river yet, was fast and narrow but very fun! We also did lower part with few nice places including the tiny canyon where we had our play with narrow pulling over hole. Was great end up of the day!

Waking up next morning was a thrill. The snow was behind the windows! But we didnt give up and went for Mumlava, playing with snowrolls and kayakslides at warm up. Althought the water level was quite low we had a blast. Maybe except one girl on our crew who's moved few rocks with her face.. but luckly she was easy on them and didnt change the trough too hard :)

So it came up to friday where my juniors arrived -  Michal and Max. We did few runs to get to know the low water Kamienna (which really dropped low..) and chilled at evening. Saturday was competition day. 1 degree in the morning. Cold. I did morning lap but then rolled far start number so had a quite long break between runs so i looked after kayakers with throw bag.

The competition consists of prelims and finals and competitors are split to pro and amateur categories. I've won Pro category after prelims but overall had second time, cup down to Arek Białek for surpassing me! Great succes for me were my juniors starts where Max after getting stuck on the rocks managed to get 5th and Michal made it to 3rd place! Then we've thought it's done but surpirse was waiting for us. The organisers planned kayak cross! 3 of us ran at the same time against each other at such a low water. Was really crazy and probably quite dangerous, also was really hard to defend my first place becouse slalom paddler Jacek Sztuba who was 2nd was literally on my tail! He was damnly fast at flat sections but i managed to hold up my advantage and got the winning token :) Michal kept his 3rd place, great for 1st start and being 15! One more surprise was at afternoon closing ceremony where our team got 1st place overall :)

Sunday we woke up early as water been released at Kamienice. Michal and Max joined our fun crew and we went for last run together. It was great to see the progress that folks did through this few days! Their water reading skills and overall awarness rised a lot, it's always a great pleasure to see people open their wings after some tips ! Afternoon we went for dinner to say good bye and sum up the trip. They got this funny thing called rollterry (rolling lottery? ^^) each swim gets you 1pts, T-rescue 0,5pts and roll 0,25pts. Always fun to follow it :) After this we split, they went back home and we've changed profile of our trip from creeking to Playboating :)!

Here is write up from Maks from Kamienna on :)

First thing, which we did, when we had arrived to Plattling, was watching the great hole in the car-light. Then we set up the tents and cooked some sausage.

 We ate sausage everyday, because after the creek race there been  six kg of sausage leftovers! It was suitable thing as we've been in Bavaria. After long night we finally could try the nice play spot. As it was my first time there, i was really looking forward to go there and try out this crazy looking hole!

 First we had to warm up, because it was the first time on a water in current season. It's always fun to get on the river but you should never forget about proper preparation. We were studying the hole and recalling everything from last year.

In my opinion, it is not the best place for cartwheels and splitwheels, but perfect for aerial tricks. I was really stocked as I made there my first Space Godzilla, and McNasty!!! It wasn't perfect, but I'm content... It felt great! As for our tradition to celebrate "the first times" - unfortunately, i had to buy a package of Milch-the most delicious sweets on the World (aviable only in Aldi,Germany). We weren't the only freestyle kayakers there.

People from the Umpa-Umpa crew arrived one day after us and next day also KKK Jelenia Góra members. The hole got quite busy as we were 20 people over there! But it was so amazing as it was first time, that so many freestyle kayakers from Poland gathered over there to paddle together! My coach Bartosz complained about water level as it was supposed to be quite high but as he said it probably got changed a little bit and was quite stony even at 180cm and he had to watch out for rocks to dont crack his new sweet carbon toy, but for me it was quite right. It was enough, that I saw the widest play spot in my life.

 

In the fourth day of our trip, we said goodbye to Germany and left to Prague. First training session was exhausting. In Plattling we used to have a lot of time after flush, because eddy was huge, and in Troja channel we had to paddle like satans to stay in the eddy near the hole. I had to go out from my boat at least ten times per training. Czech play spot is more demanding than German's. It is also stiper and stronger. However, after two sessions i've got used and it was great pleasure.

 In between the trainings we were chilling around, analysing our trainings and hanging out with friends but our favorite part of the day except the paddling were dinners! We were eating fried cheese, drinking Malinovka (which turned out to be one of my favorite drinks! perfect mix of of water and raspberry juice! Too bad you can't get it in Poland)

 As we should be in school now, we had to write tests based on our school program prepared  by our coach. From the first one i got only 12,5% and Michal got 17%, so we were bullied by him after this and we had to study all the time.  It was nice time.

The next place on our trip map was Jelenia Góra - the place of this year's last Euro Cup. We arrived there yesterday and took the first session in local hole. It's friendly for begginers and I hope to learn there some new tricks and practise a lot. Finally we are in Poland but unfortunately it means that our expedition will end soon, beacuse it's the last hole in the plan. Today we are having a rest day and luckly now we've improved at our tests passing them so we are again allowed to eat the sweets! Trip is on till the end of saturday when we will come back to Cracov and try to make there as sweet play spot as in Plattling!

For myself it's been sick 2 weeks already especially as I've got new boat from Agility - The Reaper!
It's already final version and it's SICK! very stable on ends, easy to throw around and do rotations and also it goes super big without nearly any effort! Loving the shape! I had pleasure to make that boat together with Michal Wrzal and I'm very proud of it! Actually i was a little bit afraid before Uganda if it's going to be good for wave, but it's super fast there. So then i was worried whether it will be good for hole while having so sick speed at wave but now i can proudly say it's ULTIMATE boat!

Also I gave a visit to Hiko HQ and picked up season gear, this year, red gets fashionable :)! Loving new materials and all the equipment, thanks for support!

Living the life!

Uganda!

Sunset at Hairy Lemon

               For this year’s winter we’ve decided to visit Uganda again for few reasons. Firstly becouse there is great risc that it’ll be gone soon – as they are planning to build the dame 16km downstream from our favored place which will flood all area 25km above and secondly as World Championships will take place this year at very fast wave- Garburator, Canada but also even though our last year’s Costa Rica trip was so amazing – i was missing surfing those great waves in such a pleasant water. That’s why as most of freestyle kayakers this year we’ve came here.

Our flight got delayed by 5 hours, thanks to that after horrifying flight (few hours of turbulence we arrived to Uganda in the middle of the night. Luckly our boats've arrived without any issues and our driver did a good job and was still waiting for us! After we took all the equipment we went straight to Hairy Lemon. We've had our first adventure just after leaving Kampala while we were trying to buy water for ourselves. Instead of 22 thousands of Ugandan Shilings (about 8 dolars) they tried to charge us 220 which (nearly 80 dolars!). But as we've had good mood we just waited till they've figured out that instead of 2 packs of water with 18 bottles, they were trying to charge us for 18 packs :) After this funny but still friendly incident we arrived perfectly for breakfeast to our beloved Island – Hairy Lemon. As every time it just pinches your heart when you see beauty of this place and hang around just listing to the wind, watching monkeys drop leaves over you while you are having your breakfeast and snake running after geko for all day. After eating breakfeast consisted of scrumbled eggs, bacon and mostly frutis which reminded us how amazing the fruits should taste! We chiled at one of chill out zones, took lunch and then went straight to the wave as soon as the water came up!

It's very hard to describe how amazing it feels to get into warm place, with warm water and then get to surf such an amazing wave there with bunch of friends! Oh yeah, upon arrival it was great to catch up with so many friends , Paul Palmer, Kalob Greedy which i haven't seen for few years now! And plenty of other people arriving and leaving.

It's increadible thing you just get to one place and you can meet so many people you know there who just come to hang out at wave and chill!

This year it was pretty hot. Pretty much all the time the temperature varried around 30 degrees. We've had Nile Special coming in nearly every afternoon and sometimes before the lunch. Club was on at Mondays and Sunday was perfect for rest days as it didnt really bring proper levels for any of waves.

In between the sessions we've had a great time playing Catan (this game is addictive! Spent so much time playing it), reading book in chill out zone, or playing football every afternoon!

The other day, with Ondra and Palmer's familly we went to village nearby and ended up in school playing with kids and teaching english!

One of my favorite parts were evenings, while already going to sleep, i spent every night watching a sky for some time, it's so beatiful over there!

Except paddling hard, there's been new climbing wall, and "monkey garden" - great place where you could do some work outs or stretching.

When the wave was busy, Paul and us went went for Cool Shaker (Diamonds) – wave at rapid just above the Nile. Luckly in our unluck, boda drivers messed it up and drove us to kalagala instead of there so we've had to run whole river down. But it was also great experience and good fun, especially becouse we've had great low water to catch Hair of the Dog wave and then we've hanged out at Cool shaker for some more time, was a great day at river with Nile surfing in evening!

After one week we went to hang out in Jinja, catch some internet, check mails and get in touch with world. As always we've spent some time watching amazing crafts,arts and how did the town change in 2 years time since we been there.

After two weeks Adam has arrived bringing for me my Heart Rate meter and i've started my master thesis research which concluded 3 rides at hole, 2 at wave and 3 at flatwater. Becouse of this I had to go to the river 7 times! But i was enjoying it alot, hanging out with different people, getting to know the river very well, catching all the waves, and finally running Itunda twice from middle and once from the top (thanks Clay and Gav for run!) Was very nice and fun to watch it from Kayak perspective, hehe.

The other day, Ondra, Adam & myself along with our US friends Bryan, Marian and Kat, went for Fanta wave downstream. I havent been there yet , the wave was quite hard and you had to paddle one and half hour on flatwater to get there but as the wave was quite busy, and the Fanta was only to ourselves and especially – it was new place to explore, it was great fun with friends!

Great surprise to us was when one day our friend Hollie has visited us at Lemon and invated us over to the Lake Mburo National park – Rwakobo Rock where she'd stay next months! We've been considering it for a while and finally decided to do it ! Finally for me it was first time into "true" Africa. Get out of the Island, go see western Uganda and get into sawanas. We've decided that we will go there in 2 last days before leaving, so our stay got a little bit shorter as on first days we've had perfect timing – sometimes we were only 3 people at the wave! Later on, the last week got very crowded, it was over 15 people in the queue!

Last week we've been spending pretty much whole afternoons hanging out at wave, paddling, sitting at rocks, watching others paddle, playing with local kids and just feeling our paradise.

But everything has it's end. So when the time had came, we've packed up our equipment and said goodbye to all our friends and Island, promising that we will come back as soon as we can! It's probably the place whose leaving cost me the most. The life there just gets it's own pace and track.. you just live kind of normal speed instead of 100x faster then what's natural for human and this days make us do that to stay "on the top of the wave". But, we were still there! One more adventure to live. We left to Kampala to Fat Cat backpackers where thanks to kindness of place we could leave our boats and bags and carried on just with our backpacks. 6 in the morning next day we took bodas through Kampala and drove to Bus station. Begining was horrifying! Upon arrival they've had nearly pulled us off the bike to go with them to the bus! They kept shouting and pulling just to go with them. Just to remind to those who already know and for those who don't – in Uganda, except driver there is also kind of manager, who is responsible for catching the people from the street or from stations to go with them. Same as in Matatus. The difference was there were couple of buses there all trying to collect full board to leave. Just after we got our seats and caused some serious stir among the crowd – as seeing Mzungus (white people) in the bus was serious entertainment. There were few guys who jumped into the bus with armful of watches, flip flops, detergents and all those things they were trying to sell. Kind of shopping mall which comes to you. After hour of waiting we've left to lake Mburo. There was one more surpirse awaiting. You know that moment when you travel abroad by bus and driver puts on some movie so people dont get bored? Well, in Uganda there is a guy with kind of instrument (stick attachted to small log with string connecting farest ends and one more cambered stick with strings) which actually is supposed to be similiar to the violin and starts singing and playing. He didnt really got into Ondra's taste but i kinda liked it as sample of local culture and as i've always fancied their music. After 4 hours of travel we've arrived to "village' – pretty much few huts around the road with of course chapatti tent. So we've ate Rollex (rolled chappati with scrumbled eggs with onions and tomatoes) and took boda to get to Rock Rwakobo!
 Hollie was waiting for us already so after arrival, we just had short lunch, walk around the place (which is AMAZING really, all of you should get there if only given an opportunity. There are great huts, amazing dining place where you get sick view over the area all around and to National Park! And while you are eating bamboos are coming along with impalas to watch you and play nearby, sick!)

 So after this we grabbed a bikes and went to Safari riding a bikes! I have to say it was the most amazing adventure i've had. Watching everything around, chasing down zebras, impalas and everything while riding a bike in between bushes and taking animal roads, just SICK! Then we found a great rock, chilled at top of it and came back. It's just so hard to describe the views and thigs we've seen. Unluckly we didnt meet any Hipos, Hyenas or Lion but still it was great. We also made up our own track across the hill and literally through the bushes and horny things , ouchie! But was soooo cool ^^!

 After this we've had a great dinner, reaaaally tasty! And as it got dark, we took a car and drove for night game! Which meant we stood inside after rising the roof and with huge torch we were trying to find blinking eyes in darkness to spot some night hunters. Start was quite good as we've seen giant African weasel and later Bush Pig which is super rare to see! It was amazing experience driving through it, seeing night life of impalas, topi and other animals. Unfortunetly near the dead zebra body we've spotted while biking there were no hyenas or lampard but still it was great. In the morning we've went for walk to National Park, watching the area from other perspective. It would be so great to spend there more time.. There are so many bike paths and places to see, camp and just observe the wildlife there! 

 But unfortunetly again, it was time for us to leave so we could make our plane on time! We drove back with our friend Chris who is the park owner, picked up the equipment from fat cat and drove to the airport! Luckly we left early , as the Uganda's president was coming back from somewhere and whole city was in huge traffic JAM becouse of shut down streets. Luckly we got there on time but after we arrived and wanted to send our boats we were said that they are not sure if they can take our boats. We got really mad! We've had all papers for it, we've been calling British Airways office before dozen of times and still we had to stress for 2 hours until they have fixed issue with our boats! They had to call the BA office in London and ask them.. Probably it was sure that we can take it back but still, was very stresful. Anyway, all in all it turned out good and without any issues i made it back to Poland.

The trip was amazing! So glad i could make it back to our paradise. Hope to go there again as soon as possible. But the thing that everyobody should be aware of – it's said to last only for 3 more years! So if you havent been there yet, or you been there and you love that place, go there and enjoy it as much as you can. Uganda goverment stated that they are building the dam! But let's not give up our hopes, keep on sharing the votes, tell your friends, share videos, build up awareness everywhere you can. Let's dont let them to destroy our and Ugandian's treasure!

~Bartosz