Between pills and books

Bram cruising around with a car full of drugs and Axel eating some books (exams) for a month now so we could use some distraction. We never finished our story of our trip to the Alps so let us bring back the good memories!

Last thing we said was something about hucking some waterfall in Italy and then going to Switzerland. Well.. we did! And we had a run on the Verzasca, a really beautiful river. Class II with awesome scenery alternated with some nice class V rapids! Also in the same beautiful scenery.

In Switzerland we chilled a lot at Lago Maggiore. And because we missed Belgium so much we decided to do some Belgian style flat water training without any gates in our slalom boat.
After this session we realized we didn't miss Belgium at all and we left to Ivrea!

Ivrea is a really nice place and the water is BIG! Especially when it's flooded. We immediately went on the water in our C2, and after a first descent we felt how powerful the water was. Our second descent we felt it even more... we swam. Yes, after a whole week of class V paddling without any problems we swam in our slalom boat. But although we swam, our visit to Ivrea was still nice. But the pizza and ice-cream did contribute to that.

In Italy we also paddled the Ayasse. A crazy river full of Class X sections. We didn't know the river, nor did we have a guidebook. But we just went for it and did a lot of scouting. And well... It was one epic day! Beautiful river! We found a 5 meter drop, some 4 meter slide/drop thing and lots of rapids!

We also went to the Chiusella, suposed to be another epic river. But again we didn't know the river and at the put in it seemed there was no water. We followed the river for 1km or something at it stayed really low water. Therefor we decided not to run the Chiusella and just hang out at the put in, which was at a super nice and beautiful little village.

Later in Bourg-saint Maurice we met some frenchies. They told us it's normal for the Chiusella to have a low water level. But yeah, we were at Bourg! We did a couple of session on the slalom course. But the best memories are those with our french friends. They took us to Doron de bozel. More a volume river, also new for us. We didn't know what to expect from the river and we also didn't know what to expect of us, our paddling skills in high volume waters. Especially because it was high water and there are some class V sections on the Doron. The first kilometer was pretty epic, huge holes and big waves! And it al worked out pretty fine!

A couple of days later they took us back to Italy to paddle the Dora Baltea. Arriving at Champex (put in) we saw that it was a really high water level. The first section we were going to do would/should be nice, not to hard but real fun. Once on the water everyone felt that their really was a LOT of water. We heard the rocks rolling over the riverbed.

The first half was really big! Super big waves, holes you really didn't want to get trapped in and fast as hell. Second part was a little bit easier, which made it possible to play around a bit and do some freewheels and trowing kick flips!

We were all super fired up after this descent and we decided to paddle the gorge d'Avise section on the Dora Baltea. This part is at low water level Class IV+, at normal water level it's V+. We entered the gorge with flood! This section is without any doubt the biggest river we ever paddled! Everyone was a little stressed because we knew if you were in trouble, you would be on your own. The river did not allow to just make a stop and rescue, nor was it possible to provide security from shore.

Once on the river we all were super focused. Once you've made a chose you were commited to paddle that line and you needed to go for it 100%. It's really hard to describe the power of the water and the greatness of everything on that river. But it was EPIC.

This river was kind off the end of our 3 week stay in the Alps. needless to say it was the perfect way to end it.

And oow, ofcourse we did capture some of the moments on film! To bad, Axel lost his helmet sow we could'nt film from waterview anymore. Not that bad you would say, but for that same reason we couldn't film the Doron nor the Dora Baltea...

But we did capture a lot of other things!! The Pitzbach, Verzasca, Ayasse, AND our first 30 footer!!

Don't forget to watch it in HD, Enjoy!

                             

The Alps pt. 1

Living in the Alps for a week now! Finally got the chance to take a shower and sit down to write something down. We don't know where to start anymore so we will tell our stories at random... Or maybe... let's try to do it chronologically (nice memory test).

Our first stop was the 'Pitzbach' in Austria, a nice steep class V river with not to many eddies to stop and scout. The rain of the past few days made it a nice level to paddle... So lots of fun!

Next on the menu was the worldcup in Augsburg. Unfortunately not for participating but for cheering for Mathieu Doby and Ingo Kriesinger, our fellow Belgian team paddlers. We also had the chance to test some new boat models. Only one thing to say... Phoenix II from Vajda does a pretty good job!!

It was really nice to meet up again with some 'old colleagues'. Beeing in the circuit again felt really nice and brought back the good memories, that's why we made ourselves the promise to be back on track next year!

After Augsburg we went back to the Alps, Italy this time! We found a really nice waterfall from about 10 meters on the internet and decided to go and style it. Arriving in the middle of the night we couldn't see a thing so we went to sleep and woke up with an amazing view of the mountains. After a good walk through the woods we found these epic falls.

First a small drop of 3m, only a few meters after this the big one. 10 meters of free fall to land in a nice little pool, to end a small beautiful 5 meter drop.

Monday we went to the Ötz. We had our breakfast on the 'Wellerbrücke' were the Adidas Sickline has taken place since many years. The waterlevel was really high so we decided not to run it. Instead we had a nice run on the middle Ötz.

Ok but McDonalds is closing now so no more free wifi. Off to 'Der Schweiz'!!

See yah ;)

Peeters/Sleebus - 2013...So far

Our 2013 year so far!!

You will see some C2 sessions, some creeking and El Arnowe's most epic moment of his 2013 year!

Enjoy!

First race of the Belgian season

A couple of weeks ago the first race of the Belgian season took place in 'Liège' -the only 'slalomcourse' we have in our little country- it's one of the three competitions we have in Belgium. Normally there are not a lot of participants to join us on the Ourthe but this year we were surprised how many showed up.

As it was a week after our selections in Goumois we were still in good shape and fired up to give it all! We must not forget to tell that in Belgium you can practice the racecourse a few hours before the start -what's not allowed in international competitions- but with the tought of gaining experience in every race we enter, we decided to 'trace' the course on the shore. Tracing is like studying the course and every movement you're going to make with your body and boat, but not studying like you do for exams or things like that.

The course was very difficult for C2, not that we don't like challenges. But sometimes it's a bit to far over the line. After all we managed to do well and at the end we came in first!  Meaning that we are one step closer to win the Belgian cup for this season. Talking about this cup, we did win it last year but more from that below...

Apart from the C2 we decided to race also in the K1 category, no worries we are not planning a comeback. Just something we like the do now and then as a reminder of the 'good old days'.

So about that Belgian cup, which is a ranking of the three competitions in Belgium awarded each first race of the year. We received this cup for our overall win in 2012 in the C2 category. It's our first win and we hope a lot more will come in the future!

What we been up to the last weeks? After Liège we continued training for the ICF world ranking in Ivrea. Beside that we are still editing our video which is not easy because there is not a lot of time when you train hard... Oh yeah there is also some schoolwork.

We will keep you informed about...euh everything, especially our video. So stay tuned and see ya!