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The famous Sjoa Kayak Festival took place in Norway last weekend. Simon Hirter reports.

The Sjoa Valley is situated in Norway's "Oppland", about 3 hours north of the capital Oslo. It's right by the Main highway E6, which passes from the north to the south of the whole country. The Sjoa Kayak Camp (for Norwegians and closer friends known as "Riksanlegget") is the host of the famous annual "Sjoa Kayak Festival". The Camp was created for the Junior Slalom World Championships in the nineties. It's right beside the river and offers some cabins, a nice big camping place, a guesthouse and even a sauna.

The camp is run by Flemming Schmidt and his wife Gyda (and their few months old daughter), who also did lots of work for this year's festival. One of the main-organizers and secretary of the Norwegian federation broke his back a few days before the festival so the Schmidts jumped in and did their best to keep the festival smooth and running!

The Sjoa Kayak Festival is aimed at the intermediate / advanced paddler who wants to improve his skills in daily clinics with top-of-the-notch instructors, or want to go on some guided tours to the nearby rivers. During the event, in the last years were symposiums and talks happening, one or two movies were shown, and than there are the famous ULA Xtreme race, the Sjoa Air & Style competition and this year for the first time the Boatercross through the Amot Gorge. A week of unknown challenge, clinics and rivers, nice gatherings, well excessive parties and cutting edge competition was awaiting the participants. Alright, lets get the actual report started... ;)

People from all over Europe plus some Kiwis, Aussies and Americans attended the festival this year.

SWEET Boatercross

After having the Boatercross on the slalom course the last couple of years (and me winning it twice in a row :)) , the organizers sat together to find a new spot to keep the competition spectacular for spectators and challenging for the competitors. There choice was the famous "Amot" gorge, just a few hundred meters down the camp. They teamed up with norwegian prime-helmet manufacturer SWEET who provided some 'sweet' prizes. The length limit for the boats was 260 cms (8'5").

The run consisted of 2 major rapids. After a flying start from about 50 meters above, paddlers found themselves already forced to go big or not. The first rapid (to the left) offered different lines, but either way you had to go over those big stoppers at the top. Basically 2 lines were possible: Either you went for the easy, a bit slower left line, depending where you were after the start, or you went for the middle right, where you had to punch the first lip and then fly over the big hole at the bottom over to the left to cut the paddler from the left off, and to avoid getting sucked into the big stopper ;).. By now, the spectators had already enjoyed some entertaining back enders, lots of flips and some general carnage. Normally after the first drop paddlers came to an order, which got mostly mixed up towards the end or rather in the second rapid.

Right after drop number one, the water gets forced into a tight slot, with lots of boils, little holes and waves which wanted to push you form on side to the other. After 100 meter of flatwater, paddlers found themselves in front of the second rapid.

The finish flag (to be touched with a hand) was at the eddy river right at the bottom and there were 2 possible lines again. The line trough the middle was faster but it could also stop you and smash you in one of the 2 stoppers. The one on the the right was easier to stay on top, you had to go on the curler which took you to the middle and than accelerate again to make it to the right eddy. Most heats came into the second rapid in a certain order but got seriously mixed up down there. The water was quite pushy and there were even some unlucky paddlers that didn't make the finish eddy, because they either got worked in the top holes or just ran out of energy.

The concept of the competition was that out of 4 people only one moves on, which asked for some serious fights. With paddlers such as the Whitewater Warriors, Trent Graham, Morten Eilertsen, Erik Martinsen, Ed Cornfield and such alike it was a hard competition and thus very interesting to watch.

Lots of good paddlers didn't move on, but people never lost the smile on their face, even after being forced into a big hole. In one of the semifinal-heats Erik Martinsen came in first, touched the flag unfortunately with his paddle, and thus lost against Morten Eilertsen. Morten, Andy Phillips and Mickey Abbot had to fight it out. Mickey could, after winning most of the races this year in Europe, show off his skills again and came in 1st, followed by fellow team paddler and friend Andy Phillips and Morten Eilertsen who showed a good performance!

In the ladies' race, it were Mariann Saether, Satu Vänskä and Kate "Camera" Donelly who had to fight for Gold. Mariann Saether took the lead at first, but got washed. It was Kate Donelly who then took the lead and raced to gold followed by Finland's Satu Vänskä.

SWEET Boatercross results

Men:

1. Mickey Abbot (NZ / Pyranha H3)
2. Andy Phillips (UK / Pyranha H3)
3. Morten Eilertsen (NO / Prijon Embudo)

Ladies:

1. Kate Donnely (UK / Pyranha H3)
2. Satu Vänskä (FI / Pyranha H3)
3. Mariann Saether (NO / Dagger GT)

Sjoa Air & Style

This event was held on the same spot as the last 3 years, the famous "Jorgen" wave. At good flows the wave allows every move imaginable. The wave wasn't really at the perfect flow and started to green-out even more during the event, and it wasn't as bouncy as it used to be. Still, no excuse to blame the wave if you got washed off...

The competition format went a step further than the normal judging and gave extra rewards for radical moves and aerial things, which means a simple flatspin counted like nothing.

I played the role of the announcer and was sad to ask for a minute of silence for René van de Berg, a fellow Dutch paddler, who drowned one week before on the Laerdalselva. After that we kicked the music back in and started off with the ladies. Mariann Saether showed some awesome blunts and strong rides, followed by her Austrian friend Barbara Winter. Mariann could stay on top and won this event second time in a row! Third came New Zealand's Helen Brosnan, in her Bliss Stick Flip Stick, who came over from England for the Festival.

Now it was time for the men. 30 seconds and two rides and both counted... The wave offered a beautiful shoulder to the right, a normally nice, sticky and high pile with a bouncy- "doubled" shoulder to the left. Bliss Stick's Aaron Hämmerle and Anrew "Fuzzy" Martin showed really strong rides with wicked backstabs on both sides, as did Beat Rüttimann and Kay Arne Randen of Riot. Andy Phillips of Pyranha also looked good out there, and Dagger's Simon Westgarth and last years winner Ed Cornfield showed consistency as well. I passed the microphone on to Arnd "old man river" Schäftlein, and hopped on the water. I had an awesome first run which scored right at the top, but flushed right away after the wave turned completely green in the second run. I could manage to go back up and stick a blunt and a backstab, but that was it! There were lots of good rides. Would I make it or not? I came 6th after prelims, after strong variety and lots of air points in the first run!

The organizers didn't want to let us play the knock out "Head-2-Head", so the finals were also run with the 2r/2c-system. 10 Gladiators came together on the river-right eddy and got ready to bring it on! After the first pack of people it was already obvious that would be a tough one. Beat Rüttimann (Bremgarten) had 2 solid strong rides, as well as Kay Arne Randen did. I had two average ones, because I didn't want to risk to blow off the wave again, which stiffened me up!

Price givings were announced for 11 pm, for both competitions. The results were still a secret, so everybody was wondering who came in first. The Air & Style was really tight. Young Gun Beat Rüttimann won, half a point in front of myself. Kay- Arne Randen came in at third place. Some nice Lowe Alpine Jackets were given to the winners as well as some prize money. Mikey Abbot is the proud owner of a new golden "Holy Diver" helmet from SWEET as well as 1000 NKR for winning the Boater-x.

The party afterwards was well organized and 3 live bands gave their best to entertain the party-seeking masses. As always at this event, the party just really started at about 1 AM. And after the first 2 rather easy-listening groups, the third act with a band from nearby Skjak, the people found themselves wildly dancing around the stage. It would not stop until early in the morning...

In the next (late) morning, the majority packed their things and went for a last paddle to the playrun or down the "Amot-falls".

Sjoa Air & Style results

Top Ten Men:

1. Beat (PLAYAK :-) Rüttimann (CH / Riot Disco)
2. Simon (PLAYAK :-) Hirter (CH / Dagger G-force)
3. Kay-Arne Randen (NO / Riot Air)
4. Aaron Hämmerle (AU / BlissStick Flip Stick)
5. Ed Cornfield (UK / Dagger Kingpin)
6. Simon Westgarth (IE / Dagger Kingpin)
7. Andrew "Fuzzy" Martin (NZ / BlissStick Flip Stick)
8. Matthias Fossum (NO / Riot Disco)
9. Andy Phillips (UK / Pyranha S6x)
10. Martin Vollen (NO / Liquid Logic Skip)

Top Four Women:

1. Mariann Saether (NO / Dagger Kingpin)
2. Barbara Winter (AT / Dagger Kingpin)
3. Helen Brosnan (NZ / BlissStick Flip Stick)
4. Satu Vänskä (FI / Pyranha S7)

Biggest Move in town:

1. Simon Hirter (CH / Dagger G-force)

Conclusion

The Sjoa Kayak Festival was once again a big success. Big thanks to Family Schmidt who helped out after the main organizer's accident. The weather stayed alright during the whole week, which helped heaps for the group motivation. The mix of clinics, guided tours and some cutting-edge competition remains unique in Europe. The locality is ideal for such an event, and both thumbs up to the Norwegian Federation for keeping this place running. The organization team is changing and there are lots of new ideas. Stay tuned for next year, they have big plans up their sleeves...

Pictures: Simon Hirter, Close up Simon Hirter: Nils-Eric Kjellman

[Editor’s note] This tour to the biggest events of the European summer is made possible by Simon’s sponsors: Dagger Kayaks, Sweet, Nookie Xtreme Sports Equip., Kober Paddel, Reef, Dainese Protection, PLAYAK and Oakley.