Canada

This summer, while most of the EST stayed at home and waited for Merlin to start on BBC1, Mark got together a group of some of the best paddlers known to mankind! okay....known to him, and they headed off to the west coast for a bit of a creeking mission!!



The team had a rocky start to their trip, with a 4 hour delay on the flight and Rich breaking his werners before they even got wet, but soon made up for it with a trip down the Ashlu, followed by a not so much fun run down 'Mine V', involving a cheeky swim and self rescue over a blind drop by a certain member of the team using his spare paddles, then a walk out from the river that made me look like this:


The team did get something right, one, very special purchase that will go down in the history books!! The mighty Ozark trail, not just a tent, but with a gear loft, bear fly screen, leaky windows, this really is an M&S tent.



But, with a chance meeting with some locals a few days later, the boys managed to get on some of the whistler area classic runs, namely the Upper Cheakamus, Callaghan Creek and the Soo, all of which were fantastic, and must do's for anyone visiting the area.




After a few escapades, the rest of Team Ozark flew out, and a trip to Skookumchuck was on the cards, this is a really cool wave, and as if it couldn't get any better than being a cool surf wave, there was a period of about 2 hours at lunchtime where the wave greened out and there was nothing to do other than pro chill!!


Once all together, and pumping from the skook, a mixture of courage, determination, eagerness, as well as 100,000 tonnes of rockfall in the way drove the guys inland, and they did some more classic runs, the cilliwack was a good warm up, the Nataclatch, and the stein is one of the most beutiful settings in the world, as well as grade 4!!

Then, as if by magic, they stumbled upon one of the most presigious events in paddlesport history, the Clearwater kayak Fesival, where the team dominated the heats of the downriver race, but dominated the party on the sat night even more, with James and Si failing to see much of the next day. The clearwater is an good river, but the best thing about the Fesival is the people, brilliant, and you can buy T-shirts with extremely short, gay looking sleeves:

There was a couple of people who couldn't understand how we practised whitewater in the UK, I mean on an Island so small, where do you find Whitewater, and if they're reading this, I don't really know you grandma from Birmingham, HA!!!

After leaving the Clearwater, the team headed for the Rockies, and came across the Upper Fraser, an awesome run, especially Overlander Falls, a big tourist waterfall where they love taking photo's of people running it!!

This was followed by a trip into Alberta, did the worlds lowest volume 'creek' run, got drunk, agreed to do a death run thats only been done by 5 people in history, got scared, and ran away before actually having to do it!!

Us and the Scottish Girls in Whistler

Yes, I am a Fitness Professional


As good as Rich's impressions are, this is a REAL bear!


Good job this wasn't in the Bigg Market

Upper Fraser, probably shouldn't have hidden those rocks in Si's boat!!

Careful, the Stormtrooper might want those back!

James on the Callaghan, probably my favorite river ever!

If the Olympic Team need a hand, we're all practised now!!


Si on the big drop, Callaghan!!

That's all for now folks, basically we had a great time, ate lots of really bad food, mark ate more burgers than an average American, that's saying something! if you're wondering, we gave the Ozark trail to some homeless looking people on our campsite!!

With special thanks to: Ozark Trail, The Scottish Girls, Ozark Trail, Clearwater Paddling Festival, The Cows that went into our many burgers, Ozark Trail, FlyGobespan, Aussie Jo and Si, Ozark Trail, Sea to Sky Kayaks, Ozark Trail and to the Canadians in General really for living in such a good place and letting us come visit, feel free to pop over here anytime.

Mark