Tuesday, June 12, 2007

action and satisfaction

i made a promise to myself and thus to all you blog fans: that the next post from norway was going to be whitewater focused. come hell or high water. and lucky for all of us, amos and i escaped in our newly acquired automobile to find just that on the other side of the fjord.
at the end of a busy weekend, amos and i called for all pending trips through the week to be cancelled so that we could get away on a kayaking mission.
on the way, we found that norway is beautiful all over and not just in our home valley:

photo by mw

and the locals are super friendly:

photo by amos shuman
norway has all sorts of legends and fairy-tales about magical and mysterious people of the woods. i was lucky enough to meet one.

on to what we are really here for: some whitewater kayaking.
amos and i made our way to the other side of song og fjord to the town of voss where i have some buddies and where we knew there would be some "shu-shu". norway has a great snow pack this year and warm temperatures have brought the rivers up to full: bank to bank, top to bottom. after hooking up with all the right folks we made our way up to the upper parts of the drainages and found some 'steep creeking'. and the southeastern boys felt right at home.

the author staying faithful but still getting some...

photo by benji hjort

amos at the same drop.

photo by benji hjort
then the exit:

photo by benji hjort

this river is called the urlandselvi, a tributary of the raundaselva. we enjoyed the steep drops and manky boulder sections of this run before lunch and then sampled some norwegian big water afterwards.
i took along a video camera to document our paddling ventures for the homeboys at
Lunch Video Magazine; so i turned to a paralafamilia photo correspondent: benjamin hjort.

photo by mw
so many thanks go to ben for the beautiful action shots from our day. be sure to check ben out at Hjort Media.

back to the action:
one of the greatest aspects of kayaking is the bonds you create with your homeboys and the respect that grows in you for their talents, athleticism, and uniqueness on the river. amos is a very visually distinct paddler. i love watching him paddle and style his way through rapids, narrow hands and all. just check out that grace:

photo by benji hjort

the author's style: up close and personal

photo by benji hjort

our first real steep day in norway and there were some gems on the urlandselvi. the author again with amos looking on:

photo by benji hjort

amos at the same drop from another angle:

photo by benji hjort

after a nice big day in a borrowed boat, there are always some repairs to be made. here's amos at work; don't get distracted with that heat gun in your hand, buddy.

photo by mw

well, blog fans, that's all there is for now. many happy thoughts and well wishes from here to wherever y'all are out there.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that you are venturing out a bit. Keep your eyes open for a place that has great cake!
Much love, Mom

Anonymous said...

hello mefford hope your good, too bad we couldn't meet when I was up there. next time maybe. I loved the urdalselvi last time, even if my spraydeck poped of in the big double drop...
have some fun and see you
Raph

Anonymous said...

hells yeah bro! it's looking like you're finally getting what you paid for with your norwegian adventure! stay safe and i can't wait to see the footy! those drops look awesome!
much love!
philly