Team Adrenal

One for the road!

2005-11-08T13:40:00.000+01:00

Big Wolf taking one last look before dropping in

As I had to head back to the UK for a while I was hoping for one last paddle. The rain had been belting down for a few days so myself, Lars Georg and Big Wolf decided to head to our old favourite.

Near Birkeland is a large slide/drop that only runs in flood. The last time we went it was low and 3 out of 4 paddlers got hurt.

We arrived to find the area where we usually park the car under water, so we ended up parking down river and paddling up to the walk in.

After 10 minutes walk there she was with plenty of flow. After a quick game of paper scissors stone Big Wolf was up first.

Unfortunately non of us got sots of him as he hit a perfect line and effortlessly glided through.

Lars Georg was up next with another sweet line and cameras rolling!

Lars as usual hitting the sweet spot!

Next up was me. Last time I was here I boofed out and hurt my back by going too far right, so today i had two voices in my head. One saying go hard left play it safe, and the other real voice saying play it cool stay. While the two voices battled it out I hit the sweet spot too to make it 3 out of 3.

Mark cruising through the fall.

Mark shot from below, taken from Lars new sony hd camera.

A cool trip with 3 nice lines and a great finish to the season, i've left the boys out there with the rain so probably more later from then. For me i'm back in the UK finishing the movie, Un-named Feeling. If you haven't seen the trailer yet check it out on our home site or hit the link below:

Un-named Feeling

Urban Assault

2005-10-25T14:13:00.000+02:00

This Sunday the 23rd October we got the first signs of snow down here in the south. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we weren’t on our way kayaking! The end of season is here so we thought we would have one last mission.

Per battling the cold.

Per Christian had heard of a dam that had never been run. So off we went to check it out.

After driving down a dirt road that seemed to be leading nowhere there it was in the distance, it looked good but you can never tell till you get there.

Sure enough the drop was a clean freefall of about 25 – 30 feet. The only problem was the amount of water going over the top.

There was only a couple of cm of water running over the top of the concrete so the only problem was getting over and away from the dam itself.

Lars Georg grabbed his Gus and made a clean line down no problem. He then decided to try in his Vision and hit a huge boof with a really hard landing that knocked his man bits and put a tear in his eye!

Lars Georg laying it flat

Per Decided he didn’t want to risk his back with flat landing and took his Jefe for a run. The Jefe didn’t clear the lip like the other 2 boats and Per dived in behind the falls. We had already checked this scenario out and it was cool so we just waited as Per appeared from behind with a smile.

Per Christian dropping in

I was up next. I decided a big boat was best so I too grabbed my Jefe. The idea was to charge the drop and put a big final stroke to pull me away from the dam and then drop the nose to plug the landing. Unfortunately the Jefe slowed on top as she hit the edge and the big final stroke span me 180 landing me in the base facing the fall as a short blast of water to the head pushed me behind.

Mark in mid twist

With a bit more water this will be a really fun drop so we will be back in the spring. Fun day to finish the season, now we are looking forward to warm water elsewhere!

Un-named Feeling DVD

2005-10-19T16:30:00.000+02:00

After nearly 2 years of filming our first DVD Un-named Feeling is almost finished. The DVD will be available in December but until then you can check out the trailer on our home page. Just follow the link below.

Un-named Feeling

The Big O Kayak Festival 2005

2005-08-24T14:23:00.000+02:00

Now in it’s second year the Big O kayak festival was back and we had a great time!

People started arriving on Friday the 19th August to find Norway’s first big air ramp standing on the side of the mighty Otra. After getting lubed up with washing up liquid spins, blunts and airscrews were achievable, but the biggest crowd pleaser had to be the flat landings!!

"Junior" the youngest paddler at 13 showing his style!

Lucas from Switzerland flying high

The first competition was held on Saturday morning and was the crazy slalom. A series of tasks were placed over a section of rapids. 5 minutes of solid paddling left competitors glad of the finish line. Lars Georg took 1st with Per Christian in Second and Mark in third.

Crazy Slalom start point

Boater cross was next and was a really great event, with some really close competition. Heats of 4 paddlers were drawn. The start was a flat sprint leading into rapids and finishing with a small boof left into the eddy to touch a marker. A final of 2 Norwegian paddlers and 2 Swiss made for a great race with a battle right up to the final drop and sondre who held 2nd place the whole way being squeezed into 4th on the very last second thanks to a risky line paying off for the Swiss. Per Christian took first for Norway with Ron taking second and Lucas grabbing third for Switzerland.

Boatercross in full swing

Battle over

Of course Saturday night was host to a killer party, this time with a 70s theme. Max played late into the night with an awesome set that had people dancing, singing, fire walking and more!

What a Party!

Sunday morning was the mass start down river race. Lots of sleepy eyed paddlers arrived at the start and placed their boats at the opposite side of the river. On the start command a quick dash to the river followed by a swim across to collect your boat was followed by an arm-wrenching paddle to the bottom of the river. Lars Georg again took first with Per Christian in second and Mark in third.

Mass start Down river race

The last event was the freestyle, which was more of a jam session for people to chill out on the wave before heading home. A voting system saw Becky-Lar take first above all the men, with Lucas taking second and Mark in third.

Mark and Becky-Lar

Prize giving was next for the top spots and also lot of spot prizes for fancy dress and swimming etc. The event was very kindly supported by Teva, Gore-Tex, Soulboater Extreme Clothing, Cebe, and Sweet Protection.

Prize giving

A great weekend, which we will look forward to again next year, see you all then!

Sjoa Kayak Festival 2005

2005-07-28T18:49:00.000+02:00

Pile on, Per Christian, Lars Georg and Becky-Lar

After a great week at the Sjoa Kayak Festival we are all back home. Again we weren’t blessed with the best weather but the levels were good.

Mark on one of the slides

The first 2 days of our trip were awesome! 10 hours crammed in a van is no fun for anyone and we were starting to get a bit fidgety on the drive North. As boredom hit we drove past a huge dam with what looked like a runable shoot. We quickly U-turned the van and parked up to have a closer look. It was good to go and so was Lars Georg! He jumped into his kit and psyched up while we set the cameras. The speed he came over the top as he dropped in was amazing, 3 or 4 extra power strokes saw him hit the big lateral with a lot of force. A lot of down time later he resurfaced with a huge grin and a sigh of relief!

Lars Georg charging

Day 2 we headed for the Upper Jora. The river is pool drop with loads of cool slides and drops and made an excellent trip.

Per on the Upper Jora

That evening was the pimp and ho ball at punch. Becky-Lar hit the party in true Ugandan style and kept the things going till the early hours when the pub closed and we headed back to camp to continue. Big shout out to Swedish F**k thanks for the entertainment!

Shooting an advert for Bergans Norway

The next days were spent paddling the local rivers, shooting an advert for Bergans as well as the competitions. The boater cross was another great event with loads of action and battles through Amot falls.

Sjoa Boatercross

The freestyle was also a great event. Unfortunately after winning the pre-lims Becky-Lar washed off on her ride in the finals and ended up with 4th.

Now we are back home in the sun again looking forward to the Big O Festival.

Heat wave, at last!

2005-07-18T18:55:00.000+02:00

Per Christian taking a dip

After the start of our coldest season yet a heat wave has finally hit, and not before time!

Becky-Lar enjoying the warm water

Returning from Voss after a week of rain and being cold to find our local spot in glorious sun. The water has warmed up and the riverbanks are scattered with scantily clad women, perfect!

Nixie and Inca

We have spent the last couple of weeks chilling out and now we are back in the van and on our way to the Sjoa Kayak Festival for some more paddling and partying. More later….

Becky-Lar, Mark and Per Christian

Voss Extreme Sports Week 2005

2005-07-02T14:37:00.000+02:00

Heading over the tops.

No sooner had I returned from the UK I got a call from Kokatat paddler Christie Glissmeyer, “ Hey Mark, I’ve just finished the poweraide competition in Europe are you guys going to Voss?”
Do bears crap in the woods?!!!

Scouting

The Voss Extreme week is the event we all look forward to the most. The festival brings people from all backgrounds (mountain bikers, base jumpers, kayakers, rafters, skydivers, skaters, snowboarders, skiers and many more) to the small western town of Norway. The week is filled with competitions and parties with live music playing each night in the festival tent, just after today’s video, which is a rap up of what happened that day.

Mark on one of the many slides

Per landing his boof

We hooked up with Christie and headed for the festival. Norway has had its largest snow pack in 50 years and we turned up in Voss it was raining hard and had been doing for some days. With all the rivers bursting their banks we decided to warm up with a play run. Normally this section is quite timid but at these levels was a really good run, almost like a cold Africa with big wave trains and holes.

Mark about to drop in

Christie mid flight

These 2 shots were taken by Zoomgoto.com who followed the festival through out the week, to see loads more shots visit their site:

Zoomgoto.com

We returned to a soggy camp to hear rumors of several paddlers having to walk out of normally relatively calm runs due to water levels. As we were debating what runs may be possible for the following day a group of German army soldiers cycled past our camp. Now we aren’t the brainiest bunch but we know that 1 plus 1 equals 2, and a group of German soldiers in a foreign country normally equals cheap beer! Norway is stupidly expensive for alcohol, and facing a lot of camp time due to high flows Becky-Lar was quick off the mark!

German beer supply!

The next couple of days were spent running some of the tributaries to the normal runs and thanks to the high water the Milky wave, which was almost an urban myth until this week, was working in the middle of town. It was the first time we had seen this wave, which was only discovered over the past couple of years. We arrived to find a big glassy wave on the side of a nice hole with eddy service and only 2 people paddling it. We ran back to the van threw our kit on and charged back to find a queue of around 20, obviously the word was out! The rides were well worth the wait though and it was decided that the freestyle competition would be held here the following day.

Christie back stabbing Milkywave

Becky-Lar carving it up. Photo: www.Zoomgoto.com

The competition was held in a jam style format and even though the wave had dropped a lot it was a great event with Becky-Lar getting third and Christie in second both being beaten by Norway’s paddling queen Mariann Saether.

Lars Georg styling

Per Christian off the final drop

The next competition to take place was the Down river “extreme” race. We decided to go up the day before and see what the levels were like. The race section is called the Brandseth and is a great little run. As expected it was high, we took a quick run down and had a blast, the race was going to be great. The level dropped slightly for race day but was still high and proved to be very challenging when trying to paddle exhausted at full speed. A record number of swims and crashes were witnessed with much enthusiasm from the crowd. One rock in particular just above the finish caught a few paddlers out, but luckily Voss rafting provided plenty of cover and everything ran safely. Good job guys!

Becky-Lar, what else can I say!

The last night of the Voss extreme week is always the big party night and this year was no let down, swim beers and much more were drunk which ended in some fun and games and Lars Georg trying to wrestle me, sometimes you just have to show them who’s boss!

Lars Georg nursing his ankle

The next morning saw camps been broken down as people moved away to leave Voss as the little quiet town it usually is. The local police force came to camp and stood offering people free breath tests to see if they could drive or not, a much better idea than standing at the end of the road and fining people. The idea was well received and safe driving was promoted and enforced in a manner everyone agreed with, it would be nice to see more of this rather than authorities just trying to line their pockets.

The partying catches up, Viv crashed out

Yet again another great festival that has left us waiting for next years, see you there!

Mad dash to the UK

2005-06-17T18:10:00.000+02:00

With news that the new Liquid Logic creek boat the, El Jefe, had finally landed in Europe I packed the van and hit the road for Good old Blighty (England). I headed down to see Ant and Nick down at System X to get my hands on some for the boys.

Same as anyone, I always get excited about getting a new ride but this time was even more so. Liquid Logic are renowned for making the best river and creek boats by far, nothing comes close to the Gus still, so I was really curious to see how the production Jefe had come out after many prototypes and intensive testing.

First impressions were great. You can definitely see a lot of the Gus in there but with extra thrown in. One of the first things you notice is the bow. There is a lot more volume and a huge turned up nose that looks like it will stay on top of anything. The seat has been redesigned with a lower back to make access to the rear of the boat easier and it now has storage under the seat itself with 2 anchor points also built into the back.

The only bad thing, I was in the UK with this awesome creek boat, no water and over a week before I returned to Norway.

I decided to call by Gary Chambers of Soulboater. Soulboater are a great clothing company based in the UK that now sponsor the team. Gary invited me round to get some dinner and meet the family. After drooling over the Jefe one more time and letting the kids put it through their testing we were treated to the best chilli I have ever had. Soulboater is based near the Nene white water centre where they were having an open day that weekend.

I decided to drive back down and hook up with some of Soulboaters other paddlers and hang out for the weekend. Gary introduced me to Oli Castle who is really interested in coming out to Norway to film some C1 creeking for our film which will be some awesome footage, so stay tuned!
Good time was spent paddling the little course and hanging out with a really cool crew, oli, Aaron, Chris and Molley. The Nene might not be Hurley but it has a really nice atmosphere.

After everything was wrapped up in the UK it was time to hit the road and cruise back to Norway where I have had just enough time to have a quick go in the Jefe before we head up to Voss for the extreme week this weekend.

Big O Kayak Festival 19th - 21st August 05

2005-05-24T19:43:00.001+02:00

Now in its second year the Big O is back!

The Big O Festival will be held on the river Otra near Evje, Norway on the 19th - 21st August 2005. The festival will hold Crazy Slalom, Mass Start Downriver Race,Freestyle Jam and Boatercross competitions. A big air ramp will also be on site and the famous Adrenal party will be back on Saturday night with an Austin Powers 70's theme.

The festival is aimed at all paddlers from Intermediates to advanced and will have loads of prizes from our sponsors for both competition winners and spot prizes for people having the most fun. The whole event is about getting together and having fun and with warm water and guaranteed flow it's a winner so get the dates in your diary!

Teva Mountain Games, Italy, 2005.

2005-05-10T11:05:00.000+02:00

Photo: Per on his way to 2nd place by Simon Strohmeier

The Teva Mountain Games in Italy has just wrapped up for 2005. By all accounts the event was a huge success even with tricky water levels. Per Christian and Lars Georg teamed up with fellow LL paddler Benjamin Hjort to race as the Norwegian team and take 6th in the National event and Per managed to go one further by battling his way to 2nd in the boater cross.

You can read a full report of the event on Xackers, just hit the link below:

Xackers

2005 Calendar

2005-05-10T10:50:00.001+02:00

Photo: Becky-Lar throwing down the Vision.

Well the water has been with us here in Norway for over a month now but it's still not getting any warmer. We are armed to the teeth with wet suit gloves and skull caps dreaming of summer days with hot sun and 20 degree water, it is coming!

It's set to be a great season this year with all the usual festivals taking place. Below are a few of the events the team will be at, hope to see you there!

April 29th - May 1st Oslo Elve Paddle Festival, Norway. CANCELLED

May 6th - 8th Teva Mountain Games 2005, Italy Piemonte.

June 17th - 19th Lyon River Festival. CANCELLED

June 19th - 26th Voss Extreme Week, Norway.

July 20th - 24th Sjoa Kayak Festival, Norway

August 19th - 21st Big O Kayak Festival, Evje Norway.

October 3rd - 10th Nile River Festival, White Nile, Uganda.

Team Friend Burt hits California!

2005-05-09T13:52:00.000+02:00

After spending the winter in Uganda, good friend of Team Adrenal, Burt has hooked up with Artistic Sportswear and headed out to California for some spring creeking. You will be able to see what he gets up to here in the following months.

Check out Artistic here:

Artistic Sportswear

Team Adrenal Join Soulboater

2005-04-28T15:55:00.001+02:00

We are now proud to be apart of a fantastic new clothing company called Soulboater. Soulboater are a kore kayak brand based in the UK and produce awesome products for both boaters and bloaters! Check them out in the links section.

The New Season Is almost Here!

2005-02-26T15:21:00.000+01:00

After a winter of trying to escape the cold most of the team are back in Norway waiting for the new season to arrive. Even though the new season isn't very far away it can't come quick enough. Especially when we have friends like Kjartan who are still in warmer countries sending us shots like this!

We are looking forward to a fantastic season in 2005. We will be posting what we get up to on this blog so stay tuned!!

Martin Vollen

2005-02-26T15:10:00.000+01:00

I’m 23 years old and I grew up next to Sjoa in Heidal. I was eleven when one of my friends got me into kayaking. Now I can’t imagine a life whithout my boat. I spend more time in my play boat than in my creek boat, but I’m probably a better creeker than a playboater. I have never been able to explain the feeling I get when I’m paddling, but it's what keeps me doing it. If the best kayaker in the world is the one that has most fun on the river, then I want to become the best padler.

Mathias Fossum

2005-02-26T15:08:00.000+01:00

Hello! My name is Mathias Fossum, 18 years old and live in Oslo, where I
have been kayaking since I was 13 years. I started with playboating, now I
do most creeking and river running. I also do a lot of football, ski,
climbing and more..

Lars Georg Paulsen

2005-02-26T15:06:00.000+01:00

I'm a 22 year old boy from Arendal in the south of Norway. I've tried every sport there is, but I fell in love with kayaking. I started out as a slalom paddler, but after WM in Lofer, slalom in Norway was dead. That's when I started river running and rodeo. Nowadays, I use all my spare time, as long I'm not at work or school, out paddling. Can't picture myself doing anything else but paddling.

Per Christian Pederson

2005-02-26T15:04:00.000+01:00

I'm a 28 year old dude from the south of Norway. I started with slalom
kayking when I was 13 years old, since then I'v been padling World Cups, and World
Championship all around Europe. When I was competing in the World Championship (1994) in USA, I also had my very first creeking tour, that's when I got hooked on it. I work as a teacher, in the timber field, and I try to paddle as much as I can. Kayking is life!!

Becky-Lar

2005-02-26T15:01:00.000+01:00

Young, free and single! Well i'm 23 from good old Yorkshire. I first went kayaking when I was about 12. My dad bought a fibreglass kayak and I spent hours on the local canal dreaming that one day i'd be able to kayak down big rivers. Then I got into sea kayaking for a few years before getting the oppertunity to paddle rivers. Now I paddle as much as possible. I have spent the last 5 summers exploring Norway.

Mark Burton

2005-02-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

Like all the other team members, kayaking is my life. I love being on the water hanging out with friends. I started kayaking at the end of 1997 and by the spring of 1998 I was on my first trip to Norway. I spent the next few summers working and paddling over here before I finally decided to move here. The paddling here is awesome and there is nowhere else I would rather live.

Meet The Team.

2005-02-26T14:30:00.002+01:00

Who are Team Adrenal?

We are a Norwegian white water kayaking team who love to hang out with friends, huck drops, surf waves, travel and party! The team is 6 strong, during the summer we spend our time paddling the fantastic rivers in Norway. When the snow hits we look else where for warmer climates. If you see us at events or on a river come say hi and have a beer!