Here is a small video about our freestyle session in Ardèche region. Aubenas Voguë part, the French Zambezi.
Video :
Aubenas Voguë from pion stephane on Vimeo.
The article and photos are of November 13th 2008
vendredi 28 novembre 2008
vendredi 21 novembre 2008
Les Cévennes
The Massif of Cévennes and its national park is situated in the mountains of the South of France in the Lozère department. During the weekend of November 11th, we made three unforgettable rivers with awesome landscapes.
In the little village of Dourbie, lost in the national Cévennes park was our meeting point with Eric, Val, Franck, Benji, Romain and Raph for our first Cévennes day.
Here we are at the source of the Dourbie river, the most mythical run in all of Cévennes, it has a rather quiet set-off but after a couple of hundred metres of warm-up the river runs into deep gorges of very different aspects and reaches up to 300 metres in depth. The rapids of grade V and VI go on forever and give us immense pleasure and intense excitement at every bend.
After the last rapids of this section (the "Bazar a Bulles"), there is long a climb and tiring walk through the chestnut woods to get back to the cars. I'd say, the walk-out is grade VI ;-).
We spend the evening at a nice local restaurant in the village Dourbie where the local guys are very hearty. Maybe, I guess that is because they usually don't see many people from outside the Cévennes at the same time ;-).
We take the road back to the Tarn valley and its sources to spend the night there. Waking up here is most beautiful, wonderful landscapes as far as the eyes can see, no noise, no electric power lines and no civilisation to spoil the scene.
Afer a good lunch, we left here on foot over this immense plain to put-in at the bridge of Tarn (the oldest bridge of Lozère) where the river has its source.
A quick photo of the group and we set off on the Tarn sources (grade V-VI). Eric and Valentin are our guides because they were the one's who discovered this part of the river for us at the beginning of the year.
The section we did has only been done by about ten paddlers, together with the Dourbie, it is one the most difficult and famous rivers of the Cévennes.
The first kilometres are grade II, an awesome landscape and all your hear is the noise of paddles in the water. Then, the river seems to disappear and all you see are a couple of tree tops….
Here the serious business starts, an impressive slope, a set of massive rapids, named 'Le Norvégien', 'La rappe a fromage' and
'La Couturière', separated by a little flat water just enough to concentrate onto the next. The river continues with 'Le Gorille', 'Les Demoiselles', 'L’épaule gauche' and 'L’omelette', when you're there you'll see that the names make sense! And for finish, one some most beautiful rapids in this section 'Les 5 Frangines'.
We all want to to do it again, but with the autumn days it geta dark quickly in the gorge and we must make back for the cars. The climb is much the same as with the Dourbie - long and tiring.
That was the Cévennes!!! It was awesome !!!!
A day later we have a go on the river 'Lot' (III-IV) for an easy ride where the kayakers can paddle without stress and to take in the landscape for a last time before heading back home.
If you come to the Cévennes you should pack the guidebook «kayak Cévennes» by Henri Denis.
It will help you on the grade II-IV river parts.
photos : Romain Guirao
The Massif of Cévennes and its national park is situated in the mountains of the South of France in the Lozère department. During the weekend of November 11th, we made three unforgettable rivers with awesome landscapes.
In the little village of Dourbie, lost in the national Cévennes park was our meeting point with Eric, Val, Franck, Benji, Romain and Raph for our first Cévennes day.
Here we are at the source of the Dourbie river, the most mythical run in all of Cévennes, it has a rather quiet set-off but after a couple of hundred metres of warm-up the river runs into deep gorges of very different aspects and reaches up to 300 metres in depth. The rapids of grade V and VI go on forever and give us immense pleasure and intense excitement at every bend.
After the last rapids of this section (the "Bazar a Bulles"), there is long a climb and tiring walk through the chestnut woods to get back to the cars. I'd say, the walk-out is grade VI ;-).
We spend the evening at a nice local restaurant in the village Dourbie where the local guys are very hearty. Maybe, I guess that is because they usually don't see many people from outside the Cévennes at the same time ;-).
We take the road back to the Tarn valley and its sources to spend the night there. Waking up here is most beautiful, wonderful landscapes as far as the eyes can see, no noise, no electric power lines and no civilisation to spoil the scene.
Afer a good lunch, we left here on foot over this immense plain to put-in at the bridge of Tarn (the oldest bridge of Lozère) where the river has its source.
A quick photo of the group and we set off on the Tarn sources (grade V-VI). Eric and Valentin are our guides because they were the one's who discovered this part of the river for us at the beginning of the year.
The section we did has only been done by about ten paddlers, together with the Dourbie, it is one the most difficult and famous rivers of the Cévennes.
The first kilometres are grade II, an awesome landscape and all your hear is the noise of paddles in the water. Then, the river seems to disappear and all you see are a couple of tree tops….
Here the serious business starts, an impressive slope, a set of massive rapids, named 'Le Norvégien', 'La rappe a fromage' and
'La Couturière', separated by a little flat water just enough to concentrate onto the next. The river continues with 'Le Gorille', 'Les Demoiselles', 'L’épaule gauche' and 'L’omelette', when you're there you'll see that the names make sense! And for finish, one some most beautiful rapids in this section 'Les 5 Frangines'.
We all want to to do it again, but with the autumn days it geta dark quickly in the gorge and we must make back for the cars. The climb is much the same as with the Dourbie - long and tiring.
That was the Cévennes!!! It was awesome !!!!
A day later we have a go on the river 'Lot' (III-IV) for an easy ride where the kayakers can paddle without stress and to take in the landscape for a last time before heading back home.
If you come to the Cévennes you should pack the guidebook «kayak Cévennes» by Henri Denis.
It will help you on the grade II-IV river parts.
photos : Romain Guirao
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| Les sources du Tarn |
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| Le haut Lot |
mercredi 19 novembre 2008
Roger wave sesion!!
After a little article of math on the Roger wave near the city Baucaire "france"
adidas Sick-line
here is the video
Roger's wave from pion stephane on Vimeo.
After a little article of math on the Roger wave near the city Baucaire "france"
adidas Sick-line
here is the video
Roger's wave from pion stephane on Vimeo.
jeudi 13 novembre 2008
The Ardèche gorges are renowned for their grade II canoe trips and attract more and more white water enthusiasts. Not forgetting the international Marathon which takes place in the Ardèche gorges in the Vallon-Pont d’Arc region. Here lovers of the sport assemble each year, and the river continues to attract huge numbers of tourists. This part of river allows paddling throughout the summer with a flow rate of 65 metres3.However with consistent rainfall, the river can fill up to 1000 metres3, drawing many paddlers who gather at Aubenas for a spot of freestyle and slalom. The grade IV section of the river acts as a mini Zambezi with a lot of play waves and holes of various sizes, ranging from 50 cm to 2 m high throughout the entire stretch - a session of pure happiness!!! Even if you miss the first wave the second lies waiting just behind. Of course, depending on the water levels (between 800 and 200 cumecs) the waves are not always in the same place or form.
more photos :
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| Aubenas Vogué |
jeudi 6 novembre 2008
Here is a little video about my new freestyle boat "the Smoothy"
I tested it on the Malate wave and at the hole at Charnay.
It’s great paddling a boat which glides so well and which has a lot of volume, although the specialist may likes big vertical and fast wave. The smoothy is perfect for both big and small waves and provides a lot of stability on stoppers.
see you!
photos :
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| la malate septembre 2008 |
video :
the smoothy from pion stephane on Vimeo.
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