bootfahrer

Check this out!

2011-11-24T18:05:00.001+01:00

Alright, fall is officially here!

Or does it count as winter if we had the first snow already?

So with slow and icy mornings in our beautiful little cabin…

…right on the Ottawa I am slowly going through footage of this summer.

And while all of my filming went into my last video “One more time: CANADA”, I did stumble upon some more things I would’ve wanted to use.

Check out this piece shot by filmer, guitar hero and friend, Dave Hartman from Hayfiremedia! A beautiful edit and showcasing shots of his past season – and I am stoked on the little appearance I got in there!

And while you’re at it I also recommend taking a peak at Dave’s Bugz for life – Well worth the time wasted – pretty hilarious…

Another thing I found is a sequence my brother Bjoern shot while he was over in Canadia.

This is a helix on Cornerwave, probably my favourite low water wave on the Ottawa.

Fast and steep with a challenging eddy Cornerwave is one of the spots that pushes a lot of the Ottawa boaters to the next level, forcing you to throw quick and clean in order to get your moves right…

Alright, time to get back on the water! The good thing about cold days is that you got the waves all to yourself….

Peace,

Sven

Video : one more time - CANADA!

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000+01:00

I finally got all this summer's footage together in an edit! Put some work in this one and am pretty stoked about it!
I hope you enjoy it.
The first part is a bit of a mellow creeking one around Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and area that not a lot of paddlers get to see with water in the rivers. Thanks to the local crew there I got to do some fun classics like the Achigan, Goulais and Harmony as well as some 1sts on a couple drops in the area.
The second clip is from my summerly vortex, the Ottawa. As soon as I get there all communication slowly dies down, updates stop happening and I disappear in a bubble of good times from May to September. Well, a lot of that is due to the lack of internet (or even power in our guide ghetto) around as well as boating just being too easy! Work, play, eat, chill, drink and sleep. Awesome!
Anyways, this year I actually got my camera out a few times and am quite happy with what I can show you. Got the Element surfing buseater at levels where playboats can barely stay on, took my composite Nemesis out a few times and got to throw my plastic one around quite a bit, too. Preferably on Cornerwave or Garburator when in. And apparently, after 12 years or so in playboats I still learn a bit every year.
Oh yeah, not to forget Habitat 67 in Montreal. Only did a day out there in less than ideal conditions, but that being said that wave is still WAY too easy!
Well, what's the point of writing about a video? Really, just watch it, not gonna waste your time any longer!
Though...
Nah, just kidding.
Actually wait!
If you do this please make it worth it. HD on and crank the sound!
Now.
Go!

Peace,
Sven

First Descent Minnehaha - The time and effort put into...

2011-04-24T15:13:00.000+01:00

This is Minnehaha Falls in the Hiawatha Highlands right outside of Sault Ste Marie at "normal" flows May 2010.

Crystal Creek is a tiny creek going through this rather nice recreational area, the falls are just below a dam going into a gorge with several more little drops and rapids.

I first looked at those drops last fall in really high water and figured that if you could get into the first pool it would be doable and actually fun.

Now with the winter we had it took a while to actually make anything in the area runnable. Early April there was not a single creek, rapid or river that didn't have a massive icepack on it.

So I had to wait for this...

to turn into this

And this

into this.

And not just that.
Once I figured that the flows were high enough to make this worth it there were other things to consider.

Like wood on the lip...

And no access to the pool. Or eddies or ledges to put in on..

And no eddies at the bottom pool either.
And an ice blocked exit rapid...

Oh yeah, and it all being fenced in didn't help either...

Well, thanks to rain and melt the water stayed high for a few days.

I kept coming back in the evenings after other more common runs in the area and throwbagged the wood out, roped into the pool, kicked the ice out and after lots of scouting figured out the only way to put in.

Luckily there were enough of the local crew keen to see this paddled and helped me out - thanks guys!

After everything was figured out, Jorma did this sketchy, rope assisted climb right into the first drop, we let my boat down to him and I followed.

With him holding my boat I was able to get in, slide into the pool, turn around, ferry to the river left to line up for what I though was the cleanest line...

And cash in the rewards with a boof to reconnect.

Was it worth it?
I think so.
Definitely not your everyday boating mission though and if this was what kayaking was I'd probably get tired of it pretty quick. But having an unrun drop 15 minutes away from home running at reasonable flows made the whole adventure worth it.
And to be honest, even the scrambling and climbing around beat sitting at home, right?

Out to hopefully find some big water further south,
Sven

Costa Rica! This time: Surfkayak!

2011-03-22T23:00:00.000+01:00

What an odyssey!
So this is my first short international flight, first dedicated surfkayak trip, first HD video, first boating in 2011, first... SO. MUCH. FUN.
I actually gotta give a big THANKS to brother and sister in law, who invited us on their Costa surf trip as a wedding present and covered the beachhouse, my wife's flight...
Well, I still wasn't gonna go, raftguides are on a bit of a tight budget in the winter I guess. And I don't have a surfboard or -kayak. Couldn't justify it.
Until about a week before that trip I got a mail from Fluid!
They upgraded my team status (Yay A-Team!) and my mind started spinning. I contacted Gavin Rains, our North American distributor, he still had an Element in stock. Now getting it to Canada would have been impossible so after a bunch of calls and emails he managed to get it sent to Detroit - 6h drive from here and the airport we would fly out of.
I booked my flight a few days before we would take off.
The boat arrived on a Wednesday, I picked it up on Thursday, we kept in our hotel in Detroit and flew out with it on friday (or was it Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Who cares.). I didn't even unwrap it before checking in.

Well, the rest of the story... Chill times.
Costa Rica was beautiful, a totally different experience from the 3 months in 2008 that I spent there broke in the middle of recession waiting around in the mountains for work.
The places we stayed at were gorgeous, Kon Tiki at Playa Negra, run by amazing people for a few days and then a beach house with a private trail straight to the break. And our own pool. So all we really did was hang, have beers and rum, bbq fresh fish and go surfing. Twice a day. Conditions were not world class but there was something every single day of the trip.

One thing though. Reefbreaks are something else in a kayak! On a few occasions at Playa Negra I had to literally surf slalom between the rocks if I didn't get off the wave early enough. So here's all my respect to the kayak surfers out there!

As I said, this is my first video in HD. For the first time in 3 years I have a camera and a computer that are fun to work with. Makes me pretty motivated for the season here in Canada.

Anyways. Judge yourself. Here's the video. Ideally go to vimeo, put it on HD, watch it full screen, crank up the sound and take a break from winter.

Peace,
Sven

Video: The Snapshot Edit

2011-01-17T02:29:00.001+01:00

Well, originally I called it the snapshit edit...
Here's why.
My first video in two years. After wrecking my trusty old miniDV on Corsica two years ago I had all the good intentions for 2009 and decided to buy a new cam.
Well, with a raftguide's budget I kinda fell for the cheap option - HD, waterproof, optical zoom... Sounded all good, until I tried to edit the footage. Adobe wouldn't read the codec, computer too slow and all kinds of hassle brought my enthusiasm to a standstill. I did get some pretty decent play footage, but some time in 2010 I got so frustrated with the editing issue and the video quality that I deleted a whole bunch.

Well, so this winter I found a few things that survived (Cornerwave and Babyface on the Ottawa) and figured I'd give it one last try. I stumbled upon Sony Vegas, it worked decent with my computer and camera, found some more footage we got on GoPro and a few short clips from a true snapshot cam of Chippewa Falls.
With a bit of time on my hands during the Sault Ste Marie winter I played around and this is what came out of it.
With only a few sessions to work with this is not even close to giving a good review of my last year, but it's something. And it's good to practice my editing while I'm waiting for my new SLR - with full HD, 60fps and all those gadgets. Then the computer will once again be the issue...

Okay, I'll shut up now. Here's the vid.

The Snapshot Edit from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

Peace,
Sven

Chippewa Falls and Grand Canyon!

2010-12-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

WOW! The last month and half flew by in a hurry!
After spending not even two weeks back in Canada we headed out to the Grand Canyon, then Vegas and now back in Winter Wonderland!

First off was a descent of Chippewa Falls. To anyone doing the drive across Canada it might be known as a great sightseeing spot about 50 km past Sault Ste Marie, heading North.

We're not sure whether this has been run before, chances are low though. Waterlevels in this area are really touchy and the drops are rather sketchty in a few spots with shallow landings, cauldrons and sieves.
I know that none of the locals have attempted the set!

I personally first saw the drops in 2008 during our drive out West, they were running way too low then.
I looked at them again in 2009 and when I came back this year there was way too much water. With slowly dropping waterlevels I kept coming back and eventually found what I thought was the perfect flow.

With a few calls I got the Sault Crew to help with safety and photo/video and after a few more hours of scouting managed to pull this off the day before we flew out to Arizona!
All these shots are taken by Tiia on my Camera, I didn't even get to collect the rest of the pictures. So maybe there'll be more updates.

The first rapid is rather long and has a few moves to it, going from this twisted slide...

straight into a series of ledges

The second half, a double slide lands on rocks just to the left of where I ran it and has some deep cauldrons on the right side.

I am stoked to live in an area where there is so much to explore! Though now it's all covered under snow and probably will be for another three months at least! Time to bust out the board for the meantime, haven't used that in a few years, hehe. But as soon as it melts... Can't wait!

Alright, so Grand Canyon now...
I always said it'd be something I'd do when I'm 50 or something.
But when I got the chance to join Tiia and her old Manitoba Paddling Crew I got pretty excited. One of the best decisions I made. We had an amazing team of 14, all with big outdoor, kayaking and rafting backgrounds. We did the trip in 23 days, starting at Lees Ferry going all the way to Pearce Ferry traveling a total of 279 miles through the fall facing some pretty wild weather to start with, -7 at night, 100k winds...
I was in charge of one of the gear rafts but was able to bring my little Nemesis and got lucky to run some nice and pushy rapids and even got to surf a bit in it (there is barely any playspots on the whole run!).
The Grand Canyon is not about the rapids alone anyways, the whole trip is an experience for a lifetime.
Traveling more than a mile below the rim for a period this long you get into your own rythm with the river!
It's hard to put this experience into words, I recommend to anyone who can though to go and see for themselves!
I won't do a full write-up on this and there's not really any action shots yet, as all the pics I have are from my own camera and I focused more on off river photography, so here's just a few teasers.
Within the next year there will be a film of our trip hitting some of the Filmfestivals though. We were lucky to have Renaud Lafond on the trip, who owns his bucks filming some very ambitious projects for the canadian TV... I'm excited to see what all the effort he's put into capturing our mission will turn into.

gorgeous campsites all along

the tabernacle view, looking down towards unkar rapid

Granite Rapid. The pebbles on river left are overhead tall!

Renaud, a fully loaded 16ft raft, his onboard camera and Granite Rapid

Deer Canyon

some ledge

And that's that!
Almost.
After the Canyon we hit Las Vegas...
And this blog is not where I wanna get too personal, but:
Tiia and I GOT MARRIED!!!
We already got engaged in the Canyon and decided that this would be the perfect end to an amazing trip and year!
I am super excited about that and our future together in Canada!

Merry Christmas,
Sven

The Baldhead River - Lake Superior

2010-11-13T17:43:00.000+01:00

After a few weeks back home...

Mark and my sister and some norther german `creekin`

I headed back to Canada. While getting ready for 23 days on the Grand Canyon I got lucky enough to get a run on the Baldhead river near Wawa in.

Sault Ste Marie, where I`ll be spending my winter, is not necessarily a kayaking destination. The seasons are short, the drainage is pretty small, but there are a few gems to be had around here. Every river in the area drops off pretty steep at some point as they all have to make their way down into Lake Superior. With the local Crew around Jorma Paloniemi there are also some keen boaters around that are always good for missions.

We found the Baldhead a little on the low side but had our fun anyways. Some good bedrock rapids made the day and with the levels we had and some lines cleared from wood with the last highwater we even got two first descents in.

myself going first on the menster`s runout

Jorma trying something new

Emre Bosut and the Menster

Jorma demonstrating why they call this one F.U. drop. He broke his boat.

roostertail boof...

Emre, same drop from below

dead end used to be a total logjam - can`t wait to hit that in higher water!


Jorma loving his backyard

The run ends with a beautiful but awefully long paddle along Lake Superior`s coast to get to the takeout. A long day left us all tired, but keen to see some of those rapids in higher flows.

Out for some more scouting...

Sven

Finally gone! Roadie: Ottawa - Sault Ste Marie - Michigan

2010-10-17T22:06:00.011+01:00

Working on the Ottawa sucks!
Luck at this posh place we call home.
People are so closed minded here!

I mean really!
Look at those sunsets. Bah!

Blue skies? Not needed!

And those lame warm water waves?

I mean, how are you supposed to paddle like this.

And then having to not only spend you worktime...

but also your sparetime here. Eww!

So...

...Matt Hardy and myself decided to screw all that.
Pack a car and run.

But then we came across some ugly whitewater.
The Dumoine.

And gave in to paddle it.

No, we didn't smile! It was a favour to the river!

I tripped.

We had to camp out.

Only to come across boring Canadian Wilderness.

And then it rained.
I gotta admit, the following swim was fun though.

I blame these leaves.

Matt decided it looked awesome and followed.
Aux Sable.

OMG

It rained some more!

Matt thought it'd be a great idea to make sandwiches and go boating again!
Ridiculous.

And Tiia concurred. So I had to go again.
Tiia, Achigan.

Somehow they convinced even more people to do the same.
Connor.

Well, I thought that leaving the country would maybe help.
Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan.

And I gotta say...

after looking at all this high water...

IT DID!!!

Thanks a lot to Tiia Koskela and Matt Hardy for the pictures and motivation to go boating.

Oh, and OWL Rafting for four amazing summers, I'm gonna miss those carefree times!

Counting down. Grand Canyon in a month from now.

Peace,
Sven

Ottawarougelachinecarbonhoot!

2010-08-12T18:24:00.007+01:00

Oh the summer!

Since 2007 I've spent every summer on the Ottawa. None of the previous seasons have been anything like this one though. Usually, when I get back in April, the Ottawa is a freezing cold huge river, running high and powerful. Same for all the runs in the area.
When I came back this year I couldn't believe what I saw! It seemed as if we skipped a whole season and went straight into low water fall boating.
The non existent snowpack and a dry and warm spring had brought the river down to minus levels already.

Now, for the ones that know the area that is not necessarily a bad thing!
Sure, we weren't surfing Buseater or High Tension or were going through huge raft carnage on blown up Coliseum Rapids, but there is actually more play to be had in lower flows.
And even more important for us riverfolks, you can access quality playspots by car instead of having to run the whole river to the few spots that are worthy when the real big ones are not in (buseater for example has a very small window where it is good and is the only good park'n play in high water).

Instead we were already surfing waves like the Garburator:

yep, this is it!

In combination with a new boat that made for some wicked sessions. Most of the summer saw four easy access features in at all times: Cornerwave, Babyface, Garb and Pushbutton.
Enough to entertain yourself, that's for sure!

Oh, right, back to the boat:
I got myself a composite boat for the first time!!
Fluid Nemesis M in carbon/kevlar layup.
There is a little writeup on that right here: Carbon Please!
So stoked on that little thing!

all garb pics by tiia koskela

Low water also means that a nice little creeky section on the rouge river drops low enough to be runnable! Good to be practicing those boofstrokes again...

all rouge shots by wes, tiia and myself

somehow weird posture, eh?

josh burton

tiia koskela

wes mcallister

great times!

and if that is not enough then you can head out to montreal, where the lachine rapids are getting better - aka greener and steeper - when the water decides to stay away.

My good friend Daniel Krummreich came over from back home and stayed with me for two weeks We went for quite a few surf sessions over in Mtl and around the Ottawa.
Lachine is a lot of work for every surf but as soon as you learn to be patient definitely worth it! Big Joe can give you some good lift if you hit it right!

oh right, that's the ottawa again! daniel cleaning up after himself on cornerwave.

cornerwave is unique! so small but steep fast and glassy, so that you can throw all those fancy tricks on there.

so glassy!

Anyways, gotta head back to "work" -as in play with rafts for a little while and then maybe go boating again? We'll see. Life is hard out here, so don't get jealous folks!

Peace,
Sven

Goodbye NZ. Hi US and Canada. Can we please boat now?

2010-05-08T21:28:00.007+01:00

Welcome back to the amazingly uncoordinated and rather random photodump.
There I am, running around with a camera around the world and barely ever manage to use the shots I'm taking. So they pile and pile and all of a sudden start flowing over. Out of my camera, spilling all over my computer, soaking my hardrive, dripping out of the WiFi, into a router and into this place. So take a look around, enjoy wonderful places and lots of colourful little boats falling and flying...
This time:

The Upper Kakapotahi - again

Rocks on a beach and a bunch of hippies playing with them.

The result of an attempt on highwater Monkey Creek on the Hollyford.
Wasn't me.

No campfires.

Milford Sounds. What a waste of gradient!

Red Granite Creek.
It defeated me. Not the creek but the walk.
Legs too weak to walk (for the 3h up a jungly slope)
Ditched the boat, brought the camera and canyoned it...

Kev England f^%$in stompin it!

Tyler Fox

The flying monkey!

Upper Kakas again. This time sunny and with local legend Barny Young on it.

No NZ without these cheeky little bastards. Kea!

Also: A roadtrip without water from NYC to the Ottawa
Everything over here is ridiculously low, we're pretty much running on August Levels... We'll see what the summer brings - Garb and Lachine should be in a lot!

Ottauquechee

Otter Creek. It was snowing.

It was snowing! Adirondacks.

Watertown.
Urban Boating.
Route 3
Tiia.

Trying to wash away the playboat rust.

So. That's it for now. I'll keep running around, will keep bringing my camera and keep stealing pictures of others to keep this going. Now get off the computer and go boating!

Sven

Pelorus Sounds - A change of pace

2010-03-26T00:37:00.009+01:00

All the posts on this blog so far were about whitewater.

Not this one.

Even though I spent the last ten years almos exclusively in whitewater boats I come from a background of seakayaking. I guess growing up a few km's from the "beach" in Northern Germany made that a pretty obvious way of getting into kayaking in an area without any mountains (my parent's house sits below waterlevel) or even hills.

Now New Zealand has not a only a big reputation for amazing whitewater but also a huge system of sounds and bays, cutting far into the land, bordered by mountains raising right from sea level.
The possibilities are endless, there are incredibly famous destinations like Milford Sounds, pristine and rather crowded ones like Abel Tasman to the very remote areas of Fjordland.
There also is a big system right at the northern end of the South Island.
Most travellers experiencing NZ will have seen a tiny bit of it from the Interislander Ferries while approaching Picton.

With limited time on our hands and the idea to do something that neither of us had done I teamed up with long time Milford Guide and Paddlerzone Sea Kayak Instructor Matt "Tex" Walker to explore the area around Pelorus Sounds. Our time frame was roughly a week, weather seemed to be alright and with a week of hectic organizing we made our way North. Pretty stressed at that point to be quite honest.
It took us until the second day to shake off the daily grind and start enjoying the unique area.
Options are endless and after listening to some of the Mountain Radio forecasts we altered our plan to mission D'Urville Island and rather have a proper holiday.
Days still averaging around 20 to 30 km's after that decision (instead of a daily 40) we spent a lot of our time exploring, fishing, relaxing, eating well and lots.

After having had my last longer seakayak trip in 2003 it took me a while to get back into enjoying the special eventfulness of seakayaking. You are traveling at a rather slow pace and thus have tons of time to enjoy what is happening around you. And other than the fast paced whitewater part of our sport it is all of a sudden more about the little things that entertain you.
Wildlife was a big one, penguins, seals, stingrays, kormorans, seeing (!) king fish all made us stop for bits and just observe.

Fishing from the kayaks was another big part.
Matt was trolling pretty much throughout the whole trip, with tons of enthusiasm but very limited success. Well, he did catch a good sized and really mean looking Barracuda - until it put its razorsharp teeth to work and snapped the line.
As soon as we would stop at the rocky points where the tides stirred up the water around the steep rockbeds we would get lucky. Baitfishing it wasn't uncommon to pull up two blue cods at once! Delicious!

The moment I will remember the most though is one that was impossible to get on camera.
Close to the end of the trip we were battling a strong southerly wind all day to make it to the campsite. In a place where the hills are shooting right out of the water it is hard to find a good spot to sleep, so we stuck to the excellent little DOC campsites.
We had an hour or so left before sunset at this point, about seven kms to go but now both tide and wind in out back. We were sure we would make it.
We didn't.
Matt decided to climb up a somewhat accessible spot in a little bay, tying his boat close to sea level. I wasn't sure how high the tide would go in that spot, didn't want to risk my gear and the thought of climbing in almost darkness just to not find a flat spot for my thermarest didn't seem appealing either.
Though exhausted from the longest day we had I was still fit enough to do another few km's, do the last crossing to the campsite. By that point it was almost completely dark.
And then it all came together.
Lining up the stars I had marks on where I should end up. Headtorch flicked to red above my visor so it wouldn't blind but I'd still be seen I left shore.
A warm evening land breeze was blowing against me, but only mildly so.
After a while of paddling, just listening to the sounds, enjoying the blurred reflection of the stars I realized something had changed.
I could see my paddlestrokes! I had seen it before, but never in an area this big and a setting like this. Bioluminescense is caused by microorganisms that are stimulated to light up through motion or touch. What that meant for me was that not only my paddlestrokes but my whole boat and the waves coming of it where ILLUMINATED!
And to finish it off I did find a good campspot, had a little fire and enjoyed a small nightly hike.

I often find it hard to not spend time off on whitewater and it is still where my passion is, but I would go for a trip like this anytime again!

Another good thing by the way was that I spent some more time with my camera, playing around with pictures more challenging than the obvious action of whitewater kayaking.

Enjoy the shots!

PELORUS!

peer pressure

guess where there is good fishing!

mi casa!

campfires and bad spelling.

time to chill

amazing campsites

showers

find the sign. all you can see from the DOC sites

so delicious!

Tex trolling.

in spots you feel like coming into jurassic park

rushhour!

my ride! Mission Eco Bezhig! What a packhorse!

Green shelled mussels. Not so green anymore but about to pop open next to the fire!

My last night by myself.

Same spot.

Pollution. Or a romantic sighting of rusty anchors.

Sting Rays. RIP Steve Irwin!

Peace!

Sven

What the...

2010-03-08T11:03:00.007+01:00

Everybody please stay away from me!

Well, that is if you're supersticious.
(I'm usually not!)

But for some reason I just seem to attract trouble lately.

The above picture is me checking how much my face is actually bleeding after running
Maruia Falls.
The very bottom one is our ride back to Christchurch. Rather wrecked.

But I shouldn't start here.
Good things first I guess.

After a lot of convincing, repeated messages, kind words and promises of an unforgettable weekend I made my way to Bullerfest. (Thanks Jordy, Barny and Nils!)
And I have to admit, it was amazing! Unlike a lot of events back home every skill level, every age, every style of boating was to be found within the crowd that made the pilgrimage.
The only on-water activity I partook in was the raft race - we killed the first heat starting late and finishing first and then got last in the second. So much fun though!

Apart from that I did the middle Matakitaki with a bunch of good friends and partied my face off on both nights. Amazing spirits!

So congrats to Ben Jackson and his team for an amazing job hosting one of the funnest events I've been to!

Not a whole lot of Buller shots, too hungover most of the time. But:
The main site on saturday for raft and slalom
The weather was horrible, can you tell?

People were wearing eight layers of down gear.
Nobody smiled.

And yes, slalom can be done for fun and by everyone.
Tits on fire!

Tired and happy we made our way back to Christchurch on Sunday.
My one goal for the weekend was to do Maruia Falls, but up to the point of leaving I just couldn't find time or the right people.
It wasn't until we were almost there that Anna offered to stop and wait for me to run it. I was pumped!

I saw the first shots of Maruia Falls about eleven years ago, when Arnd Schaeftlein was showing us the "waters of wisdom" on VHS tape!

It's not a hard drop. At all!
But rather scenic.
And fun!
Following shots by Tyler Da Silva

My first run was sweet. I was in a bit of a rush, as the girls only stopped to let me run it. Thanks Anna!
Boof stroke, tuck, stomp! So smooth!

My second run.
My intention was to wheel it, changed that last second and pulled another boof.
Very flat, very high up.
Flexibility is key if you try to kiss your cockpit. Split my nose.
Taped in hospital a while later. I am now off for a week.
And the swell here in Christchurch is pumping!!!!

As if that wasn't enough.
The grand finale.
Span representing mad rallye skills as we tried a new line.
Straight is the new right!
Everybody was fine, just meant another night in Murchison.
And a future of cycling for the unlucky owner. Sorry Span!

Well. So now I am back here, sore face, whiplashed neck, four more days of work with people staring at my nose, and then: Relaxation. Seven days of seakayaking, fishing and chilling in the Marlborough Sounds. Maybe I'll make it without carnage this time. Who knows?

Peace,
Sven

KARMA!

2010-03-01T09:56:00.010+01:00

It's been over ten years now that I've been running whitewater and thus been traveling and living out of cars quite a bit. I never had anything happen to me, Cameras, travelgear, kayakgear, whole lives carried around in a car are obviously quite attractive for the criminal mind.

So I guess it's just been a matter of time until what happened would happen.

A few weeks ago I went for a hike. I'm not much of a hiker, but there was no water in the rivers to begin with so I decided to give it a try. Croesus Track, crossing the Paparoa Range near Greymouth, West Coast of New Zealand. A good friends recommendation, supposedly one of the most beautiful spots he's seen!
I started late, busted up the track and loved every second of it. Arrived at a hut just before sunset, got invited for some food by the couple that was staying there and as I was wondering why I didn't see their transport in the carpark they mentioned that they had been warned by locals that this exact spot was prone for break-ins. I was worried, but shook the thoughts off. 7km rough gravel, mid week, main tourist season over, I convinced myself that my car would be alright.
The next morning I continued the track, parting from the two, they went back to the carpark. I made good progress, scenery was stunning, just myself on one of the most stunning ridges I've seen! After making it down to the sea I hitchhiked back tot the carpark. No more than five minutes wait for any of the three rides that would get me all the way back to my truck. I would be there the same time the two others would be! I was stoked, everything seemed to be running so smooth.

Until I got to the carpark. When I checked the spot where I parked my car I instinctively looked around to see where it could be. There was a car in the same spot, but not a lot reminded of the big black and white Mitsubishi Pajero that I was so proud of.

The fire had only left metal, even the windscreen was melted down, well, you see the photos. The rock on the passenger's seat killed the thought of accident or self inflicted fire pretty quickly.
In the car was my complete kayaking gear, boat, paddle, pretty much everything that I owned and couldn't fit into the daypack I was carrying. My whole life gone in an instant!

Quite a while later I am sitting at the desk at PaddlerZone, the kayakshop I'm working at.
The past weeks have been an amazing display of openness, friendliness, helpfulness ot of everyone I know. PaddlerZone was helping me out with gear, friends gave me clothes, invited me for beers, even offered paying for my Laser Eye that was so close but now moved into a far distance again. I am now playing a new guitar, signed by seventeen friends - my little washburn disappeared as well. Sponsors offered to help out. At this spot:
Thanks so much to everyone!!!
Funnily enough losing pretty much all my possessions made me realize that I am still very rich. Living a restless lifestyle like I do these days it is incredible to see that kind of support!

And the mail I have in my inbox makes me smile! Satisfaction overcomes me, a bit of an evil smile, too. The police has found my paddles and camera lenses on someones property. The first person is arrested, they're trying to find the rest.
It is Karma. What you deserve is what you get!

Being aware of this I am looking forward to one and a half more months in New Zealand! An incredible country with outstanding people.
Next weekend I'll be attending the infamous Bullerfest, I'll be seakayaking for a week, hopefully hit some more rivers, hike (why did I never try that before?). Wow!

Okay, thought I'd share that story, but I also owe a few pictures. This time I included a bit more than just the standard kayak shots. Being able to live the life I'm living is definitely worth the hassle I went through! This place is stunning!
Bare with me if they're all over the place...

Parked quite well, don't you think?
Only metal left.
In the foreground you see a bit of a burnt bush.
It was really dry the weeks before, so not only did those people screw my life over but also almost set the hill on fire!

The Croesus Hutt!
In any other situation I would have said this was worth any trouble!
Stunning spot - Thanks DOC (department of conservation)

Same spot, now how is that morning view?

Tree on the track.

Work: Guiding the Waimakariri.
70km of class I-II, the kayak leg of the infamous
coast to coast race.

Max Siech styling as usual.
Upper Kakapotahi

Thomas Voessing: last stroke before the blind mandatory.
Upper Kakapotahi

Following shots in reverse order:
Nils Moeller, Upper Styx

Milos Trnka, Upper Styx

A throwbag. That's right Nils! Used to rescue people.
Good boy!

Richard Bax Clark, First Rapid Upper Styx

Waiting for Milos. Worse places to hang out.

Another team on the Styx.
One crew lost and broke a total of four paddles!

Best seats! Cheers Dando!

The master at work.

Nils, you really should focus more if you're flying a chopper!

Different day. Beer and good river days are always good!
Crew: Me, Gaz, Sam, Kev, JV, Jye
photo jeremy holiday

Oh, yeah, another Croesus view

Local fun: Nils rappelling off Castle Rock, Christchurch

Occasionaly I have somewhat nice views from my house.

Suggested Actionlines should not be ended upside down in rocks.
The price you pay: A snapped brand new paddle!
Check the flex on that spare!
Upper Kakapotahi, blind mandatory boof next to sieve...
picture courtesy of max siech

Peace!
Sven

Kober Scorpion EFC!

2010-01-01T05:40:00.005+01:00

Carbon is sexy!

Thanks everyone at Kober,
that was quite the Christmas/New Years present!
Can't wait to take it out to the coast!

And yes, I didn't really do much today... That's what the 1st of the year is for though, right?

Happy New Year everyone!

Sven

New Zealand...

2009-12-17T10:13:00.005+01:00

Warming up!
I guess it's been two months that I've been here and I still didn't write a thing! Well...
That is a good sign you know! My mum would say: If I don't hear from him he's doing well!

After spending a few weeks rafting, getting certified and doing a rescue course (NZRA!) with the boys from Mohaka Rafting on the North Island I am now set for the winter, working for paddlerzone in Christchurch, living on a beach with decent surf and creeking two days a week at least on the coast. Not too shabby!

Got to take out both the Nemesis and the Element out in the surf quite a bit and loved it! Can't wait to get my hands on some composite!

Anyways, my focus for now, especially after talking to my closest friends that were involved in a whitewater accident lately, was more on personal boating. I didn't take pictures, did a few runs on the westcoast but really just enjoyed hiking up, being all exposed out there and then picking some sweet lines down. I also paddled with a bunch of different people every time, which doesn't make the media easier. All apologies but no regrets.
So for now there is only a few shots from my trip so far, I have a good crew coming together for after new years, so we hopefully will be able to get some good runs (heli, maybe multiday...) in!
Enjoy!

Toaroha, First drop out of the canyon, pic: Gareth Cox

Gareth "Gaz" Cox, same drop!

Jye Mitchell enjoys the westcoast's beauty

everybody looking up? put some work in.
fly, walk, paddle, walk, scramble, paddle - westcoast!

bruce dando on his way up

gorgeous! 10 mile creek
kevin smith and myself, pic Jye Mitchell

order reversed: still 10 mile. a bit too much wood and metal for me!

in graham charles' words:
kayaker's nightmare number? traffic jam!

arthur's pass: views like this make the weekly 3 1/2 h drive fun!

kevin smith, pic sam?

me, about to get sacked landing upside down
damn freewheel attempts!

styx, classic run!

Peace,

Sven

garburator!

2009-10-19T09:26:00.005+01:00

while i am sitting here on new zealand's countryside at mohaka rafting, enjoying good food (sheep), nice views and learn some technical rafting so that i shall become a kiwi raftguide i got this mail with pictures of micha schomann.

micha visited me in canada for two weeks midseptember to bum around a bit and enjoy the eastern canadian playboat classics... and boy did we get lucky!
our adventures included but were not exclusively limited to: sleeping on a roof downtown montreal, enjoying huge bonfires at big owl's rafting, driving through (rotten) cornfields, getting bitten by cats and....

SURFING.
A LOT!

Lachine, Habitat, Cornerwave, Babyface, ran the Rouge and then BOOOM! Garburator came in! last time i surfed this wicked wave was in 2007, and i had almost forgotten how it feels! well, easiest way to explain it would be: FAST!
like really fast.
while you don't have a lot of time to setup as you're screaming down the pit it does allow for some good air. other than a lot of waves i know you always project forward, upstream, which makes it hard for combos but a lot of fun for airscrews, cleans, back pan ams etc...
anyways, micha in the end sacrificed some precious surfing time and busted out his photo skills! and as photos really only make sense if they get looked at:
HERE YOU GO!

all pictures courtesy of micha schomann

peace!

sven

another season done...

2009-09-14T00:31:00.005+01:00

nobody around anymore at big al's rafting, so i found some time to go through a few of those pictures of this summer. not too many, i've been working a lot lately and didn't get to do a lot of big trips, but that is about to change. RIGHT NOW!
another month of bumming around and putting those ninja wave tricks out on some big stuff before i take off to New Zealand!

just for technique this summer has been wicked! learnt a lot and definately changed my style of boating quite a bit. i guess it was just a different mindset coming from a very relaxed environment here. i still can't believe how easy life is around here. nothing really to worry about, go rafting, kayak after, have a beer at the fire, good people everywhere. i kinda wish this would last longer.
anyways, enjoy the shots...

mr. patrick carter slaying the mighty phil's hole

cornerwave. favourite trick of my summer.

love that shot! pic tiia koskela

pic tiia

alex davies throwin down

wipeout

this was a great view on the way to our put-in

fernando torres, dragons tongue

me. same.

dropping the elevator shaft, pic fernando

peace, out!
Sven

i love pictures!

2009-08-08T22:47:00.003+01:00

just really wanted to share those, super stoked on them!
i was out surfing odyssey, a nice little wave that is not being surfed too much as few people know about it. the sun was setting and there was no good photo light at all, so my friend hadleigh thompson tried playing around with longer exposure and i think the shots he got are awesome!
thanks a lot buddy!
no too many, but here you go.

i guess you could tell that i'm having a good time.
yeah ottawa!

yep, right. different wave.
stumbled upon this while cleaning my computer.
buseater
that boat flies.
photo daniel inskip.

off to the sauna.
more soon.

peace,
sven

cornerwave and competitions?

2009-07-16T20:38:00.004+01:00

i just got a bunch of shots from colin moneypenny on the oks competition on cornerwave last week. thanks a lot!
cornerwave is one of my favourites on the ottawa. quite the dynamic wave with a sweet surfer's left shoulder, fast and incredibly steep and green in the right levels. competition levels were a bit too high, so it was comparably slow and foamy but still good enough to throw some stuff on.
i've been learning a lot on that wave lately, so i tried to put a few new tricks into my rides.
in the end it placed me 4th, which, considering the other competitors, is quite alright i guess.
i guess they didn't even score some of my tricks (flipturns i think), which might have put me even further up. final ranking for the top five was EJ, Stephen Wright, Joel Kowalski, me, Nick Troutman and Moe Kelleher.

it was a small event, mainly organized for a bunch of juniors paddling with the keeners and also part of the junior olympics or something like that, so there was a lot of waiting and cheering for those kids involved. this also made the pro mens class pretty small, and i guess a delay of 4(!!!) hours until the whole thing started didn't make it any better.

it's weird, cause i usually don't consider myself a competitor, but this time, on this wave, i really wanted to go out and see how good i can do. which means that i was keen!
however, from showing up at 9:30 in the morning and finally competing at around five there was too much time wasted! sorry wilderness tours and oks, nice that you were organizing this, but some preparation and a clear schedule would make this whole thing way more enjoyable!
seeing good boaters as well as spectators leave because of so much waiting makes me think that this is not the greatest way to push our sport. it would be easy to get people involved, especially on a spot like mccoys on the ottawa, so many people came paddling through, got excited that there was stuff going on and then left kinda disappointed when they realized that nothing was happening for the longest time.
anyways, in the end i had a blast and was happy with some consistent rides.
and i think next time there's a competition around i'll still go out. i always do.
i just hope that more people will do so as well.
for the fun of it.

anyways, here are some of colins shots.

peace,
sven

summer can come cause spring was sick!

2009-06-16T16:13:00.008+01:00

wow!
time's flying by these days! how is it mid june already?
my life's been a rollercoaster this year! after costa rica and nicaragua i spent quite some time just bumming around in germany, had an amazing time back home in augsburg, got a bit of play in and did a sick trip to corsica (check kanumagazin.de). big thanks to felix hunziger from steep'n wild for saving my ass by giving me riot demos! without him i would've been sitting dry for the spring!
well, after that i headed off for my summer residency. i flew into canada in early may and showed up just in time for some buseater action. it's been over a month now, i've had a few more of those big wave sessions, been surfing high tension on the gatineau, partied, instructed, rafted. and did a little roadtrip out to new york and vermont. no boating BUT i picked up new boats!
yep, i switched this year!
riot has been great over the last years, they've supported me so much! i still think that they have great designs and i hope that they recover well!
however, options came up, and after paddling daniels nemesis for a bit i tried fluid kayaks.
and here i am, two brand spankin new babies with me, nemesis m and solo l. thanks go out to david arnaud and celliers krueger, thanks for all the patience til it actually went down! i didn't get the solo out yet, but the nemesis is really amazing! considering the size of it i was surprised by it's combination of good speed, ridiculous bounce and serious edges. the first rides on buseater were straight up crazy compared to the big astro.
after getting used to it i could get more pop out of combo moves, launch bigger, carve faster. up to the point where it opened up triple combos for me! so i'm pumped to take it out on all those different waves we will have over the summer.
now i just need a new video camera... don't drop cameras out of three meters on rocks. doh!
apart from that things are still the same. thanks to kober paddles for that sweet scorpion neutral bent, awesome blade!
and to artistic sportswear for supplying everything else! head to toe river gear.
anyways, her are a few shots from this spring...

fernando torres on the edge
iron ring, ottawa

flashback
photo by caley mulholland

combos in pics? hard.
halfway through a flash forward to back stab

dave nieuwenhuis showcasing some local expertise!

finally getting those airscrews straight!
photo by daniel inskip

iron ring again
photo fernando torres

big bus.
photo emre bosut

getting used to the edges...

thanks to everyone who provided the photos! i'll try to not slack off as much as usual and keep those updates going. with a few motivated photographers around it should be a good summer for that!

peace out,
sven

a canadian season...

2009-03-24T23:52:00.002+01:00

alright, same vid as in the post before, but now in a little bit higher quality.
still haven't figured the ideal filesize-quality ratio out, but also didn't want to make it too big. anyways, have a look yourself.

anything else?
well, after all my gear is here now i am pumped to take off for an 18 day spring roadtrip in three days...
austria, switzerland, italy and then CORSICA!
which for you dear readers (does anyone actually read this or is it more about the pictures, the videos...?) means that there will be more posts!

wow!

a canadian season starring alex davies, sam ewings, neil gibson, andy hill, stephan paetsch, sven perschmann and darcy scott-northmore!

a canadian season from sven perschmann

peace,
sven

back home and a new vid

2009-03-19T11:22:00.005+01:00

hi folks!
don't really feel like writing a lot right now.
but i finally managed to find the time to finish the clip of my last summer in canada. and i am happy with the result! a higher res version should be up soon.
apart from that no big news these days. after spending three months in costa rica i took over a month off from kayaking, the longest time in the last three years or so!
and now i am back in augsburg, staying with a bunch of good friends, boating quite a bit.
and looking forward to corsica end of this month!
anyways, lean back, take another sip from that coffee and join our trip.

my canadian season from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

right.
something was missing.
what's a post without pictures?

well.
i have a video.
should be enough, shouldn't it?

ahm.
whatever.
micha schomann and myself.
black forest.
photos by micha and me.
makes sense.

skookumchuck!

2008-12-01T03:29:00.007+01:00

what a spot!

every kayaker has a list of things to do, runs to run, waves to surf. and anyone who ever surfed big waves would be lying if they say that skookumchuck was not on that list.

when i first started whitewater kayaking i saw pictures of that wave that left me awestruck. people were surfing this monster of a wave, getting air, green grinding...

at that point i never thought that i would one day be able to do something like that. now, almost ten years later i have surfed waves that are bigger and faster, there has been tons of skooksfootage from boaters around the world. often enough so much coverage takes some magic away from places, you almost feel as if you know them too well already.

not skooks though!

the power this whole place has is beyond anything a picture could capture. seeing the wave appear out of nowhere, surfing it as it is forming, gettingh washed downstream on the tour on a fine line between massive boils and freakwaves, seeing sealions surfing waves and hissing at people, big boats cruising by as you are surfing on oceanwater, then watching skooks peak and green out, come back for a bit and slowly disappear into calm water again... simply incredible!

we made it an even bigger experience by camping out on an island next to the wave for five days! filled up our playboats to the brim with everything we needed and then pulled them behind the creekboats. from egmont it is something like a 40 min paddle at slacktide, so we only left the island once to get watersupplies and stuff we had forgotten.

it was a great time, but we also had a bit of an epic:
the first day there was a big SAR mission going on, cause the night before a guy that wanted to drop off his boat at the wave went missing.
turned out he simply didn´t recognize the spot where the wave forms and paddled way past it and eventually made it to the next seddlement to hitchhike back the next day. too bad that he wanted to meet someone there and never showed up...

and i had a pretty solid swim!
getting a mild trashing in one of the waves futher down my knee slid out of the thighbraces i hadn´t adjusted yet and thus popped my skirt. i had to swim through three gigantic whirlpools, got a lot of downtime, almost ran out of breath at one point and lost my paddle! scary shit.
didn´t lose the boat, luckily, but i still had to handpaddle back over to the island, quite exhausting.
the next day i borrowed foerster´s paddle and broke it on my third ride, forcing me to paddle back to egmont c1-style. took me about an hour and a half, it sucked! at least that was our last day anyways...

our camp on the island

chill times, we even brought a boardgame!

davies going for a good old brainwash...

sam ewings styling his flashbacks

and so is foerster

andy hill... going clean, going big, but how is this supposed to end?

the only action shot of myself, thanks to gill crawley!

something was weird about the tides, the wave greened out a lot.
which left us watching this guy cruise for a long long time.

yeah man, you rock!

what a shitty view to wake up to, heh?

peace out everyone, next updates should be costa rica. it just started raining again.

lost and found...

2008-11-25T22:41:00.003+01:00

so, a little break!
i had a lot of downtime lately, hanging out at my place in turrialba, costa rica. it was raining non-stop, and as i don't have a creeker yet to run the crazy stuff that's going off right now (soon though, so soon!) i started going through this years video footage. i stumbled upon a bunch of stuff from augsburg this winter and spring and thought that i might edit a little clip with it. same same, me trying to figure out the washing machine on the eiskanal. it probably had a bit of coverage this year anyways, as it was part of the worldcup.

i also got way more footage than this, of all the ahoicrew, but that'll have to wait for a bit of a bigger videoproject.

but anyways, here is my take.
while i was editing it a lot of memories of a-town came up, close friends and places, i spent five years in that city... so everyone back home: sending you a lot of love from the other end of the world!

augsburg2008 from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

western canada!!

2008-11-22T21:23:00.003+01:00

okay folks, once again I have been slacking off. no, there was no two weeks break on the road trip, it's just that i am in costa rica now!!!
so i have been kinda busy with adjusting to the place i will be living in, finding a place, a job. and i succeeded, it's all set now. i will write about costa rica later though, only so much right now: it is an amazing place, so different than everything i have done before!

back to canada though!
after kelowna we went on a mission for some creeks in bc, and got pretty lucky. especially considering that it was bone dry for the first part and then too rainy and cold for the last.

we made it down:
the spillimacheen - awesome low volume creeking, nicest moves being a slide into 90° drop, tons of fun boofs and then a nice little twenty footer (foerster broke his paddle, popped his skirt and still didn't swim!)

the jordan - even less volume but some good tight and steep lines, one slide into autoboof where skipped across the pool into the next unscouted rapid

the box canyon of the illesillewaet - even in lowest water still somewhat pushy, fun run

the perry - too low when we ran it

the soo - a lot like the oetz in austria, shallow, fast, dirty, some fun moves but not my fav

the upper cheakamus - fun class IV, on sweet sweet boof!

the callaghan - three times, big playground including sketchy little boofs, attempts on grinding logs down drops, a good 25/30footer and lots of steep bouldergardens. highlights? neil getting trashed at the bottom of the drop.

the ashlu: mini mine, pretty high, pretty fast, pretty sweet (except for that i dented my boat, argh!)
BOX CANYON!!!!! what a beautiful run! class IV/V, bryan smith took us down, almost no scouting, sick lines, complete commitment, no way to get out. it was great to finally run it, i had heard so much about it and it surpassed all expectations. the downside was that we got to see how much progress the hydro companies have made already, the run is gonna be dry from next year (?) on, DAM!!!! check therangelife.blogspot.com for some info on the protest and the other intense stuff those guys are pulling off, there are some gems around!

the area around whistler and squamish is considered to be the adventure capital of canada, and i can totally see that now that i've been. sea to sky, everything from coast to big mountains, so much stuff to be done here!
i will definately come back for a while, maybe even try to work there for a while.

oh, i talk and talk, and no shots? well, to be honest, i don't have too many, as i lost my battery for the slr, so we only took video of most of the runs. just be patient, it'll go online at some point...
and there still are a few...

what a day! sunshine, nice creek, good lines...

davies. jordan.

that boof turned out so well that i skipped the pool and went straight into the next rapid. unscouted...

me. jordan. stomp!

foerster and davies. jordan. boof.

outch! what where you thinkin!
foerster. callaghan.
(also the last shot before i lost my/ran out fo battery...)

there were some chill times, too!

and sometimes having some time away from the boys is sweet, too ;)
enjoying the view over the ashlu valley.

yours truly from turrialba, costa rica.

sven

p.s.: it´s raining like crazy here, hasn´t stopped for six days!

winching!

2008-11-05T06:31:00.002+01:00

pow! so what does that mean? well, part of our trip out west was a stop in kelowna, to visit our friend darcy.
soo, kelowna is quite the f****ed up city i can tell you. we went out to party hard, got asked for drugs all the time and the general vibe on the street was super aggressive. definately not the right spot for river hippies like us.
anyways, that's not the story.
literally beaten up (outch!) we decided to take it easy the next day. darc and his roommates had a winch with a 600ft rope for wakeboarding. so there was our plan!
we drove to the lake nearby (deepest lake in canada?), set it up and had a few testruns. the boys were rockin their skimboards and wakeskateboards in good fashion and we took our boats out.
being a bit sketched at first, as the water was pretty shallow all the way out we took it easy at first.
after a few rides of getting used to it we worked our way up to throwing tricks.
man, that thing is fun! if i'd ever be somewhere without any play, i'd get one of those.
my favourite was the airscrew, but i can see almost any trick possible, you can get quite the bounce out of the up to 17mph this thing generates.
and this is were the shallow water came in handy, we could film and shoot from so close. i was even able to use my flashlight. made for some good shots i think, but check it out yourself!

the beast!

darcy styling it!
oh, and it was not as warm as it looks.

only downside: handpaddling out 600ft for each ride: davies

neil doing his thing!

did i say flashlight?
zzzzzipppp!

who would beat someone with such a hat?

alright, gotta catch my flight to costa rica in the next minutes, gonna keep posting though!

peace out,
sven

leaving the east!

2008-10-31T01:36:00.007+01:00

one of the last little missions we did from our basecamp ottawa were the chutes de coulonge, a tourist sight about 45 mins away. the big double drop was unrunnable in the flows we had, it also had a log in it. so we wanted to run the logslide just next to it. just after davies made it down the desaster started. the registration lady told us she'd call the cops if we'd run the slide (after telling us beforehand that its been run and taking our cash to walk in!), so we decided to send the boats down by themselves, have alex catch them and walk down along the side. unfortunately the pool at the bottom was not as calm as we thought, so alex could only catch two of the boats and the two other ones went down the first drop into the coulonge gorge. argh!
we all ran down, foerster and i chased the boats down the really nice gorge but had to find one boat broken! so: one boat down, two of us didn't get to run any whitewater, foerster and i did the gorge (nice class 4 into a drop) and davies did it all! and surprise surprise, that lady still called the cops, even though we followed her orders! nothing happened though, but had we known, we could as well all have run that damn thing!

davies you lucky bastard!

a lot of magnums, a copcar and a friendly hydroquebec guy that gave us a lift back up.

throughout the summer there always was the question of what to do after the season. should i fly back home? what am i gonna do for the winter?
at some point it started to become clear that i'd go to costa rica some time in november. my friend fernando helped me finding a job, hopefully a place to stay, and now i'm going into a completely new experience!
after having made that decision i pretty soon realized that i had to do something inbetween the rafting season on the ottawa and my departure to CR. so a few of us came up with the idea of roadtrippin out west towards british columbia! so far i had only seen eastern canada and i was looking forward to see this massive country from a different angle.
alex davies and i left the ottawa mid september, our first stop being actually further east: montreal! i hadn't been, wanted to catch up with the riot boys, get some more waves in and switch boats. at 180lb i am on the low side of the astro 58's weight range, and even though i liked its speed and downriver abilities i wanted to push my combomoves. and well, it really does the trick!
so, after working on alex's cottage for a few days him and i spent a full day at the factory, which is just going through some big changes, assembling our boats.
here is my new beauty! charcoal 54! hard to see on photos, but whatever guys, it just looks badass!
i also picked up a magnum 72, as the 80 was a bit big for technical creeking, i had a great time in it throughout the summer though.

my ride

montreal was wicked! we stayed and partied with simon from riot for a bit, cheers man!
also visited and partied a lot with friends from the river, got annihilated with vince and got to surf both big joe and habitat! everytime i come back to montreal i am amazed by its energy, i got really attached to this place throughout the last two summers!

safety discussion, anyone?
habitat was not quite perfect but still good fun!
and thinking of short tops for boating gets me pumped for the winter again!
alright, this is not in the right order, this shot is taken in the badlands near drumheller, close to the end of our continental crossing, but may i introduce:
the roadtrip crew!
left to right: alex davies, neil gibson, stephan "foerster" paetsch
yeah guys, you really are outlaws!

after montreal we hooked up with the other boys. up to winnipeg we had andy hill accompanying us. the first run we did were the seven sisters of the aux sables. pretty nice but short run, provincial park camping just next to the drops, a trail accompanying it, what a playground!
and luckily enough our friend tiia invited us to have a true finnish sauna at her place, thanks so much!

foerster boofing the living daylights out of the biggest slidedrop!

that was it with boating for a while, there sure was a lot of driving though! i mean we pretty much drove across the whole northamerican continent. we had this gps with us, and at times it would just tell us to switch lanes after a few hundred km's. and the worst was: you could already see that spot!

the prairies!
wir machen den weg frei!

anyways, that was it for now, more updates are about to come on the western part of our trip.
peace, out!

this ufo made the sick spot we stayed at even better!

what happened!?

2008-10-29T01:01:00.003+01:00

first trip on the ottawa, doing safety at highwater garvin's chute, middle channel

well, i guess i was working!
like working a lot!
and it was a lot of fun!

the whole summer was ridiculous for waterlevels, the ottawa never made it down to normal low summer flows. which means that we had some pretty intense rafting and a lot of time on buseater. while last year at some point became very repetitive, up to a point where i was fed up with rafting, this years changing waterlevels made it all way more interesting.
being at owl the second year had a few advantagesm, too. lots of work early in the season, sportrafting, some tripleading, really interesting classes at MKC, it was simply way more challenging and entertaining.

of course there were downsides, too. i started the summer with tendonitis, smacked my elbow first dancing and then surfing so hard that i had issues for two months with it and had to take a step back in my boating, which sucked! overall i couldn't go out as often as i wanted to, due to this, infected wounds and some minor issues. i guess there is a price you pay if you are consistantly trying to do as much as possible.
nevertheless, once again the ottawa didn't fail in pushing me a lot. i got into combos, learnt a bunch of new tricks, and spent a lot of time on the water which paid off this fall for creeking, too.
i met a lot of new people, spent some good time with friends, partied hard...

i didn't really make it out to montreal or the rouge throughout the season, the water was simply too high to make it worth it. so there was little to post about and i had a hard time getting stuff done anyways, as life was just too entertaining as it was.

right now i'm staying in vancouver, trying to figure my next steps out. i will spend my winter in costa rica, which is gonna be insane! i will post one or two more updates within the next days, we did a roadtrip over the last month and a half and i'm just sorting out the footage. as soon as i have a bit more downtime and all the video, i'll hopefully be able to post some video, too.
for now just a small appetizer, a few shots from the season, i'll just comment on each of them without trying to paint a bigger picture:

big boat guiding highwater coliseum, the only shot i have of me rafting!
photo erin rayton?

first time high tension
it was a bit low to be prime, but still so much fun! one of the best practice waves, so predictable and so much potential!
this photo is taken by benjamin kraler from austria, we randomly met him and his buddy hannes at the wave. the kayaking world is soooo small!

the bitch came back! buseater in full force, i hated this wave last year, now i can't wait to surf it again! we had something like six weeks of bussy this summer, which is totally unusual.
photo by john jennex

park'n huck in quebec!
i went out for a day with foerster, billy harris and a few more to go creeking near north bay.
this one was big, real big. i took this shot of foerster from a bridge. this massive slide continues under the bridge and then drops down a 10-15ft drop with a nasty left corner.
i was pumped to run it, unloaded my boat and had to find out that there was no outfitting in my boat anymore. thanks mark!

more bussy. man this wave is insane!
photo john jennex

foerster doing his thing. c1ers are crazy!

alright, enough for today, everybody's getting busy around me, kinda awkward...

peace,
sven

Broken Car, Mini Bus and Quebec Roadtrip

2008-07-30T14:15:00.009+01:00

good morning!!!

yep, that's what it can look like when i wake up in the mornings. not too shabby!
i guess it's been a while since i updated this, mainly because we're still in ridiculously high levels for the season.
this summer at the ottawa has been very rainy so far. so rainy actually that we're not even close to all the low water play levels. no cornerwave, no garburator, very limited play on the two main runs and no good park'n play at all, which makes it hard to get personal boating in, especially as we're in full rafting season now.
rafting is awesome though! we've had highwater coliseum levels for a while now, and that can mean a 50/50 chance to make it through the rapid, motorboat safety at the bottom...
feels almost like kayaking.
and i guess a total of over a month of buseater is not too bad either.
sad news are that my car left me. it actually didn't just leave, it peaced out with a bang!
apparently you need a driveshaft and multijoint to drive the good old aerostar.
RIP!

but the next day totally made up for that! buseater sessions are just awesome. the wave was in so long that people actually started getting bored? i had a blast! some early morning sessions, some full days spent, sore backs and smashed elbow and some decent airtime is how i would sum that up. but check out yourself!

dave pierse about to drop in

carving some green

working my ka-y's

silly flip, cab screw, call it what you want!

oh, and we still made it out for some boating!
riot kayaks hooked up the owl/mkc instructors and guides with some nice deals! these guys spend every day on the river and now they do it in style!
so we got a few days off, took alex davies' chevy venture and, after a really slow start made it to montreal and the riot factory. four of us, eight boats and a bike (!!) on a little adventure!

now that's a load...

first night we hung out in montreal, surfed lachine which was way too high still and partied a bit at a friend's place. next morning we loaded the car again and moved on towards quebec city.
our first stop was the shawinigan slides, just a fun park and bobsled, not too hard but tons of fun! the huge thunderstorm and hailshowers made it a pretty good adventure!

dave pierse

big boats are a blast

the big final slide

running it trainstyle, three magnums grinding

after one night in a cheap-ass motel and a few beer at a local pub the next stop was the tewkesbury section of the jaques cartier river. none of us knew this run, it was above rafting cut-off and the guides we met didn't really wanna run it this high.
apparently the water went up two feet within two hours before we put in. it felt big!

davies in lead, dave chasing him down

there were some big lines. dave pierse tackling one of them

alex

after hours on dirtroads and few right turns too many (thanks alex!) we made it to the neilson, a classic quebec run. 10 km's and countless drop'n pool rapids. we spent six hours on the run, scouted twice and were as exhausted as could be at the very end. great run! fair, technical, and it just keeps going and going. great to practice your boat scouting i guess!
we spent so little time out of our boats and it rained quite a bit, so i only have shots of the very last rapid.

J.T. Hill about to boof

looking back it looks as if we actually got some boating in...
well, flipped my first big raft in coliseum today, gotta have a few beer on that.
of course rafting style. yours truly from owls guide ghetto, sven.

Back in Canada 2008!

2008-05-17T03:40:00.010+01:00

allright!

i don't even know where to start!

i'm back over in canada, three weeks already! i had a great winter in augsburg, hanging out with some of the best people ever. it's been four and a half years in that city, i had such a good time! nevertheless i really wanted to get back for another summer on the ottawa and for the next years wanna keep traveling, see a bit of this world. so here i am, gonna be working for owl and mkc, rafting and instructing and trying to boat as much as i can.
i got a bunch of shiny new gear this summer, so this is gonna be fun!
thanks to kober for the sweetest paddles i've ever owned. scorpion foam core neutral bent, nice!
artistic is keeping me warm and dry while it's still cold on the rivers, riot keeps me floating in style and tatonka is helping me out with some tough bags, jackets and other stuff. thanks so much!

even though things didn't really start out the way i had planned, it still was awesome so far.
i came to canada with tendonitis, and the way i am i didn't really take the time to recover, always went out boating at least one day too early. so in the end i missed out on a few things, creeks were already too low when i finally found the time to head out, i couldn't even go on the roadtrip i had planned. the good thing was that this made me set up my place for the summer real good. i was the first person to show up at owl, had a free choice about where i'm gonna stay and had so much time that i built a house! well not literally, but at least it's wood instead of tarps as walls, i got a proper bed, shelves, a deck... yes!

and i still got out!
i first went to montreal, got my brand spankin new riot boats, astro 58, magnum 80 (that thing is huge!!) and a thunder, ran the super high mulet river with vince normandeau, hung out with fabi and almut (thanks guys!) in montreal, went to chambly just to see tons of divers swimming down the wave (they call it frog day i guess, so no boating there). got my car back, it survived the winter!
i also did quite a bit of boating with stephan "foerster" paetsch who's gonna be back on the ottawa, too, as well as with some of the other riverrun guys. ran the main and middle channel in super high water, got mangled, caught a few sweet surfs and even had to swim after a good beatdown in the lost channel! i went to ottawa, surfed a new, epic and super sketchy wave called "heavy d". imagine garburator on steroids, just huge and fast! not too many surfs on that one, as it was hard to catch and if you miss the eddy it would take half an hour to get back to the wave. big thanks to alex davies for always being in for a mission and erin rayton for some sick photo skills and a lot of patience with us and ten million angry seagulls!
this is one of the few times were i really would've appreciated a jetski, such an annoying eddy...
also been out to the rouge again, hippie canada rules! i love coming back to that place!

anyways, i got a bunch of pictures to share, guess i'll stop babbling now.
throughout the summer i'm gonna try to get quite a few updates up, gonna be writing for the riot blog and will write some travel reports for tatonka (in german). i'm pumped! enjoy the shots!

this is gonna be my summer residence
when i'm coming back it's gonna be all grown in!

stephan "foerster" paetsch styling highwater dragon's tongue, ottawa

river rundomness, wylie and andy are so cool!?

heavy d!
photos: erin rayton

seagulls dig boating... not!
photo: erin rayton

urban kayak: champlain rapids, city of ottawa, facewash
photos: erin rayton

look at alex's grin... creepy!

shoot'em up!

saddler's wave, ottawa
photo: alex davies

alex catching some air!

mr alex davies again. big bus!

ocean surf? big buseater, ottawa!
photo: alex davies

rouge river, sweet session we had!
photos: alex davies

lovin' it!
photo: erin rayton

peace, out

Sven

quartett - new video

2008-03-25T20:10:00.002+01:00

okay, this was our entry to the 11th international kayak filmfestival held in rosenheim this february.
this clip is brought to you by:
ahoishop, bootfahrer, jens klatt and strohmeier bros under the synonym of 3zu1 produktion.
shooting the intro and quartett sequences was just too much fun!
thanks so much to our wonderful actors!
and to all the others mentioned in this video: we love you!

i'll stop babbling now.
please enjoy,
sven

quartett from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

oh, one warning: it's all german!

roemerfall

2008-03-09T12:35:00.011+01:00

last weekend was awesome!

four days and so much happened.

micha scouting

the plan was to leave augsburg saturday morning. unfortunately the weather forecast wasn't the best at all. there was a big storm coming in from the north and its peak was supposed to hit the alps in the early afternoon. so matze, micha and i decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to hit the road in an old VW bus with a bunch of boats on the roof. we'd simply been blown away i guess.

roemerfall, photo micha

so we waited til the peak had passed us, checked the traffic reports (traffic jams everywhere, trees on the autobahn...), waited a bit longer and then finally headed off towards austria.

micha dropping in

the next morning the first river we hit was the brandenberger ache, one of the most beautiful runs in the northern alps. the nice thing about the brandy is that it has everything. small drops, bouldergardens, slides and pushy rapids. i hadn't run it in a while, which made it even more fun.
everybody had good lines and i even ran the "strahl", a rapid i always portaged the last times due to a hole feeding into a mean undercut.

late boof, photo matze

next thing up was kuchl, a really nice wave. the storm had brought lots of rain over night and brought the levels up. kuchl needs to be rather low - too bad that this time it wasn't. even the lower waves were almost flushed out. it still provided some good airtime, but it was so green that it was super hard to stick the moves. nevertheless a nice session just before sunset. exhausted i joined the other guys for a few beers...

matze a bit off line

with the last days being rather cold and stormy sunday came as a surprise, sunshine and temperatures of around 16°C proposed a good time!
a few days earlier i had seen pics of a drop close to kuchl called "roemerfall".
i've been to kuchl almost every year for the past eight years or so and never even heard of this one. and it turned out to be a really sweet drop. it is just above a really old roman bridge in vigaun and drops into a small gorge. the bridge is one of the oldest bridges in that area and still lasts car traffic. the drop itself is half slide half drop, measuring a total of around 8m, so it's pretty nice to practice late boofs. the pool was surprisingly pushy but good to go. we did quite a few runs, i had a bout six i think. for matze it was his biggest drop yet and it was sweet to see him style it on his first try. this was also the only photosession we did that weekend, the rest of the time we were too happy to just cruise down the rivers.
enjoy the shots taken by matze and myself.

slippery i guess, photo matze

after the drop we checked the lammer gorge nearby. i've run it several times, at normal flows it's a super scenic run. a first look from the bridges showed that it was pumping this time! it all seemed good to go so micha and i gave it a shot. lots of the steep walls in there are undercut and it gets so narrow that you don't even want to know how deep you would go if you'd swim. nevertheless it looked more than managable.
to cut things short: it was super fast and fun run, micha got trashed in the very beginning but made it out of that wall to wall hole and i did some unintentional holeriding at the very end of the gorge. lesson learned (again): scouting from far above makes you underestimate difficulties a lot.
again we finished the day off with a few beer and we cut my hair! i've had long hair for nine years now and got a bit bored of always looking the same. so i took some vodka, matze a swiss army knife and micha his camera and we did a bit of a barber session...

the garage and the trusty old vw

the next day temperatures dropped 15°C! it even started snowing.
so we decided not to go boating, went hiking and then headed home. well, at least we tried.
we made about ten km's and then the car broke down. automobileclub, vw bus on truck, next garage, broken part not in stock, one more night in the snow on the garage's parking lot in a pretty boring small village. damn! the next day everything was fine again so off we went.
this time we took twice as long for the ride home as usually due to some annoying traffic in and around munich.

mind the mullet, photo micha

awesome weekend, can't wait to go out again.

sven

getting the shot

2008-02-29T14:16:00.008+01:00

due to the last "warm" days we went out for a photoshoot yesterday.
our crew consisted of daniel krummreich, seppi strohmeier, jens klatt and myself. jens had the idea of taking some shots of the rissbach for the upcoming kanumagazin issue and so off we went.
there have been tons of pics already, but it's really hard to get good shots as the gorge is so narrow that you barely have good light. so jens installed a pretty sick remote flash system to enlight us!

the whole crew

2nd and 3rd drop

the rissbach gorge is a super classic run. there certainly is a bit of a hype about it, the reason being the first and highest drop. it would be the most relaxed boof ever, if it wouldn't be for those nasty undercuts. even at those low flows we ran it at it's quite pushy at the bottom and you definitely don't want to land too far left as you'd probably have a mean encounter with the deep deep undercut that goes all the way behind the drop.
it's one of these simple move - bad consequences drops, but if you can trust your boof it's good to go. you just should be 100% sure that you can do it, cause a swim would be horrible, especially as you can't get out of the gorge once you're in.
then there are two more smaller drops. at higher flows you can simply boof the first to the right, at our level it was a bit more tricky but still okay as it wasn't that pushy. the last ledge is a nice little ramp into a narrow channel, pretty fun.

we ran the whole thing four times, walking back up after every run.
during the AKC-meetings people have run it up to 25 times in one day. they didn't wait for cameras and it was quite warm in fall, but still i wouldn't even try to walk up there that often. respect.

all in all it was a super nice day, sunny weather, still so much ice in the gorge, everybody had sweet lines and i think jens got quite a few sick shots.
so enjoy jens' pics and my video.

wintertime

first drop

seppi sailing into the fridge

daniel lining up for the first one

verry nice, i like!

La Malate!

2007-12-23T11:55:00.001+01:00

saturday, sept 2nd, 4 o´clock in the morning. martin's trying to pick me up, deaddrunk...
well, at least we´re finally on our way. us that is ahoi-riders martin koll, micha schomann and myself. the last three days we were hoping for the water to come back up for la malate on the river doubs in northern france. we constantly checked the gauges and weather forecasts for doubs area. at first it looked as if we wouldn't have too much luck. we already were ready to go throughout the week, but then the levels dropped on us.
so it wasn't until friday evening until some heavy rains brought the already high water back up to perfect levels for the wave. we immediately decided to drive that night, 600 km to go, three guys in a tiny opel corsa, a weekend to spend.
it took some time though til we got there. we were not on the water before 2:30 in the afternoon, spent too much time picking up my astro 58 and trying to avoid the expensive highways in switzerland and austria didn´t help either. oh, and no worries, martin got sober again, he seemed to enjoy a pretty good sleep in the trunk of his car...
nevermind, this wave is one of europe's best, a huge green wave feeding into a massive hole.
at levels of around 500cm³ you kinda have eddy support, but you don´t really wanna go through this hole. so we carry back up after every single one of our rides.
and it´s so worth it!
after getting used to the sheer size of the hole we´re all fired up and everybody tries to push themselves a lot. but i guess pictures can tell a bit more, and how about a video?
also check out ahoishop for some more pics of the other guys.

all pics courtesy of micha schomann, freestylefoto

peace, out
sven

Video Canada 2007

2007-10-19T13:29:00.000+01:00

okay, it's been a while...
the summer´s been crazy, i´ve made many good friends, had a hell of a time on the ottawa and in montreal and the best is: i'll return next summer!
i´m back in germany since october, having a blast hanging out with friends and enjoying the good life. also quite a bit of boating, though it took my astro ages to make it here. guess my idea of sending it through a friend via container wasn´t the best at all.
i´ve edited a clip of my canadian summer, it's already been published on ahoishop, and now i finally got it into the right format and pretty decent resolution for my blog.
enjoy!

peace, out,
sven

Lachine...

2007-09-20T07:16:00.001+01:00

hmm, sunshine, montreal, good waterlevels...
this seemed to become a good morning, and it was.
went out to lachine rapids today for a relaxed surf and had the wave almost for ourselves.
the astro is so at home on these waves...
all pictures by dave pierse and myself. i love this spot!

the waves... the st. laurence is kinda wide.

big joe, the right shoulder launches...

just to give an impression on how wide the river is! spot me...

good night,
sven

Magnum and Rouge!

2007-09-18T18:24:00.000+01:00

yey, i´ve had the magnum out for the first time last week!
i´m super stoked about that boat, pretty much feels as if riot´s built a boat exactly for me...
fast, responsive, everything just fits.
we ran the seven sisters section on the rouge river in quebec at probably around 30cms, nothing too hard, but a fun run!
pictures are not the best as it got dark while we ran the last and steepest section, a sweet gorge with six drops.
enough said for now, gotta get some breakfast and go boating at lachine. enjoy!

first drop in the steep section

going straight into the 2nd

entrance to the third

storing boats downtown montreal, fernando´s lovin it

peace out,
sven

Dumoine River, Quebec!

2007-09-11T15:42:00.001+01:00

hmm, season´s almost done.
two more days at owl rafting and then i´m off to quebec, montreal and hopefully some creeking, too. i´m exited, as i just got a magnum, can´t wait to bring that baby out.
last week we already were out to run the grande chutes of the dumoine river, about 1 1/2 hours away from the ottawa.
this section of the dumoine, which apparently is a really nice touring and canoeing river is usually a pretty long portage. the whole section is about 1 km long and offers some excellent whitewater.
so five of us went to see wether it´s worth it. that is stephan "foerster" paetsch, andy, lachie and wylie from riverrun and myself.
took us close to two hours including filming, pictures and safety to run everything, plus two crashed boats and some minor bruises. unfortunately i didn´t make it to montreal before to get my own creeker so i had to borrow emre´s jefe. did the job, but i can´t wait to be in my own boat!
all pictures are by myself, wylie or lachie, thanks to you guys for some wicked shots.

locky scouting the 2nd big one

foerster running the first slide
the put-in is just above that bridge

lachie in the first slide

this and next shot: me running the 1st slide

foerster entering the crux rapid of this section

this and next shot: me running the must-make boof out of the entrance slide
the landing zone is a little bit shallow...

foerster coming out of the big one

happy foerster, yeah

foerster styling one of the bigger rapids a bit further down the run
a really nice boof into s-turn slide

andy in the same rapid

did i mention that the big one is kinda shallow?
yappa´s boat had to take a beating...

peace, out
sven

summer`s gone?

2007-08-22T16:39:00.000+01:00

not quite, but days are getting shorter again, we´re actually wearing tops again on the ottawa and i finally found some time to update my poor blog.
i bought a new camera last week and had it out on garburator at some really nice levels. it´s probably an hour until i go again and i just can´t wait.
so for those who don´t know about the wave: it´s on just above the infamous buseater wave, which at summerlevels is basically just a pourover. garburator is extremely fast, got some really weird shoulders and it´s definitely a wave to go big on.best levels are probabl around minus 1 1/4 feet on the ottawa gauge, i´ve surfed it from zero to minus 2 1/2. i love it.
my best shots are just video, and i probably won´t make it through with my vid in the next week so it´s just pics now. please enjoy.

oh, and just to make everyone at home a bit jealous, this is how i wake up in the morning and how i go to bed in the evenings. life is good

peace out

Chambly, Richelieu River

2007-06-09T14:33:00.000+01:00

the icebreaker weir above the wave

greetings earthlings,
sunshine, bigwater ottawa, minibus, that´s basically what i would be enjoying right now, except for being sick and unable to go rafting or boating. arrgh!
but i finally found some time to get some pictures off my mp3 that fabi krummreich shot during our stay in montreal.
introducing to you: chambly wave on the richelieu river, about 15 km away from montreal.
detailed descriptions can be found on playak.com. sweet wave without eddy support, but really worth it, especially as lachine rapids were still too high. the wave changes from really foamy to totally glassy, depending on levels. message end.

blunt

pistol

donkey

canada

2007-05-18T19:10:00.001+01:00

Wow!
Finally I found some time to update this little site...
right now i´m sitting somewhere in ottawa in the trunk of my car, using some shops wifi. thank you whoever you are.
the last month has been pretty busy, i think i took like four days off from kayaking within a whole month. now everyone´s gone back to germany and i found some time for myself. while trying to get my hands on my working permit i´ve been camping on some walmart parking lot in ottawa city. now i know what i have to do next and that is to go to the states! right after this update i´ll stuff my boats into my van and go to the rouge and hook up with foerster, then montreal again and then off to boston next week. pretty excited about that, first time i'll see the atlantic from the other side. guess i should take a bath or something.

i don´t want to get in the details too much but here are some pics of my random adventures in eastern canada after the worlds. the event was great, though i didn´t finish too well, sweet to watch everyone tear apart minibus. got no pictures, my cam broke down and i had my rides so early in the morning nobody was awake to shoot pictures. bad luck! thanks a lot to Ansgar Linder, Remi Wegmann, Simon Strohmeier and Stephan "Maus" Haderer for all the other nice shots!
i just can´t remember who shot what and when, so these go without chronological order.

this is how we do it!
my lovely aerostar was absolutely overloaded, it was fun though!
at some times we were six people, all the stuff everybody needed during his stay in canada and seven boats! the weather served us well though, so we could sleep under open skies almost every night.

Lachine!
those rapids are crazy if you don´t know them!
one time i tried to catch a wave above the normal rapids and got stuck in a whirlpool for quite a while, being sucked down sitting in my boat several times. the result was that i missed the usual waves had do a nasty ferry to shore and then walk back up again. it took me an hour!
as the water was to hig we were mostly surfing pyramid wave, which is not too big but steep, green, pretty fast and almost absolutely symmetric. helix. i love the astro!

Upper Petawawa!
these three pics show what this run was all about.
1. ninety kilometers dirt road
2. 1 1/2 hours walking up
3. paddling back down
the day was really worth it, sun, water, some small carnage, playsessions. sweet.
it was actually bigger volume than that pic, this was just some sneaking.

Ottawa!
this will be my home for the next months, though it won´t look anything like this again probably.
moonshine at wilderness. langzeitbelichtung!
and one stoked look on coliseum, main channel with big water.

oh, there were days without sunshine.
rouge river, high water, curler wave just before the take out.
i still hate myself for not having surfed it more often, but we already had one broken paddle and a popped skirt on that river so i was a bit scared.

Gatineau River
we got there with no idea what the run was all about nor where to put in or take out.
we got three words before though: bonnet rouge and isabelle.
it worked out fine, though there was a LOT of flatwater on the run it was pretty funny.
the drop was a small side channel, no pics from the actual run, was nothing spectactular. but it had nice beach at the takeout and the sun was strong enough to enjoy it.
maus and i chilling.
if you ever get there: bonnet rouge and isabelle is all you need to know. oh and perhaps maniwaki...

last but not least: ottawa city.

i´m out, sven

2007-05-18T19:10:00.000+01:00

Wow!
Finally I found some time to update this little site...
right now i´m sitting somewhere in ottawa in the trunk of my car, using some shops wifi. thank you whoever you are.
the last month has been pretty busy, i think i took like four days off from kayaking within a whole month. now everyone´s gone back to germany and i found some time for myself. while trying to get my hands on my working permit i´ve been camping on some walmart parking lot in ottawa city. now i know what i have to do next and that is to go to the states! right after this update i´ll stuff my boats into my van and go to the rouge and hook up with foerster, then montreal again and then off to boston next week. pretty excited about that, first time i'll see the atlantic from the other side. guess i should take a bath or something.

i don´t want to get in the details too much but here are some pics of my random adventures in eastern canada. thanks a lot to Ansgar Linder, Remi Wegmann, Simon Strohmeier and Stephan "Maus" Haderer for those nice shots!
i just can´t remember who shot what and when, so these go without chronological order.

Astro 58!

2007-04-16T02:51:00.000+01:00

we arrived in montreal on friday, facing temperatures of around 3°C.
thought it would be okay, the snow was melting and it seemed to be getting warmer, but now winter is here! this night it started to snow and no end in sight yet.

good news are that it looks the same on the ottawa. ha!
waterlevels seem to be on the low side for this time of the year.
curious how this will affect the worlds.

and i got my new boat on saturday. shiny limegreen Astro 58! thank you riot!
as i mentioned before: i liked the 54, but it was simply too small for me on a wave.
i haven´t had a ride in my 58 yet, but it looks awesome!
riot has widened the hull a bit, raised the bow rocker and took away some of the stern rocker.
the spin disc is further back, so i guess i´ll be more balanced. they also added some volume, of course. actually, without having had a ride in it yet, it seems as if everything that didn´t work for me in the 54 is fixed in the 58. this won´t take anything away from the 54's possibilities, it's simply not my size though.
you can also find a good comparison by steve fisher here.

what is another big change for me is the riot powerseat.
the powerseat is riot's high performance seat option for their freestyle boats.
it´s quite a bit higher than the unity seat, which is the standard outfitting., thus giving you more leverage on your moves.
there are no movable parts on the powerseat. instead of a backband its back is raised and simply covered with foam, which makes the seat stiff, lightweight and probably more aggressive.

thanks to fabi krummreich here are some shots of the new boat, suppose we were not that busy yesterday. we shot indoor, so the pics might be a bit on the dark side...

as soon as i can i'll post a report about the astro's performance as well.

la scie!

2007-04-03T13:52:00.000+01:00

i just got an email from Fabian Krummreich containing those sweet shots of me and the Astro enjoying one awesome wave. thank you!
these are pictures from the same trip and same river as in the last update, but a different wave.

la Scie is another good highwater wave on the doubs in france, running when la malate is too high. it´s big, smooth, fast and fair with a good eddyline access.

we were there the first day of our trip and left to malate when it got too low. unfortunately the best levels were at night, so that we had just a bit too much foam for the wave to be at it´s best.

shortly before the wave greens out it gets super green and steep and we missed that level. nevertheless it was big fun and the hole behind the green shoulder turned out to be a perfect spot for some nice beatdowns as well.

doubs!

2007-03-31T13:00:00.000+01:00

i just got an email from simon strohmeier with pictures from la malate. thanks man!

la malate is a small village at the doubs in northern france and inhabits one of the biggest waves in europe. unfortunatel it only runs a few days a year as it needs quite a lot of water.

we hit a perfect level a while ago where it was an awesome green wave next to an enormous hole.
it was scary as hell, i had never dealt with holes of this size. but once you got used to it you could catch some serious amount of air. i´m still stoked when i look at those pictures. enjoy.

the winter is gone...

2007-03-08T13:17:00.000+01:00

okay, i have to admit that this site wasn´t so busy in the last months. it was wintertime here in germany, and though it was warmer than average there still was no water.

we did some boating, but it was only on the eiskanal, augsburg or eisbach, munich, nothing worth writing about.
and even now no picture updates, but soon, very soon..

nevertheless we competed in the 10th International Filmfestival in Rosenheim and placed 2nd in the newcomer class with our movie "besessen". i´m still pretty proud of that. maybe our clip will be published on Jens Klatt´s new Painkillerz movie, we´ll see.

i´ve also completed two new sponsorships for 2007.
i liked my robson kit last year, but it was not totally what i wanted. thank you robert for supporting me throughout the last year though!

so from canada on i´ll be with riot kayaks and i´ve already recieved my shiny kober paddle.
thanx to arnd schäftlein and thomas funke for that!
i´ve had arnd´s astro 54 for a while now and really like it, even though i think i´m just a bit too big for it. i´m really looking forward to test the astro 58 and the flair 57 in montréal, this will be so much fun!
from kober i´ve chosen the spirit, which is a rather classic shape. it´s really stiff and the blades are big, sweet paddle with lots of power. and i got a prototype colour - from the outside it´s silver, but as soon as light shines through it turns orange! this is a straight shaft right now, but i´ll get one with a bent shaft soon.
artistic still supports us, they´ve redesigned many products such as drytops, drysuits and pfds for 2007. we´ve had a few prototypes last year and the new material is awesome.

now back to kayaking!
as i said, the winter seems to be gone. i just returned from france where we had five days on some of europes biggest waves, la scie and la malate. actually i was really scared by the sheer power of those monsters. Nevertheless it was some of the best wave riding and biggest air i´ve ever had. i´ll post some pictures as soon as i get them. The ones in this update are just two impressions of our tour, i didn´t take any action shots, that was simon´s job...

later,
sven

kuchl, upper wave

2006-12-03T18:00:00.000+01:00

morning view

pic: micha schomann

we´ve been to kuchl, austria last weekend. in the last years there would´ve been snow in this area now, water levels been way too low and you would have thought about anything else than kayaking.
this year we were lucky though.
i hooked up with hannes kaiser to spend the weekend in kuchl. when we got there, the salzach was still too low for the standard waves to be in, so we spent our time on the upper wave, recently referred to as "minus one".
this wave is not too big, it´s got a sweet pile and a nice shoulder on surfer´s left.
but damn is it fun!
the sun was shining, it was even pretty warm that day, many boaters hanging around.

hannes carving

pic: micha schomann

in the afternoon the original kuchl wave, "number one", came it, which is way bigger and can send you quite high if you get it right. but it was getting cold and dark now, so we left after a few runs on that one.

sven

pic: micha schomann

we met with micha schomann, who already was in that area for a whole week with his girlfriend, stayed at their place, visited an austrian church choir (!?), drank some vine and had good fun that evening.

watch my eyes, too tired?

pic: micha schomann

next day, same procedure. "minus one" in perfect sunshine first, then later "number one" without any sun in the valley. micha was keen to shoot pictures that day and all i can say is: it was really worth it. thank you.
watch out for micha, soon he´ll be online with his very own website all around freestyle photography.

back pan am

pic: micha schomann

unfortunately, the sun was too low to shoot pictures of number one. whatever.
all shots in this post are taken on the upper wave. did i say it´s sweet? it is.

i love that shot. sidekick.

pic: micha schomann

blunt

pic: micha schomann

hannes and i in our winter gear

pic: micha schomann

the class of 2006

2006-11-13T16:17:00.000+01:00

this is a clip originally edited for the pinkbunny4 movie we´ve shot throughout the last year. pb is a project of me and my friends, including skateboarding, bmx, mountainbike, kayak and lots of trash.

i´ve edited two kayak parts this year for pb, one of which you now can see. the first half shows some creeking on corsica, the second half is all about freestyle in augsburg, germany and the alps.

the clip is dedicated to georg marburg, who died last year in an accident. he was an outstanding person, a great friend and a dedicated boater. he will never be forgotten!

paddlers are:
micha, krischn, paolo, fabi, ansgar, sven

last two weekends: wrapup

2006-10-24T14:32:00.000+01:00

i just got some pictures from simon strohmeier.
the last two weekends we spent in the ötz valley and in südtirol, running kühtrain and heiligkreuz gorges on the ötz as well as the passer gorge.
it was quite intimidating but a good experience. all of the guys i was running those rapids with made me feel safe as they really knew how to tackle the harder stuff.
i really love running whitewater in my sportster, this boat gives me the confidence i need.
guess i gotta do some more riverrunning. just too much fun and too little practice.
enough said, the pics will speak for themselves, thanx to simon...

1st try passer, too high, we hiked out.
pic simon strohmeier

daniel running kühtrain gorge
pic simon strohmeier

me running kühtrain. guess daniel didn´t
like that drop. pic simon strohmeier

perfect line. stöckel. heiligkreuz. pic simon

me on the same drop. pic simon

bootfahrer is online

2006-10-24T12:05:00.000+01:00

hi everyone,

bootfahrer is on! this site is mainly about me, sven perschmann, and my friends´ boating experiences. i´ll try to update as often as i can, there will be videos, pictures and trip reports as well as some updates on my gear. of course this takes some time, and now the 2006 kayaking season is almost finished, so it will be hard to find stuff for the winter, but we´ll see.
i hope you´ll all enjoy this page and if you don´t just shut up and do it better.

later, sven

btw.: bootfahrer, though situated in germany and dealing mostly with german visitors and content is written in english, as i´m an student of the english language and got to practice my writing.