It was that time of year again!  When kayakers gather from all over Norway and Europe to party and paddle in the Riksanlegget Kayak Camp besides the Sjoa River in central Norway. This year saw the comeback of the mighty Ula race, all sorts of fun and games with rafts and a gruelling multi-sport race for the keen!

liz and I arrived on Wednesday afternoon to be accosted by Pete Vikers and a miss-fit raft race team.  The promise of fine whisky convinced us join a race in the slowest river craft known to man, and try to make it go fast!  This ended up being an entertaining event with semi serious teams of rafts guides and groupies.  Amazingly we ended up in second place, which considering most of us were not full time rafters was pretty good!

This year the Sjoa Festival had all sorts going on in an attempt by the organizers to make it the 'best ever' - You can see more of what went on here or here. As you can see it appears there were actually 2 festivals going on at the same time, with almost the same name, slightly confusing, but all good fun.  We were there for the kayaking and to party!   Wednesday night was the party of all parties, the Pimp and Hoe extravaganza.  This is basically a good excuse for everyone to dress us as dirty as possible and show their true selves!

Thursday was the day for going as fast as possible down the Aamodt gorge in the time trial for the Sweet Rumble BoaterX.  Out of 30 or so guys only 16 would qualify for the head-to-head knock out on the Saturday!  In theroy the faster you go in the time-trail, the easier your boaterX heats should be, but in reality the BoaterX is all about the last eddy and how you catch it.  After many furious paddle strokes the top 16 guys included many of the usual names.  The girls in fact, did not need a time trial to qualify, but they raced for placings and the challenge of survibing with such thick heads from the Pimp and Hoe party the previous night!

Friday saw the comeback of the mighty Ula Xtreme Race in the national park of Randane.  This is another of Norways most classic rivers, with pristine water and silky smooth slides!  The race is about a minute 45 of pure downhill, a few rapids, 2 sweet slides and a waterfall to finish with a bang! With many usual suspects in the the line-up making the final cut was going to be hard!  In the end the highly toned local Martin Vollen took the title and 10,000 kroner in a race he has be training for for about 10 years.

On Saturday there was plenty of time to explore one of the local rivers before firing it up for the Sweet Rumble BoaterX! This year was as tough as ever to make the cut in the time trial with the final 16 being separated by only a few seconds!  With only 3 rounds for the guys and 2 for girls, the event was on fire, clash and smash, battle to the end!  Its not over till you know what, and many a race ended in a completely different order to how the boater reached the last rapid!  It doesn't matter how fast you are off the start line, how much of a lead you have down the gorge, if you don't catch the last eddy tight you ain't gonna win!  In the finals this year again, Andy Phillips entered the last rapid in the lead, but a slight glitch in the matrix and he fluffed the eddy allowing Morten Eilertsen to slip into a well earned first place! To girls provided similar similar entertainment with the odd swim and missed eddy here and there, Monica Gokey taking the cash!

Overall this was a great event week, we just tasted a little of all the action going on and I am sure there are plenty of other stories from different perspectives!  Thanks to the organisers and see you all next time!

For more images go here!