| SUP Valleyfield...

Et hop une autre vidéo de SUP a Valleyfield, beaucoup de premières pour l'équipe, tout le monde a au moins essayé la partie supérieure du parc (la plus difficile), c'était la 1ère fois aussi que je réussissais à la passer entièrement et a surfer la petite vague dans la section moyenne. Nhu progresse de plus en plus et elle va bientôt réussir à surfer avec moi! Cet été est décidement le plus beau depuis mon arrivée au Québec, on en profite un max avant le retour du froid :)

| Jumana Dolphin 2016...

This week i met with Santiago from KLDN for a field test of the Jumana Dolphin. It is the whitewater specific model from Jumana that i've designed and been intensely testing for about a month. It has changed a lot since the early prototype we received in the Fall of 2015 and it's a real fun board to ride.

We ran down the river from the middle section to the bottom of the park and surfed a few times (or tried to), this is still the pre-production model and i have a few tiny things to adjust before the release of the 2016 model. However despite those minor tweaks i am very proud of that board, stable yet nimble, predictable and pretty well balanced, the diamond shaped design came out nicely, the grip is phenomenal and i enjoy the addition of the stomp pad for surfing. So far we have only heard positive comments about it so it should be a good seller.

By the way as a follow-up of my long time wetsuit testing, i can say that i really love my Rip Curl Flashbomb 5.5/4, so warm and stretchy that it helped me ride through the Canadian winter with maximum efficiency and fun.

#whitewatersup #supsurfing #supwwqc

| Riviere St-Charles...

Hier j'etais a Valleyfield pour une bonne session de SUP d'eau-vive avec Martine de JuMana Boards, Mat et Andrew (qui a fait le detour d'Ottawa quand meme). Une journee magnifique malgre l'annonce d'orages par Meteomedia :)

On a meme eu la chance de voir les loutres locales descendre les rapides avec une aisance incroyable, comme pour nous narguer, c'etait cute et amusant et ca prouve a quel point cette riviere est propre!

La vague etait relativement facile a surfer cette fois...

#supwwqc #SUPwhitewater #supriver

| Alone in Valleyfield...

I thought there would be more people but today i found an empty park on the Saint-Charles River, enough to hesitate but it's a long ride to come here and i couldn't miss a chance to paddle. The water is really cold, the flow was high and it's SNOWING again, perfect time right???

I knew i wouldn't stay too long so i chose to try the G-Rocker over the Stream to get a good idea of its performance on fast moving waters. Surfing will wait a little.

WoOow, it is so small it's scary, it's super nimble and quite unstable under my weight, but you gotta get used to it, can't wait to go on a standing wave now! The board is light with only 5" in thickness and the short tri-fins don't really help tracking running down river, although it turns and responds super fast to any strokes which is a good feeling. I love it!
Evidently i bailed a few times and tasted the icy stream but who cares when you are having so much fun :) 

| Riviere St-Charles, Trip #01

Not long ago we went to the whitewater park on the St-Charles river in Valleyfield. It's a surprising place, stucked between 2 old factory/brick buildings with a post-apocalyptic and peaceful atmosphere. The water comes from the lake above and is really well regulated, it is maintained by a local kayak organization that i encourage to support > the CEEVV. The place is beautiful, it feels very intimate and has safe crystal clear waters, despite being small it has a lot of gates, strong streams and challenging obstacles, enough for us SUP-WW noobs. Here is a little edit of that last session, watch it in HD, enjoy!

J'ai trop hate d'y retourner l'ete prochain, surtout dans les zones plus difficiles :) c'etait egalement l'occasion de publier cette video pour l'ouverture de la page Facebook SUPWWQC/SUPEVQC dont le but est de rassembler/partager toutes les informations possibles a propos de la planche-a-pagaie en eaux-vives au Quebec.