Playboating on the Erft in Grevenbroich (G)

20-10-2002

No water in the Ardennes and we were looking for a Sunday paddle. Mava should be good but it's getting pretty cold. So why not check out the warm water of the Erft. Ok, it's a 260 km ride, that is far ... and after a couple of traffic jams and diversions we really found out how far...**é&é"'!§à. But once there it was ok.

15bert_loop.jpg (230383 bytes)

First we stopped and paddled near Neuss-Norf, Gnadental , that's the little hole, fun, but pretty shallow. There we met Malte and the three of us, Steven and me, went to Grevenbroich.
The first thing we noticed was that the water was even warmer there, yeehaa. The second was that the hole was still as powerful as last year.

 
 
16bert_loop.jpg (238137 bytes)

So we had a good paddle, watching Malte linking ends, Steven doing as good. Then the two started bowstalling, both as good except that Malte threw in a flatwater loop in his Disco, yeeehaaaa.
The hole is not my favorite, to crunchy, the best I did was linking three wheels. Once we saw Malte taking of doing aerial loops in the hole, we couldn't resist having a try ourselves, but naaah, came close, never succeeded.
 
16bert_loop.jpg (238137 bytes) And finally when we were tired and Malte even gone ... we took out the cam, just to let you get a smell of the action. Steven and Malte had some nice rides, but we screwed up those pics. My rides really sucked, but if you put all the pics of the loop together, it sure looks almost good.
 

So here's my version of the loop ... or at least what I'm trying to do.

The Loop

- Pic 1 & 2 show the approach, straight on, bending forward to dip your nose.

- Once you're down you choose a side, put that blade flat on the water, once the boat is popping up, you push as hard as you can on the blade (but keep the boat straight) and elevate your head and body as high as you can out of the water, that's pic 3.
(The pushing on the blade is optional, but you really wanna make the boat go as high as possible out of the water.)

 - At the highest point you throw everything down, pic 4.
 
- Then comes another important part, once you're throwing everything down and you're down under, pic 5, you can't just wait for something to happen. (That's what I usually do...)
No, once down you should stretch again, throwing you legs forward and your body against your back deck, pushing the boat up and over.
 

Only after you've done this last stretch, you can wait for the light to appear, stabilize your boat and you 're all the way free for another take off.

Of course all these steps must be done very fast and fluently.

And as you can see, I didn't make it :-(
 
But who cares, keep wheeling !
 
(Clinic? Shouldn't I be tilting my boat, in stead of leaning over side ways, putting my weight next to the boat over the water and on the blade...yeeh.)
 
Steven wavewheeling down ... 33stev_wavewheel.jpg (261483 bytes)
 
Smilewheeling...

 

And finally steven playing with the camera...djzee
 
Birdy

back to base !