September 2003

For the ones who don't know the spot. It's a little barrage on the Ourthe situated at the paddling club Mava in Sauheid, that's upstream from Angleur. It's a nice little cartwheel hole at low water, so a summer play hole. Let's say when the gauge on the Ourthe in Angleur is below 40m3. In winter at high water it becomes a flushy turbulent 'kind of wave, no good for playboating.

(Pictures above at about 31.4m3, March 2003)

As you can see on the pics, some parts of the barrage (le déversoir) next to the hole flushed januari 2003. This had to be repaired or the whole dam might come down. (Would have given a nice wave :-) )

(Right picture at about 53.7m3, March 2003)

(Left picture at about 53.7m3, March 2003)

When construction works started the local paddling club asked the constructor to add some features to the slalom course.

So the water was lowered and a crane came in. The holes in the barrage were repaired. Four concrete islands were added, 2 new ones, 2 existing reinforced with concrete. In between the islands the river bad has been excavated, so it's deeper. Slalom boats should be able to turn slicing the back of the boat deep under.

And they 've thrown some rocks in the hole where the freestyle kayaking is done.

Due to the rocks thrown into the hole it has become less deep, still deep enough to cartwheel short boats. The feature seems to be around 1m50 deep and you seldom hit the bottom. Maybe some rocks stick out a bit higher.
(Left picture at about 10m3, September 2003)

It used to be a playspot where longer boats had more stability and were easier to cartwheel, playboats up to 2m40.

If you wanna go for a swim after a afternoon paddle, jumping from the side into the hole as a swimmer, might be a bad idea, unless you wanna crush your feet and legs.

(Right picture at about 10m3, September 7th 2003)