Tripreport 21 May ’99

Rodeoyaking in Flanders ?

I ‘been surfing last night, friday night. Far out ! Checked out some weirs near my home. And I live in Flanders (Belgium), a flat country. And when I mean F L A T, it’s flat, flat as in the highest point in a 10 km area is my attic, maybe the church is higher. It probably is. The nearest white water is 150 km’s away, the Ardennes, and has only water in winter.

So a couple of months ago, when I got into rodeoyakking, I went looking at a little river less then 20 km from my place. It runs through a country that is a little bit less flat my hometown. There ‘re some hills up to 20, 30 m high, woooowww. And there in the valley is a small but beautiful river. Beautiful what concerns walking and cycling along, if it concerns paddling, it is more an open sewer.

This little river is about 4 to 6 m wide, curls and swirls through the valley and it has 5 weirs. All the weirs are situated at old mills and they have an old part, the mill, and a new part, an automatically steered weir.

A couple of months ago, early spring, there was a lot of water. The automatic weirs were very dangerous, because of heavy suckback, ‘rappel’. Some of the old weirs must have been nice rodeospots … if you hold in mind the flat country. But I wasn’t up to get in them, being a rookie. I also wasn’t sure one could do any moves in them. But now, some months later, I was out to show Flanders a new sport, rodeoyakking.

So I went out there, solo, and I knew that the water was going to be low, but when I arrived there was no water, the first weir was closed. The day before it had rained, but before that it had been dry for a week. So I went on looking at the second weir. That was ok, water, but not much.

In this old mill the water runs between two brick walls, 2m apart, and then drops 40 cm. Normally one should be able to do enders here, and if one can do enders, a lot of other moves should be possible. But there isn’t enough water to lift the boot. Even after I had made the exit of the water narrower, there still wasn’t enough power.

It’s getting late and dark, so disappointed I return home. But when I pass by the first weir I see it had been turned open. Downstream the old mill is a nice v-shape wave, 3 m wide, 30 cm high, woooowwww, and a nice stopper. In the meanwhile it 's pretty dark, but the old mill is a small restaurant. And as a tourist attraction, they have illuminated the weir with a couple of 100watt spots. So after a little hesitation, I decided to go surfing.

Far out ! ! ! Smooth wave, going steady, … Surfing, in Flanders, by night, who would ever have imagined it. I know it isn’t the rabious’, but every beginning surfer could learn something here.

In the wave it is very shallow so you can’t correct much using your paddle. It all has to come from the body and the hips. Staying on the wave means sitting up right. Abruptly leaning towards the back, the front, left or right makes you leave the wave. Just sit up right, control the boat, and then gently move your hips. This makes you go anywhere you wane go.

So after a while, without paddle, wow, not difficult, although I didn’t stay as long on it.

Next up flat spin. I enter the wave, surf to left, gently lean backwards, so that I go up the v-shape as left as possible against the brick wall. And then when the time is right (whenever?), I turn abruptly right and make the boat go ‘round. This is probably not the proper manner but who cares … My 2m40 long boat (vertigo), just fits between the brick walls, so I can do a 180°. I’m now surfing backwards and I can’t see what I ‘m doing. I can’t see whether I low or high on the wave, all I can do is lean to the front of the boat and that isn’t what keeps me on the wave. So of I go, no 360°. I try several times, sometimes I succeed to backsurf for a while but I can’t control it. I can’t anticipate on what happens as can’t see it. After a while the water level drops, and the V-shape turns into a more line-shape perpendicular on the flow. There is less wave and more stopper, and now I succeed in making real, crazy, far out, flat spins, … on a 30cm high wave. But at least I don’t have to do a 200-km-drive.

Remember I ‘m just a beginner (back in may '99), all this shit I declare here, is just my experience, it isn’t the Bible !

In the meanwhile, I didn’t realize that a crowd had gathered around, looking very surprised to see some crazy guy, in a crazy little thing, doing all kinds of stuff, in filthy water, almost reaching midnight. But they probably were to drunk to realize it. They certainly were amused.

So when I got out, I ‘d put on the radio. Some nice Californian surfing tunes were up, beachmusic by night in some little town between the peasants, the cows, the mud and some drunk tourists. ‘Couldn’t be more my thing, although the beachmusic ‘s good for half an our.
Fortunately it changed during the drive home into some real, nice, smooth, Belgian HARDCORE.

See you all,

Birdy

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