Extreme Sport Week

I Just spent a week in Norway, at the Extremsport Veko (Extreme Sport Week for those not used to speaking Germanic languages).

The event, simply put, was awesome. Sky Diving, Base Jumping, Paragliding and Hang Gliding, Mountain climbing, street Longboarding, Skiing, Snowboarding, Kite Boarding, and even a small look at River Surfing.

Without a doubt, the two sports that most captured the imagination of the public was Kayaking and Base Jumping, not that the other sports were not awesome to watch, but showing these two at the tent (day tapes of the daily events) were the big pullers.

That... the the boose. Boy, I have never seen so many drunk people before.... if you have your eye on a girl, you needd to close the deal before 10pm, because after that she's too drunk to stand (you don;t know if they are going to kiss you, or throw up on you as was so elegently pointed out to me). But, then again we weren't there for the girls now were we....

The kayaking was, simply put... cold, and extreme. How extreme? Well, top paddlers like Alan Ellard and Raphiel Thilbult swam, and more than once. In fact, at the traditional "bootie drinking" party that night, 12 souls had to humiliate themselves on national TV, drinking boose from raft company booties. In the End, the downriver race was won by Mike Abbot, a well deserved win. he trained hard, knows the course backwards, and is a strong paddler. Some of us (ahem... cough cough, errr...) were too busy complaining about the cold to practice and only ran the course one time - race run. Not condusive to winning. but hey... at least I didn't swim!!! David Arnaud raced into third place with a black eye (another casualty of the course), and morton, a true Viking, 2nd place (unharmed). Marianne Saether just barely escaped a swim (then only woman not to swim the course) taking first place.

The rodeo was awesome. Milky Wave was in (not fantastic, but in), and we had a totally new judging system.The competitors were the judges. All watch the event, and then voted for the person they thought was the best. it was called a Soul Surf Session, rather than a rodeo. kai Arne took the even easilly, with twice the votes of David Arnaud who was 2nd. paul Lindseth, Tyler Curtis and I tied for 3rd, and since Paul and i were the "executive decision makers" in the event of a problem, we gave it to Tyler... because... well because... well... why not? He's cool and he ripped! I would like to point out that Marianne schooled most of us, winning the ladies catagory!!!

On to the Head to head race. This time I ran the course once, learning from my mistake on the downriver race. First runs, I won, and ended up in a heat with David Arnaud. Not again!!!! There was the safe line and then the dagerous line that was faster. Out the top of the course I was ahead, and passing is almost impossible, so in my mind I had it wrapped up. VICTORY WAS MINE! So I took the safer line - no sense toying with a swim. Oopos...Not!!! David goes risky, sneaking a line that feeds into a hole that had several people swimming already that day, and came out the chute half a boat length ahead of me.

We fought tooth and nail all the way down the course, but I never managed to pass him again, and I tried every trick in the book, including ramming and fishtailing him. I tried to even get him DQ'd on the grounds that he's French!!

So, I was out, and David goes to finals, where he ends up behind Raphiel, and tries the sneaky line again. But this time.... ha ha ha... into the hole he goes. I waited.... will he swim... will he drink bootie juice....

No. Bugger. he made it out. Lost the race, but he got out the hole.

Back to the tent, parties, drinking and celebrating.

I met some super cool people... lots of rad paddlers, and even more mad sportsmen of all kinds.

Thanks a lot to Voss kayak club for inviting me, and for supplying these photo's, and to Salamon, Bula, Olden, Fri Flyt and URBRT for putting on the most amazing week ever!

Of course, the week wasn't without its problems.

Yes... Airline issues Ahh, KLM!

They bumped me off my flight from Milan to Amsterdam, putting me onto an Al Italia flight. KLM flies boards under 170cm for free... Al Italia does not. I tried to explain to both KLM and Al Italia that Al italias policy was not my problem because I had booked KLM. Nothing doing.... neither of them were interested, and I end up paying 50 euro to check my board and paddle. Ok... whatever.

I arrive in Bergen, and no bags.What? Yup, they went from Amsterdam to Madrid. Madrid?? So I file a lost baggage claim. I need this stuff tomorrow - big competition etc etc.... Tomorrow arrives. Bags are in Barcelona. Barcelona??? But I'm in Bergen, Norway. New claim. Call back the next day. bags (board etc) is in Bogota, Colombia.

I was dumbfounded. How on earth could an airline mess it up this badly. Ah, but it gets better...

They lost them. No one in Bogota has seen a surfboard. bright red. A week passes, and i get a call the night before I leave. Your bags are here in bergen, Sir. Excellent, keep them there, I leave in the morning. My trips is now already over, and I was unable to surf, or use my sponsors equipment.

But wait. there's more. The board is totally destroyed. Not a little muched up. Destroyed. This isn;t some fibreglass board now, its a plastic board. You just can;t break them, but somehow KLM managed to loose it for a week, and then totally destroy it.

But wait... ther's more.

I check in back to Milan, arrive in milan, and guess what... yup. they've lost my bags again. Two days have gone by, and still no bags. No one from KLM knows where they are, and no one is willing to do anything but say "We're terribly sorry, Sir."

Whatever you do, don't fly KLM!!!

Left; Doing the first presentation of the Pororoca Trip to Brazil

Below: Kiteboarding... One of Norway's top Kite Boarders, Anette Hyttemoen who was there with a cool group of boarders (right in pink below)

Superstar, Espen Johnson absolutely tore up the Mountain biking segment of the extreme week.

Kenneth Lillemoen Was on fire in the skiing catagory for sure!