"After a long, long plain flight and some complications with my baggage (don’t fly Air Canada) I made it all the way from sunny Australia to snowing frozen Canada. I have been dreaming of getting to Canada for the past couple of years and I’m so excited to finally be here.
When I left Australia it was a pleasant 28 degrees, for my first week in Canada the high was 1 degree and I couldn’t set up my tent for a couple of days due to all the snow on the ground.
 - Urban campground on arrival.
2 hours sleep in 40 hours can stop some people but at 12 o’clock at night I and my good friend and photographer Erin Rayton were trudging through snow scouting some inner Ottawa city drops and waves.
After a few days of cold weather and snow, a carload of kayak4play athletes drove up to the Ottawa River to brave the frozen eddys/ ice bergs and get some boating done. Australian junior James Rowlinson is impressing the professionals in a big way, making difficult moves look easy, not to mention tearing up the Champlain waves at the Level 6 Cup and coming home with a new H20 paddle for first place. (Not bad for a Penrith boy) The levels on the Ottawa have been at less than ideal levels as the dams upstream are holding back water for the competition. There are still large amounts of play on the Ottawa River which is not very good training for Bus Eater. For Bus Eater to be on, the levels need to be between 14 and 18 but today we are running at 8 feet.
 - Champlain.
Paddlers have been on missions all around the area in search for big waves, I have spent many hours training on the Petawawa and there have been countless trips to Montreal, also trips to the Rouge and many more play spots.
 - LC at work.
People from all over the world have trooped in and are now either doing some real training or real partying. Names that I’m hoping will do well from what I have seen are on the river are:
Mens: Anthony Yapp, Peter Csonka, Nick Troutman.
Ladies: Tanya Faux, Ruth Gorden.
(I don’t like paddling with these girls because they blow me out of the water session after session.)
Jnr Women: Nouria Newmann, a young, always smiling Teva athlete from France.
Jnr Men: Deuce Fahran, Micah Lyall. The Canadian locals are going to rip it up on Bus Eater, as they will be the only paddlers with experience on the wave, we have one day of training on Bus Eater if water levels permit which will give each competitor a total of 4 rides on the wave if they are lucky and from what I have heard the tow rope is quite difficult to use.
 - Oz squad HQ.
Tonight is the opening ceremony and I expect the party’s only to get even more savage. In the past couple of nights there have been people passed out, many clothes missing, (Including Steve Fisher losing one leg of his pants last night).
More updates to come from the rest of worlds and from my journeys.
Until then, take ‘er easy ….. Lachie".
(PS, all photos LC apart from Champlain taken by Erin Rayton).  - Training but for what .....
Hey guys, just thought I would give you all a little update of what I have been up to lately.
I arrived in Canada about 6 weeks ago to compete in the world champs in April-May, since then I have been boating on the Ottawa with a bunch of the local boys that I met in Oz a couple of years ago, Lachie an I have been working hard shooting footage and getting some really sweet photos, we settled in at Ottawa with a place to stay, food to eat and some work to make money.
However after talking with the B.C boys about epic water levels out west, we decided that was the place to go if we were to get the footage we need.
So I took the 50+ hour drive across the country to join the B.C boys on their epic trip to find the next best place to boat. Due to the huge snow fall B.C had this year and the early hot days, the snow is falling from the tall peaks into the many streams of B.C, so far we have scouted many big rivers, huge steep canyoned creeks and a few first descent waterfalls.
We are currently in the progress of putting together a part for the popular local production group Small Town Boys.
So here I am sitting at a computer in the beautiful B.C planning our trip, it’s very exciting scouting across totally remote bear infested B.C forests, scaling up huge mountain sides to scout log choked creeks and high volumed un-scoutable runs, with only one thought in our minds, could there be a 25’ wave around the corner.
We are all pretty fired up about the trip as every one keeps saying the same thing "No-one has seen water levels this high in B.C!!!”
I will keep in contact with you guys and hopefully I will be able to get some photos and footage to you soon, it is super hard at the moment as I am only on dial up here but as soon as I get to a high speed connection I will get them through to you asap.... Take it easy.... Rusty |
