Words: Bartosz Czauderna
Bartosz is the owner and coach of ‘Love It Live It’ More info at: https://loveitliveit.co.uk
E: bartosz@loveitliveit.co.uk
T: (+48) 695 137 302
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The perfect winter whitewater grounds of Galicia
Every time the summer ends, we start to look for the best destinations to spend our split season kayaking in destinations that will let us spend the most time in our boats with welcoming warm weather. In autumn, we go to the Zambezi, then we hit Uganda and well, either you can stay longer in Uganda or wait for the first snow melts to give you enough water in rivers in Europe.
After returning from Uganda, I ran away to Portugal to get some very early season creeking around February. Still, it wasn’t easy to catch the water window, and we got it only in two out of the four years. Also, despite it being amazing, there was something that was missing.
Galicia and Portugal
This year we have picked the border between Galicia and Portugal as our headquarters and went for a month to be sure to hit good water levels. This is the place where the Frieira wave is located, and the Euro Cup was held in 2007, which was the first international event that I took part in.
This year it was challenging due to all the Covid restrictions. Before flying in, we already knew that Portugal would be closed for us, which meant spending time exploring Galician rivers. Originally we planned to go there with the polish crew, heading out there for training and remote work, but then we invited Quim, who assembled his team as well, and we all occupied Galician Progression House.
Quim Fontane
Quim with crew managed to come even earlier, enjoying this year’s impressive significant amount of rainfall and spent the first weeks creeking as there was too much water for the wave to work. When we got there, the rivers were still running at high flows, so led by others, we explored the rivers that others had as their home runs already. These included Deva, Deza and Tea. All around an hour away from our base, adding later rivers of Arnoia, Miño, Ulla and Cabe. A great surprise was meeting with Marlene and Nico from France, who were on a similar mission as us – working and training on Deza. I
All the rivers were tremendous, and despite our crew was spread in the level of difficulty that we were after – everybody has found something for themselves. Ranging from beautiful class III runs to challenging class V rivers – Galicia had it all waiting for us! I was honestly amazed by the quality of the rivers, which was similar to Portugal and logistics, which turned out to be very easy and quick compared to the neighbouring country.
However, after few days had passed, the wave started coming in with water dropping to expected flows, and as soon as it was in, our lust for Freestyle and wave shredding took over! The wave at first was a bit flushy, but as soon as it dropped to more normal levels, it was a great smooth wave with a beautiful right shoulder for setups. It was relatively flat and not as big as we had expected, but it allowed us to throw all range of tricks and get all air that we had asked for!
We had a blast surfing there for nearly a month. A good side was having an easy put in and take out close to our home. Catching the wave was easy but making a top eddy after that was a real challenge of the day. Missing it meant going a bit downstream, which led to a goat style hike on boulders on the side. At first, it didn’t seem very easy, but then you get used to it, and it was just a short walk once you knew all paths.
Despite catching the first eddy, making it back on the wave from it was still a trick that required patience, skill and a bit of luck for the right surge! It was often easier to hop out of the boat to drop from the top. All in all, it was an excellent motivation to stay on the wave longer and enjoy the surfs and tricks. Even for those among us who were learning to surf the wave for the first time, it delivered great fun and experience!
For those that were already into big tricks, well, it was a great month of fun and surfing, pushing the progress every day. By the end of our stay, water started dropping. Wave at first began occasionally changing into a nice but challenging hole and then vanishing on the last days, but all in all, we had nearly a month of surfing at prime levels! After enjoying our time living at the fantastic wave, tasting local cuisine including seafood, jamon, Spanish cheeses and even lamprey – we are already dreaming and making our plans to come back there for the next year and surf the A Frieira wave!
