By Valentin Illichmann
Photos: Franck Debaecker

It’s mid-May, Valentin Illichmann and I are standing in the ski village of Obergurgl in Austria. Valentin’s Volkswagen Passat is crammed with stand up paddling boards, paddles and snowboards and together with Kai Steimer, we are on our way to the Outdoor Mix Festival, a heady mixture of extreme sports and live music (www.outdoormixfestival.com/en/).

WW SUP in the French Alps

Embrun, the venue of the festival, is a cozy mountain village in southern France and the place for Whitewater adventures in the French Alps. On our way to Embrun we pass the winter sports area of Obergurgl, where the night before, fell one metre of fresh snow, which we want to take advantage of again. So Obergurgl, here we come.

Snowboarding makes you happy but also tired. We still have a few miles ahead of us, so back up the highway. Unfortunately, the road, over which we wanted to continue to Italy, is still blocked. With the plan to be at the destination tomorrow morning, we quickly search for another route and then find ourselves seven hours later at a service area shortly after Milan again. “Just get up tomorrow, then we’ll arrive on time!” Says Valentin. We have an appointment, with a camera team that will accompany us during the multi-day whitewater trip and Outdoor Mix Festival.

The next morning we finally pass the Italian-French border. I’m still completely knackered from yesterday’s snowboarding and take a little nap in the passenger seat while Valentin drives. When I wake up, I cannot believe my eyes – we are in winter wonderland. There are thick white flakes and everything is covered with snow but we didn’t want to go on a winter holiday. We even have summer tyres on it. This means for us that we have to wait several hours at a service area until the wild snow is over, the roads are cleared enough and we can now finally put the last kilometres to Embrun behind us.

The warm, pleasant morning sun shines in my face and I hear a river splashing and it feels like a dream after the journey through the snow. After making it over the icy pass the previous evening, we finally escaped all the hardships of the journey and camped on a beautiful parking lot by the river. Summer has arrived! The festival doesn’t take place until the weekend, so we have a few days to put our whitewater SUP skills into practice.

sandstone canyon

Quickly we squeeze into our whitewater gear to enjoy the cool water. The tour, which is planned for today, is set in a beautiful sandstone canyon. The river is not particularly difficult, it’s good for us to paddle as a warm-up and flows evenly. The water colour is a stunning turquoise blue and we meander along it through the breathtaking landscape of the French Alps. In the bends, the flow increases so there are slightly higher waves and the balancing is really fun.

“Lower in the knees and now paddle on the right side and off to the drain, perfect,” sometimes I need some more tips to master heavy rapids cleanly and free from falls. Fortunately, I have the German champion, as well as the runner-up in whitewater SUP as a coach. Valentin also has whitewater rescue/safety training qualifications too. Again and again he mentions that, whilst on the river, it is very important to have strong faith in the team. To discuss, to co-ordinate different possibilities and, of course, to plan how to tackle more extreme water. This means discussing where the rest of the team is when a paddler travels to a location that sometimes presents dangers.

There is not much going on the river, we are all alone here, no kayakers, rafting boats or hikers on the shore, not even anglers. Perhaps that is why nature is so much more important to us here than in Bavaria, where it is much harder to navigate a river without coming across other water users.

The weather is really good and at the end of the day, we sit comfortably by the campfire, our neoprene suits drying whilst hanging in the sun. Fortunately, we have enough food in the car so we do not have to go to bed hungry tonight. Tomorrow morning, everything must be ready again for the next section of the river.

French Durance

The morning starts with the same beautiful spring weather as yesterday and after a relaxed breakfast, we head to our next stop. We drive through lonely old villages, where there are more sheep than humans, or so it seems. The bumpy dirt roads it goes straight to the put-in. The small tributary of the French Durance known for whitewater athletes, is only a few kilometres long but worth it for whitewater SUP.

Whilst paddling, a high cliff wall emerges directly after the first bend, from which a large waterfall gushes out. There is little wind to disturb the falling water, where individual drops are creating a luminous rainbow. The scenery is so beautiful and untouched, it feels to me like another world. The flow of the water is much stronger today as we glide really fast on our white water boards through the landscape, however, again and again, a few hard rapids stop us.

At these points, we navigate to the shore and recce the passage, where the line is discussed and remembered well. Swimming could be uncomfortable despite our full equipment of helmets, life jackets, knee pads and thick wild water shoes. The previously discussed line does not seem to be ideal, because Valentin suddenly takes a different route around the stones. In hindsight, he tells us that on one passage the water was too shallow and our fins would have struck the bottom. It was difficult to see when surveying from the land, however, we now know the right way through the keyhole. What an adventure!

breathtaking

All the nature and mountains that I have seen over the last few days have been breathtaking and we finish with another indescribable day ending at the campfire. Rocky walls with caves and waterfalls, turquoise waters with white pebble beaches and the whole time on the water, we saw no other humans, except the camera crew. The whitewater SUP is really worth it! You are in beautiful natural surroundings all day, where the adrenalin levels are high because of the fast river flow.

At the same time you have to concentrate very hard, so as not to make any mistakes. Sharing all that with good friends and ending the evening at the campfire is twice as much fun.

The Outdoor Mix Festival is getting closer and we are slowly leaving our adventure nature road trip week behind us. We talk about the last days and their events and at the same time we are preparing for the next three hard racetracks at the festival. Then we can show what we have trained for here on the river. Thanks Embrun, for your great wild nature. What a wonderful trip!