The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 191

Our entourage was also here to race. We were all
a little out of practice but that did not stop us
from giving our all. We scored third place in the
team event, David was fifth in the endurance and
I placed fifth in the sweet rumble. Italy had been
a perfect start, we were all charging and stoked
for the next stop.
Our next stop took us to the Soca River in
Slovenia. We managed to see more of the
country this time, taking scouting missions to
find more runs and even visiting Ljubljana to
paddle at the famous Tarcen racecourse. Our
mission was on the Soca and to assist Blaz
Luznik from Positive Sport with a little boat x
extreme race. The weather in Slovenia was worse
that in Italy, constant rain with just one
afternoon of sun. This meant the water levels
were juicy.
We ran the river in playboats then in our
Pyranha Shivas and had to work hard all day to
avoid getting swallowed. The race was set in the
evening at the take out. The race itself was very
short but extremely intense. Four off the ramp to
start into a break out move, around a buoy, back

terfalls

into the flow then a sprint to the finish. The
finals finished around 10.30pm in the dark,
looked amazing.
The party was pretty much rained off but
everyone had a great event. We had some time
before leaving so we checked out the Kozak
waterfalls. We decided to give the second drop a
go, never been paddled before, looked sweet
with all the rain they had been having. Our first
D of the trip, a sweet 50-footer into a tight
canyon open at either end. After the drop you
can paddle out to the confluence to the Soca.
With the rest of the week to kill before heading
to Lienz, Austria, we made a call to mission
further south and explore Croatia. What we
didn’t count on was our fuel card not working
there as, sadly, there were no shell garages. This
did not put us off as we had seen photos of what
we were heading to see. We arrived in Krka
National Park and saw the most beautiful series
of waterfalls I have ever seen. Sadly, we were not
given permission to paddle them.
We were directed north to the Zrmanja River
where there we met up with the guides from
Raftrek Adventure who took us on a wild ride
around central Croatia showing us all the sights
and some shocking tales from the recent conflict
with Bosnia.

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