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SUP White Water Camping Swiss Grand Canyon



Nick, Neil and I took a white water SUP camping trip to the Swiss Grand Canyon for 2 nights. It was July 4th and Nick remembered everything to help celebrate even if it was in Switzerland and with an Aussie and a Englishman! Earlier in the day he surprised me with a an piece of apple pie and when we got to the campground after a beautiful 3 hour drive through the mountains, he had brought not only ingredients for smores, but also sparklers to celebrate. We set up camp including, Neil’s huge luxury 3 room tent and cooked dinner. These were followed by smores and a few attempts to spell out USA in sparklers. I think it was the 6th try and we finally got it. I said that we weren’t going to bed until we did it successfully!


Happy July 4th from Switzerland



making s'mores


a beautiful church in the mountains


These cows blocked the road for a while during our drive


In the morning we woke up and drove down to the river to start our paddling adventure. The bottom half was easier and was good to get some practice. These rivers are not deep here unlike the US and prove to be more technical then what I would imagine on others. Add to it the lack of rain and the water levels were quite shallow with plenty of rocks popping up. I think my thoughts were just don’t get hurt and it will be a success. The scenery around was amazing and the coolest part about it was around 3 hours later after having paddled and surfed a few stationary waves we got out walked up to the train station which lines the river and took it back to where we began in about 5 minutes. We took a break and had a great lunch by the river and then did another run in the afternoon. A combination of having a little more confidence and switching to Neils 12’6 river runner board made the 2nd go much easier for me.


on a standing wave


Nick powering through the rapids


I made it through as well!






The next morning we set off to do the top part of the river, harder with more rapids, but unfortunately still low level waters. Neil brought along a riverbug and I opted to take this down the river instead of killing myself on the stand up board. If there was more water, I think I would’ve been fine, but since I hurt my finger last year (that was even minor) and it hurt for 7 months after, I thought I’d be the photographer and take the safer way down. The boys were more hardcore and did a great job getting down the river without any major injuries. Going down a few rapids I even flipped over in my riverbug and had to pull the quick release handle to get out, so even doing this wasn’t a piece of cake. At one point one of the guys who went with us, a kayak guide down the river, did an awesome run on the SUP on what looked to be a pretty dangerous part.



Me in a riverbug

This is where experience and probably being a bit crazy help you to easily get through difficult areas. Not only did he make it through once, but he did it two more times after picking the right line and going for it. It was very impressive, but not something I would ever attempt to do. Again give me two big rocks, a drop off and a deep river on the other side and I would be fine, but a continuous stretch of rapids with rocks centimeters below and it would’ve ended in disaster for me! Everyone made it safely to the end and we had a couple great days on the river before the storms set in.


after the first day, us 3 waiting for the train


that's the river we paddled down below

Wednesday, July 06, 2011 | |

 

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