A dry summer in France

Like during the rest of this year, water levels were pretty low in France this summer. So what do you do if you work and are unable to travel far?

This summer started with an event that I really like : the Natural Games. The competition is as tough as the parties are wild! Even with what little training I was able to get in this season, I managed to make it through to the finals and ranked 4^th. Not too bad…

Photo by Valentin Grollemund

Afterwards, I went to Biarritz, a city on the Basque coast, to go to school for a few weeks. Of course I had to go to classes, but you can’t be that close to the ocean without catching some waves before there are too many surfers to kill?? I had nice waves to surf with both with my freestyle and surf kayaks.

Photos by Katie Beardsley

At the end of July, we had the French Championships on the opposite side of France in Metz, a city in the northeast. The competition happened on a really small hole that is part of the slalom course in the old center of town. It was a cool location with lots of people watching. However the spot is really small and you’ve got to be extremely technical. The beginning was easy but the semifinals proved too difficult to reach the top five and go through to the finals. Despite this, it was a fun event with yet another great afterparty.

Photos by Richard Bord

Once all the official events are over, there’s always Charnay - a medium-sized feature lost in the middle of nowhere. Which means you can kayak, party, barbecue, swim, slackline, relax, and many other things without disturbing anybody.

This time, the hole was half wave, half hole and was working almost all day long which isn’t usually the case!

Photo by Alexendre Jakette

After Charnay it was back to Paris again, where I decided to boof every drop I could find. Kayaking is a real drug and this stuff, though fairly small, was a lot of fun! There are lots of other urban spots to be found in Paris, so we’ll continue to scout the region this year…

Photos by Laurent Devigne

Photo by Romain Peureux

All of this to say that even when water levels are not ideal, you can always find some cool missions. And after summer comes autumn which is supposed to be the rainy season!!! To be continued…