Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
Regulars to Unsponsored will know that now and again Unsponsored’s little brother River (Militia) breaks out of his maximum security stockade. Last year he made it all the way to Norway. We haven’t been able to release the video edit until now due to a number of international incidents that took place on the way to Norway.
Anyway, he was on the run in Norway for four whole weeks and in that time managed to hit a number of Norwegian classics.
You can’t go wrong with a little bit of rafting action. Nick Pearce shot this little edit on the Brandseth.
The scenery in this part of Norway is nothing short of stunning.
Tumwater Canyon is perhaps the biggest roadside whitewater anywhere. Located just out of Leavenworth, Washington, the Wenatchee River carves a 6000 foot deep gorge though solid granite. Class V and Class VI is just steps from the guardrail. We followed 23 year old Sam Grafton as he lapped this big water section all by himself.
Who are Immersion Research Europe? Tell us a little about the company and its history.
Immersion Research was founded in 1997 by John and Kara Weld. They started off by making board shorts and then thermals. The line up and company grew every year but John and Kara are still running the show. Today, IR makes some of the most innovative, smart and practical gear available.
At the end of 2010, Immersion Research did not have a proper distributor in Europe, so it was tough to get many items of our gear on this side of the Atlantic. IR saw this as an opportunity to sell to customers directly using an online store. Immersion Research Europe was born!
We take orders on our website and ship directly to European customers from our base in the UK.
Immersion Research Europe is just now in the process of expanding to a new, larger location. This new set up will mean a much larger amount of stock can be held in the UK, allowing us to get gear to our customers faster.
The first stop on our Norway tour was the southern region of Telemark. This video features the Home Run and Lower Mår, as well as the California Section and Upper Austbygdåi. Finally, a quick stop at the Numedalslågen on our way from Telemark to Voss.
Friends can’t go kayaking? Don’t worry, they will still know how cool you looked. I’ve been working the past couple weeks trying to dial in an elevated mount system for my 9R. The goal being do not spend more than $20. I made this mount out a crutch and old Pyranha hardware. I took it out for a test run this weekend on my backyard run and here are the results. Getting close to dialed!
The new GoPro Hero 4 Session landed at Unsponsored HQ today. The Session is GoPro’s latest POV action camera and the first to break away from what has been a fairly standard GoPro cuboid shape.
Big rivers and first descents – Siberia looks like an awesome place to paddle. The guys from Two Blades Adventures took full advantage on this trip.
In summer 2014 we managed to get to one of the most remote rivers in Sayan Mountains in Siberia/Russia. Here is the RAW GoPro video from some of the major rapids of the river including the first descent of the 15m waterfall.
Mark Kieran takes a low water run down the Nantahala Cascades.
Parts of the run remind me of the Swale here in the UK.
Last week, Confluence Outdoor announced that as Wave Sport enters its 30th year, it is being refocused as a European brand, where it enjoys a strong, passionate and loyal following as a premium white water kayak brand.
Moving production to Europe provides greater flexibility to add depth across popular models, to support additional market segments and to provide a broader appeal to suit European requirements and tastes. This approach has already proved to be successful for Wave Sport, as showcased by the appeal of the specially tailored outfitting of the Ethos and D-Series families which was a result of the understanding and know-how gained through years of experience in Europe.
Tucked away just outside the village of Dent this Class 4/5 gorge section runs fairly regularly with significant rain although there may be occasions when there can definitely be too much! It can become a very challenging undertaking at high flows with undercut walls and ‘boiling’ eddies. At perfect, mid-level, flows it is my Yorkshire favourite. A sensible decision can be made at the put-in: if it’s floatable and navigable it’s going to be good; however, if there’s a raging torrent, it will be full-on and the gorge will almost certainly be un-runnable. The river starts road-side around 5km outside Dent and the road follows the river for most of the run. In fact it’s only the last km that feels remote. A series of small slides and boulder rapids lead to a slightly bigger slide that right-angle’s to the left. This signifies the end of your warm up.

From here the river starts to get a little tighter and steeper with some quite significant pour-overs; nothing too pushy but a confident boof is definitely required.
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