That sounds easyer than it is. After running all the good stuff in Norway over and over again, I'm still super stoked putting in at the Myrkdals or Raundalselva. But hey, where have all those butterflys gone, that used to haunt my stomache?
I figured that out a few weeks ago. There's definitly a nest down in the lower Rauma gorge!
Even scouting this drop used to make me dizzy. And this time it occurs to me:" I'm going to run it, now or never". So here they are as I slip into the eddy above the falls.
It turns out the first crux is getting out of the eddy and farry over to the actual lead in of the drop. The water is searching and pumping and it takes me four trys to hit the right search. I'm pulling as hard as I can to reach the typewriter diagonal I want to use to get away from the kicker half way down the falls. ( I've seen people hitting that one on purpose but most of them got kicked around either boofing, going over the handlebars or worst case, got pushed to the right towards the rockshelf thats waiting about 15 m below).
So I want to go as far left as possible as the water is pushing right anyway. As I get off the diagonal I have enough time to bring my boat back into the fallline while allready starting to drop. The kicker rushes past to my right and I'm thinking so far so good. Then I disapear into the spray.
Waters pulling on my paddle and my head, everything gets dark. But I can't say it was a hard landing. It's even hard to tell what was the landing.
Rolling up, wind and spray strikes my face and for a second it's hard to orientate. Next thing I see is Jobst paddling towards me with a wide grin on his face. It's good to have a friend down in the pool even though everything goes well.
Floating across the gigantic pool I feel that if I should ever miss the butterflys again, now I know where I can find them.
cheers to Olli, Jobst and the boys for the patience
matze
