As some of you may know, I was recently out in Sweden for two weeks of paddling and filming. What a trip! I met a friend of mine, Dennis out there.

It was my first time in Sweden, and I really enjoyed it. My first thoughts after being picked up from Trondheim Airport (Norway) was the roads were so straight! I think they only put bends in them to stop you falling a sleep! Oh, and the reindeer keep you on your toes as well!

After driving for about two hours, we reached the ski resort town of Åre where we would stay for 4 days.

There is a very good canoe club in Åre and Dennis was running two whitewater training courses for them. I had some kayaking kit with me so I tagged along on the courses. This was great for my kayaking! I had got a bit rusty as whilst Lincoln is a great uni, there isn’t much Kayaking around! It was just like a kayaking holiday, except being taught stuff. Brilliant.

On the 4th day I got the cameras out for a bit to give them a run in before we set off on our journey North

After the 4th day of training, some of the canoe club + Dennis and me, all got in a nice hire car,

complete with big trailer and started our journey across Sweden. I didn’t realise just how big it was! We left at about 8pm and arrived at the campsite at about 5am – drivers rotating.

The last taste of civilisation!

This campsite was home for the following 10 days. We had got food on route and had all the camping gear in the trailer.

So, 5am we strike camp. Tepees up, “2 man tent” up. Sleeeeeep.

Some other people were there when we got there. There was a canoe club from Upsala, and a club from Stockholme, they both brought a minibus each with people, and various others came and went during the week, including most of the Swedish freestyle team.

The place where we were camped was called Trollforsen (in English – The Troll Rapids). It is one of the more beautiful places I have been. It is a kayakers dream! There is a grade 4/5 volume run on a river that is only 4km away. This river runs all the way back to the lake next to where we were camped. Paddling across the lake to where the water flows out, there is a nice freestyle wave called the Paltwalsen (which translates as the Palt Wave)

Dennis pulling the moves on the Paltwalsen

The last slide on the Trollforsen Rapids

This meant you could wake up in the morning, have a coffee – naturally, and decide – river running or playboating.. There was bound to be a group of people doing one or the other and you just tagged along with whoever.

Everyone was really cool and spoke very good English – good for me and Dennis as we spoke no Swedish.

We stayed at the lake for the whole 10days. Paddling the river, going to the wave, eating, sleeping etc! This was the routine. In provious years I think the plan was to stay at this place for a few days then move on to another place. The guys told me that this year they had decided just to stay in the one place because it’s such a nice place and its less hastle! The river never gets boring and you can always learn new freestyle tricks.

This was good for me as it meant I could get out with my camera a lot and film many angles.

So of the most memorable bits of the trip:

Rock, paper, scissors. This was the way to solve all conflicts! Especially who was going to do the dishes after eating. We ate in teams of about 5. I lost a game and had to do the dishes for my group. I thought it would be clever to go to the next group and go double or nothing! If they lost they’d have to do their own dishes plus all of mine… I lost. Bad move. Thats gambling for you.

Rural Northern Sweden has chavs!! – We drove 50km from where we were camped for a mid week top up on supplies. We had a well deserved pizza and a coffee. Whilst sat outside, I was introduced to the “Volvoraggare”. To you and me, that is essentially a chav. They have all the same characteristics, although instead of prefering the small old car such as a Vauxhall Corsa, its the Volvo over in Sweden. You’ve got to have something to protect you from hitting a Moose!

Which brings me onto the wildlife… When out filming one day, I am trekking through the woods alone.. get to the river, decide that it looks a bit crap to film and so turn back to go get the van and move to a different place. I follow the same semi beaten track I have just walked down and about 100m from where I had just come from there was a huge steaming bear poo right there on the floor. I think to myself, there is no other animal in this area capable of making that much poo. With this in mind I hot foot it back over the hill and to the van I had borrowed for the day.. lock the doors and make a hasty retreat!

The wave I mentioned previously saw the biggest paddlesport competition Sweden has ever seen! The Palt Games 2010! This was a non serious freestyle competition aimed at getting everyone on the wave. Fun for all the family some might say. The idea is simple, get in a boat, actually, no, any floating object or similar, get yourself near the wave and get trashed!

Other memorable things: wine from plastic mugs, massages, watching EJ’s playboating in a tent, someone going down a rapid on their arse, improvising a zipline from bits we found around the camp, to name but a few.

As for the filming side of things, it went well. I have a lot of footage that I am in the process of going through now and editing.

I will do another post on here with some of the best pictures from the trip and there will be a Flickr album with more photos AND there will be a little teaser video up soon too