EVENTS
DURANCE FESTIVAL, DURANCE VALLEY, FRANCE, JULY 2019
With a record attendance of 199 registered paddlers, the 2019 edition of the Durance Whitewater Festival will be one to remember. Kayak Session Magazine is proud to partner with NRS to inspire a revival of sorts in this remarkable French river valley. It had been over a decade since the Rabioux campsite was filed by cars and vans with watercraft perched atop their roofs.The festival has become the mid-summer European rendez-vous for whitewater paddlers. This year rafters, supers, open canoeist and a big turnout of packrafters, all came to take part in the races or just enjoy the vibe.The new creek race – the Gorge Guil Chrono attracted 72 racers in multiple classes.The prize money for the win in the short boat class went to Jonas le Morvan (FR), but it was Eric Deguil (FR) who walked away with the Gorge Record after his run in the long boat class. Over 52 people who had never been on the river before joined for Sunday’s Grande Descente, a giant stoke float of nearly 230 paddlers! But maybe the best news from this year’s festival was the official return of the legendary Rabioux Wave. C-1 World Championed Tom Dolle (FR) celebrated with a humongous air loop in his creek boat (seen by nearly 100, 000 people).Tom’s high-flying moves are encouraging the Durance Festival organizers to consider a freestyle session of a new kind for 2020… Come join for next year to see #rabiouxreborn. For more information, visit Kayaksession.com.
TANA RIVER FESTIVAL, KENYA, MAY, 2019
In Kenya’s Sagana region, severe drought warnings convinced Tana River Festival organizers to push the event dates back. Then it rained! The surrounding areas turned from to a dry and dusty yellow to a bright, healthy green, and river levels spiked, which made the competition a lot more challenging. The wrong line choice or an errant boil could cost you the race on what was now a big volume, technical and brown African stout! For the first time in 2019, the multi-sport festival included advance and intermediate kayaking groups, as well as an MTB enduro event and a BMX air ramp into the river, and a triathlon. Kenyan and Ugandan paddlers went as hard as the Australians and British, proving that kayaking in east Africa is not the domain of purely foreign kayakers. Big thanks to Sam Ward, owner of Kayak the Nile, for bringing Team Uganda. The first event this year was the endurance race, which consisted of an eight-kilometer paddle down the commercially rafted section of the Tana River with the “any line goes” rules.
