norway part one! by Josh Neilson

Sam Sutton - Goyst River Norway photo - Josh Neilson

Josh Neilson- Spanemfossen (Falls) Austbygdai River - Photo Sam Sutton

Hey everyone today is about day 6 in norway and it is amazing! I got off the plane and sam was waiting for me which was sick cos we had a meen car waiting outside to get on the road with! We stayed in oslo with Sam hughes and in the morning picked up some new helmets and headed to Telemark! We were greeted in Telemark with high water levels and a lot of sick creeks! Day one we checked out some big ones and did a quick blat down popo falls which is a bunch of sick big slides. The next day we put on the Home run section of the upper Mar river with a semi local but english guy Ed. With a bunch of other waiting on the side to see our outcome we paddled down the first 3 drops sweet. I ran the final 2 first with no problems followed by Ed. He hit the first of 2 drops with too much angle and came off sideways. Falling about 20feet into the pool he went deep and hit the bottom. He thought he broke his paddle and couldnt roll so swam the last drop. NASTY... but that was not the worst of it. When he hit the bottom he broke his arm really badly above his elbow. We got him to hospital and he spent the next 12 hrs in surgery getting put back together! We havent seen him since as he flew back to England, If your out there Ed we hope you are all good! Catch you at the fest hopefully!
That night Sam and I decided to brave the section again but at super high levels! I made the first drop sweet and got pushed far left on the second. I boofed and stalled out in a huge hole. The next moments were filled with loops, window shades, and a very unplesant surf up in the pit. I thought I was out but ripped back in. Before I had no energy to swim I pulled the cord and it was clam. Next second i was going deep, then deeper, and then it was black! My ears were about to pop Finally i resurfaced in the pool and was alive! This was the worst beating of my life!
All is good though and back on the horse with some cool rivers since. Unfortunatly I am having a few shoulder problems still and have been in some pain while paddling and had to take off early today as i had no strength to paddle!
Will update more soon as we are stealing wireless from someone and have too many photos to sort through.
Take care everyone!
chur
josh

(we have had huge internet slowness problems so havent updated blog much! we are in Voss now and been here a week. Will have a voss update soon as possible.

All is good!)