A couple days ago I got home from my first 2012 trip, Uganda. After missing going to Mexico and South America together with my brother Aniol last autumn due injuries, it felt great to go away for a while. After a boring autumn and early winter with lots of rest, rehab sessions and lots of medical expenses, I was finally getting better and could start with some skiing, however it was only man made snow. After some good times skiing I started to get better and I decided to go to Uganda for a month.
I left Spain on February 1st, and after a few hours I was in Uganda, away from the cold, skiing, snow… Such a nice contrast! The level was high, so all the rapids had a nice flow to paddle them, and the waves were working well. Special was big and foamy sometimes, but green and nice on the evenings. Malalu was also pretty cool. There were so many other kayakers as well… it was hard to get some quiet times on the wave.
However it’s lost a few good rapids after the Silverback dam project, Uganda is still one of the best winter destinations to paddle big water rapids and surf big waves. The weather is more than great, and however staying on resorts/campsites is quite expensive, you can go different. More and more paddlers are starting to stay together with the locals on their villages. It’s quite easy to get some good local fruits (papaya, avocados, tomatoes…) and it’s a good way to help out the locals and they. The kids can bring them from their home trees, and they are really tasty and fairly cheap. You can easily get everything else on the bigger villages not far away (eggs, rice, flour, sugar, bananas, potatoes…). This makes for a nice experience with more than kayaking, so you are entertained for the whole day. After 5 weeks of paddling I was really sore and ready to go back home for some rest and start the Spring season. There’s no water yet, but it’s coming soon and can’t wait to start paddling here with all my friends and our local runs.
During my stay I used the Uno, the new slalom helmet from Predator. After using it during the Sick-line extreme race, I was looking forward to use this helmet again on some big water. The helmet is extremely light which is a great thing after the whole day in the water, and it fits perfectly so even after the biggest beat downs from Special or Hypoxia, the helmet stayed in place without problem. So glad I took it with me to Uganda, good choice. Now looking forward to the new FR7, it’s looking sick!
