The Jackson�s in Austria with Arndt Schaflein

June 23, 2006

Photos

Well our trip following Bremgarten was left open for the final week for two reasons. One, I don’t know our dealer base in Europe and figure that we should play it by ear, and two, the last week was scheduled to be a paddling vacation. This trip is the first time the kids have paddled in Europe and my first time paddling here other than for competitions since 1984.

Our trip started off a little slow since we noticed that our Ford S Max mini-van made lots of screeching sounds when we were driving in a parking garage. Later that evening it rained and the rear end of the van was floating like a hovercraft making driving crazy, expecially in tunnels where there was no room for a swerving rear end. When we finally got to Silz (our destination on the Inns river) I took a look at the back tires and they were both bald, on a new vehicle, they were also toed in at a heavy angle. We managed were in Silz, Austria and Uve (Austrian open boater, world champion in 1995) lead us to Innsbruck, Austria to the airport to switch out the car. They had none that would fit the Jackson’s and Nick, 4 boats, and our gear, so we went to Garmisch, Germany, another hour away. Nothing, then we had to drive all of the way to Munich! When we got to the car rental place in Munich, Arndt was there waiting for us, cool! We switched out the car and then hit up a good Beirgarten (beer garden) for some real local food and Ein Stein (one stein of beer) I thought it was funny that you say Einstein to get a beer here. At home you can say Einstein and the waitress will just look at you funny.

We followed Arndt back to Silz and checked into our hotel.

The next morning we showed up to the river to paddle with Arndt and he was in a full wetsuit and surfing a wave below the bridge. Dane was on that like white on rice and before we knew it we were all suited up.
The process of surfing here was to first climb down a closed ladder with a big plate on the top. This took some gymnastics. Then you get down to the floating raft tied to the bridge that bounces and moves around a lot making walking interesting. Somebody hands you your board and a rope that is tied to the bridge and you manage to position yourself on the edge of the raft put your board on the eddy line while holding the rope and holding it with your back foot. Then you get your front foot on add tension to the rope and jump on the board and “wakeboard” out to the wave and let go of the rope and start surfing. Pretty cool.

Emily bowed out of the first session, but Dane, Nick, and I went with Arndt who helped us get started.

Later we had a sweet picnic by the river, with Baguettes, avocado, ham, cheese, pretzels, Dijon, tomato, etc. etc., and Nutella, on a big blanket under some big trees. It really felt like a vacation at that point.

We drove to another section of the Inn River that afternoon and got back to the hotel at 9pm.

Yesterday we had another full day. We started surfing at 9am again and went until lunch time at noon. I met Andy, our new Austrian Jackson Kayak dealer in Oetz. He is originally from England and is a really good boater who paddles in the southern hemisphere in the winter and here in the summer. He was paddling a Red All-Star and loving every minute of it. His big thing was how comfortable he was for the first time. I paddled with him at the playspot below the bridge for a while and then we had another picnic to get ready for a two river run afternoon/evening.

In the Afternoon we hit up a river I still don’t know the name, but the put-in we chose was a seal launch into a hole below a gate in a dam that came in from the side of the river. I was last to go and after watching various landings, including upside down by Dane and Emily (they plugged the hole and powerflipped) I managed to catch the hole. We headed downriver and it was non stop with almost no eddies. There were good catch on the fly waves and holes, but mostly it was flushed out since it was super high water. This run was only 45 minutes long and about 3-4 miles. We stayed in our gear and headed for the mighty Oetz, which is also peaking this week at super high water. We walked upriver about 5 minutes to hit the biggest rapid of the day, just below a sick class 5+ rapid that can be run but it was nothing but ugly at super high water. The put-in was in a little eddy with a huge boulder blocking any view of the river downstream. We had to ferry in front of the boulder and get in the main rapid before we got our first look at what was below. It was exciting! The first rapid was non-stop big holes and breaking waves and no eddies and it lasted for over a mile! Emily followed Arndt and he found some big holes himself so I got to watch both Emily and Arndt in them as I passed by on a cleaner line. Everyone was all giggles as we made our way down this non-stop run all the way to the Confluence of the Inn River, where we paddled that to Crazy Eddie’s where we were surfing earlier that morning. It was another 10-12 mile run and we got back at 8pm. That was a fun day! Arndt took us to a cool pizza place in town for dinner, and Kristine and I had a glass of wine at the bar of the hotel and I slept like a baby.

Today is a final surfing session (Dane’s request) in the morning and then we are officially on a non-paddling vacation to Venous, Italy for a day, then we start heading back to Lyon, France for a final surf there, meet with Toon (owner of Kayak Session Magazine) and a flight home to Tennessee! I REALLY want to go home now! I haven’t seen the factory since April, our log house since it was a hole in the ground, our horses, dogs, we have our new puppy, Rocksey, at home too. I also want to go paddling at Rock Island again. But, that is how I like life to be, ready for the next chapter, but truly enjoy the current one.

🙂 EJ