Winter is over and I barely saw any snow !

For the first time of my life I spent most of the winter time abroad and I didn’t get to ski much is my home mountains. Of course I kinda missed it but since I went kayaking in some warm places instead it was totally worth it !

For Christmas I spent 3 weeks in Uganda with Mariann Saether. I had never been to the White Nile before. I was very excited to discover this mighty kayaking destination and to get back in my freestyle groove. This trip was definitely easy-living. We spent as much time on the water as possible spending all mornings on Club Waves and late afternoons at Nile Special, or going on river runs. At the end of the day we were shattered and most of the time I was off to bed before 8.30pm. Whenever we were not paddling, I was studying, playing with the local kids or trying to learn a few words in Luganda. I was great not to have to worry about anything and live life at it simplest.

After enjoying a very chill time on the Hairy Lemon Island, I headed back to France for my university exams. Trust me it was  a complete different story ! I guess I spent to much time kayaking in Uganda instead of studying and life was no longer chill !

After two pretty rough weeks I was on the road again, taking off to another warm place in United Arab Emirates. It was my first slalom winter training camp and although I felt like betraying my principles paddling on a concrete ditch in the middle of the desert was good. Don’t get me wrong I will never choose an artificial course over a natural river. Artificial courses are fun and very convenient for training (converter belts are pretty sick !) but there are soulless. Sadly most slalom races are no longer held on natural rivers so we need to spend more and more time training on artificial courses such as Wadi Adventure. I’m not sure this is the right thing to do for the development of our sport but most slalom paddlers see it as a good thing. I guess it’s okay of you always remember where you come from, why you paddle and never ever disrespect the river.