First time on the White Nile

I’m Ask Tidemann-Foldvik from Trondheim, Norway. Last year I was lucky enough to meet many new great people in the kayaking community, I got to kayak so many fun rivers and learn lots of new skills, thanks to all of the people that took me kayaking. I hope this year will be just as great as last year!
In this little text I’m going to tell you a bit about what I paddled last summer, what I have been kayaking so far this year and my plans for the rest of it.

This February I had probably the best week of kayaking i have ever had. Me and my dad went on a holiday to the White Nile river in Uganda. It was really strange to paddle there at first, because I didn’t need multiple layers of wool and a drysuit to keep me warm, as I’m used to in Norway. When I got used to the fact that the water was actually warm, I had an amazing time kayaking so many fun rapids and surfing some of the biggest waves I had ever seen.
It was really cool to paddle on a really big volume river like the Nile, as I had never gotten to try that type of kayaking in Norway. I learned a lot from our guide from Kayak the Nile, he taught me how to do wave freestyle tricks and showed me techniques on how to surf bigger waves. There aren’t a lot of good places to learn that type of kayaking in Norway, so most of the things I was told on how I should paddle on these types of features were new to me. I really did learn a bunch of new stuff about kayaking, different techniques and how to progress my skills. I will think about everything I learned in Africa when I’m kayaking in Norway this year, and keep on trying to progress my kayaking skills.

I would say that my two favourite rapids that I got to paddle on the Nile were Vengeance (1) and Bobougo (2). I also had an amazing time getting to see some of the biggest rapids in the world (I of course didn’t paddle any of them).
As I’m writing this in mid April, I’m still waiting for the snow to melt so that I can finally go kayaking again.
My main goals this year are to paddle as much as possible, learn a lot and have a great time on the river. I’m really looking forward to the kayaking festivals this summer.
It starts with the Ekstremsportveko in Voss, just as the summer holidays start. I’ve been to Ekstremsportveko twice and it’s been great both times. Especially last summer when I got to meet all the best kayakers in the world, as they were competing in the world championships. The people who arranged the word championships were nice enough to let me participate in the qualifications. I didn’t go very fast and I flipped a couple of times, but still it was a really fun experience to get to paddle against lots of the worlds best kayakers.
Me and the other kids that were kayaking in Voss during the festival got lucky enough to paddle down Strandaelvi with Adrian Mattern and Bren Orton as they were shooting footage for the festival. It was super cool for me to get to paddle with someone I’ve watched so many hours of on social media.

Above is a picture of me doing my first back freewheel of the penny dropp on Strandaelvi during last year’s Ekstremsportveko.
The week after Ekstremsportveko is the Sjoa festival. I really like the Sjoa festival because I get to paddle one of my favourite sections ever, the amazing Sjoa playrun. And maybe if I’m lucky I get some laps down the famous Åmot gorge as well. There are so many cool river features in the Sjoa river, I can’t wait to get back this year and try some new lines and get my ass kicked in some holes and stoppers.

And the last festival of the summer, the Vefsna festival in northern Norway. The Vefsna festival is probably my favourite festival of the summer. I’ve paddled some of the biggest rapids I’ve ever paddled there, done some of the tricks I’m the happiest with, challenged myself and I have always had a great time on and off the river when I’ve been there.
Last year I got really lucky and I got to paddle the Susna river with a group of super good kayakers. As we got down to the Shower boof waterfall i decided i was going to attempt doing a trick going down it. Attempting a trick down the waterfall had never even crossed my mind before, but as I watched some of the people I was kayaking with doing all sorts of tricks and always being okay no matter how they would land. I reckoned it would probably be alright.

Above  are some pictures of me attempting some freestyle tricks down the famous Shower boof.