Montreal Eau Vive

Jet ski time!!!

 

The Montreal Eau Vive has already become one of the big fun must go to events on my annual calendar. This was only my second year at the event and once again it was amazing. Set in the heart of Montreal on the massive St Lawerence river, the Montreal Eau Vive brings jet boats, jet skis and kayaking together to create a massive festival of big wave surfing and racing. Starting on the Lachine rapids the action kiosk of with some freestyle. Kayakers paddle out to an tiny Island in the middle of the river and stage for their runs. Out in the middle of the river the only infrastructure is a tall scaffolding tower built high above the tiny island with many of its stanchions actually in the river. Tied to it is a raft full of kayaks. This is the judging, filming, timer and organizers stand and the key component in making this event work. In the eddy their are a full heat of competitors awaiting their turn. Then there's three Jet Skis ready to make the fun happen. Over on another Island about a mile away hidden high in the trees are two more judges and a photographer loaded with a massive lens and a drone. This is an event with logistics of epic proportions. This event shouldn't really be possible but somehow the masterminds of Ian and Phil have brought together everything to make it work.


Montréal Eau Vive 2017 from Montreal Eau Vive on Vimeo.


Mavericks

So my heat kicks of and I wait my turn. Now a vetran returning to the event I share my experiences of last year with those new. Most kayakers have never surfed Mavericks before or riden on the back of the Jet Ski so there is a lot to learn and so much more to this weekend than just the kayaking. Its my turn and I jump on board so excited to be playing on the Jet ski once more. A little dubious of my still bust thumb I adapt my paddle hold so that I can ride without it getting a pounding. As we drive out my excitement builds. I look for my line onto Maverick and a Brandon drops me off and drives away I try to line up my approach. The trick to Mavericks is to hit the shoulder (but not too far out) and surf the green. Its a very diagonal wave and as soon as you get pushed even slightly surfers left your ride is over as you get type writered out of the wave and across the hole.

This year the river is super high and Mavericks is way bigger than last year. Still beautifully formed and green but bigger for sure. I line up for the green face it looks awesome. I'm totally online smack bang in the middle of the green and then just before I hit it its crashes and boom i'm typewritring across and in the hole. I think about throwing a Mcnasty but my chance has passed and now i'm floating downstream amisdt the mess of biols and waves of the St Lawerence. The Montreal Eau Vive is a funny event because normally after missing a ride you'd be a little disappointed but not here. As I can already see the Jet ski on its way to pick me up and drive me back to the start eddy. How can you not be having fun out here its insane. The Maverick events is a 3 ride event with your best 6 tricks in your best ride counting. We'll in three rides I caught it once on my second ride and threw three tricks two big blunts and a flash back. Then got hit by the crashing curler and completely eaten on my third run. Big smiles I rode the Jet ski back up again and shared comedy stories out wipe outs with the others.

Big Joe

Next up was Big Joe. This time we paddled on and then Jet Ski'd back up again. I love Big Joe and like to think that I know it quite well but as I was about to find out its not the same at these levels at all. I dropped in and on my first two rides flushed on my first trick! My third ride I took my time I dropped in and surfed around and felt the wave out realizing the sweet spot was not the shoulders but was the middle of the wave hole. I got a few sweet tricks before going for a cartwheel. I know!!! Never gonna work but for some reason in the moment it felt like it was a good idea. Flying back over the waves, blasting my way back up I got in one extra cheeky run. This time I flew with a big blunt, flashbacks and an airscrew. Wave boating is tough but so much fun.
 
Over the day Emily Jackson hit ride after ride, trick after trick showing why she is the wave boating World Champion and taking the win.

Boater X

Which meant when we arrived at the start we had plenty of time to get ready and chill. Then at about 10.30am we jumped on the river and blasted our way down the massive St Lawrence in search of the staging Island. It was quite a fun run in as we all followed the first few people assuming they knew where they were going only finding out when we were far to committed that they had no idea and had never been before. Luckily I remembered enough to read and run my way down the big volume mess. Spotting in the trees along the way the glimpse of color of the film crew and with the sound of drones over head. Soon we had almost 50 people on this bird poo covered small island in the middle of the river ready and waiting to go. We all heard this massive roar of a Jet engine and looked up to see the Jet Boat raging up the rapids. It was time to play. In turn we jumped in our boats and paddled downstream. Meet the Jetboat and climbed aboard to be driven back upstream. Scouting the race line as we went. At the top we loaded into our boats. Hanging dubiously of the sides of the boat. The count down went and it was race on. Packed in tightly launching and landing was dubious and several of us flipped even before we started to race. Then back upright it was game on. Sprinting hard across the flatter flowing water we made it to the rapids section. Big exploding waves took us through several hundred meters of amazing quality white water before we hit the boily mess of the huge eddy the jet boat was waiting in.

I was in a Zen racing against a Nirvana and a 9R. Through the rapids I had sweet lines allowing me to just keep up, the girls escaping from me on each flat and then coming into the boil finish I got the line perfect blasting through the middle jumping from 3rd place to within literally one second of first place at the finish line. Turning round to watch the carnage of everyone else coming in to hit the finish line and then laugh our way home. The girls was crazy 10 paddlers in a one off race a head to head finals. The boys even more crazy 20 lads launching of the boat together in a mass final!! Watch all the videos on the line to see the carnage.

The massive paddle out

So everything awesome has to have a challenge within and the paddle home after the boater x is the challenge of all challenges!!! Almost an hour of non stop paddling after the finish of the final race and we made it to shore. One epic epic epic ferry glide home. Island hoping our way across the St Lawrence river. I'm not sure exactly how far the journey home was but lets just say really really really long. Last year we got a little stuck after the Boater X hiking with our boats through the streets of Montreal for another half hour after the epic paddle looking for our car. As after we had set a shuttle a big bike race had closing down loads of roads causing alot of confusion. So this year me and Elaine planned ahead and ran our shuttle the night before. So at least as we got of the river exhausted we were done. So exhausted we could just drive back up to the event base and grab some food and share stories from another awesome event with everyone.


New Flash : Intermediate competition and Pro Clinics

Now I didn't realise last year but they also hold an Intermediate competition and pro clinics as well as the pro event. If you fancy riding Jet skis on to Big Joe and then racing through the Lachine rapids there's an awesome Intermediate event that also runs at the Montreal Eau Vive event. With big prizes up for grabs. So if you fancy some jet ski riding and big wave surfing but in a slightly less extreme situation check it out next summer. There are also heaps of Pro kayakers giving clinics (with Jet ski support) over the weekend. Oh and Stand Up Paddle Boarding races, clinics, come and try its, Yoga, beer, food music... the list goes on. It's a really pretty awesome event.