Valentin Grollemund - Pro kayaker

Photo shooting BICsport: Stand Up Paddle and Canoë-Kayak

On Oct. wednesday 27th, Marion Pelletier and myself drove really early to Vallon Pont d'Arc in Ardèche to join Paul Villecourt and David Arnaud to make a BICsport promotionnal Stand Up Paddle and Canoe-Kayak photo and video shooting on a full day.

Paul Vilecourt is a famous outdoor sports photographer, and David Arnaud is pro videomaker and also TV/video production manager on the ski and snowboard "Freeride World Tour".

About Marion and I, we were there to smile and paddle on the kayaks and SUPs all day long in beautiful places!! ;-)
There's also Evan, Paul's son, who was there to enjoy a day on the water with us!!

Early morning on the road in Lozère country.

Arrived in Ardèche mountains in the morning.

Ardèche river banks at 9am, beautiful!!

The morning we shot the canoe and the kayak.
Here some photos, you can check out all the gallery on:
http://paul.villecourt.com/photos/lightbox.php?path=galeries/84

Isn't it beautiful!!??

On the afternoon we went to an other spot to shoot the Stand Up Paddle.
Here again some photos and again you can check out all the gallery on:
http://paul.villecourt.com/photos/lightbox.php?path=galeries/83

Many thanks to Paul, David, Evan and of course Marion for that great day on the Ardèche river!!

If you've few minutes, have a look on the websites of Paul Villecourt and David Arnaud.

Agout river event

Left to right: Thomas Tabaran, Patrick de Saint Ours, Gautier Grollemund, Raph Thiebaut, moi même, Fabrice Poueyto and Bastien Dantin.

As every year the last weekend of october takes place the "Agout river event" in Brassac, near Castres in France. Agout river is an easy class III/IV- river with one class V- rapid where loooot of paddlers have some massive carnages!!

Many kayak clubs and paddlers are coming there to enjoy 2 days on the river in a great atmosphere!!

Mat Coldebella in the Vélodrome rapid.

Gautier Grollemund in the Vélodrome rapid.

Eric Deguil open canoeing the Agout river.

Raph Thiebaut Open Canoeing.

Eric Deguil comes upstream for his 2nd run of the Vélodrome rapid.

Gautier enjoys autumn on the Agout river.

The famous "Escalier de le Peyre" rapid where everybody stop to have a look on some runs and carnages!!

Gautier in the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Raph Thiebaut in the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Myself in the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Raph Thiebaut in the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Me in the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Gautier has a look on the "Escalier de la Peyre" rapid.

Raph Thiebaut plays in some little rapids of the Agout river.

Eric Deguil filming on the Agout river bank and booooom, here you've the result:

Once again, the Agout river event was a great show for all of us and there's still that great atmosphere!!!!
See you next year!!

2days self-support on the Dourbie river!!

Video made by Stephane Pion

On October 12th and 13th, I joined my buddies Raph Thiebaut, Stephane Pion and Valentin Corrotte to paddle the full upper Dourbie river in France on a 2 days self-support trip!!

We load our stuffs in our kayaks for 2 days with sleeping bags, a tarp, warm clothes, tin dish, food, etc...
And here we go for 2 days on the river with our 35kg kayaks!!!

Raph Thiebaut in the 1st gorge.

Raph Thiebaut boofing his heavy kayak in the 1st gorge!!

Val Corrotte in the 1st gorge.

Sometimes heavy kayaks don't help you at all... Ask Stefun!! ;-)

At the end of the afternoon, we found a super campsite for the night, you know the one clean, flat with trees to put the tarp on, with grass and no rock!! hehe!!
Here Raph Thiebaut getting warm around the campfire when the night arrived.
A good dinner, tea and grilled chestnut and we were ready for a good long night!!

Myself.

The exit of the 1st gorge of the 2nd day.

So we paddled the 17km of the upper Dourbie on 9h of kayak on 2 days self-support.
It's a really wonderfull section with great class IV/V+ rapids all along and a really smooth and pleasant kayaking style, and all that in a beautiful valley!!

Many thanks to my kayaking buddies for these 2 awesome days of great kayak!!

DownHill MTB in my home country

Here some DownHill MTB photos I had the opportunity to take on mid-October when I came back from Germany.
My brother Gautier invited me to join him on a local DH course at 20minutes from Rodez, my hometown.
Was a super fast and clean course with some huge gaps and jumps.
Check out the photos: