My Stand Up Paddle river guidings on TV!!

TéléMatin sur France2 - SUP en rivière avec "Esprit Rivière" from Val Grollemund on Vimeo.

On July 6th I had the chance to have a 6 minutes report on the 2nd biggest TV in France about river Stand Up Paddling with my company Esprit Rivière.

The video is full in French but I'm pretty sure you'll love the images!!

Grégoire Tournon and I.

Many thanks to Greg and his team for this pretty nice report!!

LAND video shooting

LAND - Training in the Gorges du Tarn from Val Grollemund on Vimeo.

End of May, I had the chance to shoot with 2 members of the international LAND trail running team Anne-Lise Rousset and Adrien Seguret.
We went to the Gorges du Tarn to shoot on the wonderful local single tracks!!
And here it is!! The video + few photos, more photos will come soon via LAND!!

The Gorges du Tarn still wonderful!!

Myself at work!!

1st D. of the Pas-De-Soucy

Wednesday 29th of May, we were going to paddle in Millau with Jonas driving down the Gorges du Tarn, I stopped to show him the famous (=tourist place) unrunnable Pas-De-Soucy.

Pas-De-Soucy is a massive rocks garden, on summer time the river disappears under the rock for 100m.

Two legends about it are still told to the local kids which make this rapid even more spectacular!!

We watched it, and damn, it was runnable at this flow. A clear line was even looking "easy".
We had another look down at the river and we decided to go!!
And we ran it!! 1st D!!

Important to say this rapid is exclusively reserved to expert kayakers. It's full of syphons and a swim could be dramatic.
Jonas and I are 2 experienced paddlers and used to paddle those kind of rapids.

Jonas and I in the Pas-De-Soucy.

We even had cool articles in the local newspapers like this one, in french:
http://www.midilibre.fr/2013/06/01/ils-ont-franchi-le-pas-de-soucy-en-kayak,708561.php 

Merci to Pierre Gattelet for the photo!!

Upper Tarn late May with SUN

This last week of May was supposed to be THE week of kayaking in the Pyrénées.
But no... The low temperatures for the season didn't let the snow melt enough to go kayaking.
It was actually freezing there.
But we had good rains in the Cévennes and the Upper Tarn was running so we enjoyed 2 great days with buddy Jonas Le Morvan.
Amazing to paddle the Upper Tarn with leafs on the trees, blue sky and not that cold water!!

Few photos by Jonas and myself :

Jonas in Pont de Montvert put in of the Upper Tarn.

Famous Gouffre des Meules.

Kayaking just for the pleasure of kayaking!! SO HAPPY!!

Out of the Seringue, isn't it good?!!

Myself.

Nothing better to just paddle down a river!!

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!!

Biiiiiiiiiiiim again!!

Jonas, awesome day on the Upper Tarn.

Nothing good here?!!

Well, 2 great days on the Tarn with Jonas kayaking just to have fun on the water!!
Thanks again Jonas for those 2 great days!!

Lozère Trail 2013

For 3 years now, my brother and I are doing the promotionnal video the Lozère Trail which become year after year the major Trail Running race in the region.

After 2 years filming under a massive blue sky, this year was a more... wet and cold!!
Hard conditions to film properly but also for the racers who had really hard times!!
As usual a really beautiful event with great courses and always a great atmosphere!!

Here is the video edited by my brother with few of my images:

Start from Sainte Enimie at 5am the UltraTrail racers.

Arriving on the Causse (local plateau) a bit before 6am.

Causse full green at the exit of the Gorges du Tarn.

That's real Trail Running!!

Wonderful spot in the mountains of Blajoux at the heart of the Gorges du Tarn.

Gorges du Tarn.

Gorges du Tarn hard down hills!!

Downhill during the Ultra Trail.

Thanks to the organizors and volunteers for this great event!!!!

Shooting River SUP for "Saturday Sport" on FranceTV

Few months that we were planning the video shooting with Grégoire Tournon, the presenter of "Saturday Sport" on "TéléMatin" Tv Show broadcasted on France2 the second biggest TV channel in France.
During this 6minutes TV show, Grégoire tested for you different sports from the most famous to the smallest ones.
This time I bring him in the Gorges du Tarn, in Sainte Enimie village exactly, to let him test River Stand Up Paddling.

How did it go for him? I'll let you discover all that end of June beginning of July when the TV Show will be broadcasted.
I'll give you the exact date.
For the moment here are few photos:

Sainte Enimie, heart of the Gorges du Tarn.

Interview on the beach.

Last advices before putting in for a descent of the Tarn.

Many thanks to Grégoire, Daniel and Richard, and also to my brother Gautier and my mom for their help.

Upper Upper Tarn + Upper Tarn + Middle Tarn = :-)

Biginning of May, buddies from Pyrnénées Fred Dumont, Eric Deguil and Fabrice Poueyto came to visit me in the Cévennes.
We enjoyed a wonderful day with a sick water level to make a full descent of the Tarn paddling the Upper ipper Tarn, the Upper Tarn and the middle Tarn, so 17Km of class IV/V!!

Few photos speaking way more than 1000 words:

Fred Dumont in the Gouffre de l'Oule!!

Always Fredbut in the Gouffre des Meuleswith a sick line!!

Fafa Poueyto.

Fafa Poueyto in the Gouffre des Meules, love that shot!!

And Sir Eric Deguil at Mack12 on the slide to go far right and don't hit the rock!!

Well a sick day paddling those jewels all day long with buddies!!!
That's the roots of kayaking!!