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The English are Coming >>
ARMIES OF PROS AND FILM CREWS INVADE QUEBEC’S CREEKS
THERE’S NO DIRECT French translation for the term creeking, but you won’t find Que- bec paddlers sitting in eddies discussing proper translation and invasive English jar- gon; instead they’re busy bouncing down all the new class V creeks that are making Quebec the newest creeking hotspot. Increasing numbers of pro paddlers are
searching the sides of crumbling back- roads and stumbling through French/Eng- lish dictionaries while asking for directions to rivers such as the Neilson, Taureau, Malbaie and Launière. But touring Anglo- yakers are finding that the local talent has more to teach them than just put-in loca- tions and proper pronunciation. During a rainy weekend in May, the
lower Cachée River, 30 minutes north of Quebec City, was the site of Quebec’s first creek race. Seven teams raced down 1.5 kilometres of steep, technical and con- tinuous class IV–V water. The two-person teams included Tyler Curtis and Steve Fisher, Chris Gragtmans and Max Knie- wasser and Shannon Carroll with Montreal C1 star Vincent Dupont. Heavy rains the night before the event
raised water levels a foot, and prompted organizers to reduce the number of runs by each team. “With all the crashes, blood and plas-
tic dented in the first run, we all decided to take only the best time for one run,”
explained co-organizer David Laroche. Good news for Shannon Carroll, who was grabbed by a hungry hole to become one of the event’s five swimmers. Curtis and Fisher rose above the may-
hem to claim first place, clocking a time just under five and a half minutes, But the local paddlers, those with fewer sponsor stickers on their boats and helmets, kept it from being a cakewalk for the pros. Da- vid Emond and David Laroche, both from the nearby town of Pont Rouge finished a close second behind two of the best in the world. The success of Emond and Laroche
shows that Quebec paddlers are benefit- ting from the supply of steep and surging creeks in their home province, a natural endowment being noticed beyond Que- bec’s borders thanks to recent visits by whitewater film crews. B.East, a new film by Lisa Utronki follows
Curtis, Fisher and others while they tour Quebec in search of creeks with a certain je ne sais quoi. It’s clear they liked what they saw; the duo came back this year and dropped in on the Cachée race while filming Quebec segments for NBC’s Jeep World of Adventure Sports and the Red Bull Recon, a new film by Scott Lindgren. Though both films are in English, ex-
pect plenty of French content. —Raymond Schmidt
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