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Freestyle Kayakers Find Home in Quebec Rivers

Quebec is home to over 4,500 rivers, providing a paradise for freestyle kayakers.
Photo courtesy Montreal Eau Vive

"I can't hit these waves anymore, man, my back is completely fucked up," Hugo yells over the revving engine. "Back in the day we weren't athletes like these guys, we used to smoke joints before paddling out!"

Hugo is the man in charge of our jet boat for the day as it battles a surging current just a few metres above the Mavericks wave. We're in the middle of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, watching as some of the best kayakers from around the globe attempt to combine as many aerial tricks as possible atop one of the world's most pristine standing waves.

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The second edition of Montreal en Eau Vive, a freestyle kayak competition which attracts the world's top-caliber paddlers, took place earlier in August. Over the course of two days, athletes from Sweden, France, Spain, New Zealand, Slovakia, Canada and the United States braved the Lachine rapids in a freestyle competition and a boardercross-style race. The freestyle competition essentially consisted of kayakers being towed out by a jet ski to the middle of the river, where they were unleashed into the two-meter wave. They had to perform flips and spirals over a current of 8,000 cubic meters of water per second once they successfully caught the wave. This form of kayaking isn't about speed and paddling—it's a best tricks competition, similar to that of skateboarding or snowboarding except the tricks are performed in churning currents.

The top spot went to French paddler Mathieu Dumoulin, who shared the podium with Ontarian Kalob Grady and Montrealer Sebastien Clermont.

"You guys have the best waves in the world right here in your backyard, it's incredible," said Dumoulin, marvelling at the sheer power of Quebec's waves. He would know. Dumoulin is a two-time European freestyle champion and has amassed ten French championship titles.

Dumoulin battling the difficult conditions.

For kayakers and water sports enthusiasts, the province is a world-class destination. Quebec boasts over 4,500 rivers, many of which are left untouched and clear of dams, providing ideal conditions for freestyle kayakers.

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Dumoulin has been in the province since April, staying until the world championships in September. His Canadian stay has become a bit of a tradition. This time around he has brought a few country men along with him; 12 to be exact. Kayakers aged 14–28 followed Dumoulin to Montreal to train and gain experience from him and others surfing the Lachine rapids. Dumoulin's time in Quebec starts when the snow melts in the spring and the water levels are at their highest, which is when he and fellow kayakers take part in what they call "the stakeout".

"Essentially, the stakeout happens at a time when conditions are optimal for kayaking in the rivers, the water discharge level is at its highest, giving us the best chances of finding new standing waves," he explained.

Just like big wave surfers looking for new untamed waves, Dumoulin and his crew use Google Earth to pinpoint rapids, where they are likely to find rideable waves. "We look for parts where the river narrows, take the backroads to the top of the river, ride down and when we find a spot suitable for freestyle kayaking, we add it to our map so that kayakers can come and enjoy the experience. The amount of spots we have found in the province is astronomical."

A group of kayakers taking a quick breather before completing the freestyle competition in Montreal.

It's this facet of the sport, Dumoulin says, that's the driving force behind its growing popularity.

"The fact that there is an element of danger and risk in mapping out these unknown spots is definitely attracting thrill-seeking athletes," he said.

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It kind of brings it back to what got the sport started in Montreal in the first place. "I remember the first time my friends dragged me out to Mavericks and Big Joe (another standing wave in the Lachine rapids), I had never seen that much water around me in my life," Hugo said.

Hugo got his first taste of freestyle kayaking back in 1995. "We were in slalom-style kayaks which are longer and have nothing to do with the short and maneuverable kayaks of today. We would spend our weekends riding rivers, but all week we would be perfecting our skills on these V4 and V5 rapids which were minutes away from where we stayed," he said.

Big waves in untouched rivers is why freestyle kayakers have come to love Quebec.

Hugo isn't exactly sure who rode the waves for the first time but remembers that a bearded, hippie-like gang of kayakers used to paddle the 800 meters of V3 rapids that separated the shore from Mavericks and Big Joe back in the early 1980s.

"These waves were really our training grounds in the mid-90s, at a time when kayaking was going through a revolution of sorts," Hugo said. "It took me along with it—by 1997 I was competing in the International Canoe Federation World Championships in New Zealand."

Ian Vogel, organizer and participant of this year's Eau Vive event, said the ICF, which puts on the world championships every two years, is bidding for acceptance into the Olympics—a potential big stepping stone toward more worldwide notoriety.

With the Olympics in sight, the niche water sport has come a long way from its humble beginnings.

All photos courtesy Montreal Eau Vive