Liveonce Adventure

Kelley’s Story……

In 2004, on an expedition down the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, Ali Donald and I paddled and became close friends with Kelley Kalafatich. She is an inspiring lady who has paddled in every corner of the world and is one of the most kind-hearted people you could meet.

Since that expedition she has become very unwell and has been paralysed from the waist down. Her fighting spirit is incredible and slowly but surely she is defying medical opinion and we (and she) believe she will walk again. Treatment and care in California doesn’t come cheap, and to enable her to get the best chance possible of real independence and quality of life, she needs the help of her friends.

The “Kelleython” 24-Hour Kayak Challenge

In order to raise money for Kelley’s medical treatment, this November Ali and Rob will paddle from Westport Quay in Co. Mayo, Ireland in oceangoing seakayaks. Facing the north Atlantic in winter, they will try and paddle as far as physically possible for them in 24 hours. They plan to do the first 15 hours without stepping ashore. Given the challenging conditions on the north Atlantic at this time of year, they intend to push themselves to their mental and physical limits to help Kelley.

Please donate whatever you can by clicking on the Paypal button below. 100% of donations will go towards helping Kelley.

The Meillte is one of my favourite rivers in Britain, in character very similar to the Clare Glens in Limerick but with bigger drops. Last week on a visit to south Wales, Rosie and I had a great run on it in high water. But our definition of ‘high’ water keeps getting higher and higher-for later in the week Rosie went back with Paul Cheesy Robertson to find some pretty monsterous water.

Images couresty of Paul Robertson and the Palm Team

Rob on the Sorba slides, Italy Photo: Alex Stanley

The past few months have flown by in a blur of awesome whitewater. April began with a stunning descent of the remote Ahensal river through the wildest parts of the Atlas mountains with Deb Pinniger, Nic Wimsett and the Shackleton Outdoor Program, and then a few days wave sailing in perfect conditions on the coast at Essouira.

May followed with high water, 100+ cumec conditions on the Soca river in Slovenia, one of Europe’s finest, as well as some late season, blue bird snowboarding.

Then came a quick weekend to surf the world famous Bitches wave in South Wales with Rosie, Deb, Olaf, Jens and the Adidas Proteam.

Rob surfing the Bitches Photo: Jens Klatt

Then off to the Alps again, for some incredible late season paddling in Italy, and a superb month of high water kayaking and mountain biking in the French Alps.

Colin Wong on the Fournel

Colin Wong on the Guardian Angel Gorge

An incredible few months of quality whitewater and fun times on the river. The next few weeks will be spent on the Mediterranean coast continuing my ongoing mission to learn how to wave sail, followed by a few weeks in Norway in August.

I’m just back from a whirlwind tour of Nepal in which we paddled many of the classic Himalayan runs and possibly one of the last descents of the Marsyandi river.

After leaving Kathmandu we started off on the Upper Bhote Kosi as a warm up before heading to do one of the last complete descents of the legendary Marsyandi river, two days of perfect Himalayan whitewater.

The dam looks to be almost 100% complete, and so the middle section will probably be gone within the year. A terrible shame.We spent a day in Paudi hanging out with a local farmer’s family which was a pretty cool experience.

After heading to Pokhara we met our buddy Babu and paddled the Seti. Babu has been paragliding less than a year, and is just back from a ten day solo paragliding mission around the Khumbu glacier ie Everest, which is probably akin to soloing the class 5 Murchison Falls section of the White Nile with less than a years kayaking experience. He wanted us to go paragliding with him. We declined.

We then took a 24 hour bus ride to the wild west of Nepal and the incredible Karnali river, one of the worlds most spectacular and beautiful.

Rosie and I spent four amazing days on the Karnali, far from civilisation with leopards, eagles and monkeys abundant.

We also paddled some awesome whitewater given that we were just two people in heavy boats a long way from the nearest road. At the end of the trip, we paddled into Bardia National Park which is famous for, among other things, its tigers. I stayed very close to the middle of the river. Rosie, whose grandfather was a tiger hunter, seemed much less concerned. Nevertheless, I was relieved when we reached the Tigertops tented camp where we spent the next day on elephant safari.

After an epic journey back to Pokhara, we met Siberian boater Vasiili Porsev and hiked up to the Madi Khola, which we completed in less than three hours from high up due to a very real fear of missing our flight home.

Vasiili is a strong boater who has been pushing hard on the rivers of Siberia, and invited us to come visit. Hopefully we can take him up on that offer in the future. I slept soundly on the roof of a nightbus back to Kathmandu by strapping myself onto the roof rack, and we just made our flight back to London. Arriving home I met some friends in Dublin, turned the big 30, and jumped on a flight to Marrakech for a mission in the Atlas mountains.

Photos by Rosie Cripps and Rob Coffey

Here is a quick low res preview of the Team Palm promo as commissioned by Palm. The profiled Team Palm paddlers are Dave Carroll, Matt Tidy, Simon Hirter, Rosie Cripps, Ed Cornfield and Andrew Holcombe. The full version will be available from the Palm Equipment site shortly.

Team Palm Promo film preview

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Over the past year, Liveoncemedia has been commissioned by Palm Equipment International to produce a promotional film of their pro team in action. Featuring world class paddlers like Andrew Holcombe, Dave Carroll, Ed Cornfield, Matt Tidy, Rosie Cripps and Simon Hirter and filmed in Italy, Norway, France and India in conjuction with Simon Westgarth of Gene 17, we hoped to capture each kayaker’s unique style and motivation, while focusing on the quality and ethos of the Palm brand.

Some photos of the Palm Pro Team in action shot by Deb Pinniger and Sam Hughes:

Green Race winner Andrew Holcombe, Dave Carroll and Paul Cheesy Robertson prepare for some steepness on the Upper Onde (more…)

A few weekends ago we hit the Scottish highlands to attend the West West weekend in memory of the great Andy Jackson. Two awesome days creeking were had, Saturday on the amazing Morriston river, and Sunday on the Etive at a nice medium flow.

It was great to hook up with many old friends and get some world class boating in at the same time.

Rob on the Etive
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September and October are my favourite months in Ireland, when the first of the big swells start brewing mid Atlantic and the surf starts to fire.

Ten days ago, I decided to leave Dublin on a last minute decision to head west for the weekend, hoping to catch some waves.
I ended up in the coastal village of Kilkee with Louis Smith and Triona Price and caught the last acts of the Cois Farriage Music festival.
As there was no surf on Saturday, we spent the day scuba diving with a school of up to forty dolphins. Deep underwater, surrounded by these magnificent animals almost so close you could almost touch them, was a special experience.

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The past few months have followed the familiar pattern: Teva Race in Italy in May, cruising in the french alps in June, then stepping it up in Norway in July.

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Anyone with a passing interest in saving our environment for future generations should watch this incredible film about how private power is raping the natural resources of British Columbia.

Bryan Smith’s 49 Megawatts

The Coruh, Zanskar, Arandal Pradesh, White Nile, Baktiari……all will be gone as we know them in ten years.

Thoroughly depressing that through short sightedness and greed we will be the last generation to enjoy many of the world’s last untouched places. It makes me so mad.