I’m not going lie this is a pretty poor update compared to usual. This happened about three weeks ago and I’ve had my head elsewhere since then but I thought it was worth mentioning. If nothing else check out the pictures (courtesy of Jon Best) as there are some good ones.

Pan Am on the beautiful High Tension

The water was on its way up on the Ottawa and Garberator was on its way out. Rumour had it that High Tension wave on the Gatineau was in and with the Lachine Rodeo going on that weekend the crowds would be else where. When I asked my buddy Chris Gragtmans what he was doing on the weekend his reply was, “going to High Tension”, I let out a big Napoleon Dynamite yyyyyyeeeeeesssssssss!!!

Since High Tension is half way down a river run and the option to park and play isn’t there we brought an extra boat, stuffed it with sleeping bags, food, tents and everything else we’d needed, put a cock pit cover on it, and shoved it though all of the rapids. There were a few tense moments, like when our gear boat sat on the boil line of the ugliest hole any of us had ever seen, pretty sure we would have had to wait for the water to dry up before it came out of that one. Anyway we made it to the wave where prime levels and no line-up awaited us. We set up camp on what we came to know as paradise island. A sandy beach, lots of sunshine and one of the best waves in the world. Speaking of best Jon Best also came along for the trip with another pommie named Joe. Joe was like our lazy counter part, if that makes since at all. Every time something needed to be done and it was Joes turn to do it, it didn’t get done without a lot of coaxing. When it came time to make the fire I swear he’d find a twig, light it on fire and wait until it burnt out before looking for another one.

Paradise Beach

High Tension is definitely on my top three list of waves. It’s steep, hard, glassy and really retentive. You have to walk back up but by the time you flush off of the wave your usually ready for a break anyway. It’s not often that it comes up in the summer but if you can guarantee anything it’s that I’ll be there when it does.

All Photo’s courtesy of Jon Best…your the best man!