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Sunrise in the Valley.

Paddling the Puntledge

I recently arrived back to Canada from India and was lucky enough to have the Puntledge river running. This is a river that because of the efforts of the VIWPS, is one of the only rivers that BC Hydro releases for recreational use. There is a rather large festival here at the end of May, this coming year being the fourth of this event.
With a bunch of fresh rain, I was able to get in one run down the Upper run of the Puntledge which features 9 slides, with with two 18ft drops and another with a 400ft long slide. After that it was a couple of days of play boating in cooler temps of -1-0 degrees. A big switch from India.
We did have a good showing with 12-14 paddlers out each day. Some from Victoria a few hours south.

Enjoy the photos of some of the features.

Looking down toward Denman Is. from the Dyke road on the way to the Puntledge.

No more shorts and sandals for paddling. Snow Boating.

Gillian Luttrell rippin it up on one of the Three Pigs. This is the first set of waves that you come upon on the river. About four like this in a row. Have to hike back to the top, but it is worth it.

Getting the fire going.

Brian Oertli.

Brian tearing it up in his C-1 scooter.

Nice wave, eh.

Carrie Smith enjoying some playtime on the wave.

The cold weather does cut down on wait times for surfing.

Author takes a break from shooting photos to get out on the wave. Photo by Shayne Vollmers.

Shayne Vollmers getting in a blunt.

Photos by David Prothero

Copyright 2007