Freestyle

50 Years of paddling on the Noguera Pallaresa

Nick Harding | @nickhdg | Sportscene - July sees the return of the annual river festival on the Noguera Pallaresa, yet this year is particularly special for Catalans and organisers alike; it's the event's 50th anniversary!

Considered by many as one of the prime spots in the world to paddle whitewater whether expert or beginner, the river is 140km long, and where dammed at several points it only has around 55 kilometres that you can run in one go from Lake La Torrassa until Lake La Pobla de Segur.

'Noguera' or 'walnut' meanders through the largest area of national park in Catalonia and is recognised by its Government as an official 'sports-tourism' location to practise canoeing.

The source of the Noguera Pallaresa is a stone-throw from France's Garonne River – the Garonne flows west to the Atlantic whilst the Noguera Pallaresa runs south west to join the River Segre just before the Camarasa Reservoir.

The Segre too has a famous family member; it feeds the historic and internationally-known course La Seu d'Urgell that hosted the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and this year's Pyrenees Cup 1 in April, plus, like most years, it will host the ICF Slalom World Cup 3 on 5th July.

Noguera Pallaresa has also been in the world spotlight – it successfully held a leg of the 2011 Wildwater World Cup and the 2010 ICF Wildwater World Championships were based at Sort or 'Luck' in English (appropriate!), the riverside town with 2000 inhabitants.

Only in May this year the river played host to the extreme kayaking competition at Pallars Sobirà.

So the area has a reputation for delivering world class canoeing and the Noguera Pallaresa won't fail to impress. A whole selection of events are being put on across paddle-classes to mark the occasion, headline acts include:

50th Noguera Pallaresa Rally
15-21 July 2013
Cross-category events over a week in slalom, mass distance descents, night rafting, tourist runs and Eskimo rolling comps for youngsters.

International Freestyle Open
22-28 July 2013
Excitingly, many of the world's greatest freestyle paddlers will make their pilgrimage to Northern Spain for this event in the freestyle calender.

Catalonia Slalom Promotion Championship
7 September
Places in national divisions are contested.

July is set to be a whistle-stop month in the region!

Links

• Facebook Page
• A collection of fantastic 3D webcam images can be found of every stage of the river at http://visita3d.com/vv/sort2010
• Sort tourism: www.sort.cat
• Noguera Pallaresa River website: www.kayaksort.cat/en

Freestyle in Sort