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TRAILER NORWAY
INDIA - Monsoon and bureaucracy
The state of Kerala in the southwest of the country has the potential for several paddlers' lives in the rainy season. But the biggest challenge is getting onto the wild rivers at all - because the mills of Indian bureaucracy grind slowly and unpredictably.
Kerala has not been completely white on the paddlers' map for quite some time: The "Malabar River Festival" took place for the seventh time at the end of July in Kodanchery, Asia's biggest kayak event, attracting some of the best international whitewater paddlers every year with a lavish prize money pot. On different rivers, professionals and local amateurs compete in the disciplines freestyle, slalom, boatercross and downriver sprint. For Olaf Obsommer and his team - Thilo Schmitt, Philip Baues, Manuel Arnu, Quinn Cornell and Nouria Newman - the festival was to be the perfect prelude to an exploration trip into the jungle wildwater world of Kerala.
The tourism authorities had promised the team the best possible support: a van with a local driver and, above all, help with the necessary permits to get to the rivers. But apparently the responsible authorities were alarmed because of the unusually strong monsoon. On the spot, getting permits seemed an impossibility. And the trip did not seem to be under a good star in other respects either: Philip had to leave early due to an acute ear infection. With a lot of perseverance and drive, the remaining crew finally managed to wring a few first descents and spectacular river kilometres out of the stubborn Kerala.
That there are far greater concerns than bureaucratic and cultural obstacles for kayak tourists became dramatically apparent long after the team had returned home. The monsoon intensified into the strongest since weather records began. More than 350 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands their homes and livelihoods in the flood of the century.
NORTHERN NORWAY - Paddling fun at the Arctic Circle.
Olaf Obsommer will report on adventures in a kayak from the kingdom of the midnight sun in northern Norway. There, frozen lakes and high water levels in the rivers pushed the team to their limits - but they were rewarded with breathtaking white water in a magnificent setting. A flying drone was also used, which made spectacular action and beautiful landscape shots possible.
GALLERY
THE SPEAKER
OLAF OBSOMMER
Professional Explorer
Big-O / Camera guy & Expeditionist / Initiator of Bike2Boat / Born 1970 / Lives in Raubling, Germany
Olaf got the first tender touches with the wonderful world of paddling as a baby in his mother’s belly canoeing the River Rhine. From that point on, things progressed quickly. Olaf grew tall, taller still, eventually huge. Now – for a long time, long before the smartphone epidemic – he has been travelling the earth exploring wild rivers.
His camera is always with him, capturing these adventures for eternity. For this, he has been honored several times with film prizes and media awards. But his professional photography career was obstructed by »other jobs«. He completed training as an industrial mechanic, before dropping out of both a mechanical engineering and nursing education, and eventually trained as a certified geriatric nurse, working in the profession for eight years. Now, as a self-proclaimed media mogul, a travel/kayak expedition lecturernd president of Big-O-Productions, Obsommer has found finally his passion in storytelling
Many of his adventures captured with his camera were aired in German TV like ZDF, RTL, NTV, N24, SAT1 and BR3. His work has been described by TV stations as »sensational action and nature shots«. During his live-interviews he shares his adventures in an honest and light-hearted way, including ample funny stories.