Mission Failed

October 24, 2012 - 3 minutes read

Unfortunately I had to prematurely abort the hydrospeed descend of the river Soča. The drysuit became a very wet wetsuit and after 14 hours in the water I had to call it a day.

Here is how the events evolved.

I jumped in the water at 8 in the morning and shortly after, on the first rapid, I hit a rock with my knee. Unfortunately the drysuit trilaminate on the knee suffered a small rapture and even if there were two layers of the waterproof material and the inside one was not damaged, the suit started to leak.

I than stopped in Trnovo in the Alpin Action shop where with the help of my support crew, we successfully patched the hole. Soon after, in the technically most challenging part of the river, the Katarakt, the right shoe started to take water. And that was not only drops, but proper amount of water. Problems usually come in pairs, so also the left shoe started t feel like a cold, small swimming pool.

Because the suit was no longer dry I exchanged the thermal underwear for a thick neoprene long john. But the problem just got bigger and bigger, the suit was started to leak even through the fabric on all the places that were bending of were pressing against the hydrospeed. Knees, lower back, stomach, elbows… and the situation was deteriorating every hour. In the evening I was already so tired that I was not able to keep the temperature up and felt very cold. I decided to abort the challenge at Most na Soči.

Sadly I won’t be able to make another attempt until spring, when the new season opens, so I have the winter to source a better suit for the Soča 2.0 edition.

Many thanks to Fluid Kayaks and Rokx Adventure for the Anvil hydrospeed, Gecko Headwear for the helmet, the both worked perfectly!

Many thanks to Andraž Krpič – Muki, for the help on the difficult part of the river, and Gregor Zadravec for the impeccable shore support and beautiful photos.

In that 14 hours spent on the water I was able to Tweet live from the river. The thanks for that goes to Sony Xperia Go that survived the challenge to be immersed in the water for so much time without any protection. That really is a true smartphone was water adventurers.

A short video clip will be made out of all the nice footage the guys of Bright Visuals.

Until then, seize the day!