Stakeout 2023 - The North
If you were to say the word Stakeout to any freestyle kayaker it would conjure up one thing in their minds eye. Images of masses of greeny/brown water creating giant rapids, huge waves and some of the world's best kayakers plying their trade. To those not initiated, this is the name given to the couple of month window in Ontario and Quebec when the snow melt sends the river levels skyrocketing, resulting in some of the biggest waves and rapids ever surfed and run. The term first came in to my consciousness back in the mid to late noughties when all the top Canadian and US paddlers would spend this period of time hunting for new waves, literally 'staking out' certain rapids to see what features formed at what levels. Inevitably they would then produce the now iconic videos of the waves they found and the epic tricks they threw down on them.
I personally had been considering a trip to stakeout for a good number of years now, but was never completely sure if - A. I'd spend the entire trip terrified and B. If my sometimes temperamental body would hold up to the abuse of paddling such large waves.
2023 turned out to be the year when I would find out the answers to these questions. After years of trying to convince me to join them, my good friends, and Stakeout regulars, Nick Beavis and Mandy Chan finally succeeded. This was aided by the fact I would have a travel buddy, as my itinerary lined up well with another good friend Mike Shaw, GB Team Coach and London Kayak School Boss and there was also going to be a whole host of my other favourite Brits making the trip too.
When me and Mike departed, Stakeout had begun in the Ottawa valley with a whole mix of different features and rapids having run for a week or so as the snow began to melt. Things were starting to heat up in Northern Quebec as well so we were waiting to find out where we would be heading upon arrival.
It turned out that Northern Quebec was deemed to be the place to be, so we met up with Nick and Mandy at a Tim Horton's just outside Montreal and began the day's drive. The further from Montreal we got the more remote and stunning the scenery became, made up of various rocky crags, trees, mounds of snow and the lots of frozen lakes.
Cheese Wave Side ® Boyd Ruppelt
When in the North, a small town called Dolbeau is generally the place to base yourself as it is situated on the banks of Lake Saint-Jean which has a multitude of rivers flowing both in and out of it. The original main draw for kayakers heading North was a series of three rapids on the Mistassibi, about half hours drive outside of Dolbeau in an area called Saint Stanislas. These make up the 'Joy' laps section I had heard so much about and has a handy car park at the put in for the last of the three rapids, the infamous Hawaii, where car and tent camping is fair game. At various river levels these rapids are where the original classic Québec stakeout waves form.
Our first port of call would be further up the Mistassibi to one of the more recently surfed waves called Molly. This was an hour or so drive up a logging track from Dolbeau and out into the wilderness. Here the crew of lots of my favourite people was competed by Heidi Walsh, Harry Price and Ottilie Robinson-Shaw as well as a mix of familiar faces from the Ottawa Valley and new folks from the Quebec region and further afield.
There is no phone signal at Molly so we headed there relying on past knowledge of what level the wave has previously worked at. My first impression was that it did look rather large. The regulars were of the opinion it was too foamy/holey and there was also a reasonable amount of ice chunks heading down as the lake upstream broke up. Harry and Ottie, having already been there eagerly waiting for a day, kitted up and got on just after our arrival. Their review of the wave at this point wasn't great (basically a giant hole with shoulders) and an ice spotter was required at all times but I was still keen to get on myself after some lunch and acclimatise to such unfamiliar conditions. The ice flows had other ideas though, as they soon became totally continuous making it impossible to get on. We had to resign ourselves to the fact that there would be no more paddling that day.
"Getting over those first session nerves and throwing a big righty airscrew on a foamy Molly" ®
The following afternoon we finally got our first taste of Stakeout. The ice flows had now lessened, which was good sign as it meant the lake had likely mostly broken up and ice would become less of an issue. It also meant the river was on its way up, which would bring in prime super green Molly, that the regulars had been waiting for. The first few surfs were a nervy affair, especially as a giant tow rope is required to get on to the wave. This is suspended from the bridge a good 20-30m upstream and there is a definite knack to keeping the tension in it as you cross the boily eddy line. Any issues here though were lessened by the fact that the wave is followed by nothing more than a wave train and has a giant friendly eddy next to it making it the most chilled and sessionable wave at Stakeout. The wave itself was as expected, pretty rowdy in the middle with smoother usable shoulders. The bouncing was maybe a little more than I anticipated but the impact from the green water on each bounce, though pretty damn hard, was about what I had expected. The session was really good fun, I tried all the moves I had convinced myself I would, in a bid to break any hesitations about trying things and I was also in one piece. I think the general feeling amongst the Brits was that although it was obviously a lot bigger than anything we had paddled before it didn't feel as great an order of magnitude bigger than we had expected. We were reliably informed this was yet to come and what we had been paddling was about half the height of prime green Molly.
As the river was rising slowly the following day, meaning green Molly would be a few more days yet, the Stakeout regulars decided it was worth heading back in to town to look at the rapids near Saint Stanislaus. We looked at the Hawaii rapid first, which looked massive, and was offering a wave called Middle Earth about halfway down. This is more typical of a lot of the waves at Stakeout in the fact it has no eddy service so requires running a chunky rapid after each surf and then hiking up through the forest to put back on. This was deemed not worth the effort so Nick took the Brit's up to the top rapid and a small European size wave called H2O. This was fun but we didn't stay too long, a decision based on the wave being small, tricky and unstable and it being quite a long bush whacking hike required between surfs. We did however get our first taste of proper big water on this trip, running the bottom of the rapid. This had a reasonably easy but must make line between standing waves and hydraulics the height of a bungalow.
"The mighty curler at the top of Hawaii rapid" ® Heidi Walsh
The following day we got our first taste of prime Molly as the river was on the rise. The regulars were not wrong, once it greened out it was significantly bigger that it had been on our first surfs. Nothing can quite explain how it feels when you are at the very crest of such a massive, steep green wave. On the one hand you kind of stiffen up and brace for the impending bouncing down the face whilst on the other hand your brain is screaming "NOW!" as you know that this is the best point for throwing absolutely ginormous tricks, it just feels so against your innate survival instinct. It is only now having been home and paddled our 'normal' small waves that you really appreciate the amount of air you get on every pass on such a big wave. The lack of restriction of anything dragging in the water and the complete freedom of movement this creates is quite something. It does however make you realise how different paddling waves like this is and highlights all the strange techniques you end up with having learnt on smaller waves. Whether this is timings in the moves or where you would normally sneakily pull things straight by leaving your paddles or body in certain positions. The trip was going to have a very steep learning curve!
This first window of prime Molly fell on a weekend which meant we also got to experience 'Molly Fest', if a slightly dampened down version. I was unaware quite how big the Quebec freestyle community was. On the weekends up the 30 or so local paddlers would arrive on Friday evening to spend the weekend surfing, partying and hanging with friends. There was a mixture of river boarders (think freestyle kayaking but on a body boards - youtube Earth Veins) and kayakers, all of whom seemed to own a Featherweight (basically the freestyle kayak equivalent of a super car in terms of big wave surfing) and a Riot Boogie (a very old plastic surf boat for when the wave is too green for freestyle boats). There was also a limited number of non-paddling locals who just come to watch and enjoy the atmosphere, with every big move, crash or personal milestone cheered equally by the assembled crowd on the bridge. Nick assured us in previous years there have been far more of these non-paddlers there leading to less of a dampened 'Molly Fest', think late rowdy nights involving pickup trucks doing burnouts and firearms.
After a few days of the river rising Molly had now become too green to surf in a freestyle boat, now the domain of the faster river boarders and the Quebecois in their Riot Boogies. Folks were also getting very keen for internet and phone signal so we headed back to Dolbeau and Saint Stanislas for 'joy' laps and whatever waves the Hawaii rapid had to offer. This turned out to be Black Mass, one of the original Stakeout waves. Situated in the middle of the rapid you had to slide off the rocks and either try and hit the face of the wave, hoping it was foamy or steep enough to catch you or alternatively drop into the edge of a big foamy hole and surf across onto the face. Needless to say, both options were providing hit rates of around 1 surf out of 4 attempts and each one was followed by running the rest of the rapid. This was ultimately an inconsequential endeavour with a messed-up line resulting in multiple out of control rolls through a variety of large white-water hydraulics. This was then followed by a slightly sketchy get out in a fast moving and boily eddy and a hike back up through the forest to do it all again. This made a good surf very rewarding and a bad surf leaving you wanting to get back up through the forest as quickly as possible to try again.
The next few days saw us getting our first shower in some time, paying a swimming pool for the privilege, and some more black mass surfs, where Mike got hit biggest and straightest airscrew to date, and a 'joy' lap of the three sections. This involved most folks in creek boat and us all hitting the three rapids together. Starting with the rapid we had visited and run on our day at H2O, followed by a second long rapid made up of a lot of fun big bouncy kick flip waves and finishing with Hawaii rapid. This was our first time running the rather intimidating curler where you have to thread through a green tongue with a dialling hydraulic on one side, feeding nicely into the iconic massive barrelling wave on the other.
"Harry mid ginormous pan am on Cheese Wave" ® Boyd Ruppelt
It now became clear that this was not to be a usual Stakeout year, with the river seeming to have plateaued over the last few days and now starting to drop. This meant we were not going to get to see and surf some of the other classic waves, but it did mean we were going to head back into the wilderness for another good few days of Molly, something I don't think anyone was complaining about.
What followed was pretty much 6 days straight of epicness - beautiful sunny skies, awesome company, nature and an amazing wave. We all pretty much surfed ourselves into oblivion, with almost everyone fitting in a triple session day amongst a lot of doubles. The Brits also started to make progress, Harry started to get the hang of airscrew combos, Ottie threw some epically massive textbook perfect airscrews and huge sasquatches, Heidi was following her hard on the airscrew trail and getting close to KYs. Nick showed us all how it's done once you have a bit more understanding of how to use a big wave and I was loosely getting to grips with spin combos. We also had the privilege of being there when Canada's Luke Pomeroy stuck the first double airscrew. Annoyingly I missed it live as I was down the eddy at the time, but the stoke around the crew that evening was awesome as people celebrated this land mark in our sport.
As the river level dropped Molly started to move more towards the foamy wave that we encountered on our first day and it was quite remarkable to now be able to see and feel the difference in the shape of the wave. Exhausted we headed back to civilisation for a few days to recuperate. The lower than usual river levels meant we may get an end of trip treat in the shape of Cheese Wave, the most recently surfed 'new' wave. This was again off in the wilderness to a greater extent than Molly. Getting there required driving for an hour or so, through a nature reserve set up to protect Lynxes, down small ATV tracks. This was not something we were going to put our hire car through so we drove in every day with Nick and Mandy in their pickup, whilst the others all camped out at the wave. These daily trips in and out rewarded us with both a juvenile bear and a lynx sighting.
We were the first along the trail so had the thankless task of clearing the way down the last couple of kilometers, walking ahead of the pickup moving and clearing any branches which were obstructing our path. As with Molly our first day at Cheese Wave turned into a waiting game as the river was still slightly too high.
"The topography of Cheese Wave at its least funky" ® Benny Marr
Our second day however gave out the goods. Whereas Molly had surprised me a little with its feeling of scale and also the hardness of impact Cheese Wave turned out to be a lot more like I had imagined. This thing felt massive and from just front surfing it was obvious that landing anything was going to be a pretty big impact. The water coming into it was so perfectly glassy, green and unbroken with no aeration. The feeling of the speed of the wave was also impressive, it kind of felt like you were surfing in a foamy pocket/hole on the edge of this massive green face, which you could dart out onto before having to return to the pocket to stop yourself from slipping off the back.
The big hitters also rolled in now Cheese Wave was running, with Dane Jackson, Benny Marr and Tom Dolle all turning up. In typical Dane fashion he managed to become the second person to land a double airscrew. A week after Luke's success, he threw an almost text book totally level double barrel roll, on only his third attempt, going on to land an even better one that evening. The level that these guys plus Luke Pomeroy paddle at on waves of this size is insane. Whereas I had always thought paddling these bigger waves would be largely about hard carving and moving the boat from edge to edge it turns out it's anything but that. The thing these guys have dialled is their ninja like ability to keep the boat level and at just the right point so they stay at the top of wave, able to just keep the boat bouncing and linking moves at will. Needles to say it was pretty damn inspiring to watch, especially when Dane and Tom engaged in a pretty outrageous KY off going insanely big on the pistol flip part of the move.
The next day the wave was unfortunately between levels but the following day of Cheese Wave showed why this is quite such a unique feature. The shape of the wave change with the levels but not in the way most waves do. Normally I'm used to a wave staying roughly in the same place and going from a foamy mess to a green crest, but its general form staying the same. Cheese wave is predominantly a large sort of snow plough of green water with a foamy bit either side. As this drops all different sort of pockets, hydraulics and micro faces open up all over the wave. To see it on a drone shot from above really does look pretty crazy. This last day saw some more epic paddling from our British Ladies, Heidi nailed a beautifully large hull to hull airscrew and Ottie started to get a hang of airscrew combos and threw probably the best pistol flip I saw anyone throw all trip.
By this point most people had been camping at Cheese wave for four days so they were pretty happy that the wave was dropping out. It was also mine and Mike's last day so we all headed out for food and a very brief trip to the legendary Vox nightclub before we hit the road back to Montreal.
All in all it couldn't have been a better trip. In answer to my original questions - at no point was I massively scared out of my comfort zone and my body was pretty much fully intact (thought slightly aided by swapping my carbon boat for plastic). We pretty much timed it perfectly to arrive in the North when Molly first started to come in and left just as the lowest water wave dropped out. We didn't get to paddle some of the classic waves, but as this was a first Stakeout visit it was nice to have so much time on as friendly, inconsequential and sessionable big wave as is possible in the form of Molly.
"The clean before the crash - Cheese Wave" ® Nick Beavis
Finally, a few pointers for anyone thinking of making a Stakeout trip.
· Take each day as it comes, we got incredibly lucky with our timing, there can be a lot of waiting around. Take this as a good thing though as when the waves come in you're going to want to keep going and going. Also there can be what feels like a lot of effort for little reward. Some of the waves will have 1 in four attempt or worse hit rates followed by 5-10 minute bush whacking. Be ready that if you get unlucky this could be how your trip pans out.
· A good down jacket and sleeping bag are well advised. We lucked in pretty hard with the weather, only having two days of proper cold rain/snow British Winter style. Even then it did get chilly at night and I pretty much lived in my down jacket most of the trip.
· A drysuit is a must, the water never got above 3-4 degrees so any out of boat incidents would have been pretty horrible and seen energy lost very quickly if not fully sealed up in dry kit.
· Accept opportunities to shower will be few and far between. Other than the very nice refreshing dips in the freezing river when the air temp was warm enough, we only showered twice in three weeks. Also be ready for wilding toileting, a good trowel for digging your holes is recommended.
· A Dodge Grand Caravan makes for a surprisingly comfy and warm home for two grown adults for three weeks, though you do end the trip feeling like you are a fully fledged couple by the end of it.
· And finally, take your friends. There will be points when you are a little scared so having folks you can rely on around is good. They also make the trip. Yes, the paddling was amazing but a large part of why I loved this trip so much was the folks I shared it with. I could happily have spent weeks in the wilderness chatting rubbish between surf's on some of the worlds best waves with these guys.
