Twenty-four hours before winning the Ubayak, Éric Deguil paddled the Ubaye River like he had never seen it before. Overnight, the river took back what it had just taught him. Cédric Eyma reports on an unusual brown-water descent of the Ubaye the day before the Ubayak race, a reconnaissance run that preceded a double victory for Éric.
Twenty-four hours before winning the Ubayak, Éric Deguil paddled the Ubaye River like he had never seen it before. Overnight, the river took back what it had just taught him.
A storm rolled into the valley between Thursday and Friday, and the rain was still falling the next day. After weeks of drought in the Pyrenees, Deguil arrived to find the Ubaye running at 20 cumecs. Just a few hours earlier, it had barely been scraping 3. He’d come the day before the race for two reasons: because he wanted to get his paddle wet, and because he needed some bearings for the next day.
What he found looked nothing like the river he knew. « It was more plaster than water, » he says of the river’s color. He has rarely seen the Ubaye like that. Only once before had he encountered that much suspended sand: on the Gave de Pau during the great flood of 2013.
The sediment-laden water erased the rocks. « The first time I dropped in, my first reaction was: maybe there’s a rock there. So I tried to leave myself some margin. » Instead of reading the lines, he was forced to guess them.
« He has rarely seen the Ubaye like that. Only once before had he encountered that much suspended sand. »
And the water wasn’t just hiding the bottom. Heavy with sand, it no longer had the same density or the same temperature. « The way I was breathing, even the way I was blinking, I had to adapt. There was so much sediment that I could feel the sand running over my hands. I really took a mud bath. » In the photos, he’s covered in it. « It’s weird. It crunches between your teeth. »
The section he was waiting for was the Fosse aux Lions, the legendary rapid on the lower section. A natural river, untouched by dams, it is constantly changing. « It had been a while since I’d been back. I couldn’t wait to see what shape it was in this time. » The scouting takes several minutes on foot along the bank. « It’s like a labyrinth. You have to check everything. Left, right, above, below. Just to make sure nothing catches you out. »
Friday night is quiet. Just a few drops of rain. By morning, the Ubaye is back down to 18 cumecs and still falling. The color has changed. Rocks have started to reappear. « What I realized was that all the scouting I’d done was only going to be partly useful. I had to be ready to question everything I’d learned on Friday. »
The long team race takes place that morning in the lower gorge. Éric is racing alongside Jonas Le Morvan and Emmanuel Navarre, friends he’s known for more than a decade and paddles with regularly. The three of them take the win. « We all had a really good run. For me, that gorge is sublime. Charging through it flat out with your buddies, that was really cool. »
The sprint follows in the afternoon, contested over two runs. « Compared to Friday, there were places where you needed to be on the complete opposite side of the river. » In the minutes before the start, he goes back over everything. « I took my time relearning the lines. »
The first run is clean, and the verdict comes immediately. « I had a good run, but I knew it wasn’t going to win. » For the second run, he changes a lot. The water level is still dropping and he doesn’t know exactly by how much. The lines from the first run won’t be enough to find the top step. « I really needed a good run if I wanted to be in front. » The second and a half he was missing, he goes and gets. A double win for Éric: Team race and sprint.
Then comes the question of what a race like this still means to a five-time world champion. The answer lies somewhere between the history of the river and his own. When he was a kid, people talked about the Ubaye as a river for the hard ones, a technical stretch that you just don’t paddle. Instead, he spent years wearing out the Guil and the upper tributaries of the Durance Valley. He had never raced the Ubayak. The dates had simply never lined up.
« A natural river, untouched by dams, it is constantly changing. »
This summer marks another milestone as Deguil joins Team NRS. But on the Ubaye that weekend, the real stakes were elsewhere. « The Ubayak remains a historic event, at least in Europe. Every top kayaker in Europe, maybe even in the world, has had a crack at it. It was time for me to have my turn. »
Words: Éric Deguil & Cédric Eyma | Photography: Cédric Eyma
