Gadang house is traditional and clasical house of West Sumatera. If you visit the region, you'll see the very unique architecture of the houses including those which are lied on river banks.
One of the most unique is in regency of Solok Selatan. And starting from November 9th Tirtaseta Kayak Community kayakers stayed in the beautiful region of West Sumatera. We are invited by the regency to survey rivers potentials to be developed as whitewater kayaking destination. Toto Triwindarto, Puji Jaya, Sigit Setiyanto, and Agus Hermansah will be there until beginning of December.
On Sunday, November 15, four South African paddlers will join the trip. They are Celliers Krueger, the owner of Fluid Kayak, Adrew Kellet, Hugh du Preez, and Adrian Tregoning. They will stay in the Land of 1000 Gadang House until November 27th.
Solok Selatan is home of beutiful rivers. To know further about the trip, stay tuned.
Nov 14, 2009
Kayak Solok Selatan Journey to the Land of Thousand Gadang Houses
Kayak School for the Gifted Formally Launched
Department of Education launched Tirtaseta Kayak School for Gifted
Kids. It was a blessing day when the nation's Director of Special
Education Mr Ekodjatmiko Sukarso visited our wet house on Friday,
November 6th.
Director of Special Education Department of Education
The presence of Mr Ekodjatmiko and other central government officials
was to formally accredit our school. This is a great news that for the
1st time in Indonesia's education history, a kayak school has been
accredited by central government.
Education vision to take care the kids with special talents in certain
fields. "There are gifted children everywhere. And to take care them
is commandement of the constitution. Including in this field of
whitewater kayaking," Mr Ekodjatmiko Sukarso said on his speech of
the launching.
Headmaster of Tirtaseta Kayak School Toto Triwindarto said that it was
not just formal accreditation that his institution receive from the
department of education. It was also support in developing curriculum,
new equipments, and grants in short and longterm projects.
Oct 29, 2009
Kayaking at the Beginning Of Wet Season
Since I came to Indonesia I was looking forward to trying the Indonesian rivers by kayaking, a sport that I love. I knew that the solution of this was going to Galuh, a beautiful village in Purbalingga, Central Java. Here there is this fantastic group of kayakers who love the river, and work very hard in order to increase the practice of this sport in this amazing country. Thanks to my cool friend Toto Triwindarto and his wonderful team this is going up. They provide everything from boats, gears, meals, and hospitality.
The reality was better than what I could imagine, as I expected.
After sleeping in the nice TirtasetA community house with the "kikirikis" of my chickens' friends, we started the trip to the Serayu River, in a exciting trip among funny Indonesian roads. It was the beginning of the raining season so... ada air di sungai (there are water on the river)!! bagus sekali (very good)!!
The river... what to say... four or five hours in a spectacular environment, enjoying rapids and beutiful waves where these guys would impress any famous paddler. There is the "double drop" where you have to stop and decide where to go: kiri or kanan, belum terus!! and many waves where I spent all my energy and enjoyed great Indonesian playboating!! I will not forget the bananas and the boiled eggs in the resting area...
I have nothing else to say except for the most important one: we enjoyed together and joined our spirits of whitewater on the river, you guys took care of me very kindly and friendly (cojonudo!!), I felt I was at home and I will go back to my country with cool new friends from the TirtasetA community. It was an absolute pleasure to paddle with you, also with Sigit who couldn't paddle because of his cough, but I'm sure you are also a playboating machine! Thank you very much for this experience.
I hope to come back and also to see you kayaking in europe!!
*)Victor Larumbe Galech is a Spanish whitewater kayaker who visited Indonesia for enviromental studies for 5 months. He stayed in Yogyakarta up to November 4th, 2009. He could be reached at victorurzainki@hotmail.com.
Oct 8, 2009
Rivers of Dieng Plateu
Almost everyone in the country knows name of Dieng plateu. This is a public tourism site which is located on a hill with hot springs everywhere, historic temples, small lakes, and mountaneus view.
But, many people are not concious that from the plateu flow tributaries which provide kayakers, rivers to run. One of the tributary of Serayu river is lied on Dieng plateu.
Couple of weeks ago, Sigit Setiyanto of Tirtaseta checked two of Dieng plateu rivers. They are Tulis and Urang river.
The upper section of Tulis river is located in Wonosobo regency and the lower is in Banjarnegara regency. This is a very potential river to kayak with class II-III rapids along its 7-10km of length. The most chalenging section will be 1-1,5 km of continous class IV-V of boulder garden rapids in steep gradient.
Another interesting river is Urang. Urang river has average class II-III rapids. It has also some 2 km chalenging section with many drop formations and boulder gardens. The 'still green' forest along its river beds is a rewarding scene. Urang absolutely will be waiting every kayaker's passion to taste their spirit of adventure.
And we are looking forward the right time and the right flow to run first descent kayaking trips on the rivers.
Images of Tulis river:
Sep 6, 2009
Kid Kayaking on TV Program
Again, we supported a national tv program to arrange a special coverage on kayaking activity.
Around two weeks ago, Yuqi Safitri of Trans7, a private tv company who has national coverage was in Purbalingga for four days. She and crew were on an assignment to tape an edition of Catatan Harian si Unyil . Unyil is name of a doll who is the main character of the kid program of the tv.
The story board needed Unyil to go kayaking accompanied by local kids of Purbalingga. So, we invited our neighbour's children to participate. Four kids were selected from the what so called 'spontaneously audition.'
Kayaking was not the only option of the picture taking processes. But it was unavoidable become the most important part of the story.
The crew and the kids had great time on the river. And we proud being part of the team who enjoyed the whole process.
Check the images:
