Teva tribe athletes Rush Sturges and Ben Brown, along with friends Tyler Bradt and Patrick Camblin recently returned from a three week expedition in Iceland filming for Rush and Tylers upcoming feature 'Dream Result'.

Situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is a hot spot of volcanic and geothermal activity: 30 post-glacial volcanoes have erupted in the past two centuries, and natural hot water supplies much of the population with cheap, pollution-free heating. Fed by snowmelt and a melting glaciated icecap, including Europe’s largest glacier Vatnajökull, which covers over 11% of the country, Iceland is riddled with rivers and creeks spilling from the interior to the sea in every direction. These tumbling waterways are a kayakers Mecca featuring everything from technical low volume descents, to thunderous waterfalls.

The team circumnavigated the entire island and managed to rack up over 4000km's on the rental vehicle which is quite an achievement considering the main road around the exterior of the island is only 1300km's long! Starting in the previously unexplored Western Fjords we headed North and then East encountering fluctuating water levels and more waterfalls than we knew what to do with! 

After some lower than desireable waterlevels in the West and somewhat slower start to the trip than anticipated we started to find what we had come to Iceland looking for, big, clean waterfalls. We managed to knock off several first descents as well as a few of Icelands more famous drops.

We were in Iceland over the summer solstice which made for interesting camping conditions due to the 24 hour sunlight! We found Iceland to be a geolocically diverse country with everything from barren volcanic wastelands to rolling green fields. Almost as changeable as the landscape was Icelands weather. Despite the fact that it was supposedly summer we had temperatures ranging from below zero to 20+ degrees celcius. Luckily for us there were some of the best natural hot springs any of us had ever seen spread all across the country so they provided a welcome refuge when conditions became too cold.

Both Rush and I used the new Teva 'Cherry Bomb' creek bootie on this trip and we found it to be a great creeking shoe. Offering good support and a low profile along with an extremely sticky sole we both agreed that the Cherry Bomb would now be our preferred paddling footwear. Also new to the Teva family this year is the B1 shoe. The B1 exceeded all expectations in what can only be described as 'trying' conditions. We tested the shoe in almost every situation imagineable from glacier climbs, to loose scree slopes, to slippery river rocks an everything in between. It was great to have a shoe that was both stylish and functional.

 This was one of the most enjoyable trips I have had in a long time. We filmed a great segment for 'Dream Result' and took some awesome still images. Iceland once again proved to be one of the worlds premier waterfall kayaking destinations and I eagerly await my next adventure there to uncover more of her whitewater gems. Check out www.benbrown.co.nz and www.river-roots.com for more on the adventure and info about 'Dream Result'.