Jacques

JACQUES.

In Valsesia the river is everywhere. You feel it all day. At any time.

Jacques is in the river, on his kayak. It moves smoothly among the waves. The current is not always predictable, but he seems so naturally comfortable. He paddles with elegance, dances with the river, at its pace. He follows the intensity, the curves, the slopes. He gives and releases energy.

He’s in his element. A part of it.

When he comes out of the Sesia after a lesson, kayak on his shoulders and a smile on his face, Jacques exudes serenity. It’s so pleasant to be in front of someone who has found his role, his place, his mission on Earth.

Everything makes sense: the Sesia originates from the Monte Rosa glacier and swiftly flows along the valley, to which it gives the name. Also, is the river where Jacques learned to paddle: his father put him on a kayak at the age of three. From that moment on, walking on the ground and sliding between the currents became the same thing. And the Val Sesia, over the years, became home.

Now it all makes sense, and when I look at Jacques back to his kayaking school, the Alpin Ride Center, which he opened with his best friends in Mollia, I see all the pieces of the puzzle in place.

But it has not always been like this, and if today I feel this serenity, it is because water flowed in the river, and this water and time carved and shaped Jacques’ life, leading him to realize his dream.

Jacques Gilardone was born in Milan, in 1989, and during and after his studies in communication he dedicated his life to kayaking and snowboarding, traveling all over the world to ride the wildest rivers: Norway, Colombia, Chile, Africa, Australia … but Valsesia has always been the base to come back to, every winter and every summer, first with the family, and then with friends, the second family, with the whole community of young and old who lives in this valley.

Valsesia is considered one of the greenest valleys in Italy. It is still a very wild valley, which releases a magical energy: you can feel it and breathe it among its trees, on the mountains and in the river. This energy also vibrates in the people who live in here, because they were born here or because they arrived there to share a more natural and simpler lifestyle.

Long trips and experiences in places far away from here, just reinforced the role of Campertogno and Valsesia as Jacques’s home. Year after year the roots that deeply linked him to this magical place have strengthened, to the point of convincing him to invest and live here for the rest of his life.

Today, I look at him, at school, ready to leave for the next lesson, enthusiastic as always, to carry on his passion … and mission: to change people’s relationship with the river. Unfortunately, many consider the river as something dangerous, but actually, it’s an element that can teach you a lot, in life, as well as in sport, of course. Others see kayaking as an individual sport, when it is the exact contrary: the only way to go out from the river, sometimes, is the rope thrown by your companion. And as your life is therefore in his hands, this creates relationships that last forever.

There is so much to learn: I observe him, with his students, teaching first to read the river, how to know it. Kayaking is the ability to move on the river using the current as much as possible. It’s a work of observation: once you have studied and understood the movements of the river, you must then find yourself inside it. And be ready. Faced with the most frightening rapids, Jacques spent hours and hours observing, studying, sleeping, absorbing their energy, breathing, imagining the line to follow.

Jacques often talks about serenity and concentration. About listening. He closes his eyes. When you are inside the element, surrounded by water and the river, you see everything from a different point of view. There’s no longer roads and buildings… you no longer hear the noises of the world… you are in a new space. You are in a present moment, with emptiness in your head. You are in the water, you play with her and everything else is rinsed away.

He opens his eyes again. He smiles. It’s done. Everyone is ready to enter the water.

I couldn’t find a better picture for happiness: doing the activity you love, living in constant contact with nature, in one of the wildest valleys left in Italy, seems to me the simplest and most natural realization for this human being here in front of me. This valley, this community, this river, is really what makes Jacques unique, what makes him feel himself and what made him what he is today, happy, without any effort.

www.alpinridercenter.com

Text by Sofia Parisi

Video by Loïc Bailliard

Pictures by Soren Rickard and Jean Hacquart