A friend with ties to Oslo’s skate scene told me about it. A crew called Grlshred was organising something called Boats & Hoes, named after the song from the film Step Brothers. The concept was straightforward. Get something inflatable, put it in the Akerselva river, and paddle your way down to the fjord.

I had no assignment, no project, and no particular reason to be there. Just a camera and a summer afternoon with nothing planned.

They pumped up their vessels on the riverbank. Some had pool rings. Some had oversized toy rafts, inflatable flamingos, or unicorns. Others had small dinghies. The first thing most of them secured was the alcohol. Everything else could get wet or go overboard.

Then they pushed off. The Akerselva has a few sets of rapids, and watching a fleet of pool toys hit them was exactly as chaotic as it sounds. People screamed, laughed, and held their beers above the waterline while their boats spun sideways.

I walked along the bank and found a spot near the rapids where I could let them come to me. Everyone who showed up was treated as a potential new friend, and conversation came easy. A couple of bystanders stopped to watch from the bank, probably trying to work out what they were looking at.

The photos ended up in my library without a folder to belong to. I had other projects running at the time, things I considered more serious work. These were from a day off. They got buried. Finding them again reminded me that I had a good time, and that sometimes the least planned photos are the ones worth keeping.

It was nothing serious. Just a fun day shooting and hanging out with random people.