jackson outdoors

Antarctica 11/12

2011-12-10T00:18:00.000-08:00

First day of my Antarctica 11/12 season. Not a bad start really...

Bliss-stick Tuna

2011-10-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Pretty exciting news for Kiwi and International kayakers alike. Kenny Mutton and Charles Sage have been busy dreaming up this beauty. All I've heard about the boat thus far has been great. Mike Dawson and Sam Sutton have been tearing up the racing scene in them... Check out what Bliss-Stick has to say about the new Tuna.

Upper South Stanislaus

2011-08-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

When is an adventure not an adventure? By definition an adventure is an activity without a know outcome.

I received a text from Taylor Cavin via Shonnon Mast.

530 #Shannon

“Do you want to go and run a river that has only seen a few trips, ever?”

530 #Ben

“Is a fish water proof? Sounds like a great idea. Who, What, where and when?”

530 #Shannon

“Something on the Stan with Taylor and his mate Chris. Meet at the bakery @ 8am”

Cue the packing of gear, food and take out beer.

An early start had all the loose ends tied and off to Sierra Rising Bakery in Coloma. 8am rolled around and Shannon rolled in ready to go. He filled me in on the to head south about four hours to a run on the Upper South Stanislas River. Taylor’s buddy Chris had been eyeing up a section down there and it had only one or two previous descents. Word from Chris was that it was “very steep”.

8.30 comes and goes, no sign of Taylor.

We receive a text from 530# Taylor “I’m moving, but very slowly, Coloma clubbed”.

Stop right there. Already we have all the necessary ingredients for a great adventure. Previous experience, however, lead me to believe that I already knew the outcome… epic.

Shannon and I joked about it as we waited for Taylor.

A late start, a four hour drive, an unknown run with an unknown put-in, an unknown hike in, an unknown amount of gradient (steeper = harder and therefore slower progress).

With all the unknown factors then surely this would be an adventure. Hmmm.

We already knew we were going to benighted (its fancy adventure speak for getting stuck out in the dark). We knew that we wouldn’t finish the run in the light and would surely have to walk out. We knew there would be lots of paddling, a lot of hiking and hauling of kayaks around unrunnable rapids. All this and we hadn’t even left the bakery. And better yet, we knew all this and still went… and were very happy about it all.

Eventually we left the bakery, drove highway 49 south to Sonora, made the turn and drove to Pinecrest Lake. Here we meet Chris Korbulic, our man in the know and with the information on the run. The info being, we were to paddle three miles and steep granite goodness back to the lake. Simple as.

Even as we drove out of Pinecrest on the way to river we decided to over ride common sense. “Shannon, reckon we should leave some dry cloths in the take out vehicle?”, “Nah, it’s California, it doesn’t get cold here. Hmmm, not a great idea when you’ve parked the car at close to 2000m above sea level.

Eventually we made it to put in on the river right, having tried unsuccessfully to put in at the river left ski field (another cue that it might actually get cold up there).

A twenty minute hike popped us out on the tree line of an amazing granite valley system. In the distance we could see the river. Steep, granite, amazing. Cue the high fiving white guys. Forty minutes later we were at the river.

Chris made short work of the descent into the Upper South Stan. Shann, Taylor and I trailed behind trying to keep up with his enthusiastic pace. Jackpot!

Although we had predicted steep, unrunnable mank (steep, shitty kayaking) we arrived at some very long and very runnable slides. All at the timely hour of 5pm. Taylor often referred to this as a ‘Calpine’ start. Very much the opposite to that of our alpine/ mountaineering counter parts.

We justified this by saying putting on earlier would mean that we wouldn’t the peak daily run off. (Cali rivers pretty much all run off snow melt. Meaning that they will peak and drop depending on the amount of sun they get. Di-urnal Flow).

Chris and Shannon made short work of the first two rapids. Chris had a pretty good piton (hitting a rock and coming to a dead stop) but continued without too much concern.

My run of the main slide was not as straight forward. Half way down I crested a rise and dropped about 6 feet straight to a dead stop. The resulting impact stove in the front of my kayak, left two holes in the nose of my boat and left me with a good dose whiplash.

The moment before impact

After a quick pit stop repair at the bottom we were back on the water and making our way slowly to the lake. We had about 3 hours to cover 5km (3 miles) to the lake…. and dinner.

Turn after turn revealed slide after slide, drop after drop of granite fun. Mixed in with all this were rapids and sections of manky paddling with some portaging required.

Despite the steepness we made ok progress down stream. There were a few rapids of note and many many more that were just great fun.

The one that really got our hearts going was HUGE. Boof to enter, punch a hole, drive hard left onto the rock and lock in for very steep 40 foot slide into a very small pool at the bottom, quickly through some busy water, boof right, drive through some more busy water, be center moving hard left and avoid the big reconnect/ redirect down the bottom on the right, punch a sticky hole and catch the only eddy before the river disappeared into a 40 foot high seivy manky mess. Start to finish the rapid was probably about 70m long (200 feetish) and dropped, a lot. None of the team ran the aforementioned rapid because of the consequences. A, hitting the big rock that extended into the main flow. B, only one eddy before the waterfall of horror.

After much discussion boats were quickly portaged and we were back on the river.

The diminishing light and lack of time meant that the camera stayed firmly packed in the back of my kayak.

The faster the precious light faded, the faster worked our way down stream. There were a few nervous moments as we descended our way down stream. Nothing was going wrong but the potential for mistakes was increasing. Paddling in fading light means that decisions are rushed and situations aren’t always thought through, as they should be. Paddling with a very good team with sound judgment meant we avoided these problems.

We roped our boats into the start of the last major portage as the last rays of light disappeared over the distant horizon.

The frenetic pace of the past hour finally gave away to calm. It was obvious kayaking as we knew it was done for the day. Jokes were shared as we all embraced the situation. All day long we knew that were we going to end up stuck in the dark. Now we were.

We could see the lake from where we stood atop a granite dome. Maybe a mile and a half stood between us and the lake, and then a short 20minute paddle back to the car.

Our only problem being is that we had a bunch of gradient to loose on the walk out. Easy in the light, much harder when you can only see the 20 feet in your headlights beam.

After rope lowering the boys and some creative crashing through trees we made it to the bottom of the portage. From here it was back into the kayaks to paddle the mainly flat water through the meadow. It would have to be some of the more exhilarating class two paddling I have even done.

The final portage took a very long and tiring 15 minutes and finally deposited us at the lake. Not a minute too soon either.

Of course...

Finally back too the car at the crack of 11.30pm we slowly loaded the boats, borrowed what dry gear we could from Chris and gingerly made our way back to the cars, food and bed.

As we tucked ourselves into bed at the timely hour of 1.30am I doubt you could have found such a content bunch of smelly, tired non-adventuring adventurers.

Best Week Ever!

2011-08-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

On your marks, get set, go.

Although the start of the season felt as though it was a case of hurry up and wait. Things have changed drastically. This season has set its self apart because of the amount of amazing paddling to be had. When it rains, it pours.

Don’t get me wrong; you still have to work for your kayaking in the good years. There is often a lot of speculation about flows, access, teams and even weather.

There have been periods this season where I’ve almost felt like a kayak trip broker. Phone call after phone call finding flows, run beta, teams, sorting logistics, you name it. Talk, talk, talk…

Yes please!

Despite bad weather I managed a hot lap on the infamous South Branch of the Middle Feather. Rain and cool weather did little to dampen our spirits our enthusiasm for this granite playground.

Ben Brown, a happy kiwi chappy

For the pure fun factor I would have to rate the South Branch in my top three rivers. Ever. Low stress, great crew and I even learnt how to run big water falls (big is a relative term of course, especially for a kiwi).

Word on the street was that the Rubicon was finally at a boatable flow.

After getting shut down on our early Rubicon trip things seemed to be looking on the up and up. The vague info we had on flows was that it was in but it could be high. The forecast was for hotter weather. But, the river could be on its way out. This means that the snow pack feeding the run off was almost gone. We had speculation a plenty.

Talks with Dave Maurier and Tera Muir had me firmly on the fence. Too high? Too soon? Hmmm too good to miss!

After a much faffing the call was made to commit to the trip (who says kayakers can’t commit?).

We quickly assembled our team. Did the usual last minute scramble to pack, load the cars and head for the river.

Upon arrival at the put-in I spied something that filled me with confidence. Rocks. There were plenty of rocks exposed at put-in. They weren’t there last trip. Happy days.

In true California over night style we launched our kayakers into the flow sometime close to 4pm. Twenty miles (30+km) of fantastic white water lay between us and the cold beer at take out.

Joining us on the trip was the one and only Taylor Cavin. He had just got off the run a few days earlier so had plenty of info on where and when to be.

The Rubicon gives you a few miles to warm into things and then the gradient is turned up. Once things steepen up, rapid after rapid are offered up for the enthusiastic paddler. It is one of the funnest read and run rivers on offer. Very quickly we picked our way down stream.

Some of the team were feeling bolder so partook in some white water rodeo. This involves paddling oneself into a large hydraulic, getting destroyed, and then swimming out. It’s a hell of a way to earn a beer.

After some bold boat scouting and a little bit of poke and hope “the swim can’t be that bad”, we made our intended camp. Just in time to dry our gear before the sun tucked away behind the surrounding hills for the evening.

Multi-day trips are all about packing light and taking only what you need. After a dinner of gourmet sausages and makers mark we settled in for a very mild evening under the northern stars.

Shannon avoiding a very aggressive rinse cycle

Matt Coles aka. pitonacon

The crack of 11am had us back on the river and moving progressively down stream. We elected to walk a few of the stauncher rapids early on the day.

The first day on the Rubicon has a few decent sized rapids but day two is where all the paddling really happens. Mile after mile of fantastic white water awaits those who venture into it’s hidden treasure. By nature, the rapids a steep, continuous and a very good type of busy.

An unanticipated feature in the run is the trees. Due to the river hardly ever running (it’s dammed) Alders have taken root and prevent you from catching eddies. It often means that scouting from the riverbank is not really an option. It’s almost a good thing though. The reason being, there are just so many rapids that could/ should be scouted and it would take too much time.

Dave Maurier's secret weapon. Be so light you skip over everything

Pitonacon searching for the next rock

After four fantastic hours on the water we shouldered our kayaks up the steep bank to the waiting cars… and beer.

Spot the professionals. Take out as it should be

Knowing that flows were good else where, we headed back to Auburn and started work on the next adventure.

It took all of two phone calls to plan our next mission. It was a pleasant change from all the humming and harring of recent trips. Tyler Fox had come into the mix and the call was made to head north to Big Kimshew Creek and Secret Stash.

What better way to celebrate American Independence Day than to drive big vehicles and kayak more of the Sierra’s amazing granite.

Keeping to our theme of 2011, we weren’t at put-in until 4pm. In hindsight it was probably a good thing. The flow was definitely on the low side of good and being late in the day meant we caught the peak flow.

The first mile of our run consisted of bouncing and pin balling of every rock we could. When questioned on the flow being too low, Taylor simply replied, “it’s been run lower”.

Young people can land flat.

Even after running the first 20 footer I was struggling to find the aesthetic in the run. To compound our time pressure from starting late, one of the team tweaked his back running the first big drop. It took us half and hour to sort things and the call was made for him to hike out. This left us with a nice compact team of four. We picked our way through the mank filled gutter directly below the 20 footer and things finally began to clean up. With the team moral on the rise we started making good progress down stream.

He even had time for the 'air guitar'

The two main drops you here about on Kimshew are Kimshew Falls and Frenchies Drop.

Our first taste of Kimshew’s goodness came in the form of Kimshew Fall’s. Finally all the crashing down stream had paid off. A double stepped 40ish footer was what lay in wait. Jackpot! Photos were taken, video was shot and high fives were exchanged. This is what we had been seeking.

Kimshew Falls

After regrouping in the pool at the bottom we made the call to make up some time. The drop immediately after Kimshew is a fantastic 15 footer into some fun clean boating. It would have to be one of the standout drops of the run.

Our run off Frenchies went smoothly. Matt Coles did scare us a little after seal launching above the drop, missing the ferry and running much further right than the ideal ‘left line’.

One drop in particular stands out in my mind. Lower down in the “boogie water” section lies a nothing at all rapid. Crashing downstream I emerged from the seething white chaos just in time to see my fate. A four high ‘U’ shaped pour over. I proceeded to drop in side ways with pretty much no speed. For non-kayakers, this is a very bad idea. After being side surfed and rolling a few times I looked longingly at the boys in the pool below. I wasn’t coming out. Shit bugger fuck! My first swim in three years.

Back in the boat and back on track, hoots, hollas and high five were exchanged as we continued downstream towards camp.

Taylor’s last words of advice on the final drop were “boof, tuck and hold on”. Varying degrees of success put us at our camp for the night.

After a restless nights sleep (thank you drunk roaming locals), we packed the boats and pushed our kayaks back into the current. Below lay the Secret Stash.

The Kimshew – Secret Stash combo is rated by some, the best days kayaking in California. I struggled to see the appeal but this was more due to having picked up a bug and feeling like shit.

We paddled many good rapids and had a great day on the water. However, take out and some down time couldn’t fast enough. And thank fully it did. Moves were made, kayaks were carried and we were done for the day.

Day two begins with a bang

As I mentioned earlier, when it rains, it pours. Back to civilisation and cellphone reception and our next plan was already sorted. Back to the Rubicon.

After some deliberation about kayaking vs. feeling like shit, I did the only sensible thing. Went and bought painkillers and a few of those five hour energy shots. Back on track.

Lou Urwin joined the team as we headed back to the Rubicon for a hot lap. We had talked about a one day trip but decided better of it because camping in there was legit. Why rush true such a beautiful place?

Our second trip was more of an express trip. We knocked an hour and a half of the first day and another hour off the second.

The key difference between the trips was the fact that no-one swum on our second lap.

I did, however, give it very strong nudge. About two mintues into day two I boofed and failed a very sticky ledge hole. Turns out the river was a little lower and things a little stickier than I realised. Cue the rodeo. After a very long minute or so Matt Coles (yes Matt I am telling the world this) got to shore with a throw bag. Ahhh, my hero. Not so. After the first throw was too short, a second attempt was taken but alas, I was actually in the hole, not a metre further down stream. “Fuck Matt! I am getting very very tired”. Enter Tyler Fox. The throw bag and I connect and gradually I am pulled from the clutches of the bastard hole. Job done? Nope. Now exhausted I am faced with prospect of running the drop we portaged last time. Not happy. After rolling up, post bastard hole, I manage to claw myself to where I need to be (roughly). Another roll had me giving the “I’m ok” but only just. Turns out the terminal hole wasn’t that terminal.

The next five minutes of my day were spent collapsed on the bank feeling very tired and very un-athletic.

Thankfully that was the sum total of our misadventure for the trip. The rest of the day ran pretty smoothly thereafter.

South Fork Gorge Salmon, South Branch Feather, Rubicon, Big Kimshew, Secret Stash and another Rubicon. Perhaps the best ten days paddling I’ve ever had.

Life is Good.

Upper Middle Consumnes

2011-06-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

KR trying to piece together the next mission via dreamflows

Over the past couple of weeks we have often remarked on what its like to be the tourist in a paddling destination like California. Back home we know what runs are good, who's been on them of late and what river to head to next.

Paddling in Cali doesn't come that easy to us, especially this year with the record snow pack. The high water levels have kept us on our toes so to speak. All too often the plan had been made, gear and cars packed, only to check the river flows and find that our planned run had risen beyond what we were happy to paddle. As it turns out, not all the adventure happens on the river. More like at the Coloma bakery.

Part man, part ginger wolverine. The one and only Keith Riley

We like it stacked. KJ and Tyler talk California polictics

The one river run that proved to be consistent was the Upper Middle Consumnes. Low volume, steep and packed with granite. It's almost always a winning formula.

Keith Riley, Matt Coles and I managed four laps on this gem over a week long period. We were also joined by team latvia (Tommas Marnics), Rachel Curtis (NZ) and Jake Greenbuam (our token American).

PGA. Post Granite Awesome

Making it happen. Foxy's first day in Cali. Can you believe it.

Matty dropping skatepark

The UMC is an amazing run. It does, however, have a way of exacting a carnage tax from those who venture into its granite playground. Be it on the river or simply trying to get to or from it there seems to be some form of mini epic.

Swims, broken paddles, broken boats, broken people, lost teams, lost vehicles, lost tempers and a very typical very long california shuttle. All of this in only 7 trips.

Tyler firing the Arahura or UMC?

That good!

After a couple of laps on the UMC we decided to break a little further north and have a crack at the Rubicon River. I paddled this run back in 05' or 07' and only remembered good things about it. Our flow then was about 800cfs. This time we gave it a nudge at 2000+ cfs and the Rubicon nudged back. The Rubicon only flows on big water/ snow pack years and as a result the river bed is filled with large Alders (kind of like willow trees). As a result there are no eddies to speak of. You are pretty much locked into a corridor of trees with no option to get out if you want. I'm sure the run goes at this flow, especially for the bold, very good and courageous. However, we dealt with a tree across the main flow and didn't rate the chances of it not happening again. The result, two miles in we pulled the pin and decided to practice the art of hiking out with our tails firmly between our legs. Good call.

The Rubicon put-in..... and take out.

T-Fox following the path of least resistance

Got wood?

Back in Coloma we made the call to...... yep, head back into the UMC.

Our luck did extend to having fantastic flows for pretty much all out runs on the UMC. 450-560 cfs meant that there was enough fluff in between at the good stuff to not pin ball down the run. At these flows all the bigger drops were good to go. It even mean that we could paddle two rapids that I had previously portages in recent years. It definitely added an extra element of 'aesthetic' to link a bunch the bigger rapids together without many eddies and without having to get out of your boat. Jackpot! This also cut down on paddling time as well. Just over two hours boating had as at the take out in time to meet our lovely shuttle drivers. Complete with chips, beer and bikini's. Thank you to Rach, Melissa, Soph, Amy and Laura.

KJR in the honeymoon stage of the run.... just plain fun

Matty Coles furthering his Calfornia kayaking education.

School was in session

Moab, Utah

2011-06-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

Moab, Utah.

After wrapping our Grand Canyon trip up in Flagstaff, Zak, Sally and I loaded the Suby to capacity and headed north for Moab. Neither Zak nor Sally had been to that part of the States so I was looking forward to showing off my very limited local knowledge.

Four states for lunch.

Our plan was pretty light. We had a place to stay in Moab, two national parks and one of the world’s most famous mountain bike trails. Simple.

The legend of the Suby grows

Perhaps the most surprising part of our trip Moab was the fact that we actually made it there. Being in Flag post canyon meant that we ended up with all surplus beer, food and general supplies. The kayak on the roof was filled with 40kgs of beer and soda. The back seat aka 'the nest' had just enough space to fit one of us and that was it. Anyone who has seen the Suby will know that it doesn't have any suspension to speak of. Even a moderate bump in the road would bottom out or trusty japanese stead. The resulting wheel rub would fill the car with the smell of burning rubber. Very west Auckland.

Moab, phallic?

We spent the majority of our time in Moab exploring the surrounding national parks. The landscapes of southern Utah are something I have never experienced anywhere else before. My only exposure was through watching wile e coyote and road runner cartoons as a grommet. I almost expected one of them to race by during one of our many short hikes (again, you don't walk or tramp in America).

We quickly realised that our time in Moab was going to be too short so we begun our rigorous sight seeing tour.

I can see my house from here...

Hiking, just like tramping but on the other side of the road/trail

Sally B enjoying B Arch

Arches National Park was first on the list. Surprisingly the park is filled with.... well, arches. Every size and shape, they've got it. For a first timer this place is amazing. Zak and Sally were pretty much jaw dropped the entire time. Having been there before it was cool to explore things a little more and play around with my fancy camera. Happy days.

Next stop was Slick Rock Trail, arguably the most famous mountain bike ride on the planet. So much so that we almost pulled the pin on it. All the folk in town we talked to were telling us how hard the ride was... luckly we chose to ignore the horror stories. Zak, Sally and I hired bikes from Posion Spider Cycles. $40 got you a $NZ4500 bike. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Sall decided that Slick Rock wasn't our cup of tea and we off to explore mellower terrain while Zak and I braved the heat. We had been told to 3-6 hours was normal so we were a little surprised to be back at the carpark in 2 hours, albeit very sweaty and pink.

After a night wining and dining with the locals we headed out to Canyonland's NP Island in the Sky. Again we weren't disappointed with what was on offer. The Island in the Sky is very different from what we had explored in Arches. Large open vista's greeted us at every turn. It was a nice mix to get some height and prospective on the canyon's after spending three weeks in the bottom of the Grand.

Zak Shaw, taking it all in takes along time...

Stunning

All to quickly our time in Moab came to and end. It was back into the Suby and 1400km back to California and the next adventure. Life is good!

Grand Canyon

2011-05-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

My 2011 Grand Canyon trip began with an email I got while I was down in Antarctica over the kiwi summer. "Would you be interested in joining the Alaskan/Kiwi team on a GC trip in April?". Umm, is a seal waterproof... yep!

My daily beauty routine

Flash forward the rest of my Antarctic season, kiwi summer, Buller Festival and things were all on track. That was until I scored a nasty case of pneumonia two weeks before I was due to fly. Stink. The Dr's gave me 4-6 weeks to recover... Hmmm, not really an option. Ten days serious couch time had me fit enough to make the drive from Murchison to Mum's home on the farm. A few home cooked meals had me ready to tackle to flight to California. Check. Next challange, drive 1200km's to Flagstaff. Luckily I own the best 1990 Subaru Legacy in the continental US. Three red bull’s and a foot long sub later I pulled into Flagstaff 11 hours and 30mins later... Possum Bourne would have been proud.

Let the Grand Canyon adventure begin.

We teamed up with Ceiba River Outfitters for all our river kit. Six oar rigged rafts, four kayaks and sixteen folk made up our team for our three week, 360km journey down the Colorado.

The scene at Lee's Ferry was pretty funny. To the untrained eye it may have looked like we knew what we were doing, the reality. Most of us had barely sat in a raft, let alone rowed 300+km in one.

Our last hurdle before finally being set free was the mandatory ranger briefing. Yes ma'am, no ma'am, three bags full, etc.... and we were finally set free to cast off into the current and down stream…

With Lees Ferry behind us we drifted on down stream and began the slow transition into Grand Canyon time with the aid of a few tecate’s…(cheap Mexican beer).

Our first few camps were about finding our team groove with life on and off the river.

Strip the rafts of the all the group and personal gear. Set up the kitchen, sort out the hand wash stations, find a home for the groover (toilet) and you’re good to go.

Morning rush hour

As soon as that is all sorted its time to kick back and recover from the temporary hustle and bustle with a beer in hand. The nightly camp routine was to set camp and go and explore, take photos or just chill on the raft and listen to some sweet tunes.

We split our team of 16 into four cooking groups. This way you would only have to prepare a breakfast, lunch and dinner once every four days… good times.

Life on the canyon is governed by the rise and fall of the sun. Our early risers (Stefan the German) would be up at 5.30am and making the first pot of coffee. Breakfast was on the table (so to speak) by 8am. Rafts were then packed and we were in the current by 9am, usually just in time for the first of the mornings rays to hit the river. If the day was to be hot and mellow then it wasn’t uncommon for first beers to be making their rounds by 9.15am… bliss!

If the Canyon required a little more focus then we would have to wait until we made camp that evening, at 2pm. Such is the burden of life on the canyon. Start early, finish early and avoid the afternoon’s up canyon winds.

Most folk think the Grand Canyon is about running big white water. In actual fact it’s 200 miles of flat water mixed in with 26 miles of rapids.

Moonset Grand Canyon style

The Grand (or GC to it’s friends) is actually all about the side hikes (you don’t tramp or walk in America). Be it a full day, half day or just an exploratory scramble out the back of camp. The flora, fauna and geology make for amazing excursions from your temporary home on the banks of the Colorado.

There is always something different on offer. A steep scramble to an amazing view, a bouldery climb up a narrow slot canyon, critter hunting or gentle walk to an ancient petroglyph.

Our days on the water weren’t without excitement. Having never rowed and oar rigged raft meant there was a little learning, experimenting and figuring out how to move a 8ookg beast around the river.

In our 200+ mile trip we had one flip, a couple of surfs and two broken paddles. Not bad for a bunch of rookies… or so we thought.

No bueno Wayno's raft gets a rinse

Turns out our good fortune through collective experience was not gifted to others on the river.

I don’t know what day we hit bedrock rapid (thinking about half way because I only had six dozen tecate’s left) but we came upon a team that had wrapped one of their rafts. We you stick your 800kg raft on a rock in the middle of the Colorado you’ve got yourself a major problem.

We spent a few hours trying to pull it off using a bunch of mechanical rope systems but no luck. As a last resort Zak and I swum out to the raft and stripped it of all the gear so they could at least make camp. The team ended up calling the National Park Service who then flew in with a petrol winch system. All on the team’s dollar. Sucked to be them.

It was about then that we were thinking we had had ourselves an interesting trip… not so.

Lava Falls is considered ‘the’ big rapid of the trip for rafters. The stuff legend is made of. Some would even say that you haven’t rafted the canyon until you’ve run the right line on Lava Falls.

As we pulled into the right scout, a team was finishing their scout from the river left bank.

We had met them at camp the night before. They were a local team from Flagstaff and had all done between 2-24 trips each. Sweet, we get to watch the veteran’s run Lava. Perfect.

Jo Parson's (Riley?) boofing the bottom wave at Hermit

The first surprise came as the lead raft pulled left to line up the less intimidating shitty ‘left line’. At 16000 cfs (cubic feet per second) a lot of the rivers flow pushes dangerously to the very very big pour over in the middle of the river. They elected to play follow the leader, following the line of the raft in front of them.

Dan and Melissa keeping the bow down

Raft number one cleaned the line and was within a foot of the aforementioned very very big hole. The second raft didn’t make the cut and dropped squarely into the meat of the hole and proceeded to flip. The third raft managed to push far enough right and avoid the hole. Rafts four, five and six were not so lucky. They weren’t even paddling to avoid the hole any more. None of our team could believe their eyes. This couldn’t be happening. The seventh raft managed to make it through but the eighth raft suffered the same fate as most of the team, dropping squarely into the hole and landing on top of the two rafts being re-circulated in the hole, and flipping. Never have any of our team seen such wide scale carnage on the river… ever!

WTF!

doing my best to keep things under control mid lava

The idea with Lava is to follow the river right eddy line into the top of the rapid. This will put you into the best position to the pull left and clip the edge of the really really big pour over hole in the middle of the river. This sounds easier than it is because getting ‘lost’ is an easy thing to do when you’re paddling at a dead flat horizon line.

After clipping the edge of the pour over you should hopefully have enough momentum to move further left and away from the BIG lateral (diagonal crashing wave). From here, square up as best you can for the two big V waves and then hit the bottom wave square as well.

Dropping into Lava could really only be described as chaotic. I could to run first and test our right line theory… After many hasty and corrective strokes the flagship made it to the bottom in on piece.

Despite the previous teams carnage, our six rafts and solitary kayaker (Mary) made it through relatively unscathed. Stefan the German decided to leave his raft part way through only to have his ballast, Haven, take the oars and finish the job.

Our celebrations were short lived as we made the call to push on down stream to help the other team.

Post Lava Falls life settles back down for the remaining days on the river. We made a point about drifting the riverscape as much as possible. Mile after mile of stunning scenery are on offer for lucky river runners. Amazing!

Doing justice to the GC just isn't possible. It is a must do for any outdoor enthusiast, even if you aren't that enthusiastic about the outdoors...

Permits need to be applied for during the month of February only. Make it happen.

Awesome things for the canyon:

· Lots of light beer. Larger’s are the goods. Tecate, PBR or even MGD’s will hit the spot. 12 dozen for 21 days = 6 beers a day. Perfect amount.

· Moisturiser. Life in the sun and sand is tough on the body.

· Sounds. I took a little battery powered Ipod system and it proved to be the best item ever.

· Makers Mark. Two bottles were enough, three would have been better.

2011-03-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

My mid-summer Antarctic season finished up with a bang. We had so many good days with great adventures on the peninsular. So many in fact I thought I'd sum them up with a few of the photos I took along the way...

Ice, Ice Baby

If penguin's could fly

Bugger, wrong turn

Antarctica... says it all

A week back in NZ and boating with great mates.

Zak Shaw hair boating on the Upper Kokapotahi

Antarctica – 30 days in

2010-12-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

It’s been busy past month for me down here at the bottom of the world. For a start we have covered over 7000km in the Southern Ocean… Travelling on a ship doesn’t always live up to the romantic ideas you dream up on solid ground. Especially when you’re travelling on a shallow draft ship that loves to roll. 100km/hr winds and 11m seas will quickly dowse many of those early daydreams of the open seas. Those feelings can be quickly replaced with feelings of nausea and general unrest. It’s all part of the tax you have to pay though. There is something amusing about being turfed out of bed and onto the floor in the middle of the night.

My high seas adventure begins (and will finish) in Ushuia, Argentina. From here we sailed the infamous Beagle Channel to the South Shetland Islands. Somewhere along the way you cross the polar front. It is here where true Antarctic waters meet with the warmer (I use the term loosely) waters of the Sub- Antarctic. This is where all the action really begins. The waters of the Antarctic are nutrient rich meaning that there is life a plenty. Small things eat little things and in turn are eaten by bigger things.

The bird life is pretty amazing on the sail south. At any given time, half a dozen bird species follow the ship on its journey south.

Our first stop in the South Shetlands and then onto the peninsular. Towering peaks, glaciers, ice falls and massive icebergs in any direction. This is earth but not as I have known it.

All of this world happening around me and I’m being paid to be here. Jackpot! It almost feels greedy having not one, but many of the coolest jobs on the planet. I have to kayak around all this majesty with some pretty cool people. Life is good in the south… and I got to step foot on my seventh continent. A very cool feeling.

So 30 days in and we have covered a lot of ground. After our initial trip to the Antarctic Peninsular we were battered back across the Drake to Ushuaia and our new adventure. From here we cut a track east to the Falkland Island and some amazing wildlife. Albatross, penguin, dolphins and more whales than I have even seen. After a scenic stop in Stanley we headed further afield and out to one of the coolest places on the planet. South Georgia.

More to come on that later....

Northern Light

2010-09-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Despite popular belief, 24hours day light isn't really that conducive to seeing the northern lights. Not so, it lends itself more to staying up too later because it feels like midday instead of midnight.

My time in the Arctic was spent aboard the 115m long Sergy Vavilov (a russian ship) working for an American company called Quark. Our tasking was 11day voyages around the island of Spitsbergen which is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago.

home sweet home

My job on the ship was to run the sea kayaking programme and make sure none of the kayakers were eaten by polar bears. Not as easy at it may sound. A typical day on the ship started with a staff meeting in the bar which seemed fitting because it was usually where the day would end. Following the days brief it was off to the dining hall for a massive cooked breakfast. After another oversized meal it was off on the first of the days excursions. Most of the passengers would head out for a zodiac cruise or a shore landing. This is when we would load up in the sea kayaks and head off for our own adventure.

not a bad day in the office

spot the polar bear

Excursions would range between 1.5-3.5 hours long depending on where we were and who would turn up (polar bears and walrus are a little further up the food chain). Following our morning trip it would be back to the ship to warm the bodies and eat another amazing meal. During lunch and the resulting food coma, the ship would often relocate to another site for the afternoons excursion. This meant we could maximise our, eating, sleeping and adventuring.

79 degrees north. Moody

They kind of look cute until your see their teeth and realise that they will eat you... not good.

We the conditions suited, we would push our way into some of the massive ice flows and go in search of polar bears. There is quite an art to finding a white thing (the bear) while they're conserving energy (we call it sleeping) in the middle of a giant ice thing (sea ice). During this time we would have a staff member posted on bridge watch looking for bears. When the conditions were really good we would do this from 6am thru to 2am the next morning.

How close.... this close. Priceless

Reindeer with the infamous red nose

finding polar bear is harder than you realise... white on white

polar nap time

One of my favorite photos from the summer. White bears can jump.

Arctic

2010-08-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

A few short hours in port after one of the most amazing trips I have ever done, ever... So many bears and such amazing weather.

California 20ten. part 2

2010-07-24T02:03:00.000-07:00

Having such a stella team of keeners meant that we covered a lot of ground. With lots of paddling to be had in Cali we managed to squeeze in a trip to Vail and check out the Teva Mountain Games. We packed all the gear we needed into Mum and turned east for the long drive to Colorado. Little did we know that we were embarking on a trip of legend. The 'kiwi house' in downtown Vail became quickly known around town. Ryan managed to uphold the 'kayakers' reputation in town and was arrested... but that's an entirely different story.

Doing my best to stay on top of things

Toni George repping hard. Watch this space paddling world

Keeping it road side on I80. Summit Run on the Yuba

Man love in the desert... Hmmm

It was this big....

Downtown Vail. Nice!

In car entertainment kiwi style. Ipod, duct tape and rear vision mirror. Sweet bix!

Back in Cali we were back on the goods scoring more laps on the Upper Middle Consumnes. I finally put my demons to rest on the South Merced with a sweet run down there with Rachel Moore and the always sweet Jamie Garrod.

Joining the dots on the South Merced

Sam Roil choosing life on the Middle Feather

Rachel Moore... not bad for a rafter

Barney and Jordy quite... amazing

No snakes harmed in the publishing of this blog. For real

Team Athlete carbo loading

Slides anayone? Yes please South Merced

Jamie staying out of trouble. Boofing is healthy

California 20ten

2010-07-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

Life had been pretty sweet as of late... unless you happen to be my neglected blog. Since my fantastic trip in Uganda many kayak trips of note have taken place but things really got going with my return to California for the 2010 season.

With a sweet team of kiwis in Cali and a great snow year, good paddling was always on the cards.

Sam Roil playing 'as close as you dare' with the Upper Middle Consumnes

Like a half pipe only softer. Sam drops into Skate Park

Our token Samoan nugget (aka Jared Mitchel) getting stuck in on the UMC

My local waterfall on a river I can't remember the name of. Go figure

Summer in Cali? 5cm of snow on the shuttle vehicles sends the poorly dressed kiwis running for cover

Uganda

2010-01-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a little paddling grommet I have always looked at images from the White Nile and dreamed.... one day, when I grow up I want to go to Africa and paddle on the Nile... surf big waves and get trashed in big holes.

My last big mission of 2009 took me to the Dark Continent. With six weeks until I was due to start work in Murchison (NZ) I flew back to NZ, said gidday to Mum and picked up my brand new Bliss-Stick Smoothy care of the boys at.. you guessed it, Bliss-stick. With only a few days in NZ it was just enough time to really mess with my body clock before I headed out to Uganda.

It's like a cat only bigger

48 hours of travel (22 in Jo'Berg airport) had me standing outside Entebbe Airport in the dark looking for my driver... Robert. Funny thing is, none of the 50 men standing in front of me looked like a 'Robert'. After some broken English and a few dodgy conversations I was whisked to the car park to our waiting car. Robert gave me my first introduction to African 'innovation'. He placed some cardboard (African roof rack) on the roof of his Toyota pulled out some string, tied down my shinny new Smoothy and we were 'good to go'.

T.I.A

keeping it rural

rush hour traffic again! what a chore

3 short hours and 1475 pot holes later we pulled into my new home away from home, Nile River Explorers (NRE). No sooner had I stepped from the car, Josh Neilson and Bernard Oliver thrust funnel (beer bong) into my weary hands and said "welcome to Uganda".

Big Sky Country

Dropping Murch Falls
photo: Josh Neilson

The Nile River the world's longest at 6,695 kilometers long (the Waikato is 425km long). Due the dam being built at 'Silver Back', the Nile was kept at a relatively low 700 cumecs (the Waikato usually runs around 250 cumecs). Most of the paddling is done in the top 45km's as the Nile leaves Lake Victoria. Here the river is broken down into two different sections. NRE is situated over looking the river about 5km down on the 1st section which is referred to as the day one section.

Life in Africa is very simple and runs at a pretty mellow pace...unless you're near the NRE bar.

Most days consisted of being woken too early by the screaming village children that lived on the other side of the fence (seriously, they got going at 6am most days). Cooking for yourself is almost illegal in Africa so you'd stroll across the road to one of the many chapati stands (fried flat bread with your choice or fillings) and would cost you a whopping 700 shillings or about 50cents kiwi. From there it was back to NRE to re-live the night before (especially if Timmy Flowers or Fraggile had been in town).

Eden Sinclair getting some local beta @ Itanda Falls

Josh Neilson working on more frequent flier miles

The original Commercial Hotel

After that the big decision needed to be made. Where shall we paddle today. Most of the time we would opt for the Silver Back run from the NRE base down to a take out just below the infamous Silver Back rapid 5km down stream. If you were feeling a little more energetic then you would join the raft trip and head downstream about 25km to Itanda Rapid.

African fashion. Move over Trinny and Susan. Introducing Berno and Josh

Ummm, you had to be there.

If you chose to run Silver Back then it was time to tag into the local transport option. Boda boda (100cc motorbike). Another trip back to the gate (NRE is like a poor man's gated community Africa style) and about 25 guys on motor bikes would rush you vying for your custom. Every day they pretty much would run you over trying to get your precious shillings. A time would be made to meet at the take out and then it was time to go kayaking.

Paddling on the Nile feels likes paddling in a more pure form. This is because you don't have all the extra gear you would normally. No, thermals, no dry tops, no booties and not even a throw bag. Its almost too simple. The water on the Nile is pretty much the ideal temperature. Never to cold, never to warm it always seemed to be perfect.

Front surfing in the Smoothy is harder than it looks

Nile Special. Yes!

This trip was my first opportunity to paddle the Bliss-stick Smoothy and I seriously recommend it to anyone looking at getting a new play boat. It was the ideal size for me because it linked in between the RAD 180 and the RAD 185. Fast, predictable and possibly even more comfy than my Mystic.. Believe it! I don't normally do gear plugs but I do fully rate the Smoothy if you're into that play boating stuff check one out...

Due to the size of the river there were often several channels running around various islands offering a variety of paddling options. Even at the restricted flow the White Nile is still BIG!

Silver Back rapid would have to be one of my favourite rapids on the run. Big flow and and a small gap make for good times and plenty of upside down time.

Kalagala Falls vs Me
photo: Josh Neilson

Another favourite would have to be Itanda Falls. It would have to be the biggest rapid I have ever seen.

Itanda Falls. BIG!

Possibly the biggest highlight of my travels to date was a trip in Murchison Falls National Park. Amazing! The wildlife there is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. As odd as it sounds, we were in our very own national geographic feature. If its not on your 'to do' list then get it in there at number 1! I don't recall being that excited and amazed since I was about five... for real!

We opted for the self drive option (with a driver, go figure) and spent three days in the park. As far as $ goes in Africa it is expensive but in the bigger picture it is cheap as chips and money worth spending. We camped a night out in the delta under the amazing African sky with Lions, Elephant and giraffe as our temporary room mates. Priceless as!

Bush Pimp!

Dave

Murchison Falls. 700 cumecs squeezing through a 4m gap. Impressive

Peek-a-boo guess who?
photo: Josh Neilson

Taxi!

Living at NRE proved to be the most dangerous part of live in Africa. Camping only 30m from a bar that is open 7 days a week is hazardous to one's health. Especially with the team we had there. Timmy Flower's, Fraggile, Berno Oliver, Jesse James, Josh Neilson, Kirk Hollis, Davey O'hare and JACK are all people to watch out for if your body is a temple. You will be corrupted.

Five weeks in Uganda sounds like a long time but in all honesty it is barely enough. I'll be back!

Dehydration is a major problem in Uganda. If you're thirsty you stupid

African Nasty. Jigger eggs

Enough said

Grand Canyon and more...

2009-11-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

Of late I have been a neglectful blogger. This is partly due to the fact that I have been pretty much internet-less for the past few months... and that I have been pretty busy out and about on adventures.

In an effort to catch back up with things.... a collection of images from last few adventures in the States.

Camping at the diving board

Showering Canyon style. Ohh yeah

Um, dried mud...

Checking out some old graineries

The Grand Canyon, AMAZING!

Getting ready for another beautiful camp

Rush hour at the Ballroom

And then there was Burning Man. Complete contrast to the Grand Canyon and cool in so many other ways. 30 000 people in the Nevada desert, 7 days and one massive party. Choice!

Home, sweet desert home

Man, man?

South Central

Burning Man, cool art and semi naked russian chicks..

At night we play

Surf Nicaragua, Paddle Cherry Creek, Burn the Man

2009-08-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Part 1.

The past two months here in the States have been a whirl wind of adventure. Having finished a stint up in northern California it was time to spread my wings a little more and break out of the Californian eddy.

My first stop was Nicaragua in central America. Situated to the north of Costa Rica, Nicaragua offers fantastic weather and surf along it's western coastline. My destination was a sweet little town on the south-west coast called San Juan Del Sur.

Look Mum, no hands!

I've got my flippy floppies, I'm on a BOAT!

I was lucky enough to spend a week here and surfed everyday. I stayed in a cool little hostel called Casa Felis (happy house) and meet a bunch of like minded surf folk from all over the globe.

We hired a boat and crew (for US$20) and headed down the coast in search of good fishing and even better surf. We found both. Less than 24hours in the country and here I was, sitting out the back of with five others, 3-4ft sets and off shore winds...

Between sets, boards-eye view

Hmmm, strap-on Nica style

My week in San Juan Del Sur flew by all to quickly. The days filled with surfing and bludgeoning the locals with my appalling Spanish. The nights were filled with alcohol fueled adventures with random 'best friends' found along the way. Kiwi's, Ozzies and Irish are a brutal combo.

happy chappy's post fish n surf

Life is good! Sunset Playa Maderas after yet another sweet sweet surf

All too quickly my time down on the coast was over. My next stop was two nights in the beautiful town of Granada situated on the shoreline of Lago de Nicaragua. I happened to run into a fellow kiwi there meaning I was finally able to talk normally after 3months away from home... Granada is a sweet little town. Lots to do and see during the day and night. I was here that I saw my first real life Spanish dancing. Wow! Those men (and women) can move. All the Nica men and women filled the dance floor while all us westerns cowered with dropped jaws in the corner. Talk about impressive.

Due to a longer stay in Cali this season, I was around for the infamous Cherry Creek race on the Tuolumne River. I teamed up with long time friend and Cherry Creek super local, Joe Bousquin. We headed down a few days before the race to try and get a few laps under our belts before race day. This was a little more necessary for me as I hadn't paddled the run in a few years whereas Joe had more than 150 laps down the run.

We meet friends Terra and Corey down there as well for the first few laps while Joe was nice enough to show us his well polished race lines.

Joe Bousquin aka. Broseph cleaning out 'unknown soldier'

image: Ian Buckley

The thing about Cherry Creek is that the water shuts off at 11am so you start early and finish early. This leaves you a lot of time to kill in the afternoons.... so, like any elite athletes we spent the afternoon re hydrating with well hopped 'sports' drinks.

Come race day I felt good having done the run the run a few times and felt sufficiently hydrated from the previous afternoon/ evening.

The race is about 8km(?) long and is class 4 and 5 (hard and harder). The long boaters headed off first at two minute intervals followed by the regular (creek) boaters category.

The really cool thing about this race is it's pretty much unofficial. No entry fees, no paperwork, nothing. You know the risks when you enter and its up to you to stay out of trouble.

The other really cool thing about this race is you're paddling hard whitewater by yourself. No back up or safety here (well mostly, a few of the big rapids had safety team.... thank you!). This is something that you never do as a paddler. Paddling alone on hard isn't usually a good idea. Because of this the race feels pure. Just you, the river and the clock...

Racing lines with Racing stripes. The Mystic treating me well

image: Ian Buckley

My schooling with Joe meant that I knew most of the lines most of the time and had a pretty clean run down the course. There were a few moments when I paddled into a rapid thinking 'where the f^&% am I' and the creativity took over. 40mins and 35 seconds had me making the final move through 'leap of faith'. Sweet as!

My 40mins of fun and sweet lines was enough to put me into first place in the creek boat section. Not bad for a morning of paddling with my mates... well sort of. All that was left was to roll the dice and run Lumsden Falls and head back to the river side camp for a proper hydration session courtesy of Kern River Brewing company.

Charlie Centre aka Captain Kirk, 1st place long boats and over all champ!

image: Ian Buckley

kayak party bush style

image: Ian Buckley

Umm, a play boy bunny, mexican wrestler and an 80's cop walk into a national park....

image: Ian Buckley

Big thanks to Keith and Tim for putting the event on and big up's to Eric and Rebecca for their continued support of the event.

Upper Cherry Creek

2009-07-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Where Kiwi’s can fly…

Finally, after four years of trying to get on Upper Cherry Creek all my stars aligned. I was free from any other commitments, the flow was good (well, ok at least) and I had a team.
The plan was simple, meet at the bakery in Coloma, drive to Cherry Lake, hike, paddle. Easy. Well not so fast.

The only other kiwi willing to join me on the trip was Jamie Garrod, however he was carrying a rib injury after a party wave session at Barking Dogg went horribly wrong. He was still keen to come and give it a shot.

The third member of the team, Dave came highly recommended by a good friend of mine, Joe Bousquin. However, come departure time, he had no kayaking gear and was MIA. Hmmm, what to do.

After many dead end phone calls trying to rally a team, I made the call and drove south to Cherry Lake trail head to see if I couldn't find a team there. Jamie, keen on a mission came along to check things out.

Can anyone say keen? Loaded and ready to go. Just need a team

After a lazy start to the day, a team from Reno rolled in about 1pm-ish. “Hey, are you fullas heading up to Upper Cherry?”, “Yeah, that was the plan”, “Sweet, mind if I join you?”…. Against their better judgement they started the 18km hike with a wayward Kiwi in tow. I was a happy chappy.

Anyone who plays down the walk into Cherry is staunch. Carrying 34odd Kg (75 pounds) 18km’s up hill takes it’s toll. The first few hours roll by pretty quickly but soon the burn starts to set in. Shoulders and hips get sore and your legs can go into a state of shock. Stuffing them into a kayak day after day doesn’t really prepare them for this abuse.

All was not lost though, travelling up with JC (team Reno) was hilarious. He was never shy about letting you know how much his heavy ar%^ kayak weighed or how that last hill was nearly the death of him. Tag Randolf and Matt into the mix and you have a recipe for almost wetting your pants… At least when you weren’t feeling the hurt.

Honest, I'm not hurting at all. Fake smiles during the walk-in

The scenery is out of this world. I have never seen anything quite like the moonscape we walked through on the way to put in. Photos, nor words can do justice to the High Sierra’s.

Yes

The first day starts with a sweet sweet rapid called Morning Slide and sets the scene for most of the day’s paddling. In one morning of paddling on Upper Cherry I ran more granite slides than I knew existed on the face of our fine earth.

Better than a coffee, Morning Slide, Matt getting going

It was pretty cool to be in there with a bunch of folk who hadn’t been there before. We spent the morning giggling like school girls as we ran slide after slide of sweetness. In the pools between we were all gob smacked by the views the stretched out in every direction. AMAzing!

Day one on Cherry is pretty straight forward as far as paddling is concerned. A ton of slides and three pretty sweet gorges.

Matt taking in the surreal landscape

Our first major portage came in what is known as the entry gorge. It took us the better part of an hour to get our boats and the team around a manky (shitty) blocked up rapid.

JC enjoying not carrying his kayak

From here we paddled down to the sieve pile (big arse jumble of rocks) that signaled the start of Cherry Bomb gorge.

Having watched John Grace and co. fire up Cherry Bomb in the Seven Rivers DVD years ago, it was a pretty cool feeling to finally be there for myself. Only a handful of times in my kayaking career(?) have I felt that feeling. The last time I can remember was floating around the corner to the Gates of Argonath on the Upper Hokitika back home in NZ. These places build up a legend and I had finally made it. Stoked.

My last look at Cheery Bomb from the bank

Cherry Bomb is not how I imagined it. Most rapids of that legend have an ominous raw. Cherry bomb was airily quiet. Perhaps it was because of the low water. Perhaps.

We quickly scouted the drop and cast our eyes further down stream. There were three horizon lines in the gorge and we couldn’t see the bottom of them. The first was obvious, run left. Sweet.
It was the second major horizon line that had us concerned. We knew that everything in the gorge went. We just weren’t sure where we needed to be on the second major drop. The fear of the unknown.

Having learnt to paddle in NZ and cut my teeth on West Coast rivers, its drummed into you very early on, don’t run things blind. It’s a great way to get yourself in trouble.

After much deliberation, we made the call to commit to the gorge. I think it was mentioned that if Rush (Sturgess) can hand paddle it at high flow, we should be fine.

A Kiwi taking flight

Turns out, we made it through without any drama. The boys all stomped Cherry Bomb and eddied out with massive grins. It was a pretty sweet feeling.

Matt getting into some pre-dinner tea cup action

From here down we ran a few more slides and then finished off the day with some super sweet tea cups that took us straight to camp. What a day.

It's not often you'll wake to a view this good into morning...
unless you're dating Megan Fox of course

Matt and Randolf running a breakfast lap to warm up

Day two (three) began at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed off from camp and down into the first slide. Grove Tube, Perfect 20 (more like mildly rowdy 30) and double pot hole awaited us.

All these rapids are sweet in there own right, but due to the water level and team enthusiasm we decided to pass on this section and opted for the quick walk around them. Double pot hole looked much better from the bottom but we were all still undecided about whether or not there was enough water to get far enough left on the lead in… Next year maybe.

Our paddling day really got going when we entered the aptly named Waterfall Alley. Drop after drop of Californian treats make up this phenomenal stretch of whitewater.

Waterfall Alley. I wonder how they came up with that?

For everything that day one on the water was, day two was not. After Waterfall Alley, we picked our way through some more slides and down into some low water manky gorges.

We pushed, bounced and scrapped our way through these and down into Red Rock gorge. After some quick portaging and creative line selection we made our way down through Red Rock and the final gorge, where we got back to some of the treats we had become accustomed to higher up.

One of our last rapids on Upper Cherry Creek. Randolf practices air paddling

One final portage had us around the log jam at the mouth of the river and into Lake Cherry. A further 15minutes had us walking up the final climb to the car park and the ever patient Jamie Garrod.

Beer, shower, Carl's Jr and more beer. Heaven is a place on earth.

Sweet As!

South Silver

2009-06-17T07:59:00.002-07:00

The South Silver Fork of the American River is the closest thing to natures Disneyland. Slides, drops, teacups and a ton of granite make for one big playground.

Auto Barn... Sweet As!

I first paddled the run back in 2003 and ever since it has been high on my list of things to do when ever I'm back in this part of the world.

Settled high in the Sierra's, the drive alone is worth the trip. You are treated to amazing views of the surrounding hills with their towering granite domes, a landscape foreign to many kiwi travelers.

Berno slotting into holiday mode

Its this granite that leads us along the winding roads in search of the put. After some creative 4wdriving in our 2wd Suby (with no clearance) we managed to glide gracefully into the clearing that is the carpark.

On this particular trip we managed to rally a huge team of kiwi kayakers. The ex. CPIT boys were camped at the put and have been for a few days. They had taken almost all the seats out of their family wagon and made an outdoor lounge around their outdoor fire.

NZ winter or California granite.... you can decide

Along with AD, Rachel Moore and Zak, we numbered 9 kiwi's at the put in.

Straight off the bat you are into AutoBarn, a super fast slide that kind of feels like a big granite gutter. After lapping this a few times we headed on down stream to the next sweet features in our outdoor playpark.

Slides more slides...

The team worked through the aptly named boof boof slide with varying degree's of success.

The lovely Rachel Moore boof boof sliding

Our next stop was the first of four fantastic teacup drops. It is these teacups that kiwi paddlers have been dreaming of for years. The team split up and ran and re-ran all the different combo's they could through the teacups and down into the signature drop on the run... Sky Scraper.

Zak Shaw dwarfed by Sky Scrapper

Many lines were run, smiles we had as we all threw ourselves down this granite wonderland.

After lapping out SS and the infamous Off Ramp we headed on down stream for more slides, boofs and great fun... It really is the most fun you can have in a kayak.

Team CPIT checking some of the goods.

Me lining up for Off Ramp

We all had a sweet day out in the Californian sun paddling with good friends. For me it was an added bonus to paddle with the boys from CPIT. Having paddled with them in NZ and having the privilege of teaching with them, it was great to be in one of the world's best kayak destinations throwing down.

eNZed represent.

Music is by Kiwi charger, LADYHAWKE - My Delerium

Clavey River

2009-06-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

The Clavey River is the gift that just keeps on giving.

The Clavey has long been on my list of rivers to run in California. Until now things haven’t quite worked out timing wise.

Zak and I had been keeping a close eye on the Dream Flows website. We made the call to head south and put out the call to the numerous kiwi’s lingering down the road at the local campsite. Initial enthusiasm had the team swell to seven. By morning our team had shrunk to 2.5 paddlers. Hmmm.

Clavey Car Camping

After wasting the morning away we managed to commit Shannon (fellow NZKS employee) the remaining .5. We also managed to figure a relatively complex shuttle that involved a team driving to Yosemite first… Sounds positive already.

Now that we had locked in a full team of three, the suby (actual nickname… really original) was packed to the roof and we made our way south down highway 49.

49 runs north south along the base of the sierra’s and is the all important link to many of California’s best paddling.

Zak lining up the entry to rapid #73

We decided to make camp near the put-in so we could get an early start. With a little time up our sleeve’s we stopped in Tuolumne City (they use the term ‘city’ very loosely) for a beer. After driving around the town that time forgot we found the ‘Loggers’. It was next to the only other open business in town. Sierra Ink, a tattoo outfit. Go figure aye.

Shannon thinks he's off to play cricket.. whats with that?

Anyone who has meet Shannon knows that he looks about 15. So, with out ID he was promptly kicked out of the pub and was made to sit in the Suby while Zak and I enjoyed a beer. After much piss taking the publican let him back in and even let him drink a beer.

Shandawg testing out his split paddle

Our day begun at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed out of the first eddy and straight into our first portage. Once we were back on the water things got going with both a rush and a roar. Pushy class four and laden kayaks put the team in the groove for the day.

Blue Steel. No school for that..
Image: Zak Shaw

Things were going pretty smoothly until Shannon jammed his paddle in between two rocks and proceeded to break the entire blade off. Go the class three mank (mank is usually a shitty and shallow rapid).

We make so much $$ teaching kayaking that we just cut werner paddle's up for fun.
You can see how much fun it is...

After sorting this we made short work of the remaining Upper Clavey section. Unknown to us, we lunched at the half way bridge. This was fine, however, it was one of the last decent places to camp. From here we dropped into the lower 8 miles.

The pinstripe's make for bigger boof's. Honest
Image by Zak Shaw

The consistency in gradient is amazing in the Clavey. Very quickly you loose count of the pool drop combinations you run on your journey towards the Tuolumne. Slowing, mile after mile, we made our way down stream looking for a sweet beach to set up camp. As the afternoon slipped by we realised that there weren’t really ANY camping options. Finally about 6pm we finally found a beach we could camp on. It even had sun (for the first 10 minutes).

Zak doing his best to blend in

After a restful nights sleep we pushed off from camp at 8.30 to tackle the remaining two miles that would lead us to the confluence. In the back of my mind I knew we had to keep things moving because we had organised to be picked up at midday.

Ha! Fools are paddling straight past the last camp site. At 2pm...

During the last two miles the Clavey kept doing what it does best. It kept on giving. Drop after drop the Clavey kept going. The paddling was pitched at a fantastic level. Most of the 100+ rapids were at the limit of safe boat scouting. Zak was feeling good out on the water and was happy to probe what we couldn’t see.

Shannon perfecting his rocket move. Rapid # 243

At the confluence with the lower T high fives were issued and we turned to head for our midday shuttle pick up. Hilarity ensued as we fell through Clavey falls. Going from 25 cumecs to 240 was quite the transition.

The boys getting ready to run the toilet bowl

Our Clavey trip proved to be the trip that kept on giving. After paddling the remaining 18km in an hour 20 we were worried we kept our fantastic shuttle drivers waiting at the bridge. 12.30 had us at the take out. No shuttle. One o’clock came and went. No shuttle. One thirty, no shuttle. By 2.30 Zak had drawn the short straw and was dispatched we a passing vehicle to try and get the Suby.

Zak Shaw "Where's the shuttle?"

Finally, at 3.30 our shuttle had arrived. Shannon and I were starting to feel a little worse for wear after 3 hours in the 38oC heat. High fives were re-issued and we were done.

Turns out Anna had gone walk about in Yosemite, got on a one way bus to now where and got lost. Mmm

Golden Gate

2009-05-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been a blur here in California. Landing and being whisked off to Joe Bousquin's place complete with bbq and chilled beers, talk about an ideal start to the trip... It was a definite improvement from me losing my ipod and new headphones at LAX.

From Joe's place in Sacramento, Zak and I headed in land an hour to Coloma and the beginning of our paddling trip proper. We warmed up with a run down the Kyburz and Peavine sections on the South Fork of the American. To round out our first full day in the country we were dragged reluctantly off the infamous Coloma Club. Drinking and hilarity ensued.

Jamie Garrod stomping rapid #143

Day two began at the crack of 11am and we gradually made our way to the put in of the golden gate section... Let the adventure begin. The flow peaked around 1600cfs meaning the run had its fill of sizable holes and sizable moves. The kiwi team swelled to 7 with the Chch boys coming to play. Four hours of sweet paddling had us at the take out with a few tall tales to tell.

Zak Shaw threading the needle

Irish Barry (not Irish Graeme, he was to hungover to make it to the put-in), had the misfortune of swimming one of the biggest rapids of the day. A few nervous seconds saw him wash battered and bruised into the eddy at the bottom, minus paddle and boat. Lacking the necessary transport, Barry was forced to hit the feet for a two hour climb out to the main road.

My day was not without incident as well. Keen to avenge(?) my thrashing in the bottom of Golden Gates F1-11 two years ago....

The plan. Clean the run.. have a good day. Debt settled.

Bernard Oliver can do it with no hands!

This plan, however, fell apart.

Chasing Barry's boat down stream, I ran a pour over drop, clipped a rock on landing and proceeded to flip and become pinned upside down in the bottom of the drop, wedged between a rock and a hole place. Not a good place to be. Running low on O2, an executive decision was made, pull pin on spray skirt, stay in boat, flush from the hole and leave ego slightly intact.. This was not to be. Only the flushing part of the plan worked.

Golden Gate 1, Ben 0

After paddling 200m of class 4+ with a fully submerged kayak I was separated from my new boat and new paddle.. Bad! But, not before catching my paddle on a rock and then on my head, resulting in a split eyebrow. Mmm. Golden Gate ego not avenged.

DIY first aid. If you can't duck it!

However, all was not lost.

Besides a few minutes of drama the trip was a raging success. Pulling into the take out eddy, we were meet by Graeme (not hung over now) and a box of Heineken beer. Ahh, success finally!

It was great to be out on the river with the ex CPIT crew and seeing them paddle well.

Action Packed

2009-04-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

The past three months have found me in a state of perpetual motion. Teaching kayaking has kept the schedule full to the point of being full on. Tag Buller Festival into the mix and things have been a little crazy here in Murchison.

Shannon Mast battling it out in the Matakitaki Boater X
Photo: Zak Shaw

This year saw Karl Reece and I team up to make Buller Festival the best one so far (I'm not bias, honest). Having spent six years behind the scenes with the weekend it has been great growing it from strength to strength.

Quarter Finals Action. Bradley Lauder out in front. Not too sure about these North Islanders taking out Buller Fest
Photo: Zak Shaw

Teva Buller festival had some very cool firsts in 2009. First up, Teva stepped up their commitment to the event despite the tough times for this global brand. Big ups to Sarah Foote and the team behind her.

This year also had the greatest number of competitors ever. We managed to crack the magic 100 mark in the Boater X held on the Friday. This trend continued through the weekend peaking with over 500 revelers Rocking the Buller and the Ultimate Descents base to the foundations on the Saturday night.

Me vs. the crowd in Murchison's biggest ever game of paper, scissors rock. The prize, a brand new customised Bliss-Stick Mystic creek boat. Score!

Post Teva Buller Festival come down was quickly washed away with a few stellar trips down to the coast (my second home) and some white water therapy. Can't beat it. I was lucky enough to get down the Upper Hoki with an All Star team.

West Coast taxi services care of Bruce Dando
Photo: Zak Shaw

We had a fantastic day out. Good mates, good water, the Hoki gorges need I say more. It was topped off with a fantastic swim sequence from Porno Pete and JJ Shepard. Poetry in motion.

Folk often ask 'why?' and refer to our pursuit of happiness as 'crazy' when we seemingly put ourselves in harms way to paddle hard water. Until you are there you won't understand. Until then a amazing photo from Zak Shaw might give you a small insight. For more of his mint images check out passion4adventure

2009-02-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

2008-11-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

Paddling the Arahura River on your 60th Birthday. Respect!

East Coast representing

2008-09-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

The Upper Rook's

team 440

Its been a while since I have been so fired up about a mission here in NZ. Zak and I took the opportunity to do a kayaking mission out east after running some river rescue training in and around the central north.

We picked Zak's bro Elby up from his base on the Kaituna in Rotorua and headed east. The forecast was for plenty of rain so we were confident in finding some sweet paddling. With darkness settling over the land we drove into the Urewera's and into or first problem for the trip. Over a 100km of gravel roads and a fully loaded truck had taken its toll. Flatty. After plenty of grovelling around in the mud we got the spare on and tentatively hit the road knowing that another flat would have us sleeping roadside. Not an option.

As midnight drew close we rolled into our 'farm' base happy to be off the road. A few quick phone calls before we left meant that Zak had hooked us up some sweet shearing quarters. Chur!

zak in action on 'handle bars' drop

Over the next couple of days we tagged into multiple descents of the upper rook's sampling all the goodness it had to offer at the varying water levels that were on offer. A two minute drive from our lush accommodation had us at the take out. Drop the bike, and 10 mins later we were ready to put on. Not quite as sweet as the kaituna shuttle but plenty sweet for us.

kiwi rivers, gorgeous!

With geology not found in other parts of the country we got to sample plenty of papa slides and ledge drops. It was a bazaar feeling to be running sweet slides all set in sweeter kiwi bush.

The Munamuna River

Zak had walked in here a few years ago with his old man and taken a photo a two sweet ledge drops that he thought were about 5 foot in height. On the back of this we decided to go bush with the boats an see if we couldn't tap into some of these ledge drops.

Elby Shaw an hour in and wishing he had one of our hydraulic's 'strap on's'

More 4wd had us at the road end and strapping the boats on. The 3km hiked quickly turned into 5km as we realised the drops weren't were they were meant to be. The first hour and a half were pretty sweet going as we waded through bogs and across farmland. As soon as we stepped into the bush things got a little harder with a 260m climb up a migning slippery over grown track.

has anyone seen the put in?

The 3 hour mark had us just above the put in but it took a further 30mins of bashing to access the river bed.

Worth the 3 hour walk. You be the judge

Two 5 foot ledges. Yeah right!

With time running low we dropped into the 'flat gorge' as Zak had quoted it and ran some pretty big water class 4 and 5 for the next two hours. We didn't mess around with cameras and the like as daylight was running low and the river had already come up close to a foot while we were on it.

Elby getting 'cali' on it and staying out of trouble

Surfs were had had, lines were bold and we were happy to pull into the take out eddy. Not a bad day out and a possible 2nd descent. All was left to do was to celebrate east coast styles. Drive an hour and a half for beer and bourbon. Chur chur!

For Zak's rebuttal check out passion4adventure

Mangawhio

2008-09-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Socks. You don't need socks in California in July. You need jandels, boardies and beer, but not socks!

If you live in NZ and are working in the central north island during July then you will need socks... and a bunch more warm things as well. Having spent the past couple of years working on my 340+ jandel days a year this winter came as a bit of a shock. jacksonoutdoors almost became jacksonindoorswithbrieftripsoutsideintothebitternewzealandwinter.blogspot.com but I figured it would never really take off.

I have managed a few adventures here and there but my days in a kayak have been outnumbered by my days on a snowboard (4) and my days sick (6) but not quite my days hung over (3). Awesome, really... Mmm, anyway.

One such adventure had my driving to a river just north of Whakamaru which is just north of Wellington (by 6 hours).

I teamed up with the esteemed team of Brendan Bayly and Bernard Oliver. With plenty of rain around we headed for the Mangawhio River which is almost (literally) in Brendan's backyard.

All we knew is that it was beautiful and was steep in places.

About 20 seconds into the run the river signals its intentions. A clean crisp 12 footer. The next 30mins is filled with plenty of boogey water set amongst beautiful NZ bush.

you wanna slide?

A cascade and the main road bridge signals its time to step aside or step up. The 2 and 3 foot drops you scouted from the bridge turn into 10 and 12 foot drops. The bottom three drops are where all the goods lie. 10 foot into 30 foot into 40 foot of goodness. After scrambling to scout the combo we make a call. Berno and big drop Bayly will fire up the first two while I video. Then they will wait 15 nervous minutes in the micro eddy while I 'climb' my way back up to my boat. Easy.

Brendan lead by example making the top two look easy. Berno followed the trend. Sweet, my turn. Top drop, good, 30 footer, sweet until I land and my back rest blows out. Awesome. 3 kayaks, two boat eddy, vertical walled gorge and 8m down stream the river falls away another 40 feet. After trying in vein to sort my backrest the answer is obvious. Turn and tuck.

After a decent thrashing at the bottom I rolled up minus an elbow guard and smiles all round. Brendan follows soon and joins me in the eddy to watch Berno get the best thrashing I have seen in a long time... and its all caught on tape.

40 feet to freedom

Only in NZ

2008-06-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

Only in New Zealand could you paddle around a river bend in the middle of a walled out gorge to find a dead pig on one side and a cotton clad hunter on the other.

I was teaching on the Anawhenua River near NZ's infamous Urewera's with a group of students. We paddled around the corner to find a guy about to swim across the river to try and recover a pig he had shot. His plan from there was to jump in the river and swim down until he could get out with the pig. After convincing him that it would be a really bad idea (air temp 8oC and the water not much warmer), Alan Ferguson and I pulled the 50+kg boar into the river and ferried it back across to him... If he had swum he was looking at about 700m before he could get out, plus all the white water. All in track pants. Darwinism in action!

Mokihinui River Dam 2.0

2008-05-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

An updated version of the Moki River footage.

Feel free to comment. Also, for more information check out forestandbird.org.nz
To check out another threatened river on the westcoast check out the Waitaha

Cheers

Mokihinui River

2008-04-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Last week I flew into The Mokihinui River with New Zealand Forest and Bird to document the trip for them to help raise awareness for the river. Fly the river on youtube. A full cut with rafting and kayaking is in the works and will be out and about soon... Do your part. Submissions close next Wednesday (23 April).

Feel free to comment...

Harwood's Hole

2008-04-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

In search of something new and interesting, we, the staff from NZKS headed north to Takaka Hill in search of a very big hole.

To make sure we were all on the same page we headed to Motueka and the Whenua Iti abseil tower for a little practice with all the caving gear. After several laps up, down and around the tower we drove to the car park atop Takaka Hill. Early-ish the next morning we rose and with bacon filled bellies walked the 40mins to the awesome location that is the day-light drop shaft.

Mick Hopkinson and Ben Jackson descend into Harwood's Hole
image: Zak Shaw

With ropes rigged, we descended in pairs the 180m to the bottom of the drop shaft. A truly magical place I cannot begin to describe. Mick and I stopped part way down to take it all in. He took the opportunity to fill me in on some of the terrifying events that have taken place since its first descent in the 60's.

Mick about to descend to 180m to the bottom of Harwood's

With all the team on the ground and ready to go we made our way down the scree slope into the enveloping darkness. A few teething issues with the carbide lights meant a slow start, but very quickly we feel into the rhythm of moving through the cave system.

Kayakers explore the possibility of kayaking underground... possibly

Around every corner we were greeted with new and surreal sights and formations. On its continuous quest downwards, the water that flowed through the cave had carved out and deposited amazing platforms, stalactites and stalagmites. These amazing natural sculptures and formation were all to foreign to me having spent so much time the water above ground.

Anna Matson does her best to stay high and dry. This wasn't acheived

Most of our travel through the cave was straight forward. Occasionally we used fixed ropes to rappel down the stepper steps. As we traveled deeper into the Starlight cave system things started to scale down slightly. The large open caverns gave way to smaller rooms and passage ways with small squeezes linking them together. Gone was the grace that we had been moving with. Creativity took over as we crawled and contorted ourselves and our gear to conform with the caves requests. On more than one occasion I was reduced to tears watching the torsos and legs of my fellow caver's disappear into the darkness.

Zak and Shannon prepare to re-enter the world as you know it. Starlight Cave

Too soon for my liking we emerged at the caves outlet after two stunning hours underground. A trip not to be missed. Now it was back to the top the de-rig the rope system and head back to the truck for a cold beer... well almost. Carpark to carpark took about 8 and a half hours.

Teva Buller Festival 2008

2008-03-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

Teva Buller Festival 2oo8 has been one to remember. We had record competitor numbers in the Extreme Race and the Rafter X. The kayak slalom still had a good number of entries this year with more women competitors than ever before.

The weather did it's best to make things challenging for both the competitors and the organisers. I had the pleasure of running the kayak slalom while the river rose a foot and a half during the event. Luckily I had a fantastic crew of judges, time keepers and course tweakers to keep things running as smooth as possible.

Friday kicked off with a new race section on the Lower Matakitaki River. 7o competitors raced in heats of 4 and 5 with the top few heading onto the next round. As usual there were sweet sounds jamming at the river all day with Joeli B on the mic mixing it up and keeping every1 entertained.

The heats and semi's were fiercely contested with a few upsets along the way. In the end Bradley Lauder of Rotorua took out the men's competition and local Jess Brown emerging triumphant in the women's division.

On the Friday night I spoke to a full house at the Murchison Theatre about my recent travels in Northern India. Plenty of tales were told and laughs had before we all headed to the Commercial Hotel to get the weekend started good and proper.

Saturday arrived too early for my liking as I meet my trusty team a little after 8am in the rain to tweak the slalom course. Despite the persistent rain racers and spectators were all in good spirits. Bradley Lauder sealed the double when he won the open men's division. Ngaio Hart looked convincing as she made light work of the course on her way to 1st in the open women's comp.

Local team Kawatiri Waka looked like taking out the Rafter X only to be knocked aside on the last gate handing the victory to MIA (missing in action).

Saturday will go down as one of the best parties to hit Buller Fest and the Murchison area. DJ Static from Wanaka read the crowd perfectly as he rocked Ultimate Descents raft base and the surrounding district with base heavy beats.

Due to the poor weather we were unable to build the Big Air ramp this year (river levels washed through the ramp site) but it may have proved a blessing in disguise as the majority looked worst for wear at the final prize giving.

Phil Gottschalk maxed out his awesome weekend by winning the custom designed Bliss-Stick Scud with its great Bullerfest graphic printed on the bottom. Cheers to Norm and Charles for that.

Cheers to TEVA for their continued support with the event. Hydraulics, Bliss-Stick, New Zealand Kayak School, Ultimate Descents, Murchison 4 Square, Commercial Hotel, Rivers Cafe, Paddler Zone, R and R Sport, Gull Paddles, Incept Rafts, Triple 1 Care and the wicked volunteers. Karl Reece and Chris for all the great work. Tim, Rusty and Aimee for being the well oiled Buller Fest Crew that we are.

For full results head to the official Buller Festival website.

Cheer!

2008-02-20T20:32:00.001-08:00

On Friday the 29th of February I'm going to tell a few tales and show slides and video from last year's trip to Northern India. 5$ on the door will see entry and a tasty beverage to get your night going. Discount is available for students with ID. Sweet, see you there.

Murchison Theatre, Murchison. 7.30pm

West Coast

2008-01-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

The West Coast of the South Island is a kayaker’s paradise and I’m lucky enough to have tucked away in my extended back yard. Walk in's, drive in's, fly in's. Big volume, steep and tight. You name it, the coast will probably have it...

Josh Burell stomping it on the Whitcombe

Despite a busy season so far teaching kayaking in Murchison I have managed several great trips down to the ‘coast’ for some time out to convening with Mother Nature.

Jess Brown and Josh eye the next rapid

Jezza threading the needle

My West Coast season started out with a few mellow trips down the Whitcombe just to get everyone back into the swing of things. With that under the belt a New Zealand Kayak School (NZKS) headed down to take a look at a river called the Waitaha.

This run is and amazing day out with some of the harder paddling on the coast tucked into a big days paddling and adventure in some classic NZ bush.

A brief respite in the action but not the scenery

Matt Shearer, Mick Hopkinson and Zak Shaw made an early departure (5.30am) from Murchison and meet me in Hoki to continue the drive. Pies and red bull later we were heading south in Matty’s rig, destination Waitaha.

You know you're in for a big day when it looks 'big' from the the helicpoter

A short heli ride to the put-in revealed rapid after rapid of hard committing white water all stacked together to make for a big day out. The Waitaha doesn’t feel as committing as the Upper Hokitika section but it certainly packs a punch with its relentless hard rapids to make sure you’re on your game.

Mick and Matt run hard left on the monster seive

With Mick and Matt joining Zak and I at the put in we shoved off into the current and headed on down stream. Due the continuous gradient we picked and planned our way down stream through the maze of boulders and rapids. The boulder gardens made for great tight and technical paddling. I came unstuck early on in the day with an ambitious probe (paddling something first to figure out the line). After running a tight slot into a drop I landed in the pool at the bottom and was pushed to the left. This was all well and good, but I was planning on being on the right. Plan B, try and paddle back right ASAP but the Waitaha had different ideas. I found myself pushed up onto a rock and subsequently capsized and preceded to run the drop pushed onto the back of my kayak. Unfortunately the rapid was shallow resulting in me taking a head shot and leaving part of my knuckles on a rock back up-stream. Bleeding and battered I rolled back up at the bottom and paddled into the eddy. Some times when you play you get hurt.

For some reason Mick and Matt elected to walk around that drop… I wonder why.

Things continued to go pretty well after that except Mick’s outer-boat experience on a tricky double drop. With gear and paddler back together we continued of our trip down stream.

The move, seal launch, to brace, to surf in the hole. Portage west coast styles

With all the amazing and challenging white water around it’s easy to forget where you are. Tucked deep in the Southern Alps the Waitaha works its way toward the Tasman Sea surrounded by amazing polished schist gorges and house sized boulders all settled amongst pristine New Zealand bush.

Stunning location
Zak and Mick see the line

After about two hours on the water we meet up with another team and good mate Dave Maurier of California. We caught in them in an amazing bedrock gorge with three big classic rapids, one of which is the legendary Cave Rapid. Ohhh, scary stuff. With lines scouted and safety set we made the moves and continued on down stream in search of more west coast goodness. After four hours on the river the riverbed narrowed and dropped into the reaches of the stunning Morgan Gorge. This is the place where the wild things live. With a great drop and eddy beckoning we resisted the call of the Morgan Gorge knowing that just around the corner was more action that we were willing to take on. There is a 1-3 hour mandatory portage around this section of wild water on an old DOC (department of conservation) track.

Emerging from the bush is straight back into some pretty stout class IV paddling before the river finally relents and gives way to wide open riverbeds and west coast farms.

Currently the Morgan Gorge is under-threat with a planned hydro scheme. Westpower is proposing a 20MW hydro scheme at the exit of Morgan Gorge. For more on this check out rivers.org.nz and Zak Shaw’s passion4adventure.blogspot.com

First Descent of the Dhaliganga

2007-11-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Just to avoid any confusion I'll clarify that we paddled two rivers called the Dhaliganga during our time in India. The first one we were detained and fined, and the second we weren't... Ones in the middle of Uttaranchal and the other is close to the Nepal border. Easy!

India. Awesome
Image:Sam Hughes

The more time we spend traveling through India the more I enjoy this country. We are constantly meeting new people in new places along the way. Although the terrain and people keep on changing a few things remain consistent . Where ever you eat out its going to be lentils in soupy stuff (dhal), roti (flat pita bread sort of stuff) and rice. The other constant is people reactions.

"don't splash the camera!"
Image: Zak Shaw gets in tight for this shot

Its great watching the Indian people as we drive on by. No matter where we go the reaction is the same. Drop jawed they first stare at all the shiny bright coloured things on the roof (the kayaks), then they spot the five super white (especially Sam) foreign guys squeezed in the truck. Finally with the most amazement they see Kiaya, our trusty tea drinking guard dog. (we learnt very quickly about keeping a good eye on your tea when she's around). "Indian dog?" Is usually the first question we would face. So much for being small time local international kayaking stars, we are being upstaged by a pregnant street dog come mascot. Indians don't really have pets. A few (very few) keep dogs to guard their homes but generally they just roam the streets, eat rubbish and sniff each other. Kiaya was a hit.

Who is the father of Kaiya's pups? Mmm

After cutting our losses on the Dali Ganga (the first one, in the middle of Uttaranchal) we headed further east and spent two days scouting a couple more rivers. With time running short we thought time would be better spent checking out the Dhaliganga, a major tributary to the Kali River (the second one). The Kali River is the border between India and Nepal. Eddy out on the left and you had better have your passport ready.

Rush hour Pindar style

Still suffering from problems with the Forest Service it just so happened that our paddling coincided with a festival weekend. This meant that everyone was at home drinking and letting off rather large fireworks.... such as dynamite. No jokes!

The Dhaliganga. Its very fast and it makes you focus
Image: Sam Hughes

The paddling we found on the Dhali was easily the hardest and perhaps best of the trip. The river was steep (30-50m/km) with lots of volume making for some very pushy and sometimes very scary kayaking.

Top drop and third times a charm... Zak on the tributary at the put-in.
Image: Sam Hughes

From the road it was looking like a great days paddling with nothing too full on. Once on the river we were gripped at times as we were pushed the boats and bodies hard. Plenty of committing rapids kept the team focused and working to stay on line. Steve aka. Scuba had a very nasty experience. After taking a roll mid-rapid he was pushed off line. Dropping into a big lateral (a very big wave that pushes you sideways across the river) he was slammed into a cave with the rivers full force holding him there. After about 15seconds (that's a very long time in kayaking terms) he surfaced minus boat and paddle and was pulled free by JJ and some very tidy rope work. The attrition began. After all the kit was recovered JJ, Zak and I headed on down stream. An hour later just Zak and I were left to complete the section to town. With some big moves in big rapids we were pretty happy to make the take out in one piece. Chai time!

Its serious stuff when the facials come out
Image: Sam Hughes

The reception in town was fantastic. Around 100 locals lined the bridge and cheered us on as we climbed out of the river and walked into town. The atmosphere was buzzing. It was easily one of the highlights of the trip. Great river, great people and the rum Scuba brought. Good times.

"Such strong bold lines", a local legend tells it like it is.

High on the day before Zak, Scuba and I headed back to run the section again. No easier the second time around we still had a pretty big day out. Zak decided to mix things up a little making for a little more adventure than we were hoping for. More rum. Back at the bridge we had a quick lunch and a cup of chai with the villagers.

"We'd like to thank our sponsors at 'Beards R Us'. Zak and I finish up on the Dhali

After lunch Zak and I pushed on and managed to tag another couple of km of great paddling onto the section. Happy and bloody tired we called it quits in the nik of time. Around the corner the river dropped dramatically making for more portaging (walking around rapids) than paddling.

Caught up in the moment. Awesome!
Image: Sam Hughes

India is great

Uttaranchal update

2007-11-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

In search of some more 'Big' water paddling we headed up the Alaknadra River. The lower section is run often by rafting outfits but the upper reaches don't really see a lot of action. Also, the tributaries to the Alaknadra showed promise for lower volume steep creek paddling.

The India 2007 team practicing 'rafting up'
From the left: Zak, JJ, Sam, Steve and Shalabh.
Abscent: Ben Jackson

So with high hopes we drove up stream to the Dali Ganga, the largest tributary. On the way stopped in town to check out the permit situation. If we planned to paddle in the National Park we needed to get the right paper work . From here we drove the dusty, windy road and found a great section of river. Fours kilometers of great road side boating, good gradient, good flow. What could possibly go wrong....

The Dali Ganga
Image: Sam Hughes

The first day went without a hitch. The boys ran nice lines and had a great time on the water. After spending the night sleeping outside the local school we decided to give the section another run because it was so much fun. Good lines, good times and we even had a group high on the river bank to wave us on.

With spirits high the boys shouldered the boats back to the road to meet Sangroup with the car. Waiting with Sangroup and Shalabh were some stern faced uniformed men with big guns.

A local lady eyes up Zak and JJ

As it turns out, the people waving to us from the bank were actually park officials. They instructed the guards to impound our vehicle and all our gear. With an armed escort we were driven back to Josimath the the district headquarters. He we were interrogated and help over night for paddling 'near' the national park. It was decided that we could either pay a R20 000 rupee fine or be dragged through the court system and face a two month jail sentence.

Sam Hughes punching through

With venom running through the veins we reluctantly paided the fine. We were informed that had we obtained a 'permit' for the section 'near' the national park all would have been good. With this fresh information we the tried to get permits to paddle a section on the Alaknandra. We were declined because kayaking permits don't exist. Indian bureaucracy is very frustrating.

The irony of this whole ordeal is that we were charged with paddling on the river and therefore causing potential damage. All the while a massive dam is being constructed in this World Heritage Area. Go figure aye.

Don't take a kayak to a gun fight

With pockets empty we cut our losses and continued our journey further east. Grrr!

In search of some stress relief we sort out a 'legal' big water section further down stream. The day was going well until we ran into some locals. A car had crashed into the river two weeks earlier with 14 people on board (this is India after all) and one of the bodies had washed up on an island. It was good to help out the locals but body recovery is a pretty grim task.

The team with the grim task of recovering a body

India update...

2007-11-06T05:08:00.000-08:00

Our trip across Utturanchal has not being a boring one. After our extensive tramping/ hiking tour of the Supin River drainage we headed over to paddle a roadside (this means that any potential walk out would be very short) and this was exactly what we were after. On the water the boys got their teeth into the run and made use of every available eddy for a much needed blow out. If we wanted to walk we walk right! Feeling satisfied it was back into the track to bounce our way to the next river.

It's 24km to... somewhere! Hindu road signs. Tough

If I were to be entirely honest, the paddling we are doing pails in comparison to the driving we are doing here. Class four, class five - whatever. Try one lane dirt tracks etched and scratched into the side of very big and very steep 'hills'. Sitting in the back its possible to gaze anxiously 800m down into the the valley floor. Just when you start to relax a massive local truck will rip around a blind corner threatening to send you to your death. After extensive testing we have found that a couple of bottles of dodgy local Rum are a good match for the dodgy local roads. Phoar! Not for the faint hearted.

Chai shop with a view

Feeling a need to get away from the mountain roads we headed back to Deradun (the capital of Utturanchal) for supplies and to touch base with the outside world. This does not always yield good news from back home. Anyways, more rum please.

From here, you guessed it, back in the tray of the truck with the dog and back on the road.

The locals check to see if Zak is on line. Balangana River

Our next mission had us up a river called the Balangana. Needing to get away from it all we put on and spent the night tucked deep in the heart of the river. The paddling was fantastic once you forgot about all the turds you walked across at the put in. Super continuous in nature (for those who can, image a steeper better Glenroy)for two great days.

Sadly we may have been the first and probably the last team to paddle this section. We passed two dam sites while on the river.

JJ running right. Its a good option.
Image: Sam Hughes

Basically every river we have driven up and or paddled is due to be dammed. Some of the trips we have done have had as many a six dam sites on them. After talking with Shalabh it seems as though pretty much ever river in Utturanchal is planned for damming..

One of these guys is not like the other. JJ meets a local Sadu

India 2007

2007-10-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

There are a few things you learn pretty quickly in India. Always carry toilet paper at all times and never watch the cook or look in the kitchen. These two are way too closely related for my liking.

To carry emergency toilet paper is one thing, to find somewhere the other billion people in India aren't. Well that's a whole new challenge.

After touching down in Delhi we spent a few days in town getting things sorted. Zak's boat didn't make it to Delhi with him so this held things up a little. Finally with all the gear and team together we loaded, crammed and stuffed 6 people, gear for a month and the dog (Kiaya) into the back, front, middle, side, top, bottom and every other space of Shalabh's truck and headed north.

Kicking it with the locals in Delhi

We headed for Deradun about 250km north. Seven hours later we picked up Sangrop, our driver and continued on our way into the hills of Utturanchal Pradesh. It is in this province bordering Tibet and Nepal our exploration would begin.

Utteranchal Pradesh is about 50 000 square kilometres and home to around 8 million people. 90% of the province is classified as hilly (it just happens that their hills make up the western end of the Himalaya's so are very very big hills). The lower elevation areas are all made up of farmed terraces of rice and other crop. As you get higher you get into pine forest and dense jungled area's (yes I have checked this out for myself) and in the higher elevation areas (above 3000m) the land becomes more arid and harsh - as you would expect.

Boofing Big on the Yamuna. Very Nice!
Image: Zak Shaw

Our trip started with a rush and a roar with two days on the Upper Yamuna River and a sweet first descent. The Yamuna is found in the western part of Utturanchal.

Yes, its even more fun than it looks. Zak preparing to launch

From here we headed west to the Supin River drainage. Here we found more amazing mountains (hills) and plenty of water. Our trip down the lower Supin was short lived because the river entered a very small and scary gorge that we could not scout or escape from once committed. So, with our tail between our legs we hiked out. Perhaps 'hiked' is misleading. We dragged, scrapped, climbed and clung or way out with our cumbersome kayaks. Lets call it training.

From here we headed headed up the Obra River and scouted for the day. We decided that the paddling wasn't what we were really after so turned and headed higher up the Supin River in search of better luck and good paddling.

It looks like it might go, maybe, mmm not so much. The team trying to make sense of the Obra.

After consulting our poor quality maps we hired some porters to carry the boats and we headed up into the hills. We camped the night and put on the next morning on the Upper Supin. Our joy at this new section was short lived as we rounded a corner to find that the river dropped down into 'another' gorge. JJ and Steve (Scuba) decided to walk out along with Shalabh. Sam, Zak and I were keen to find out more. We decided to carry around the gorge and put back in when it was possible.

The Himalayan Tramping Club in full swing

It turns out that it isn't possible (yet)... so, once again we tucked our tails firmly between our legs as we climbed, scrapped, crashed, hauled, fell, cursed, fell and sweated with our kayaks (now with lovely heavy overnight gear too). After 5 hours we were back at the trail/ track and a further hour had as at the road end right on dark.

Kiwi boys hit up Washington

2007-10-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

The tapes were finally dusted off with the arrival of a memory upgrade. My computer only crashed every 10 minutes now. how nerdy does that sound... This is from a trip I did with Josh and Brendan back in June after all the water had drained from California's rivers. Time to get out side. Sweet As...

Enjoy!

Pacland Photo

2007-09-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

India team member Sam Hughes has recently launched Pacland Photo. This site features some fantastic photos he has has taken on his many adventures around the globe. Its definitely worth checking out. I've tagged the site in the links menu. Check it!

India

2007-09-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Mission

On October 15th a motley crew of international paddlers will assemble in Delhi (pop. 13 million) and head off to explore some of Northern India's better kept whitewater secrets. The idea is to spend a few days getting the team and gear together, pour over some maps, make a plan and then head north.

We are looking at traveling 250km north-east into the province of Uttaranchal which sits next to the western border of Nepal. It is here that we will look to explore and paddle some of the rivers and creeks that flow into the Ganges River. When the need is felt we will then head east across the boarder into Nepal in search of more adventure. The plan is pretty basic at the moment but that will all change once the team gets together...

The Team

Zak and I form the kiwi connection in the team. Jason 'JJ' Shepard is representing the U.S, Sam Hughes and Stephen Bates of U.K origin and Shalabh Gahault is our man on the ground in India.

Zak Shaw. NZ
Professional Adventurer!

Jason 'JJ' Shepard. USA

Sam Hughes aka. Pacman UK

Shalabh Gahault. India

Before I got the call from Sam Hughes to go on the trip my knowledge was pretty limited on India. I knew it was big and had heaps of people that ate really hot food. I also knew that they had a pretty good cricket team, but that doesn't mean much because no-one watches cricket any way.

After a little sifting on the Internet I found a few little facts of note. The 7th largest country geographically in the world it in fact boasts the 2nd largest population on the planet. Weighing in with over 1.136 billion people. That's about one-sixth of the earths population. That's a lot! The tough thing about this (depending on who you are) is that 72% of the population is male. Those odds aren't great as a guy.

getting to make my own boat.... mmm, dodgy

Preparations are going well here in Wellington. I made the trip to Taihape the other day to visit the boys at Bliss-Stick. Norm and Charles have hooked me up a brand new boat as a part of a Team deal with them so I get to take a new shiny Mystic to India and put it through its paces.

Andy creating new life...

I spent the day in the factory with Andy (builder in Chief) and got to make customise my boat. Cheers boys!

Back to the Land of the Long White Cloud

2007-09-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ben Huckstep stepping up for the man challenge. 4x4 burger animal style... phoar!
The last supper (almost) for me on Californian soil

Things have chilled out a lot over the past few weeks. I have left the hustle and bustle of the States and headed back home to NZ. It has been a well come change to get back home and hang out with family and friends. The change couldn't be more obvious than getting into NZ at 5am on a scorching 3oC morning after a sweat fest in L.A in 35oC heat only 12 hours earlier.

Home sweet as home

Moving from my last few days in the chaos that is urban America with strip mall after strip mall to the farm a few irritated cows going in for a drench… How good is air travel eh!

second day in NZ and moving cattle. So long international man of mystery

I have tagged in some of the ‘other’ photos from various trips and travels over the past three months or so overseas.

I’m now in Wellington busily tapping away on the computer most days organising my up coming trip to India.

The folks 'office'

I fly out to Delhi on the 14th of October to meet our International team of boaters and then head up into northern India to search out some of the fantastic kayaking found in the area. We are looking at heading in and paddling some of the tributaries to the Ganges River.

If anyone has any bright ideas or bits of advice feel free to check them in below…. Cheer.

My days as of late have been spent booking and re-booking flights, trying to source maps, sorting, finding and begging for gear. I also trying to get a few sponsors on board as well to smooth things along a little. The interweb and email is definitely earning its keep as our team of six are currently in six different countries dotted all over the globe.

I haven’t been out in a boat since my return and am kayakless. All is not lost though because the team at Bliss-Stick have a new boat on the way for me. Go them!

Truth be known it has been great to wander around 'up right' for a while and not tucked inside a kayak.

For those who are not in NZ. The country kind of comes to a grinding halt for the next six weeks with the rugby world cup on in France. I'm doing my part up in the 'grandstand'. You'll note the beer fridge at arms length. Dangerous!

Nicaragua... part II

2007-08-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Even the best laid plans fall apart... Well actually I'm not sure our plan was that well thought out but whose judging.

Josh and I both felt a need to get out of the States for a while and after some convincing he was keen on a mission to Nicaragua. The way it worked out we flew a day apart. The plan was simple. Fly to Atlanta and then down to Managua (Nicaragua's capital), get on a bus for four hours, get off in San Juan Del Sur and then some how get another 12km up the coast to a random backpacker's called the eco-lodge. No wucker's aye.

Down Town San Juan Del Sur - tough finding a park...

Turns out that the eco-lodge didn't exist any more as it had been brought out and was in the process of being turned into some big arse ugly military looking resort. Bugger!

Now that this wasn't an option I elected to stay at the Playa Maderas 'chicken shack' about a km back down the beach and then try and find Josh later, after I went for a surf... and maybe a few beers.

It's funny how things turn out some times. After surfing for a few hours I headed back into the beach (in search of beer) and wadayaknow, Josh is standing on the beach drinking beer - a day early and in the wrong place. Some how he had knocked almost a day off my travel time and turned up on the right random beach at the right random time. Go figure.

A sudden rain storm offers cooler temperatures, temporarily

After being slightly weirded out by this we settled into a few local beers (Victoria) and let Nicaragua soak in. The scene at the 'chicken shack' was pretty cool with a mix of local surfers and non-surfers as well as a bunch of foreigners such as myself staying upstairs. After about 5pm things would empty out a bunch with the last of the shuttles heading back to town and the cafe (if that's what you could call it that... do cafes cook there chicken on the ground outside?). This left us with hour or so to surf before dark and then plenty of time to chill late into the evening, perhaps chill is the wrong term as it was often still in the 30's, so we were left with time to be more 'less hot'.

The beach would come alive after dark with masses of orange and purple crabs scouring the sand for morsels left over from the high tides. The local hermit crabs were also very active during the evening as well. The are much like kiwi hermit crabs only four times bigger and everywhere.

The real locals at Playa Maderas. Its the quick or the dinner for Frigate birds that hover above.

After all the beer had been drunk and bugs swatted it was time to douse yourself in as much bug spray as you could stand to help ward off the malaria mossies. This process had to be under taken in a well ventilated area due to the severe nature of Central American bug spray. I figure that it was probably illegal every where else in the world, but when in Rome.

Our days would usually start at about 5.30am with a stumble out onto the deck to check the surf through sleep encrusted eyes. This was more of a formality because we knew the surf was going to be great but it brought us time until our basic motor skills got going (walking, grunting and scratching).

Starting the day Playa Maderas style
Photo: Josh Neilson

The early morning surfs were always great because it was just a few of the temporary locals out and there were plenty of waves to be had for those you were awake enough. Back in NZ you would be awake after the first duck dive and maybe already in the early stages of hypothermia, but here it was already in the mid 20's so waking took a little longer.

Josh Neilson getting amongst the action at Playa Maderas

This became our daily ritual and I still can't think of a better way to start the day (well maybe one). After a few hours out surfing hunger would start to call and it was back to the shack for some chips or crackers. Food wasn't a major for Josh or myself.

It was about now the crowds would arrive from San Juan on the first of the days shuttles so we would then head into town for more exploration of the markets and stalls and to find new unsuspecting people to practice our appalling Spanish on.

Our Air-Conditioned Shuttle

Tucked away in the middle of town was a fantastic little market. First impressions weren't that flash but after I realised that this wasn't the local supermarket then things went fine. Although the major challenge lay in trying to communicate with the locals and stall vendors I found smaller challenges in little things like finding bananas that weren't black and 'what is that thing' and 'will I die or become seriously ill if I eat that'. From the market then it was down to the local store to pick up a few more supplies. Namely big containers of water and packets of salt and vinegar chips. Its amazing how much you sweat just walking around so we would always have a plentiful supply of chips.

Actually, Nicaragua is the first place I have broken a sweat drinking a beer.

From here it was back onto the shuttle (back of a truck) for the bone jarring and always entertaining ride back out to the beach. Here we would drop off the supplies and straight into the water to escape from the heat. Surf for a few hours with the crowds and then back to the shack for a quick break. This usually involved drinking a few litres of water, downing a pack of chips and a local beer - Tonya (our new favourite) before heading back out to surf until after dark. Repeat steps daily.

Some dude called Action Jackson running the left line.
Photo: Josh Neilson

Sadly with my body totally ruined from hours of surfing abuse day after day, it was time for me to leave and head back north to the U.S. I was a little wiser now a forked out the extra cash for an air-con taxi all the way to the airport. This changed a four and a half hour trip into just over two hours. Just as well because some of my 'farewell' Tonya's were coming back to haunt me.

My trip back to the U.S. was pretty straight forward apart from the two ladies who did there best to convert me to the ways of Jesus on the flight to the States. Then my bags were lost between Atlanta and Sacramento and the mighty Subaru had managed to blow a tire out in the airport car park. Always a welcome discovery sometime after midnight. Go the space saver tire.

Nicaragua... part 1

2007-08-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Trust neither the chicken nor a fart… Ahh the joys of travelling in Central America. With a some time off work and a need to get out of North America I took the trip south to explore Nicaragua.

My initial plan was to head down to Costa Rica and search out some off the world famous surf found along its coastlines. After talking with some folk in the know, plans changed and Nicaragua’s capital Managua was my new destination. From there I was going to head to the Southwest coast to surf.

Cuba from 30 000 feet

Six hours in the car had me at Sacramento Airport and onto a flight to Atlanta, Georgia. With a short stop over it was onto another flight to Managua, Nicaragua’s Capital city. Not speaking a lick of Spanish I picked a phrase book in Atlanta and decided that now was a as good a time as any to start learning. I was fortunate enough to meet a Danish girl of the plane who spoke fluent Spanish so she gave me a few pointers.

San Juan Del Sur's CBD at rush hour

The phrase ‘Culture Shock’ springs to mind as I have never been to a third world country before nor a country that spoke another language. This all became very apparent to me as I sat on a bus and trundled my way south with every man and their Spanish speaking dog. Here I was sweating hard in Central America having travelled non-stop for almost 24 hours, tired, dehydrated and needing to piss (I know, go figure) and paranoid about sleeping in case some dodgy bugger tried to steal my bag. In a matter of hours my Lonely Planet phrase book had become my life line.

Ono momento por favor…. One moment please.
Abla oon poko de espaniol…. I speak a little Spanish.

Of course the spelling is all wrong as I had to write everything down phonetically which then would back fire more when 'who ever' tried to read what I was trying to say...

We got to meet some of the locals while out and about in town

As useful as my treasured book was at helping me communicate with people it was completely useless as soon as they spoke to me. It’s pretty funny how folk feel that if they say something slow enough and loud enough that you will, all of a sudden learn Spanish. Needless to say I got used to being talked 'at' pretty quickly.

My four hour, 120km/ 75 mile bone jarring ride deposited me late in the day in the coastal town of San Juan Del Sur. Weary from all the travel and in need of a shower and sleep I checked into the least scummy place I could find and called it good.

Local fishing fleet at San Juan Del Sur

After exploring town and a quick shop, by quick I mean 20 minutes to buy five items due to my lack of Spanish, I was ready to head north to my final destination. Playa Maderas (Maderas beach). I caught the 11am shuttle and left at the crack of 1.30pm (Nicaragua time) and bounced my way 20 minutes north to Playa Maderas, home to the best surf in the area for good reason.

Home sweet home... bed bugs and all

With left and right hand breaks on offer and bath temperature water it was the perfect place to spend a few days getting back into some surfing. I hired a surfboard from a couple of brother who ran a surf shop in San Juan Del Sur. After haggling offer boards and prices in my limited (extremely limited) Spanish I picked up a near new 7’2” for US$10 a day or C$180 (Cordoba).

US$5 or C$90 a night is tough to beat with this view. Playa Maderas doing it's thing

After checking into my new home it was straight into the water to score some long over due waves.

Famous for its sunsets for good reason. My first night in Central America

Nicaragua is unique in the fact the wind blows offshore all day for 330 days a year. For the non-surfers - off shore winds help clean the waves making them smooth, glassy and fantastic for surfing. In most places this only happens early morning and later in the evening before localised sea breezes pick up during the day. Sweet running.

Stay tuned for more soon…

Road Trip

2007-07-18T16:41:00.001-07:00

After two months of kayaking and adventuring aboard I was lucky enough to receive a visit from my fantastic girlfriend Margot. Having just returned from a trip north to Washington it was into the shower, unpack, wash and repack the car before I headed into San Francisco to pick her up and catch up...

Margot taking in San Fran and the Bay area from the water

The highlight from our two days in San Fran was heading out to Alcatraz Island (the Rock) to take a look around the maximum prison turned national park.

Alcatraz Island aka. The Rock

Visible from all over the Bay area it started out as a lighthouse way back in the day, then a military fortification and then a military prison used to incarcerate military personal and native American Indian. This was followed by a federal prison until 1963, when it became a national recreation area.

Evening settles over San Francisco

We opted for the twilight tour of the Island which is definitely the way forward. You are given a head set pretty early on and then can take the self-guided tour. We spent a couple of hours checking out the sites before we headed back to town to catch up with a C1 paddling legend and mate Norwood and his wife.

Golden Gate from behind enemy lines

From San Fran we headed inland to Sacramento where we winged or way to Las Vegas to experience all it had to offer. Knowing that I was probably only going to get there once we decided to do it in style so, we opted to stay at a place called the Bellagio. Flash doesn't even begin to describe what it's like staying there.

The Bellagio - over the top in every way, just like Vegas

This could be said of most of the places on the 'Strip'. Everything is completely over the top and designed to leave a lot poorer than when you arrived. Apparently the casino's take over a Billion dollars a month from gambling alone from the 44 million people that visit annually. I reckon they're making way more from the beer and food. The cheapest Heineken I got was US$7 and a snack wouldn't leave you with much out of US$15. We also manged to time our trip with a heat wave leaving temperatures above 43oC during the day and in the low 30oC's at night. $$ was spent and gambled, margaritas and long island ice teas were drunk and very little was eaten.

Its like New York, only smaller and in the desert. New York New York with Paris Las Vegas in the background

Room with a view, Las Vegas from the 24th floor - not like Murchison

After two nights in Vegas I was a very sad looking Kiwi checking out on the final morning.

Margot and I had pretty big night to finish in Vegas which then turned into the worst day's travelling I have ever had. Mum you may want to skip to the next paragraph...

My memory is a little hazy but I recall chundering in the hotel room, in a bin at the airport (I think there was a security guard?), in the airport, on the way to the plane, in the plane, at the new airport and back at the car in Sacramento... I think.

Anyone thinking of drinking with Margot, be warned and make sure you eat before hand.

After recovering from my mis-adventure we headed for Coloma another hour inland from Sacramento to stay with some friends on the American river.

With a night off it was back into party mode at the infamous 4th of July party with the Cushman's and the Phillip's. Instead of being on the 4th it was in fact on 07.07.07. With two bands, fire dancing goth chicks, three kegs and a very big bottle of very nice tequila we all had a pretty bloody good night.

Needing to detox and get away from it all Margot and I loaded up the Suby and headed 4 hours south the Yosemite National Park.

Who needs dirt, they do it differently in the high Sierra's

Yosemite is one of the coolest and most amazing places I have ever been in my life. Everything there is big and amazing. Once you get past the tourists (funny coming from me) and get amongst things a little you'll be left blown away. With towering granite domes, dramatic waterfalls and rich green forests it's definitely to be experienced.

Spot the tourist at El Capitan, towering over 1000m from the valley floor. Awesome

We caught up with some friends who work in the park and then headed up onto Tioga Pass to camp for the night. Waking and driving the next morning we were treated to more stunning views and landscape as we headed higher on Tioga Pass. At 9943ft or 3031m it's the highest pass in California that can be driven over. Getting out and running around is a little more taxing at this altitude for sure.

Yosemite valley with El Cap on the left. See it to believe it

Down the eastern side of the Sierra's with headed for the south shore of Mono Lake. Settled in the Great Basin it acts as an oasis of sorts. Draining a good part of the western states it's a little different because its doesn't have an outlet and has 2 and a half times more salt than the ocean. Its also home to some unusual formations known as Tofa's. While we were exploring the lake we were treated to a lightening storm 8km west of us and the big bush fire it started.

On the road to Mono Lake

lightening strike = fire and a big problem

As with most things you do in America, it was back in the car for more driving as we headed north to Lake Tahoe to 'rest' and take it easy. Being a tourist is great!

Six Days, 3 Kiwi's, 1 American and 2600km

2007-07-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

America is big! Yes, you already know this and so do I, but every so often I am reminded of this fact a little more.

Due to the low snow fall over winter here in California the rivers haven't run as long as they would most seasons so by mid-june California kayaking had pretty much dried up. After a painful week in Coloma with minimal kayaking I managed to rally a team keen to head north to Oregon and Washington to search out some better kayaking options. After a few frustrating logistical problems we got everyone one together early-ish on a Monday morning, packed the cars with gear and people and headed for the freeway. The 'real' team NZ, author Ben Jackson, Josh Neilson and Brendan Bayly and Team America, Dave Maurier.

travelling will wear you out. Brendon practising 'taking it easy'

Now, for a Kiwi a big days driving might be 3 or 4 hours driving but over here things are a little different. 12 hours, 4 sore arses, 1 hot chick meet on the freeway (ask Josh Neilson if you want to figure out how to meet someone while doing 120km/hr down the freeway) and 1100km's later we peeled ourselves out of the cars and into our sleeping bags some where in lower Washington state.

petrol and red bull. all the fuel you need

"OI, YOU KAYAKERS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!! YOU CAN'T F@#!*N SLEEP HERE, GET UP!!! OR THE SHERIFF WILL GET YA!!! WHAT THE F*^$ DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Turns out that you can't crash out and pitch a tent on the side of the road in Washington either.

We decided to base ourselves out of the Hood River area for the trip as it was close to some fantastic kayaking. After a quick departure from our camp and some food we headed up to a river called the Little White Salmon.

rush hour at the Little White Salmon

The Little White is spring feed meaning that it pretty much flows most of the time making for a low but still super fun flow. Davey (our token American) had done the run once before so had a good idea where to go. The run started off with some fantastic technical paddling very different to most kayaking found in California but very similar to some rivers back in NZ. We worked out way down as a team stopping to take a photos or video. As the run progresses it the drops (waterfalls) start to get bigger and cleaner (less obstacles). Some of the drops that stand out on the run are 'double drop' or at least that's what we called it, Nate's room of Doom (again our name), Wishbone, the 'unscoutable, unportagable (can't look at it or walk it) drop and the amazing Spirit Falls. Feeling fired up Josh gave Spirit Falls (12m) a nudge and had a good line of the drop. After a big hit at the bottom came out smiling.

Josh getting into the spirit of Washington
Spirit Falls. Little White Salmon

From here down the intensity eases off until the take out with a little over a kilometre to the car. With the photos and video, scouting and portaging we took three hours to get down this fantastic section of river.

Our home in Washington. No Red Necks

Hungry and happy it was back across the Columbia River to Hood River to eat and a have a beer.... At least that was the plan. Turns out you can't buy beer in Oregon with a kiwi drivers licence. A few of the boys threw the toys out of the cot over that one.

Josh was feeling under the weather the next day so in the interest of not paddling anything new with out him we headed back to the Little White. Now that we knew the run we bombed (paddled really fast with few stops) down most of the run much to Davies dismay early on. Brendon felt inspired and stepped up to run Spirit Falls. Davey and I still weren't interested (My lovely girlfriend Margot was turning up in the U.S in four days and there was no way I was going to have a sore back for that.....)

Brendon Bayly tucking in early

An hour 40min's later much to Josh's surprise we rocked up to the car very happy kayakers.

Day three had us heading up to the White Salmon to a section called the Green Trus. Slightly bigger in volume and very different in it's nature the Green Trus is a pretty cool run but not quite of the quality of the Little White Salmon.

Due to the volcanic nature (Mount St Helen's is less than 70km away) of the area the river bed was very weird and sharp in places.

After lowering the boats into the gorge, we pushed out into the current and off down stream. With some nicer drops and cool moves the kayaking was fun, added to this we had no idea where we were going, an adventure was being had.

The author setting safety for the cave on Big Brother
Photo: Dave Maurier

The biggest drop on the river is called Big Brother standing at about 25ft high (about 7m) and very impressive. Sticking to my 'don't hurt my back, 3 days to go' plan I offered to set safety for the cave at the bottom of the drop.

We didn't know it at the time but a pretty famous Olympic kayaker had drowned here.

Brendon on Big Brother. Air is good!
Photo: Dave Maurier

Brendon lost paper, scissor rock so had to probe the line. The lead into the drop wasn't super straight forward but 'B' got a good line off the lip and landed carrying enough speed and got through. Josh was next up and dialled the 'line' completely making the drop look easy. Nice 1 bruva. With the team back in the boats it was off Little Brother and off down stream. Some pretty cool paddling followed but it was the scenery that had our attention. We were paddling down a beautiful gorge with fresh water springs pouring in from both sides at river level. Choice.

Our token 'Greek Adonis', Brendon
Photo: Josh Neilson

Josh Neilson, an intimidating specimen

For our final days paddling we decided to head back to the Little White because the paddling was so good. We also wanted to see how fast we could get down the run as well... Fresh from the past two runs down this section the pace was hot and the paddling fantastic. None of the team braved Spirit on this run so with a quick portage we were back on the water and down to the take out in 1 hour 15... Sweet As.

Heading home, some where in Oregon

Back in the cars with 3 hours to Bend in Oregon to stay with a good friend Jason Arbeter and then the final push back to Cali the next day with 10 hours in the car. America is Big!

2007-06-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

A little cut and mix of some boating adventures we've had so far this season in the U.S. Enjoy!