Ski

Broken river

Date: 8th - 9th october
Location: Broken river
Weather: snow to clear, light winds
Group: Ben Soiltt, Liam Heyward, Jeromy Hunt, Eric van den Broeke.
Duration: 2 days
Incidents: lost snow board

Spent this weekend patrolling again sunday was the only day i really did anything we had 181 people up so i spent most of the day teaching people to use the rope tows. In the afternoon me and a few mates hit a big kicker that they had built that morning. i decided to try some Cork 720s again my first atempt i under rotated and landed on my face. my second attempt i went faster and spun quicker and landed on my feet but i needed a slight bit more rotation and my final hit i threw it to flippy and it was more like a rodeo 540.

Thanks to Ben Solitt for the photos.

The kicker from the top

My second Cork 720 attempt of the day.

Kayak

Date: 7th October
Location: Toaroaha
Weather: Rain
Group: Greg Lee and me
Grade: 3/3+
Duration: 2 hours
Key Learning: not getting spun out by small Eddy's
Incidents: got pinned on a rock with my head just out of the water for a few seconds then got pushed under and came free

An awesome day paddling on the Toaroha after planning to do it for ages i finally went and did it with Greg it was a 40 min walk in and just over an hour paddle out i was quite nervous getting in my boat but after the first rapid i was feeling better and had heaps of fun i decided to run the grade 3+ rapid my first attempt i got spun out on an eddy line just above the drop and had to get out and walk back up but second attempt went well but my boof stroke wasn't very good but i got away with it but next time i will try and do it better. on one of the last rapids i ended up hitting a rock just after it and got pinned for a few seconds with my head up and slowly started sinking once my head went under i came free and rolled up. it was an awesome day an i will defiantly be going back up there.
Thanks to Greg Lee for the photos.

 Getting ready.

 Dropping the grade 3+

The 3+

Kayak

Date: 4th October
Location: Arahura River
Weather: Fine
Group: Greg Lee, Gretchen Dalzell, Jono Kerr and two Aoraki Polytech students
Grade: 3
Key Learning: 'S' turns, entering and exiting eddys, boat scouting
Incidents: 1 swim from Jono

An awesome trip it was my first walk in Jono and Gretchen left their boats at the bridge i left mine at the start of the grade 3 and the other 3 walked up to cesspit gorge it was the first big rapid i have seen and it looked insane and i am really keen to improve and run this section next year. the first three ran the gorge with me running safety on the side with a throw bag but it all went well i then ran down and jumped in my boat and joined them it had been a long time since i had been in a boat so it took a bit of getting used to but after the first rapid i was back to where i was and loved it. every thing went smoothly and we then picked up Jono and Gretchen and carried on to the take out. unfortunately Jono tipped over in a shallow rapid and couldn't roll back up and swam but he was back in his boat quickly.
Thanks to Jono Kerr for taking these photos

 The first swing bridge.

 Greg and the Aoraki Students in Cesspit gorge.

 The four of us on the grade 3.

 The view from the bridge.

Me dropping into a hole

Kayak

Totara

Date: 9th July
Location: Totra river
Weather: Raining overcast
Group: Greg, Rata, Phil, two Aoraki students and me
Grade: 3
Duration: 2 hours
Key learning: Boat scouting, new river signals, staying on waves
Incidents: None

A sick day kayaking i was really nervous waiting for the guys to get back from shuttle because i thought it was going to be a 3+ river. Once they finally got back we headed down the first few rapids were really boney and i was super nervous so i wasn't paddling that great and as soon as we got into the grade 3 section it was deeper and i felt so much more relaxed and loved it. It was great to be paddling with really confident people they push me more and help with your technique it was a great day on a new river and will definitely be going down the Totara again.
Thanks to Greg for the photos.
 

Phil going down a boney rapid

                                      

Blue duck on the Totara

 Me Breaking through a wave.

Kayak

Murchison

Date: 2nd-3rd July
Location: Buller Granity
Weather: overcast, COLD
Group: Jimmy, Grace, Chris H, Kalam, Kristy, Scott, Jesse, Gretchen, Kelly and Me
Grade: 2/3
Duration: 4 hours
Key learning: how to use a cows tail had to tow 2 boats.
Incidents: 4 swimmers on Granity rapid (grade 3) grace got recirculated in a big hole, Jesse flushed quickly, Chris and Kristy swam but were not caught by the hole.

we set off from Greymouth on Friday night hoping to get back on Sunday with another 4 rivers under our belt, but we were unaware of the super low temperature of the water and the events of the day to follow. Saturday morning we awoke at 9.00 am and set up to go amped for a sweet grade 3 mission we jumped in and started warming up with some eddy turns and quickly found out that the water was freezing so most of us decided that practising a roll wouldn't be a wise choice everything went super smoothly until we hit Granity rapid. We jumped out had a quick look and made the decision if we wanted to run it or not in the end 8 of 10 were keen so Kelly and Gretchen set up safety just above the middle eddy the first group to run the rapid consisted of Jimmy, Jesse, Grace and then me. we were all confident running the rapid so we headed down but grace flipped at the top and floated the whole rapid upside down as i tryed to get to her, she finally rolled back up just in time to catch the middle eddy. Jimmy walked back to the top and guided the less confident 4 down everything went smoothly until they hit the buffer. From there it all happened in a flash Chris and Scott dropped into a big hole and went over Scott rolled back up Chris swam followed by Kristy who clipped a big hole and also swam so me and grace quickly jumped out of the eddy to help Chris jumped on Graces stern just before the big hole at the bottom resulting in grace getting thrown directly into the biggest part of the hole upside down and she ended up swimming and getting recirculated in there for a long time she finally flushed out at the same time Jesse had jumped back in his boat and started coming down he dropped over the hole and it pulled him back into it and he ended up swimming to. while this was going on me and Kalam were rounding up all the boats and paddles that were floating down river. once it was all over everyone was fine but shaken up headed down and everything was OK after that point we decided to call that the day and headed to the pub for a well needed beer and hot chips. the next morning we woke up to find every thing frozen solid including all our thermals and wetsuits and to top it all off i felt really sick and ended up throwing up. so that was the end of our epic weekend in Murch with a total of 1 river 2 days.
Thanks to Kristy and Kelly for the photos.

Camp for the two nights

 Scouting Granity

  Me chasing graces boat

  Were things started to go wrong

Oh SHIT !!!

Kayak

Crooked video

click here to read about the trip.