Summer days are rolling on in here in NZD! Yesterday Tilzy, Ricketts and I decided to go for a river run in the lower Kaituna Gorges. The flow was at 500’s so we decided to give Knarly a miss and got out just below ‘Awesome Gorge’ and then hopped in below it and into ‘smokey’ gorge. It took us 4hours from the Kaituna control gates to the get out and this included the small hike around knarly gorge. It was soo good to get back on this run, I would definitely rate it as one of the best river runs in the North Island. There are several drops in each section and the run is very continuous with many good features.It was a good way to start the season here and my new Duemstuff gear held up really well so I was stoked! The Dry top is primo and the pants are super nice and lightweight. Checkout Sam Ricketts blog for a good report of our paddle: www.rickettskayaking.blogspot.com
Summer seems to have arrived with nearly all of the season travellers arriving back for another one here in the falls. I have been enjoying the sunny days with some running in the redwoods, river runs, and I have been back doing laps in my slalom kayak. Work at the resort has been going well and this last week was celebrated by the locals here with the Okere Falls Bier Fest. Last night we all crowded around the screen here at the store to watch NZ win the Rugby World Cup against France, a very close and nerve racking game but stoked we pulled through in the end! My Czech friend Martin Hammer is here in New Zealand at the moment and as you can see he is a talented photographer. Pics include- Me on the Kaituna, Night Sky at Blue Lake, Sunset at Lake Rotorua and the Redwoods forest.
So after a week or so of catching up with family and getting in some epic snowboarding with my sister Heather it was time to head North back to ‘Never Never land’, aka Okere Falls! To be fair the weather has been cold and my first few runs down the Kaituna were at Open Gates as the rain gods have been letting loose. It has been really good to be home and catching up with everybody and I have been using the last of the October month to do some out of the boat exercise, such as running, swimming and snowboarding. I am back waitressing again at the Resort on the lake here and soon I will be moving into our all chick flat that rests halfway between the put in and get out of the Kaituna river, spa pool included! Bring on Summer and many kayaking missions!
After Sickline a bunch of the kayakers made our way to Octoberfest in Munich! It was, as always, Epic! Theme park, never-ending food stalls and wasted people everywhere! Inside the tent where one of the Worlds most dominant female kayakers (Mariann Seather) works is a table that gets taken over by kayakers! We drank till midnight then made stumbled our way home. The next day I caught a train to Prague and recovered in my European Base- Zbuzany. A few days later I celebrated my 23rd Birthday with home delivery pizza, movies and chillean wine and chocolate! It was really nice and chilled and just what I felt like after the crazy week before. Then Thursday came and I was delivered back to the Islands in the South Pacific- New Zealand. On my arrival I was met by my good friend Abby! We cruised Auckland for a bit and then hit the road and headed to Ohakune to meet with my parents and sister Heather and stay in our bach. Sunday was unlimited vis, blue sky's, now wind and an awesome day up Mt Ruapehu!!!Stoked! And very stoked to be home!
142 competitors and 26 Nations were on the start of the 2011 Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champs! With a competitive field the race was off to a great start with qualifications on the Friday, this saw the field cut down to the top 46men and the women cut completely as they do not have any semi or finals race on the Wellebruke section- a real shame! The Womens racing was tight this year with a small field of 8 chickas from 8 different Nations! Going in
to the race I was pretty fired up and keen to give it heaps! My first run was a 132seconds and placed me in 2nd equal with Roz from Auz and Caro from France as were all on the same second, and this put Martina Wegman of the Netherlands with a dominant 2second lead! I needed to fix my line on the ‘Champions Killer’ drop as I hit the left eddy after it which lost me a lot of time. Unfortunately my second run I lost my edge at the bottom of the drop and lost some time so finished with the same time and was pushed into 4th position behind Martina Wegman, Caro Loir and Anne Hubner who pulled through a fast time in her 2nd run to beat my by less than a second. Big ups to Martina Wegman for laying down two solid runs and taking out the Chicks div for the 4th year in a row! She totally nailed it and had a well deserved win! I am super keen to come back next year and hopefully we can push for the Women to race finals on the top section! Martina, Roz and Caro and I(in 93rd) were all placed in the top 90 of the men after 1st runs, in order to go through to the top we would have needed to be in the top 48.
Mens Race=KIWI DOMINATION!!!
I have to say I was really really stoked to be there to watch Mike Dawson and Sam Sutton kill the competition on the Wellebrucke rapids! The Mens racing was very tight and the final was awesome to watch. With Fabian Dorfler, Michelle Ramazza, Issac Livingstone and superstar slalom racer Vavra the field was incredible and some very smooth performances were layed down. There was about 4dudes on 98seconds and this put Vavra in 4th, Paul Brockelman in 3rd and Mike Dawson with a 98.10 in 2nd, with Sam Sutton laying down an absolutely epic run of 95seconds! Hell yea! Super motivating and I was very happy for these guys!
To follow came the inaugural Sickline Party at the Mexican restaurant, it was a great celebration and good way to end the event. This was followed the next day by a swim in the lake, macdonalds and then to Munich to join in the Octoberfest celebrations!!!It was wild. In the morning I cruised to the train station and then journeyed for 8hours (by car its 4hours!) back to my European Base here in Prague! I have an assignment due tomorrow and then I fly home on Thursday! The plan is to be skiing with my beautiful family by Saturday afternoon!
Big Thanks to all the Super Amazingly Awesome European (and Worldwide) people that have helped me out this year here in Europa! You all totally rock and make my trip and travel here a breeze, dreamlike even at times! Cheeers, Dajkuim, Gracias, Dunke! Photo credit- Adidas Website and Martin Hammer: Sam Sutton, Mikey D, Boys on the podium and myself on the bottom drop:)
