Changing Disciplines

Me on Double Drop on one of the local runs in the Kaimai ranges, 1hour from home. Photo credit: Gregg Thomas

Some race results from my local river- the Kaituna:)

Me on my local run- the Kaituna! The last four NZ Summers I have lived within 5minutes walk of this. Photo credit: Shilo Gibson

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Just over a year ago I raced at the 2011 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia. I have been on the New Zealand Senior Canoe Slalom Team since 2008 competing on the International circuit. I really enjoyed my time in Canoe Slalom and met a lot of totally awesome people that I will never forget. After coming up just short of my goals I decided it was time for a change.


Here is a video from the canoe slalom worlds last year. It was after this race that I finished my slalom racing. It was time for a change and extreme kayaking was my first choice of direction.




So for the last year I have been pursuing another discipline of white water kayaking- known to most as extreme kayaking. I have taken every opportunity to get on steep creeks or more challenging terrain in order to push myself as much as possible. I have finally managed to find some footage from my last year of travelling, it includes shots from New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia and the United States of America!!! I put it together as my bid for the White-Water Grand Prix that will be held in Chile in December. I really hope to make a spot but there is a lot of very talented women in white water kayaking and I will be so stoked if I do. This year I have been fortunate to paddle alongside Nouria Newman, Martina Wegman, Toni George and Katrina Van Wijk. All of these chicks totally kick ass and go big. I love paddling with these chicks as they have so much fire and this drives me more. My video is not the best quality and I wish I had more good footage from this year. I need to get better at taking photos and footage. Big thanks to my Argentinian friend Fidel for putting the edit together for me.

In June I raced at the Teva Mountain Games in Colorado and placed 2nd Woman after Martina Wegman of the Netherlands.Photo credit: Shilo Gibson









The pictures below feature me on slides-
Left: Nosebraker on the South Silver, California. Photo credit: Shilo Gibson
Right: A beautiful slide on the Tiegdale in Norway. Photo Credit: Toni George

This year I was fortunate enough to jump on Upper Cherry Creek in the High Sierras of California. An amazing run that is full of beautiful drops and slides and fast sections of class 4/5.
I did this trip with my good friend Josh and some other friends from the Netherlands. It turned into a 5day epic when we lost Josh on the hike in!Photo Credit: Josh Neilson

All ended well and we paddled out on mega highs!Photo credit: Josh Neilson/Casper Van Kalmthout

Above- Me racing down the Wairoa! A local Kiwi Extreme Race:)

Me flying off another drop on the Tiegdale in Norway. Photo Credit: Nouria Newman

And so my journey continues. After finishing up some work in Canada I am back on the road with my good Canadian friend Katrina Van Wijk. We are planning to head down to the Green Race that will be held at the start of November. Following this we will be flying to South America to checkout the rivers of Chile and Argentina and do some waterfall boat riding:)


I am super stoked on life at the moment and enjoying the adventure. Thank you so much to all that have helped me out along the way and been so supportive. Special thanks to my friends who have been such a big part in my travels and to those that have had me crash on their floor. Bliss-Stick have been really supportive and so have Duemstuff Kayak gear- you guys rock!
The change from slalom to extreme has been awesome, I am really glad that I made the move. The lifestyle in extreme is much more my style and I am stoked on this. There are many people that I have kayaked with in the last year that have made me really appreciate creeking, far too many people to name. I feel it is all thanks to them that I have got to where I am with my paddling.

I look forward to getting back home to New Zealand in January, it will be nice to be back on home ground.

Adioss.

Ottawa, Ontario

Life here in Ontario continues to be pretty chill. After a super sweet week hanging out on the Ottawa river, camping out in the OWL Rafting campsite I am now back in the outback of the Madawaska river! I have been instructing a large range of kayakers both young and old, beginner and intermediate. It is a really nice kayaking resort here and I am stoked to be working next to a range of awesome kayak instructors and legends!

I am going to continue instructing this week and will be taking part in the MKC triathlon on Wednesday, ready to take down the secret training kitchen staff:) I am also slowly starting to organize my end of year plans! It is looking like Canada...South East of the USA and then finally Chile!STOKED!
Note: Click here to checkout the MKC newsletter! 

Chutes De Plasaince

Yesterday Katrina, Carmen, Kyle, Devon, Nevin, Gayling, Seth and co. along with myself cruised out to Quebec to checkout a creek. It is called Chutes D Plaisance (I think)..
Anyway it was running pretty low, but the bottom section still looked pretty good to go. I considered running it but did not have my own boat there and with Katrina deciding not to do it as she did not want to brake her boat I figured it best not to borrow one. Some of the boys fired it up and had some sweet lines. Carmen, Katrina and I lay on the rocks and enjoyed some swim time.
I am continuing to enjoy the Ottawa river here, skins to win everyday and cruising down with the Owl trips:)

OOOO CANADA!

Since arriving in Canada I have been pretty busy. I had the most epically long journey to get here choosing the cheapest route from Norway via San Francisco! So arriving to find my good friend Kathleen Taylor was more than good, it was amazing! Kathleen took me to her home in Ottawa where I was treated to Michael Taylors bed as he was in London training for the Olympics and Kathleens mother treated me to some incredible French toast with real Canadian maple syrup!
We did a quick run in slalom boats on the Ottawa river and then cruised off to the MKC Kingdom on the Madawaska river. Here we met up with my other good friend Katrina Van Wijk! A quick slalom race on their cute wee course and we were off to the Gull for some more racing. The Gull was another few hours away but totally worth the drive! A primo slalom course that provided some excellent racing and paddling.
We then cruised back to MKC where I began instructing kayaking. I have pretty much been at MKC instructing since then with the weekend visit to the Ottawa river for some sweet kayaking. The Ottawa river is pretty low at the moment and no Zambezi...but provides some fun waves like Garb and Push button and some enjoyable rapids.
Stoked to be here in Canada!

Cheers Norway!

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My last week here in Norway has gone really fast! Hanging out in Sjoa is super sweet! The Sjoa river has plenty of fun waves on the playrun and with the high water levels the run down Aamot has become pretty full on!

So today we had the Ulla Extreme Race down some wicked slides on the Ulla River. The race took the fastest man 1mintute 35 and for the fastest Women (Myself and Sandra) 1minute 39. I had an average 1st run loosing time at the top of the course but pulled out a good second run to finish in 2nd place behind a British Downriver paddler- Sandra. 3rd place went to an American chick and Toni George finished in 4th. It was a super fun day of racing! Sam Sutton won the Men’s with Jamie Sutton in 2nd and Tomas Andrassy in 3rd.

With the event coming to an end we did a good river run from the run above the playrun on the Sjoa (Orsing or something) all the way down to the campsite. This took around 2hours and with the high water levels was a lot of fun!The event finished with the Sweet Rumble. And this was taken out by Toni George in the Women’s and there was a tie with Sam Daddy Sutton and a Slovak Dude- Pablo Andrassy.

Now it is time to hit the water with a lap of the playrun and Aamot before cruising to Oslo later tonight and beginning my long journey to CANADA!

Norway in short- Light all the time- so heading out to go kayaking at 9pm is legit, unlimited coffee at Statoil, camping for free anywhere, doing recycling pays for your lunch and dinner.

Massive Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so much! Mariann Saether, Nini Bondhus, Ron Fisher, Benjamin Hjort, Jakub Sedivy and the many other people that looked after me!

Sjoa River Festival

 More sweet times in Norway! Loving Sjoa. Here are some pictures from Ula river. We are racing on it tomorrow!

ValDall and Sjoa!

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So after a good 10days or so in Voss it came time to depart and head towards Valdall for the next competition. This meant a totally scenic drive through the snowy mountains and included a ride on the ferry! We stopped off to do the Sangdelsegre along the way and decided to jump on the lower section due to the high flow. Toni decided to walk out early on as she had a sore shoulder but Willz and I continued. Unfortunately because of the high flow we had to walk the triple drop and a few other man eating rapids and holes. There were some really fun rapids and sections on the river too though which made it worth the trip. We got out a few hundred metres before the takeout as it was all roadside and turning a bit manky, which was lucky for us as you need a permit to be on the river due to the Salmon farms in the area! We then carried on to the beautiful valley where Toni lived and worked last season- Josterdal. Here we stayed with our friend Emily from the rafting and her boyfriend Andreus. It was really nice of them to have us and the waffles from their waffle maker were amazing! The next day I did a riverrun with an Auzzy dude called Adam down the local Upper raft run. The run then led into what the locals call ‘Ugly canyon’ (Renamed by Toni ‘Fluffy Bunny Gorge!’) The river was up a lot and the first big rapid provided a rather large hole. I got lucky and went through it well Adam took a tricky swim. Fortunately he ended up in a cave on the right that was easy to get out of and I was able to help him out of the gorge before following myself as we could not scout below.  After this small epic we headed to ValDall which is a very small little farmers town in the Norwegian Outback. Once again we came across high waters and after a quick run down the middle section we were into racing. The race which is meant to be held on some steep slides had been moved to the middle section of class 2/3 white-water. A 2minute sprint down this section saw Toni take gold with me in 2^nd and a Norwegian chicka in 3^rd. In the mens it was Sammy Sutton who was crowned king!

Now we have arrived in Sjoa and it is awesome here! Toni and I went with Jakub Sedivy for a run down Aamot last night and I did some instruction with a group of rad as Norwegian Chickas today, they were owning the river which was awesome to see. Big thanx to Tom and Tilzy for having us to stay last night. Looking forward to a good week here in Sjoa and enjoying my final time here in Norway.

Voss, Norway

My time here in Norway continues to be rad. With my sister Izzy coming to visit for 5days it has been really nice to get some chill time with her:)
Stoked to get on some more rivers too though. Yesterday Benji, Toni, Willz and I paddled the Raundalselvi: Urland Run (Playrun) last night which was super fun class 3 high water in the evening. In the morning we joined up with the Suttons and B to paddle down the Lower Myrkdalselvi which was a fairly full on class 4/5 section of white water that was flowing quite high. A good run.

Norway!

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Imagine beautiful mountains, hundreds of incredible rivers and stunning scenery...Norway!!! After losing our kayaks off the road just out of San Francisco we travelled day and night to reach the beautiful lands of Norway! Totally stoked to be here! From day 1 we have been on the river! Hitting up Teigdalselvi first, a rather rowdy run that became BIG with the water rising quickly from put on to the first rapids. I was sooo tired I walked out at half way. The crew of Toni, Nouria, Benji and Mikail carried on. The second river I paddled here was the Upper Myrkdalselvi and this was super fun! High again from the rain so some big volume technical rapids that we enjoyed a lot. We had a good crew of Nouria, Eric, Anton, Jakub, another dude and me.

The water here is crazy cold, which is not surprising with all the snow on the riverbanks. And recently there has been a lot of rain!

The extreme Sports Veko here in Voss kicked off on the Monday and has been full on since then! I am totally stoked to be here. Voss boosts a primo atmosphere of extreme sport athletes from all over the world, from mountain bikers, base jumpers, paragliders, freeskiers to white-water kayakers.

Our first completion was the raft-race and I teamed up with Nouria, Toni and a Canadian girl Emily. We owned the Womens class and beat all of the Mens teams in the slalom section, well all minus the Germans.

Next up was the Creek Race down the Brandsetelvi! The course was at a low flow but has nice slides and drops and many viewing platforms for spectators. Nouria Newman threw down some very fast runs to take out the Women’s class ahead of myself in 2^nd and Toni George in 3^rd. In the mens class Eric Deguil of France was seconds ahead of Sam Sutton with Jamie Sutton coming in 3^rd. This race was followed by a team’s race that was taken out by team NZL!

The head to head race followed on the Saturday held on the Stranda and with the river flowing 20cumecs higher than the days before due to heavy rainfall there was a smaller field of competitors. In the Womens class there was only 5 on the start so after 2heats the final results were made. Nouria Newman once again took out the Womens with myself in 2^nd and Toni in 3^rd once again. The mens results were the same again with Eric in first, Sammy in 2^nd and Jamie in 3^rd.

It has been so awesome to be here in Voss and I have so many people to thank for helping me out. Benji organised a Kayak and Paddle for me to use. Mariann sorted my helmet and lifejacket and gave me a bed for the week which has been amazing! Ron also lent Nouria and I his car to use to get around in this week! Also Nini for letting me stay in her room! Big thanks to all of them, absolute legends! Mariann was unfortunately out of action this week after she damaged her right shoulder on a mountain bike in one of the multi-sport races at the start of the week yet has still put up with us!I will definitely be back next year! Photo credit Nouria Newman and Izzy Jull.

Up in Norway without a boat, paddle, lifejacket and helmet...

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With Norway in our sights Toni and I packed up and headed off to San Francisco airport around midnight to catch our 6am flight! When busy studying I had read the departure time wrong and thought we were flying out at midday!! Lucky Toni checked! I’ve never missed a flight before but this time was close! We were cruising along the midnight around 1am when we heard a massive bang! The roofrack, kayaks and paddles had all come loose and were flying down the road and under the approaching trucks. The first truck pulled over with my kayak wedged beneath it. This was followed by Toni’s being dragged along by another truck and our paddles being split in the middle. Gutted. I was in shock and the sight was very sobering. In my kayak was a few dry bags of gear along with my Sweet helmet and lifejacket which were now quite destroyed! I was sooo gutted. Ready to fly to one of the World’s most renowned places for beautiful waterfalls and amazing kayaking and 4 of my 5 key items were missing! Kayak, BV, Paddles and helmet! Toni’s boat was also demolished and gone! We managed to make out flight on to Norway and were blessed to travel without the hassle of kayaks- amazing to go through the checkout in less than 20mintutes and have no arguements or massive charges for overweight gear...it definitely felt like something was missing.

Hopefully we can figure something out when we get to Norway!

Reno Fest and Yosemete!

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Last weekend Christy, Toni, Jordy, Josh N, Ben J, Shilo, Pernille and I went on a roady to the city of Reno! The Reno River Festival was an all weekend event that included freestyle, slalom, Boatercross and Supping! Unfortunately we missed the Saturday slalom and freestyle events but we arrived just in time for the Sunday events- Supping and Boatercross! The festival was held on the river that runs through  the centre of Reno. This made for a great spectator event with a lot of people gathering around to check out the action. I took out the time SUP slalom event and placed 2^nd after Toni George in the SUP Cross event. Josh Neilson took 3^rd in the SUP Slalom and Jordy took out the SUP cross! This was followed by the Boatercross event which included 8 ballers! Toni ended up 2^nd in this event well I was pushed out of contention by an 8baller at the end to finish in 4^th. A super fun event that was well run, definitely keen to go back next year.

With only a few days left in the United States of America Toni, Jordy, Christy and I decided to head to Yosemeti to check out the beautiful sites. Yosemeti boosts as one of the United States most beautiful natural areas, and it was definitely very scenic. We did a small walk to a nice waterfall the first night and then tackled the large climb to Half Dome the next day- it took us around 3 and half hours to the top and then we cruised our way down to finish in around 10 hours! Stoked! A great way to end our time here in America.