United States of AMERICA!

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A solid 12hour AirNZ flight saw Toni George, Shilo Gibson and myself landing safely into San Francisco, America! We were so stoked to arrive into the warmth and find Martina Wegman from the Netherlands (That country that everyone thinks is Denmark) along with Christy and Chris from NZ. Martina and I caught the train and bus out to Auburn (20min from Coloma) well the others went in Chris’s car. Basically the others were meant to pick us up from Auburn but due to some miss communication they did not... Anyway after waiting an hour or so we wondered down the street, found a nice family who leant us there phone, gave us some wine and put us to rest in their Gazebo- epic! They then drove us out to Coloma to meet the others and join the party! Big Big thanks to this awesome family!

We set up camp with Shilo at her primo campsite and did a run down a pretty cruizy section of the South Fork of the American river called Kyberz. It was pretty sweet. Kyberz had a few really fun rapids and some good moves, about a 2hour run with no portages. The next day we met up with Nick and Harmony Wimsett, Lu and Tyler, Josh and Chris and Christy again and did a run down the South Silver. It was at a pretty high flow but all good to go! I was pretty scared actually, some of the drops and rapids were rather big and looked full on and like nothing I had ever paddled. They were all pretty clean though and a lot of fun! Stoked on our crew, such a mint day!

I am loving it here in California, the weather is hot, Wal Mart has $8 bikinis and $10 dozens of beers,Ice cold beers at the take out as the rivers are fueled by snow melt, If you need internet just stand next to a bus or a train or hit up Maccas, 50cent refills on coffee- definately makes you buzz, Americans are super nice! Camping life is all good (providing you don’t step on poison oak), Gas is cheap as. Thanks so much to Nick and Harmony for an amazing BBQ! Nicole for letting us use her car! Douglas for looking after my gears! Kate for driving me and Martina home when we got left behind,  And everyone else who has been super nice!

This morning I will be writing some assignments for uni, then Martina, Toni and I are looking at doing a three day or heading to the Yuba, we might meet up with Lu & Tyler and or Chris. All is sweet.
Photo Credit: Shilo Gibson

Aotearoa

There is no place like home and my time here in New Zealand is nearing its end as summer disapears to the other side of the world. The simplicity of watching the sun go down on the West Coast of NZ is pretty awesome and I am going to miss it greatly on my departure to the far lands. I am currently trying to finish off assignments and make final bookings for my adventures alongside a bit of surfing and Suping. Here is a little edit of my home kayak run on the Kaituna that Luuka took!11th of  May I will be boarding my flight to the United States of America! Yeaaaa. Peace out NZ!

1st Descent- Maretu River, Gisbourne

Heavy rain warnings for the Eastern areas of the North Island have been on the news all week. On Thursday night we got the call from Brendan, Willz and Tyler to say that it was all on! So Ryan and I rallied over to the meet the others and set up camp at the take out- down Makaretu Road (Around 70km from Gisbourne, just after you go through Matawai, road on the right). Good Friday came and we were up nice and early to seize the day. We had a solid crew of 7- Tyler Fox, Brendan Bayley, Willz Martin, Ryan Lucas, Kendal, Drew and myself. We were all pretty amped and ready to explore the Maretu River, one that has not been kayaked before. Tyler had done his homework and google earthed the river to checkout the descent, which looked impressive, so we were all fired up for a good day on the river! The first section was loaded with easy slides and a few boulder gardens. These then led into some steeper sections of slides and drops. There was one long gorge section that we had to portage as it was unrunable and not smooth. We then carried on to find a perfect 15foot waterfall, we all ran it a few times as it was so nice! This was followed by a massive slide/drop that looked super knarley and quite full on. Noone ran it as it did not look like it went, maybe with more water...but only maybe. After portaging the big one we came across a nice 25foot waterfall, it was another beauty! We then carried on to find a lot more sweet slides and fun rapids. It took us 6hours to do the whole descent (10km in length) and the shuttle took a good 2hours as well. It was an epic day on the river though and well worth it! A totally sick run that I hope gets done again.Here are some pictures and videos from the mission.

The next day Willz, Ryan and I tried to walk in to another run that we had heard about. We hiked across paddocks and around bush for 2hours before realising we were on the wrong track! We had started late and did not have time on our side so were left to abandon the mission and paddle out on class 2.

Now it’s back to study..

SUP Nationals!

The last few weeks I have been trying to get in as much Uni work as possible before I head away overseas in mid May to California! Work doing kayak instruction for high schools and hostessing on the yacht back on Lake Rotoiti keep coming up however and this makes it hard to get ahead in school.
So last weekend Mike Dawson and I cruised along to the NZ SUP Nationals at Takapuna Beach on the North Shore of Auckland. We were representing Pau-Hana a Hawaiian SUP brand and the people that import the boards here in New Zealand are totally awesome! I am super stoked on the Oahu Surf Board that they have hooked me up with!
So racing! This was Mike and I's first SUP race and we both found it quite interesting. There were only 3woman so we had to race the men and I finished after my 2nd heat in 3rd out of the three woman. I was a bit dissapointed as they did not hold a proper Womans Final and I never got to properly race the other chicks. I found the event organisation not very informative and the event as a whole was not ran very smoothly. Was stoked to be there representing Pau-Hana though!

NEW ZEALAND SUMMER EDIT- SAM RICKETTS

Here is a really sweet edit put together by Sam Ricketts of his summer here in NZD! I paddled a bit with Ricketts this summer and there are some shots from one of our trips down the lower gorges. He is a charger!

Jumping the Seasons from Sam Ricketts on Vimeo.

NZ Freestyle Champs- FJ!

Last weekend we had the New Zealand Freestyle Nationals on the Full James Rapid just out of Taupo. This is one of the funnest and most accessible waves on offer in the region and provides a lot of fun. The men's competition was taken out this year by the one and only Josh Neilson! Followed closely by Andy O and the legend Bernd Sommers!
In the Womens Polly Green took the honours with Junior World silver medalist Courtney Kieran in 2nd and myself in 3rd.
A super fun weekend and Jamie and I even got to try out the SUP's on the wave!:)
Big thanks to all the sponsors of the event. There was some super sweet prizes, I was especially stoked with my Tie Downs from CanoeandKayak Taupo as now I can stop using everyone elses!
Also big thanks to the organisers!!! Soph, B, Lu Urwin, Tyler and CanoeandKayak Taupo...without these guys the event would never happen and we would miss out on sick times!
Photo Credit: Canoe and Kayak Taupo
and Rob Sperling

Raglan- SUP!

With the New Zealand SUP National Festival coming up at the end of this month I have been out for a few SUP sessions to help prepare myself! I will be heading up there with Mike Dawson. It will be all very new to me and the competition should be a real experience! But I am looking forward to checking it out and I think it will be a lot of fun. Here are some pictures I took when visiting my sister Heather in Raglan!

Si Memorial race-Nevis

Here is an edit of Simon Davidson's memorial race down some of NZ's biggest rapids- edit put together by Foxy.
It was a hard morning after the epic bender and it was raining and cold! But the crew of 15 of us had a sick time and took a moment at the top of the rapids to remember Si! The paddle was dedicated for him and I am confident he would have been stoked on us shredding down in mass form through the Nevis Bluff rapids! One of the wildest swims in my life, but well worth every second! Ride on.

Citroen Extreme Race! NZ Extreme Series wrap up

The last few weeks have kept me really busy with a lot of kayak instruction work, University work back on the cards, morning surf sessions and an incredible weekend in Queenstown. Jamie Sutton, Kenny Mutton, Ryan Lucas, Willz Martin and I boosted to Auckland Friday night and camped out in the van before flying bright and early Saturday morning down to NZ's adventure capital- Queenstown! The 3rd and final event in the NZ Extreme Race series and the prime event- Citroen Extreme Race is a must make event with very exciting rapids that make for an awesome event and unpredictable racing. Our Okere Massive crew all arrived feeling pretty tired but we were fired up for a good day of racing. Air New Zealand were extremely helpful and awesome to deal with, even though they did manage to leave 3 of our kayaks and gear in Auckland...this left me with a bikini and shorts and no warm gear for the icy Kawerau river waters. Fortunately the Southern Island is full of absolute legends and I was fortunate to have Sara- Jane Luoni, the Bailey Family and Dyl lend me a kayak and some gear for the day!
With 8 woman on the startline the womans line-up was a lot better then last year, stoked! There were also 37 in a strong mens field fighting for the overall title.
I won my first two heats quite comfortably and was feeling good for the final, I was fired up to take home the gold! I decided I would hit the 50/50 hard but fast left line for the final in an attempt to style my way down to a win...unfortunately I got pushed into the hard left eddie however and this lost me a lot of time and cost me the race as all the other chicks in the final went the safe right line. Gutted, but all good. I still took out the NZ Extreme Race Series in the Woman's field and have defended my National Title! Racing in all three events was a lot of fun and I was stoked with how it all went.
The Men's racing was a lot tighter and especially with 4 of the top ranked men racing off for the title at the Citroen Race!!!With Jamie Sutton and Kenny Mutton in the final it was wicked to watch!!! Totally Stoked for Jamie who took the gold in the end and secured his 2nd Citroen Race win and the NZ Extreme Race Mens winner!
Weekend was toped with a Simon Davidson memorial mass start race down the mighty Nevis Bluff rapids! 14 men and myself. Dylan Thompson took the win...I took the most downtime and swimmer award!!! Sick!
Epic weekend. Now waiting in Queenstown airport with Ryan, Jamie S and Ricketts for our flights back to the North!
Photo credit- Ant Longman, Cumec Magazine.

Epic week!

Here are some more pictures of the last week, it has been sooo epic! The trophy I won for the Kaituna is incredible and as if that wasn't enough...Pau Hana SUP boards also came to the party and bought me a new SUP board that is perfect for the surf with 3 finns. Can't wait to get out there tomorrow after work. Today the entertainment was topped by a visit from my mate Jasper who did a first kayak trip and first descent of the Kaituna all in one day!!! He totally styled it and did an awesome job! Big congrats to him, as he has just defended his title as the U23 K1 Flatwater National Champion!I have included a little video of him that I took when we went over the Kaituna waterfall:)
Pics include: New SUP!, Kenny Mutton and I-Kaituna Race Champions, Trophy, and some pics from the Wairoa Extreme Race. Photo credit- Shilo Gibson on Louise Urwins camera.

2012 Extreme Race Series-Kaituna and Wairoa

On the weekend we had our first set of Extreme Races for the NZ Extreme Race series. This series has been designed with 3 Extreme Races- The 1st on the Kaituna, 2nd on the Wairoa and the 3rd on the Citroen Rapid just out of Queenstown. The racer with the most consistent results will be crowned the NZ Extreme Race Series winner.
So on Saturday the race for the title begun with 2 timed runs down the Kaituna river which were then added together to give people their overall place. Kenny Mutton took out the Mens field and I won the Womans- See reults above (Click to enlarge)..
On the Sunday we had the Wairoa Extreme Race and this begun with a time trial from the put in to just above the waterfall by rollercoaster. Kenny Mutton once again won the Mens time trial and I look out the Womens with a solid 7second lead. We then raced head to head down the Rollercoaster Rapid. Unfortunately in my 2nd head to head I made a small error which sent me to the back and meant I was out of the running for the final. Laura and I faced off in the Semi-Final for 3rd and 4th and I took the honours in the end. Checkout these videos of me and Laura's semi and the mens final, which was won by Jamie Sutton with Kenny Mutton in 2nd, Tyler Fox in 3rd and Willz Martin in 4th. Because Jamie Sutton won he has now secured a spot for himself at the 2012 White Water Grand Prix that will be held in Chile at the end of the year, lucky!!! Toni George took the Womens title and Nikki Whitehead was a close 2nd.
Big thanks to Louise Urwin, Brendan Bayley and the Sutton parents who did an amazing job organising the event and making it all run so smoothly. Also a big thanks to all of the sponsors of the events!!It was an awesome weekend and really fun. Stoked to have raced and been a part of such a sweet atmosphere. For another update on these races checkout Tylers post on www.bottomsupkayaking.blogspot.co.nz: Click Here

SUP!

In September this year I went to the biggest Kayaking tradeshow in Europe, Kanumesse and SUP Expo. Kanumesse showcases the kayaking industries top gear and businesses that are on the market. This year SUP-Stand Up Paddle boards were also taking part in the expo. I was really interested in this as it looks like really good fun and awesome cross-training for kayaking! So I had a go, and it turned out it was really fun!!! 'Pau-Hana' are based in the USA and manufacture boards for surfing, racing and flatwater cruising. They were at the expo and let me try out their boards.

Since arriving back in NZL I have been doing a lot of kayaking and thanks to Pau-Hana I am now able to do some cross-training on my SUP!!!On the weekend I went to Raglan where my sister is based and I have been using it in our local beach- Maketu. I went out this morning for about 2hours on the lake and it is an awesome workout, I feel exhausted but totally stoked! Heres some pics from my little mission with my flatmate Shilo up to the Hamurana Springs:)