Date: 01/01/2018
Time: 10:30am - 5:00pm Location: Hokitika, Westcoast NZ Rivers: Whitecombe River Level: Medium High, 65 Cumecs Weather: Sunny. Clear. People: Soph Mulder, Liam Hopkinson, Greg Lee, Dip, Caitlyn Foran, Grade: 4+
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Date: 20/09/2017
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm Location: Matakitaki Valley, Murchison, Tasman NZ Rivers: Glenroy River Level: High end of good, 80 on the Matakitaki Gauge. (Glenroy is usually about the same) Weather: Sunny. Clear. People: Daan Jimmik, Mick Hopkinson Grade: 4+ Hazards: Known to have wire in the river (take wire cutters). Gorged sections. Strainers. Comments: When we put on it was slightly higher than what we thought. We paddled down and found some decent sized holes along the way. 2 of which almost caught me out. The last 2 grade 4 rapids turned into one long grade 4. It was pretty fast paced with me trying to follow Daan's lines. Date: 18/09/2017
Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm Location: Murchison, Tasman NZ Rivers: Matiri River Level: High - Medium Weather: Overcast, Rain People: Daan Jimmik, Mick Hopkinson Grade: 4 Hazards: Gorged in. Last rapid crux. Hard to catch a flow between high and low. Comments: Comments: The Matiri was an amazing little gem that I had never been on. I took an RPM. I also got the van stuck at the put in. Whoops. Daan got it out though. It was probably some of the bigger water I've paddled in an RPM. Heaps of good waves. Super good fun. Floods super hard. Matiri can drop out fast as well. The Kayak school doesn't usually use it for clients because it's too hard to catch a good flow. Date: 09/09/2017 Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm Location: Hokitika, Westcoast NZ Rivers: Toaroha River Level: Meduim - Low Weather: Overcast, Short periods of hail People: Ryan O'Connor, Nathan Stead, Mitchell Lamb, Jacinta Borer Grade: 4+ Comments: Awesome mission up the the exit drop of the Toaroha canyon. It was a mission that took some time but paid off. The day consisted of walking up the normal Toaroha track to the put in. Walking past that and up moving up the river. This consisted of short walking lengths and then making ferry glides across the river, paddling up slow moving pools, rock jumping and traversing across walls. This part was a first adventure where I would move up a river to the extend that we did. None of the moves were super hard, but I see it as an easy introduction to what is required to move around some of these rivers. The drop was unreal. Looking like something out of a story book, the entire scene. The falls, the pool, the surrounding gorge. The drop was only about 7 meters in height, but the lead in is where it gets tricky. It takes a hard right hand turn right above the lip where you want to place your boat on the River right side of the drop to get a good line. If you get pushed too left, you end up in a seam line that sucks you under. Good lines all round though, besides Mitchell taking a swim. The rest of the run is easy grade 4 that was tricky at the flow we had, but manageable. Date: 07/05/2017
Time: 10:00am - 3:00pm Location: Crooked River, Westcoast Rivers: Crooked River Level: 10 Cumecs Weather: Clear, Mild People: Aaron Wheatley Grade: 4 Comments: A stunning trip. Both the walk in and the paddle out made this trip an amazing one. The walk is about an hour and a half through knee deep mud up and down hilly terrain. Although both Aaron and I were puffed at the put in, we both felt really good and took a few minutes to take in the amazing scene which was the upper crooked. The run is very committing and beautiful. I found that most of the rapids were tight, technical and sometimes hard to scout. But we managed to pull of the entire day safely. We took about 2 hours to get down the river, due to this being our first time paddling on this section. An awesome, amazing trip that I would love to do again. Date: 02/05/2017
Time: 6:00am - 5:00pm Location: Whataroa, Westcoast Rivers: Whataroa River Level: 30 Cumecs Weather: Clear, Mild People: Tom Beadle, Matt Sparrow, Gat Eades Grade: 3 - 4 Comments: My very first fly in adventure. Leading up to this trip was exciting. The planning, the talks and the preparation were all contributing factors to this trip being one of the most amazing experiences I've had in my sport. After much researching about this river, planning the trip, assembling an equipment list and preparing ourselves mentally, we drove up early on a fine Tuesday morning. Meeting the chopper pilot at 8:30, we fly up the Whataroa valley into Barrowman flat. It was a tense feeling watching the heli leave us behind, knowing that we were on our own from then on. The entire trip went very smoothly without incident, only slightly numb fingers. I loved this river a lot and it was an awesome first fly in. We took many things away from this trip and our next adventure will hopefully be the Whitecombe river. Date: 17/09/2016
Time: 10:00am - 3:00pm Location: Reefton, Westcoast Rivers: Inangahua River Level: Meduim- low Weather: Clear, warm. People: Ryan O'conner, Reuben Sage, Manu, Gabe. Grade: 4+ Comments: Really excited to get on this river. Been wanting to paddle it for a while and it was good to go, although it could have used more water. No major incidents, a couple of rock scrapes by Gabe and myself but no injuries. (Thankful for elbow pads) Drop was good, nice clean 7m. Rest of the run was a little low but we got down. Really want to run it again with more water. Date: 16/09/2016
Time: 1:30pm - 4:00pm Location: Greymouth, Westcoast. Rivers/Sections: Ten Mile Ceek, Cole Creek Falls Level: Flooded, high. Weather: Heavy Rain all morning. People: Ryan O'Connor. Grade: 4+ Comments: Heavy rainfall for most of the day so we decided we'd get in some paddling after course. Decided to check out ten mile creek which is only a few kms out of Greymouth. Decided it was good to go. Scouted for a while, picked out our lines. Got on the river, paddled down the rapid. First few parts of the section were good. We hit the lines we wanted to and were paddling to a good level. Pretty scary holes but managed to avoid them. Missed half the section on my gopro. Finally we got to the last part of the section, I was on line during the entry but an unexpected flow pushed me further left then I wanted and I was pushed under a strainer. Luckily I went fully under this and managed to roll up. Ryan was pushed into the same strainer and lost his paddle but he managed to hand roll up and get through the rest of the rapid. We had to go back up to the rapid to look for Ryan's paddle which was still stuck in the strainer. We managed to get it out with 2 slings. Lessons I take from this are -Scout rapids more thoroughly -Carry a saw. We also paddled coal creek falls, which was pretty cool. About 5 metres high, good boof, clean line. Enjoyed myself. Date: 18/06/2016
Time: 10:00am - 3:00pm Location: Rotorua Rivers/Sections Kaituna -Okere Falls Level: 300 (on the gate) Weather Overcast, fine, cold. People: Haans Webber, Kev Pay, Travis Carter, Grade: 4 Personal Time Comments: Got time on the Kaituna again while at home during my SDL holidays. Massive crew turned up. Must have been 15 + people. No major events happened on this run, just laughs and catching new eddies Exciting to be on one of my home runs. Felt like I had improve in my paddling since I was last here. Also got to paddle the Lettman which was a cool experience. Similar to a slalom boat. Date: 14/05/2016 Time: 12:00pm - 5:00pm Location: Westcoast, Between Ross and Hari Hari Rivers/Sections: upper and lower Kakapotahi River level: High. People: Stefan Feiss, Lucas McDonald, Luke, Timmothy Weather: Overcast, very cloudy and grey. Incidents: Luke got stuck in a very tight spot, very lucky to get out. Personal Time. Comments: Went to paddle the Kakapotahi river with some of the Christchurch boys. Left one car at the take out of lowers and drove to the put in of the upper section. Saw Barney and Eric, they shuttled our car back to the takeout. We took a look at the gage rock. Was slightly underwater indicating that the upper section was high but runable. Had a talk about it, how everyone was feeling, should we go in, what's the weather going to do. We decided to go in. Top rapids went well, no swims or incidents which was good. Portaged the rapid after Postmens. Scouted airmail rapid. Luke and I went first while the boys ran limited safety, (Could only set up throwbag cover to a certain point of the rapid). We decided to truck and trailer. He went first, I followed. Airmail drop was good, broke through two holes, started to line up the tight exit. Luke flipped after the buffer wave right before the tight exit and got stuck in a very tight spot. I managed to push past him and still make my line, but he was in a lot of trouble. His paddle floated down, I caught it and threw it into an eddy on river left. I signalled to the safety crew that I couldn't see luke, but neither could they. The safety crew wasn't able to get visual on him nor get down to him. I scrambled out of my boat and onto some rocks where I could see his boat still stuck in the middle of the rapid. I saw him and believed he was in a lot of trouble. I quickly made the decision that I was going to swim across the river and make my way back up towards him. I jumped in the river and swam across, climbed up a cliff and made my way to where he was located. I was very scared because I thought he was pinned or couldn't hold on much longer. When I got down to him I saw he was okay and managed to get out and sit in a small eddy. (so relieved) I helped him get up the cliff and we pulled his boat out and signalled to the boys that we were okay. Afterwards we decided that I would stay there in case anyone else gets stuck in the same spot. Other than that, was a really good day, Started to run out of daylight so we bombed through lowers and managed to get off before it started raining and getting dark. Good day, Learnings would have been a bit more urgency on my half when rescuing Luke. I hesitated a bit. But all ended well. |
Jonathan SmithThese are my adventures in my pursuit of whitewater kayaking Archives
January 2018
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