Date: 23/04/2016
Time: 11:00am - 3:00 pm Location: Westcoast, between Ross and Hari hari Rivers/Sections: Lower Kakapatahi River Level: Full Flood People: Barney Young, Ryan O'connor, Shae Kitchin, Taylor Weston, James William Scoltock Weather: Heavy Rain. Incidents: Taylor W swam for about 2 kms Personal Time Comments: Pretty huge. Everyone walked the gorge, was way to big to paddle. Had to cross a stream which was very flooded. Barney jumped across attached to a throw bag. Everyone made it across safely. A lot of continuous paddling and dodging holes, very tiring. I was put in a dangerous position because of my fitness level. I'd find myself too tired to make moves. took a small hole above an eddy sideways and got surfed, flipped and then Taylor came in and launched under the front of my boat, also flipping. Both managed to get up fine. Taylor later swam, Barney chased his boat, James got his paddle and Shae looked after Taylor. Ryan would often get out before Shae and Taylor with a throw bag just in case they needed it. Taylor was in the water for a very long time, must have been 2kms before we found Barney with his boat. I was in the eddy below Barney, Shae missed the eddy and I caught them as the floated past. Good learnings and was pretty cool to see how the more experienced paddlers dealt with the situation.
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Date: 10/04/2016 Time: 11:45am - 4:30pm Location: Murchison Rivers/Sections: -Buller River, Granity, -Maruia River, Maruia Falls. River Level 45 Cumecs for buller, Meduim flow for Maruia People: Matt Sparrow, Justin Slierendrecht Weather: Sunny Personal Time Comments: Justin was heading back to Nelson so we decided we would spend the day in Murch with him before he leaves. Left Greymouth at 9:30am got to Granity put in just before 12. Buller River was sitting at 45 cumecs and dropping slowly. (Dropped heaps the next day) Sparrows first time down and the biggest rapid he has done at this point. Paddled down with no problems at all. Peaceful warm up before the main rapid. Got to main rapid, Justin and Sparrow got out above to have a look and I paddled it as they watched. I created some grade 4 moves by boofing the 2 main holes and catching a small eddy on river right above the rock face that creates a decent buffer wave. Paddled out of the eddy and surfed the buffer across to the small drop that the rock face creates, missed my boof and took a quick roll. Paddled to river right and ran safety for Justin and Sparrow. Justin had a good line but rolled in the same spot I did. Got back up just fine. Sparrow flipped in the first hole but pulled off a clean roll before flipping again in the same sport Justin and I had flipped. He struggled to roll back up as I ran down the river in case he swam (I had my throw bag) He attempted about 6 rolls (all caught on film) as I scrambled back to my boat. He then managed to get back up but with a popped spray deck. Justin was fast getting to them. I lost track of them and got in my boat and started to race down the river, luckily they were only 10 metres away but hidden in an eddy on river right and had lost no gear. Rest of the run was good and clean. Went to Maruia Falls afterwards. It was at a very nice flow, decent water coming off. Sparrow did safety at the bottom and Justin stood on the bank next to the falls to signal me when they were ready. First lap was very clean, perfect line off the falls. Justin then decided that he would run the falls. My next line was almost a disaster. Nose got turned by the small buffer wave on op of the falls, managed to put in a nice left stroke to combat this and landed nicely at the bottom. Justin followed down a few minutes after with a good line. Went slightly over the handlbars but came out just fine. My third line was unsuccessful, buffer wave caught my nose again but this time I wasn't able to combat the push and it sent my boat deep into the curtain. Pressure of the waterfall landed on my spray deck and popped it off. I was still upright but my boat was mostly underwater (Luckily I have air bags) Justin tried to tow me as whiled I paddled, this was unsuccessful and I ended up swimming out of my boat to the bank with my paddle and Justin saved my boat. Very good day, no major accidents. |
Jonathan SmithThese are my adventures in my pursuit of whitewater kayaking Archives
January 2018
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