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.
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Date: 07/05/2016
Time: 10:30am - 4:00pm Location: Westcoast Rivers/Sections: Arnold River River Level: 63 Cumecs People: tpp First Year students, 15 people Weather: Sunny, fine. Incidents: Lost one paddle. One swimmer. No split paddle. Personal Time Comments: The biggest mission I've managed outside of tech time in terms of people. We had 15 people on the river, 11 kayakers and 4 rafters. Big day of planning. Wasn't as organised as I could have been. I could have dedicated more jobs out to people instead of doing everything myself. Had a good safety talk before we got on the river with the kayakers. Talked about dangers like the raft, higher flow, being safe and making good decisions etc. Then got a safety talk from the rafters. Good practice. Split into 3 groups, Gat looking after one group, Sparrow one and I had one. Could of communicated better with Gatlin and Sparrow about how far apart each group was because we often found Sparrow's group was out of sight. Other than that everything ran smoothly in terms of people management. Jake lost a paddle while waiting in an eddy while I was running safety for the raft and other kayak groups on three hole. We put him in the raft and I towed his boat down. Didn't have a split paddle because it didn't fit in any of the boats. Gaby swam at pyramid rock. Gatlin rescued her and got her into an eddy. Was harder for him because he had a play boat. Had some throw bag practice at the get out. Was really good to do. Heaps of fun. Good learning and practice around people management. Date: 01/05/2016
Time: 10:30am - 2:00pm Location: Murchison Rivers/Sections: Buller River, Granity Run. River Level: 30 cumecs People: Nathan Stead, Gatlin Edes, Matt Sparrow, Ryan Colley, Justin Slierendrech Weather: Overcast Incidents: Justin hit his head on a rock and swam, Ryan took a swim Personal Time Comments: Justin hit his head at the end of granity rapid while playing in a hole, got dazed. I grabbed his boat and then got out of my boat and grabbed him. Took some time out on the side of the river to make sure he was okay. Decided he was all right and went for another lap on the main rapid. Ryan flipped in the middle of the rapid and took some rocks to the face and head. I stern deck carried him at the bottom until we were clear of rocks/rapids. He was okay. Decided not to go to Maruia when we got off because of the events of the day. Good day, lots of learning involved and a few rescues and good decision making. Date: 30/04/2016
Time: 1:30 - 4:30 Location: Murchison Rivers/sections: Buller River, Earthquakes section River level: 30 cumecs People: Nathan Stead, Gatlin Edes, Matt Sparrow, Tom Beadle, Ryan Colley, Justin Slierendrecht Weather: Overcast and cold Incidents: none Personal Time Comments: Good day, river was a little low. Managed the crew well, made sure everyone was feeling comfortable. Had a few first timers but we took them down with no swims or any incidents. Got a chance to manage people and safety hazards. good fun. |
Jonathan SmithThese are my adventures in my pursuit of whitewater kayaking Archives
January 2018
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