Surf Nicaragua, Paddle Cherry Creek, Burn the Man

Part 1.


The past two months here in the States have been a whirl wind of adventure. Having finished a stint up in northern California it was time to spread my wings a little more and break out of the Californian eddy.

My first stop was Nicaragua in central America. Situated to the north of Costa Rica, Nicaragua offers fantastic weather and surf along it's western coastline. My destination was a sweet little town on the south-west coast called San Juan Del Sur.

Look Mum, no hands!

I've got my flippy floppies, I'm on a BOAT!

I was lucky enough to spend a week here and surfed everyday. I stayed in a cool little hostel called Casa Felis (happy house) and meet a bunch of like minded surf folk from all over the globe.

We hired a boat and crew (for US$20) and headed down the coast in search of good fishing and even better surf. We found both. Less than 24hours in the country and here I was, sitting out the back of with five others, 3-4ft sets and off shore winds...

Between sets, boards-eye view

Hmmm, strap-on Nica style

My week in San Juan Del Sur flew by all to quickly. The days filled with surfing and bludgeoning the locals with my appalling Spanish. The nights were filled with alcohol fueled adventures with random 'best friends' found along the way. Kiwi's, Ozzies and Irish are a brutal combo.

happy chappy's post fish n surf

Life is good! Sunset Playa Maderas after yet another sweet sweet surf

All too quickly my time down on the coast was over. My next stop was two nights in the beautiful town of Granada situated on the shoreline of Lago de Nicaragua. I happened to run into a fellow kiwi there meaning I was finally able to talk normally after 3months away from home... Granada is a sweet little town. Lots to do and see during the day and night. I was here that I saw my first real life Spanish dancing. Wow! Those men (and women) can move. All the Nica men and women filled the dance floor while all us westerns cowered with dropped jaws in the corner. Talk about impressive.

Due to a longer stay in Cali this season, I was around for the infamous Cherry Creek race on the Tuolumne River. I teamed up with long time friend and Cherry Creek super local, Joe Bousquin. We headed down a few days before the race to try and get a few laps under our belts before race day. This was a little more necessary for me as I hadn't paddled the run in a few years whereas Joe had more than 150 laps down the run.

We meet friends Terra and Corey down there as well for the first few laps while Joe was nice enough to show us his well polished race lines.

Joe Bousquin aka. Broseph cleaning out 'unknown soldier'

image: Ian Buckley

The thing about Cherry Creek is that the water shuts off at 11am so you start early and finish early. This leaves you a lot of time to kill in the afternoons.... so, like any elite athletes we spent the afternoon re hydrating with well hopped 'sports' drinks.

Come race day I felt good having done the run the run a few times and felt sufficiently hydrated from the previous afternoon/ evening.

The race is about 8km(?) long and is class 4 and 5 (hard and harder). The long boaters headed off first at two minute intervals followed by the regular (creek) boaters category.

The really cool thing about this race is it's pretty much unofficial. No entry fees, no paperwork, nothing. You know the risks when you enter and its up to you to stay out of trouble.

The other really cool thing about this race is you're paddling hard whitewater by yourself. No back up or safety here (well mostly, a few of the big rapids had safety team.... thank you!). This is something that you never do as a paddler. Paddling alone on hard isn't usually a good idea. Because of this the race feels pure. Just you, the river and the clock...

Racing lines with Racing stripes. The Mystic treating me well

image: Ian Buckley

My schooling with Joe meant that I knew most of the lines most of the time and had a pretty clean run down the course. There were a few moments when I paddled into a rapid thinking 'where the f^&% am I' and the creativity took over. 40mins and 35 seconds had me making the final move through 'leap of faith'. Sweet as!

My 40mins of fun and sweet lines was enough to put me into first place in the creek boat section. Not bad for a morning of paddling with my mates... well sort of. All that was left was to roll the dice and run Lumsden Falls and head back to the river side camp for a proper hydration session courtesy of Kern River Brewing company.

Charlie Centre aka Captain Kirk, 1st place long boats and over all champ!

image: Ian Buckley

kayak party bush style

image: Ian Buckley

Umm, a play boy bunny, mexican wrestler and an 80's cop walk into a national park....

image: Ian Buckley

Big thanks to Keith and Tim for putting the event on and big up's to Eric and Rebecca for their continued support of the event.

Upper Cherry Creek

Where Kiwi’s can fly…

Finally, after four years of trying to get on Upper Cherry Creek all my stars aligned. I was free from any other commitments, the flow was good (well, ok at least) and I had a team.
The plan was simple, meet at the bakery in Coloma, drive to Cherry Lake, hike, paddle. Easy. Well not so fast.



The only other kiwi willing to join me on the trip was Jamie Garrod, however he was carrying a rib injury after a party wave session at Barking Dogg went horribly wrong. He was still keen to come and give it a shot.

The third member of the team, Dave came highly recommended by a good friend of mine, Joe Bousquin. However, come departure time, he had no kayaking gear and was MIA. Hmmm, what to do.

After many dead end phone calls trying to rally a team, I made the call and drove south to Cherry Lake trail head to see if I couldn't find a team there. Jamie, keen on a mission came along to check things out.

Can anyone say keen? Loaded and ready to go. Just need a team

After a lazy start to the day, a team from Reno rolled in about 1pm-ish. “Hey, are you fullas heading up to Upper Cherry?”, “Yeah, that was the plan”, “Sweet, mind if I join you?”…. Against their better judgement they started the 18km hike with a wayward Kiwi in tow. I was a happy chappy.

Anyone who plays down the walk into Cherry is staunch. Carrying 34odd Kg (75 pounds) 18km’s up hill takes it’s toll. The first few hours roll by pretty quickly but soon the burn starts to set in. Shoulders and hips get sore and your legs can go into a state of shock. Stuffing them into a kayak day after day doesn’t really prepare them for this abuse.

All was not lost though, travelling up with JC (team Reno) was hilarious. He was never shy about letting you know how much his heavy ar%^ kayak weighed or how that last hill was nearly the death of him. Tag Randolf and Matt into the mix and you have a recipe for almost wetting your pants… At least when you weren’t feeling the hurt.

Honest, I'm not hurting at all. Fake smiles during the walk-in

The scenery is out of this world. I have never seen anything quite like the moonscape we walked through on the way to put in. Photos, nor words can do justice to the High Sierra’s.

Yes

The first day starts with a sweet sweet rapid called Morning Slide and sets the scene for most of the day’s paddling. In one morning of paddling on Upper Cherry I ran more granite slides than I knew existed on the face of our fine earth.

Better than a coffee, Morning Slide, Matt getting going

It was pretty cool to be in there with a bunch of folk who hadn’t been there before. We spent the morning giggling like school girls as we ran slide after slide of sweetness. In the pools between we were all gob smacked by the views the stretched out in every direction. AMAzing!

Day one on Cherry is pretty straight forward as far as paddling is concerned. A ton of slides and three pretty sweet gorges.

Matt taking in the surreal landscape

Our first major portage came in what is known as the entry gorge. It took us the better part of an hour to get our boats and the team around a manky (shitty) blocked up rapid.

JC enjoying not carrying his kayak

From here we paddled down to the sieve pile (big arse jumble of rocks) that signaled the start of Cherry Bomb gorge.

Having watched John Grace and co. fire up Cherry Bomb in the Seven Rivers DVD years ago, it was a pretty cool feeling to finally be there for myself. Only a handful of times in my kayaking career(?) have I felt that feeling. The last time I can remember was floating around the corner to the Gates of Argonath on the Upper Hokitika back home in NZ. These places build up a legend and I had finally made it. Stoked.

My last look at Cheery Bomb from the bank

Cherry Bomb is not how I imagined it. Most rapids of that legend have an ominous raw. Cherry bomb was airily quiet. Perhaps it was because of the low water. Perhaps.

We quickly scouted the drop and cast our eyes further down stream. There were three horizon lines in the gorge and we couldn’t see the bottom of them. The first was obvious, run left. Sweet.
It was the second major horizon line that had us concerned. We knew that everything in the gorge went. We just weren’t sure where we needed to be on the second major drop. The fear of the unknown.

Having learnt to paddle in NZ and cut my teeth on West Coast rivers, its drummed into you very early on, don’t run things blind. It’s a great way to get yourself in trouble.

After much deliberation, we made the call to commit to the gorge. I think it was mentioned that if Rush (Sturgess) can hand paddle it at high flow, we should be fine.

A Kiwi taking flight

Turns out, we made it through without any drama. The boys all stomped Cherry Bomb and eddied out with massive grins. It was a pretty sweet feeling.

Matt getting into some pre-dinner tea cup action

From here down we ran a few more slides and then finished off the day with some super sweet tea cups that took us straight to camp. What a day.

It's not often you'll wake to a view this good into morning...
unless you're dating Megan Fox of course

Matt and Randolf running a breakfast lap to warm up

Day two (three) began at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed off from camp and down into the first slide. Grove Tube, Perfect 20 (more like mildly rowdy 30) and double pot hole awaited us.



All these rapids are sweet in there own right, but due to the water level and team enthusiasm we decided to pass on this section and opted for the quick walk around them. Double pot hole looked much better from the bottom but we were all still undecided about whether or not there was enough water to get far enough left on the lead in… Next year maybe.

Our paddling day really got going when we entered the aptly named Waterfall Alley. Drop after drop of Californian treats make up this phenomenal stretch of whitewater.

Waterfall Alley. I wonder how they came up with that?

For everything that day one on the water was, day two was not. After Waterfall Alley, we picked our way through some more slides and down into some low water manky gorges.

We pushed, bounced and scrapped our way through these and down into Red Rock gorge. After some quick portaging and creative line selection we made our way down through Red Rock and the final gorge, where we got back to some of the treats we had become accustomed to higher up.

One of our last rapids on Upper Cherry Creek. Randolf practices air paddling

One final portage had us around the log jam at the mouth of the river and into Lake Cherry. A further 15minutes had us walking up the final climb to the car park and the ever patient Jamie Garrod.

Beer, shower, Carl's Jr and more beer. Heaven is a place on earth.

Sweet As!

South Silver

The South Silver Fork of the American River is the closest thing to natures Disneyland. Slides, drops, teacups and a ton of granite make for one big playground.

Auto Barn... Sweet As!

I first paddled the run back in 2003 and ever since it has been high on my list of things to do when ever I'm back in this part of the world.

Settled high in the Sierra's, the drive alone is worth the trip. You are treated to amazing views of the surrounding hills with their towering granite domes, a landscape foreign to many kiwi travelers.

Berno slotting into holiday mode

Its this granite that leads us along the winding roads in search of the put. After some creative 4wdriving in our 2wd Suby (with no clearance) we managed to glide gracefully into the clearing that is the carpark.

On this particular trip we managed to rally a huge team of kiwi kayakers. The ex. CPIT boys were camped at the put and have been for a few days. They had taken almost all the seats out of their family wagon and made an outdoor lounge around their outdoor fire.

NZ winter or California granite.... you can decide

Along with AD, Rachel Moore and Zak, we numbered 9 kiwi's at the put in.

Straight off the bat you are into AutoBarn, a super fast slide that kind of feels like a big granite gutter. After lapping this a few times we headed on down stream to the next sweet features in our outdoor playpark.

Slides more slides...

The team worked through the aptly named boof boof slide with varying degree's of success.

The lovely Rachel Moore boof boof sliding

Our next stop was the first of four fantastic teacup drops. It is these teacups that kiwi paddlers have been dreaming of for years. The team split up and ran and re-ran all the different combo's they could through the teacups and down into the signature drop on the run... Sky Scraper.

Zak Shaw dwarfed by Sky Scrapper

Many lines were run, smiles we had as we all threw ourselves down this granite wonderland.

After lapping out SS and the infamous Off Ramp we headed on down stream for more slides, boofs and great fun... It really is the most fun you can have in a kayak.

Team CPIT checking some of the goods.

Me lining up for Off Ramp

We all had a sweet day out in the Californian sun paddling with good friends. For me it was an added bonus to paddle with the boys from CPIT. Having paddled with them in NZ and having the privilege of teaching with them, it was great to be in one of the world's best kayak destinations throwing down.

eNZed represent.



Music is by Kiwi charger, LADYHAWKE - My Delerium

Clavey River

The Clavey River is the gift that just keeps on giving.

The Clavey has long been on my list of rivers to run in California. Until now things haven’t quite worked out timing wise.

Zak and I had been keeping a close eye on the Dream Flows website. We made the call to head south and put out the call to the numerous kiwi’s lingering down the road at the local campsite. Initial enthusiasm had the team swell to seven. By morning our team had shrunk to 2.5 paddlers. Hmmm.

Clavey Car Camping

After wasting the morning away we managed to commit Shannon (fellow NZKS employee) the remaining .5. We also managed to figure a relatively complex shuttle that involved a team driving to Yosemite first… Sounds positive already.

Now that we had locked in a full team of three, the suby (actual nickname… really original) was packed to the roof and we made our way south down highway 49.

49 runs north south along the base of the sierra’s and is the all important link to many of California’s best paddling.

Zak lining up the entry to rapid #73

We decided to make camp near the put-in so we could get an early start. With a little time up our sleeve’s we stopped in Tuolumne City (they use the term ‘city’ very loosely) for a beer. After driving around the town that time forgot we found the ‘Loggers’. It was next to the only other open business in town. Sierra Ink, a tattoo outfit. Go figure aye.

Shannon thinks he's off to play cricket.. whats with that?

Anyone who has meet Shannon knows that he looks about 15. So, with out ID he was promptly kicked out of the pub and was made to sit in the Suby while Zak and I enjoyed a beer. After much piss taking the publican let him back in and even let him drink a beer.

Shandawg testing out his split paddle

Our day begun at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed out of the first eddy and straight into our first portage. Once we were back on the water things got going with both a rush and a roar. Pushy class four and laden kayaks put the team in the groove for the day.

Blue Steel. No school for that..
Image: Zak Shaw

Things were going pretty smoothly until Shannon jammed his paddle in between two rocks and proceeded to break the entire blade off. Go the class three mank (mank is usually a shitty and shallow rapid).

We make so much $$ teaching kayaking that we just cut werner paddle's up for fun.
You can see how much fun it is...

After sorting this we made short work of the remaining Upper Clavey section. Unknown to us, we lunched at the half way bridge. This was fine, however, it was one of the last decent places to camp. From here we dropped into the lower 8 miles.

The pinstripe's make for bigger boof's. Honest
Image by Zak Shaw

The consistency in gradient is amazing in the Clavey. Very quickly you loose count of the pool drop combinations you run on your journey towards the Tuolumne. Slowing, mile after mile, we made our way down stream looking for a sweet beach to set up camp. As the afternoon slipped by we realised that there weren’t really ANY camping options. Finally about 6pm we finally found a beach we could camp on. It even had sun (for the first 10 minutes).

Zak doing his best to blend in

After a restful nights sleep we pushed off from camp at 8.30 to tackle the remaining two miles that would lead us to the confluence. In the back of my mind I knew we had to keep things moving because we had organised to be picked up at midday.

Ha! Fools are paddling straight past the last camp site. At 2pm...

During the last two miles the Clavey kept doing what it does best. It kept on giving. Drop after drop the Clavey kept going. The paddling was pitched at a fantastic level. Most of the 100+ rapids were at the limit of safe boat scouting. Zak was feeling good out on the water and was happy to probe what we couldn’t see.

Shannon perfecting his rocket move. Rapid # 243

At the confluence with the lower T high fives were issued and we turned to head for our midday shuttle pick up. Hilarity ensued as we fell through Clavey falls. Going from 25 cumecs to 240 was quite the transition.

The boys getting ready to run the toilet bowl

Our Clavey trip proved to be the trip that kept on giving. After paddling the remaining 18km in an hour 20 we were worried we kept our fantastic shuttle drivers waiting at the bridge. 12.30 had us at the take out. No shuttle. One o’clock came and went. No shuttle. One thirty, no shuttle. By 2.30 Zak had drawn the short straw and was dispatched we a passing vehicle to try and get the Suby.

Zak Shaw "Where's the shuttle?"

Finally, at 3.30 our shuttle had arrived. Shannon and I were starting to feel a little worse for wear after 3 hours in the 38oC heat. High fives were re-issued and we were done.

Turns out Anna had gone walk about in Yosemite, got on a one way bus to now where and got lost. Mmm

Golden Gate

The past few days have been a blur here in California. Landing and being whisked off to Joe Bousquin's place complete with bbq and chilled beers, talk about an ideal start to the trip... It was a definite improvement from me losing my ipod and new headphones at LAX.

From Joe's place in Sacramento, Zak and I headed in land an hour to Coloma and the beginning of our paddling trip proper. We warmed up with a run down the Kyburz and Peavine sections on the South Fork of the American. To round out our first full day in the country we were dragged reluctantly off the infamous Coloma Club. Drinking and hilarity ensued.

Jamie Garrod stomping rapid #143

Day two began at the crack of 11am and we gradually made our way to the put in of the golden gate section... Let the adventure begin. The flow peaked around 1600cfs meaning the run had its fill of sizable holes and sizable moves. The kiwi team swelled to 7 with the Chch boys coming to play. Four hours of sweet paddling had us at the take out with a few tall tales to tell.

Zak Shaw threading the needle

Irish Barry (not Irish Graeme, he was to hungover to make it to the put-in), had the misfortune of swimming one of the biggest rapids of the day. A few nervous seconds saw him wash battered and bruised into the eddy at the bottom, minus paddle and boat. Lacking the necessary transport, Barry was forced to hit the feet for a two hour climb out to the main road.

My day was not without incident as well. Keen to avenge(?) my thrashing in the bottom of Golden Gates F1-11 two years ago....

The plan. Clean the run.. have a good day. Debt settled.

Bernard Oliver can do it with no hands!

This plan, however, fell apart.

Chasing Barry's boat down stream, I ran a pour over drop, clipped a rock on landing and proceeded to flip and become pinned upside down in the bottom of the drop, wedged between a rock and a hole place. Not a good place to be. Running low on O2, an executive decision was made, pull pin on spray skirt, stay in boat, flush from the hole and leave ego slightly intact.. This was not to be. Only the flushing part of the plan worked.

Golden Gate 1, Ben 0

After paddling 200m of class 4+ with a fully submerged kayak I was separated from my new boat and new paddle.. Bad! But, not before catching my paddle on a rock and then on my head, resulting in a split eyebrow. Mmm. Golden Gate ego not avenged.

DIY first aid. If you can't duck it!

However, all was not lost.

Besides a few minutes of drama the trip was a raging success. Pulling into the take out eddy, we were meet by Graeme (not hung over now) and a box of Heineken beer. Ahh, success finally!

It was great to be out on the river with the ex CPIT crew and seeing them paddle well.

Action Packed

The past three months have found me in a state of perpetual motion. Teaching kayaking has kept the schedule full to the point of being full on. Tag Buller Festival into the mix and things have been a little crazy here in Murchison.

Shannon Mast battling it out in the Matakitaki Boater X
Photo: Zak Shaw

This year saw Karl Reece and I team up to make Buller Festival the best one so far (I'm not bias, honest). Having spent six years behind the scenes with the weekend it has been great growing it from strength to strength.

Quarter Finals Action. Bradley Lauder out in front. Not too sure about these North Islanders taking out Buller Fest
Photo: Zak Shaw

Teva Buller festival had some very cool firsts in 2009. First up, Teva stepped up their commitment to the event despite the tough times for this global brand. Big ups to Sarah Foote and the team behind her.

This year also had the greatest number of competitors ever. We managed to crack the magic 100 mark in the Boater X held on the Friday. This trend continued through the weekend peaking with over 500 revelers Rocking the Buller and the Ultimate Descents base to the foundations on the Saturday night.

Me vs. the crowd in Murchison's biggest ever game of paper, scissors rock. The prize, a brand new customised Bliss-Stick Mystic creek boat. Score!

Post Teva Buller Festival come down was quickly washed away with a few stellar trips down to the coast (my second home) and some white water therapy. Can't beat it. I was lucky enough to get down the Upper Hoki with an All Star team.

West Coast taxi services care of Bruce Dando
Photo: Zak Shaw

We had a fantastic day out. Good mates, good water, the Hoki gorges need I say more. It was topped off with a fantastic swim sequence from Porno Pete and JJ Shepard. Poetry in motion.

Folk often ask 'why?' and refer to our pursuit of happiness as 'crazy' when we seemingly put ourselves in harms way to paddle hard water. Until you are there you won't understand. Until then a amazing photo from Zak Shaw might give you a small insight. For more of his mint images check out passion4adventure

Paddling the Arahura River on your 60th Birthday. Respect!

East Coast representing

The Upper Rook's

team 440

Its been a while since I have been so fired up about a mission here in NZ. Zak and I took the opportunity to do a kayaking mission out east after running some river rescue training in and around the central north.



We picked Zak's bro Elby up from his base on the Kaituna in Rotorua and headed east. The forecast was for plenty of rain so we were confident in finding some sweet paddling. With darkness settling over the land we drove into the Urewera's and into or first problem for the trip. Over a 100km of gravel roads and a fully loaded truck had taken its toll. Flatty. After plenty of grovelling around in the mud we got the spare on and tentatively hit the road knowing that another flat would have us sleeping roadside. Not an option.

As midnight drew close we rolled into our 'farm' base happy to be off the road. A few quick phone calls before we left meant that Zak had hooked us up some sweet shearing quarters. Chur!

zak in action on 'handle bars' drop

Over the next couple of days we tagged into multiple descents of the upper rook's sampling all the goodness it had to offer at the varying water levels that were on offer. A two minute drive from our lush accommodation had us at the take out. Drop the bike, and 10 mins later we were ready to put on. Not quite as sweet as the kaituna shuttle but plenty sweet for us.

kiwi rivers, gorgeous!

With geology not found in other parts of the country we got to sample plenty of papa slides and ledge drops. It was a bazaar feeling to be running sweet slides all set in sweeter kiwi bush.

The Munamuna River

Zak had walked in here a few years ago with his old man and taken a photo a two sweet ledge drops that he thought were about 5 foot in height. On the back of this we decided to go bush with the boats an see if we couldn't tap into some of these ledge drops.

Elby Shaw an hour in and wishing he had one of our hydraulic's 'strap on's'

More 4wd had us at the road end and strapping the boats on. The 3km hiked quickly turned into 5km as we realised the drops weren't were they were meant to be. The first hour and a half were pretty sweet going as we waded through bogs and across farmland. As soon as we stepped into the bush things got a little harder with a 260m climb up a migning slippery over grown track.

has anyone seen the put in?

The 3 hour mark had us just above the put in but it took a further 30mins of bashing to access the river bed.

Worth the 3 hour walk. You be the judge

Two 5 foot ledges. Yeah right!

With time running low we dropped into the 'flat gorge' as Zak had quoted it and ran some pretty big water class 4 and 5 for the next two hours. We didn't mess around with cameras and the like as daylight was running low and the river had already come up close to a foot while we were on it.

Elby getting 'cali' on it and staying out of trouble

Surfs were had had, lines were bold and we were happy to pull into the take out eddy. Not a bad day out and a possible 2nd descent. All was left to do was to celebrate east coast styles. Drive an hour and a half for beer and bourbon. Chur chur!

For Zak's rebuttal check out passion4adventure

Mangawhio

Socks. You don't need socks in California in July. You need jandels, boardies and beer, but not socks!

If you live in NZ and are working in the central north island during July then you will need socks... and a bunch more warm things as well. Having spent the past couple of years working on my 340+ jandel days a year this winter came as a bit of a shock. jacksonoutdoors almost became jacksonindoorswithbrieftripsoutsideintothebitternewzealandwinter.blogspot.com but I figured it would never really take off.

I have managed a few adventures here and there but my days in a kayak have been outnumbered by my days on a snowboard (4) and my days sick (6) but not quite my days hung over (3). Awesome, really... Mmm, anyway.

One such adventure had my driving to a river just north of Whakamaru which is just north of Wellington (by 6 hours).

I teamed up with the esteemed team of Brendan Bayly and Bernard Oliver. With plenty of rain around we headed for the Mangawhio River which is almost (literally) in Brendan's backyard.

All we knew is that it was beautiful and was steep in places.

About 20 seconds into the run the river signals its intentions. A clean crisp 12 footer. The next 30mins is filled with plenty of boogey water set amongst beautiful NZ bush.

you wanna slide?

A cascade and the main road bridge signals its time to step aside or step up. The 2 and 3 foot drops you scouted from the bridge turn into 10 and 12 foot drops. The bottom three drops are where all the goods lie. 10 foot into 30 foot into 40 foot of goodness. After scrambling to scout the combo we make a call. Berno and big drop Bayly will fire up the first two while I video. Then they will wait 15 nervous minutes in the micro eddy while I 'climb' my way back up to my boat. Easy.



Brendan lead by example making the top two look easy. Berno followed the trend. Sweet, my turn. Top drop, good, 30 footer, sweet until I land and my back rest blows out. Awesome. 3 kayaks, two boat eddy, vertical walled gorge and 8m down stream the river falls away another 40 feet. After trying in vein to sort my backrest the answer is obvious. Turn and tuck.



After a decent thrashing at the bottom I rolled up minus an elbow guard and smiles all round. Brendan follows soon and joins me in the eddy to watch Berno get the best thrashing I have seen in a long time... and its all caught on tape.

40 feet to freedom