kayak (sdl)

On the 16 June i was in Wanaka with Jess bailey champion slalom paddler. i went out training with her last time I was down too but this time her dad came out and ran the training. it was just a flat water training with gates but it was still a great importunity to train with New Zealands best and get so helpful pointers on my paddling. Jess has her own bog as well check it out at jessicabaileykayakslalomathlete.blogspot.com

rock climbing (sdl)

Monday the 11th to the 13th of June Rob, Kieran, Arie, Jake and I went up to Paynes Ford for rock climbing. the first day we got 8 climbs in and it was a real good day starting at sea cliffs  then after lunch we went to paynes. On the Tuesday we didn't get as many climbs in because we went kayaking down the  grade 3 section below the power station on the Takaka river in the morning. Wednesday was cool I showed the guys the sweet overhang I found last time I was there. its a grade 19, 3 bolts and a chain, nice sequence of moves and rather pumpy if you don't do many overhangs. it was great because all the boys were at that level and struggled but made it up. And if that wasn't cool enough since i had been climbing real clean and good I went and had a good go at a 22 i was struggling with last time and got it. fell of once after climing the first bolt but came down and started again and got it clean. Before the 22 we also did a 25m 20 wicth was a real good climb plenty of 20 moves with small rests in between. Another wicked trip to paynes!!! couple fotos to end :) 

kayak (sdl)

on the 10th I went up to murch with Ari, Rob and Jake. we paddled O sullies run. and the mangles.

first O sullies. it was at high flow wale creek rapid was flat and we were able to paddle the falls. on the first rapid of the run Rob had a swim at the botum and got washed into the boily eddy on the right. i went in behind him to help. after alot of pushing and bumping around in the eddy we mannaged to get him to the bank and my flip line attached to the kayak and him holding the line. i then got out of my kayak and gave him a hand. this odeal was shit for Rob but was good for my rescue skills and i thanked him for that. i even had a roll in the eddy( it was a poor roll but got me up just ) i need to work on getting my paddle right out of the water. i seem to have trubble with this when in the boiles. further down at jet boat rapit we decided to portage it was running a bit above our level today.

The mangles was quite mallow as the flow was less than we expected. but up the top we found a wee creek that had some cool as we drops so we scouted and ran them here is the raw footage.

kayak (sdl)

on the 9th of June I walked up the totarha with Martijn Watson Dan. We went up another two rapids further after you exit the bush line. it was at medium flow i had only done it at low flow so it looked high to me. the whole day went sweet. real good solid grade 3. don't have any photos of this one but it was wicked fun run.

rafting ( client days)

on the last week of June Grace, Gretchen, Owen and i had our client days down the Arnold.
This was my fist time ever taking clients down a river.
Tuesday (day one) the river was quite high and we went down way faster than we had planed. but the guys we had still enjoyed them selves as they were a older lot and enjoyed the scenery. I got out at jump cliff and ran the shuttle. Just as I got to the take out and turned around the rafters pulled up to the bank. perfect timing.
Wednesday we did better on timing. we had young kids so we were able to just have fun with them. one girl got  asthma when we did the cliff jump. Zane ( our tutor) said he had his inhaler with him but he didn't, so we sat her on the bank got here in to some dry fleeces and helped her control her breathing. me and Zane gave her a group hug wile the others played games.  Zane told me at the end of the day that she quite liked that and may have been playing it up for the attention. just another thing to watch out for.
Thursday was my TL day. We had 3 different groups. Zane gave me a run down on how i needed to do my meet and great.... i screwed it up. well not too bad but could have been alot better. bad start but once we go to the put in every thing fall in to place and we had a fun day down the river. the river had gone down so we didn't float as fast. got the timing prity dam good today.
last day Friday...



here are some photos from the trip on Thursday....

blog summery

			blog summery		up dated 24/9/2012
		2011		2012
bush (p)				0
bush(i)				0
bush(tpp)				4
rafting(P)				4
rafting(G)				3
rafting(tpp)				12
ww kayaking(P)				16
wwkayaking(i) river				2
wwkayaking(i)rolling				2
wwkayaking(i) flat water				1
wwkayaking(tpp)				10
rock(p)				4
rock(i)				4
rock(tpp)				10
sea kayaking (p)				0
seakayaking(i)				0
seakayaking(tpp)				0

rock ( sdl )

On the 23 Ekies, Kirsten, Rebecca and I drove up to Nelson. The next day we got up early and drove over to Takaka and went climbing at paynes ford. We went in to the hangdog campground and brought a guide book (only 10 bux)
It was a beautiful sunny day and we got some good climbs in. Ekies and I started on a climb that Ekies said was a 18. I went first and was really struggling. I asked Ekies if he was sure it was a 18 and he said he was, so I assumed I just wasn't used to the rock their as this was my first time there. Once i got down we checked the book again and it turned out to be a 21. So i didn't feel so bad. the rest of the day went well. I set up a lot of top rope climbs for the others as i felt the first bolt always seemed real exposed. This is also why i didn't push myself too much.
That night we stayed at hangdog and climbed the next day till lunch with the girls. At lunch the girls went home and Ekies and I kept climbing. There was a wicked over hang ( rawhide ) I wanted to try but the first bolt at the end of the over hang and the ground was uneven and would be hard to spot. but luckily one other climber ( Pablo ) did the climb later in the day and asked if we wanted to give it a go on top rope. I was so stoked, and gave it a go. It was such a cool start, got some sweet heel hooks. And getting over the end to the up right is another sweet move. I was the end of the day so i didn't get much further.
On Thursday I wanted to do another over hang. We looked around for good 40 min and found a 19 that had a first bolt wasn't too exposed. It was soo mean lead it the first time and set up top rope for Ekies. He gave it a good go but didnt have the strength. We will deffintly give it another go next time. While it was still on top rope i had another go choosing a different line, and i found a no hands rest on the over hang and we got a photo too.We were going to do some more climbs that morning but we got yarning to some NMIT tutors then got a little lost for 20min when we got out of the bush we were back at the van so called it a day as we had to drive home that day too. We found it didn't have many easy climbs for bignners but if you getting into the 18s and up its a great place. Cant wait to go back again.

no hands rest

Kirsten on sweet 18

Ekies going for it

Rebecca getting the feet right

Ekies ready to go

checking out the new route