Yesterday the rain came up again! summer... yeah right. It made for a good day on the Tuakopai though.Some of us had our doubts about whether it would be high enough but it turned out to be good .
Corkscrew rapid:
Topleft: Andre Sperling
Bottom left: Cole O'Conner-Stratton
Right: Carl Whitehead
Photo: Laurence Brown
Left: Cole going off the lip of Spa Falls
Right: Andre and Cole entering 'Pace' a super fast rapid. Photo: Laurence Brown
We kept paddling after the Tuakopai and went down Mangakarangaranga.
A few weeks back in the rain the mighty Wainui came up. Cole and Laurence managed to get on it with a good crew with Sam Roil and John Snook. Ben Brown took an early exit after smashing his hands against some rocks making him unable to paddle so walked out. That was the only thing that went wrong. it was the highest flow any of us had done it making it for some intense boating. after all of us styling our lines on the big one, this time holding onto my paddle instead of throwing it away. Heres a little edit Cole made of the trip check it out.
It's getting into that time of the year where things are heating up! Christmas and NY's are quickly approaching, with Xmas at the Kaituna being held last weekend on the Kaituna river, a day of racing with downriver, freestyle and some crazy activities such as the river swim. Flow Addict, Carl Whitehead raced well to finish 3rd equal with Willz Martin in the main event, the down river sprint, just behind Jamie and Sam Sutton who took out the category. Sam is the Adidas Sickline World Champion from 2010 and 2011 which goes to show what we were up against. Cole O'Connor Stratton was just a few placing behind Carl. Cole who is still in the under 18 category managed to win all of his categories coming out with best Junior paddler at the event.
With Summer approaching so is the Slalom season in NZ, with Selections only 4 weeks away! Selections will determine and decide who will make the NZ Junior, U23 and Senior Teams who will travel to Europe or America/Canada to race at the World Championships and World Cups for their age groups. The races will be held in Kawerau (Race 1 & 2) and down in Shannon just out of Palmerston North (Race 3 & 4). To find out more information on dates etc head too www.slalomnz.org.nz .
The Kayak Session 'Short Film of the Year Awards' have come to an end with heaps of awesome entries and finalists producing edits from all over the world. The winner was the film named "Raindrop" with some awesome editing and shots.
If you'd like to help us out, please share our blog or Facebook page as the more fans the better! Cheers for reading and have a good XMAS and NY's - Flow Addicts.
yo everyone! Welcome to Flow Addicts blog site. We are still under construction so bare with us but everything should be up and running in no time! Check out our 'Video' and 'The Crew' tabs to see some of our missions for yourselves and learn more about us. Some photos from the weeks flood runs in the Kaimai Ranges are below. Regular posts will be coming soon as we do some more missions, but for now stay tuned!
