A short write up in a local paper about our favorite Kaimai run

In search of the Bay's wildest water

Some of the best kayaking creeks on the planet are right here in the Bay - all you need is a lot of rain, as Jamie Troughton writes. For 360 days of the year, the Wainui River near Apata barely gets above a trickle...

More Wainui

Here is just one last little piece of goodness that Ben Brown put together from the run at the start of the week...  Be careful, it may cause extreme excitement! Enjoy

Chur 

Summer days over

Which means that the population of the falls shrinks considerably, kayaking gear never drys, but that's because we get heaps more rain! After my last trip up at the lake I returned to heavy rain, which for most people would be a hinderance, but for us this is good news. Because it's no longer peak season the standard crew are no longer around so it was a wicked chance to go to the river with a fresh crew to fire up what the Kaimai's have to offer. Off to the Wainui we went with high hopes that the flow would be nice. It's nothing new because we have been in there a few times now, but this was the highest any of us had done it, and it definitely could handle a little bit more padding out some of the bouncy slides, and softening up the bigger drops. The Maori's sure got this one right, the basic translation of wai nui is water big. Big (white) water is in abundance in there, perfect!

Here are a couple of photos from Brad (B.L.) and Greg Thomas (G.T), they give you a good idea of what this stout run has to offer.

One of the Wainui virgins - Carl Whitehead at the put in

Pic - B.L.

The first rapid of the day gives a good idea of what the rest of the run has in store. That's me.

Pic - G.T.

Phil Mac on double drop

Pic - G.T.

Looking back up at little brother. Today this little bad boy had a bit of a rowdy lead in today but there were still good lines by those who hit it up. That's me.

Pic- G.T.

After waiting a nervous 20min at the top for the boys who were walking to get down to the bottom I fired this one first with a clean line before watching everyone else hit it. The results were a whole lot more successful this decent with only one flat land, one broken paddle, and the two juniors showing a bunch of people up by absolutely styling it on their first ever big waterfall!

Ryan looking good at the top of the big dog... only to pull just that little bit on his blade and ended up landing dead flat. Now he is 3 inches shorter!

Pic - G.T.

And here is a nice shot looking back up at the big dog.

Pic - B.L.

Last big slide of the day. Me pokin and hopin.

Pic - G.T.

The only carnage happened right near the end on the last sizable drop with one of the boys having a pretty nasty swim in a pocket having to be bagged by Mr Louder and pulled by both Brad and myself using all our strength to pull him out. Just goes to show if you get a little to comfortable how shit can go down hill real fast!

All in all it was a bloody good day with 11 very happy guys at the end of the day having a beer at the pub and reminiscing on the days events!

Why so serious?!?

A small edit of some mates and I doing some jumps, trying to gain super hero status some other way other than kayaking because it's been a bit dry recently... it didn't really end well for me but Ryan Lucas is still shredding trying to out do me before my face heals!

Good times in Okere Massive!

Making ends meet..

NZ River Series - Wainui River from Five2Nine Productions on Vimeo.

Finally this season has had some good boating for me. Work has been fitting in with the cyclones nicely allowing me to get on those rain runs. The Wainui being one of the favorites thus far. That was a little video that Tyler put together from some of the boys' footage. Can't wait for the next storm! Until then, here are some pictures from Lake Waikaremoana where I get to make ends meet....