Homestake Creek Race Teva Mountain Games

At about 10am on Wednesday the 1st of June I found out that the Teva Steep Creek Race was actually on Thursday 2nd of June not Friday which I had previously thought. After some indecision where Pete nearly convinced me to stay in California and go creeking instead of racing I decided that with a bit of dedication it was possible to complete the 18hour drive from Coloma, California to Vail, Colorado in time for race registration at 8am.

Lou Urwin unleashing the mongrel

Nikki Kelly with a sick boof

Me trying to remember the lines after 1 1/2 hours sleep (photo by Shilo Gibson)

Shilo, Melissa and I rolled out of Coloma at 11.30am and settled in for a long drive. We arrived in Vail around 6am in time for a quick catnap before heading up to Homestake Creek. The river was at a medium to high level which put it on the good side of manky and made for some great carnage in the bottom hole.

Martina heading through the goalposts

Brendan in his second timetrial

Tyler making it look good

Sam heading through the lower mank section

Mike heading for the tied win

The kiwis repped hard and Nikki and Mike both making it onto the podium, heres the results:

Womens

1st Adriene Levknecht

2nd Nikki Kelly

3rd Martina Wegman

Mens

1st Mike Dawson

1st Honza Lasko

3rd Jakub Nemec

Big ups to everyone for competing and shot Teva for giving us all a pair of free shoes!!!

Lower Clavey

After another failed attempt at an early start due to lack of sunlight hitting the gorge we put on to the 20ish mile Lower Clavey. We were a little bit nervous as the river had risen somewhat overnight but we still deemed it to be on the good side of high.

Camping on a bridge!!!

Me hitting a cool rapid right at the put in

Daan styling..

From the put in it was straight into continuous, steep, boulder garden style rapids. The intensity stepped up and didn't ease off until the confluence with the Tuolumne roughly 8 miles from the bridge.

Pete boofing a sticky hole

Ryan hitting the line

Pete Lodge on another cool drop

Me enjoying the scenery (photo Pete Lodge)

Ryan avoiding the sieve

Pete with another super boof

Ryan showing off his Trout Pool boof

Last rapid before the confluence

By the time we made it to the confluence we were all pretty keen to cruise the last stretch of boogie water. We stayed with the current paddling through 3m high waves and avoiding some gnarly looking holes and smashed out the last 12mile section in under an hour.

Camping on a forestry road

Pete in the sunshine with food is happy Pete

All in all an awesome day on the river, amazingly there was no carnage despite the intimidating rapids and big sticky holes. I would highly recommend this run, definitely one of the best days I've had on a river ever!!!

Upper Clavey

After a 3 hour grade 5 shuttle mission which involved driving non 4wd vehicles through forestry, land slips and super steep rocky terrain we finally managed to get on the Upper Clavey. The guidebook stated an optimum flow of 800cfs and recommended an early start as the 7 mile run has a lot of stacked gradient. We put on around 2pm with a flow of about 1000cfs at the bridge (and found out later that optimum flow at the bridge was 500cfs because a tributary adds 300cfs to the flow shortly into the run). This goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you read.

Daan lining up the first drop

Ryan styling the boulder gardens

Daan boat scouting

Me, perfecting the boof-plug

Pete Lodge on another cool boof drop

Daan looking for the line

Ryan Lucas firing the end of the world drop

This run is super sick, the flow was definately on the good side of high, and we got to camp and build a massive fire on a bridge at the top of the lower run!

Teaser

I managed to escape the recirculating eddy that is Coloma and got on a sick two day mish down the Clavey. Turns out the level was double the recommended flow which made for some of best paddling of my life. I'll do a proper update late but heres a little teaser shot.

Ryan Lucas styling the 'little weir into bigger weir into terminal weir' drop....

Whoop whoop Wainui

After sleeping straight through my alarm I woke to the sound of heavy rain outside and my phone ringing. Jamie's excited voice on the other end of the line snapped me awake pretty fast 'were you just asleep?! Get up, we're going paddling!'. After a bit of hustling and a quick stop at the Okere Falls Store for coffee we were on the road headed for the Wainui River. The boys have rallied the Wainui quite a few times this season but Pete and I were both Wainui virgins so keen as to see what all the hype was about.

Jamie stomping it

Despite leaving after us and having to drop the kids off at school Andi Uhl beat us to the river. German efficiency. We intersected him after he checked the gauge and followed him to the takeout where we found most of Okere Falls getting ready to rally the 4wd track to the put in.

Mike styling it with Ben filming him on his gopro-on-a-stick

As half the boys had been down the river during the previous week's heavy rainfall and knew the run pretty we were able to rally most of the rapids with just a few people getting out at each rapid and checking for new wood. I love the element of surprise when you're paddling a rapid you haven't looked at just trusting in the line you've been given.

Andi Uhl winning the against the hole

Sanga lining up the lip

Unfortunately about half way down the run Douglass landed a bit flat on a reasonably high drop and compressed a few discs in his spine. Luckily for him it happened right by a 4wd track and thanks to Greg Thomas' ruthless driving we were able to get medics and a supply of nos all the way in to the river. After a few deep breaths Dougie was away laughing to Tauranga hospital while the rest of us continued downstream.

Trying out the big waterfall for myself (Photo by Mike Dawson)

Paddling off a 60ft waterfall after there had already been a spinal injury on the trip felt a bit cheeky but the drop was so perfect looking and the portage was so steep that it would have been rude not to. My line wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked but plenty of room for improvement for next time. The only casualty to the drop was Carl's paddle with everyone reporting soft landings and Sanga had by far the most beautiful line out of everyone.

The rest of the run felt pretty mellow after that with just one short portage where the river decided to slam all it's weight straight into a rock wall. Sick day paddling in the Kaimais. Bring on more rain! Big ups to Andi, Ben and Greg for owning 4wds so we could get to the put in, chur boys!

Heretatua on the good side of high

Heavy rain warnings across the North Island not to mention torrential downpour around Rotorua creating a mini lakes district in our backyard and driveway motivated a movement of kayakers everywhere to avoid work and head for the Kaimai Ranges. On our way to the Wainui we spotted about 5 cars and heaps of kayakers classily getting changed in a gas station carpark. Due to sheer numbers of kayakers, the length of the run, and rising river levels Rossco Tim Pete Douglas and I ditched that crew and headed back towards Tauranga for a cheeky Tuakopae run then home for beers. Tuakopae turned out to be over a Rossco height higher than the high side of good so we headed back to McLarens to watch Mangakorengorengo Falls swallow logs and mystics and spit out splinters.

Mangakorengorengo Falls on the high side of high...

The next day after waiting hours for Chris to finish making pancakes for his entire flat we loaded up the van and headed back to McLarens. After a quick phone call to Pete for directions and beta we arrived at the put in to Heretatua at the same time as team Waimarino. Sick creeking with an awesome crew, a good mixture of wicked rapids and sweet boulder gardens added up to equal an awesome Kaimai experience. Big ups to the boys and a special mention goes out to the goose Blair butchered somewhere in between the Tuakopae and Mangakorengorengo. Goose stirfry and red wine at Leith's place provided a perfect end to a perfect day.

Mangakorengorengo Falls the next day on the good side of good

Fingers crossed for more rain this Friday and a short video edit to follow...

Stairs + Ramp + Lake Rotoiti = ...

Some sick shots of Ryan and Stefan going hard off Ryan's ramp

Stefan checking out the launch

Backflip on his second attempt, crazy German




Backflip with a twist

Stall on the mountain







Ryan going for the double backflip....