New Zealand

Greetings from New Zealand,

I am attending New River Academy and for the second quarter we are kayaking in New Zealand for 6 weeks.  I am here on my third week, and so far it is the best place I have ever been and kayaked.  We have been having daily play sessions on the Kaituna River which has one of the worlds best play spots.  The river travels through a deep jungle like gorge and the river is not very wide maybe 10 feet wide and has several waterfalls and fun rapids.  

Last week we took a road trip to the coast to surf at Raglan which has the worlds longest left point break.  These waves were 12-20 feet in hight, and amazing.  We also took a day trip to the Wairoa River which is a small narrow gorged class 5+ technical run with lots of drops and fun moves.

Just the other day we went to Huka Falls which runs every once in awhile. When we got there it was running at 300 CMS (metric), the optimal level for the worlds best to even consider paddling it is 80 and we needed 60 for the school to be able to do it. So after hanging around for awhile we were unable to run it due to levels.  This run is very short maybe a 1/4 of a mile, but it is a narrow gorge with a big 20 footy at the end of a class 5+ big water lead in with a terminal eddy and holes with the 20 footer being almost impossible to boof at levels above 80. The hole is deadly at the bottom, if you got worked it would be bad because the boil line goes back about 100 feet down stream.  If you swam above you would be pushed so deep your body would be unable to handle the pressure and you would run out of air. One person tried several years ago to run Huka falls at 150 and he got stuck in the eddy above the falls for 4 hours and a heli had to pull him out.  

Today we are finishing up our last day here at the Kaituna and heading farther South to the Bliss Stick factory where we are going to get to design with our own designs and colors a boat for supper cheap.

Then 2 weeks later we are in the South Island at Hokitika where we are doing a Heli trip down a great class 4+ river into the Pacific Ocean on the West coast.

I will be getting the chance to Huck Malloria Falls, which is the drop that Rush Sturgesdid   the HailMarry.  I will be heading back home December 11.  Right now it is summer here, the water is warm and the country is staying beautiful.

Kayaking here has improved my skills in play and river running. In a 45 seconds comp ride I can score around 120 points.

It was a long travel to get here with a 6 hour flight from Philly to SFO and a 15 Hour flight from SFO to Auckland. 

Until next time...

~Ross

Moose River Festival 08

This was my fourth year heading to the Daks to partake in one of the best river releases on the East Coast. Waters from America’s oldest forever wild park, the Adirondacks trickles into the Moose River from the North, Middle, and South Branches all converging near the town of Old Forge. Moose Fest also marks the draw-down of the Fulton Chain of Lakes a twenty mile long inpoundment of a series of lakes. This guarantees reliable flows for Moose Fest. Three sections of whitewater on the Moose are popular with boaters, the Middle Moose class 2-3(4), the Lower Moose class (3-4), and the Bottom Moose class 4-5. The Moose River end in style by falling off several waterfalls and joining the Black River which immediately falls another 70 feet off Lyons Falls.

This Moose Fest was as good as it gets. The weather was beautiful with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s (it usually snows). The level was hovering around 3.4 which is a great level opening up the fun lines like the boof at Knifes Edge, and the Alpine Line at Crystal, but it wasn’t to much to make drops like Fowlersville Falls sketchy. The Bottom section begins with a bang by falling off Fowlersville Falls, a 50 foot slide. Nearly all paddlers stay far left to avoid a terminal hydraulic in the center. Kevin ran a line starting right and ferrying to the left just above the slide leading into the terminal hydraulic. This is the kind of move that makes Big Splat and the Upper B look like runs for pansies. The Moose displays the classic big pool – big drop character of the Adirondacks. The next drop is diamond splitter which requires you to punch a strong diagonal hole and go down a 10 foot slide. What happens to most people is that the stall out in the hole with feeds them into a sloppy rail grind move over the diamond splitter rock. The next drop is Knifes Edge where the river narrows into a tight corridor with smooth sloping rock walls rising 40 feet above the river. This drop has it all, a sneak left, a terminal pothole in the center and two right line options. At the level we had it was perfect to run the boof line. The boof line is 3 foot wide line that narrows to about 2 feet wide at its end, meanwhile you are riding a knife edge where falling off prematurely will equal a major pin or piton. The trick is to drive hard along the edge and catch a small piece of flake at the end of the boof then you fall off to the left and drop about 9’ into some nicely aerated water.

Art boofing off Knifes Edge, photo by Pamina

The next drop is Double drop pure fun easy class 4. Below here the Moose gets very interesting. Agers Falls is next, a 20 foot vertical with a 20 foot slide below it. The lip of Agers is very wide making it a great place to do a tandem huck off the falls. Wayne and I fired it up together, unfortunately for him he penciled in, swam, and got a brutal beating riding the junky slide to the bottom. I had a good laugh, after I knew he was ok of course. The next rapid is named Shurform, a long twisting slide dropping about 30 feet overall. For those of you non-woodworkers a shurform is a cheese grader like tool used to hog off large amounts of wood, needless to say this is not the place to be upside down.

Art and McLovin at Shurform, photo by Jeff Ackerman

The next drop is Powerline, here the river constricts and creates a big wave train with some powerful holes thrown in the mix. On Saturdays run I found a pourover hole I had forgotten about, and I pull one of the most impressive enders of my paddling career. Its not often my 230 lbs body and my entire 80 gallon boat get launched into the air.

After powerline is Crystal Falls, the highlight rapid of the run. This is a three stage waterfall with plenty of lines to choose from. The nice thing about this drop is that it is relatively friendly for how bad it looks from the scout. Everyone in our crew ran the Alpine line, this route drops 30 feet in a very three quick successive drops. The last drop of the three is very tough to keep your head above water at the bottom.

Art running Crystal, photo by Jeff Ackerman

The final drop of the run has the hardest line on the river. There is a left channel and a center channel, the center is easy class 4+ waterfall where the left is a extremely challenging drop with a tough boof and a shallow landing zone. It’s a good place to mash an elbow. Kevin once again fired it up but this time he ran off the main flow right into the heart of Magilla. It was quite the weekend.

Jeff Ackerman running Magilla, photo by Wayne G.

To see more pictures awesome pictures of the Moose check Jeff Ackermans Galleries : http://jeffack.smugmug.com/Sports

Gauley Fest

Well it was that time of the year again where thousands of kayakers come to what is known as the largest white water festival in North America and leave with a bad hangover and a whole lot of regrets. You've probably guessed by now, I'm talking about Gauley Fest. The weekend started when I met Jason and T.J. on Thursday in Harrisburg where we traveled to West Virginia all night in high hopes of paddling the next day. With plenty of sleep (maybe four or five hours) we put on the Upper Gauley at low water manouvering through the crowds and making it down in one piece. Later that evening we met up with Hippie Dan and his friends to celebrate his bachelor party. Hippie you are the man. Can't really remember how Friday night ended but I do remember ending up with a woman's dry top and loss of memory Saturday morning.

Here is T.J. showing the crowd how it's done at Pillow Rock.

Saturday morning started out with us meeting up with my fellow R.L.P paddlers Art, Kevin, and Steve to get ready to rip it up on the Upper Gauley again (this time with more water). The morning started out pretty good we helped run safety for Hippie Dan and his group of rafters down the main rapids and still had a chance to throw down in Hungry Mother.

Here is Dan's raft which is about to get swallowed by a monster hole.

I had gotten separated from the rest of the group after pillow rock but still managed to make it down the river just fine. The take out was probably the hardest part of the day with hiking about half a mile uphill not to mention with your boat on your back. I met the rest of the group at the takeout where we recounted some of the day's eventson the water. Saturday night ended the weekend when the next morning Jason and T.J. were too hungover to paddle we decided to head back to PA to recover from the weekend.

Here is Jason doing the technical creek line at Iron Ring.

Another Gauley Fest had come and past and again and R.L.P had conquered it.

-Brenton Petrillo

Another Day at the Falls

This past Saturday Sam B. and I traveled down to Great Falls on the Potomac. It was a perfect day and even better there were no other boaters at the falls. We got four runs in on the Virginia side including the right line at the spout. The right line is sick for sure, but also a destroyer of boats as Sam found out...

Sam finding the boof

Preparing for impact at the right line of the spout

We also got some good pictures of the Virgina Side rapids above the spout...

Sam soarin' over U-Hole

Me gettin ready for S-Turn

No boaters that day, just a big crowd

After our 4th run down we hiked up and got one run in on the Maryland Side, bad idea for me. Setting up I was pushed left before the lip of Pummel and struck a rock under the surface sending my bow sky high. Luckily I was able to stern stall away from the pour over, but I later found three big cracks on the bottom of my boat, damn. Sam and I then boated on down to the take out with good lines and ended our day.

Good lines,

Kevin V.

The Beginning of the Team River Left Blog

We've been layin' low for a while now just getting out and boating, but this blog is about to change all of that. Team RLP is not just a production company with normal everyday people or kayakers trying to promote their image. We are innovators and explorers of this whitewater sport. Pushing or limits is what makes us feel alive. Whether it's air blunting a new wave or stompin' a tech 30footer, we push the boundaries so our sport can grow. Most importantly though we love this kayak gig. There is nothing better to us than floating down a remote river with fellow boaters just enjoying life. Paddlers like this make up Team RLP. On this blog will be posts by team paddlers of adventures and outings and we hope you enjoy them. Here is the start of Team RLP's blog...