Winter

Bit of a dry spell for the old blog posts lately. Reasons for this are along the lines of no decent camera, lots of other people doing updates on the same thing (the Wainui) and plain laziness.

*On a side note - There aren't any pictures in this post so if you're one of those people (who just look at the pictures).... you might be disappointed.

In non metaphorical terms, it has most definitely not been a dry spell. Apparently it has something to do with the El Nino year. Or is it La Ninia? I get confused. Anyway whatever it is, it's been keeping regular, big, grunty, northerly weather systems cranking down the bay of plenty coast which translate into two things. Firstly lots of rain in our favourite range - you guessed it, the Kaimais. At a rough guess I think I've been creeking every few weeks since Christmas which is basically unheard of. Secondly, the days after we go creeking are filled with more water sports due to the mean NE swells which have given the east coast of the country the best summer of surfing in a long time. I got a new board a while back and have been frothing on surfing lately which is a nice change from the Kaituna in a dry top.
Last month me, B and Ben went to the Mangawhio and got on at a high flow which was sick but made the entrance to the gorge quite exciting. Tragically there is a massive log right across the first drop in the gorge which necessitates a mongrel portage and ish nerve wracking seal launch back in for the 40 - where we all got pretty well violated in the boil. Happy days.

The last two weekends have been sick with good rain timing in perfectly for a run down the upper Ngamuwahine last weekend which holds its water a bit longer than others - it's got a cool steep section on it with a committing and pretty rowdy gorge and some fun rapids to finish with. Then yesterday we made the call to turn up to the Tuakopai to try and catch the water. We were bang on and got on right at the peak. Berno and myself bombed it and both flat landed the shit out of Douglas falls which rattled the teeth/spine - this was nowhere near as bad as Stefan Gilmour though who did the same on spa and got a cracked and compressed L2 vertebra for his troubles. Bit of a wake up call for a run which has become the 'easiest' in the Kaimais - get forward and stomp ya'll.
The Wainui also claimed another victim a while back with Douglas hurting his back on the 25 and only finding out the other day that he's got a crack in one of his vertebra as well which is average.

Ok so I lied, here's couple of photos -


Mr Brown doing his thing on the double drop on an earlier trip on the Ngamu.(shamelessy plagarised from louise Jull's blog)

And yet another photo of the biggy on the Wainui. Chur to Mike Dawson for snapping this one.

Hopefully the rains continue and we keep getting on all these sick creeks in our backyard and playing on the waves in our other backyard. Soon there will be enough snow to go and ride the white stuff in the neighboring backyard.
Stand by.