Kimshizzle

The last week in Cali has been the best of our trip so far. We started off with a sick day in the Arches national park in Utah on our way home from Vail, then we had a pool party at a mates place.
We then got a little lap on the Slab creek section of the South fork American river - a cool little 4-5 mission.

Thursday saw us back in the UMC (Upper Middle Consumnes) for a sick day of creeking. Unfortunately Josh took himself out of the game trying to plug V-Slide upside down - we had to nurse a very sick, very sore little man out of the rest of the run.Me running what we dubbed 'no lookee' on the UMC (apparantly it has a name but it's way more fun making up your own)

Friday started slowly and we finally made it to do the summit run on the South Yuba which culminates in a sick drop called East meets West which got the hearts going nicely. Mr Neilson organised another party for us to go to down in Clear lake which we did in style and then Saturday dawned.....

The crew scouting east meets west

I pretty much got to live out a life dream - ride behind big mean wakeboard boat and try to huck myself until I blow an eardrum. Turns out Josh's friends came equipped with a sick house, a sick patio boat and an even sicker wakeboarding boat. We hung out all day cranking dance music and watching Wes and Vince throw down some savage tricks behind the boat and even getting to ride a little ourselves.

Me throwing the fronty, pic - Neilson

Vince packing a tantrum, pic - Neilson

We finally managed to drag ourselves away from paradise (it was a tricky decision) and rally to meet B1 and B2 (Barny and Jordy) in Oroville. They had just got off South Branch and were broken so the next day we found ourselves once again in the very capable navigational hands of Mr J Neilson winding our way into the hills once more for one of the runs we've been waiting for all season.... Big Kimshew Creek.
This thing gets talked about in reverent tones by all of the locals and semi-locals alike as being one of the 'big 5' - the five best day runs in Cali. So it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that we put on at the island portage for a day of adventure.

Josh showing me how to use the go-pro (I didn't really succeed)

The run kicked off in style with the first real rapid having a pushy lead in, to 15 foot auto boof. We then got stuck into a few hundred metres of pretty full on boulder gardens before another set of stacked rapids, some more boulder gardens, some more rapids, some more boulder gardens.. you get the picture??
Then the character changed and went all slidey which was super fun, low stress creeking. After a wee while of this we came to the first big one and the signal of the start of the stouts.
Kimshew falls is a pretty rowdy looking 40-ish footer with some reconnects etc which looks like it might air you out or send you over the bars. We were pleasantly surprised to find it goes a lot better than it looks and all had nice lines.

Kimshew falls from the top - check the stacked gorge below it, swimming would be awesome...

J-dog lining up first and greasing it

Me doing the same - I hit the water at the dream angle and came screaming out upright - soft as bro!!

After the falls was the sick gorge which had so many clean moves - It looked and felt like what I imagine the high sierra runs are like.. fingers crossed.
We portaged around triple drop which is super burly but goes - we didn't have enough time to set up the elaborate safety we thought we needed. After triple drop the river changed character and went 'cracky' - several slots and tight drops led us into the next big one.
Frenchies was named for some dude who bombed in and ran right and got punished as the drop is 30+ feet onto rocks on that side. It involves a portage of the entrance, a seal launch into a pothole and then a strong ferry across to set you up for the line. I was feeling fired up about it and decided to send it. Pulling out of the eddy I set my angle and rolled off a little left of centre. I saw the left flake go past and started to tuck - just as I felt my tail go a little past vert.. Big hit, semi over the bars but I rolled up fine with just a little sore head.

Geting ready for the hit

After Frenchies it was just rapid after rapid after rapid, everything went, hits were taken, rolls were had in dubious spots as we all lost energy. Finally we made it to the take out drop.

As is often the case - J-dog probing the line. In this case finding a rock in the bottom...

Jared buried in the curtain.

Me tired and just falling off. And yes I found the rock too.

This creek was the sickest thing I have ever run and also the sorest I've been at the end of a days boating. I can't wait to go back next time. Hopefully next time won't include the 10km walk out up the locked takeout road, but it's ok - the rose tinted sunnies have pretty much erased the walkout from my memory...

Consumption

Apparantly it is summer here. Could've fooled me.
This last week has also been raining and cold all week but we've still managed to paddle most days despite spending large amounts of time playing Tony Hawk 3 (damn you Ben Jackson)
The run of the week has been the Upper Middle Consumnes. We did it on Monday with six of us and then went in yesterday with more water and ten of us. It turned into a bit of an epic with five swims, a broken paddle and a cracked boat.
I wont get too carried away with this post because Jamie and Jordy have got it pretty much covered on their blogs so check the links from here.
We're checking options just now and have a few things on the go so keep an eye out for our weekend antics.

Pauley

Pauley creek was another little mission which people were saying was worthwhile - nice grade 4 in a super cool gorge. We rallied up through Downieville which is probably my favourite town so far in the states (think Arrowtown but way cooler and bigger) and met up with Leela and Toni and some other dudes. On the way in we saw a super cool looking gorge on the North Yuba which looked fun so we set shuttle below this (Pauley creek flows into the N Yuba).
Pauley turned out to be a little low but it was still fun with some cool boofs in a little mini gorge.

J dog running a little sloper to kick things off for the day

This right here children is a classic example of how to execute 'the burning man' Note the high arm position with weight as far back as possible - these are key features if you hope to finish the move in the classic, 'imploded deck to swim in hole' manner.


The last drop on Pauley - no it wasn't sweet, the camera managed to capture the moment just before my tail clipped and I found myself staring straight at the ledge at the bottom. awesome.

Feeling a wee bit despondent with the levels in Pauley we found redemption in some big water action in the gorge on the North Yuba - with big waves, big boils and big holes we had the time of our lives rallying down this section. Apparantly it has a name but I've forgotten it, but we had grins from ear to ear by the time we all popped out the bottom.

Summer?

We haven't really been experiencing the textbook Californian summer of clear skies and super hot days - rain, hail and snow have pretty much been the go for the last week. As a result the water is still locked up in the snowpack for all of the big runs. Last week we got on a couple of small creeks along with the ever present South Yuba runs. We got on the Purdons section of the South Yuba (directly above the 49 run) with ten people and proceeded to blue angel four miles of grade 5 with ten people - needless to say I have no memories of any rapids (except where three of us got punished in a hole together) and no photos either.
One of the creeks we did get on was called canyon creek, it was flowing due to a release further upriver as part of a flow study (to see what sort of recreational use it gets). It started off pretty manky so the west coast part of our team (Jared) was off like a shot ("It's just like the Styx bro!!!") We followed at a somewhat slower pace not being quite so skilled at bouncing down tight boulder gardens blind.

When it did clean up there were some cool drops on bedrock - Skux getting it done.

Jared on the runout

Me on another little boof

After the bedrock there were some mini gorge rapids which proved to be quite punishing and we all took a few hits in some steep, tight rapids.
All in all it was a cool little mission - more NZ than California but it sounds like not many people have been in there so it was cool to get on something which doesn't go very often.

Chilling

We've had a bit of a slow week here, we pretty much spent it waiting around for a chance to fix our car which had a terrible shudder (think massage chair) and so we were pretty limited in where we could go. We confined ourselves to the 49 to bridgeport section of the South Yuba which is only an hour away - and about the limit of what we could take from our van which felt like it was falling apart...
The 49 section is super cool, two hours of pool drop with some boulder gardens thrown in. There are so many awesome classic moves and no mank - and the best part... portages - 0
This run has become our afternoon/evening run when we've got nothing to do and we've had some mean runs down with lots of different crews. Here's a few pics.

Americans are funny

J dog on crack team/ten (we're unsure about the name because we can't understand Justin's accent when he's excited)

Jared landing the same

Me on another choice little boof

Me on the crux of the run - corner pocket, it has a tricky entrance down to a sticky hole and just to add to the experience, a terrible undercut which you are pretty much guaranteed to go into if you swim. Ask Jared - he came up blue, fun times.

Jamie boofing for the money

The mothership waiting patiently at the takeout.

Insert Cliche Here ............

Alright kids, here we go...

We've been in California for five days now and its been pretty eventful so far. After the mandatory savage flight to LA, we were met by Paige and her mum in their car (I'm using the term loosely here - it was an F250 with duals on the back) for the 8 hour drive up to Auburn which is our base for the next three months.
That evening we were acquainted? with our sweet new pad - The trouse (or trouser) is like an old trailer which has kind of been added to to make a weird semi permanent dwelling, the water doesn't work so we have a hose in the window for dishes/cups of tea etc but we do have electricity so it's kind of like living in a tent with walls and power..

The sweet spew bag on the V-Australia flight. Obviously fully sick is now our new catch phrase.

Casual unnecessarily large ute. Note the extra wide fenders to accommodate extra unnecessary set of wheels.

Part of team dirtbag out the front of the trouse.

Anyway it basically goes without saying that our first night in the trouse turned into a bender, lots of choice dudes turned up to celebrate some random mexican holiday and we all know the best liquid to come from mexico...
One of said dudes was Justin Patt - Auburn local and paddler. Amidst much festivity a plan was hatched to do the 49 to bridgeport run on the South Yuba river.
The next day arrived at about 2pm and we rallied to do our first river in Cali - pretty good for our first day!! The run was a sweet grade 4-5 mission down a sick pool drop river with so many sick moves - just what the doctor ordered.
Friday was an organisation day. Mum - our trusty minivan, has a terrible shudder which renders her marginal for long missions on freeways so we're trying to sort that out and get her operational again.
The highlight so far though has been our Saturday mission though. The boys here are all fired up about the season because there is a heap of snow which hasn't even started melting yet. This means there will be heaps of sick runs coming in in the next few weeks.

One of these runs is one of the most iconic and photogenic of them all.. The south branch of the middle fork of the Feather river (yes I know its a mouthful but apparantly naming tributaries is not the go over here..) This thing is the business - everyone has seen the photos of endless ledge drops capped off with a perfect rolling 50 footer and it didn't disappoint. We rallied up there with Justin and Taylor Cavin and met a couple of others on the way. Here are some photos of the day.Me on the first 20 of the day - split falls

Taylor stomping all hell out of the same

The Tony Hawk drop - sickness

Justin flying off Tony Hawk

Jared doing the same

Taylor launching on high pressure 20 - this drop is named because it's right above 99 problems - a 40 footer which lands on a shelf and you have to make an eddy right above it..


China slide - because it takes you to China!! This slide was right above a huge portage and most of us didn't run it, we had to portage down and then do a super scary ferry across the top of a 100 foot death drop - going upside down was not an option.

Apparently we were in there at quite a high flow (like no one in our crew had been in there that high - ish awkward?) which made all the waterfalls nice and soft but brought in some sketchy moves like the China ferry which aren't usually there.

Jared running the last move of the day...


The take out is at the top of another huge set of unrun beasts (80 feet +)

The south branch is a sick run and pretty much the dream intro to California we were hoping for, some cool rapids, so many amazing drops and a nice big girl at the end to get the heart pumping!
Now we've got to fix our car and hopefully catch up with the rest of the kiwi crew here. We're off to do our new local run - 49 to bridgeport so we'll get some photos to throw up soon. Churrrrr

Summer creeking

Its Sunday afternoon. I've just finished work after the early shift and head straight home to check the guages. The weather sites had been saying there was going to be heavy rain for the Kaimais the night before (this is no cause for excitement believe me. They call heavy rain warnings for every front these days - post OPC debacle) so I wanted to check the flows. It has been a pretty dry spell for creeking so we were all pretty fevered about any rain.
Reports started filtering back from the recon team on site (the people paddling the Wairoa), saying it was pouring down there with all the little tribs emptying brown muddy water into the main river...
"Sounds good" we say to ourselves, and proceed to rally a crew who are keen for a cheeky Tuakopai bomb.
We decide to wait for confirmation from the scout team about whether it was on or not to drive over. Unfortunately, said scout team consisted of three notoriously excitable characters for whom communication via cell phone falls a long way behind such things as flooded rivers and journeys to Mcdonalds to wait and see what level the flooded rivers will reach....
Anyway, to cut a long dribble short, the entire Kaimais got savaged by a rain bomb which made all the creeks/rivers/ditches go mental. The Wairoa was a metre above the seal launch rock (for those who don't know this is about 5-6m above normal release flow). The Tuakopai was too high to get on and Messr's Bayly, Sutton and Martin were almost ready to give up and come home. The Okere falls crew stayed put because we heard it was too high to run anything. The boys had one last check of their guage stick and found the Tuakopai was dropping so they persevered and were rewarded with a sick high water run on dark.
Anyway this rain set the scene for the next day. We spent the evening scheming and getting thoroughly over excited about what to run, finally coming up with a list of options depending on levels.
Waking up early we found lots of the creeks had dropped out leaving us with only a few options. B, me and Wills rallied with team cascades (Timmy, Pete and Scotty) over to the Wairoa to see what the levels were looking like. The Ngamuwahine looked ok so the call was made to roll into the upper. This meant a long day so I had to rearrange priorities for my afternoon.. My boss is choice - she lets me have time off to go creeking.
We set the shuttle and got our walk on into the very top of the Kaimais. The run starts right up on the plateau just meandering through the forest leaving everyone to wonder what was in store. Then it sits up into some cool read and run grade four that we had fun bombing through..

Scotty getting into the action - one of the early rapids

After a short while we got to the horizon line which signals the start of the money section - a sketchy slot into a 20 footer which we didn't run, then the biggest drop 'Handlebars'..

The lineup from downstream, handlebars is the biggy with the first drop above.

Scotty kicked things off by pioneering a new seal launch which saved us a shitty portage and set the scene for some good entertainment.
A name like handlebars inspires a lot of thought as to the possible consequences of a drop. And yes, it is perfectly named..
It's about a 35 foot-ish slide to not-quite-vert with a kicker halfway down which launches you out to hopefully clear the last part of it. If you don't quite clear it and your tail reconnects guess what.... Thats right, 35 feet, to violent kick, to land on your face. Dream scenario.

Me just about to take off. I had the benefit of watching nearly everyone else's lines and so managed to send it and clear the reconnect for a nice soft landing.

After handlebars had claimed its share of burning faces, it was down to the next eddy for a scout of the double drop - back to back 15's with a tricky entrance.

Timmy and me discussing the line for the first one (the line for the second one doesn't matter - you resurface and try and get a boof in before going off)

Double drop from below, we didn't get photos of anyone going off but there is some video which I'll try and get up.

After some stellar (and not so stellar) lines along with a couple of dented boats off double drop it was more fun grade four boulder gardens with only one portage out to the cars.

B lighting up a sweet little drop

Tim about half a second before his second brand new Ty Warp snapped clean in two..

We got to the cars and had a Korero about what to do. It was decided that three of us would carry on and do the normal Ngamu run and then out into the Mangakarengorengo for some nice clean big water, while the other three ran the shuttle.

Me and Wills cruising down the normal Ngamu run.

In true fashion I managed to take a roll in a nothing rapid after all the hard stuff on the day was over and had my thumbs/fingers remodelled by the ever obliging Kaimai rocks. This pretty much killed my buzz and I limped down the Mangas trying to stay out of trouble.

This is the very first move on the Mangas. Mean.

The boys, (Pete and Wills) had no such issues and were loving the big bouncy rapids.

The abyss from below

They both fired the abyss and had sweet lines, (a sweet line on the abyss consists of boofing into the guts and managing to stay upright for the rest of the rapid)

Mr Pete Lodge being blunt about things. - What a pun.

Sick day, sick crew, now it's back to laps on the Tuna until we get some more rain...

Here's a little vid, just shot off the boys' point and shoots.