Kevin Yount [Warrior Poet]

Bali wrap up

I just finished a few days of playing in the ocean on the island of Bali, Indonesia.  The waves weren't all that big since it is winter, but still enough to have fun on.  It was good cross training as I learned how to ride drop knee and carve better on the waves, which I hope will carry over for surfing holes.  On the second day I went looking for some bigger breaks.  Nothing was happening at Padang Padang, so I went to Ulawatuu, which had some big waves at medium tide.  I started swimming out, not realizing that a side current was taking me sideways away from the beach and into an area with cliffs.  By the time I noticed it, it was too late and no amount of hard swimming could get me back on course, and I seemed to be tiring and losing ground fast.  I finally decided to take the next wave and make the best of a bad situation.  I am glad to have river experience as I had to line my board into a sandy area only 10 foot wide in between a large cliff wall and a boulder garden with waves surging through it.  Then I realized that getting back was going to take  a lot of work.  Thankfully a lifeguard saw me when I got swept into the cliff area and came down to show me the easiest way to scramble over and swim around the cliffs.  I decided I didn't want to fight the currents all day for waves that were only a few feet higher, so I went back to Kuta beach where the waves break on the shore. 
I saw a picture for rafting on Bali, but I must have been mistaken about there being a few waterfalls stacked back to back.  The picture only showed one 5 foot slide, so I decided to pass on boarding and went to watch a fire dance instead.  If the guy who rented me my ocean board wouldn't had been busy, I might have taken him boarding to show him the ropes and maybe plant the seed for him to teach others, but he was busy giving surfing lessons.
Here are my recommendations:
Sharkey's (between Kuta and Jimboran((sp?)) ).  The red snapper was the best fish I have ever eaten in my life.
Chi Chi's.  Same name as the big chain, but not affiliated with them.  Try the steak or chicken fajitas.
Kabob Palace.  Great little Turkish restaurant with great chicken and lamb wraps.  Try a lassie (drink made of yogurt, milk, and fruit.  It's pronounced la see).  If you like your coffee like sludge, then order Turkish coffee, but be warned, they grind it up really fine and it is some strong stuff.
Taste of India.  I ordered a Kashmiri chicken dish and it was the bomb. 

Here are some more pointers:
Don't go if you don't like hot and humid places or if you can't stand someone asking you to buy something every five steps.
Sunscreen, rashguards, and a little bit of a tan before you come.  The sun down here is a hungry mutha and likes to feed on Caucasian flesh.  The sun laughs at sunscreen here, so wear a rash guard part of the time, and don't forget to keep reapplying sunscreen every few hours.
Drink about 3 liters of fluid a day.  The tropics will really drain you if you don't stay on top of your fluid intake. 
Beware of the monkeys if you go to Ulawatuu temple.  They aren't vicious, but they do like to steal things (such as people's glasses or hats) and then scurry back into the trees out of reach.

been awhile

Over the last few months, I've been working on trying to get everything in order to make a run in Asia.  It is my goal to make a river run on each continent.  I've developed some pretty good contacts in Thailand and Laos with raft operators willing to help me out with transportation and food while they are on a trip, and are keeping them in mind as a back up.  However, I'd really like to complete a run in China.  The permit fees are high and the red tape has been frustrating for a lot of raft and kayak expeditions.  While traveling in the Yunnan province, I found a short run that is road side and continuous class IV+ for 1 1/2 miles.  The real surprise was when someone who arranges permits told me that the run is short enough and that the government wouldn't consider me as profiting from the run like a major expedition, so therefore I can do this one without a permit.  All I need to do is bring some tea or booze to give to farmers if I need to cross their land for access or to scout.  I'll definitely be keeping my eye on that part of China and coming back when rainy season gets going.
I'm also going to Bali next week.  I hope to get in some ocean boarding which should be both fun (haven't been in the ocean since 01') and good cross training for the river.  If the waves aren't cranking, then I may find a raft company that will rent me a pfd and helmet, and take me to the rivers in the interior.  I  think that Bali has a short stretch of water that is 3 or 4 clean 10 footers in a row with pools in between, and possibly a wooden walkway beside the river for repeats.  That could be fun, but we'll have to wait and see what the ocean is doing first. 

My recommendations:

Instead of trying to edit this, I'm simply going to do a small retraction.  Maybe I was a little too rough on Kaituna Cascades.  Truth is they knew the level was high and have done it at that level.  Still, a little more information would have been helpful, such as maybe the advice to run Okere Falls on the left (though the remains of the power station which actually turned into a good sneak at this level) instead of the standard line on the right, which becomes deadly at this level, especially on a run where the jungle foilage blocks the view and makes scouting beforehand pretty difficult.  This is mainly for Adam Hardy, who after a few emails traded back and forth was pretty reasonable, not like the people who have recently trashed Ice on his blog.  Bottom line.  I still don't like Kaituna Cascades, but I'm through thrashing them.  Adam, you're cool personally, and if our paths ever cross, I'll throw down with you- run a river, have a meal and a drink, whatever.

A little late on this, but here are my thumbs up, thumbs down. 

Hell's Pizza.  Yeah, they get a little overshadowed by the quality of the pizza in Taupo, but this place in Rotorua is pretty good.  It's a little treat to eat dishes named after the 7 deadly sins and references to Daunte's the Inferno. 
Volcanic Pizza in Taupo.  This place is simply awesome.  It was voted the best pizza in New Zealand and 3rd in the world.  We had the greek pizza and the vegetarian pizza and both were amazing.
FergBurger in Queenstown.  Awesome burger joint.  It is pricey, but the portions are huge.  An order of fries could make a meal for most people.  You can eat beef, venison, and lamb burgers here.
Basebackers Lodge in Rotorua.  It kind of has that trendy sterile feel to it, but they are cheap and ordered.  Each branch has it's own feel and decor.  Ours just happened to have a climbing wall and theatre on the premises.
Lantana Backpacker's Hostel in Auckland.  This place is the exact opposite.  It is on a backstreet, so their isn't much noise from traffic.  It looks and feels more like a home than a hostel, and is clean since you have to take off your shoes to enter.  Lots of books to read, and you don't have to pay to use the internet. 
Downtown Backpackers Lodge in Queenstown.  This place was a dump and the front doors don't relock at night when someone with a key enters or exits, so anyone could get in.  The bed's were horrible, but they did provide free cereal and pb and j for breakfast and had free internet.
Lantana Street Kebab and takeaway.  I'm pretty sure I've got the street wrong, but a street or two over form the Lantana Lodge in Auckland is an awesome greek kebab place.  Good, cheap, mediterraean fast food, and a friendly owner. 
Now to the one Thumbs Down (and I'm sure we could think of another finger to raise to them after we barely survived our run down the Kaituna).  There is a fine line between having some fun with someone and almost killing them.  Sure, I've had a little fun with a newbie or good friend on the river and sent them down the "hero" line, where I knew they might get worked a little, but with no danger.  These people at Kaituna Cascades though, they told us the river was running just a little above normal when it was really at flood stage.  I don't know whether they were trying to protect NZ's extreme reputation by not admitting that a river could possibly be too high to do, or just wanted to send the Yanks down something crazy to see if we'd survive, but both we're terrible reasons for almost getting us killed.  They even told us on the first day (when we could clearly see that the river was too high, higher than the day we ran it), that yeah, it's a little high, but some of us did it this morning.  Somehow, now, I think they were lying about them running it that day.  I hope that they go out of business, that their owners have to humble themselves and work for the competition and that any good guides they have will be able to find a company that is qualified and reputable.  So if you go down to New Zealand and want to raft the Kaituna, please go with Kaitaki Adventures or another good company, but avoid Kaituna Cascades.  After trusting their advice almost turned tragic, I definitely wouldn't want to trust my life to them by getting in one of their rafts.

know when to hold em, know when to fold em...

Today, some of us thought about doing Nevis Bluff rapid on the Kawarau. I woke up visualizing where I needed to be in each part of the run and had my game face on. However, as the day continued on, an honest assessment of my last few days told me that I had missed too many lines that I should have made. I was only on the river 3 times in 2005 and the last time that I was in class V big water was in September, 2004 on the Gauley. It was just too quick to come off of a layoff from boarding and expect to be able to take down one of the pinnacles of New Zealand whitewater.

Watching kayakers run the rapid in the afternoon confirmed how fast the move between the first and second drops had to be made. It is a long rapid with many must make moves and not a lot of time between them. It is easy to run if done right, but one mistake could spell disaster. Boarding is also a head game, and today wasn’t my day. I need more time before I’m ready to return to riding big water.

For the whole trip, I’m satisfied, though there was a lot we didn’t run. The gnarly gorge was probably full of log jams since the Kaituna was so high and we would probably have to hang around the area for awhile to even know where the takeout was. Huka was way too high, and I discovered that many spend a lot of time in the area to wait for the right level on it. Aratiatia was no question as it was out of our league. It only took seeing the riverbed without water in it to confirm that.

Lastly, for Nevis it just wasn’t our day. Still, I had a great time on both the big drops and the big waves. Having a great run on the Kaituna at high water just one day after the Wairoa chewed me up and spit me out was probably my best moment.

Also the time off the river was super. We spent a lot of time on the road and had both great serious conversations as well as developing a ton of inside jokes. We met other travelers and paddlers from all over, and also learned a lot about Maori culture from a few locals.

There are a lot of things I learned that I would like to suggest to others wanting to do the same thing we did in New Zealand. One is to spend more time than a week here. That will allow time to wait on good water levels, take rest days before tough river stretches, and see more of New Zealand than just the rivers.

We were also disappointed with the lack of video and photos on the trip. We discovered that it is tough to both ride the rivers and get good footage at the same time. Both Ice and P talked about how much more encumbered they felt with all the new rescue gear and the helmet cams. Most extreme filmmakers film others instead of trying to both film and play. I’d recommend to bring a camera to capture your good runs, but unless you are going for a professional video, don’t stress about it.

Another tip is to rent a campervan and use it to get around and sleep in. On south island, you can park on Rafter’s Road, which is where many paddlers stay.

One day I hope to return, though the cost of trying to ship a board from New Zealand back to the United States may influence that decision. I guess I’ll either have to ride a little closer to home or get an inflatable board or foam hydrospeed and get comfortable on it for overseas riverboarding.

Until next time,

Warrior Poet (Kev),

photo catch up

When the guidebook said not to try to walk out from the Rangitaiki, I thought it meant not to bushwach.  Who knew that the actual trail would also be an overgrown jungle?

Neil from Serious Fun Riversurfing took some guides out to train them at Citroen rapid and let us come along for a good time too. 

Making the move to the left in Citroen

Going over a wave in Citroen

At the end of Citroen

No, I didn't have an accident.  I just sat down in some algae on shore

With Regan and Docta P.

In a few days, Ice and P should have the helmet cam videos up and posted on the www.newzealandriverboarding.com site.  Those should be good..

Citroen Rapids

Day 4. February 15^th, 2006. 

 

After a relaxing travel day to Queenstown and then a frantic search for a rental car after the reservations didn’t come through, today we went out on the Citroen section of the Kawarau. Serious Fun riversurfing was doing guide training on the same section and they set shuttle for us and took us down the river. I have to give them credit because they run some pretty big class 4 stuff on bodyboards. I never did run the rapid from the top because on the right side was a pour over in the washout (still felt a little battered and tired from the previous days and didn’t feel like I could make the line), and the left side pushed hard into a wall. Running from the middle was great-just get left and hit the big waves. I had 2 great runs and got some good photos. After we finished the section and said goodbye to the Serious Fun crew, we set up video equipment and got some good footage on the same rapid. During my film run, I hit a rock barely visible and took a good swim through big water while getting back on the board. From now on I’m a big believer in using leashes. This trip is the first time I’ve used a leash, and it provides so much more confidence knowing that if I fall off, my board is still an arm’s length away to get back onto. Probaby be a day or two before Ice gets the pictures and video of today’s and tommorrow’s runs off the camera and we get to post them.  

the battle scars!

Here are my three injuries for three days of boarding:

cut on my nose from coliding with the visor on my helmet during running Jeff's Joy on the Rangitaiki

side view of the same cut.

bruised hip from taking a bad line at Waterfall on the Wairoa and landing in the Toaster Slot. 

close up on the bruised hip.

small graze on my forehead from going into an undercut and my helmet coming off.

cheers,
Kev,

Keep the aspirin coming (seriously I am having fun, even though it looks like I'm being beat to death)

Day 3. February 13th, 2006.

Whoever said ignorance is bliss was dead right. Two days ago, we went to scout the Kaituna and the control gates were wide open making for too high of a level. Today we expected the level to be lower, and someone told us to read the gates from how high the bottom of the gates were up. By that we read that the gates were 400, well within the normal range that commercial operations raft the river.

We put on and at the first major drop, I miss the line and ended up going left at the split instead of right. I went through a nasty section where I came out right after some nasty tree strainers and just before some remains of an old power station. Good thing I missed the right side as others encountered problems at Okere Falls, but that’s their story to tell or not to tell, or even to reveal their identity. So thinking that either they flew by me or were upstream with no way of me to get out and get upstream from the gorge walls, I decided to do the run real quick to find out where they were.

Tutea’s Falls is simply awesome. Back to that ignorance is bliss statement. We thought that the gates were running at 400, but actually they were all the way up, just with not quite as much water flowing through as two days ago, but still high water. Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have put on or wanted to run Tutea’s Falls.

The cool thing is that you can eddy hop all the way down if you don’t want to run into the falls without knowing it or get your group too close over the falls, but the very last eddy on the right (as seen when the contestants from CBS’s Amazing Race ran the falls), is super tiny and can barely hold two boarders at that level.

Tutea’s Falls is 22 feet tall usually, but today with the water level high, the pool was up higher reducing the drop. It is really unnerving when you are waiting in the eddy, but once I caught my breath and jumped into the current, there was no turning back and no time to be scared. I came in on river right to let the jet of water take me center and stuck my line over the falls perfect. Then I hit the bottom and my helmet got ripped off.

Being underwater in the craziness of the falls at that level was awesome. It was like being in a washing machine and I was totally at the mercy of the river. However, I knew to expect that from this falls and I could feel myself floating up to the surface even though I was getting spun and barrel rolled under the maul, so it was really peaceful. It feels like you are down longer than you really are, but some kayakers that watched my run said I had some good downtime.

So after I retrieved my helmet, I went down the rest of the run, trying to eddy hop so I didn’t miss the takeout, because you don’t want to miss it and go over Trout Pool Falls. This turned out to be a frustrating merry go round. The eddys weren’t very peaceful at this level, and then when trying to get back into the main current, there were little eddy fences coming off the current and pushing me back into the eddys. So it took me a long time to move downstream.

Well, the past two days I’ve managed to get banged or cut up, so time to keep the tradition going. After my helmet came off the first time, it wasn’t staying on very well. One of those annoying eddys washed me into a small undercut. I got off the board to get lower in the water and not hit the wall and to let the board take the impact. I hit my head and the helmet came off and then when I popped up again, I grazed my head on a rock. Hurt a little bit, but thankfully it was more of a scrape than a hard hit. Wouldn’t have hurt at all if I didn’t have a receding hairline. I’ll do another post with all three of my battle marks so far, so you can see them.

So after that I got a ride upstream and found the rest of the group.  They were a little shaken from their experience in a hole at the beginning of the run, and though I would have liked to have put in below the bad holes and get some photo and video of going over the falls again, I could tell that they wanted to leave behind the place and the experience, and we also wanted to go look at Huka Falls even though it was way too high to run.

Huka has to be one of the most pure raw power rapids I have ever looked at as it is a lot of water crashing through a narrow gorge before pouring over a waterfall. So though I would have liked to have some footage to share of going over Tutea, the experience of getting to do it (especially at that high water level) is the main thing, and it was great to see Huka before it got dark. I don’t know if anyone has ever boarded Tutea’s Falls at a level higher than 1500 (4800 cubic feet per second) on the control gates, but if they have, I’d like to hear about it.

After Huka, we were told about a thermal spring which was great for my bruised hip.  We also found a pizza place that has been voted the best in New Zealand and 3rd in the world, and it was great. Thank goodness tomorrow is a travel day, because my battered body is sore and needs a break before the last two

Chewed Up and Spit Out: An Asprin Run.

Day 2. February 12, 2006. Today I got totally rocked in a rapid and humbled big time. We did the Wairoa river. There are times when a guidebook is very useful for giving you a heads up about a river. Other times, the river looks so different in person that it throws you off and you forget what rapid is coming next or where the best place to run one is. Photos can be deceptive as well, due to varying water levels. Today, we scouted one of the class 5 rapids from the top, but not from the bottom. We should have scouted it from below the rapid two, then I might have known that the rapid was the one called Waterfall and not to get sucked right. During the entrance drop the hole was very sticky even from 5 foot past it. The only way I could get free was to turn back into it and surf out. This put me further to the right and as I hit the main drop, I realized that a lot of water was spilling sideways off of the boulder as well. I dropped over this sideways and under another overhanging rock into an area known as the toaster slot. I got worked real hard under there, but it spit me out quick. Ice said he saw me come bouncing out, so I must have hit pretty hard. I have the bruised hip to prove it, so I guess that makes battle scar number 2.  It will probably be a few days before this bruise turns photo worthy, but should be a good one.  I also got an elbow pad ripped off from hitting so hard.  Good thing I was wearing it.  After this, because we spent so much time for the other two remaining boarders to portage this rapid that gave me and Ice so much trouble (at least in the eyes of the rafters who freaked out ((the standard line has a sticky hydraulic)) ), and then to scout the next rapid (which I portaged since my confidence was shaken a little bit since the last one), we ran out of time and the dam turned off the water. Because of that, we had to complete the run at low water, which was very slow and shallow. Basically, it was low water abuse. But on the bright side, the Kaituna’s water level appears to be going back down to a sane level, and maybe that will get us confident enough to run Huka Falls if it is at a runnable level. A funny highlight tonight was eating pizza in Hell. Rotorua has a Hell’s Pizza, which is actually quite good. Great atmosphere to the whole town, but the sulfur springs and mud pits produce a terrible smell. Most of the people in

New Zealand

are super friendly and their accents are cool. 

always stay flexible (aka The Beauty and the Hassle of the Jungle

Day 1. February 11^th, 2006. Rotorua received rain for 36 hours before we came. On a run that is normally dry back in the states this would be a good thing, but on a run that is already full, things can get out of hand. We drove to the Kaituna river, but after scouting, we determined the water level to be too high. 

Tutea

Falls

was insane. The right side line had a giant boil exploding up almost 10 foot high and all of the water above the falls was pushing right, making it hard to get to the left. We opted to look elsewhere and headed south to the Rangitaiki river. Normally, this is a mellow class three with a smooth class 4 slide. With the higher water, the wave trains were bigger, and the slide had a giant wave hiding the main drop into two big holes in a row. I went left on the first run and got worked pretty bad at the bottom of the slide. The second time I went right and had a sweet run down the waterfall and washed out clean. I did hit by nose of the visor of the helmet making my first battle scar for the trip. 

Because we didn’t have a lot of time, we opted to walk back to the car instead of parking it downstream and floating to it. What we saved in having a short run, we lost on the trail back out.  It was beautiful, but tough, slow going, walking back out as we walked through an overgrown jungle. By the way,

New Zealand

is beautiful in its own way. There is so much diversity. On the same mountain you may see ferns, hardwoods, tropical, and evergreens all growing at different levels.  

Then we got lost in the dark and drove about two hours out of the way, making for a late night.