C&K mag #30 sp - Canoe & Kayak

WHITE WATER KAYAKING
Waterfall Crawl, Park and Pray
by Louis Tapper
“At the time of action, second-guessing
yourself is inappropriate. You’ve prepared
your body and mind in rehearsal, you’ll know
what to do at the instant where a decision is
demanded- trust yourself to make the right
one and commit yourself to doing it. Your job
is to be here now, focus on it.”
‘The Fear Book’, by Cheri Huber
The idea was simple. We would run nothing but waterfalls, safely, for the
three days of Labour weekend. We wanted to discover ‘park and pray’
waterfall spots around the North Island and try the new Bliss-Stick MAC1 and
Huka boats in some challenging water. The trip achieved these goals but
turned into a crawl in more ways than one for Shane, Quinny, reluctant late
starter Paul and myself.
The build-up had all the hallmarks of a classic trip. It did not disappoint. Ideas
from kayakers all around the country were posted on the Wellington Kayak
message board to supplement ours. During a recent trip to Norway I was
frequently regaled with stories of people injuring backs and ankles on
waterfall runs that had gone wrong, so the emphasis was always on safety.
Louis and Shane
Also fresh in our minds was the Palmerston kayaker who broke his back
landing backwards off a 24 m waterfall.
We spent the night at River Valley and rose early to pick up creek boats from
the Bliss-Stick factory. Richard kindly lent us two MAC1s and a Huka to try
out for the weekend. The outfitting of the kayaks was perfect, straight off the
shelf, so Shane and I quickly felt confident and at home in both boats.
Shepherd’s Falls was first on the list. At first glance it looked tricky to run. A
large log, which lay above the sweet part of the lip had to be avoided on the
way down. Everyone successfully negotiated the drop and went on to run a
small weir in Taihape.
Unfortunately because the land owner would not let us cross her land we
did not get to run the Hautapu drop. She made it clear in no uncertain terms
that she was unwilling to accept liability and a possible OSH prosecution for
any injuries received while we were on her property. The alternative of
walking down the railway line would take longer than we had counted on.
We moved to the Raukawa Falls where we paddled the top drop. It had a
clean take off and a pillow for a landing and was the ideal water we were
looking for. In my research I had not found anyone who had run the bottom
falls and it was obvious why. A quick peek over the lip of the bottom drop
revealed a significant drop with a potentially sketchy shallow hard landing.
Maybe this can be run during high flows when the pool at the bottom is
deeper. From the take out we scrambled up a bush covered steep bank and
the crawl part of the weekend started in earnest.
Tawhai falls is a classic 10 m drop near the Chateau. We ran it a couple of
times after making individual decisions about how it should be done. There
ISSUE THIRTY • 2005 9