Josh Neilson running the Hardanger River in Norway. Photographer - Greg Dashper
As the New Zealand Summer 08/09 comes to an end I’m filled with ideas. “How can we do as much kayaking and travelling as possible with the limited funds we have?” The plan changed about a hundred times as an itinerary was patched together. The crew committed, and the trip mostly sorted, I began a plan to capture our missions on film and share them with the world. New Zealanders are renowned for pulling off some epic first descents and are now making a name for themselves in the competitive extreme racing circuit. Our crew of paddlers are among the top in these fields. This got me thinking, the 2009 film would start by following a number of <strong>Kiwi</strong> kayakers on our mission to the Northern hemisphere where first descents were made and extreme races were won. The 2009 trip consisted of a bunch of extreme racing, mixed with expedition kayaking and to cap it all off some big water kayaking on the White Nile. The year started with Lou Urwin, Tyler Fox and myself exploring the Central and Northern reaches of Quebec in Canada. With a car loaded with cameras and gear bulging from the seams, we spent 3 weeks driving river to river and running a bunch of ‘sweet’ sections and ticking off a few new rivers in the region. The atmosphere was set to change. From being in the wilderness of Quebec to the bustling ski town of Vail, Colorado. Here we met up with Mike Dawson, Sam Sutton and Bradley Lauder who were hot favourites, in our minds, to place highly in the Homestake Creek race. My racing speeds were far from best, but it was still fun to compete. Once I had taken my run, I filmed Mike, Sam and Lou’s runs. Unfortunately Lou had a DNF, with a boat break after a collision with a rock. Sam had a slower first run but came back in the second run with a course record. This was not enough to get ahead of Mike’s consistent runs which took him to gold. Other events over the weekend saw the <strong>Kiwi</strong>s on the podium once again. Lou headed back to Canada while Sam, Brad, Mike and I headed out to Italy, meeting up with Jared Meehan for Mountain Games in Italy. Due to a few travel mishaps, I missed filming the guys on the first Extreme race. But I made it in time for the World Teams Extreme Race Championships. Sam, Mike and Jared took gold, another success for the crew! We parted ways, with Jared heading to Russia, and Mike to Spain for slalom commitments. The rest of us headed to Norway for the Voss Extreme race and another season of amazing waterfalls! Between runs, with camera in hand, I captured the kiwis dominating the rounds with a new kiwi face, Mike Abbott taking out the first round with Sam not far behind. In the end Sam missed first by just hundredths of a second and Mike Abbott took third. The racing scene was mostly over, so we went back to river running. For some reason one of Norway’s best rivers decided to run for a whole week, instead of its usual 2 or 3 days a year! With a pile of racing footage, it was a nice change to be behind the lens capturing the guys hucking off massive drops and running tight smooth lines! The New Zealand dollar was weak against the Norwegian dollar and more time in Norway was not looking very promising. There was one more race in 2 weeks, but if I stayed, I would be forced to return to NZ immediately after and back into the heart of winter! A few emails here and there, and a new plan was hatched. With the funds I had, it was either 2 weeks in Norway or 3 months in Africa. Four days later I was on a plane to Uganda. I contracted Malaria three years ago while paddling the Nile in Uganda. Since then, I have been making films and showing these throughout New Zealand, raising money for a malaria clinic on the banks of the Nile. Previously I had sent the money over, but this year I wanted to hand deliver it. While the film has focused on the talents of Mike and Sam, their racing and the expeditions of Lou and myself, the fundraising is also an important function of the film. It’s pretty selfish to go to these amazing places and not give something in return. To paddle the Nile every day, while helping out the community and raising awareness back home about a cause that is close to my heart, is pretty choice! Within 3 weeks of of my return, I was back to rock bottom with another case of Malaria. Thanks to good friends and help from the clinic close by, I was once again treated and back on my feet. To help show the severity of this sickness, Bernard Oliver, also from NZ, got behind my camera while I shared my experiences. Once I was well again, we set out to document the clinic and what they do, as well as capture the raw power of the river. Another reason to return to the Nile is the dam construction which will flood the famous Silverback section. It will be shut down to kayakers and rafters by April next year and gone forever. Part of the film set out to show what will soon be lost and to find out how it will affect the locals and users of the river. With my time fast running out in Uganda I changed my flight and stayed for another month so I could be there for the last Nile River Festival in November. The last month was amazing with trips to the equator to tie in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere theme to the film as well as filming out in the Murchison Falls National Park where we saw elephants, hippos, leopards and lions. The last week was the hardest, as I was having my final runs down one of the most amazing sections of river I’ve ever paddled and leaving all my amazing friends. I rounded the corner into an eddy, looked back upstream, having come down the Silverback rapid. It slowly disappeared as I floated silently thinking “I am defiantly thankful to be able to do these things and sad to see them go.” I will always have the footage from these years of film to remind me how lucky I am! Now the Northern Hemisphere summer has come to an end. Mike, Sam, Lou, myself and the rest of the kayaking nomads from the South have made their way back to NZ. Here I will be putting the finishing touches to a worldly kayaking film, which follows a bunch of mates from their home in the South to the far reaches of the North. Now that the edit has begun it was time to get the film a name! The film this year is called ‘REALM’ and you can expect to see shows around NZ during March and April with the global premiere at Murchison’s Buller River Festival! Cheers and hope you enjoy it! For More information on my travels for the year and for what you can expect from the Southern Underground Productions film for 2009 check us out at www.whitewater-koa.blogspot.com
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