River Karma

FLOW HUNTERS
by Robert Tighe
The Red Bull Flow Hunters Project had a simple plan: bring together
four close friends to explore the steep creeking of New Zealand. Having
spent many years exploring rivers all over the world, Kiwis Ben Brown
and Jared Meehan decided to bring it back to the motherland in
honor of the fact that some of the finest whitewater on the planet is
right at home in Aotearoa. They invited Rush Sturges (USA) and Rafa
Ortiz (MEX) to join them and with a loose plan in place, they loaded
up their RV and hit the road to see where the adventure would take
them. The mission was not to reinvent the wheel, but to experience
and document some of the key factors that make the sport of
kayaking great; the landscape, the people you meet, the local crews
who are out there day in and day out opening up new runs, and
the adventures that happen when you least expect them. The
outcome was a 35-day adventure that spanned multiple rivers, both
islands of New Zealand, and more than one epic along the way.
Thanks to the support of Red Bull, some cutting edge techniques
were available to capture the project. Using a helicopter-mounted
cineflex camera the team was able to document NZ’s spectacular
West Coast heli-boating as well as a frightening encounter with a
siphon, an all too real aspect of our sport. Despite a few close calls,
the team emerged at the other end of the trip privileged to have
sampled some of the best and most diverse paddling NZ has to offer.
Photos by Red Bull
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