hey charles, norm and the gang.
i thought its about time i told you how the boats going. i was a little apprehensive about gettin the little boat for my trip to california. but norm had assured me i would love it. and i have. i've been paddling it on loads of different types of trips from low volume technical to higher volume pushy water and multi-day trips and its been sweet. i've really enjoyed the prefomace its gives. its fast for a short boat and boofs like a dream carves like a hot knife through butter. what more could you ask for.
i've got some recent photos from the kiwi boys trip to upper cherry. we had a sick trip. it all started the week before when we missioned down there. we were all set to start the hellish 12 mile walk the next day and we heard from some boys that had just got back and had had an epic, walked most of the gorges with a couple of lads manning up and breaking a boat paddle in the cherry bomb gorge. but still to high to be able to paddle everything flow.
so we paddled the lower cherry creek and came back 4 days later.when we got back there were a few other people just leaving and said they heard the flow was sweet. we were stoked, had a little breaky and loaded boats and tried to get siked for the walk.what a walk, it starts at around 4000 feet and you walk over a 9600 foot pass stetching 12 miles.
after we completed the hellish walk we pretty stoked to put on the water. theres some cool slides straight off the bat, with some good warm up drops.you look around and there granite as far as the eye can see, and not to many trees as i'd expected. the first half of the first day was a little scratchy in places which meant that the rest of the trip should be all good to go. towards the end of the first day we scouted the cherry bomb gorge. its hard to see as your about 1000 foot above the river. but looked good. loads of different style drops alway down the gorge then you get to cherry bomb itself! impressive! the first boys styled the line. i was next and yeh boys what a buzz! sliding down the rock and hitting that kicker and flying through the air and landing right before the wall. and from there down more drops and more slides and then you finish the day with a bunch of tea cups.
day two, starts off great. we decided to do a quick couple laps on the teacups before heading off. then "prefect 20" , "double pot hole" for breakfast are awesome. its goes on through to the next gorge where we portaged a couple of drops. there were a couple of pros who of a group of 10 that paddled kiwi in a pocket, named after nikki kelly. dead bear was left unrun that day. but there was still plenty of amazing paddling all the way out to the lake.
we finished the missioned pretty stoked. minal damage , one swim, one broken paddle, one lost split, a little facial tissue damage and some decent blisters. a trip and team i'll remeber for for a long while.
overall for the boat. i loved it. with a bit of extra weight it preforms really well. it tracked like a dream and turns so fast. it boofs like a dream and was all i was hoping it would be. for someone who likes to paddle aggressive and likes the new school boating style should give it a try.
from the other part of team kiwi cali- nick, josh, skux, weka and blue.
i hope to get some more photo to you soon. 