South Silver- The injured photographers perspective

Luckily when California was built they made a few rivers with easy access for walkers so when you are injured you can still enjoy the excitement of kayaking but from behind a camera lens! South Silver Creek is a great example of this with a track from top to bottom and easy access on the granite to each of the drops! On Wednesday Toni, Dan and Yan were at the bakery in Coloma (where i spend most of my injured time) and they were heading up there for the day! I Jumped on the opportunity to escape Coloma and head in there! The flow was stull healthy but I personally think this is the optimal flow because it actually has water to paddle on not just rocks!
It true South Silver style i passed on the beta that the first rapid had to be run blind and they took it and ran it sweet!! Its a huge slide about 200m long that runs straight down the middle the whole way!
There was mixed success on all the rapids during the day apart from Toni. This was up there with some of the styliest kayaking ive seen on this river ever!
For more on Toni's Kayaking you can check out her blog at www.toni-george.blogspot.com

Toni getting air on the bottom drop of 'Left Left' - Photo Josh Neilson

- Toni part way into one of the sickest drops on the planet - 'SKYSCRAPER' - Photo Josh Neilson

- Toni on 'Off Ramp' - the second part to skyscraper rapid, manditory at this flow - Photo Josh Neilson

- Yan and Toni trying to figure out the portage - Photo Josh Neilson

- Yan on 'Plastic Surgery' - Photo Josh Neilson

Chatroom tv segment on REALM

Alright so before I left NZ this year Lou Urwin and I went in and did an interview with Chatroom about our lifestyle and about my new Film Realm. You can check out the 3 part interview and see what it was all about!

Click the link and scroll down till you see -

Josh Neilson and Louise Urwin, Adventure Kayakers :

Travelling New Zealand and the world conquering unexplored whitewater by kayak.

CLICK HERE

Injured and bored!

- Picture on the drive into Upper Middle Cosumnes out the window of 'Mum'

- The boys loading up 'MUM'- the car, and me looking unhappy about driving shuttle!

Being quite a restless individual it comes as no suprise that now after a week of being injured and off the water that im starting to loose my mind! There have been a few things that have kept my mind off my shoulder but with broken sleep every night due to the pain its quite hard to not think about the potential end to my season coming in the next week!
Im off to see the Doctor again on monday and this is when ill have a better idea on whats going on. The initial diagnosis while still swollen a lot was that I have partially torn my AC joint, separating the ligament from the bone that holds the shoulder together! I have not heard of this injury very much until this week and ever second person I have talked to has been through it! Apparently it can vary quite a lot from brusing of the joint through to complete tears. I am staying positive and it seems that I have just partially torn it which is a good start!
Stay tuned for how this unravels and where the summer will lead!
Till then here are a few shots from my new Head Cam from GoPro. Super sick cameras!
Cheers
Josh

-Jared, Toni, Jamie, Ben, Scouting East Meets West Drop on Upper Sth Yuba

-Something California is well known for - Driving!!!

- Pre injury on Slab Creek section of the American River

- More Scouting of East Meets West!

Vail and on to Cali

- The crew scouting East Meets West Drop on Upper Sth Yuba - Photo Josh Neilson

So with our car loaded up with all our gear and 5 of us crammed in we headed out 3500km toward Vail Colorado!
2 nights and a day later we made it to Vail to find our amazing house for the week! Right downtown and massive! It was awesome!!!

Teva Mtn Games in Vail - photo - Mike Dawson

So we Kiwi proofed the house by taking down all the breakables and then went to bed! Over the day people turned up and got stuck into catching up on stories from the past missions!
By Wednesday night everyone was all caught up and ready to race the next day!

Freestyle feature in Vail - Photo Mike Dawson

Early Thursday we all headed up to the race course to scout our lines and get ready!
The day was full of carnage with a mix of good an bad lines! I had a sweet line but once again this year missed out of the finals by less than half a second!
The kiwis continued to dominate the race scene and this saw Sam Sutton come home with the gold!

- Priceless - Photo Teva

- The Boys on the Podium for down river sprint -

Over the week there were more podium finishes by the kiwis which was great to see! In true form we also indulged in some good partys at the Kiwi house and throughout Vail!

Some other action in town during the week! - photo Mike Dawson

Once the week was over I changed cars and headed for the WEST!!!! California!!!
On the way out we stopped in at Arches National park and checked out the amazing rock formations and cooked ourselves in the 40degree heat!!!
Finally in California we had a few days sorting out flows and swimming in pools to keep cool!
Day one on the river was a quick blast down Slab Creek which was super fun!
The Next day kayaking was also sick until i decided to run Vslide! I hit the line but went deep and connected very hard with the bottom of the river! The impact was on my right shoulder and Head! Everything went black with purple and pink stars. I Came up and headed to the side! I still had movement but knew that it was not too good! Lots of pain! We still had a few miles to get out so decided to rally it and get out quick! I got in behind Ben Jackson and we bombed the rest out! There were a few moments where i got hung up in holes but thanks to Jamie behind me he tackled me out of them!!
Finally at the car i was stoked to be out and not hiking out of the Californian Posion Oak infested mountains!!
So that pretty much has stopped my kayaking right now till I can see the Dr again! I have ruptured my AC joint so in a week ill know more about how long im out for!

- Vince going big on the wakeboard! - Photo Josh Neilson

- Sanga going for the forward flip - Photo Josh Neilson

With our days off we went up to clearlake to visit Mal and friends and go wakeboarding and enjoy some drinks in the sun! The Next day we rallied up to Big Kimshew Creek where i drove shuttle and the boys ran the shit!!! Im super jealous to not be on the river especially for this one! Kimshew is one of the best runs in the world!!!! Oh well ill be back!

- Sanga on Kimshew Falls - Photo Jared Mitchel

- Sanga on Frenchies - Photo Jared Mitchel

Keep your eyes peeled and fingers cross for my return to the river and more updates!!
Take care
Josh

Chutes du Haha

Road trip quebec 2010 - Photo Josh Neilson

- Josh Neilson on lower Haha - Photo Lou Urwin

- Josh Neilson from above - Photo Dave Crerar

This time last year we went to check out Haha falls and it was about negative 2 degrees and i decided to let that drop go for another day! Luckily this year we were about to leave Chicoutimi and decided to go back! the temperature on this fine day was a blistering 30 degrees and the water was warm!!! This was more my style!! I checked out the top drop and it looked good but upon closer inspection it was actually a bit trickier than i had thought, but it was fine!

- Me entering the top drop on Haha - Photo Dave Crerar

It threw me left a bit but was sweet!

- In between the two - Photo Lou Urwin

The next drop was the one i was here for though! sloping funky 2o footer that you line up for and melt! I felt like i went pretty deep and could feel my skirt pressing on my legs! No deck implosion and a super fun drop!!!

Time to head toward Ottawa for one last park and huck!

- Tyler Fox lining it up! - Photo Lou Urwin

- Fox going deep - Photo Josh Neilson

- Our Last park and huck - sweet rapid with a melt into a big hole at the bottom! - Photo Lou Urwin

- Josh plugging the hole - Photo Lou Uwrwin

- Chicoutimi - A beautiful city close to a lot of sick runs!! - Photo Josh Neilson

- Josh Neilson on the Middle Valin drop - Photo Tyler Fox

What happened next.... So being on the road trying to find new rivers is sometimes awesome but sometimes not... After Huit Chutes we had a few down days organising accomodation for Vail Mtn Games and also not finding rivers with any water!!! After those few days off the water Lou and I were seriously hanging out for some kayaking!!

- Blake Mahoney finding center in a sticky slot drop - Photo Tyler Fox

Our drought was stopped beiefly over the weekend with a race that Pat had been organising but was not enough to get the full buzz back! Following the race we had a premiere of Realm and Rush's Dream Result in a bar in Chicoutimi followed by a $5 cup of endless beer all night! Something that seemed to appeal to us for some reason... ( Section censored and deleted) After the impending hangover we regained focus and headed in to run a waterfall we had come across earlier in the trip but had too much water. A super clean lip 25footer with a soft pool at the bottom. We ran a few sweet drops to get to it and to get out but this was the one we were there for.

- Me coming out the bottom with speed - Photo Tyler Fox

- Lou Urwin showing us how to fly - Photo Tyler Fox

- Me from the bottom getting ready to stomp - Photo Tyler Fox

- Dave Crerar on the rooster below the big drop - Photo Tyler Fox

We all hucked ourselves off it a few times and lost one Gopro camera on landing!!! Got some sweet shots and headed to dinner with Pat and Vero. This was the end of out Chicoutimi trip so a nice dinner was a good end. Our thoughts were to get a few park and hucks on the way back to ottawa then next day and so thats what we did! Unfortunatly on the last one of the day Blake exposed his shoulder to the river devils and re dislocated his already twice dislocated shoulder!!! From here we boosted to Ottawa to get him to hospital and get some rest before Vail! While in Ottawa we had a couple of days surfing Garburetor Wave which was awesome! Although people think i dont like play boating i actually do!!!

- Practicing my flying techniques - Photo Blake Mahoney

After a weekend of surfing and a few drinks we loaded up a truck and started the 32 hr drive across USA to Vail Colorado!!! This is our base for the next week! Downtown Vail, 18 person house, 3 stories high, 8 person hot tub, foozeball, table tennis/beer pong, and much more! check back soon for updates on or week at Teva Mountain Games!!! Its gonna be a good one!!

Peace