WHITEWATER-KOA: Summer in Okere

This summer has been great so far. I found a sweet house on Okere Rd for Tyler and I and the best part is that its right over the fence from Sam, Flick and Jamie. Communal cups of tea and gingernuts are frequent and the odd paddle and surf thrown in for good balance. Not to mention every Thursday we have Wine and Cheese Appreciation Society meetings at either house!

- A casual Thursday evening meal at the Society - Photo and preparation Felicity Thomas

I started the season off without a creek boat so I was doing a lot of freestyle in the hole which was a great change. Once my shiny new green Tuna was ready I was back on the creeking schedule. Due to bad knees I opted out of the 6hour Enduro Race where competitors had to paddle the river then run back up to tag their team mates over a 6 hours period. It was one of the best run kayak events I have seen and hopefully next year ill have the knees to compete. Next up was Xmas @ the Kaituna event which was a little last minute but great on the day. We decided on a structure change this year and Brendan came up with this awesome idea to run a progressive boater-x. After a time trial ranked everyone for speed they were separated into groups of 4 who would race each other from the top to the bottom of the weir. From here the 2 fastest and the 2 slowest were separated and it went on till the last race of 4 was down to the bottom hole. The freestyle event was 2 groups who had 25minutes to display 4 award winning maneuvers. Best trick, biggest air, retro move and most enthusiastic paddler. I couldn't manage to pull off any big loops that day but came away with the retro move in an old olympia! Awesome day!

-Winning the retro move competition - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Trying to get some air in the big air competition - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Getting tricky - Photo Brendan Bayly

-Taking home the big dollars! - Photo Sophie Hoskins

Christmas and New Year were mostly spent surfing which was awesome! Now its back to the falls and earning money to make the next year better than the last! Where will I go this year... we will have to wait and see.