Sunday, November 24, 2013

Start of the season and Upper Whitcombe

Well the spring season has been awesome down here on the West Coast of New Zealand, with the wettest Sept/Oct period I can remember and all the little local gems flowing almost constantly the whole time. It has taken some adjusting to not have the usual partner in crime, Barny the Bull-Dog, on the coast but I have been getting on the river as much if not more anyway. Countless laps of the Crooked, Upper Kakapotahi, Styx, Toaroha and even 5 laps of the Totara has kept me pretty busy but all were really just working towards the 'heli-season'.

As mentioned, we've had a lot of rain so accessing the upper reaches of the catchments hasnt really been possible until the last couple of week's. That said, the sun is here and it is time to fly! Last week all the stars algined with Ari arriving back from Mongolia, the weather was good and the Whitcombe had dropped down to a good medium level. To make up our crew we invited along Taylor Weston, a 2nd year polytech student who has been on the majority on my trips this spring and who was amping for his first heli. Yeah FIRST heli trip, not the typical first heli for most people but with it being the start of the season I figured I knew it well enough and we could take it nice and slow. Apart from a shakey start, sketch little swim on Taylors behalf, we had a truely classic trip down the whitcombe with amazing weather, plenty of changes to keep us guessing and hours of sunlight to chill at the hut!




Who's first heli-trip...

Pat the shuttle driver... he's got our back!












 Couldn't bring myself to drop into 'Masty's Slot'... maybe next time




Day two was also stunning but the inner section of Prices Gorge is still a bit dodgey, well really dodgey so we did a short 10minutes portage on river right and that was the only thing to walk in 5 hours a paddling.
 








 


Anyway it has been another 4 days work and now its day off again.... time to play!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Gradient and Water Calendar 2014 - pre-orders over and about to be sent out!

Well the calendars have arrived and in the words my my flat-mate, "the new calendars are actually good quality calendars that people will get their money's worth". They're better than I thought they were going to be, which is crazy as I was stoked with the digital layout, and they're huge. A full A3 calendar, so big infact that we've actually come across and issue with sending them... they're so big they're classed as parcels! Which has forced us to raise our pre-order price to $25 NZD for people here in NZ and $25 USD for international purchases, but the prices for multiple calendars havent changed. Those people who got in early have secured their's for our initial low price. We wanted to sell them as cheap as possible, id prefer to sell them all at a lower price than have them filling up my Rav, but domestic shipping looks like its going to cost us over $7 each calendar, and I havent even worked out international yet! That said, if you can track down Barny or myself in the next month or so we'll see them person to person for our original price, $20! We've done a limited run this year, with being in different country's and financing the calendars ourselves, so you run the risk of missing out if you wait!

So anyway, click on the relevant link below and secure yours today!



New Zealand ONLY




INTERNATIONAL

Stoked to have the calendars at Gradient & Water - HQ... 229!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Gradient and Water Calendar 2014 - Purchase and Full Layout


Barny Young paddling the lead out of Site Zed, Stikine River, BC - Photo: Chris Korbulic




New Zealand ONLY



INTERNATIONAL



Below is the layout of this year calendar, from January to December, which showcases some of the most spectacular white-water in the world.













Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Gradient and Water - Whitewater Calendar 2014

Barny Young paddling the lead out of Site Zed, Stikine River, BC - Photo: Chris Korbulic


New Zealand ONLY



INTERNATIONAL

We're back again, and we've continued the fashion of a bigger and better calendar! The format has changed to a wiro type calendar with the image at the top and a designated calendar layout at the bottom. This years images come from New Zealand, our Papua New Guinea Expedition, California, the Pacific Northwest and the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River is British Columbia. The reason for the calendar is to raise a little bit of money to contribute to our kayaking travels and to also showcase the amazing sport that is whitewater kayaking! Here is an example of one of the months.

Daan Jimmink paddling into 'Show Us You Tits', on Fantasy Falls in California - Photo: J Matheson

We're stoked on this years calendar and hope you are too, thanks for the support

Jordy Searle and Barny Young