The Global Paddling Community

Back in Spring 2003, an extreme race was held on the Wairoa in NZ North Island. Greg Nicks and the Slugs were there...

About 100 paddlers gathered at Mclarens falls car park near Tauranga in the North Island of New Zealand to compete in the coveted Wairoa extreme race. The carrot on the stick was cash prize money and would be hotly contested. Whilst many were personally denying it, there had been some serious training going on. At the previous weekend’s release I had watched as many paddlers practiced their lines down the grade five roller coaster rapid for the head to head race that would be the climax of the whole event.

Saturday saw the early start of phase one of the competition, the down river race. A 4 metre seal launch followed by a short sprint down some lovely grade four would sort the order for the head to head race the next day. The fastest paddler would be matched against the slower paddler in pairs all the way down to mid field. There was some race controversy as defending champion Kenny Mutton’s deck popped on the seal launch losing him a big chunk of time and putting him at a disadvantage for the next day.

The rest of the day was free to enjoy the release down the river, and what an amazing run. It has to be one of my favourite whilst I’ve been in NZ as it has something to offer everyone, whether paddling a creek boat or play boat, beginner or advanced. There is a great play hole , humpty dumpty within the first couple of bends fast and retentive enough to air-loop a creek boat. Other rapids go by the name of Mothers Nightmare, double trouble and washing machine.

Further down the river the valley steepens at a 6 foot waterfall with a slot recessed into the lead in known as the toaster, get the line wrong and you would go in as bread and come out ready to be spread. This would be the start of the extreme head to head so I wondered if anybody would be hungrily making toast the next day. The start of the race would involve about 10 metres of flat sprinting above the waterfall so it would be interesting to see if the races were determined from the start. After a short pool there is grade five roller coaster, a couple of drops each with a variety of channels. This is the crux of the head too head where tactics would come into play. There is a fairly large eddy river left at the bottom before the current heads against an undercut wall, making the eddy is therefore obligatory, not only for you’re safety but also to hit the banner on the rock to eliminate your race partner, sudden death style.

Saturday night saw a huge party thrown by Red Bull. Catering was provided in the form of a special delivery of German sausages courtesy of Andy Uhl and his mobile barbeque. Much dancing and drinking was had by all. Colin Aitken proved himself partying hard leaving no one to question his ability to shout at people in a Scottish accent. Co winner of the prize for life and soul of the party also went to Andy O’Connell.
Race organiser Andy Uhl managed to charm people out of their tents with his megaphone on Sunday Morning. It’s a good job he was using it from a distant hillock otherwise plenty of people would have found an alternative use for it. With the air raid siren signalling the release of water for Sunday, there was no escaping that this was the day for the extreme head to head race. The target for today was roller coaster rapid as various people left on foot, by kayak and by raft to compete or spectate perched along the sides of the gorge. The event had a real carnival atmosphere with commentary from the bank, and the crowds getting whipped into a frenzy as the event progressed and people were eliminated. Boat contact was allowed which added to the excitement, not allowed was any deck pulling, grabbing, eye gouging or poking with paddles, maybe an interesting addition for next year. Plenty good paddlers were knocked out in the first round ( I have to say this as I was included in this statistic!) . Each race wasn’t won until the very end, a competitor might have been leading all the way to break out only to miss the top of the eddy as the next competitor cut into the eddy cleanly to grab the banner and get through to the next round. It all added to the excitement. No one was made into toast.

Favourite, Donald Johnstone eliminated Johann Roozenburg in the final to take the men’s title, he also took first in the down river race. A fine effort all round from this seasoned kiwi competitor. Helen Brosnan won the women’s head to head causing a little stir as the winner of the down river race, Kelly Wood was the favourite.
How the winners would spend their prize money of $500 for the men and $200 for the women we would all like to know.

Thanks to Andy Uhl for organising such a great event, sponsors of the event were Red Bull, Topline Agencies, Bliss-Stick kayaks, Adventure magazine, Teva, Robson, Palm and Eskimo kayaks.

Article by Greg Nicks, for PLAYAK.COM

All pictures by photographer extraordinaire Kate Donelly.

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