Ari Walker Whitewater Kayaking: November 2012

So in three days i depart for the mystical land of Chile for six weeks of kayaking adventures. I have created this site so family and friends can follow this and all my future adventures wherever they may take me.
To get the ball rolling and learn my way around this blogging business check out a few of my favorite snaps from the last few years.

B-rain and Henry Cotton rolling into the stunning Gates of Argonath on the upper Hokitika river, west coast.

These next two shots I love, they are HDR shots of Paul and B-rain on our first decent trip of the Mcfarlane river in Haast. This trip turned out to be the biggest mission of my life with over 10 hours of steep bush portaging and an un-anticipated and very cold night spent on the river bank.

- Brain fires first of one of the clean drops

- Paul early on day 1

- The Paparazzi! Jordy immediately post beating, low flow on the Kokatahi river.

These previous shots were all taken the summer of 2011-2012 on my first camera a canon 1000D. Just recently I have upgraded to a Sony A57 to capture our trip to Chile in HD video and better quality images. Ive only had the camera a couple of months and out on three trips but so far im loving it, the following pics are all from those three trips.

- First decent of the Edwards river, B-rain making a cold start to the day.

- This drop was named the aptly named 'the slot machine' , B-rain launching clean and flat!

The Edwards trip was the coldest of my life with an 11 hour day in the snow and water. Epic times and some new goods to add to the shortage of whitewater in the Canterbury region made it all worth while though.

A couple of months back i was also invited to the coast for a day trip into Toaroha Canyon, Myself, Greg and B-rain left at midnight from chch and drove to Jordys in Hoki arriving at 3.30 am. The following morning we were up and beginning the three hour walk in by 11 am, all five of us were feeling fired up and considering first d of the big one. When we arrived she looked to go and hot of a north america season Jordy fired first followed by Barny, Greg then finally myself. This was the biggest i have fired to date and was stoked along with everyone else, the rest of the river is also unreal some of the best whitewater the coast has to offer hands down. After the river we rallied straight back to chch and managed to have B-rain at work by 9 pm, long but most certainly worthwhile 21 hour trip!