River Surfing!

We met up today with our old friend Rob, who was part of our Outdoor Education PGCE course back in North Wales at Bangor University. It's been ten years since we'd last seen each other! As could be expected back when we were 'studying', Rob was still keen for some river based adventures! 

We met in Wanaka, where he arrived in a 4x4 truck, piled high with bikes and kayaks! After spending some time catching up on the last decade, he took us out the the Hawea River, where recently, a few million dollars had been spent, creating some perfect river waves. As we arrived, there was a guy on a surf board riding the river wave! Cool!

We then bumped into one of the NZ national kayak team, who Rob knew. She very kindly lent us a bit of safety equipment and between our wetsuits, some NZ team gear and a bike helmet, we were pretty much ready to give river surfing a go.

The river was much bigger volume than any UK rivers and the flow was dam controlled. Apparently it was releasing at a 'good level' of about 80cumecs. The tow back from the wave was about 3 or 4 meters, so it was easy to get sucked into the smooth, green face of the waves. It took us each a couple of goes though before we could ride it in control!

Soon enough though, we were flying along the face of the waves with grace and ease! Clare definatly won the 'best trick' contest having perfected the on wave barrel roll!

Even though the temperatures today were still a bit nippy, the water temperature was actually warmer than the air, so the river really was the best place to be. Such great fun! And nice having Rob watching over us in his kayak just incase we needed a hand getting off the wave!

Not much more I can say really except that we all had huge grins on our faces by the end of the day! What a great way to catch up with an old friend! We had semi planned to go mountain biking afterwards, but by the time we'd got too cold and tired to surf any longer, then got changed, then nattered some more over a coffee, it was actually quite late. Once again, Wendy the Van came up with the goods - we were able to get straight out of cold wetsuits and into a hot shower!!

That night, we all camped nearby the river. Rob and Courtney (Team NZ) were easily accommodated in the cosy van with us to catch up on the years over a beer. Great days indeed.