World tour cancelled! Lets go snowbaording

Heya,

After a while I decided to stay in Queenstown for winter and spring. Already started to snow and might gonna do a bouncer in one club. That means work in night and free time during the day. Cant wait for some snowboarding.

After year of kayaking i am quite fed up and dont want to chase myself for some kayaking succes cause everyone is gonna forget it soon. Competition is nothing in real live and rivers are place to relax, not to work or compete.

i fsome of my sponsors are not happy. Just spot supporting me. I want to paddle for myself and have a good time on the river with good friends.

So no california and canada. maybe next year. Maybe after couple of weeks without kayaking. Never say never!

Have a good one
Jakub

PS: Might gonna post some pics from nevis river because its awesome creek. Who knows

Another update from Central Otago

Hi from the beautiful New Zealand again

After couple of weeks there are already some new pictures and some more stories to write. I had to stop the work in Cromwell because they didn’t need anymore thinning on the vineyard. Thanks god! :) So I tried to apply for a job all around the Queenstown and in some another orchards… Nothing… So I was like I should start with a job and saving money for trip to California and BC in summer.

But there was no job and nice weather so we decided to go to the west coast. For me it meant spent all last money and punk it out. Why not actually. We took my Mazda and fit three guys (Pavel Bendl, Jakub Sedivy and myself) in there, put three boats on the roof and fill the last room with all other stuff. We have run without warranty of fitness and registration. Sooo much fun. We came to Hokitika at around midnight and just fell asleep ready to paddle on the next day. We tried upper Kakapotahi cause you don’t have to fly in and it was a good test for my car. J we have come and we weren’t sure about the waterlevel. Looked quite dry but we decided to check out the first drop and see. We have seen the line so I had paddled. Quite tight and bony so we decided to go back to the road. Was a good idea because guys who have done it before told us we wouldn’t be able to paddle most of the stuff. So we have checked out waterlevel on Waitaha and looked good. we called Bruce Dando because of flight and it was another bad luck. His helicopter had a broken gear box. So we gave it up as most of the people who were on the coast and went to the freezing Fox river flowing from the Fox glacier.

On the next day we switched our creekboats for playboats back in Qtown and went to Dunedin for a surf. First day it was so good and the other one was like tooooooo windy out there. Our car almost flew out couple of times. I ve just done couple of surfs in the evening when the wind wasn’t so hard. Next day was Monday and we started to run out of money so we tried to find a job around Roxburgh. There are lot of orchards but we have found place just on one of them. So we have worked for seven days and then was no more apricots and peaches to pick. It’s a long way from the Kawarau anyway so we drove back to find a job in Queenstown. Still nothing but I already had an interview in tradestuff agency and seems good but will see. So we have paddled the wave all day long and have done the Nevis bluff rapid couple of days ago. Hope to have similar day tomorrow…

By the way. On te way back from the Roxburgh we have been stopped by police and we had no Warranty of fitness and no registration. Police man even didn’t want my drivers licence and was just like I understand u guys u have no money but u must fix it. He gave me one week to fix otherwise have to pay 400 bugs. The car is already in garage to fix and seems little bit cheaper than 400. So will finally have a legal car and hopefully gonna find some job to make money and finish my trip around the world with a kayak.

Next place to go is California and Canada. Then back to Europe for a while and South America in winter. Will see… At the moment it pretty much seems like I am gonna stay here for one year. Why not. Queenstown is just lovely place with good options for paddle and work. That’s pretty much all what I need.

Have fun

Jakup

what a view eh?

our crew (from left myself, Jakub Sedivy, Pavel Bendl)

paddling against the walls..

da beach

Nevis bluff - Pavel doing the right line

Fox river - Pavel going for the stroke in freeeezing water

West coast drivin

Nevis bluff - me and Jacob

end of Nevis bluff

Put in of the section with a playwave, and beautiful picture as well

All pictures by Jakub Sedivy - thanks a lot bro!!!

kayaktripsonline.com

Hey,

For those who are interested in improving their skills I ve just started a new website. kayaktripsonline.com There are trips with a guide and some freestyle clinics. First possibility to go somewhere is New Zealand of course...

But you have not much time left so decide soooon. :)

Website is still under construction so stay tuned...

See yah

Jakub

http://kayaktripsonline.com

Kawarau gorge and Qeenstown

Heya,

After one week finally based on the beautiful south island of New Zealand. I ve come to Cromwell like 5 days ago where I met three mates from Czech and one mate from US. We ve spent last week by working on Cherries or Wineyard and kayaking in afternoon. Awesome time. My mates are Jakub Sedivy who took the pictures, Pavel Bendl who is based in Qeenstown for last 18 months and Jindra Benes who is awesome slalom kayaker, he is always keen to paddle the hardest shit and paddles so smooth. Fourth guy is Ty Bequette from US Idaho and is really good kayaker as well. Perfect crew for working and kayaking as much as possible.

We have paddled classic rapid of mighty Kawarau river called Citroen rapid. There are three nice lines to do. Left is the hardest. Central is central and nice and the right one is technical and really good fun. Always good to do all three lines and then the rest of the rapid which is just bigwater fun.

Last Friday we have decided to paddle Retrospect rapid which is like 8 kilometers below the Citroen rapid. Its pretty hard rapid with two nasty holes. Bigwater entry on the left, nasty hole on the right and right behind it is another nasty hole on the left. I have paddled it with Jindra. He is one of the best kayakers I ve ever seen and he has not fear at all. Cool. He hit the right hole and then missed the left one. Good line. I tried to miss the right one and then couldn’t paddle over the stream to right so I ve got spanked in the left hole. Unfortunelly had to swin after one year but it was a good signal from the river. Thanks.

On Friday night there were some showers around Qeenstown and in Fjordland so we have called our local guy Pavel Bendl. He told should be good to paddle Routeburn river. And it was! Its beautiful technical, and quite steep kayaking. We caught perefect flow and had good fun all the way down the river. Thanks to Pavel for a good kayaking day, place to sleep and drink beers in Qeenstown.

Today, on Sunday morning we are drinking coffee and looking for some good rivers to do. We can do Shotover which is like funny class 4 or can do our home run Citroen rapid at higher flow. Might will do both or might just hang out in Qeenstown. But probably do some kayaking before next week when we have to work as a slaves haha.

See yah

Pictures by: Jakub Sedivy - Thanks a lot!

drinking beer in qeenstown

Qeenstown view

Pavel in a last rapid of Routeburn river

me in a last rapid - Routeburn river

Pavel in entry to last rapid

Routeburn riva'

One of the main rapids

Pavel on the Routeburn

Driving to Routeburn...

...in my bautiful Mazda 121

me in a Retrospect rapid before spanking

Jindra in a Retrospect getting out of the first hole

Jindra entry of Retrospect

Ty on a Citroen rapid

Jakub (photographer) on Citroen

Pavel and Rich on Citroen

Taking a ferry to south island...

Heya,

All is going well. After some two weeks of working just ready to huck. We have booked eticket for tomoroow morning and now just hanging out in Wellington. So boring...

I hope all the helicopters on the west coast are still allright and ready to flight. Cant wait. So hope to update some pics and report after this trip. Stay tuned

Jakup

Huka falls pictures

Aloha,

Here are some pics from my last run of year 2008. Huka falls. What a popular and awesome run. I had quite high water but still pretty much OK...

Check it out.

Later
Jakub

Pictures by Martin Bednar

unfortunelly just from one place

Thanks a lot anyway!

entry rapid

entry hole

another rapid

preparing for the last stroke

Main drop, I am already getting up to the bank

Stoked after successful run

New Zealand best pics

Heya,

Here are couple of nice pics from Zealand. Just little bit of kayaking and others just from hanging and nice places.

For those who prefer kayak pics wait about five minuttes. Gonna post pics from Huka falls. :)
See yah

pictures by: Martin Bednar and Jakub Nemec

me loopin on kaituna bottom hole

Martin droping the main waterfall on kaituna

having fun on Christmass Eve

Martin kaituna

Martin Rangitaiki river

What a nice rat

On da beach

Beach view

Beautiful caravan

Auckland