The yearly mass exodus of kayakers from the North down to the South Island signals the coming of Bullerfest. This annual migration is initiated by the promise of good times along with some choice whitewater. And this year didn’t disappoint. The Buller Festival is one of New Zealand’s best kayaking events, which is a testament to how well it is run and the venue that is available to host it. The Murchison area is the ideal area for an event like this, lots of good whitewater but nothing overly difficult, which makes it appealing to all skill levels. The Teva X-treme race is held on the Matakitaki River, while the Buller River hosts the Slalom, Raft Race and Big Air Ramp. The off river events are held at various locations around town, like the Town Bar, Ultimate Descents the camp grounds and the local Theater. In true “skid kayaker” nature, we rocked up to Murchison around 8:00am just in time for registration after an 8 hr drive from Rotorua to Wellington, a night out on the town, a 3 hr ferry ride and then another 3 hr drive from Picton to Murchison. Needless to say we were in prime form, never the less we had a long list of things we had to get done and little time to do them. First off was the Teva X-treme race, an all time high entrance of 101 kayakers meant lots of competition and lots of racing. After a lengthy first run to seed everyone, the course was shortened and races of 4-6 kayakers begun with only the top 2 moving on. As the pack began to thin out, the introduction of a couple down stream gates were thrown into the mix to add a variety of possible lines. A missed gate meant a disqualification! Rolling into the Semi-finals was pretty much our entire North Island crew and looking around it was anyones race. A highlight of the Semis was taking my good friend Barnabus Young out at the crux corner and moving myself into the finals. A bad start had me chasing the pack into the first set of gates, a wise choice of line put me in a perfect position coming into the second gate to catch up. A mean battle and an average line took Sam and Johann down the poop shute allowing me to make a move and slide into second. From there it was an all out blast to the finish flag at the bottom. Unable to catch Bradley up, I finished second with Sam then Johann close behind. Lu also had some sweet battles over on the Womens side and took second out of a field of 20+ women. The lads did a great job in setting up an sweet ramp for this years Big Air. With kayakers getting up to 3m of air off the water there was some sweet trickery being pulled off, a real showcase of skill, luck and mad flailing! Unfortunately, due to my “condition” I was unable to pull out my best stuff and didn’t make the final cut of 5. But Lu and Sam represented well ... Lu slightly more with a Big Fat first place. The first evening Bottoms Up Kayaking (Me and Lu) hosted a video premeire of “Valley High” at the town theater. From there we took the party to the Town Bar and rocked out all night long knowing that tomorrow was a rest day a.k.a Slalom day. However, the main event was Saturday night’s Fluro Party at ultimate Descents with DJ OB1. It is safe to say that the North Island Crew won the Party. A quick look at the Fluorescence coming off of the dress-ups and you will understand (If you would like to order your custom made Fluro outfit by Tyler, Lu and Soph please contact us). Regardless, it was an amazing night spent partying with good and new friends alike. I’d like to thank Ben and Karl for organizing another kick ass event. I can’t wait till next years festivities. If you are planning to be in NZ around Feb you should seriously think about making your way to this event ... time of your life! Tyler Fox Photos: Tyler fox, Louise Urwin & Kat Buller Festival 09
Buller Festival T-Shirt Design by: Tyler Fox
The Finals
A tough fought battle
Focused
Tyler taking Barny Young out in Semi-Finals
Brendan Bailey in Semi’s
Sam Sutton chilling out front
Josh Neilson takes a clean win into the Semi’s
Lu fired up to kick some ass, look at that Race Face
Lu rubbing Monika out
Cruising to the Finals
The paparatzi
Sam Roil rocking the shutter shades
Tyler showing off the guns
Mike Dawson laying back a beauty air screw
Lu showing pure sportsmanship .. air guitar
the back Pan-am whirrly bird
Tuff crowd
Flouro Party!!!
Brad and Josh
The Best costumes of the evening go to Soph & LU
Hottest chicks of the evening go to TYLER!
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