Tino and I began our second quarter at New River Academy a little early this year. Both being east coast boys, we had a long flights over to New Zealand. Luckily the flight from San Francisco
was on one of the nicest airplanes either of us has been in. We enjoyed
watching a movie of our choice, good meals and plenty of leg room even
though we are each about 6 feet tall. We arrived in Auckland early Wednesday morning,
skipping Tuesday and got through customs quickly. We had a truck rented
and were on the road a couple hours after landing. Next up was getting
a cell phone, which was taken care of right before getting a fantastic
breakfast at none other then McDonalds.
Yes folks, Mickey D’s is in New Zealand, and its better in the southern
hemisphere. Before heading down to Rotorua, we stopped in to check out
the van that we rented for the quarter. It was a great, greenish-blue
Toyota, that should serve us well. With all that done by lunch, we
headed south to Rotorua. Once we got out of Auckland, we began to see
what New Zealand is all about, beatiful rolling green hills and
mountains, covered in sheep, with some amazing rivers. Even though we
had been traveling for about 40 hours, once we had lodging for the
night we had to drive down to the Kaituna River
to have a look. Tino had enough of looking and had to jump into his
boat. He was able to play for a solid hour at this world class playhole
with only me fliming till it got too dark. We made the short 5 minute
drive back to the Lake Rotoiti Holiday Park, which we will be staying
at for about 2 weeks this quarter and caught up on sleep. We continued
the quest the following morning and drove a couple hours down to the
Bliss Stick factory. The people there were super helpful and let us
watch them work for awhile and explain their boat production. They sent
us away with 4 boats to try, so when the school is at the factory we
will pick which boat we want and assist in the production of the boat.
This will allow students to pick custom colors and graphics. We then
drove a few minutes to the RIver Valley Lodge located on the Rangitikei river.
We will spend a week there, with the river right below us and large
cliffs above. Tino and I then made our way back to the Lake Rotoiti
Holiday Park. Tomorrow we will test out the new Bliss Stick boats on
the Kaituna river, just a 2 minute drive and prepare a few more things
before the schools arrival. By coming down early, we insure a smooth
transition into New Zealand, as Tino and I have already made the
mistake of driving on the right side of road, which is the wrong side.

Ian

The Rolling Green hills of the NZ

Sheep! They’re around

The beginning of the mountains here

The truck and the Mountains

The Jungle and the Kaituna River, Our home run for the next few weeks

More Green rolling Hills and Sheep

The good Old Kaituna Hole. At a Sick Level! Just Waiting for our crew to tear it up.

Sunset Over our trusty truck and the NZ

Paddle Hard,
Tino

Hey Everyone!

Tino and Sam Checking in here with some cool news. Since Sam and I graduated we have started a Media company by the name of Pilot Media. We have been working on various projects so far but our goal is really to start a professional company which takes that reputation for pro kayakers being lazy and puts it to rest when people see our work. Well a few days back David Hughes, my boss, friend, and mentor offered for us to make an ad for the New River Academy. After brain storming for a car ride together this is what we came up with. Sam and I sat down for an afternoon and got it done in record time. Let us know what you think!

Best,
Tino

En la escuela Rio Nuevo esta semana pasada, nostros estamos muy occupados con nuestros estudios. Nosotros apprendimos mucho. La clase de español tres y cuatro esta mirando una telenovela. Se Lama Entre Amor y el Odio. Es muy caseoso; Me lo encanta. La clase de pre-calc tomo un examen en el segundo capitulo. Pienso que el clase hizo bien. En la clase de quimica, ellos terminaron capitulo tres y empezo capitulo cuatro. El capitulo es sobre la tabla de elementos. La clase de gobierno miro el discusion presidencial. Tambien, los estudiantes escribieron unas letras a sus senadores sobre ediciones importantes en sus estados. Fotografia tomo ensayos de la foto sobre nuestro escuela. Fueron muy bien. Los estudiantes trabajaron muy duro en los ensayos.

La clase de literatura del mundo termino leer Nunca Gritas el Lobo por Farleay Mowat. Fue muy interestante. No se que esta clase van a hacer ahora. En la clase de biologia, ellos apprendieron sobre poblaciones y recursos humanos. Estos ediciones son muy importante en el mundo de hoy. La clase de calculo estudio sobre “relative rates of change” y “implicit differentiations.” En la clase de Historia Americana, ellos tomaron un examen en los capitulos uno a seis. Empezaron la era de Jackson. Y, en la clase de español dos, apprendio los numerous y la geografia de España. Muchos estudiantes tomaron los SATs el sabado pasado. No fue divertido. Fue un bueno semana.

In New River Academy this past week, we were very busy with our studies. We learned a lot. Spanish two and three are watching a T.V. show called “Between the Love and the Hate.” It is very cheesy; I love it. Pre-calc had a test on chapter two. I think that everyone in the class did really well. In chemistry, they finished chapter three and started chapter four. Chapter four is about the periodic table. Government has been watching the presidential debates. They also wrote letters to their state senators about important issues in their states. Photo class took photo essays about our school. They were really good. The students worked really hard on them

World Literature read “Never Cry Wolf” by Farley Mowat. It was really interesting. I do not know what the class is going to do now. In Biology they learned about populations and human resources. These issues are really important in today’s world. Calculus learned about relative rates of change and implicit differentiations. In U.S. History, the students took a test on chapters one through six. They started the Jackson Era. In Spanish two, they learned the numbers and the geography of Spain. A lot of students took the SATs last Saturday. They were not fun. It was a good week.

En la escuela Rio Nuevo esta semana pasada, nostros estamos muy occupados con nuestros estudios. Nosotros apprendimos mucho. La clase de español tres y cuatro esta mirando una telenovela. Se Lama Entre Amor y el Odio. Es muy caseoso; Me lo encanta. La clase de pre-calc tomo un examen en el segundo capitulo. Pienso que el clase hizo bien. En la clase de quimica, ellos terminaron capitulo tres y empezo capitulo cuatro. El capitulo es sobre la tabla de elementos. La clase de gobierno miro el discusion presidencial. Tambien, los estudiantes escribieron unas letras a sus senadores sobre ediciones importantes en sus estados. Fotografia tomo ensayos de la foto sobre nuestro escuela. Fueron muy bien. Los estudiantes trabajaron muy duro en los ensayos.

La clase de literatura del mundo termino leer Nunca Gritas el Lobo por Farleay Mowat. Fue muy interestante. No se que esta clase van a hacer ahora. En la clase de biologia, ellos apprendieron sobre poblaciones y recursos humanos. Estos ediciones son muy importante en el mundo de hoy. La clase de calculo estudio sobre “relative rates of change” y “implicit differentiations.” En la clase de Historia Americana, ellos tomaron un examen en los capitulos uno a seis. Empezaron la era de Jackson. Y, en la clase de español dos, apprendio los numerous y la geografia de España. Muchos estudiantes tomaron los SATs el sabado pasado. No fue divertido. Fue un bueno semana.

“Fall is chasing us down the east coast,’ said Ian Buckley (New River Academy Math and Science teacher) after noticing a change in color across the hills of West Virginia. As we conclude our first our first quarter of school, New River Academy has reached our final destination. West Virginia (Wild and Wonderful) is home to many of the best whitewater rivers in North America. On Monday of our last full week of school before break, NRA students took an epic full day whitewater kayaking trip down the Gauley river near our base in  Fayetteville, West Virginia.

  The Gauley river is a common favorite amongst kayakers in the sense that it has just about every whitewater kayaking feature one could ask for. Multiple lines down the rapids range from big water lines to steep and technical moves. Playboating features range from eddylines, to holes, to waves, to downriver moves. On our day on this river, we were fortunate enough to have Stephen Wright (professional kayaker for Jackson Kayaks) as our guide. Beginning with a pogo flip off a pour over rock at the put in, Steven showed us all the coolest moves, lines, playspots, and hazards from start to finish.

  After a lot of good playboating at the lead in rapid, we came to a big water challenge at Pillow Rock. Pillow Rock, one of the biggest rapids on the Gauley, consists of a series of powerful wavetrains, and a rock wall angling in from the left. A giant crack in this rock wall creates “The Room of Doom” an eddy that challenges some of the best boaters’ eddyhopping skills. At the bottom of this rapid Stephen showed us to an eddyline where we could do stern squirts and rock splats.

  As we continued on down the river Steven showed us some unique lines such as the “elbow move,” a narrow slot between two rocks in the middle of a rapid. We also encountered plenty of more big water in rapids with unique names such as Lost Paddle and Iron Ring. In between rapids we kept ourselves well entertained by playing in some of the many holes and waves that are present all across the entire length of this river. For many of us, including myself,  this was our first experience on the Gauley. Now that I have this behind me I can say that the Gauley is a classic river that every kayaker should experience.

  To conclude our quarter we will be running the Gauley again this weekend as well as some other creeks and rivers in the area. The group is gradually approaching our new horizons with indescribable excitement. In just a few weeks we will be in New Zealand throwing cartwheels and running waterfalls on legendary rivers such as the Kaituna.

The last few days of the quarter are finally approaching us bringing on anxious and excited vibe about the group. But before we leave West Virginia there are a few significant events to overcome which we are now in the midst of. On Monday us students found ourselves studying for midterms one moment and paddling off the edge of waterfalls the next. In the afternoon we drove to a place called Valley Falls on the Tiger river to run a series of clean 15 foot waterfalls. For many students, this was an introduction to the vertical realm of kayaking. While our advanced paddlers practiced freewheels (cartwheeling off the lip of a vertical drop), the rest of our group overcame their fears and plunged themselves onto a world of gravity and water that only kayakers are fortunate enough to experience. The 15 foot rock ledges offer many different lines ranging from clean, straightforward drops, to stair steps to slides. This was the ideal place for all the students to work on creek boating skills and simply have a good time.

Most students have a bittersweet attitude toward leaving for home, but more importantly we are excited for our trip to the far corner of the world. In New Zealand we will be running many clean and beautiful waterfalls on pristine rivers. Due to our hard work at school this quarter we have 10 extra hours out of the way. The spirits of the group remain high as we approach our new destination.

one morning on the Ottawa Spiegel, Keegan and I got up around 5:45 and drove out to see the sunrise. Unfortunately i could not figure out how to convert my HDR sunrise pictures to JPEG.
    This is the next best thing. while we were waiting for the sunrise some cars were driving by and i took a long exposure of one with it’s head lights on. thats were the bright blurry line comes from. because i was working off a cable realse in manul mode it was largly over exposed because i was trying to get the whole passage of the car in the exposure. I later darkned it by 1.65 stops to get the effect I was looking for.

F/22  20 seconds ISO 100 at 17mm

In New River Academy this past week, we were very busy with our studies. We learned a lot. Spanish two and three are watching a T.V. show called “Between the Love and the Hate.” It is very cheesy; I love it. Pre-calc had a test on chapter two. I think that everyone in the class did really well. In chemistry, they finished chapter three and started chapter four. Chapter four is about the periodic table. Government has been watching the presidential debates. They also wrote letters to their state senators about important issues in their states. Photo class took photo essays about our school. They were really good. The students worked really hard on them

World Literature read “Never Cry Wolf” by Farley Mowat. It was really interesting. I do not know what the class is going to do now. In Biology they learned about populations and human resources. These issues are really important in today’s world. Calculus learned about relative rates of change and implicit differentiations. In U.S. History, the students took a test on chapters one through six. They started the Jackson Era. In Spanish two, they learned the numbers and the geography of Spain. A lot of students took the SATs last Saturday. They were not fun. It was a good week.

    So, this is a photo I recently took in Massachusetts. NRA was staying at our coach, Tino Specht’s house. They live and work an organic farm, and their gardens are gorgeous. Their property is total photographer’s heaven. I took a ton of pictures of the flowers, still in full bloom. The colors were beyond amazing. What I love about the picture shown here, is that it is full of natural beauty. One of my favorite parts of photography is the ability to capture just the immense range of sights that occur in nature. Part of being a photographer is “making” shots, not just taking them. Although I do love the satisfaction of creating a good shot, and I did pull grass and other flowers away from this flower and tilt it more into the light to make it a better shot, there is something so fluid and basic about just capturing the essense of nature’s. 
   This photo is an example of color. The orange really stands out against the shallow background, which I made shallow by having a small aperature number (big aperature). To me, this color orange stands for fun, for summer, energy, warmth, sun. It denotes a playfulness, a carefree state of mind. This picture is also a good example of filling the frame. Filling the frame is where instead of having a picture with maybe this flower in the center, and then just the green stems etc around it with maybe some other flowers, you have just the flower. This prevents the viewer from distraction and makes your image more powerful. It is also more pleasing to the eye. 
    The picture was taken with a 6.3 f-stop. The shutter speed was 1/50 sec. The focal length was 200mm. ISO was 200. It was taken early morning during photography class. There was full cloud cover.
            Enjoy!