Packraft New Zealand - Class Five Beat Down

Barny Young, the founder of Packraft New Zealand, puts his Kokopelli Nirvana Self Bailer to the test on a rowdy Class 5 rapid on the upper Hokitika River - West Coast of New Zealand. This remote and locked in run is normally only attempted by whitewater kayakers.

Disclaimer: The Kokopelli Nirvana pack-raft is rated to class 4 whitewater only.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

[andrewmagness]

I love the comments... Barney is a top paddler and pushes the limits of packrafting. Its easy to be critical I reckon. As or the IK/packraft comparison, there really isn't one. IK's simply aren't suitable for multi-day wilderness trips over passes and such--sure they'll paddle better, but packrafts certainly have their place, and barney's just existing at the edge of that place is all! beat downs are guaranteed!

[mgladden]

You know you got skills when you can post clips like this and not care about the peanut gallery. Anyone who commented critically on this is clueless -- trust me. Barny's literally at the top of the packrafting game. None of the critical comments come from people who ever run sections like this. If they did, they'd know that even the world's very best whitewater kayakers and PR's have made it clear: if you're not swimming, you're not challenging yourself. He does runs like this all the time, in places you simply can't carry a kayak or an IK+gear+food, etc. What a champ! See you next year bro!

[jasonwalker]

Reading all the comments from folks trying to flex, explaining what they think went wrong, makes me feel sick. They have no idea who they're dealing with :'(

[ronactive]

Oje, wärst fast runter gekommen. Schade. Grüße ronactive

[saint]

Those rocks hurt really bad. Don't ask me how I know. Lol. Glad you're OK I'm assuming

[stevemartin]

Zero forward speed. No chance to roll. An inevitable conclusion.

[Michael]

🤔 I don’t understand why anybody would paddle a pack raft instead of a high performance IK that has foot braces and thigh straps. PRs look sluggish and highly unstable to me. I guess it’s “whatever floats your boat”!

[henryswood]

Not really a beat down. And where is the downstream brace? Keep your paddle in the water!

[Packraftexplorers]

Outch...!!! in the last second of this video he broke his ass. 🤯😜 That's was happen if you want to paddle a rowdy Class 5 rapid in an Class 4 Packraft. 🤣 just saying. Really nice river anyway. BR Tom