Upper Ma Sa. Big slides and scary moments.

On October 16th we headed out to do a recon of the Samong river - a easy class 3 section we wanted to scope for Sam's travel company LiLi. On the way we passed the Ma Sa river - the first 'first descent' of our trip. As we climbed higher into the hills we soon saw a whole upper section we hadn't run on our first visit. So after a quick lunch and some road side inspection of a few of the drops we kitted up and put in.

The first drop we came to we had to portage, there just wasn't enough water in the river to run this one. So we carried on. At a bend in the river saw Sam and Josh jump out for a quick inspection. It was an S-bend rapid with an tight but shallow run-in ending in a drop. Sam hit it first and made it ok. Josh went down next and didn't have so much luck - pitonning into the right hand wall and realising the drop wasn't all that nice, but he still made it through. I was last to head down and had given Josh some space. As I came around the corner into the drop Josh was out his boat trying to get me to stop. I tried to make it into an eddy above the drop, but the water was too shallow and there was no way to make it. What that did though was spin my boat backwards. The next bit went real fast. I went down the drop and suddenly stopped. I was wedged under water upside down in my boat, with rock pushing my back and shoulders forward. I reached up and could feel the air with my hand, sweet. Ok so next I had to try and get un-stuck which was pretty hard with the force of the water on me. I tried but just moved the wrong way. I got my hand back out the water and basically went through the options in my head whilst hoping Josh would be able to grab me and pull me out. Right on cue I was suddenly free - I remember pushing real hard with my back, and at the same time josh jumped in kicking my boat with his legs and grabbing my arm. Sweet!! I was out breathing good old oxygen again. And all was good. Cheers Josh!! A quick check and all I had was a slightly stiff back, so we carried on, hoping to paddle it out.

The next drop we came too Sam realised he'd put a hole in his boat and after that he got out hoping not to make it worse. So me and Josh carried on down. I'll let the photo's explain the rest of the river - but it was sick - especially the big slide!! And the best thing is there's still a middle gorge section of this river still to check out!!

-Me on the first big one - stoked not to still be under water-

-Josh on the first big one-

-This small drop linked the first drop with the next tricky one-

-Josh lines it up down the pin ball-

-Me on the last big one - a sweet slide where you go about 50mph!!-

-Josh styles it down the slide-

Me and Josh got out at the bottom of this run content. The day could have been so very different. I'd been stuck under water 2 hours before and Josh had had to jump in to pull me out. We'd both come away unhurt and carried on to paddle some awesome first descents.

Upper Ma Sa - first descent number 7.

Will.

Josh

Sam