The Waipapa river is a small river which flows into Lake Waipapa on the waikato river. Most of it is fast shallow river wide slides, which give some awesome play waves at high flows. Towards the end there are a few larger more interesting drops, the last of which flows into the lake.

In many places the wide shallow river dissapears into narrow deep chutes. This is one of the more dramatic chutes, named Break Foot falls, because on out first descent of the Waipapa Duncan Taggart paddled (accidentally - got too close and the water was too shallow to paddle so he couldn't stop) and swam this rapid. It was a fairly safe swim but we later found that he had broken his foot. Other attempts to paddle this rapid have been more successful, but many have pinned thier paddles accross the chute.

Mark portaging Break Foot Falls.

The first big drop is about 2 metres high, and 2 metres wide, feeding into a narrow chute, and ending in this tight rock garden.

Karen Clark at the bottom of the first big drop.

The second big drop and last rapid starts with a drop similar to the first big drop, into a narrow chute, ending with a nasty recurculating weir. This drop feeds directly into the lake so there is very little current leading away from it.

Mark having trouble on the last rapid.

Stacey Verner being sucked back into the hole.