Thursday, October 26, 2006

Huatulco, Mexico

Yeah,
This is where the trip has picked up some steam, we have been having a sick time here. The AC of plaza Conejos, sick beach and point breaks, and the white water has this place high on my destinations list. I have been in Mexico for a little over 2 weeks and it's just getting better and better. Here is THE VIDEO It's very worthy taking a look at!!!

Huatulco is a big tourist town on the West coast of the country, we are staying right out side of the main city in the town of Santa Cruz. We have some super nice locals cooking 3 meals a day for us, other than Tuesday night pizza that is. After our arrival here we went stright to the beach. A beach/point break called playa Majon. The waves are epic here, I have been lots of places around the world and this place is close to the best it gets for kayaksurf, but let the video do justice.

On the river side of things we have done 2 different rivers here so far, the Copalita, and the Zimaton. The Alamana section of the Copalita is fun class III-IV river running play. It has been so high that all the normal play is flushed out replaced with tall surging waves. The Zimaton is what they say here in Mexico "La Raja". It's a cross between the Lower Palguin in Chile and the White Salmon in Washington. Full of tight smooth granite gorges, stuffed with sick (IV+ V-) rapids and fun boofs. None of the rapids are super difficult but together they make up an epic run. There is one rapid that is by far the hardest of the run, a big chunker at the take out called "El Chorro". It has a stout enterence that leads right in to a 10-15 footer, sounds sick!! The problem with the rapid is that the 10-15 footer lands in a nasty tight gorge with a terrifing cave behind the curtin and undercut walls surronding the exit. We had a few scary moments here in our trip so far but everyone is fine and still smiling. This is a river to set your sights on, if you plan a trip to Mexico, it would be a crime not to do this one.

Right now I have a very swollen finger and a possible ear infection, so I have been kickin' it the last few days. Keep checking in and I will keep updating with our stories and adventures. Later E.G.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

MEXICO

Checking in from the Vera Cruz state of Mexico. I am at the Antigua river right now in Jalcomuco doing some fun 3-4 river running play type rivers and it´s been treating me great. Mexico is an amazing place full of culture and beautiful places. The trip getting here was quite long but everything went smooth. Now I´m in board shorts in a jungle running rivers while most people are wearing coats freezing 24 hours north of me. I´m really excited for the rest of my trip here there are some good river lined up for us, including the Zimaton, Tecshlo, and the travertine riverbeds of Ciudad Valles. No good pictures yet but I will try to be on updating as much as I can. Hope all is well where ever you might be. later E.G.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Lil' Green Update

Here is a short video update of a run down the Green River at 100%. It is a super fun river. I only get to run the Narrows a few times a year so it is always good to get on.The flying Swedish kid Mikey on Triple Falls Photo by Fred Noriquist

I also got to run triple falls one day when the dam was being worked on. The video was shot by Karl and the WCKA video class and it features: The brothers Daggle, LJ, Dave Zinn, Karl, and yours truly.The Video There is more HD footy that Joel shot but I will have to get that later. I am back at home for a week now then I'm off to Mexico for 9 weeks of sick kayaking. more updates coming soon. later E.G.

p.s. if you want to hear about my next trip go to (operationraf.blogspot.com) it's not going down until next summer but I will be pre-amping it this winter.