Tomata at Flood

La Tomata Bonita!

If your following the story at all I left you at me being scared as we drove over the bridge seeing the swollen river. Well it was, HUGE!! We all hopped out of the car and ran down to see an amazing sight. The gorge was raging high spraying out mist and leaving us in the state of ´ahhh´ like the little kid in a candy store. Even though the actual falls looked amazing, good to go, and soft, the whole picture was very scary. The water was mocking into the next set of rapids which include a nasty ledge hole, almost unrunable at these flows, and Second Tomata, absloutly hidious with water in it.

Anywho, most of us decided that it was just too dangerous to risk a possible swim off the next falls, meaning almost cirtin death, but Tyler Bradt and Raffa Ortiz saw the bright side of things. Tomata one was much better looking with this much flow.

Tyler lining it up for the middle line, off the brown monster.

Everone got ready which took forever, with the cameras, and safety then they fired it off. Brooks Baldwin was actualy hooked on to the cable which crosses the river over the falls and shot video for their upcoming flic The Source. He got some very cool unique shots of the falls.

Ty went first, pitch-poling off the middle, imploding his deck, and losing his paddle to the mucky muck down river. He did make the river left eddy where Ian waited for safety.

Raffa half way down going flat already. clenching the cheeks!!

Raffa wemt next taking the left line with too much speed and boofing out landing flat off the 65 foot falls. We were all very worried for his back, but when he gave a big hoot, we knew he was doing fine.

The two of them including Ian had to asend out of the gorge about 80 feet which took forever. The lines I have seen off of Tomata make it seem like one of the hardest drops to stick. The lip of the drop is so vertical that finding that nice angle and speed is very chalanging.

Once everyone was out of the canyon we finally left and drove over the pass to Xalapa to met the rest of the group. We all went to bed early with thoughts of committing canyons and mandatory waterfalls in our dreams.

Later E.G.

Roadside Alsaseca

The first drop of the Roadside section of the Alsaseca.

This is just one of those rivers where everything fell into place. There is not a bad drop on this run. I think there is close to 40 cleans slide and waterfalls in this short section of river. Tyler and I routed it while Ian chilled resting his back and taking pictures. We ran the whole run in under an hour, only portaging a nasty hole that is almost impossible to boof. But truly whats impossible in a kayak. The S-turn... what a tasty piece of whitewater, unique in everyway.

Tyler and I in the mist of some sickidy boofs.

What is a day in Mexico without a cold cerveza. We just had a few too man that night, good times with the boys. Half way through the night Rush, Raffa, and Brooks showed up at a famous local bar and joined our possie. 6 strong we partyed the night away, only to wake up in the morning after massive tropical rain storms and the sight of flooding rivers. I´m scared I thought to myself as we drove over puente Tomata. The saga continues... much more to come. Later E.G.

Micos the first stokes of Mexico

Ian running the first drop of the Micos. 30 foot slide off about a 50 foot freefall, 70 total!

We arrived in Ciudad Valles after the longest drive of my life at 6:30 am. I remembered where our hotel was from last year and took advantage of the beds before thinking about kayaking. The Micos was our first stop, so we drove 30 minuets out of town to the travertine heaven and did a warm up run on the lower waterfalls before scouting the upper much much larger drop.

After walking through the jungle for awhile Ian decided to fire it up. I walked to the bottom to film and Tyler stayed up top to take a photo. Ian ran the right line, reminesant of the lines they fired up in Burning Time. He came down the slide had a great line off the lip, but at the bottom his boat slapped flat after making contact with the water. He had a sick line almost verticle, but the water was so green that it slammed his tail down before entering the water. He rolled quick and didn´t give the normal YEP and hand pump one does after running a 70 footer. The back of his boat was crushed in, he took a huge hit, but he was fine. Sore to say the least but walking and laughing as nothing had gone down.

We finished off with one more lap of the run then headed back to Valles to eat and chill in the heat of Mexico. Saludos to all Later E.G.

Tiempos Locos en Mexico

Hey everyone,
This post is just to let people know what I´m up to down here, it´s a bummer but photos are so hard to upload unless I have a way to compress them first. So right now just words, but believe me we have tons of incredable pictures to share with you.

We have been up to so much that I am just going to list out the main events that have happened.

1.Tyler and I got a sick day on the roadside section at perfect flow, while Ian rested his back from the big Micos drop.

2.It rained all night long, we then partied as hard as we could meeting Rush, Raffa, and Brooks in a bar at midnight.

3.The next day we woke up late and slow and reilized that the rivers had come up 3 to 4 feet overnight. What did we do?? Tomata Falls. Tyler and Raffa ran Tomata at an incredable flow, flooded to say the least. It was very scary because most of the water washed in to the next drop which I can say would kill a kayaker with ease at that level. Lines were marginal, a boof and a pich-poll off a 65 footer!!!

4.We met LJ, Charlie, and Tood that night in Xalapa, slept hard, and put on the Texolo the next morning. Overall an epic run we did last year with tons of sick rapids, a 50 footer, and a 90-100 footer. All of us ran the 50 with style and believe it not not Tyler stomped the biggest gnarlest drop I have ever seen, the 90 to 100 footer with a burl enterance. Sik Brd to say the least, malaria sick. We got photos and vid to post later.

5.The next day we did the Xico river with good flow and some awsome rapids near the Texolo. Buenisimo!!

6.We are back in Talapacoyan, ran roadside section at flood flow yesterday only made it to the first bridge before getting out scared and cold. Charlie got surfed in 2 huge holes in a row, Ian got roped out of the s-turn, and i got beasted in a hole as well. But all was good. Another party last night lead us back to roadside at a high flow again. This time we completed the whole run, taking new lines and running huge hole all the way to Puente Tablazo. We are looking at clear skies now hoping for the water to drop`for the middle sections.

I know what your thinking... wow crazy, but true and I wil get on the pictures as quick as I can, but the dam internet is so slow here. Makes us gringos go loco. Thats all for now but keep up to date on this blog because the content we have now is already mindbottling, you know when your mind is like trapt... in a bottle.

later E.G.

Mexico es lejos de Montana

We are now in Vera Cruz Mexico. It was not easy to get though. Last year I flew down here and was picked by WCKA and that was it. This year My Bro, Tyler Bradt, and myself drove the 48 hours from Bozeman MT to Ciudad Valles. The first day off the drive we hit up the classic Micos, that saw it´s tallest rarely run waterfall hucked by Ian. That thing is danerous and huge.

Now after another Mexican adventure getting to Talapacoyan we are in an internet cafe getting fired up to drop in on as many section of the famous Tomata/Alsaseca today. It is so dam hot here it is almost unbarable to sleep at night. I will post picture as much as possible, so keep up to date with your egcreekin daily fix... yalldaimen.

Things are going down here in Mexico we have an sick crew that will be joining us tonight. The like of LJ Groth, Todd Anderson, Rush Sturges, Brooks Baldwin, Raffa Ortiz, and the three of us all ready to go big.


chao E.G.