Last run of the LDub

It was the 20th of August and Tyler Bradt and Rush Sturges were in town to learn to Kiteboard. The Ldub was still in, so we fired it up after a nice Truss run the evening before. Even at it's low levels of 2.3-2.2 feet it was still an epic little day out there. I did my first freewheel off Boulder Sluce and ran Spirit 2 times.

Cheese swam Spirit Falls 2x, it was sick to watch and more fun to do I'm sure. Peep the sequence.




My first run of the day right after filming Cheese. It was nice and soft, this drop never disappoints.






Cheese back in the yak plugging it.


I think that was my last descent of the Ldub for this summer, I can't wait to get back out here and on it with some juice again. It is now top 5 favorite rivers of all times. I just know it so well that I can jib down it, throw freestyle in, not get out of my boat once, and boof stomp a 30 footer everyday! Little White is just plain what I look for in a good run.

Now I think it's B.C. for E.G.

Lets see how it goes. A big shout out to my boys at the Beaver lodge, thanks for letting me stay for 2 months. That's kind of a long time.

Later E.G.

Upper Lewis Falls

Well this is a super "late update". Hahaha Rich as always. But back to it, About a month and a half ago My brother, Marshall Woods, Heather Hurbeck, West Virginia Lance, and Myself routed up and over the Mount Adams pass to the Lewis River. A magical hour long drive brought us to the parking lot where we had a nice scout before deciding to drop down in there.

The first of the drops was a nice 20 footer that took a amazing lofty boof on the far left. Some little slides down stream brought us to the enormous horizon line. The hardest part about this drop was entering it in the right spot lining up for the perfect landing zone. If that was messed up there was some massive consequence. After many minutes of scouting Ian looked at the left "slide to 50 footer" but didn't dig it, Marshall had had enough. He fired it up first.

Lewis's Upper Falls.

I was the horizon pointer and filmed for him. He had a solid placement for the first stage, but took a bigger left stroke than was wanted. Turning his boat right, he caught his bow on the wall after resurfacing spinning him backwards for the second 30.

Marshall Woods on the first 30, a tricky one at best.

Marshall on 30 number 2.......

When he plugged in deep, the massive boil/hole shot him behind the curtain into a small room against the wall. Not chilla. He swam out, went deep popping out away from the falls in the big pool safe and sound.

Not the best thin to see before a stout but I was still wanting to give it a go, and go I did.

Coming off the blind lip with a big lefty.

Air stroke on the left for max-speed about to Salmon jump it.

Boosting off the bottom falls with a stroker.

More and more.

Pretty much I gave it hard and ended up with a sick line. It felt a bit riktor but went well. It was another one of those drops you gotta just get in your kayak and give it some heat.

After that we ran down to Middle falls which was a sick slide that was super good and we took out there. I knew Lower falls would be burl and scary so we just saved it for another day to come. Washington keeps showing me the goods and I really think this is a worthy place to take a hucking trip to.

Later E.G.

The Truss is Low.

The Green Truss section of the white Salmon is also a backyard classic run featuring an abundance of sick drops and cool moves to keep one happy all morning or afternoon. It is August 14th right now and it finally feels, to me, low side of what is good. None the less it is still a great adventure of fun full happiness for all to enjoy. Here are some photos of the run to show all of you our good times 15 minuets from the Beaver lodge.





Stout Master Miguel.

Stomp that shit like a balla' homie knows what up on the Truss.

Big Brother is fun!!!

Later E.G.

Husum Falls Huckfest

Yes.... It's true a freestyle festival off the infamous Husum falls on the mighty White Salmon river. Well when I say fest, I mean me with my good kiwi amigo Skux filming. While we were there multiple rafts filled with paying lemmings bombing off the falls.

On one of my runs I kind of did a back pan-am and landed on my head, going deep and bounced my new Sweet helmet off the bottom of the river. Upside down landing = Goose egg on ya head. But I'm all good just a little rung up when I rolled up.


Husum Falls Freestyle from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.

Yeah I do it all day... everyday.

Later E.G.

Little White Helmet Camera

Yeah dat's right ta all the haters in the house.... now you can see face to face what layin' treats is all about. I shot this footie a while back and wasn't going to share it until my next movie came out but here it is.

Na na that was a joke, but this video was all shot with one of those cool little GoPro cameras with a wide angle. It's pretty sick and gives you a cool prospective on running whitewater. Music by "Tu" cuz the flow of gettin' busy is all there, you just need to let it go.



Little White Helmet Camera from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.

Ahhhh!!!! The Little White. Drink it in.... It always goes down smooth.

Later E.G.

Lower Lewis Falls

All photos by Lj Groth. WaterGrande Blog

After a few days of chilling and working at the lodge for the weekend I was on fire and itching to run more big drops after Silver falls. The one the is so close to home, that I had been to before was Lower Lewis. I have some history with this waterfall, not personally but I have been there when some pretty scary things have happened. Also hearing a lot of stories kind of brings some doubts to mind, but knowing water had dropped lots from the last visit to Upper Lewis a month ago (that update is still coming) I was confident we would all run this thing. We got there in classic junk show form, boats falling off roofs, beers, etc... and went for a quick scout before throwing our gear on. All was good, the cave on right left is horrendous but avoidable, pony up boys.

LJ went first, tossing a Nilahue stezze boof, for those of you who know Lj's first D of that beast in EP's Chile segment. I followed with a gurr and stouts in mind.

Me coming out of the canyon moments after stomping one of the biggest boofs of my life. Keel has the better photos.

Yes a monster boof is what I did, surprisingly soft for a 40' flat landing. My only wish was to stay away for the room behind and to the side of the falls. Ickyy Stikyy!!!

Austin wearing my green helmet after his Silver falls loss, but looking prime for this big boy.

Wait it's a bird??? No it's EG hucking a 50' Misty flip as Austin ran the 40'. A Kodak moment fo show.

I guess it was timing on Lj's part, but I ran back up to the top and waiting until Austin ran the pourover above the main drop, then I flew off a huge cliff throwing a trademark misty 540 for a "epicocity" picture.

Lane Jacobs doing a big cliff jump after filming our runs.

Some pretty ducks watched our entertaining show.

Skux on the lip of things making sure to stay wide of the cave.

Now on his way down the falls. Kiwi's put some Cosby kid steeze
upon it.

Overall this drop was sicktor. It had a cool sliding rapid leading into a 4' weir launching the boater off a 40 footer. Pretty damn money for August, or anytime as a matter of fact. We went back and did some more cliff jumping and a huge lay out back flip complemented my previous Misty. What a "Klear Above Visibility Unlimited" day out there.

The masterminds of http://gorgehits.blogspot.com/ Keel and Ryan came along for the shots and a KAVU day out the in Washington.

Kayak Session Cover

A pretty cool piece of news came in the other day. I just found out that I made the current cover shot for Kayak Session. By Scott Ligare on my DPP trip from last summer. I'm a pretty lucky dude I guess.

EG on the postpile.

Represent......

Later E.G.

Silver Falls: Ohanapecosh river

Silver falls has always been a cool drop to talk about and reflect on Tao's classic quote in Twich V. Something along the lines of how he doesn't like pool to pool falls, which is what he built he career off of. Tomata, Johnstone, etc... Enough of that talk. I really wanted to get up there before the water dropped out so I rallied a crew after a day of Rafting and we all drove North to the Cispus for a camping adventure.

My good Kiwi buddy Sam Sutton had run this falls a week before us and reported a hurt back and a sick drop to huck. I knew that this meant the rapid was stout cuz Sammy can stout with the best of um'. With that in mind 5 of us spent a night in the rain below Mt. Adams, only to wake up, and drive to Packwood still in the rain. Breakfast fired us up for a drive to the Falls we came for.

The view of the falls after 2 hours of driving to get up to Mt. Rainier national park.

A good view of the Silver Falls.

After scouting hard at the long tech. rapid leading hot off this big falls we ran back to the car and through our gear on to go Stouting. Austin who had run this drop years ago at much lower flows knew he could stick it so he fired it up first.

Austin ran the last hole above the 40 well right and ended up far right on the lip almost stopping on the seem curl.

Boofing out off the biggen'.

Pretty flat ready for the impact that took his helmet off his head.

After watching Austin get pushed right at the lip, and get beat down in the room on the right. I knew I was going to run the hole above the drop left and stay center as possible for the freefall. So I ran up top gave a big thumbs up focused hard on the 4stage beast I was about to drop into. Wam!!! I came through the whole rapid with some good lines and stopped everything for a good last stroke off the lip. Perfect... and nice locked up tuck brought me a soft hit as I resurfaced away from the bad room on the right.

Me stomping the line about to take a very soft and awaited hit.

Me staying wide of the nasty river right wall that looked ugly.

Then it was my boy Cheese.

Cheese on the 20 foot sliding seem drop that creates one of the best entrances I have ever run.

"Queso" 40-45 feet up. Sick picture!!!

Boofing right into the room, his line was sick then a slight curler on the unpredictable lip shot him right. Sick picture!!!

Cheese had a solid line through the rapid, got a little stalled up but came off the falls left and got a bit boofed back right. Upon impact he took his paddle to the face/nose. He was all good just blood and some swelling. All of us were fired up on sick lines and one of the best park and hucks out there. This drop was super big and stout but went well for us. I was expecting a lower flow but the rain had the Packwood gauge on a spike that we must have caught for a medium descent of the silver falls.

Later E.G.