Futafest 2009

Futafest.... the first ever celebration of this incredible famous whitewater meca. With all that has happened in Patagonia with in last year some local kayakers, companies, and rafters conjoined forces and decided it was time to organize an event to help this amazing place. Therefore Futafest was born. The story is very long so I wont get too deep in to it. We arrived to find the futa at a great level from many days of rain so we surfed the hell out of Pistola and played on the bridge to bridge for two days. Then boom!!!! The volcano that caused all the problem last april went off again. Check the photos it was a crazy expirience for sure. We fired it up a nice run in the ash and alomst left back to Pucon due to the shear amount of ash on the ground. Everyone had a meeting and no ash fell down the valley so Futafest went on....

There was three different main events of the weekend.... first a boatercross through Toro and Mundaca rapids. There was three points where you had to get to and touch with your hand not anything else. There was 5 heats of 5 and the top one made it to the finals. Ian, Myself, Josh Viejo, Ben Luck, and Carlos from Chile won our heats and then raced in the final heat.

The Downriver race was a mass start at a big beach above the bridge starting out of your kayak. Everyone ran down to the boats and slapped their skirts on and took off. No real rules.

The freestyle comp was not really judged by tricks or rides but only who could get the most beatdown in front of a huge crowd of fired up people... the person who got the people to yelling, scream, and cheer the loudest won.

Results:

boatercross:
1. Evan Garcia
2. Ian Garcia
3. Josh Lawry

downriver:
1. Evan Garcia
2. Sergio Vidal
3. Jorge (Costa Rica) sorry

Freestyle:
1. John Folbright

Enjoy some shots of the festival....

A little gathering at the takeout after the downriver race.

Getting ready to go put on the Inferno canyon while ash still fell from the sky... the hospital gave out masks to all the townsfolk and the yakers.

Ian and Nico in the ashy futaleufu only a few hours after the volanco erupted.

The Boatercross race through the big part of Mundaca rapid.

The down river awards, Me with Jorge and Sergio Vidal after the punishing 9 km race of the bridge to bridge.

Futa! Futa! everyone sending out the good vibes to all the dam companies who want to stop the free flow of the futa.

A good group of guys partying down at Cara Del Indio for the Saturday night festivies.

Raft carnage is the best.

Team Cascada getting punished in Mundaca.


A hippy firing up the poi at the party.

The Asado of 4 lambs and a fat chancho.

The finishing cerimonies at Cara del Indio... Thanks a bunch to Mitch and John Clark for putting the enite event together and making this great time happen.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and made this event possible... I hope next year even more people show up to paddle and enjoy the amazing Futa. Trust me its more than worth the trip.

Later E.G.