Friday, December 30, 2011
Friday, December 09, 2011
Palguin Sessions
The Palguin river runs off the flanks of Volcan Villarrica, there fore it almost always has a runnable flow. Being summer time rats here in the small town of Pucon this fits perfectly into out busy agenda. Only 20-30 minuets from downtown this river offers close reliable class IV-VI rapids for us to run whenever we want. 8am-9pm there is enough light to head to the Palguin and either run fun class IV boofs or go huge off 40-80 foot stouts! What more can you ask for?
This season the water was prime when we arrived, but has been on a steady decline from day one. This has made for a mad dash to get all the runs and levels opportunities we can in a short amount of time. Once we were warmed up with a few Nevado runs we went straight to the Middle Palguin for some test dummy action. Good lines through Stout 10 and varying lines off the big one...Aniol and I went back up for round 2! A good day of hucking for sure...a few days later Aniol was feeling Salto Palguin so we went back for a Todo Palguin! Aniol laced the stout and we went on to run the entire river with only 2 portages.
One being a very tight manky slide with a log jam, and second is Brendan Guth's drop on the Lower Palguin, which hasn't been run since that tragic day. Enjoy a few shots from the 2 runs!
Stout 10...coming in HOT!
Getting mad dirty off the curling lip of the middle!
Juanito Ugarte running the middle after an exciting stout 10 descent.
Head freeze of middle with the new GoPro 2...this thing shoots amazing footage!
Papa Garcia styling in the new Liquid Logic Stomper 90...the boat looks amazing out there on the big stuff!
Aniol running stout 10 with some style...he has been on fire coming hot off a big Mexico trip.
A sick sequence of me running Stout 10...this is the scariest move offered in Pucon!
Stern mount freeze off the middle.
It amazes me to come down here year after year and continually return to this river only to find more and different personal challenges as I grow as a kayaker. I still get scared looking down at the pool while scouting the Middle, I more scared than ever of the Exportacion, and Salto Palguin is a thing of my past after having a good line last year. This has been a cool transition for me to be a part of...every year I come back a better and more confident paddler, but I always have different goals and fears in mind. Some rapids with curtain consequences that appealed to me last year could be a total no go this year...while drops I didn't like in the past I can now see myself stomping.
Salute to the Palguin keep watching this blog as there is a ton more content to be put up and get ready for Bomb Flow TV's Episode 6 covering the first month of this Chile trip.
Later E.G.
This season the water was prime when we arrived, but has been on a steady decline from day one. This has made for a mad dash to get all the runs and levels opportunities we can in a short amount of time. Once we were warmed up with a few Nevado runs we went straight to the Middle Palguin for some test dummy action. Good lines through Stout 10 and varying lines off the big one...Aniol and I went back up for round 2! A good day of hucking for sure...a few days later Aniol was feeling Salto Palguin so we went back for a Todo Palguin! Aniol laced the stout and we went on to run the entire river with only 2 portages.
One being a very tight manky slide with a log jam, and second is Brendan Guth's drop on the Lower Palguin, which hasn't been run since that tragic day. Enjoy a few shots from the 2 runs!
Stout 10...coming in HOT!
Getting mad dirty off the curling lip of the middle!
Juanito Ugarte running the middle after an exciting stout 10 descent.
Head freeze of middle with the new GoPro 2...this thing shoots amazing footage!
Papa Garcia styling in the new Liquid Logic Stomper 90...the boat looks amazing out there on the big stuff!
Aniol running stout 10 with some style...he has been on fire coming hot off a big Mexico trip.
A sick sequence of me running Stout 10...this is the scariest move offered in Pucon!
Stern mount freeze off the middle.It amazes me to come down here year after year and continually return to this river only to find more and different personal challenges as I grow as a kayaker. I still get scared looking down at the pool while scouting the Middle, I more scared than ever of the Exportacion, and Salto Palguin is a thing of my past after having a good line last year. This has been a cool transition for me to be a part of...every year I come back a better and more confident paddler, but I always have different goals and fears in mind. Some rapids with curtain consequences that appealed to me last year could be a total no go this year...while drops I didn't like in the past I can now see myself stomping.
Salute to the Palguin keep watching this blog as there is a ton more content to be put up and get ready for Bomb Flow TV's Episode 6 covering the first month of this Chile trip.
Later E.G.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Chile Starts off with a BOOM!
This year Chile has been better and more sweet than ever before! Coming off a bad bad injury from a fall I took in Africa I was on the couch for a full month and a half. It's funny how time and your personal happiness can connect in curtain ways. When you are happy time flies! When you're not time can creep by! That's just how the human mind works at times. Therefore when I arrived fresh out of my walking boot, I was nervous to see how I would do and so excited to get back in my boat!
First day off the plane I was greeted by Anton, Ian, and my Dad in Santiago. We loaded up Ian's new truck and drove straight to the Rio Claro. Finding the level was still super high my nerves set in big time knowing we were gonna drop into the Garganta Del Diablo canyon and run the Twirly Bird at high flows. I felt a bit bobbly in my boat, but after the first few class V drops I was back in my element feeling good as ever.
It was only Ian, Anton, and I in the canyon and we couldn't even get out at the lip of Caracol to shoot, but with luck my pops was on the canyon rim and caught some of the action! Check the photos...
Ian running the TWIRLY BIRD!!!!!!
Myself tucking up and running the first stout of the trip...oh such a sweet moment.
The viking Anton bombing as always. Good to be back with the good boys running the real!
The rest of the canyon was a blur of pure beauty and high water scary action!!!!! It was a truly special day for me. Being back in my kayak healthy, with my older brother, good long time friend, and running the shit in my favorite country in the world! Like sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives!!!!! Keep your eyes on egcreekin cuz we blowing shit up!!!!!!
Later E.G.
First day off the plane I was greeted by Anton, Ian, and my Dad in Santiago. We loaded up Ian's new truck and drove straight to the Rio Claro. Finding the level was still super high my nerves set in big time knowing we were gonna drop into the Garganta Del Diablo canyon and run the Twirly Bird at high flows. I felt a bit bobbly in my boat, but after the first few class V drops I was back in my element feeling good as ever.
It was only Ian, Anton, and I in the canyon and we couldn't even get out at the lip of Caracol to shoot, but with luck my pops was on the canyon rim and caught some of the action! Check the photos...
Ian running the TWIRLY BIRD!!!!!!
Myself tucking up and running the first stout of the trip...oh such a sweet moment.
The viking Anton bombing as always. Good to be back with the good boys running the real!The rest of the canyon was a blur of pure beauty and high water scary action!!!!! It was a truly special day for me. Being back in my kayak healthy, with my older brother, good long time friend, and running the shit in my favorite country in the world! Like sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives!!!!! Keep your eyes on egcreekin cuz we blowing shit up!!!!!!
Later E.G.
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