Reasons

There are many reasons why we do the things we do...we all have desires, fears, love, hate, confusion, and passion that tie in to each and every decision we make. All of us choose what feelings play what roles in the actions we are a part of. What exactly makes a choice right or wrong...that is up to you. I believe that positivity is different for every person. Curtain things I think of as positive, others may find offensive or completely wrong. I have been doing some thinking about what it takes to be a full time kayaker and at the same time, a positive member of society. In my past I have been on the edge of what most people would think of as a responsible and reasonable person...but I think that plays a part in being the man I am today.

Kayaking has taken me to some wild places and confronted me with many challenges. What I've began to realize is more of those obstacles are off the river, not on. I love kayaking far to much to consider a hard rapid or a tiring portage a challenge. That's my life and what I dream about all day, so it's not a task, rather an opportunity. The challenges come in when I mix my insanely powerful passion for the sport into my everyday life with the outside world. Interacting with people who don't have a clue what I do or don't give a rats ass about it, can make simple things difficult. I have been so intertwined in the kayak world and lifestyle for so long now that when I step out, I am challenged to be a happy and positive person.

 What does this mean?... Leave planet earth and go to Boofenland? I wish, but that's not option. None of us are making much money in the sport. The longer I commit to being a whitewater athlete, the less time I have to start a career or find a real job. This is where I have to gather my feelings and make choices that will not only benefit me in the present moment, but also the future. Does this mean I'm going to quit kayaking to go make lots of money...NEVER! I am just trying to find a balance in my life and some sort of exterior stability or like Tupac said, "A Thug's Mansion" where I can go once my life becomes less "BROWN"!

 I want to be a kayaker forever...I can foresee myself running the White Salmon, North Fork Payette, Futaleufu, and Cherry Creek for decades to come. It's truly the love of my life. With how hard we are going these days decision making skills are almost as important as the paddling skills. I have to be in it for the right reasons. Personal goals and Fun! These days I'm trying to make money kayaking, but I really don't want to turn boating into a "JOB". I want to do what I do, because I know I can stick it, and I am going to have a hell of a time doing it. That doesn't mean I'm not going to take risks and maybe hurt myself on the path I choose. All that means is I'm going to do my best to leave my ego behind and boat as hard as I can for all the right reasons.

So I know it's 2012 and none of this is going to matter when the world ends on the 21st of December, but this is something for everyone to think about. Kayaking is a full on ego driven sport, and I am a part of the game. I love how it works, when I see something big or amazing happen, it pushes me to go out and do the same. I want to draw my line where I stop going out and pushing myself for fun and rather for a pro-status or bragging rights. I make movies about kayaking hard whitewater, but I boat 100% with my heart and soul, I suggest doing the same. It truly is my religion...Church!

Here are some shots I just edited and want to put up!

Ryan "Baby Bird" Lucas enjoying the friendly mosquitos of the Californian highlands

Ben Marr running one of the best drop of the North Fork of the American, California.

A sequence shot of my 2012 line of Cascada Bonito in Argentina.

Throwing the ever so awesome "brown" off one of the best boofs in the world. Rio Nevado, Chile!

Layin' Treats on the biggest drop of the Rio Turbio in Pucon, Chile.

Lane Jacobs getting through the Box canyon of the Clarks fork in Wyoming.

Sam Friehofer on the edge of Toketee Falls in Umpqua, Oregon.

Todd Well eating sh*t off his baby...Skate Park Falls, Summit Creek, WA.

Baby Bird in the after the 4th descent of Twin Sisters on Fostall Creek, BC.

Dj Stoneman on the 5th Descent of Lower Pinkston Falls, BC. 

2007 lap number two with the Kiwi Crew on West Cherry Creek, CA.

One of the most tranquil and beautiful pieces of water  in the world...Nymph Pool, Tatlow Creek, BC.

 Later E.G.

BFTV Episode 9 Teaser

Here is a tasty little teaser we just tossed together getting y'all ready for the pure fire that is gonna burn hot on April 20th! Watch and get ready for the full adventure!!!! Follow us on Twitter at...https://twitter.com/#!/BombFlowTV and keep your eyes on Bomb Flow we are just getting started!



Later E.G.

The Chase is On!

Stay tuned for BombFlow TV's Episode 9 from the Pacific Northwest! Coming Late April...








Later E.G.

Oregon Is Going OFF!!!!

Here is a quick clip all slow-mo'd of me going off Metlako Falls at super high flow!!!! I haven't held my paddle on this drop since Spring 2008, but the pool was just too big and dangerous to be paddle-less. Thanks to Devin and Airborn for posting this sick shot. BROWN!



So much shit has been going down out here stay tuned for updates and bomb flow episode 9!!!!!!

Later E.G.

BFTV Episode 8 Porque Ganando!

Later E.G.

The next Episode from Bomb Flow should be dropping at the end of this week! Some really sick footage and big drops went down in the last month of our Chile/Argentina season so buckle up and enjoy the ride! Check out more from BFTV at http://bombflow.com !



Later E.G.

The Lower Llancahue

The Llancahue has always been a fairly unknown run in the Pucon area. People are distracted and drawn in by the closer classics like the Nevado and Desaghue...Until now that is! In late December 2011 Jared Seiler railed the motivation to just walk down past the Dirty Gerd and take a peek. What he found sounded amazing. Steep, continuous, and Toxaway-style...what else needs to be said. The very next day we got a tight crew formed (Ian, Jared, Jonny, Anton, and Myself) and headed around the volcano to the Llancahue valley.

Having just have run The Dirty we walked straight to the bottom and put in above the "Purtty 30". No need to risk lives today we thought ;) After a quick warm up and free fall we found ourselves immediately faced with class V+ must make moves. A seeming slide ran directly into a blind horizon line to_____? Who knew? We ran the slide, for easier scouting, and caught a last chance eddy on the left! On later runs of the canyon people missed this eddy ad were forced to drop into the biggest rapid of the run blind! "No Bueno" as the say in Mexican.

Jared feeling weightless on the Purtty 30...or Suavemente the warm up drop!

Myself in the middle of the second drop and point of no return for the canyon! You had to style this one and catch a small eddy above the stoutness!

From here we took a long scout of what seemed to be the never ending slide! It looked great...Until I saw the crux move half way down the rapid. It looked like a deformed, manky, volcanic, tighter, Gorilla Falls! :( I was not about to go first! This is where having Jared Seiler "El Diablito" comes in handy. This dude is sick in the brain! Super short and compact Jared is one solid muscle working together. With "Beast Mode" turned on Jared dropped in. The entry looked funky and when he came through the crux onto the big slide he made it look good! Elbow pad worthy, but good! I ran up to my boat not wasting anytime and put on!

Jared totally cleaning the first descent and Crux of the Loganieza slide on the Lower Llancahue!

The entry went well and upon arrival at the crux I was ready for anything. The tight crack went smooth, but had me off balance exiting onto the slide. A quick backdeck roll had me upright and styling the rest of the big slide which we later dubbed, "La Longanieza". Anton was next up and had a similar results, but did not roll up quick enough taking shots to the shoulders and head...not a big deal to The Swede though! Ian and Jonny saw how rowdy the crux was and opted for a sealaunch to just get the quality fast part of the drop! It was a win win!

Through the entrance exam and looking down the Crux crack coming into the slide. This rapid was huge. Like 10 moves over 300 meters or so!

Dealing with what the manky tight slot was dealing me.

Upright and feeling better than ever on my favorite slide in the country of Chile! No Joke!

Graham Seiler on the second run of the Lower Llancahue. Great Picture of the last part of Longanieza!

From here the run did not slow down at all. The river split into two channels and drops through a series of steep unforgiving slides and falls ending with a perfect 10 foot boof that looked like this:

A very pretty and fun end to a rally section of drops!

With one more major drop to the canyon, that we didn't run, we reached the first real pool of the section. One of the the next runs young ripper Galen Volckhausen ran this drop. It's a nice slide into a very big hole! Props for that DUDE! From this point the river calms down, but doesn't stop for what seems to be miles of whitewater. Bedrock slides and ledges continue to surprise you around every corner and all the drops are somewhat connected. Mostly class IV you can read and run the majority.

From there the river slows up and seems to come to an end. Not so much! The lower Llancahue wants to kick your ass till the brutal end. With a few more 10-15 foot falls (clean & dirty), 2 seriously nasty looking siphons, a forest adventure, and some bouldery goodness the runs ends once you SEE fences and the road! For us the day was long and tiring, not knowing what to expect all day, and thinking we were done more than once!

Jonny Meyers on a great 10 foot boof late in the day.

Myself running a sketchy line through, "Aids Falls"...Jared later re-ran this drop off the near flake for a much better result!

Fearless leader Jared probing the right line at the Splitster drop late in the. The left line is a bit cleaner, but both go!

Anton happy to be at the take out and crushing a much earned "Greenie".

The Lower Llancahue has truly shown itself to be a classic and if ever combined with the upper or middle could be considered to be one of the best runs in the country! The amount if gradient and number of rapids this river holds is unbelievable! So much class V and so many kilometers of it create the idea that a Todo Llacahue could be the next great achievement in the Pucon area! Maybe next year?

Watch Bomb Flow TV Episode 7 "Minor Fails and Epic Wins" to see the video of the Lower Llancahue.



Later E.G.

The Dirty

It's crazy how time flies when you're having fun. I was planning on updating egcreekin more frequently this season, but as you all know life is busy!

The Bombflow videos and a lot of dream living has slowed my writing down! I have a stack of photos sitting on my hard drive and a bunch of great stories to share! So I will start by saying this season has just been another great year in Pucon! I arrived fresh off the couch injured and not able to get around very well on my right foot, but I didn't let that slow me down.

Starting off getting back into shape with endless boofs on the Puesco and Nevados I got back in the groove of things and set my sights high! Getting comfy free falling again is always a fun time. Your first stout in a few months feels like the first time all over again! Demshitz drop and Middle Palguin laps had me on fire and looking for more.

Anton Immler stomping "Stout 10" this is the entry rapid to the 70 foot tall Middle Palguin falls. It's way trickier than it look I promise!

Anton lining up the Middle for his first time of this season!

Myself running the Demshitz Drop at high water on the Rio Nevado. This is the most complete best run in the Pucon area when the levels are right!

Anton and I getting busy on the Rio Puesco near the border of Argentina. Which is only 45 minuets from Pucon!

Brown Chicken and treats on the Upper Nevado!

Aniol and I decided that it was time to get "Dirty" and went to the Middle Llancahue for "The Dirty Gerd"! This drop had been on my mind for some time now...I have almost run this drop so many different times. 2008-2009-2010-and finally I got there, saw the line, and laced up! This is not just a sick stout that you go and take a picture of yourself running and put it up on Facebook...this waterfall is one of pure terror and mystery. Upon arriving at this drop no matter if you've seen the video or picture a thousand times, it makes you cringe! The entry is fast, pushy, and manky. The lip is boily, unpredictable, and blind. The falls is cracked out, rocky, and tall! Everything about this drop tells me walk away, but that's what has drawn me to come back every year.

It was an amazing experience to decide to get in my kayak and commit to such a powerful piece of whitewater! Truly a mental battle. I knew I was good enough to make the moves and stick the line, but fear and the unknown-ness of the drop gets in the way. In the end the power of the water almost bested me. A slight bobble at the crux of the rapid sent me only feet off line connecting with a rock wall 20 feet down...

Coming down the entry rapid, into the actual entrance! This drop has two separate entries!

Here is the crux stroke I took while leaning away from the wall. Without this "Plan B" move I would have taken rock to the head/body and things could have turned out way worse.

I always say that with years of experience on drops like these, comes the ability to style "Plan B". The older I get and better I get, I notice that when I fall offline I'm way more calm and in control. This comes not from arrogance or stupidity, but from running countless big drops and not always having them go the way I plan.

Back to it, getting swept left, I pulled a huge boof stroke bringing my bow up and having my bow hit the wall and not my body. I saw this same line New Years Eve of 2008 by my brother Ian. He...did not get his bow up! The end result was me hitting the Mesa Falls-esque ledge half way down and bouncing sideways and upside down in to the pool below. Crazy feeling no doubt! The hit was soft due to the high water level and I rolled up insanely adrenalized and happy to be at the bottom. I had done it! The Dirty Gerd was no longer a mystery, I unlocked that box and saw what laid inside. Aniol was next!

A shot from the bottom take by Mathias Fossum. You can see the size of the Dirty from this angle.

Aniol, being the stud he is, still decided to run it after watching me. Head Strong!!!! He dropped in with the same plan and line in mind. Upon reaching the true entry he clipped a manky rock flake and flipped extremely fast. With a clutch roll he was upright and looking to be online. I can't imagine what was going through his head? Surfing a curler hole he made his way right, but maybe a bit too far right. There is a perfect flake on the lip that you want to send. Aniol looked like he was on line and then fell into the crack on the right. This looked sketchy from scouting, but after watching the video you see, that aside from it being manky it sets you up well for the free fall. Aniol went roosting off the beast and rolled up at the bottom.

Aniol getting kick flipped by the manky flake! :O

From this angle you can see the flake you want to be on, and the crack to the right of it where he is heading.

Aniol Serassolses! La Cobra! Not much else to say...

On this kind of rapid you accept "Plan B". Aniol is one of the most skilled and amazing paddlers I have ever met. Watching him go after me really gave me a perspective and respect for how gnarly this drop really is. We both celebrated and hugged, talked shit about going back to the top and running it agian, and then went down stream to run the cleanest 30 footer in the country of Chile as a dessert.

This drop is only 200 feet from the base of the Dirty Gerd. Such a pleasure to run this after stressing all morning! We call it the "Suavamente" or if you're from Montana "The Purtty Thurty"

Another amazing day in the country of Chile. This was my sixth season in Chile and I'm still stepping it up and running new things every year. I don't think that in my lifetime I will ever get sick of this place. Call it what you want...but this is my paradise!

Check out the video of us running this epic water fall in Bomb Flow TV's Episode 6...The Rise of Blue Balls here.



Later E.G.

Minor Fails and Epic Wins

Blood, Sweat, and Tears!!!! Literally...enjoy it we are already working on the next episode!



Episode 7 "Minor Fails and Epic Wins"

Later E.G.

The Rise of Blue Balls

All there is left to say is...BOOM!

Later E.G.

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.

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.

Chile all wrapped up in one...

Here is a little video of me talking and kayaking...its all filmed in Chile and features some of the biggest, best, and hardest drops I have ever nutted up to run...Chile is amazing! Come down and check it out for yourself there is anything from this kind of stoutness of beautiful endless class II in drinkable creeks and rivers. If you are looking to buy any gear for a trip to Chile check out Rivers Lakes and Oceans my family's company in Pucon...we sell everything from the best whitewater boats to fishing supplies. Enjoy the video y'all!

Evan Garcia Chile Bomb Flow from BombFlowTV on Vimeo.

Later E.G.