The Todo Middle Palguin

With my body being all healed up after some rest I was back at it with full force. We ran the entire Nevados the day before this and had all that fire built up. As we left Babilon and neared the normal put in the muffler fell off our small Cheve... so we were forced to stop and put in at the Middle section (Always scary). We said it must be a sign, so all of us geared up quick... Aniol decided that the Boof to swim was looking right so he hiked up to give it a try.

Aniol boofing the titz off the hermano chico...Boof to Swim known by the locals. He didn't swim though ;)

After that we were at a very firmilar lip once again. the last time I was here I watched Jared and Lj run the entry...it was my time to go for it now. Pinxo fell off the beast first to get to the pool below in case some thing hit the fan in the stout 10. Aniol and I were ready to go so we roashed for the line up.

Pinxo going first to run some safety and get the stout out of the way.

I won the rock-paper-sissors and went next. This shot is on my way to the second clean line through this entry since the change. This thing is so scary, but good to go, the line is just very thin. Late boof....

Arms up, 65 feet to go...paddle about to go flying. My favorite picture of the day...it just turned out good.

Paddle gone, bows up...hands on cockpit ready for the impact. I barley rolled on the stout and got to shore so stoked to have not gotten beat down in this moster double drop. I couln't have been more stoked to have run this entire drop. It was my 10th time off the 70 footer and 1st time for the entry...good stuff. Now I got to watch Aniol's line.

Aniol went next and fell off line in the entry...he went deep and had to make a clutch roll...this shot was taken shortly after, he got his shit together and stomped the stout with a perfect line. good job my man.

BattlePro went next with the crazy line, but was all good. After the huckfest we ran down the wood bridge and fixed the cars pipe so we could make it back to Pucon. This was another one of my big goals reached this season down here. This drop has so much build up and feels so good to get down the first time...this won't be the last time for me on the Stout 10. Have fun and keep reaching for the sky.

Later E.G.

Back on the Horse.

After 3 sunny nice days at the beach and nine days off the water for my healing stiches, I finally got back on the horse. Tyler and Logan came and picked me up from the Desahue house and we ran to the Rio Nevado for a warm up on the upper run.

Demshitz medicine...if your on the DL gotta get your buzz on.

I used to love these things when I was growing up in Montana...I happened to find one on the beachin Pichilemu.

Sweet Love "Dulce Amor" Treats laid, billz paid! Back on the water happy as a little fuzzy lamb.

Logan leaning it over again and again.

Ty Curtis throwing a nice boof off the lip of the last drop in the Upper Nevado gorge.

Shooting my Salto Palguin bootie...taste the gnar, Please the gods!

Some pretty flowers on the side of the river. I thought that this was the national flower of Chile (Copihue), but my smarty pants palola proved me wrong. It's great to be back on the water again enjoying the water that we still are blessed with...

Photos by the astonishing Candace Sanders

Later E.G.

Salto Palguin...

After the Todo Palguin day for Christmas I had one thing on my mind...that Salto Palguin was good to go. I had watched the first D by Steve and then my two best paddling buds run it, all with good lines. It was bugging me to say the least. All the prior years I thought it was so gnar and not very runnable. With some firey thoughts and a lot of shit talking we finally set the date and went out to Mama's the night before to make the task just a bit more difficult...hahaha

This is the view you get at the lip...just think of it as a 10 footer, that will make you feel beter. It took some balls to decide that this was the entrance I wanted for a drop this big.

The rats getting ready for one hell of a descent.

Salto Palguin in all its glory.

We showed up at our friend Ben May's house with a big group and six people who wanted to run the biggest drop on the Palguin. Keep in mind that this drop has only been run a few times before. So with safety all set up and photogs in place I fired it up first.

Dropping into the seam... The entry was a bit more chill than I imagined, and the lip was just a messy as it looks. Although after connecting with the left curler it wasn't too out of control.

Myself all set up at the lip ready to connect with the mean curler and fall along way.

Falling a long way to the pool below, the drop itself felt money. 80 feet of freefall maybe? And I landed what felt to be just a hair over the bars. My line couldn't have been better. When I hit the pool though that boil told me different. I took quite a big hit going deep and punching myself in the face with my paddle. Falling out of my boat under water my jefe grande resurfaced launching 10 feet in the air landing right side up. I swam to the safety of the shore where my little brother waited for me. He said, "Shit man you're bleeding."

Tyler went second...He had a good line disappearing in the falls and coming up in the pool with a blown skirt and broken paddle. Due to the nice sharp fiber glass of the Kober shaft he cut his finger good enough to get 4 stiches in his middle finger (the bird).

Then came Candaian hucker/party smrph Logan Grayling...He also had a good line, maybe the best of the day, because he only broke his paddle and helmet, but stayed in his kayak. The only member of this huck team not to swim.

Keegan from Canada (The Canucks showed they aren't pussies on this day) stepping up after watching his buddy, Stephen, run this bad boy the day before. Keegan boofed the lip hard, but reconected with the flow to melt this giant.

A beautiful picture of Aniol Serrasolses...somebody needs to sponser this kid. He's 18 from Spain and he rips harder than almost anyone I know.

Aniol's line from the other side of the river. Aniol had a beautiful line maybe a bit crazy with a boof...but he resurfaced in his kayak with a blown skirt, then forced to swim due to a wall contact. Not bad.

5 people ran this 85 foot falls...4 swims...2 broken paddles...and 8 stiches (4 for myslef and for Tyler)...

Ty and I all bloody and ready to go get stiches bitches.

Myself later that night at the Latitude party icing my face to stop the swelling. This was a great day indeed, I didn't like swimming or punching myself in the face, but it is just a part of the game. If you plan on going big you will swim and will maybe get a few stiches every once in a while. Was it worth it??? Oh yeah!

Thanks to Candace Sanders and Janjo for the sick photos of the day.

Later E.G.

Feeling Immortal?

The Desahue is, for the most part, a rally run full of great amusing drops to be run without scouting day after day. There is one exception...Salto de la Muerte (Waterfall of Death). This drop could be called the Big Boy of Pucon. 30 feet of freefall into less than 3 feet of water. This calls for one heck of a good boof tecnique... you wanna land flat, but not hurt your back...while dodging a pretty big hole and lanching off a funny lip. So feeling lucky punk...do ya????

One of the best/biggest boofs I know of...anywhere in the world.

Ian getting extra steezy in his old age...seriously maine!!!

On this day a bunch of us decided to run the Muerte falls, instead of portage it. We all had big nice boofs and good lines... Happy days boys.

BattlePro estaba muy nerivoso... pero aqui esta haciendo un boof gigante, al linia perfecta.

Jared ripping off a nice line off the Muerte.

Anton slaying El Salto Muerte (death falls).

Villarrica as seen from our kitchen window... so beautiful.

More good time asados at the Casa Garcia.

You wanna count your runs off this puppy...once you've run it enough times clean, do you want more? The answer is normally yes! Hahaha get some and keep it safe out there.

Also check this sick update out from Aniol Sarrasolses Kayak Aniol.

Later E.G.

Ojos POV Movie

The day after Christmas I had a fun time on the Lower Desahue running some shit solo and meeting my lady at the Ojos for a cool photo session. It was a good cool down day after the todo Palguin with the huge crew the day before. Enjoy the GoPro movie.

POV Lower Desahue from jared seiler on Vimeo.

The Spirit-esque right side of Ojos.

The classic "Brown" off the left side of Ojos.

Desahue is the best hue!

Later E.G.

December Oasis...Rio Turbio

A few days before the new year, the rains came once again... This time we played our cards right and got a absolutly perfect flow on the Rio Turbio. December 28th was our lucky day and a break from the sunny weather we had gotten the previous week. Meeting up with the Spanish, Chileans, and other gringo friends the day was perfect for some quality huckings. After a nice half hour hike up to the top drop, we saw a perfect high side of good flow, and were all warmed up for the goods.

The first rapid, which has only been run in its entirety a few times, includes; a 30 foot boof, crazy slide into a stout pothole, a nice long fluffy slide, and a 10 foot wier hole to wrap it up. The whole thing drops a lot and at this level the entire drop can be put together quite smoothly. So we went...

Myself throwing down on the Putin drop...

The Gnar pothole slide right below the big falls.

Aniol going second on the big boof, check out the stack up.

Jared going gansta style on the Salto Turbio.

Jared in the enterance of the third piece of the top drop.

A mackin' ledge hole at the end of the first stacked set.

Nico blasting through the last big hole of the top set.

After the first set was over we continued down to the rest of the classic boofs and slides. It is a hard task to find such a nice flow for this flash drainage, this was the first time in three years it has happened for me. Enjoy the rest of the shots by Todd Richey always killing it...

Getting through a tight squeeze somewhere in the midde of the run.

Jared leanin' a phatie off another treat.

Pincho's boat all pinned up :( Diablito was there to save the day.

The take out falls may be one of the most photogenic drops in the country.

See I told you so...Todd boofing it solid.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect and lucky day to have passed. Afterwards we had a nice asado at our house with all the boys we enjoyed the day with good times and sick brines...

Later E.G.

3rd Annual Palguin X-Mas

The last three years I have had the pleasure of spending my holiday seasons in the pristine area of Pucon Chile. Serving as our back yard run in the years past the Rio Palguin has been the backdrop of my Nativity scene. The first year 2007 was the first time I had run the 70 foot Middle Palguin falls... last season we went for the ever so stout Todo Palguin (The entire river)... and this year was the same. The entire Upper through the Lower runs of the Palguin. It is a huge task to even say the words Todo Palguin together in one sentence, let alone attempt this challange. So off we went early on the morning of the 25th of December driving east out of Pucon...

Gearing up for a huckfest.

Upon arrival at our good friend Ben May´s house I soon reilized how real this was. Lj and Jared had decided they were going to run the Salto Palguin, which just saw its first descent a few weeks earlyer by Steve Fisher. I was not in the mood to go that big on this particular day so I walked away from it to film some of my best buddies huck their meat. Salto Palguin is burly as hell...I mean it when I say it...

Salto Palguin from the pool below.

Lj burried in the seem at the top with all that way to fall.

Jared rocking some speed off the big boy... flying brown plug.

After watching some sick shit up top our group, 12 people, including the likes of; Aj, Brian Kirk, My two Bros, Chris Baer, Adam Bixby, Jared, Lj, Anton, Battle Pro, and many more. We made it through the Upper section with two broken paddles and two swims, Jared on the Salto and Lj with a beautiful freewheel to salmon stroke on a clean 20.

Battle Pro going for the glory plug in the Exportacion...

Lj putting his nice paddle away and bringing the hand paddles out for the ever so strong portage.

Aj taking a different route to the bottom.

Ian cartwheeling an Everest out of the Portage on the Upper.

Then on to the Middle, where we portaged twice around two gnarly drops at this high water flow. Once we got to the Big Bird some people started falling off her one at a time until all of the sudden with all the fire from huge Salto, Lj ran the entry to the 70 footer, for the first time since it changed 4 years ago. Lj had a perfect line making it look very doable and pretty...Jared followed with an equaly nice line, but got backendered in the hole at the base of the falls. A short beatdown that must have felt like too long went by, then he rolled up t go and stomp the piss out of the big falls just 30 feet downstream. After all 12 of us ran the big one with 4 swims, and a few broken paddles, we once again gathered up and continued down stream.

A huge crew getting smaller and smaller as we took our turns on the Middle falls.

Lj getting left to grease the Stout 10 entry to the 70 foot middle.

B.K. lining up a perfect descent of the Middle Palguin.

NateDizzie hitting the perfect paddle toss to melt...couldnt have been done better.

Adam Bixby showing there is impact off drops of this size.

Jared in the right place at the right time...this is maybe the scariest boof of your life.

There was some swims.

Mayself making sure I didn't break my paddle on the middle.

The lower Palguin went by fast as we all rolled though a nice series of drops before the last portage of the river. This one is super gnar containing many caves and bad holes...we just walk this one without even thinking most the time.The last fight of the Rio Palguin...the smoothest boof in all the lands.

The Palguin is like a wonderland of great whitewater, weather you want big hucks or just great rapid running, it's the place to be...Merry Christmas to all. Photos by Todd Richey, Adam Bixby, and Chris Baer.

Later E.G.