21st Birthday Palguin Huckfest

It was a monumentous day in Chile...little Evan Garcia was finally turning 21 years old. I have spent my 17th, 19th, 20th, and now 21st birthdays in the city of Pucon. This one was no different than the rest because it doesn't matter how old you are down there, you can always go to the bar and order a beer. On the other hand this one was a big one for me, because now when I get home, I can continue my South American bender...not really though?

So with an early start at 3pm I headed into town to get a crew ready to go up and run a stout on the Palguin. After about an hour of waiting I ended up with Isaac and Todd Wells, a WCKA kid who got the day off to paddle something big with me. We got to the river and went straight to the Middle to park and huck the big boy. Candace set up for some nice photos and off we went.

"This is a scary place to be" -Rodrigo Tuschner 2006

Stout 10 and the boils of the pool above the biggen.

2...1...Oh yeah baby...2 for the price of one!

All fired up we went one by one and had some good line off the beast...I'm not proud to say that my second swim of Chile this year was on my first run of the day. My skirt blew and I had to take a quick dip in the cold waters. I wasn't gonna end my day like that so I walked back up there and ran her again.

Isaac looking right about perfect with his paddle out of the way and no where to go but down.

First run of the day and a picture from the bottom of the beast.

Some beautiful light on the stout10. Good work man....

Todd Wells getting his paddle toss just that much more dialed in for this spring in the PNW.

Seal Lanch into the pool, the more chill way to enter the 70 foot freefall.

T-in' up the stout for run number 2 of the evening.

We all ran the stout two times to make sure we got our moneys worth out of the Palguin on this day. With that all said and done we headed back into town to get our party on!!!! It was my big day!

The volcano was quite the septical on the way home from the Palguin...so much so we stopped for a time lapse opportunity.

We all gathered at Lj and Jared's house in town and had a nice little night of eating and drinking before hitting the bars in town. I don't remember all the night events, but it was a good time.

A little asado celebration at the casa cafe in town. Stouts, meat, pisco, beers, cake, and good friends made this birthday one to rememer.

Photos by Candace Sanders!

Later E.G.