Cherry Creek

Cherry creek is one of my new classic favorite runs in the world. The flow was around 1400 cfs at the put in and 1800 at the take out. The water was a bit chilly but it was a beautiful sunny day and about 70 degrees outside. The water level seemed perfect to make everything soft and padded.

Me dropping in to the last drop of Mushroom rock rapid.

Billy Boylan at the same spot hitting the move to the right to avoid the big hole.

The run was full of good drops with big holes and sick boofs everywhere. The run surprised me quite a bit. I was stoked to get on something with lots of water and gradient. The best drops were Mushroom, Lewis's leap, and Lumsden Falls.
I was a little nervous to get a look at Lumsden because of all the stories of the rapid being huge and V+ and sketchy. We ran the Flat rock rapid and took a look at the beast. Justin Patt and I ran it and both had sick lines to finish a great day of boating.

Justin dropping into the top of Lumsden falls looking good and staying left.

Me in the mist of the biggest rapid of the run. One of the best and biggest boulder rapids out there.

The rest of the run is maybe 1.5 miles of class III-IV until you reach the take out. A great run which I hope to do many more time this summer. Now we are at the South American and hoping for some south silver and golden gate. Later E.G.

Southern California Update

A mid-night shot of El Capitan by Justin Patt we showed up late at night for some moon light photos.

We continuously lapped Hospital Rock for a few more days before getting a little interested about what's upstream of the put in. The Upper Middle for the Kaweah, which was first D'ed by The Kerns and Polk Deters, not Lingren and his crew in the summer of 2001. A little fact not told in Burning Time II.
The road was closed from H.R. up to the Buckeye campground so we hiked a short 1.5 miles up above Chuck's drop and put in after hiking threw a massive forest with a ground layer of poison oak. The first drop we hit was a cool slide with a auto boof at the bottom, followed by another 1/2 mile of fun steep drops. We walked Chuck's drop, that thing is burl at any flow. I thought it might look better than it did last year, 2000 cfs @ Three Rivers, but to my surprise it looked possibly worse. A lot less padding for the rigged rock.
After Chuck's the valley opens up for some cool sliding drops down to the put in of H.R. The best drop on this section is called "Takin it to China" a slide into a seam which will send you deep if you hit it right.

Entering takin it to China with some afternoon light. Photo@Justin Patt

Polk right about to try and take it to Asia. @ Justin Patt

After getting down to Hospital Rock we picked up Glenn Daggle and routed down the classic one last time before heading down further south to Kernville. We almost ran 0 to 60 in the dark but luckily we went fast and got to the take out right as darkness fell.

Kernville was a bust. We did Brush creek at the lowest flow ever, which did nothing for me. The group also did a class III-IV section of the Kern river at low flows as well. The only good part of that was hitting the 80 degree weather down there by LA. It didn't last long. Before we knew it flash backs of China came with the falling snow and we packed up and headed for the Tule. That was a bust with only a 100 cfs we opted out of running it and drove to Yosemite to enjoy the freezing temperature and a day of hiking.

Hospital Rock Kaweah

We spent the last two days on the Middle Kaweah running a good section named Hospital Rock. Fun classic California class V run. Speaking of hospitals Alex Daggle, one of the twins, dislocated his shoulder on the first slide of the run. Both Daggles in one year aye!

This drainage has tons of different runs to get on. The East fork is also running, on the low side of good, but it would still be a dope day on the river. The river is fun with tons of cool boofs and slides. It starts in the center of Sequoia national park in the southern Sierras. The entire run is continuous and butter smooth. The best drop is called zero to sixty. Which is a cool smooth slide entrance into a 10-15 footer at the end of the run.

Dropping in to the second slide of the day, tuber.Bill...420....you know what I'm talking. Big boat on a lil guy.The pillow heading into 0 to 60. New shinny boat
JPatt lining it up at the bottom of 0 to 60.

The first two days here we had 80 degree weather. Today it rained all day but the level was still holding. Cali should be treating well the next month so I will try to stay updated on what I'm up to. Take it easy y'all EG

Zen Wave: Salween River

After we completed the upper sections of the Nu Jiang river we moved down stream to a small Chinese village where we spent the last week of our trip boating the best whitewater yet. We had a 8 km long run with t ons of sick play and big rapids. The best wave we found on the Salween was given the name Dredger, due to the Chinese boats with cables suspending across the river in both of the eddies. The wave has a huge surging right shoulder and solid foam pile. We sessioned that spot for a few days before heading up to the run to drop into some big holes. Doin' the cirtcy thing on the Dredger. Photo@LJ GrothJustin Patt porn star NEVCOK kayaker doing his thing. Photo@LJ GrothJoel Kowalski hitting a huge backside Cali roll 582 style. What a sick a** wave!! Photo@ Adam Elliott

The run had 7 bigger drops on it, including 2 great hole punches. The last rapid was just two phaty holes you had to charge through. 9 runs on it 9 surfs. It was a goodie.Polk Deters on the top hole of the last big rapid of the run. Look at the focus and determination, he's fired up like a spider monkey high in the canopy looking for dinner, if you know what I mean. Photo@ Alex Daggle.

After the last day on the Zen Wave run we started our 4 day travel from the Salween home. Lots of bus rides, planes flights, waiting in airports, and a sleepless night in Washington I made it home and back to the great land of American food, blound women, and sitter toliets, it's a beautiful thing. I be heading to California in a week or so and I'm ready for some good hard creek boating to wake me up from my China trip.

Arounious on both charges
Later E.G.

LLancaghue and pics

after returning from our nilahue mission i looked on the internet to see that the other part of my group that had gone south to the rio baker was having an epic time with perfect waterlevels and the monster take out wave surfing perfect. damn. but it wasnt that bad i had run multiple massive waterfalls and been enjoying every minute of it. the first is from the middle llancaghue river that has been looked at many time but still has no takers just the first 60 footer and this perfect 30 footer that we ran. that same day we also made it to the rio fuy and looked closely at salto de la puma a huge 80 footer that is runable but the entrance was just a little to stout for any of us to be the first taker.
then a few more classic runs brought me back to the middle palguin for a second run on the 70 footer that we first decented two weeks ago. the down fall came as my paddle exploded and i took a swim. not to bad and always good to put you in check. after myself gerd sarrasoles gave and his paddle broke as well. another expensive day, but all in good fun. but here are some more photos from the last couple weeks.

later
ian g

Salto de Nilahue

two night ago we drove our selves through the night and found ourselves in a disco until 5 in he morning outside lago ranco. we awoke after only 3 hours of sleep and drove up to salto de nilahue. it was first run last year by LJ and trip and can be seen in EP Epicocity Project. but shortly after their decent the waterfalls second tier collapsed leaving it as a 60 to 65 footer sliding entrance, with a very scary cave on the bottom left.
but with Rodrigo, Cris, and i(ian) we stepped up to the challenge and plugged her deep, for a first d of the new drop. eventually ill put together some cool sequences and post them but here are a few photos.

futaleufu and back

after a week in pucon running some waterfalls i took off and headed south to meet up with the boyz. the crew was big and hurting from the night before as it was rush´s birthday. the whole gang along side patrick, rush, ligare, katie scott, marlow, and tanya. when we arrived the water was on the high side but in a few days it had dropped to levels so low i had never seen the river like that. it was great to get out of the hectic area of pucon where i had recieved a massive black eye and swollen face after a bar fight. but then after a week of great play i headed north in one of the most screwed up journies that took 3 days to get from futa back to pucon, usually i can do it in a single day. thank god i wasn´t alone as my sanity was being tested hard. but here are a few more photos and something better to look at.

Salween River Update 1

Yeah we are at the last of the three great rivers of the Yunnan Province. The Yangtze, Mekong, and Salween all flow out of Tibet into western China and then to the Pacific Ocean. Over the last 5 weeks we have been driving and kayaking through the deep canyons where only two sets of tall mountain ranges seperate the three great rivers.

Me running one of the bigger rapids of the Maggi section.

The Salween is the steepest and hardest of the river we are on. The river is 300km of roadside big water rapids with tons of good park and play potential. We have done 2 of the 3 main sections of river, the gonshong section, and maggi section. They both have good big water drop and fun play spots through out the run. We have had to hike for the majority of the play but it will make my time at the Ottawa that much sweeter.

Salween special, at high water it is said to be as good as Nile special, but with the low flows it's more like a surgy wave hole.

The 18th of Febuary is also chinese new year's so it was a huge party and fire work war. If it had taken place in the states there would be multiple people in jail and law suits off the hook, that must be why it only goes down like that in China. We were on the 3rd floor of our hotel throwing huge bombs and roman candles out our window at people. It was a pretty fun night and a new expirence for everyone.

The wave dubbed ATM wave for it's out of control surf and amount of work it took to hike for it.

We have found tons of fun play spots but our hunt for the hidden wave is still running. The river has tons of potential and gradint, but with the low water the world class waves that were found last year by a 5 man crew are all big holes. We have another 2 weeks here so I will keep y'all updated on weather or not we find what our dreams are full of.

Looping at the Groover hole on the Maggi section

Soon I will be back at home eating western foood and getting my new creek boat ready for California. Overall this trip has been one to remember and I hope that other people will start to reilize how good these rivers are and make more trips over here to prevent dam projects that are in progress for all three of these rivers. Yeah baby yeah!!! keep it smooth!!!

later E.G.

Mekong Photos

Here is the photo dump from our Mekong visit. There are tons more shots but the internet here is a little slow. Enjoy the picture and a Salween upadte shoulod be up tonight with some good playboating shots. By the way your truly is now a man. Yes I'm 18 years old now, I celebrated on the 12th and now I can by all the good stuff; cigeretts, porn, zig zags, dip, I truly feel old now.

This is the first big rapid of the upper gorge on the Mekong a few of us ran it with varying sucsess. its bigger than it looks! Possible first decent?

Here is Dave Zinn in the same rapid, this is a good shot for size. He's just a tini lil guy about to go into a big flat hole.

This mack daddy hole is the exit to the big drop on the lower Moon gorge. It's goes it's just a matter of sackin' up and doin' it!! The enterence is the tricky part and it's right above this punch.

Mount Cowacarpa the tallest peak in this range and area. 22,500 feet tall it was quite the sight.

Sorry for the sideways picture, but its worth a look at. This was our view from the window of the place we stayed at in You Bong at the top of the hike we did. Thats a 22,000 foot peak right out our back door. Pretty cool place and the culture of the people and village was amazing to see first hand.

Later E.G.

Mekong River Visit

After the 14 days on the great bend we planed to drive over a 14,000 foot pass into the Mekong river valley. Half way there and not even to the base of the pass we were caught up in a snow storm in the mountain city of Shangur la. This was a fairly big so there was a hotel and place to eat. The weather was very snowy and around 25 degrees, not the warm climate I hope for when travling. Once the sun hit the pass it cleared our path and we took our sweet time driving over the Chinese tundra.

We have a bus and a huge "Dong Fang" truck carrying everything of ours around. It gets a little hecktic and stinky in there, group moral usally melts after about an hour of riding. Anyway we pulled into Dequin the biggest town in the area and had the normal 10 dishes of food before heading to bed.

While we were in Dequin it pretty much snowed everyday, due to the 10,000 foot elevation. A great motivator to go kayaking in the coldest water on earth. We did the 5th decent of the Lower Moon gorge, which was all class III+ with one monster class V that looked OK but kind of chunky. We also hit the upper Moon gorge which was possibly a first decent, no one really knows and it's pretty out there. The upper section had a total of 10 rapids, one we ran was a fun V'er with a pretty stout move involved. The sixth was a massive hole punch with a pourover backing it up, we opted to skip down the side on that one.

on a sad note. During a savage game of hide and go seek tag down town Dequin a close friend and student of wcka shatered his arm. His name is Davis Gove, he did this by attempting a daring jump from roof to roof. He broke through the landing side and fell 12 feet to his crunching fate. He flew home and got a ton of surgery done, a few different plates and many screws. All of our good thoughts are with you bro. Heal up for west coast.

After the two day completing the Moon gorge we put our kayaks away and stomped a 23 mile total hike to a classic Tibetin village high in the mountains. I can't say I was excited at the time to walk that kind of distance but it turned out alright, if walking lost in the dark on the side of a 200 foot cliff is alright to you? That escupade took us back to Dequin and marked the start of the 3 day drive to the Salween river drainage. Pictures coming soon of Mekong and Salween update.

Later E.G.

chile again with another biggin

bigger brother ian here just checkin in. i have been in chile far a couple of days now and i still just love it, it is my fourth time here and always worth the pain. but although i have only paddled twice it has been exciting. just the palguin as always but when the middle section colapsed a year ago i thought it was gone for good. not so as it went again and created a biggin out of what use to be a 35 footer into a 50 footer. so here is what we got as cris korbulic, rodrigo from kayak pucon and i rallied the first decent
later

Kim Jong Wave: Movie

Kim Jong Movie theres the link for the movie from the wave we were surfing on day 3 of the Great Bend. Some cool stuff. Headed to the Mekong now.
later E.G.

Yangtze: Great Bend

Ahhh... The Great bend. A great adventure indeed. We set off for the Tiger Leaping Gorge with great glee for the 14 day trip down the Yangtze. After an hour and a half in the bus we arrived at the mouth of the Tiger's gorge. The section of whitewater within this chasm is quite impressive. This canyon is very similar to Grand Canyon of the Colorado, with class VI rapids.The heart of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Butter silky silky smooth!!!

After spending the night in a guest house with in the gorge we drove down stream and hiked 20 minutes to the put in for the GBY where we met our rafts and gear.

Over all the river was very flat with some fun Grand Canyon style big water rapids. The amazing part of this river, was that we found a good play spot everyday, but the last 2 days, which were basically like paddling upstream for long periods of time with upstream wind pounding your face, very fun stuff.Floating deep in the lime stone gorge with the normal WCKA crowd... A bunch of white turkey's infesting China, the mother land.

The trip normally takes 7 to 8 days, but with the WCKA school aspect added in we took 14 days to finish the 120 mile trip.

Carnage?? not alot but we did have some swims, a flipped raft, a broken oar, and a good eddy ride in Wall banger by Scott. Oh and the wrath of khan, the 24 hour puke sessions which I shared with many others.

Along the way we found many a good play spot. The main and best feature was a joyous huge wave we dubbed Kim Jong wave... cuz it's so ILL. Rerry ill!! Kim Jong your my lady... I'm ridin' dirty on the beast ready to throw nasty air.

We only surfed the wave for a limited amount of time but we threw down some big stuff, it improved the vibe of the trip greatly. The other play spots included savage waves like Dropshot, The Curler of Justice, The Pillow, and many fast surgey waves and holes.
The Curler of justice. Glenn Daggle showin' it who's el Jefe del rio.

This river was a great way to kick off a China trip. The culture surrounding the river was cool to see. the people who live on the river depend on it for everything. On day 9 we hiked up to a bigger city high on the cliff walls named Bao Shon. We spent the night in this city and got to see first hand how the river people live. On a sad this place is in danger of dam projects. The Yangtze is already blocked with dams but the Chinese government has plans to dam the Tiger Leaping gorge. That would destroy one of the most amazing places I have ever set foot, and give no one else the opportunity to see this same river canyon. The group at the last camp. The 07 WCKA crew + Travis Winn, Adam, Tashi, and Chen. Cheers Bra!!! look forward to the Kim Jong Video... coming soon as I can get a computer to edit on.

Later E.G.

China, Lijang

Leaving on Wednesday I drove to Missoula meeting up with part of the crew to pack and weigh our bags. We then embarked on our epic journey from Missoula to Seattle to LA then to China. Once we got off the 16 hour flight we then spent the entire day getting from the Hong Kong area to Lijang in the Yunnan Province. We ate a slightly gressy yet aight.. meal then hit the Chinese beds up for 10 hours of sleep. Today we went on a hike and got a cool view of a big 18000 foot peak that dwarfs over the city. The next part of the group is coming in tonight, then we are starting to pack and rig rafts for the Great bend of the Yangtze river for a 14 day trip of big water play boating.

The first sun rise of the China trip. This is the view out of our hotel window in old town Lijang.

This is my first trip to Asia so everything here is new to me, the food, the cities, the people, and the landscape. It is the most culturaly rich place I have ever been, the people and buildings are unique and incredible. The rest of the trip we are focusing on three diferent rivers. The Salween, Yangtze, and the Mekong rivers. They are all big high volume rivers with huge waves and play spots. I'll try to keep you updated with some pictures and stories. This should be a trip to remember so BDP all up in China fo real. later E.G.

Jonny Meyers on La Paz

Jon Meyers checked in with a rather large photo from christmas break, as he spent his time over the holidays in costa rica. But with the large waterfalls that lay with in the countries borders he found himself hucking off a few of them. Like this massive double drop La Paz, as he is pictured on the 80+ foot bottom falls. As his skirt exploded on the first 50 footer and then bombed off the second massive drop releasing his paddle and rolling up at the bottom pumped.

EG's 2007 Update

Oh this one's a big one.
Make sure you watch the 2006 Movie, click that. Or if you got that slow internet, no worries click this. Low Res 06' Vid. These are the same movie and they cover all the places I boated in last year and has tons of rediculous footy. The last month or so has been busy, in a different kind of way.

The end of Mexico was "EPIC" we hit the Alsaseca day after day. The bomb rapid of the section we were doing was a twisted mess called S-Turn.The infamous Joel Kowalski T'in up the speedy and delightful Turn of S.

Me dropin' in on my second run of the day. These are frezee frames so the quality is poor, but you get an idea of the how the drop looks.

It is a pretty good sized drop but the tight nature, speed, and 90 degree turns are what make this drop one of a kind, Good time those were, good times. An Alsaseca Movie, Here is another little cut from the first round of our time at the rio Alsaseca.

After that, my flight home was Evan style. My ticket was 2 days off, the airline lost my bags, I sat in the Huston customs area for many moons, and yelled at a big fat international-gard, it was very enjoyable.

When I got home I was greeted by my 2 huge brothers, that now both out wiegh me by 20-30 pounds, and my always happy parents. We had a great Christmas, I may have gotten more from my sponsers than my family, but it was still super duper. The snow situation here in Montana is very sad so I have racked up many hours on the TV and X-Box this last week.

China is not far off, I leave for there on the 12th for some big water and big wave hunting. I have tons of new gear for that trip NRS has been hooking me up with some great new stuff, if you haven't seen their new goods you should check them out, cuz they "da bomb".

Ok well I guess thats it but keep your eye on this blog, there are a few updates coming soon that will blow your mind, I'll give you a hint "A huge Double drop in Coasta rica got another taker".

Later EG

San Luis Potosi

The next part of our trip took us to the state of San Luis Potosi. This is where the trvertine rivers lay in thick jungle habitats in the Sierra Madre mountains. The rio Micos and Saltos are ture classics. Fun clean waterfalls from put in to take out, ranging from 5 to 20 feet. There is a 70 foot sliding falls at the put in of the Micos and a 100 foot cascade at the take out of the Salto, but both the drops seemed super sketchy to me. Due to the sticky rock and low water we thought the boof-ability was high and hit you would take was not worth running the drops.

Reid on the micos river, The big drop is in the background of this picture.

Me on a fun lofty 15 foot boof on the Rio Saltos, Get her Done!!

Other than that things are the same. I have been sleeping in my hamock over the river, and yes, I'm slighty sick from the water and food of Mexico. Typical!!! We are headed to the Santa Maria and then back for round II of the Alsaseka. The goods!!! check ya later E.G.

Round 1: Rio Alsaseka

The first 20 foot drop on the roadside section of the Alsaseka.

The Alsaseka river in Tlapacoyan is one of the cleanest, steepest, and best rivers I have ever seen. This is where Stooksberry and those boys just went off, for the filming of Hotel Charlie 2. They first D'ed tons of new whitewater and opened up many new sections that had been thought of as unrunnable before. While we were there we met up with Raffa Ortiz, a local boater who was a big part of that expedition, as well as one of Joel's good friends. He joined us on the classic upper roadside run, which is packed full of tons of great drops. The best part about this run is that every drop is clean and good to go.

My man Alex Daggle styling it on a great drop!!

After a day on that we got a taste of what thos boys were up to the 2 weeks before we got there. Raffa took us on 3 sections of the middle Alsaseka. From Big Banana Falls to Puente Tomata. These sections, that had taken them days to complete, took us one long but fun day. We walked the Burning time 40 footer, although it is clean, if you hit the line, we had just decided before we didn't have the time to set the right safety up. Other than that we ran great whitewater all day. The best drop was called the Meat Locker, a double stage 30 footer with a 90 degree turn that went well for everyone. We stayed at a great place called Adventurec in Tlapacoyan, it was sweet they cooked 3 times a day and we all had beds. We are on the move to the Micos, but in a few weeks we are returning to run more of this excelente river.

The beautiful Tomata Falls. This thing is huge, but good to go with a tad-bit more water!!

Alsaseka Movie and Middle Alsaseka pictures coming soon after round II and finals for my first semester of senior year. Later E.G.