Huatulco, Mexico

Yeah,
This is where the trip has picked up some steam, we have been having a sick time here. The AC of plaza Conejos, sick beach and point breaks, and the white water has this place high on my destinations list. I have been in Mexico for a little over 2 weeks and it's just getting better and better. Here is THE VIDEO It's very worthy taking a look at!!!

Huatulco is a big tourist town on the West coast of the country, we are staying right out side of the main city in the town of Santa Cruz. We have some super nice locals cooking 3 meals a day for us, other than Tuesday night pizza that is. After our arrival here we went stright to the beach. A beach/point break called playa Majon. The waves are epic here, I have been lots of places around the world and this place is close to the best it gets for kayaksurf, but let the video do justice.

On the river side of things we have done 2 different rivers here so far, the Copalita, and the Zimaton. The Alamana section of the Copalita is fun class III-IV river running play. It has been so high that all the normal play is flushed out replaced with tall surging waves. The Zimaton is what they say here in Mexico "La Raja". It's a cross between the Lower Palguin in Chile and the White Salmon in Washington. Full of tight smooth granite gorges, stuffed with sick (IV+ V-) rapids and fun boofs. None of the rapids are super difficult but together they make up an epic run. There is one rapid that is by far the hardest of the run, a big chunker at the take out called "El Chorro". It has a stout enterence that leads right in to a 10-15 footer, sounds sick!! The problem with the rapid is that the 10-15 footer lands in a nasty tight gorge with a terrifing cave behind the curtin and undercut walls surronding the exit. We had a few scary moments here in our trip so far but everyone is fine and still smiling. This is a river to set your sights on, if you plan a trip to Mexico, it would be a crime not to do this one.

Right now I have a very swollen finger and a possible ear infection, so I have been kickin' it the last few days. Keep checking in and I will keep updating with our stories and adventures. Later E.G.

MEXICO

Checking in from the Vera Cruz state of Mexico. I am at the Antigua river right now in Jalcomuco doing some fun 3-4 river running play type rivers and it´s been treating me great. Mexico is an amazing place full of culture and beautiful places. The trip getting here was quite long but everything went smooth. Now I´m in board shorts in a jungle running rivers while most people are wearing coats freezing 24 hours north of me. I´m really excited for the rest of my trip here there are some good river lined up for us, including the Zimaton, Tecshlo, and the travertine riverbeds of Ciudad Valles. No good pictures yet but I will try to be on updating as much as I can. Hope all is well where ever you might be. later E.G.

Lil' Green Update

Here is a short video update of a run down the Green River at 100%. It is a super fun river. I only get to run the Narrows a few times a year so it is always good to get on.The flying Swedish kid Mikey on Triple Falls Photo by Fred Noriquist

I also got to run triple falls one day when the dam was being worked on. The video was shot by Karl and the WCKA video class and it features: The brothers Daggle, LJ, Dave Zinn, Karl, and yours truly.The Video There is more HD footy that Joel shot but I will have to get that later. I am back at home for a week now then I'm off to Mexico for 9 weeks of sick kayaking. more updates coming soon. later E.G.

p.s. if you want to hear about my next trip go to (operationraf.blogspot.com) it's not going down until next summer but I will be pre-amping it this winter.

canada update movie

This is it, a sick video of us at the ottawa and lachine. It introduces about half of the WCKA crew for this year. Time is flying by I'm headed to the Green tomarrow for some classic Southeast creeking. Later E.G.

once again im sorry but my link button is not working but here is the site (copy it and paste it)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8307966363663490091&hl=en
enjoy!!

The Ottawa

The Ottawa..... What is there to say? Some sick ass play boating. When your here you will see something that I like to call the "Ottawa syndrome" That is where a person drops into Garberator throws a ride with both Pan-ams, Air screws, and a helixes, then flushes off the wave, misses 5 rolls, and barely catches the eddy. If you know what I'm talking about you will think it's funny but if not don't take offense to anything that I say. Back to my trip here, It has been a trip of ups and downs. I got here and trained hard for the US team trials for 4 days. The competition went well for me I took 2nd behind none other than Dane Jackson, but still made the Team. After I was done competing I tweaked out my back surfing more, I thought, "Oh well I will just take a few days off and be back at it in no time." I took almost 2 weeks off and missed a good chunk of our time at the Ottawa. Now I'm back in my boat and fired up for Lachine.Karl lanching a backside Camel flip to paddle twist!!! he's good!!

We have a week at Lachine coming up soon and I will post a video of that HELL YES!!! E.G.

New Mt Update

Hey it's been awhile since my last post. This is what has been happening in Montana lately, there is not much to paddleon but we still found some good stuff. I got back from OR a week ago and tomarrow I am flying out to the Ottawa to compete and join up with WCKA. I am happy to say that I will be a pure Liuqid Logic boy now, I am picking up a ronin from Shaner this next week and will be sporting for those boys now. As for the movie my link is not working but this is the site,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-742339472771733986&hl=en

hope it works for you guys its a cool movie with some big drops and tricks. Well later I willl be in Canada the next time I check in EH!! E.G.

Cali Movie

This is a movie by Cali Product and YGP of Upper Cherry and West Cherry. There are some good shots of Lane, Charlie, Merlin, Rush, Ian, & Me. here is the Movie and you should check out the rest of this web site, it pretty COOL!! later E.G.

Hells Kitchen and other stuff...

We drove through dusk heading south on highway 49. After both Dinky and W.C. I was very tired so naturally I tried to catch up on some sleep in the teva Toureg. Contrary to popular belief the luxurious leather interior is not comfortable. After an hour or so of sitting in the back seat sweating we found Ben's van in Bear Valley. We woke him up and made plans to met in the coffee shop the next morning. After another night of sleeping in the dirt on guard for bears (because Rush swore he heard a bear in the woods)We met Ben, checked the level, and drove to the Putin. As we pulled up to the river we saw a few friends (Cheese, his brother, Dave, and Andre) They did the run the day before us and told us we had a long day ahead of us. It turned out to be way more manky than I thought with quite a few portages. Rush ran the 40 foot gorilla on crack (Portage #24), and Astrostar. #24 did not go well he gutted it down the middle disappeared and popped out the bottom upside down after taking a huge shot to the elbow. That was not the only carnage of the day, for those who have run the H.K. before, remember the rapid with a few boofs into a juicy pillow going off a 8 footer? Yeah I decide I wanted to plug the pillow, do a kick flip of the 8 foot ledge, almost tag the wall in mid air, and go into a nice down time. It all was fine I just rolled up past the hole and paddled out, but it made for some good video. The rest of the run went fine, there were tons of boofs and moves to make all the way to the take out. The description says this run is a classic, I disagree but still think this run is a great class V day on the water. Some picture by Ian Garcia enjoy. Ben and Rush blue angling the S#%* on the north fork of the Stan.Rush sticking the crux of Astrostar

After completing this run we drove to Coloma and had a quality CC night. This next day we got our stuff together said goodbye to some friends and took off for Lane house to start our drive home. I wanted to stay for Upper Cherry, and we almost did, but After a day of cliff jumping in South Lake we called our trip good took off for home.

With the end of this trip and a season of boating in Cali we completed a Sierra triple Crown (Royal Gorge, Dinky Waterfalls, West Cherry) and did some epic boating all of which were new runs to me. This has been my first season of kayaking in California and now I know why everyone is so crazy about it. Here is the list of the rivers I did in the 7 weeks I spent in Cali over this spring and summer:Kaweah, NF Kaweah, Merced, SF American, NF american, Webber, Traverse, South Sliver, Sacramento, South Yuba, Paully, Lavenzola, Slab, Dinky, W Chery, Cherry, NF Stanisalus, and a few others.

It was a great experience, I met a lot of cool people ,and had tons of good times. California is my new favorite place to kayak in the world over Chile, Africa, new Zealand, all those places. I hope to spend next summer there adding to my list. "California Gallery coming soon" Later E.G.

West Cherry Creek

West Cherry was a run that has interested me from the first time I saw the LVMer's running it a few years ago. After our epic run down Dinky creek we drove stright to Cherry Lake to met up with our crew: Lane, Ian, Rush, Merlin, Charlie, Ligare, and me. The next morning Merlin thought he was a genius and lead us 30 miles from the put in. Lane corrected him and lead us to a trail head some where close to the creek. I have heard nothing but bad stories (7-8 hour hike) about the hike in: Ben Stooksbery got lost 2 day before us and found the creek 6 hours into his hike at the end of all the rapid at the big portage. we on the other hand just kept walking upstream until we found a a bluff that looked over the whole canyon. We saw the creek and started to hike down the canyon wall. Merlin decided he did not want to carry his boat the whole way, half way down on its speedy decent the boat hit a downed log and stopped. The boat was broken! When we got to the creek we set up camp, Merlin welded his boat, and we started to hike upstream to see if there was any worthy.Ian bombin through the first big drop of the day, photo EGMerlin gettin some at the top of one of my favorite rapids in the world, photo LaneRush boofing the top of the biggest drop on the creek, you should see the whole gorge you have to run!! photo Lane

The hike to the creek only took us around 2 hours, not bad. When we went up stream there was nothing that caught my eye, a manky slot gorge, some portages, a 15 footer, and low angle slides, nothing compared to what was down stream from where we camped. The run took us most of the day and once we got to the confluence with upper cherry we knew our trip was not over. They group estimated 600-700cfs was in upper cherry, HUGE. We made our way down it very slowly, portaged what we wanted to, and ran some huge juicy slide and rapids that were scary but still fun. Once we got to the other side of the lake we started to hike back to the cars, 50 minuets later we were there. This was the single longest day of kayaking I have ever done, a true mission, so don't try it if you are not in the mood to do some work and put in a long day.
The Possie, left to right: Scott Ligare, Merlin Hannuer, Charlie Center, Ian Garcia, Evan Garcia, Rush Sturgus, aand Lane Jacobs. photo Lane's camera

We randomly saw Ben Brown at the take out and came up with our next plan. Meet in Bear Valley and do the Hells Kitchen. Enjoy the pics, Later E.G.

Dinky Creek: The Waterfalls

All photos by Lane Jacobs

A 14 hour drive back to California on another mission to run the shit, Ian and I found ourselves a few hours east of Fresno in the mountains ready to get it. The Dinky creek waterfalls section is one of the most classic pieces of whitewater I have ever paddled. It is an amazing pool drop run that is a tributary of the North fork of the Kings. The run starts off with a huge down hill climb through the infamous California Manzanita. Our crew started off huge: Pat keller, Lane, Ian, Billy Murphy, Billy Jones, Jed Selbey, Andre S.S., Dave Fusilly, and your truley. Lane , Ian , and I took off on the hike earlyer and ended up waiting over an hour at the creek for the others to catch up. By the time they arrived at the put in the 3 of us were amped and started our way down stream. Almost every horizon line we came up to was a big drop so remembering each one is imposible, but there were a few that stood out as bigger or better drops in my mind. Me firin' up Willie's drop which consisted of a 12 foot boof on to a slide right in to a 35 foot cascade "EPIC"Ian jumping off one of the 2 manditory portages. This is right down stream of 2 great drops: a slide into a 20, and a clean curtin 20 footer.Ian on the triple drop that lands in a pot hole, it's BIG but it's GOOD



The big slide lane fired up just down from the normal camp for day 1. In the group behind us Jed Selbey dislocated and seperated his shoulder on the big clean slide above this drop, he spent the night and had to get hellivact out of the canyon the next day. The infamous "Billy Murphy" was also ripped out of his kayak on this same rapid sometime later that day as they passed through.The boys (Lane and Ian) were more than ready for our camp cliff jump after gettin' a little Beam in their system. A little midnight tandem jump.This is another curtin call 25 footer right below a perfect 20 boof.

Dinky creek had so many big clean drops that it would have taken days to get pictures of every one. So these were only a few out of 2 days of good whitewater. This run is at the top of my list for sure I have never been to a place with so many class V drops like this. The weater was hot. Maybe close to 100 and the sun was beating down on us all day. Another reason why Cali happens to be my favorite place to kayak in the world. Lane and I were at the take out for ever waiting for the other group to get down and for the long shuttle. When Ian got back we loaded up and started our drive to West Cherry. Later E.G.

Montana Movie

Hey, here is a little part of my new movie i'm in the making of. It is all my home town waterfalls and creeks. The section features Ian Garcia, Dan West, Cameron Goodman, and I. The movie is about half way done and is turing out super good. It is a video about my last 2 years of kayaking and features drops like the middle line of #9 to the big bird on the middle Palguin. I should be done with it after my next trip to California. THE VID, hope you like it. Later E.G.

weekend with cheese

Brooks and Cheese sleeping on a bridge 4 miles into our huge hike

This last weekend I had a friend come up from McCall Idaho. His name is Cheese, and he also goes to the kayak academy. (or went I should say) But he wanted to do some good stuff around Bozeman so in a short weekend we charged to complete 4 rivers. A play spot on the Gally, A day on Big Timber, a quick run down Hells Canyon, and a 1st decent on a river that has potential to be the best run in the whole state. Hells and Big timber were pretty low but were still fun runs.Cheese firing up the pinch

The 1st decent included a very long hike in and a long scout of a gorge. The main section of the river we went for looked all good, deep in a gorge, a cross between Cali and the Box of the Clarks Fork Yelly. We were shut down on running the main gorge due to a 50-60 footer that was the start of the section that looked way to boofable,The 50-60 footer at the enterence to the main gorge, check it!!This is the 1st D of the top gorge leading right into the big falls Ian scouting the inner gorge

but with a little work you would be at the top of a 5+ gorge where no kayaker or person has ever been before. So here are some pictures of our good weekend. Enjoy. Later E.G.

Royal Gorge of the North fork of the American

An experience that no one will ever forget. This 3 day 30 mile run that starts high on Donner Pass on I-80. We met Pat Keller who had just gotten off the same river 2 days earlier at a lodge close to the put-in. We started to get our boats packed for the run and all our gear ready. 20 minutes later the rest of our group showed up: Jason Hail, Jayson Holman, Josh Bechtel, and Lil' Dave. We loaded Josh's truck and headed for the put-in. I broke the run up into different gorges. The first gorge is boof after boof after slide after ledge, all clean class 5. That leads into Heath Springs gorge. Which has 3 huge waterfalls and a deep dark canyon, where escape is not an option. Then the dark granite of Heath Springs fades into the white gorge which contained countless 8 footers, slides, and waterfalls that ends with Rattlesnake Falls. We camped at the top of the falls and enjoyed the fire and wilderness. The next section has classic California drops, granite slides, and waterfalls. I was lucky enough to watch Pat fire up Scotts Drop and style it. (A 90-100 foot double drop) The rest of the run has a 30 footer, tons of sick drops, and one last portage around Wabena Falls. (70-80 footer) I found out later by talking to Scott Ligare that Rush stomped the hell out of Wabena 3 day before. (Props to him for steping it up) After that you are out of the Royal Gorge, and in to Generation Gap. I can't really tell you much about the next 2 sections of the run other than there are some big hard rapids, some very scary undercuts and sieves, some portages, some must make moves, and some class 3 parts where you can relax. We had a long day 2 and camped at a sandy beach in Giants Gap. We finished the 30 miles early the next morning. All though there were some quality class 5 rapids in the lower sections I was still happy to see the take out and our truck waiting for us at the bottom. In the end everyone had good lines no one was hurt and every one was happy through the whole trip. With one broken paddle (IAN), one swim (Holman), and a split open chin (PAT), our trip was complete and everything went well. The Royal Gorge is my favorite river I have paddled and the second overnighter I have ever done. I have to say thanks to Pat for leading the run and knowing all the portages, he made our trip that much more successful. If the level is right and you feel like going BIG far away from any help the Royal Gorge will always be waiting for you and any one who wants it. Later E.G.

A Sunny Day on South Sliver

Hey just got back from an amazing trip to California. One of the runs I got to do was South Sliver. Yeah the classic cali granite slides and waterfalls. I was told the level was really HIGH but it still looked and felt good. I drove to the top with Lane Jacobs and Travis Winn and put in. The run is classy. Smooth slides and teacups all of it is clean, I followed Lane down the whole run top to bottom. After the run we went to Lane parents nice ass house and had some steak and potatoes, A good day. Photos by Ian Garcia and Travis Winn.
Hope you like the pictures. This is a must do if you are in Cali. Later E.G.

Jackson Hole, WY

I spent the last 3 days in Wyoming competing in the jackson whitewater championships. There were 3 events. The down river race on the hoback river, a rodeo on the snake, and a boatercross on the grey's. I took home 3 1st place wine glasses. The short boat class on the hoback, the jounior class in the rodeo, and the jouinor class on the boater cross. I also competed in the mens pro class on the grey's and ended up in second place. I got to see a lot of good friends and hang out in a different area for a while plus the water was really high on all across the state so it was like I got to paddle 3 totaly new runs. Now I have to work for a few days then it's off to Cali for some epic over nighters in the sierras. sorry for no pictures. later E.G.

BOAT EATER

This is my favorite wave in Montana, and maybe even west of the Mississippi.
Big, fast, surgey, and steep. Ian and I hit this wave at the perfect level this last weekend and did some filming for our Montana movie. After 2-3 hours here you are spent. There is a eddy, but with 2 people there it's non-stop surfing and action the whole time. If your ever in the Bozeman area this is the spot to go. If the Yellowstone is running 10,000-11,000 cfs your golden and your about to have of the best play sessions of your life. Plus I garentee you will be the only people there. It's Montana. later E.G.

a BIG day on BIG T

Saturday, June 3. We looked over the Big Timber creek bridge to see a very low flow down in the plains where the creek runs into the Yellowstone river. Still wanting a good day of creeking this weekend we met Jon and Cam in Big Timber and drove to the campground. The flow looked good in the runout zone of the canyon but we were still
not sure. When we got to the falls we knew right away that it was HIGH!! After the 3 mile hike in the 90 degree weather I was ready to get it on. I roashed Ian and won, I was droppin in first. It starts off fast with a 25 foot dobble drop in to a 50 foot slide after a few boofs.

It slows up for a few hundred meters then takes off under the first bridge with a few long fast slides. Ian and I both had good lines in the first section with Jon and Cam taking pics and vid. The next section starts off with a portage around some logs and the enterence to Fine Line. I opted to go first and stuck the huge drop without a scout. It's very crazy dropping in to such a big drop without seeing it for a year, it's always bigger than you remember.
After I watched Ian go we rallied the rest of the steep boulder section and met our friends above the Pinch. We decided to run the 20 foot drop right above the Pinch so I set our boats up for the sea launch while Ian went down to look at the monster slide. Ian went first launching a strange looking boof off the 20 footer, I couldn't tell what it did to him but it looked like he go some air. I could just see him disapear in to the Pinch when I got in my boat. With the high water the 20 footer was very misleading. I took a righty off of it and bounced off the kicker lip. I got the most air I have ever gotten off a boof in my life, I rotated a full 90 degrees in the air and landed on my side. After shaking it off I was already in the Pinch.That baby is off the hook, especialy at high H2O. You go through the first pinch, fly over kickers, speed up, and explode through the air after hitting the ture Pinch. 10 meters after you exit the slide you drop in to Z. A tering slide that starts off with a 10 foot drop and ends in a huge hole. The Gambler looked like too much of a gamble so we quickly walked and ran the run out to the second bridge. This section is one of my favorites, you run quality slides and boulder gardens in the most beautiful setting you can imagine, The Crazy Mountains. The day was absolutly epic both of us stuck all our lines and run all the big drops, but there was one more drop to run. Big Timber falls, the biggest and hardest drop on the run. The short walk down to the falls is all down hill and easy, but once your there reality kicks in and you see the monster your going to run. With high water the one of the hardest parts is fairying in to the slot the way you want to be. Ian fired it up first had a little troble with the fairy but stuck the line. He got a black eye and recieved quite a beating at the base of the falls. I did not see the bit of carnage so I committed to running it. I didn't want to waste my energy with the fairy so I charged out hard and dropped in on my first try. I came in to the kicker that is usally the front of the island, but at this levle is a 10 foot fish tale, I hit it stright on, flew in the air doing half a berrel roll and landed upside down on the slide. I drug my body about a hundred feet on the rocks rolled up and flew off the main drop backwards. When I resurfaced I rolled up and started to paddle out of the boily undercut room when I started to sink in my boat. My skirt had imploded on impact with the pool. I quickly got out of my boat a grabbed my brother, he pulled me up on to the cliff and got me up to the flats. Jon and Cam were already gone and ended up getting my boat and paddle in less than 10 minutes. We walked out to the car and I was still so adenilized I didn't know if I had really hurt myself. By the time I was at the car I thought I broke my arm. But later I found out my arm, hand, and shoulder were just banged up. I committed to running the falls and I messed the line, shit happens, just stick the line next time. This is still one of my favorite runs in the world, just get ready for a day of steepness and speed. later hommies E.G.

Memorial Weekend

The long weekend was kicked off with a plane flight with my dad. During this flight I saw 2 of the most amazing first D's I have ever seen. A 60+ footer with a cool entrance only an hour from Bozeman,
and a gorge that starts off with a few stout rapids then off a 50+ footer in to a 1 1/2 mile gorge of class 5 Montucky gnar gnar. South of BMT north of U&ME who knows the exact locations???
The next day my little brother Nate took off for some Idaho huckin'. Nate and my hommie Erik went down and met up with Davis a local Idaho ripper to run the Portneuf river in southern part of the state. What they got out of it was 15, 10, and 5 footers along with assorted slides and rapids.

The river runs stright through the town of Lava hot springs making the best combo of kayaking in cold water and lounging in hot water there is.


That same Friday Ian and I went to check out the 60+ footer close to Radersburg MT. After a drive through some quality mountain scenery we came to the trail head. A 3.5 mile hike on a trail, how hard could it be? Well we got lost, ran it to a mouse and its baby, went up and down the same hill 4 times, and finally found out that our short cut was the exact opposite, before finding the waterfall. It was just what we
were looking for a perfect 55-60 footer with the best rolling lip you could imagine. A good 4+ entrance and a big pool at the bottom. There was one tiny problem, a ledge came in to the falls 10 feet from the pool and made it unrunnable, dam shut down again. You tell me if you'd give her.


The next adventure for the Garcia brothers was some real covert operation red alert secret mission low down stuff. I can't tell you about it or I would have to kill you. All I can say is that there was a clean 70, 25, 20, 30, 15, and 20 on it but the weather stalled us for another weekend. So we called the weekend good and did a celebration run on Hyalite creek with our good buddies Jon and Cam.
But we weary the next update could shock and ahhw anyone who set their eyes on it. Later hope you like the pics E.G.

Playing Bozeman

With my return to Bozeman came the hot weather. It was 80 to 90 degrees for 5 days stright. The massive snow pack the mountains around Bozeman recieved months ago started to melt. The Yellowstone rose 4000 cfs dayily while the Gally rose 600 to 700 a night. With in 4 days the river were brown and flooded. Springdale a wave that
comes in at 18000 cfs or higher was in along with the diversion dam wave on the Gally that comes in above 4500. Both these wave are amazing, any wave moves are possible on either of these features, and they are my favorite playspots in the Bozeman area. After my weekend full of Blunts, Helixes, Pan Ams, and any other crazy things I came up with I am now ready for the steep and tecnical creekin of the Rockies. Enjoy the pics. Big Timber and other Montana classic updates coming soon. Later E.G.