domingo, 13 de septiembre de 2009

Norway

A day to remember in Norway
Lower Rauma by Gigo Castillo
Before I came to Norway I heard a lot of people say that Norway is Da spot for a good summer, good money, good people and off course heaps of waterfalls. I fell in love with this place, by far the second best place on the globe, no doubt. This is my 5" season here and I wanna live here.
Here it is… a day on the Rauma….a day to remember.
We met with the boys at Heidal Rafting that morning and I remember jumping in Santi`s car for a two hours ride to the put in. This section contains 6 amazing slides-drops on less than 4 kilometers, and at the take out there is a 20+ huge cascade, just awesome to look at. Last year I ran the whole section and I guess my brain was too big and my balls too small to run the last one, Flemming fossen. This year my brain is smaller, so I guess it was time to give it a try….enjoy the pics…
Pics:
1 Nice dogs
2 Put in
3 Jussi Tanskanen
4 Thorphe falling
5 The boyzz
6 Santi, what a cool place
7 Thorphe
8 one more Jussi Tanskanen
9 Colin showing us that the embudo has a good plastic
10 Gigo Castillo, Nice shot
11 Ready
12-13-14 Thorphe styling
15 Gigo going big
16 Flat landing
17 Santiago Lo Greco
18 Santi and Gigo, happy to be at the botto



















martes, 25 de agosto de 2009

Norway.....Norway and Norway

This is a small video.....wait for the entire movie....for now.... turn up the volume

lunes, 23 de marzo de 2009

Rio Baker and Ventisquero

Rio Baker.....BIG BOY
After enjoying futafest and spending a week on the river, we dicided to go further south on the Patagonia Chilelna.
The team consisted of Two american, two belgiums, a german, a italian, Fico from Peru as a driver and my self from Chile, all with expedition experience from before, and most of us friend from time ago. The mission was to run severals rivers like:
Rio Ventisquero
Upper rio Cisnes
Rio Baker
Rio Bravo
We drove for about six hours south to get to the Rio Ventisquero Put in, two of ours team members ran it years ago, but this time it was a lot of more water going down.
Here we were ready to fire it up. Man...... this is one of the most incredible put in ever.
Put in on the lake and begind you there is a enormous glaciar hanging out from the andes and a huge waterfall coming from it and in front you can see the Pacific ocean at the end of the valley...awesome view....
The river has a good and step class V rapid until the swing bridge, after that few more class IV until the take out bridge...awesome afternoon run, time for a red wine(gato negro)
Next morning we were driving to Coyhaique and few kilometers before, our car broke down.....fuck.... and there we were stuck in Coyhaique.
We spend like 4 days in town no pla ce for boating so we decided to rent a Van, expensive shit. After two day we were on the afternoon scouting the Big Boy BAKER to run it the day after, dude that river scared me just looking it( a few week ago the river was 3.500 m3s, 1,5 meters higher and the day we ran it...who 850 m3s). We camp by the river that night, and I do not remember a quiet night on the trip.
Well next morning we split the groupfor the photo bussines, because on the river was impossible to eddy out ( you wanna be in the middle of the river all the time man, the eddy lines can make you creekboat looks like a squirtboat). So four of us ran it first and everyone hit the line,but here is the thing, the line can change in seconds, so you can see the kayak in front of you passing green and when you go a massive wave break on you, anyways...happy days for four of us so far. Later was the time for the others, everyone nice and safe. I HAVE NEVER FELT THAT SMALL ON THE WATER BEFORE. probably one of the biggest on earth.
Here is the bad thing about it. There is a megaproyect to dam the baker and the Pascua river, and we all know that this gems need to keep flowing. please help us to keep it that way , fro more info visit www.patagoniasinrepresas.com
We come back to Coyhaique that day, so the Rio Bravo will be for the next time a.s.a.p. because the also planning to dam it.
Not money enough to keep renting a car, we came back to fix our car, that took us 10 more days stuck in Coyhaique.
Here I,m back in Pucon ready for the next season in Norway
enjoy the Pics
vaya conrios
Gigo Castillo














lunes, 9 de marzo de 2009

Futa Fest 2009











Here is a small report from Futa fest 2009
Futaleufu is one of my favorite rivers down here in the patagonia
and every year since the first descens back in 1985 a lot of kayakers
and rafters come and fall in love with this beautiful river.
Well few years ago the rumors star, "they gonna dam the Futa".
we all know that is really dificult to stop this project, but this year
we all figthing in show all over the globe that the Futa is not alone and the
Futa is not to be dam.
Futa fest 2009 is a small example of what people down here in Chile is doing
to protect this rivers for futures generations.
From the 20-22 of february all of us met down here, all of us focused on one
thing THE FUTA MUST FLOW.
Well the party star with a boatercross from the eddy about Cara de indio camp site
until Mondaca over sixty boaters and 5 raft were paddling down to the eddy beautyful
scene, six kayakers at the same time, very fun for the people watching
day two was the down river, 12 rafting team fighting the way down on the famous section Puente a Puente (bridge to bridge) about 9 kilometers, after that was the time for the kayakers, that was a amazing thing to see, more that 60 kayakers at the same time trying to get down as fast as possible...awesome!!!!
Day 3 was the freestyle on the Mondaca rapid everybody trying to do the most spectacular move on the hole, raft, kayaks and even a hidrospeed....
Futa fest for sure is a mission completed, a incredible event for everyone with out mention the party and BBQ,s
Now we all know that THE FUTA MUST FLOW

jueves, 5 de febrero de 2009

Pucon




Pucon is the door to the patagonia and it is been one of the best creekboating
destination of the country, for most of us (cheleans) Da place to be in spring and summer time,
if you wanna go big come to Pucon.
From Santiago ( the capital) drive down to the south around 8 hours, here in Pucon you gonna find
a lot of diferent rivers and sections, big drops and super cool alpine rapids, Pucon offer more than 20
diferent rivers and sections around, the good thing about it is that they are no more than two hours away, so you
can park and huck in the morning,playboating for lunch and creekboatin for the afternoon, and if still energy
you would like to try a Piscola and few beers in one of the locals bar down in town, Pucon offer all, nice beach,
natural hot spring, beautyfull lake and volcanos, Pucon best choice for November-January