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

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

Lower Rauma

This is a small video from the Lower Rauma, Norway
Courtesy of Colin Furmston

Lower Rauma

I always tried to go there but there was always a probleme with time,water levels and work, but this day I was ready to go, well I did no kayak much before but I was ready to give it a try, and there I was getting changed, and with a cool group of friends and fucking good weather we fired it up.
Lower Rauma is one of the must run river here in Norway, beautyful 3 kilometers of pure drops and pools,the Fluid Solo is just a perfect boat for this kind of rivers...
The Put in is a perfect 10 meters slide drop followed by a nice pool, the number 2 is a smaller drop, there is when we met the Ulva river, another fucking good run, beutyful scenary around, number 3 is just awesome, number 4 is pretty intimidating and crazy fast slide drop, then number 5, fuckingtastic!!!!,then number 6, number of the beast, super nice slide with a big auto boof at the end, preatty shallow on the rigth( my buddy Diego broke his rebs the day after), after that, small drops, and then, the well know flemming drop(massive 18 meters drop) for me that day not too much water, making the landing a bit harder.
Take a look at the pics....
Thanks to www.artistic-sportswear.com
www.tywarp.com
www.fluidkayaks.com
www.conrios.com

My aussie co-pilot Colin and my new JEWEL....fucking great

boofing the number 2

Colin styling it on number 2

hucking on the number 1
ni ce shot on the number 1
me dropping on Number 3


Trying to find my way down on number 4

Maxi on Number 5

on my way on number 6

me boofing the number 6

Maxi Running Flemming drop a week before

Roundaselvi- Norway

Fuck...this is a magic river.....awesome water level and weather,awesome people...
Roundaselvi is well know because the famous Nosebreaker drom...wich is a prety good drop,but Roundaselvi is not just that....the landscape and the fucking good rapid above make you day....Roundaselvi....a love it too much....
Here are few pics...

Jordaselvi- Norway

Norway...again and again and again

Before my trip to Norway I thought that this country had the best white water of all Europe and probably one of the best white waters of all over the world, so my time there is to figure out that what I thought was nothing more than pure and totally true.
Voss magic place....
Man.. looks like the water levels in Voss are pretty good at the moment, you want to go??? (friend of mine said) well my pocket is pretty broken but let,s go anyway (I replied)....
Voss to me sounds like a creek paradise. And there we were driving to the put in of the Jordaselvi, we slept right at the put in (beautiful spot). Next morning we were on the water running awesome rapids...the river starts up in the valley and the water is bloody cold....(jejejj well we are in Norway),as soon you go down the river quickly starts droping with several slides and drops....perfect for us, dropping,dropping and dropping until a beautiful 12 meters drop...So all of us ran it...Max ran first and he made it look easy...then I went second, no problem at all, after me Greig, and when he popped up on the surface his boat was full of water plus his nose showing us that the drop was not that easy (deep cut after hitting his face with the paddle at the landing). Then Jeff ran it and his skirt popped up also....well that was a pretty good day for all of us.
We cruised down to town and there was an extreme week competition going on but incredibly there was not a doctor in the hospital to stitch Greig's nose. Amazing!!!!!!!

stay turned for more updates from the country of waterfalls,
until then Vaya con rios
Thanks to : tywarp.com
artistic-sportswear.com
fluidkayaks.com
conrios.com

Solo first descent

I was looking for a good run, a good first descent, so with my friend Sergio Vidal we jumped in the truck and went to look for the unknown, this time it was the Reco river,
We drove like three hours from Pucon towards Panguipulli.
The river was with a good level,but we found us in the middle of nothing and without shuttle bunny, so we thought of coming back with a better timing and with a driver to make our descent easier.
Somehow I ended up going alone with my driver Chapulin, this time the river was lower and from what we knew that was good news because the first 5 kilometers the river drops like 120 meters which is not that bad if it was true. The map showed us that the river was like 10 kilometers long, so like 4 hours run more less. I started going down and after the firs 50 meters the river started droping without stop, full of undercut and trees then I look back and my driver wa salready gone, so I tried my radios but they did not work, I was already in the canyon so I starte walking, like a gentlelman adn the river was getting steeper and steeper with a portage option class 5+, took me 3 hours to portage 2,5 kilometers, with more water that would be a suicide. I took some Pics from that section. Then the river started to opening up again with a nice class 3 and 4, then the canyon closed again with a fucking beautiful lanscaped around then the class 4 started again, preatty much until the end.
I think the upper section of this rivers looks better
here are some Pics from the first 2 kilometers



Oooooppppssss

Put-in


Walking down the river

On my way down

Half way down

The last couple of hundred meters

The way back home

Pucon Pics

Well long time since my last update, but here we go.
It's been a preatty good 2008 for me so far and I have nothing to said about it, I'm a daddy now and we bought a awesome propety in my home town(Pucon), Now I'm in Amsterdam, going soon to Norway.....looking forward for that.
Pucon was great not so much water but still great, I could not kayak to much but I had a great summer together with my new family and friends.
Now I hope I can kayak more but we will see. Whit the Fluif SOLO is so much easy
Here are some pics from a always a good run....enjoy it




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LIKE WHAT YOU DO

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