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

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