Here is a little teaser of our trip to galicia and portugal. We where really lucky to find great water levels after some massive rains….The full video is dropping next week!

After our 5 days in Galicia/Portugal we drove again all night to be at home in the morning of the saturday cause we where doing a freestyle kayak course with SBP together with my brother Gerd. The surprise was to find a flooded river! there where plenty of options to go kayak and we even had the opportunity to paddle the Boavi, with comes up once in a few years if you’re lucky.

Enjoy some more pictures of this last days kayaking around!

We finally made our way back up from the south, and stopped in at Kurt Caseys and Eva Luna´s place in Pucon to hang out and have some good times.  Rodrigo Tuschner from KayakPucon came up with the brilliant idea of heading to the middle Fuy, something I have been wanting to do all summer long. The place looks fantastic from the updates I have seen, and I was curious about this middle run that needs low water to go. Off we went, with pimpdaddy Ian Garcia and Argentine Federico.

Beautiful Patagonia!

The put-in is a magic little spot, just like so many of the amazing rivers of Chile the water is pristine, the surroundings lush. Heading downstream Ian informed me about the 6 meter high seal launch before the highlight of the trip, a 13-15 meter waterfall that is as clean as clean gets. Oh no, I hate seal launches. Really. Simply because I always suck at them, no matter how many I have tried. Whereas Rodrigo went off picture-perfect, I did a funky twist that got the two boys up on shore laughing. But hey, it was soft, and I was so excited to go over the edge of the waterfall, I was hollering of anticipation before the lip. Dropping over the edge I slowly tried to tuck in, and remember thinking it was higher than I had thought. The impact was hard, and at the bottom I had to collect Rodrigo´s paddle that got ripped out of his hand. Federico showed us a graceful little swim action, whereas Ian simply ran an extremely clean, controlled and stylish line that gets me impressed every time. It is his trademark after all.

Pimp daddy I.G with normal style

And then the fun really started! I am sorry I had no Go-pro on my head for the next kilometers, as the rapids below the waterfall are a blast! Trailing Ian, we were dodging and weaving through holes and waves, and the last stacked set of rapids had me delirious with happiness. So much fun! Just before we dropped into the last set, I heard Ian mumbling something about ….. big hole…. blah blah. I asked which side to go around the hole, and he only grinned back: Through the middle of it! So it was, and I was actually quite happy in my big Habitat, for as long as I can keep it straight, it carries me over a lot of shit. Thank god.

Rodrigo dropping..

The last day in Pucon I spent with Kurt and Eva, and their son Pablo, getting back on the Liacura for a little playboat action. Pablo, being 9, did amazingly well, and had a big grin on his face cruising through the rapids next to Rodrigo. Way to go, man!

After Pucon I had the journey from hell back to Norway, which took me four days. I landed at the wrong airport once, had to sleep over at airports twice, 150 dollar taxi ride, hellish stop over in New York, just to confirm that I never ever want to fly through US immigration again. Tthose guys are insane with safety measures, line ups and rudeness to people just trying to make it home.. I still managed to smuggle (not on purpose) one liter of liquid  into the very last checkpoint in JFK, 10 meters from the gate.. So…

Finally back home I had time to re-pack and jump in my van to cruise to Uteplassen in Sogndal, a sweet little backcountry haven where I had a multimedia show for about 40 people.

No rest for the wicked, and Sunday I got dragget out into the backcountry by my friends Ove and Kjell. These two are the most fun people ever to ski with, and we had an amazing day out on the mountain, including me taking the biggest fall of the season. Oh yeah.

The boys enjoying some sunny times..

Back in Voss I am finishing up the studies with my exams coming up in two weeks, and the water is slowly coming up.. In just a few days, we will be hucking the waterfalls, then flying the paragliders and still skiing. It is amazing to be back! The Raundalselvi is still threathened to be dammed, one of the most amazing freeflowing rivers in the world, with waterfalls like Nosebreaker and Nick Turner´s huge slide featured in Wehyakin, and infamous sections like the Mjølfjell and Trainstation, not to mention the Marine canyon. We walked in a little protest through the streets of Voss today, with other people marking the 1st of may with various banners and the traditional marching band.

My  new company www.soriamoriadventures.com are also getting bookings as we speak, so the summer should be busy enough! See u on the water!

Mariann

Last year I spent the majority of my 3 months stay in Chile in Patagonia, and a considerable amount of that south of the Futaleufu. This river is for most regarded as “south”, and we do not see a lot of the paddlers of the north making the trip. And if so, the Futaleufu is normally just the training ground for groups taking on the famous Rio Baker, another day or two of driving on the Carretera Austral. The remoteness, the lack of people, and kayakers, is exactly why I love it!

My favorite river.. at least one of them! Photo: Ron Fischer

The drive down to Villa O´higgins is spectacular, with the northen Icefield descending into view as on the other side of the now meandering rio Baker. Upon arriving to Puerto Yungay, the ferry crossing of Fiordo Mitchell signals the return of the wilderness. In this area, one does not see kayakers. Since last year, when we used Villa O´higgins as a base for two weeks, only one more group of kayakers came down to run the Rio Bravo. There are endless rivers, but they usually require a lot of work to figure out. As good as park and hucks are once in a while, to me, the exploration of wild rivers is where the essence of kayaking lies. Though, while exploring, you also sometimes get denied.

The idea of 2012 was to cross Lago Christie and Lago Allegre to access the Bravo. This would put us back at the first descent put-in of 2006, and allow for 5 days on the water, and a possibility to hike up to the headwaters to check out the remains of the gradient. It requires a paddle of about 25-30 kilometers, and a short hike in between the lakes. To our dismay, we were one day too late. Ahead of us by one day, a crew had successfully crossed the lake and found their personal heaven in the deep canyons of the Bravo. Upon arriving at Lago Christie, we were facing a wind that had turned to headwind, and was blowing up to 40 kms/hour steadily, with ghasts up to 80 km/hour. It did not turn or back down for the next week.

on the way to Lago Christie..

Defeated by the “Escoba del Dios”, the “Broom of God”, which sweeps away all sins and sorrows according to the Patagonians, we were looking for another option. The rivers were low, lower than last year, but not quite low enough as  it would turn out.

Ron Fischer (SUI) has been peering onto maps of a border area to the south of Lago Christie for the past year, tracing a blue line flowing from Lago Nansen in Argentina. In a flurry of first descents one year ago, we also tried to hike in to scout the Rio Carrera, but got turned around by unfriendly border patrollers that allowed nobody into the area due to two recent deaths. A car had tried to cross the river, with fatal consequences, and the last thing the red-haired capitan wanted was gringos out on an adventure.

Looking into the Carrera...

Late in the afternoon, after our failed visit to Lago Christie, we arrived without much hope for passage, at the same border station. To our surprise the patrollers were friendly and helpful, even allowing our motorcycle friend, soon to be “Sherpa Nata”, to enter the no-man land between the borders without a passport. Some hours later we returned to Villa O´higgins, with some glimpses of the river, and an agreement with the local farmer to rent horses for next day. What we had been able to see from the brim of the canyon, was swift flowing current without many eddies, but with a mesmerizing turquoise color surrounded by flashes of autumn yellow and red. Stunning. The river drops 350 meters in 14 kilometers from Lago Nansen, flowing through three box canyons and in general being tucked away in a deep, v-shaped river valley. Simply wanting it, I ignored Ron´s worried looks as he was trying to obtain some secret information about the box canyons by simply staring at the maps that same evening. I felt positive: Surely we would be able to see more of the river on our way up to the lake, allowing us to turn around if deemed to steep. I was wrong.

A kayak in the woods..

The following day we started hiking without horses. The campesino claimed he could not find them on his 200 hectar big backyard, and without much hesitation we rigged our kayaks onto our backs. The first major mistake of the trip came when we decided to try for a shortcut over the hills, instead of following the river. The second mistake came when we assumed we could still get down to the river to scout from this alternative hiking route. And of course, I should have known better after having battled the Patagonia bush before. Two days later we had still not reached the lake, and an unexpected deep sidecreek had forced us down to river level, only 2 kilometers short of Lago Nansen. The hike had been tough, with rugged terrain and at times, dense bush. Other times we found ourselves hiking through a dreamlike forest lit on fire by the fall colors, and fresh snow was capping the peaks all around us. After looking at our limited food supply, we decided to simply put on.

Our friend, Nathaniel Thorpe, had decided to join us for a hike. Being “Sherpa Nata”, we had been spared the weight of sleeping bags and tent on the hike, now it all got placed into our Watershed drybags and good byes were being said. He would backtrack out to civilization while we were on the river. Except that we only made it about 500 meters before the door slammed shut in our faces. The first box canyon was wild. To big ledges led into a Baker-style rapid with no way of escape or even scouting the coming blind corner. It was quite simple, there was too much water in the river. Defeated, we tied the kayaks to a tree, marked the GPS location and shouldered our bags. From the riverbed, the climb back out to our previous hiking route would take days with the kayaks in the steep, bushy terrain.

Stout box canyon

It took us one day to hike out without the kayaks, and we arrived at the border control somewhat defeated. I expected trouble upon entering back into Chile, seeing that we had not entered Argentina, due to the location of their border station. However, the chilenos only took a look at our rugged appearance and wondered if we had had a good hiking trip, and welcomed us back for next year. They seemed ignorant to the fact that we did not have Argentina entry stamps in our passports, revealing that we had been in Argentina illegally for three days… At least we had some luck! . With two kayaks tied to a tree in the middle of the nowhere, I guess we have no choice but to return. The river carries the least water in may, and provides the only chance to get through its canyons. At least, we do not have to hike our kayaks back in there the next time…

Thanx to Teva, Sweet, Kober Paddles, NRS, Five Ten and Vertikal AS for supporting our adventures!

Mariann

Riding the biggest rapid of the Palomeras

It has been great to go back home! I got to see so many friends that I haven’t seen in so much time… rest a bit after so many waterfalls and not having a bed for so many months…After spent sometime with my family in Girona I moved to sort. We had a great week of good paddling on the upper Noguera & Palomeras creek, with good weather and the water raising up. The cold has come back and stopped everything…. enjoy a few pictures of one of my favorites creeks in my home area. 500 meters of fun slides and drops!

Cold days of kayaking with low water...

Ready for some action!

the section is super continuous!

having fun on the auto-boofer!

Local paddler from Sort, Marçal enjoying the goods of the Palomeres!

Together with my brother Gerd we are also working on our kayak courses, putting together people from all over to spain who comes to learn how to kayak on our local river the noguera Pallaresa!

Happy birthday cake!!! thanks to my brooo Gerd!!!!

Walking to the put-in of the slalom course in Sort

Happy crew after 2 intense days on the water!

easy days back home!

Hoping to see some more water in our rivers in the next weeks… I am going crazy without some action… together with my brother and some friends we are travelling to the west of spain (galicia) this upcoming week! should be sick! more and better soon!!

After a few months of snow and ice the sunny days of spring helped motivate and fire up the locals for the first days of spring paddling. My New Boats arrived to Ottawa Paddle Shack from Wave Sport so I wanted to make a day of it and paddle the ‘freshy’ in the city before returning home to the Valley.
The Champlain Bridge is an amazing location located in the city of Ottawa. It is a busy place that collects crowds of after work paddlers, beginners, canoeists, and the annoying ‘landlocked surfers’.
For me the Bridge is a great place to paddle for the season opener. It is low impact, and easy access, which is just what you need when testing out the early season water temperatures.
Thanks to my sponsor Wave Sport I was paddling a brand new Project X 56 in their new colour Ice Blue. I can’t stress enough how happy I am paddling this amazing kayak. It is the best playboat design on the market setting examples for the rest. It is crazy fast on even the smallest of waves and the volume for my weight of 170 lbs (70kg) is perfect. It loops big and the edges of the boat allow for active carving and movement on the wave.
For those of you who haven’t had the chance to try one you should.

The video edit is coming soon…

Tyler Curtis
www.riverplay.ca
www.whitewaterchile.com

After spending 2 nights in the glorious habitat of Cabanas Miraflores and paddling the Rio Nuble, we had the rest required to head for the combat paddling of the continuous cold crystal clear water of the Rio Laja. For most of the group the Rio Laja would prove to be a highlight piece of whitewater on the trip. The Rio Laja flows out of a lake that was created when the lava from Volcan Antuco (2985 meters) flowed free and dammed up the river. Almost fifty bird species inhabit the national park, and it also marks the northern limit for the growth of the mountain cypress and the monkey-puzzle tree, Chile’s national tree. Only seventy years ago volcanic activity was recorded in the volcano!
This river is as fun as fun gets, at least if you like combat paddling. It is a non-stop rollercoaster of moving between holes and crashing waves, and as it drops around 180 meters in 2.5 kilometers without a single vertical drop you know the action is fast. A swim is definitely not an option! Well at least that was my briefing to the crew…
From the time you take your first stroke it is game-on. The first rapid is the steepest one, and below it there is an occasional eddy you can catch before the gradient increases again. This would be the location that we gathered the group again after loosing our first swimmer in the first 100 meters of the run! After this welcoming start to the paddle day there are multiple lines everywhere; the most important part is to remember that on this river, you are on your own. And yeah, it is one of the most exhilarating rivers I know in Chile! We did manage to keep things under control until the last 100 meters of whitewater in the short 2.5km long section. In the final crux the excitement, fear, exhaustion, and mental energy finally had its breaking point and within seconds 3 out of 6 were taking an unscheduled swim-stop. Not recommended but survivable! The greatest part for me was that we only had another 25 meters of whitewater left before the class I-II float to the lake started! It took a few moments to communicate with everyone what happened and that the swimmers would have to walk the 600 meters remaining along the shore to the point where they could cross and get to the proper side of the river for our vehicles at the take-out. Once we all arrived together at the take-out the stories would flow more than the beer. Whether it was surviving the run, paddle the most continuous whitewater of their life, the stunning scenery, numb hands from the cold water, or a huge smile because all the equipment except 1 paddle was collected… Everyone had a personal experience that will never be forgotten!

Stay tuned to follow the adventures of team Whitewater Chile as we continue to move south and paddle….

For more info on the River of Chile check out www.whitewaterchile.com and find the guidebook ‘Whitewater Chile’.

Tyler Curtis

This has been an amazing kayaking year in Chile! Didn’t promise to be really good because of really low water levels, but we have been killing it putting a lot of motivation on running the big ones down here. Thankfully the last weeks have been full on rain so the levels have gone crazy and we got to paddle everything! enjoy some nice pics!

top rapids in Nevados photo: Lj Groth

booting the sickest drop in the rio turbio: Lj Groth

the scariest rapid of the upper carhuello photo: Lj Groth

Salto palguin: The first big waterfall of the trip was “salto palguin”, a super stout 80 footer with a crazy lip. I’ve ran this one 2 years ago but didn’t go too good… I boofed it, got my skirt imploded and end up swimming… this year things were different, had a great line on it and didn’t swim! Redemption feels great!

round 2 on salto palguin! redemption! photo: anne hubner

salto palguin! photo by: mathias fossum

Dirty gerd: The next big one was the “dirty gerd”, my older brother had the first descent on this one something like 5 years ago. One of the rowdiest rapids waterfalls I’ve seen In my life, super technical entrance, hard to stomp the line and crazy lines on the left and right, middle to right is the perfect line. Evan went for it first killing the entrance but missing a stroke before the lip and getting pushed all the way left, he was all right at the bottom so I decided to give it a go… I flipped in the entrance and got pushed all the way right in to the crack… anyway It was more smooth than expected and went all right! Can’t wait to go back in this one and give it the 2^nd round!!!

falling into the crack but making it down safe... stout!! photo: mathias fossum

EG styling suavemente!

Puma falls: Third one is a big one, the puma vs. cobra!! A crazy 100 footer on the river Fuy never ran before. I did the first D on February, got ejected and ate shit on it, but luckily didn’t get injured!! No one else wanted to give it a try that day, but I’m sure next year this thing is gonna go down again and again!

1st and only descent of puma falls (100 ft) in the river fuy, chile

Aniol flying down salt bonito in argentina photo: logan grayling

Lot of great trips coming up this year 2012 check it all out here: aniolserrasolses.blogspot.comThis one was a sick trip where a lot of great stuff went down, lot of fun with good friends, great parties with super sexy hot chicks…. Damn can’t wait to go back someday!!! Now I am back at home after almost a year of traveling, I was kind of scared to go back but It feels good actually… But also feel that after this experience I can’t stay In any place for too long now, I’ve become a nomad…

Make sure to check bomb flow episode 8 “porque ganando?” featuring the 1st descent of puma falls and amazing rivers all around chile & argentina! enjoy !

Thanks to my sponsors who help me get my goals:

Sweet protection, dagger, tribe, astral buoyancy,

After spending the last few days camping we rolled into the town of San Fabian and created a base camp at Cabanas Miraflores. This family run paradise was just what we needed. A relaxing pool side patio, grilling pavilion, and cold fridge to cool our tasty beverages would be our home for the next 2 nights while we explored the sections of the Rio Nuble. Again our trip charged into some more unique Chilean whitewater and some longer days on the water. With the days being incredibly hot and the sunshine nuclear it became mandatory to be on the river during the heat of the day.
The Rio Nuble is a classic Chilean river with more volume than most rivers. It is for this reason hydroelectric development threatens this great section of whitewater.
The Rio Nuble is a fantastic read and run, big volume, pool-drop, class III-IV river. With over 40km of whitewater, which can be segmented into 3 sections, the Rio Nuble gives the ability to pick and choose what sections you want to paddle and how much you want to paddle on a daily basis. It always has water even in a low water summer and if you choose you can also head upstream to check out the main tributary Rio Los Sauces.
At this point of our trip vacation mode had truly taken over! As I gazed around the resort style base camp I could see nothing but smiles and absolutely no stress or thoughts other than the moment of peace and quiet and time in the epic scenery of Chile.
We also had the opportunity to talk with a few of the local paddlers who were very excited to check out all our gear and new boats as the paddle community of the Rio Nuble is lacking the equipment required to get more youth on the water. We managed to organize a few items of our extras, which will allow another 2-3 paddlers to get more time in a kayak.

Stay tuned to follow the adventures of team Whitewater Chile as we continue to move south and paddle….

For more info on the River of Chile check out www.whitewaterchile.com and find the guidebook ‘Whitewater Chile’.

Tyler Curtis