Cascada Bonito

After a long stint down in Patagonia, we ( the blue balls crew) started heading North, Back to Pucon. After getting another round in on the Rio Manso just south of Barriloche, we decided it was time to head home. The whole crew had planned to fly out with in the next week and we needed to organize our shit… After a cold wet night outside of Barriloche, we rallied early to hit the border crossing. About 2 hours into the drive, we crossed the Rio Bonito. As I looked up, Evan was looking at us with a shit eating grin on his face…. “Boys…. its fuckin in!!..” was all he sayed. We all knew what he was talking about…. Cascada Bonito.

This was to be my 3rd time up to the falls. The previous 2 times there had not been any water, so we were stoked! Upon arrival at the look out for the falls, we all realized we had hit the perfect water level. We had to run it. The only way to scout this waterfall is from the viewing platform, about 150 feet away form the falls. After a quick scout, we decided we were in!! WE all went and geared up and decided to run it in pairs, so we could capture it on film and video. Evan and myself decided to go first. As we hiked up thru the ash covered jungle, it was all i could think about. The last person who ran this waterfall broke their back… My mind kept saying: “don’t boof it, don’t boof it”. Once we got roped down to the lip, the size of this beast hit me. “Holy Fuck”. Were in the shit now… So evan went first, while i filmed from the lip. From what i saw he stomped the shit out of it! Having no way out but to run it, i climbed up to my boat.

It was one of the craziest waterfalls ive ever run. Big, scary and STOUT!!! After having 2 good lines, Aniol and Fred were keen to fire it up! Aniol was next, having a good line as well. Unfortunately Fred landed on his paddle with his face and re-broke his nose. We ended up taking him to the Hospital to get some Argentinian stiches. All and all a sick mission. This definitely was of the best days down there!!!

Keep Charging

Be Well, Be Safe and Live Fully

LG

Photos by Aniol Serrasolses

Rio Florine

In the Lago Ranco area of Chile, we find the Rio Florine! This was my first time hitting this definition of a class 5 river! As the Blue Balls Crew pulled up to the camp spot, Papa Garcia had the grill fired up and the meat on! After a sick Chilean Asado we found a bottle of pisco and decided we should have a few drinks! The camping zone offered natural hot springs and an amazing few of the stars.

After a nice sleep in the grass we woke up and headed to the put in! Upon arrival we found the level to be a little low but still manageable. The first drop is a technical double drop, ending in a 25 footer that lands on a wall on the left. Directly after that you come to a sweet little 20 foots slide and a hot eddy catch directly above the 60 footer. With the level being a little low we were anticipating a fairly large impact. We all decided to throw our paddles with only one swim! After the 60 footer is the take out of the upper section. We decided to keep going down stream to get the super sick 30 footer! Once you drop into lower canyon, you have to run everything, including a siphon rapid. Thanks to Ian for roping me out of that one! Check out a few pics below!!!

Porque Ganando

Bomb Flow TV Episode 8

Hey All!, sorry for the long delay. As it turns out my good friend spilled a full beer into my computer. So ive been off the grid for a while. But here is a small teaser for the upcoming Bomb Flow Episode!!! Check it out while i write up some updates!

Chile Stouting

After a long and well deserved hungover 18 hour transit, i arrived back in South America. Chile! The land of the stouts!!!! I met up with my good friends Evan Garcia, Anton Imler, Mathias Fossum and Aniol Serrasolses. Not having paddled in 4 months, i wanted to do some warming up. They wanted none of it. So we headed south for some big bad ass runs.

We Arrived at the Rio Nilahue, thinking it would be ragging high. Due to the Puyehue volcan eruption, the river was a perfect level. Only one problem.. As we were scouting the river, we noticed that rocks were floating in the water…. Mother nature can be tricky. We werent to sure how the impact would be, with all the rocks flying out of the falls. Good thing Anton was fired up and made us run it. The impact was totaly fine, only resulting in a head full of sand that we are still trying to wash out.

Feeling fired up we decided to head up to the Rio Florine. Another amazingly scary river….. But thats another story….

Photos by: Mathias Fossum, Evan Garcia

Looking back on Norway 2011

Looking back on my time in Norway, as I sit on the train to the airport I realize that this is the place I want to be. The past 5 weeks have been filled with craziness, stouts, heartbreak and fun. In the past 2 weeks we lost 2 of our soldiers, both to accidents on the river. This is a reminder to us all that life is short and we must live every moment to the fullest. I know our friends on the other side would want us to. That being said, we must also remember to take calculated risks. What we do isn’t an exact science, rather a personal ambition and knowledge of skill.

This year in Norway I got to run a lot of big drops and hard class 5 rivers. After returning from an injuring this winter, I fell my skill and desire to run big drops sort of clicked. Although my desire to continue to push my self and the limits of the sport are still hot, I am looking at it through new eyes.

I ended this Norway trip with Voss Extreme Sports Week. A weeklong festival showcasing some of the most extreme sports out there. This year the Kayaking was portrayed so well that the organizers are looking to make the other sports take it to the next level as well. I think that kayaking is finally becoming more main stream and recognized as very extreme, I love it. So for all you other huckers out there, keep it up! Let’s take kayaking as far as we can, but remember to calculate the risks you take! Keep charging!

Now I’m on my way back to Canada for 48 hours then off to Baja Mexico for a little R and R and some surfing.
Be Well, Be Safe, Live Fully

Anton’s arrival, let’s go stouting!

So i got off the phone on wednesday night.. It was Anton. He says he’ll be in Voss in 20 Minuits, and hes ready for action! We meet up down town around midnight and head to the lake for beers. We woke up really early and were on the road by noon. Where too??? A quick stop by the kayak shop will fix that. After talking to some of the boys we made a plan.

We headed up to the Jordal Valley to see what was in store. Upon arrival we noticed it was, like everything else in Voss, raging high! Bring it on. Unfortunately the upper section had aids, or it did that day, we ended up walking the whole first half of the river. Once we arrived to the lower section we found some goods. I’d heard stories about the last waterfall, and people getting sucked behing the falls. So when we arrived at it we took a good look and saw the potential for carnage. Anton was keen to go first, just being two of us, we decided against safety and that filming and the getting the shot were more important… Anton came roosting off with a sick monster boof, landed in the boil and got shot straight back into the falls. After a quick beat down, he decided against going behind the falls and swam. After retrieving his gear, he told me there was no way in Hell that you could make it through the boil…

The next day we called up some of the boys ad decided to head to the Urdland river. Another new river for both of us. The locals called the level a little low, but the Voss boys like shit to be high and scary, so it was pretty much perfect. The top section reminds me of paddling in the Alps. Steep, technical class five. The you arrive at the double drop. This thing is super fun and technical as well, the bottom falls end in a pool about 2 feet deep. It’s a must boof.. Haha. Everyone that ran it had sick lines. Great day on the river. Anton and myself camped up there that night. After a “few” beers, we decided it was a good idea to go run the massive lower falls that Nick Turner and Seth Warren first D’d 10 years ago the next day. So we made some calls to rally the troops and had a few more beers.

Per usual we woke up super early and ready for the day…  After a quick scout we decided it good to go. My good friend Eirik Øvreeide had been eyeing this stout up for two years and was super keen to go first. He styled the shit out of it! As me and anton were walking up to run it, I asked him jokingly, “should we blue angel it?”. He looked back at me and said, “fuck ya, what could go wrong!” We hadn’t told anyone what we were about, so we called it the Blue Angel Surprise. Most of you out there have seen the result. Glorious shit. I will let some of the pics do the talking.

Enjoy kiddies, and remember:

Be well, Be safe, Live Fully

LG