The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 113

Both of us threw down pretty well, my one went
fairly over vertical but bounced out nicely with a
soft landing at the bottom.
With just a couple of days of rental left with the
truck we decided to hit up a few rives that still had
water around Pucon. First up the Upper Trancura
and then we headed off with our camping supplies
up to the Upper Palguin where we spent our final
days together doing laps and boater-X racing. After
returning the truck we had a couple of chill
evenings together in Pucon, hanging out, playing
mini golf, sampling local beer and exploring the
town. Honestly I still get lost.
After the Avocado crew split I had a couple of days
with the Austrian crew, Lukas and Cristoph Strobl,
and Matty from Wales. We followed the water
south, and then the rain started. After walking
away form Salto de Nilahue because it was way to
high I headed back to Pucon, in search of a new
crew to chase down the rivers which had come
back in with all the rain I went to the only good
place to find other kayakers in Pucon, Pucon Kayak
Hostel.

On the road again in Chile

The heavy rain had been set in for a day or so
already and showed no signs of stopping. This was
great news for the local runs, which had been very
low since my arrival in October. The following day
I managed to hitch a ride with the Whitewater
Grand Prix crew up to the Rio Puesco where there
was a race scheduled the next day. The 30-person
crew had split into smaller groups and I headed off
first with a strong crew. Since I was one of the only
ones in our group that had paddled the river I lead
the way. It didn’t take long to find the level a bit
higher than previous runs and considerably
pushier. We made it off the river with Canadian
Ben Marr as the only swimmer from our group.
Heavy rain continued to fall all the way home, all
night and showed no signs of letting up.
A few days later I rallied together a crew to hire a
truck and head south to the Rio GolGol. This river
was an itch I had wanted to scratch since walking
away from it three weeks previous. Our crew of two
new American friends, Zach Shucster, Jorden
Poffenburg and fellow Ottawa Kayak School coach
Kalob Grady wanted to paddle as much as possible
on the way down there. So our first stop was a
couple of speed laps on the Rio Fuy. A night of
camping then a short drive and we found ourselves
at the park and huck, Salto de Nilahue.
The water was higher than when I had paddled
this 60ft waterfall previously. This led to me

crashing out pretty hard. I was too far right at the
lead in, came down the ramp part of the drop
almost sideways. Reconnected with a rock half way
down which spun me backwards. All I could do
was throw my paddle, tuck up tight and hold on to
what I was expecting to be a fairly hard impact.
When reality came it was like falling backwards
into a marshmallow. I rolled up, retrieved my
paddle and set safety for the others who learnt
from my mistake and made the lines stylishly.
Arriving that evening at the Rio GolGol we were
excited and hungry. We drove to the put in to find
water levels slightly higher than when I had been
here previously. We decided to take it slow and
continue and by the end I was completely in love
with the river. It has a great mixture of fun rapids
and technical drops with high consequence, big
undercuts, caves and a few trees chucked in for
good measure. However, even at high water the
run was very manageable. All drops were
portageable.
Once our mission was complete we packed up and
headed back to Pucon.

Palguin race and Christmas in Chile

The weekend before Christmas 2012 was host to
the annual Palguin Race. A boater-X event, which
pits contenders against one another four at a time.
After spending almost a week camped up at the
Palguin take-out doing laps every day I felt pretty
fired up for the event. However an unfortunate
and long swim the day before on a high
water Rio Nevados had left me tired
and sore. I was still excited to race
but I knew the only way I would
progress from my heat to the
final would be by getting
ahead early. I could feel that
I did not have the energy to
race pass multiple other paddlers.
I had WWGP 18th finisher Daniel
Rondon (Peru) in my heat. At the start
ramp I was a bit late and got put in the far
left spot. This was definitely not the most
ideal starting position as it had the longest
distance to get onto the fastest line down the
right of the first rapid. As the flag dropped I
was speeding down the ramp, which lacked a
kicker at the bottom. I did my best to crunch
up and keep my bow above water. Taking my
first few strokes as hard as I could I could
feel myself pulling away from the pack.
Coming into the first rapid I was alone and
ahead giving me time to focus on each
stroke.

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