The final month of 2009 certainly turned out to be one worth remembering.  Departing Mentone Alabama December 1^st the thirty-three days that followed were full of good friends and good times on and off the river.  The first leg of the journey began with three of us making the long drive to Flagstaff Arizona to meet up with the rest of our seven-person crew for an amazing float down the Colorado River.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is a special place and it is the setting that ultimately draws us to run the river.  The logistics, the permit system, the stress and toil all fade away as you lose sight of the put-in and the walls begin to rise.  By day two the endless red walls and strong current have refocused our life on the basics.  Eat, drink, travel, laugh, sleep… what else is there?

Read the rest of this entry >>

Here is a schedule for demshitz Paddle with the Pros.  We will be heading all over the country hitting up your local paddle shops.  If you are interested in paddling Pyranha’s new line of kayaks, learning a few things on the river, or just want to have a cold one and talk about kayaking. Please come it’s going to be fun.   Also here is Pyranha’s 2010 Promotional video.

This is a cool edit from my good friend  Jose Soto of the Pucon River Fest. The 1st ever Palguin Extreme Race! Buena Linea Productions!
http://vimeo.com/10126184

Hugh Graham ripping it in the Molan at the men’s expert final.

 

The Pyranha Stand

Yes !!!

Stephanie cooked a long time.
It’s just out of kitchen.

Green Race 2009 from stephanie augras on Vimeo.

Thanks a lot Dinver for the boats.

I wish you a good viewing, like Nicolas and me in the Green river.

Cheers,

Eric

After three month of kayaking in Chile I am finally back home. I am glad I made it back before the earthquake and feel really sorry for all the aggrieved people.

I must admit three month of paddling was exactly what I needed, day after day with nothing else to do apart from kayaking. Isn’t that great?! 😉

During my first month some german friends and I ran the rivers from Santiago down to Pucon. One big highlight was for sure the Rio Claro, we jumped down the ventidos saltos about 5 times – the last run took us only 19 minutes from the putin to the final drop – germans like the autobahn.

Not as lucky was I after my run down the caracol in the Entre Saltos section, I landed flat and ended up with a broken paddle, a broken nose and two blue eyes … at least I kept my smile.

Entre Saltos Section Rio Claro

After my german friends left, I met two kiwis, we rented a nice camioneta and were ready for new adventures. This time to Argentinia and South Chile. One of my favorite runs was the Los Alerces Section on the Rio Manso, but at the same time it was a bit scary as we were just the two of us, had a lot of water and not much information about the river. So we ended up being in a canyon infront of a rapid which looked pretty big, but was impossible to scout and to portage. That was an explosion of emotions after we two made it through the big hole at the bottom.  😉

It was a really rainy season in Chile, so we encountered high waterlevels on the Futa and further down south. One thing remains obvious, it was for sure not my last time on this incredible beautiful rivers of Patagonia.

What a wonderful playwave …… unfortunately it is situated just infront of the Petrohue waterfall

Gymnastics on the Rio Palguin

Pancakes for breakfast

Park Nacional Rio Laja

Here is the start to the Pyranha Promo.  A little teaser here, enjoy and paddle hard folks.