So firstly don't get me wrong here Pucon is a beautiful place with amazing whitewater. However before setting out for Chile the one strongest pieces of advice i received was "do not get stuck in the Pucon siphon, there is much appeal in Pucon however the rest of Chile is just as good". Ignoring this piece of advice i found myself for a multitude of reasons spending well over half of my trip stuck in this paradise and in all honesty i am stoked!
After returning from futa we made it into Pucon with primo water levels after a solid week of rain and were fired up to rally those runs that had evaded us on our first week here. Immediately this fire died with Greg breaking his back on day one, following this i spent two days with Greg in Temuco hospital then returned solo to continue my trip here in Pucon. The next days flowed past in a blur containing a the Palguin race, Zac swimming above Mariman on the Trancura and losing his boat, Christmas and a high water day on Puesco which was amazing! All of this with virtually no photos, sorry i was having to much fun and rallying to fast to get my camera out. After this We went for a super fun high water double date on the Nevados and Middle Palguin.
 |
| Daphnee lines up one of the few "clean" drops on the Carhuello |
 |
| All the troops helping greg into the ambulance immediately post accident! |
 |
| A very clear reminder not to follow to close, this was not fun for either of us! |
 |
| Another clear reminder to remember who is left to run and do not eddie out to early. |
 |
| Late evening park and huck, Nicole coming through clean. |
This late evening park and huck to celebrate Geoffs last day turned out to be a total shit show to say the least. Jakub ran first with super sick line, Nicole followed with an unfortunate deck implosion and her boat took off down stream. This left myself and Geoff at the top, Geoff ran clean but tossed his paddle and did not recover it till 100m downstream. This left just me I flopped the seal launch and found myself upside down floating quickly towards the lip, rolling up just in time to feel my stomach start to fall but backwards life was an unhappy place! Quickly i tossed my paddle back over my head, tucked and braced for impact. It was not good with a very violent ejection, luckily my boat washed into the eddie and i was not seriously hurt. My paddle disappeared down stream and both my knees were in relatively violent pain however we made it out all somewhat smiling and Nicoles boat rescued unscathed.
The next day following this epic i bussed back to Temuco to visit Greg and give him his gear so that he could fly home, by this time he had been discharged from hospital and insurance was paying for a 5 star hotel for us both until he flew home in two days time. Perfect, what an amazing place to recover for both of us after our unfortunate accidents!
 |
| Life has its funny ways of working out. |
 |
| The amazing sunset out of the hotel window |
Making my way once again back to Pucon i found myself with no gear except my camera rallying with a big crew to the Nevados. Everyone was fired up to run Demshitz drop, im a little gutted i missed out however still managed a good day roping into the lip to shoot pics.
 |
| Jakub launching in, no turning back now. |
 |
| Carson looking good at the lip. |
 |
| Myself about to take the plunge |
New years followed swiftly then a brief escape southwards for more classic boating! This brief escape did not last long as i am now sitting back in Pucon writing this and preparing to return home, one more update to come in the next week or so. keep posted!
No comments:
Post a Comment