A lot has happened amongst us extreme kayakers in the last 2 weeks in and around the little town of Pucon here in Southern Chile. When I last checked in I was recovering from a horrible line on the first descent of Salto Bellavista on the Carhuello. Since, I have man’d up and took out the stitches and have been getting after it as much as I can. And of course, I split my elbow wide open on the first day of paddling, so the healing process has been ongoing but slowly getting better.
gnar elbow
Tons of Kayakers have arrived here in town, the most ever, and everyone is paddling everyday on the classics in the area with great water levels. The weather is amazing and the accomplishments in the kayaking world have been epic.

One of the biggest accomplishments was Steve Fisher’s descent of Salto Palguin (pictured above), the one drop everyone has looked at for the last 20+ years and no one has ever had the ganas to go for it! Steve stomped it as good as you could. Then Fisher and another huckster Anton Immler dropped middle palguin in a Duo!

Here is a link to the youtube video. Link to vid.
There are many more stories that you will be able to see upon the release of Rush Sturges’ next movie “Dream Result” coming out in Febuary 2010. Rush has a story to tell as well, I’ll let him tell it. Check out his blog River-roots.com

Ian going first on the massive stout salto bonito in argentina.
So as for the rest of Demshitz... we have been relaxing pretty heavily getting runs on the Desahue Palguin and Nevados, mostly town runs.

Gringo John catching some air on the Nevados.

LJ browning on the Nevados.

Rodrigo on the Tdub crack drop Nevados.

Above the Tdub drop. adam bixby photo
Some of the boys went to the south to Check out the Rio Florin which was stomping high water but good to go.
Jordy “Battle Pro” on the 50 on florin.
We ran this instead... Rio Canahue

I have been trying to stay in town and save money and get the goods around here before they run out.
Here are some shots from the drops above Tres Saltos

Thats just half the crew...

Evan on the 1st drop

Juanjo Ortiz showing us how to do it backwards!

Aniol “la Cobra” stomping it!

entering the 1st drop

A beautiful shot of the volcan Villarica that day it had a small eruption!

Czech boy Jakub running the 2nd salto.

Jake with the carnage award for the day!

Then we went back to the Plata with a good group from Spain. This picture of Aniol Serrasoles in one of the first drops on the Plata.

A cool shot of LJ Groth boofing the big one on the Plata.

On a side note, the one everyone is waiting for... there has been tons of carnage! We did a tally today of all the lost and broken equipment...and bones from the last two months. And here it is...
17 broken paddles between 11 people- some up to 3 for themselves.
9 broken and or lost kayaks.
5 hospital visits 11 injuries total.
7 first descents- one that resulted in injury (me).
31 swims!
8 broken and or lost cameras.
and 7 car repairs. That comes out to at least $10,000 dollars in damages and a lot of sore bodies and egos... but thats part of the game I suppose! And as a wise Demshitz once said, “when you’re huckin’ the stouts, sometimes shit hits the fan!”


We have had some great parties and asados!

So now some good news. A group of us, led by fearless leader Rodrigo Tuschner, found an epic first descent the other day on the Rio Blanco, 2 hours northwest of Pucon.
Dont flex too hard boys....
The run was first descented by TDUB a few years back on the lower canyon of the run. Our first d was on the upper section, which turned out to be super quality.

Evan on the first drop.
The coolest thing about this run is the camping.



We camped out the night before in a sweet campground in the “valle magico” magic valley with Hot Springs and all the accommodations.

We scouted the run that night then hopped in the termas to relax and went to sleep with waterfalls in our dreams.
The next morning we hiked up about 2 k, put on and began to break it down. We were a little skeptical on the run at first because of the water level and the inability to scout a large portion of the run. When we got into the run we found fun runnable drop after drop, gradually increasing in size. EG layin treats as usual.

Rodrigo boofing the real!

Me sending a boof on a sweet little auto boof I wanted to call “Welcome to Zion”

very excite!
A cool photo of the day by Rodrigo of me dropping into the final gorge on the upper Blanco. We soon arrived at the last big slide, about 30 feet tall that went super smoothly.
LJ dropping the final slide we decided to call Salto Enfermo- aka sick drop- mainly because all of us have had some allergies for the last few weeks...and it was SICK!

Todd Richey dropping salto enfermo.
All in all, a great success and a beautiful day.
Afterwards we finnished the run and paddled right to the hot springs for one last dip before venturing back to Babylon ( what we call Pucon now )
photos courtesy of Rodrigo Tuschner and Todd Richey
The next day we decided it was time for...

The Demshitz Drop Lower Nevados

Rodriog went 1st- second time on this bad boy this season.

landed a little flat ouch...

I went next...
doesn’t look too bad but was a hard hit and resulted in a bruised sternum...ouch!
Then went Anton (broken paddle) LJ and Evan pics coming soon. good lines
Then it was time for the Diablito...

EG charging the Diablito.
All passed with good lines and then it was my turn. I first descented it last year with the boys and it claimed my paddle, this year it got me good.


This photo is of me pinned in the exit slot drop, my kayak below the surface, and my good good friend Rodrigo Tuschner saving my ass! Eventually I pulled my skirt and swam the drop and Rodrigo got my kayak out and we continued downstream. Epic carnage.

LJ stomping Daniels drop “the nutrients”

Rodrigo running the last big one.
After the run we rushed back to Babylon for a full Ducky trip with Kayak Pucon. Fue un dia muy largo! Getting time to head south chao for now! check out EG’s blog.