Saltos!!

Yesterday, we finally got on some waterfall runs. Xav's arm was hurting from tendonitis, so rather than heading to the Rio Blanco (a two hour run, two hours away, and he couldn't paddle much more than twenty minutes), he wanted to show us down the Upper Palguin. Which was awesome. It's the quintessential Pucon run, twenty minutes from town, and basically a series of the cleanest 10-20 foot drops you've ever seen. It's kind of a twisty double drop, that dumps into a huge, crystal blue pool. The second time we ran it I got flipped in the hole halfway down, and rolled up just in time to plug it. There wasn't even a thought of a boof. And it still flushed right out, and I popped up in the pool no problem.

This picture is Sam in that first drop, courtesy Xavier Engle. (he photog'd the second lap since his arm was hurting.)

The next drop is a fun little 15-foot left-to-right boof, again with no consequences, but so super clean that it's hard to miss your boof. We didn't give Xav enough time to get there for pictures, so I don't have any of that one. Yet.

After that is the most perfect 20-footer ever. Xav said it makes him angry how perfect it is. The left side is a plugger, the right side is a boof. Take your pick, either one is super easy. The first lap I plugged, second lap I boofed. This is the second lap; you can see on river left where it's pluggable.

I've gotta go now... we're getting ready to head back up to the Palguin with a bunch of guys who are thinking of running the super-sketchy 90-foot Salto Palguin, which is above the put-in. We're going to watch/document/set safety, and hopefully get in a few laps on the upper as well.

One more for good measure, though: also yesterday, we went to Coilaco for the easiest 30-foot park n' huck around. :-)



Hopefully I'll get back online soon, so I can post pics of the Maichin and the Fuy!

Until then,

-Brian