Crazy Times and the Claro

  Its been a bit since I last updated. Since last time we've added our final member to the crew and been to two amazing rivers! On the way to Santiago to pick JR up, Chris, Julian and I stopped by the Rio Claro to have some nice waterfall time. We arrived and started hiking down the river in search of the legendary Twirlybird. After hiking around for a bit, we started to get pretty sick of getting scratched up and battered. We had a group meeting and decided to get a little kayaking on the Siete Taza section and do a little brainstorming before we drop into the extremely committing gorge.
  We were wondering where all the kayakers were in this wonderful waterfall paradise right about the time we got to put in and ran into some River Gypsies! We talked with Leiland, Andrea and Jeff for a bit and decided we would head in together. Julian, Chris and I suited up as fast as we could and started to head for the river. Some Germans started heading out just before us, so we tried to stay hot on their trail. After some wrong turns we finally found the steep trail down to the river and had a quick breather to let the Germans finish roping and to set our system up. While we were waiting I spotted this lil guy.

  The first of 4 we saw on the trip!

  We were able to rope down relatively fast, which brought us to the first teacup and the first awesome drop!

This wasn't the same day, but it is Keegan browning the first drop of the Siete Taza!

  This section was really fun, but a bit of a mission with roping boats down. I ended up running it a couple of times during our week at the Claro.

Me set to plug the last drop on the Siete Tazas. Photo Leiland of River Gypsies

  After running the Siete, the group decided to head to the Viente Dos section. Unfortunately I don't have any good pics of this section, but it was insane and amazing. Probably one of my top tens for sure. It was ALMOST as good as the middle section! We heard a lot of things going into the middle, so we were a little hesitant. Turned out to be totally amazing at our level! The first couple of rapids were pretty fun. We quickly got to the goods and started to really love life!

Coming off the first double drop. Photo Alex

JR and Alex laying the synchronized treats! Photo Jon Combs

Boofing one of the last drops before the bird! Photo Jon

JR givin her. Photo Jon

  After many great rapids, we finally got to the no return point. THE SWEET AUTOBOOF!

Keegan wave wheeling the beast. Photo Alex

  Once above the twirlybird we waited a bit for Devyn to show up with the video cam up top. He ended up getting turned around at the gate and hanging out at takeout. We did the best we could to set up photo.

Chris Shehab dropping into the super committing gorge. Photo Jon

Chris dropping in. Photo Jon

Me in the guts, with the pals Chris and JR down below. Photo Jon

Keegan and Alex just below the amazing drop. Photo Jon

  The drop went smooth for everyone, just some hard hits at the bottom. Once you've dropped in, you're in an insanely tight and committing gorge. Fun stuff though!

JR in busy water after the first rapid in the gorge. Photo Jon

Jon lovin it. Photo Jon

Keegan browning in the gorge. Photo Alex

Me dropping into the scary ass slide just big enough for a boat! Photo Alex

JR droppin in. Photo Alex

Chris Tulley in it! Photo Alex

   After the super slide, the gorge started to open up a lil bit (meaning it was more than 3 feet wide) and there were lots more fun tight rapids!

Me entering a fun lil one with a NASTY undercut on river left. Photo Alex

JR having fun as the gorge starts to open up. Photo Alex

  Shortly after the gorge opened up we got to takeout and to the booz!

JR slicing lemons as the boys get her started with Chile's favorite drink. Pisco! Photo Alex

  This run was amazing with a capitol "A"! We only had a little carnage, which happened on the slide when Jon's paddle front hit the wall and sliced open his hand. Other than that, it was all good times and good lines by all!

  Merry Christmas all!

-Jon