with beatiful sandy beach. It felt so great to run there with the sun rises, great place,
views, peace and freedom for mind. This was our headquarter for next days.
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| Me & Matjo at Pacific beach |
On first day we went for Upper Rio Chirripo Pacifico. It was quite long drive over there so we had
enough time to get familiar with our guide book's description. It said to be class IV, V, VI
and on lenght of 2.3 mile it had 18 described rapids! When you read Hazards it said:
"Blind approaches, unrunnable drops, undercuts, pins, broaches, strainers, keeper holes,
you name it"
followed by introduction
" Kayaking the Upper Chirripo Pacifico is a lot like going to war; you will likely spend
more time worrying about surviving than enjoying the scenery"
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| Upper Chirripo Pacifico at Put in |
After reading this, with positive mind set - we were ready to go! Whole run took us over ~5 hours. Started tough as first rapid took us nearly hour to scout and cover with rescue. Luckly we already learned our experience to have our precious machetes with us which were significant for scouting. We had to portage twice over there but it's hard to describe specific rapid over there as it was all as in description - hard to read, run, stip, tight -simply, "you name it" !
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| me at one of drops |
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| Milos buffing sliding it down with style |
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| Ondra at one of drops |
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| Waler lunching it up |
Next day we went for Rio Guabo and Rio Buena Vista but unfortunetly it had not enough water.
So we stayed at our hq to enjoy surfing at great waves and chilled at the beach.
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| Catching the wave |
After that we were fired up again for kayaking and went for Naranjo labirynth section. It
was nice class IV run with one hard class V place. We had alot of adventures there as
it was very hard to scout and set the rescue there. Whole river was in canyon and we had to
climb up the wall then we roped down Waler and he went 100m down on very slippery rocks
to prepare the coverage for nasty hole which was waiting for us there. Whole river from
regular wide was getting narrow to the width of paddle with keeper hole with high foam and
undercut walls covering the current from both sides. You had to buff it on the foam to
get trough it. Sznorchel went really good line there and as i felt confident i went just
after him to see how somebody less experienced will do. I seen Waler covering me so i was
counting on him in case if i got stack in the hole. Luckly i had perfect line aswell and
smoothly got through. Then we waited lower from it as safety team while we were portaging
Nina and Lucas which was quite complicated but we managed it without problems then rest
of the crew got through the rapid nicely. Rest of the run was also nice but less chalenging.
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| Sznorchel calling home before entering the maze! |
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| Waler going for scout |
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| Me dropping into Maze, on the far right is our keeper hole |
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| Well deserved snack after good line! |
Next day we did second part - lower chirripo pacifico. We wish there would be a little bit
more water but still it was really nice run of class IV (V,VI) it was quite technical
creek with alot of slalom in between the rocks. First part was harder one then it got into
class III run but very beatiful landscape around.
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| Peter at lower Chirripo Pacifico starting rapid |
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| Janno droping into hardest part of lower chirripo |
For New Year we went surfing - i spent nearly 5 hours surfing which was very exhausting,
for evening we had again grilled meat, potatoes and salad. We greeted New Year together
at our HQ and guys went for party. Unfortunetly i couldnt join them as i got hard sun stroke.
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| Surfing! |
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| Tha Hiko Surfer |
Now we are on the way back to Turrialba, we plan to go for multiday trip for Chirripo Atlantico
and to run few more rivers if we get enough water, follow the blog for more new updates & photos!
And for the New Year i wish everybody:
Happy New Year everybody! Spend as many time with your friends as you can sharing the best time! Get on the water as much as you can, go BIGGER, faster & cleaner! Run bigger drops, do more tricks - live the life! But in between always find some time for family and place you call home.
Im going to spend New Year with some of my best friends surfing on the beach, then having dinner and going for beach party! Stoked for past year and upcoming new one, i dont know what it is going to bring but im sure I m very happy to have so many friends to share it with!
Thans for those who are here with me and who aint - love you all!
