Chile Part II

What kind of feeling is similar to the one, when you’re holding the tickets to Santiago de Chile in your hands? Somehow it’s a little orgasm. Somehow? No, it is! So it was, when the tickets arrived in December 2011. Redemption was the mission! Because my last trip to Chile was a little bit complicated (missed gear at the airport, broken car for several times, injury, etc.). This time should be better.

Of course Thilo Wietzke and I had the same discussions with our boats at the Check-In like nearly every time. “This is not surfboard! What’s the weight?” Knowing that all our shit is in there, I gave the same dumb answers as always: “It’s a surf-kayak. The weight is max. 25 kg.” To demonstrate the featherweight, I lifted one up, acting that it is no problem. But in truth I almost broke my back. The check-in guy nodded and was pleased. The first hurdle was taken. Calmed down we entered the airport lounge. Snacks ‘n beers for free. Not so bad, dude. Not so bad.

Arrived in SCL we had to recognize that… What do you think? Yes, the kayaks didn’t fly with us! WTF! But we were pretty lucky, because we found an airline member who told us, that the stuff will send to our destination at the next day. So we decided to jump on a bus to Pucón without our kayaks. But it was not even lunch time and we had to wait a f*****g whole day at the bus station. Reaction: A short visit on a market and then a lot of beers in ugly pub. Never saw such a nasty toilette before!

Next morning we arrived in Pucón and met Anne Hübner and John Blake. To our surprise everything was arranged: an apartment and a rental car. Did we booked a package trip?! Haha. We just had to hang around till the courier arrived. Waiting at Latitude 39 (of course with some beers) the courier arrived in the evening with our kayaks. Winning! So the next days we got in shape in the area around Pucón.

Upper Palguin

With the right feeling in our asses we headed up north to the Rio Claro, escaping from the rainy days in Pucón. 22 waterfall section + Entre Saltos + Las Siete Tazas - nothing more to say. We had a little action at the Gargante del Diabolo. Always bring a replacement paddle with you! Don’t miss the Rio Laja on the way. It’s a sweet roller-coaster without eddies, length about 4km. Yeah!

Las Siete Tazas

Back in Pucón we were pretty fired up to run the complete Nevado. Together with Nick Murphy we styled the Demshitz drop on a juicy flow. These moments are the one I’m living for! Winning again!

Demshitz Drop

After a couple of days in Pucón with a couple of hangovers we headed south to the Rio Negro, reinforced by the youngsters Daniel Riedmüller and Paul Meylahn. Great scenery and a great river. One of my favorites since that run!

Rio Negro

On the way we hit the Rio Fuy. But sadly there was too much water even for waterfalls on the upper part.

Let's portage...

The next big plan was to run the big Salto del Nilahue. What we found was Mordor. Floating rocks (cause of the active volcano) and a risen brown water level after a stormy night caused an uneasy feeling in our stomachs and our balls shrinked to peas. Back in Pucón we heard that it was quite good to run, even with the floating rocks in it. Shit, next time.

Mordor

The last paddle days in Pucón we ran the park ‘n huck on the Coilaco and of course the 70 footer on the middle Palguin. The balls were big again, but the trip was over…

Rio Coilaco - Park 'n Huck


Middle Palguin

At the return date we spend a great day at the lake in Pucón together with all fellows preparing us with a lot of beers to get tired for the long bus ride to SCL. Winning! So everything was in the flow during the whole trip. Even to pass the check-in with our gear in SCl and the 12 hours flight was quite easy. I had got a 4 seat row for me alone. Quite comfortable. Winning again!


During I’m writing this article I’m getting nervous again! What’s next in 2012? I’ll come up with some ideas, that’s for sure!



Big thanks to Thilo Wietzke, Anne Hübner, John Blake, Nick Murphy, Daniel Riedmüller and Paul Meylahn for these wonderful shots! It was a pleasure to me running all the shit with you!

See you soon!

Alex Rodegro
Nookie Team Rider

Nookie Iceman Review

Hi Guys,

So over the Christmas holidays I was fortunate enough to be able to head over to the states for a weeks skiing at Winter Park Resort, Colora

do. Had an absolutely great week out there in the thigh powder. The temperature on the mountain was always well below freez

ing, average day time temperature of -15C! To keep me warm and toasty I bought along my Nookie Iceman! Here is a review of the suit explaining why it is a must have it the kit bag! I explain the key features of the product so if your looking for some more information about the Iceman, check it out.

As I say in the video, I did ski into a tree on the last day and ended up going down in the blood wagon. I actually found this good fun! Ski patrol were great and patched me up. Fortunately when back in the UK the doctors said that my wrist was wrongly diagnosed as broken so now I am better and ready to paddle! :)

See you on the water

Josh

High Level on The Doubs and the Rhone.

High Level on The Doubs and the Rhone.

Autumn was very dry in France

We did some kayaking on artificial rivers, a little on the flat, nothing

very interesting.

It lasted long enough to make us lose hope, but early December rain appeared

as salvation: the Doubs became interesting and then the Rhône too.

So I called my friends, we cut class! and many converged towards Rhône/Alpes

and the surrounding area for a fantastic week of sessions.

The Rhône rose up to 1800 m3, it hadn’t been like that for the past three years.

The water level changed, the waters moved, we spent a sick week and took

many pictures, then came the cold, the levels decreased, so we stopped.

But there are heavy snow falls on the Alps, so a wet spring is on the way …

Enjoy.

Happy New Year to all you people of the paddle... The Nookie team is at work trawling through the emails and the orders that have piled up over the Christmas break. Well, part of the team is... Some of the team are topping up their tans in far flung corners of the world and trying to decide whether to go for a surf or a beer. Or in my case, in the mountains waiting for the sky to clear so that I can go shoot some video manuals for our new thermals. That's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess ;)

Anyway, as I wrestle with Gopros and laptops and rural internets, I notice this snippet in my inbox, a pic of the lovely Kate Middleton which has belatedly surfaced in the Daily Mail. It seems as good a thing as any to cheer up the first week in January. Enjoy :)

Kate sporting a Nookie Thermalcore 100 top and Nookie 3/4 Neo Strides

Sam Stephenson Promo video

Just finished editing together a little promo video using footage from this year.. Enjoy!

Sam Stephenson

west coast tour

Hey guys, so I have been hanging out in southern morocco for the past six weeks surfing and preparing for my trip down the entire west coast of africa. Today we finally got the custom roof rack finished and all the spare kit on the roof. We drove the first 200 km and have arrived at a perfect point brake.
I flew home for a few days to organise visas etc for a few of the country's and had enough time to put together short video of me in my projectX with the help of friend Paul Scott. Have a look, I hope you like it.


Doug cooper
P.s more south updates coming (moritainia next)



http://vimeo.com/m/33010589

Just vote for this video and thereby help a charity!

I think everybody who has a GoPro does not need the 10.000 Euro as much as e.g. some kids in Uganda....

I just edited some footage from our last trip to Lapland this spring. Excuse my quick and dirty editing, but time was short to get the video online for the contest. After the contest I will cut one properly and publish it in HD! ;-)
Please vote for my new Lapland-Video in this Sportscheck-Video-Contest, because the winner will get 10.000 EURO (= around 13.600 US Dollar) shopping-voucher for this sports-shop “Sportscheck” and if my video wins, we will sell all the products on ebay and donate the money to a charity of your choice! We guess the money will accumulate to around 6.000 - 10.000 US Dollars.

You can vote for the charity the money should go to on my blog:
www.soulboater.blogspot.com

To support this charity-project just like the “Sportscheck”-Fanpage on facebook and vote (i.e. click the button "abstimmen") for my video:
Sports4Charity Video

Two possible charities you can give your vote for on my blog are Soft Power Health or Soft Power Education in Uganda.

Please vote and spread the word!

Thanks a lot for your support!
Markus