Rio Negro de Hornopiren, Chile

Kayak Pucon is keeping me busy down here in Chile, but even the owner, Rodrigo Tuschner, felt like he needed a break, and we took a quick vacation to the South with good amigos, Jared Seiler and Todd Richey. We had hoped to run the Rio Coachamo, but with loads of work looming in the days to come, we decided to just go straight to the Rio Negro for its quantity of clean boofs and its easy access.

Southern Chile is broken up by massive bays and inlets. Sometimes it is easier to get around by ferry.

We camped in open field near the river, and the views in the morning were pretty stunning.

A nice black sand beach and swimming hole make this one of my favorite put-ins in Chile. We took some time to enjoy the sunshine and the clean water to wash away our hangovers from a wild night out in the local fishing village. One of the coolest things about the Rio Negro is that you are just 20 minutes from the ocean at the put-in. The town of Hornopiren, named after it's neighboring volcano, sustains itself through tourism and fishing. We met some kids in town who were going out night-spear fishing, and they were loading up their little boat with rocks to beat up the sharks. Gangster.

The boofs are plentiful.

Demshitz do the "Brown Claw."

This rapid had a fun, serpentine entrance into this deceptively stout hole.

The second day was so nice, I had to wear a shorty for all of the homies in their drysuits in the Northwest.

This drop also has a fun entrance above. Jared styled a freewheel off of this one, but the rest of us ran some laps just for the classic water-ramp-boof-stomp it offered up so nicely.

Yup. The Rio Negro is fun.

This rapid was a bit scary. The fast lead-in, sticky hole and short recovery pool forced a good line. Just beyond the boils lies a seriously steep rapid that then drops into a never-been-run 50-60 footer that may or may not land on rocks. We took the portage option after hitting this boof.