Erik Boomer and Ben Stooksberry are two of the best expedition kayakers in the world. But even they may have met their match when they travel to Chihuahua, in northern Mexico. The plan? First descents on the rivers that rampage through the region’s famously beautiful (and dangerous) canyons.
Photo: Screenshot
¡Ay Chihuahua! is the 17-minute film the pair created about the expedition. The story unwinds as a good old-fashioned travel tale. After laying out the broad strokes of the expedition, we meet members of the Group of Speleology and Exploration Cuauhtémoc, a collective of Mexican canyon explorers. They chuckle ruefully when the kayakers ask them if the rivers they’ve targeted are runnable.
Photo: Screenshot
Dangerous and hard
“I think it’s dangerous and hard,” Ricardo Rios, one of the group’s members, says.
But before the duo can get on the water, they have to wait out agonizing days of nonstop rain, which swells their initial objective — Rio Candameña — well past runnable levels. You can see Boomer and Stooksberry’s frustration as they huddle under eaves and watch the water pour. Doubt starts to creep in.
“We are teeter-tottering between total stoke to drop into these rivers, and then when the rivers flash flood, we’re scared and kind of wondering what the hell we’re doing here,” Boomer says.
Photo: Screenshot
But these are seasoned expedition kayakers, and they know that waiting — and the hesitation that accompanies it — is part of the job.
“In my experience, any worthy or difficult or challenging objective is just this mind game,” Stookesberry says.
The kayaking starts in earnest about six minutes into the film. The kayakers change tacks while they wait for the Candameña’s waters to recede, deciding to tackle a first descent of the nearby Río Concheño.
Photo: Screenshot
Boxed-out canyons
Kayaking awesomeness ensues. The boys scout when they can, but it’s a long trip, and they have another river on their mind. Time is of the essence.
“Gnarly, boxed out barranca canyons that were just enough to make everything scary,” Boomer notes of the river. “So you think to yourself you’re going to go here, and here, and then go left. And then when you get into the canyon…” he finishes before trailing off ominously.
Photo: Screenshot
After several exciting kayaking sequences that will appeal to experts and neophytes alike, Boomer and Stookesberry finish their run in the small town of Moris. There, they party with locals before traveling back to the Candameña, whose waters are now at perfect levels.
Well. Perfect for the Candameña. There’s a reason nobody else has notched a first descent on it. The pair probably spend more time portaging than they do kayaking. But when they do get to drop into whitewater, it’s all adrenaline. The drops are steep, and the moves are must-makes.
Photo: Screenshot
“It’s a marathon of Class V, a marathon of portaging, a marathon of intensity. And there just isn’t one moment that you can pick out, except maybe the moment when things go bad.” Stooksberry says.
The moment he’s referencing occurs when Boomer puts a sizable dent in the bow of his kayak, then pokes a hole through it while attempting to repair it over an open fire.
Photo: Screenshot
In the end, the pair achieve their first descent and are all the better for it. “We didn’t get held hostage. The people didn’t threaten us. Nobody almost died. We don’t hate each other. Maybe it’s kind of a boring story,” Stookesberry says.
Photo: Screenshot
Reader, trust me on this. It’s anything but.
