Well Folks,

New River Academy has returned to home base in Pucon, Chile. After a week of rain, it is refreshing to see a teeny bit of sun this afternoon, when it cleared up. The Fuy and Choshuenco were amazing. The Women at La Posada welcomed us immediately into their family, and fed us very well. I never did get to lie on the beach and sunbathe, but the kayaking more then made up for it.

Travel days are always an ordeal, getting 14 teenagers to travel distances and somehow keep everything organized? The teachers might as well be gods. A lot of times in Chile we will travel as a group on the public buses. Surprisingly, the buses here kick the ones in the USA’s butt. They are all cushioned and the seats recline. Often they include air conditioning, and all have curtained windows for that annoying sun thing that appears every so often around here. They are also really cheap for hours of travel! I was able to snooze quite comfortably, half splayed over Katie Kowalski’s sleeping form. Us young kayakers do not respond well to very early wake ups. Ah, well.

This will be a quick one because my salad is arriving. It has blue cheese, walnuts, pears, spinach, and other such amazing things. Yum!

-Tracy d’Arbeloff

The Rio Fuy has been one of my favorite destinations yet.  The Upper Fuy is a waterfall run with lots of fun moves.  The middle is a big water run that is extremely continuous.  The lower Fuy is a calm, very continuous class 3 run that is really fun too.   I got to do all the runs and had tons of fun on all of them.  School has been awesome too and am learning lots.

It’s been raining every day here in Choshuenco by the Rio Fuy. In photo class we were sent out on a photo shoot to capture the grungy side of this wet town. Here’s what I got.

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

(c) David Gorski

Choshuenco is a beautiful little lakeside town, but can look very grungy, especially on a rainy day. Matt assigned us to walk around and take photos making the town look very gloomy.

Hey Everyone!

We have passed the first  week in Chile with everyday being better than the next. The group arrived safely and soundly in Pucon around a week ago. We spent the time by starting off with a safety clinic to bring everyone up to date on their rescue skills before we hit the river. After we had finished this we headed to the local runs such as the Upper and Lower Trancura and the Rio Palguin! All of these runs were perfect starters to reboot everyones paddling skills up to where they were when they left.

If you haven’t heard we have a secret weapon with us so far that has been Priceless. Billy Harris. Billy is a multiple time canadian team member for freestyle, two time runner up world champ and with out a doubt one of the best whitewater instructors on the planet. He has been with us since the beginning of the trip so each athlete has gotten the chance to work  one on one with him. Through this I have seen the entire group take a huge jump in skill and confidence on and off the river.

We are now stationed in Choshuenco on the Rio Fuy which is my personal favorite river in the world. We have three sections of river to choose from. The upper is a class 4 waterfall section with very safe yet challenging rapids. The middle has tons of rapids that are perfect for the intermediates in our group to practice their eddy turns and other river running techniques. The lower is a slower moving section with some play waves on it. This section is perfect for everyone to practice their ferries, eddy turns, safety, and other river techniques that they have been learning.

We are having a great time. I hope everyone out there is well.

Best,

Coach Specht

Over Christmas break, instead of going home and seeing the family, I decided to stay in chile, charge the stouts, and experience a foreign country outside of an educational environment. The kayaking was nothing but incredible. Because water levels were so high, nearly every river in Pucon was running, and sometimes at a sufficently higher than normal flow. An hour after the students left, Tino and I decided to fire up and start the vacation with the 70 footer on the Palguin. After that drop I had a case of Huck Fever. Soon after, Keegan Grady and I decided to run the ninety footer above the Upper Palguin section, and I decided to run the ten footer above the seventy footer, also on the Rio Palguin. We had a demshitz christmas on the lower Nevados, and later traveled down south to run the notorious Florine and Gol Gol. Overall it was a stout trip. Do not forget to look for the new trailer for the upcoming video by Airborn Athletics, Signs of life, featuring Chile and Canada.

I haven’t been able to kayak due to a small accident, but I have still had fun and learnt a lot by hanging out with the locals. They have been very kind and helpful and have allowed me to help out in the kitchen, chopping potatoes, washing dishes and learning Spanish. I have been using all the Spanish I know with a lot of hand signals to fill in the gaps. I have also been taught some new words, for example, “cortar” is to cut. I really enjoyed working in the kitchen as a cultural experience, but I can’t wait to get back in a boat today!

A photo of the kitchen and the lady in charge, Soledad.

A photo of Melany, Andrea and me.