These are two Newsletters written by the Students of Carla’s Spanish Classes, Galen, Sara, Hayley, Alex Muck, and Keaton, and put together by Wayne Poulsen in Spanish 4.
Archive for February, 2012
Spanish Newsletter
Monday, February 27th, 2012Boof to Swim!
Monday, February 27th, 2012I must start this blog entry off by apologising for my lack of activity recently, we have not had internet in a week since coming down to the futalefu river, so any blogging was impossible. It really is the wilderness up here, we are staying at a small hostel right on the futa. There is a good wave right beside our camp called Magic Carpet, however I will talk about that in my next post, I devote this one to one of the scariest rapids I have ever done; Boof to Swim on the middle section of the Palguin. This is a 18-20 foot waterfall which appears to land directly on a rock shelf. The shelf then pushes directly into a massive sticky looking hole. It’s lip isn’t clean and the landing looks bad, had I not know that the line was good I would never have run it. The line is to drive up a curler on the lip and boof hard off of the flake keeping your bow up and the boat flat to land dead flat on the rocks below. Now falling 18 feet and landing on rocks sounds like a recipe for a broken back, however here the foam from the hole pushes onto the rocks and pads your landing. Immediately after landing your smash into the hole and get tossed around a bunch before being thrown out into the pool. It’s quite the humbling experience. It reminds me how insignificant we are compared to the power of the river.
Playboating in Pucon
Monday, February 27th, 2012This quarter in Pucon we have been playboating more than last quarter. There are two great spots to go playboating very close to the hostel. The first is the hole that is right in our backyard on the Trancura River. It is a great place to practice hole tricks such as loops and cartwheels. It is literally one minute down the river from the hostel so it is possible to boat here during your free periods at school if you are all done your homework! The other place is about a ten-minute drive from PKH. It is on a river that feeds into the Trancura called the Leocurra.
On playboating days we usually go to the Leocurra hole. It is a super fun hole to practice all your tricks in. It is easy to do many tricks such as spins and loops but it becomes more difficult when you try to do other tricks such as clean spins or space godzillas. This can be frustrating but it can also be extremely advantageous. Practicing in a difficult spot like this can make you an even better boater. It makes you fine-tune your technique in order to take the strokes necessary to stay on the waves or do the tricks.
Usually when we go to the Leocurra hole we split the group so that each person can get a longer time on the wave. On split days one group paddles at 7AM, before breakfast, while the other paddles at 5PM, after a long day of class. Usually I prefer the morning time slot. For me there is nothing better than waking up to a good playboating session. I have found that since we have been playboating as well as creeking I have been way more exhausted after paddling. Playboating can be more of a workout because you tend to take more strokes when surfing, paddling up the eddy, and playing around in the flat water. We are all looking forward to get even more acquainted with our playboats on the Futaleufu. These days on the Leocurra have definitely been a great way to get us into shape for this next adventure.
Media class with Matt and importance of video.
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012With Matt Smink back at New River, we have a new Media Class that he is teaching. This is a combination of photo and video classes. Matt has worked for companies advertising through video promotion and now brings his knowledge to the school. While teaching photo student elements of photography, he teaches video students about formal and informal interviews. Currently Hunt Jennings has been working on a school video for the Fuy and I am working on a video for Pucon.
Matt Smink strikes a pose while a local ugandan plays with his camera.
Video is very important if you want to promote your self and get sponsors etc. It is also very useful for promoting organizations, For example every advertisement you see. Video is not just important for showing other people what you are doing or promoting yourself. In kayaking you can use it to your advantage by video reviewing everything you do. You can use it to see what you did wrong.
Latitude 39
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
The Sign at Latitude 39
Delicious French Toast
NRA students working on their blogs at Latitude
Owner Rob poses in front of Latitude with Pablo Casey
Kayaker friendly stickers adorn the windows
Hey every one its Drew McEachern again with another blog post. Today I will be talking about Latitude 39! Latitude 39 is the place to be when in Pucon, its a small restaurant in the center of Pucon that sells “Gringolicous grub”. All the kayakers are always hanging out at Latitude because of its convient location, free wireless internt, and it has good food. Whenever the NRA students are in town, you can be sure to find at least one staff or student there.
Its well know for it’s Stout Burger which is “a beef patty layered with sliced turkey, egg, and bacon.” It is also the only place we have found in Chile that will serve poutine (A Canadian favorite: French Fries, Gravy and Cheese Curds). Another local favorite is “Two for One Tacos” on Tuesday.
The owners are an american couple named Rob and Monica. They were travelling through Chile more than 6 years ago, when they passed through Pucon, and fell in love with it. After returning to the states, they decided to come back to Pucon, and start up a restaurant. We are glad they did!
Over all if you are in Pucon and you want to find some people to boat with and get some good food at the same time hit up Latitude 39 the place to be!
Safety at NRA
Monday, February 20th, 2012At NRA there are several precautions that we take when we find ourselves at more difficult rapids. If we come to any rapid that we have not seen before and cannot scout from our boats then we get out because we do not know what is coming. Even if there is a rapid that we have seen before sometimes we will still choose to scout it in case the water level has changed because that means that the line on the rapid might be difficult or wood could have floated into the rapid, creating a dangerous place to be. On these more difficult rapids where there is a chance that someone will get worked and swim we always have someone in their boat at the bottom of the rapid and one or more people on shore setting safety. If someone swims the person in the boat can pick them up at the bottom and the person on shore can throw them a throw bag if they are stuck in a hole and need to be pulled out. On the Rio Fuy, we stopped to scout the larger drops each time we were there, to see if the line had changed, and to remind ourselves of the best place to be. This definitely helps me feel safe and confident when I am on the river with the school!
To practice our safety skills off of the water we have morning safety workouts. These workouts usually start off with a game of catch between yourself and a partner in which you back up a few steps each throw to practice how far you can throw the bag. After catch we take shots at our boats with our throw ropes. You aim for the cockpit of the boat. If you miss then you have to keep throwing until you get two throws in a row on the cockpit. This is so that when you are throwing a bag in a safety situation that you actually come close enough to the person so that they can grab the rope and be pulled to shore. We also practice throwing recoil, which is good for when you need to re-throw a rope quickly. Another fun part of safety workout is the throw bag packing contest. Whoever can pack up their rope the fastest wins. This is a good skill to have when you have multiple people running a rapid that you might have to use the throw rope for. This safety practice allows us to be ready for anything we encounter on the river.
Clay Wright Guest Coach at NRA
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Clay surfing it up
Clay strikes a pose with Chilean local and paddling legend Kurt Casey
Over the last two weeks I have had the privilege of boating with Clay Wright at Pucon kayak Hostel. Clay has the Unique skill of speaking his mind. He doesn’t try to sugar coat it. When you are doing something wrong, he will be the first to tell you. This sounds harsh, but it is often the best way to improve. For example: I was having a hard time looking up stream when playboating. Clay called me out and gave me some great tips to help fix the problem.
It’s said that when you surround your self with people that are better then you, naturally you will become better yourself. Play boating with Clay and Stephen Wright gives you something to strive for. You see what years of practice and dedication can get you. On and off the water ,Clay strives to push everyone to their full potential. Whether it’s getting a blog up or getting the trailer loaded to get on the river, he’s there. He’s that little voice in the back of your head telling you to work just a little harder to finish the job right.
I see Clay a few times every year and every time he gives me great advice on paddling and life. When you are wondering about any thing having to do with kayaking going back to the dawn of time, Clay is the man to ask. He happens to know just about everything about anything in the kayaking world. Ask him his opinion on a boat or a product and he’ll give it to you. Clay has always been a great role-model and friend. It was awesome to get to spend some time with him in Chile, and I wish him all the best in his travels.
Eric Bartl Jackson kayak Team MemberWater?
Thursday, February 16th, 2012In out Enviormental Since class we have been studying the condition of our water today. Did you know that our drinking water is depleteing quickly? Most of the time, we don’t notice it.
Water covers 75% of the earth’s surface, at total of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. Of this water, only 2.5% of clean water. Of the clean water, 1.7% is locked in glaciers etc. Only .77 is accessible fresh water. Our drinking water comes out of this .77 percent, which makes the amount of water in the world seem way smaller.
Many different scary things concerning water have been happening in the last decade. There has been a lake that dried up from irrigation somewhere in the middle east near Iraq. The biggest things taking up drinking water are food processing including irrigation for food, sanction services including showers, toilets, and sewers.
Somethings we can do to reduce our use of clean water are to take short showers, only flush the toilet when you need to. If you start to think about how much water we use during the day, it is pretty crazy. Try to use less in your life. If we do not find something or someway to sustain our fresh water it could lead to a next world war.
San Pedro parent trip!
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012Hey every one its Drew McEachern again with another blog post for the New River Academy. The kids from school just had their parents come down to Chile with us, and it was a blast! My personal favorite day with the parents was when we went to the San Perdo, a beautiful river with clear blue water! We had all the parents in a raft or in kayaks, which was awesome because they got a real idea of what we do here at this school. My dad Bill got to try kayaking again- the last time he paddled I think he was in a dancer!
Parent enjoying the sunshine from the Raft
Parents enjoying the scenic view
Kayaking and Supping on the Crystal Blue Water
The San Pedro is a class 3 river with about 3 class 4 rapids and its great fun. A few parents swam but they all laughed about it and had a great time. After lunch we got all the parents to hop in the raft for the big rapids and the rafted dumped half the parents on the biggest rapid! Over all it was a really fun day and a great trip!
Speech Night Success
Monday, February 13th, 2012This semester a new mandatory course was introduced into our curriculum. It is called speech class. For this class every student must give a 2-4 minute speech every week usually on Sunday night. Each speech night has a theme. The first speech night of the semester was on improvising. We were given our topics at the beginning on dinner and had to present them after dinner so we had only about 20 minutes to think about our topics and plan our speeches. This topic made for some funny speeches. Last night our topic was to choose a something to do a demonstration on.
There were many great speeches last night. There was a large range of topics including everything from self- defense to kayaking. All the speeches were very interesting and related very well to the audience. This week our parents got to be there for speech night. They really enjoyed seeing their children present information on their topic of choice.
Personally, public speaking is not my favorite thing but I know it will help me in the long run. All your life you will have to speak in public weather you like it or not. You have to do presentations in classes all through your school career and you will even have to present to people when you get a job. Being a confident speaker is definitely a transferable skill that you can use in literally every aspect of life. I am so grateful that will get this opportunity to practice these skills because I know I would not practice them if it were not mandatory. So far this new course has definitely been a great success!
New River Academy
Rt. 2 Box 245
Fayetteville, WV 25484
(304)- 574-0403
Fax: (304) 513-2247
New River
Academy
