when NRA was down at NOC we went to the NOC shootout comp this is a short video of the 4 jr girls that were battling it out for 1st 2ed and 3ed hope you all enjoy!
About: Drew
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- Hey guys and girls, I am Drew Mceachern. I am from Aurora Ontario Canada. I started kayaking about mid-summer 2011 with the Keener program. I spent 5 weeks on the Ottawa river with Stephen Wright who helped me learn how to kayak, I have never creeked before, butIi am excited to try! When I am not kayaking, I like to snowboard, ski, and go on camping trips.
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NOC Shootout Jr girls
Friday, May 18th, 2012
Head Couch Craig Kleckner talking about his new play boat the Jedi
Friday, May 18th, 2012this is a short video about the new boat the Jedi, Craig the new couch at NRA has been useing it for the past few weeks and he gave me a interview on how he likes it and whats they did to make it better then there last boat! and some big wave boating
The Cheat Race
Sunday, May 13th, 2012Hey everyone, the other day the New River Academy hit up the Cheat race, on the Cheat river, this is a 1 of a kind race and was a lot of fun! The Cheat is a 11 mile run, with class 3 and a few class 4 rapids, so its not a overly hard run but its really fun and great for new boaters. The New River Academy did not do this run before the race so it was a lot of scouting from your boat as you went down the river, but it was ok because it was a 120 person mass start race so if you did not know lines you could just follow some one who did. Seth Dow the math teacher here at NRA took 1st for the short boat and Eric Bartl took 2nd place for short boat! Kira took 1st place for the women short boat! a lot of the students did the race as a fun run, I did that myself and had a great time paddling with my friends and meeting new people on the river, over all it was a great day and its a crazy feeling racing with 120 people at the same time!
No Alto Maipo Benefit | New River Academy’s Service Learning Project
Friday, May 11th, 2012Hey everyone it’s Drew McEachern again, today i am going to talk about the benefit that the New River Academy’s environmental science class put on.
During our time in Chile we did a lot of work on hydro electricity projects (dam) and we found it appalling what some of the company’s are doing. Chile does not own its own water rights witch means foreign company’s come into Chile and dam their rivers and the people of Chile lose there rivers and don’t get anything out of it. The envrionmental science class decided to make a short film on the proposed dam on the Maipo River, this quarter when we got back to the USA we put on a benefit at the Brew n View in Asheville to raise some money for the people trying to stop the project. During the Benefit we had 3 movies that we showed, we started with the short film we made when we were down in Chile, then Hunt showed the kayak video he had been working on to get the crowd fired up, and we finished off with a showing of Patagonia Rising. After all the movies, we had a raffle with a bunch of prizes from Skirts, PFDs, T shirts and a week long kayaking trip at wilderness tours on the Ottawa river over all it was a great benefit!
The Swing!
Thursday, April 19th, 2012Hey everyone, it’s Drew McEachern here with another blog post for the New River Academy! last week Eric, Ziggy, and myself set out on a mission to make a creation we call “the Swing”. The Swing is a fun rope Swing with some variations to it, first, we found a tree over hanging a hill out front of our West Virginia base.
Grabbing some air off the new swing
Once we found the tree we hit up a few stores to find what we needed; we bought 100ft of rope a 2x12x8 plank of lumber and a some 1 inch piping of PVC. Once we had everything we started to put it together, we got the rope and put a double figure 8 knot with a bite on one end of the rope and tossed it over the branch we were planning to use.We then feed the other end of the rope thought the bite on the knot and pulled it thought till we had the knot at the top of the rope around the branch.
Once we had the rope up we took out lumber and made a board with a hole in the center, we put the loose end of the rope though the hole we made and tied it off. Now we had a rope with a skate board like think on the end of it, now we needed a handle. we cut some of the loose rope off the end and made a large loop of rope with a dubble fishermen knot in it,with the PVC pipeing thought it. We tossed in a few alpine butterfly knots into the ropes and carabernerb it all together, and the last addition we had was a harness for safer with some spare rope and Erics rock climbing harness’s.
We had completed the swing and started doing big tricks, its a lot of fun and i am sure we will keep enjoying the swing as long as it is up! And we got to use some of our knot skills for fun!
New River Academy Chile Training grounds
Thursday, April 5th, 2012Hey everyone, this is a quick video I made down in Chile last quarter. Its just some footage of what the New River Academy has been running down in Chile and were we have been doing all our training. the video induces such rivers as the Rio Fuy and the Rio Palguin enjoy!
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!
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!
The Upper Fuy river!
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Hayley Stuart styles the 20fter on the Upper Fuy. Photo by Stephen Wright.
Hey every one it’s Drew Mceachern here again. Today I am going to let all the viewers know about the River that the New River students have been styling the past week. Its called the Upper Rio Fuy and its stout! A clear blue river with everything from bolder gardens to 20ft drops! It is a great run. The Upper part of the Fuy starts with about 5 to 10 min of flat water then the river starts to get steep! For most the river we have nice class 3 or 4 water with some really fun boofs and great lines! After about an hour or fun class 3/4 water we get to hit up the drop section! The 1st drop is a “clean” 20 foot drop with a big tongue right down the middle, but there is also a nice boof line just to the river right of the tongue with a perfect flake to boof off! As soon as you are done the 20ft drop, there is a small 8-10 foot boof with a kinda hard line but a really fun drop. About 30 ft farther down the river there is another 6 or 7 ft drop with a nasty hole but also a really clean line! And guess whats after that: Yet another drop! A really clean 12 foot drop with a ton of different lines you can run! After the drop section its a few more min of white water then we are back to flat water for about 10 min to the take out! Over all its a unreal run and a perfect training ground for the New River students and one of my personal favorite runs!
Playboating on the Gauley River with Steven Wright!
Saturday, February 4th, 2012This video was from a day on the river with Steven Wright, some clips we got of every one boating so i put together a quick edit to show you guys what the New River students have been up to! this play hole is just below Sweets rapid on the Gauley River enjoy!
New River Academy
Rt. 2 Box 245
Fayetteville, WV 25484
(304)- 574-0403
Fax: (304) 513-2247
New River
Academy
