The title of this post should be enough to convince you that the Futalefu is one of the coolest rivers ever, but if it didn’t allow me to enlighten you. The Futalefu river is situated in Chile’s Patagonia mountain range, in a valley that looks -broken record alert- its right out of a Lord of the Rings film. The water is clear and temperate, the mountains are covered in glaciers, and when it rains water streams off them forming hundreds of small waterfalls in the valley walls. When boating forces you to take your eyes off the scenery you notice that the river is big and amazing. Full of huge green (or blue in this case) fast waves. One called Pistola at the beginning of the run rewarded me with my first ever air screw, a trick I have been striving to learn since I first started kayaking. Another called Magic Carpet is located right beside our hostel, and is the prefect wave for practicing my new found ability to throw this trick. This wave is incredible and I will return to it at later in this post. The river is not just good for its play, there is plenty of downriver features which make this a world class run. One such feature is Pillow Rapid, which has a massive curler perfect for throwing kick flips off of. Another is Mundaka, a massive crashing wave hole which I would liken to Big Kahuna on the Ottawa River at high water. This rapid was the site of the events of the first day of Futafest. Here was held the 2 short races; the sprint and the boatercross. I competed in both, coming second in the sprint and getting a DQ in the boater cross for not hitting the final gate. This being my first official race outside of the Keener program it was quite the experience. The next day the down river race was held on the bridge to bridge section, a 8km section of pool drop whitewater taking about 25 mins to complete. I placed 6th after 25 of the hardest minutes of my life, and loved it! The final event of FutaFest was the freestyle event, held today on Magic Carpet. It was a informal “Jam Sesh” format where competitors paddled for 45 minutes and judges decided who had been going the biggest over the whole time. I had several good surfs with blunts, and just as the judging stopped, a ride with an air screw! Due to the large number of competitors only the top 3 were announced, with NRA sweeping the podium! Stephen Wright took the win, followed by Galen Volckhausen, and Tino Specht! Now we are having the awards ceremony in town with an asado (BBQ), life could not get better.
About: Keaton
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Futafest and a Week of Pure Awesome!
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
Boof 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.
From the Maipo Valley to Pichilemu | Ocean Surfing!
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Today is our fourth day in the small surf town of Pichilemu, on Chile’s coast. We drove here from the Maipo valley earlier this week after an unforgettable night camping up in the mountains. We had driven up to the site where (if it were to be built) the proposed dam on the Maipo would begin. This 70km bypass would destroy countless amounts of wildlife and beautiful scenery in what is (in my most humble opinion) one of the most beautiful places on this planet. The mountains surround the valley like massive walls, and their snow capped peaks help to illustrate their shear size, some even have glaciers on them. The entire area seemed like something out of lord of the rings; huge boulders lying strewn about a valley, mountains, constant landslides, and perilous roads seemed commonplace. It’s unfathomable to me that someone could even consider destroying such beauty for the sake of something so material as money. But, unfortunately, such is the case here. In september the dam will be finalized, and once again we will destroy one of the worlds wonders in our quest to expand and flourish. Their is some hope for the valley and river however, the locals here are rallying to raise awareness and stop the relentless march of progress. A small group lead by Soco (the owner of the house we stayed in whilst by the river) is organizing events such as the one we participated in to bring people up to this incredible place and show them the injustice of the damming project. I can only hope the people realize what a wonder they are losing in time to stop the project from going through.
After much time spent viewing the scenery and interacting with others from ‘No Alto Maipo” we left for the 4 hour drive to the coast. The drive took us back through the mountains, and out into the agricultural valley below. We passed by Santiago and what seemed like endless miles of vineyards and farmland until we finally began to rise once again into the the hills which flank the ocean. The feeling was electric when we finally glimpsed the vast body of water- massive waves, relentless surf, and long dark beaches. We had finally arrived at our play boating destination; Pichilemu. This small town would be our base for the next 5 days as we tested our skills on the ocean waves. We managed to get out on the surf the first day, however we took it easy and went directly out as opposed to going to the large point break which forms farther down the beach. The waves surprised me in their size and magnitude, they made arial tricks not only possible, but almost hard NOT to throw! Our second day was even better, we headed out to the point break and caught some of the big waves there. Here they dwarfed us in our little play boats and frequently caught us and tossed us around, it seemed that the wave was demanding a toll for every trick. Most of the time we caught them but on occasion one of us would get close, miss, and go head over the heels into a tumble lasting a couple seconds, making for some hilarious wipeouts and beat downs. Fortunately we had 2 GoPros with us, meaning we got plenty of footage of tricks, and the subsequent beat downs. On one such occasion I threw a Pan-Am, (a trick I have been working on all year) and caught it on camera (finally!).
The surf might be the thing that brought us to Pichilemu, but it was the lifestyle that has enticed me to want to come back. The towns culture is unlike anything I have ever seen. A kind of cross between California surf culture, and small town Chilean customs. There is a big main strip consisting of everything from surf shops, to empanada stands. Horse’s and carriages parade around the town, enticing tourists and locals alike, and coffee shops dot the sidewalks offering a temporary reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the surfing lifestyle.
And that brings us to where we are now, sitting in a cafe writing these blogs and updating our Facebook, preparing for another day of paradise and surfing, we leave for the Rio Claro tomorrow, and though I will miss this place, I cannot help but be excited for the next leg of our trip; the infamous Pucon.
My first day in the Gap Year Program | Starting on the Rio Maipo
Thursday, January 12th, 2012My Name is Keaton Strongman, I am 18 years old and from Mississauga Ontario. I am currently in the Gap Year program at new River Academy, spending 2 months in Chile’s Patagonia mountain region. I have been kayaking for 5 years and got into the sport at a relatively young age when I saw some kayakers from a raft trip on the ottawa river. The sport looked dangerous, reckless, and completely insane, so naturally I was hooked from day 1. While I now know it is in fact a very safe and refined sport, it has not lost its sense of adventure. I now work with those same kayakers that drew my eye those years ago (Ottawa Kayak School). I have Paddled a number of rivers in Quebec and Ontario, as well as some in New York, however most of the paddling experience I have is in play boating, and I welcome the opportunity to learn more about creeking here in chile.
The view from our house
I heard about New River while doing a summer program called the Keeners on the Ottawa river. It sounded amazing and I was convinced it was the right thing for me. It is a perfect opportunity to get out and see the world, while also kayaking, before university. 12 Months after hearing about the program here I am in the Maipo valley in Chile! My first day included a sweet run on the lower Maipo, and I am very excited for our run today!
New River Academy
Rt. 2 Box 245
Fayetteville, WV 25484
(304)- 574-0403
Fax: (304) 513-2247
New River
Academy
