Charging

Its Easy to Apply to New River Academy

I was lucky enough to get a GoPro camera over break, and have had a lot of fun so far testing it out on the rivers in Chile over my break. The majority of the school went home for Christmas, but I got to stay the entire 6 weeks in Chile, running some stouter rapids. One of the rapids I was most excited to run was “Stout 10″: a burly 10 foot boof that is right above the Middle Palguin, a 70 foot waterfall into a flat pool.

Still Charging

Line Up

Boof

Land

Style

Throw a Brown Claw

Ferry

Feel the Rush

Enjoy The View

Ride It Proud

Check Your Vitals

Fist Pump

Here is a photo sequence I took with my Go Pro of running Stout 10 on Middle Palguin in Chile. I had great lines on both and great fun! I will let the photos say the rest. Hopefully you can get a sense of what it was like to run it.  Enjoy!

Its Easy to Apply to New River Academy

It was quite the experience. I thought it would just be a little hike similar to hikes that I have done before in the Adirondacks. However, I was strongly mistaken. This hiking experience was a full-on mountaineering trek. At the beginning of the day we were given a snowsuit and a backpack full of supplies for our hike. The pack included thin mitts, an ice pick, a slide, and room for snacks that would fuel us for the long hike to come. Our awesome guides made the hike as fun as it could be. They were really great. They let us stop when we needed breaks and were very concerned about everyone in the group. After about 20 minutes of hiking I was ready to give up, and we hadn’t even reached the snow yet! We had just hiked for a long time on a 45 degree incline before the snow covered part of the mountain started. And then it got steeper. Most of the hike from then on was just passing back and forth on the steep snow covered slope working our way up the mountainside very slowly. About 30 minutes away from the top everyone got too cold and we decided to turn back before anyone got frost bite, which I think a few of us came pretty close to.

The way down was a lot more fun than the way up. We got to take out our butt-slide from our packs and attached them to our selves for the ride down. After being secured to the little piece of plastic we jumped and off we went down the slope that we had worked so very hard to get up. With a little jump and slide you slide for hundreds of meters down an almost vertical slope. It was so much fun but also pretty scary when you got going at such high speeds. Luckily we had our ice picks that our guide taught us to use as a brake to slow down when sliding. There was lots of little collisions and rolling around down the slope on the way down. I decided that it was definitely worth the hike! If I got a chance to do it again I definitely would to get the glory and great feeling of self-accomplishment of making it to the top. But I’d do it on a warmer day next time!

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.

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!

Video by Hunt Jennings.

Earlier this year when the water was higher, Mariman,  combined with “last laughs” is normally the portage of the run but with lower water levels, and having spent a lot of time on the Trancura, those two rapids are now our favorites.

The rapid consists of two boofs. The first one bring you over a reactionary that leading to the bad side of the hole. The second one is needed to get through the river wide hole seen in the pictures below. As Eric Bartl discovered the the last time we ran the rapid it is very shallow on the left side of the hole. An unlucky line resulted in several skinned knuckles and a rock in his back.

The rapid is very manageable and it is super fun. It is amazing training run and rapid for big water paddling.

Drooping in to hole

Driving right for the boof

Me running Nilahue. Photo by Seth Dow.

Photo by Seth Dow.

Nilahue Falls. Photo by Seth Dow.

Nilahue is an estimated 30 foot slide to a 30 foot free fall. There was a volcano that erupted recently before we got there. It brought the river up to 93 degrees fahrenheit and the level shot up. When we got there it was very brown and there was pumice rock floating around in the eddies and popping up in the boils however the level had gone back down making it more vertical.

Pretty eventful Day!