Futaleufu is a Classic Chilean paddling destination. Soon to be the Kayak Schools home in Patagonia.

After a beautiful but dry Christmas break at home in Idaho, snow flakes and flurries were forecasted to flood in just about the time I was supposed to take off for my much anticipated return to the kayaking promised land of Chile.  Luckily, everyone’s flights just snuck through between storms and we are all happily back at our home base in Pucon and ready for a semester filled with local creeks and rivers, as well as journeys and stays to the waterfalls and big waves of the Fuy and the Futaleufu.

Chile is the land of perfect waterfalls for kayakers of all skill levels.

This quarter, we are indescribably excited to have Stephen Wright as our full time head coach.  Since we arrived a week ago, the students have already indulged in his succinct and bottomless knowledge on the sport of kayaking in the disciplines of both freestyle and creeking.  While in Pucon, the team will continue to paddle and play on the Palguin, the Trancura (our back-door river), and the Liacura, which has an excellent play hole in right now.

Tomorrow, we take off for a ten-day stay on the Fuy River, which is known for it’s beautiful water, jungle setting, and mix of fun surf and waterfalls.  Its different sections offer all levels of paddlers challenges and it is the perfect place to practice boofing, plugging, precise river running, and wave and downriver freestyle moves.

We are looking forward to a group of parents meeting us on the Fuy River for the first leg of the New River Academy Parent Trip.  The trip is being led by Clay Wright and Kurt Casey, two of the best and most well-known paddlers in the world… only the best for New River Academy parents!  In between hikes, optional kayaking, and other ventures, the parents will be able to visit and attend classes, watch kayaking practice, and see first hand the wonderful opportunities that their children get to experience every day.

Chile is no stranger to stunning scenery. Like this view of Rio Yesso.

After a brief return to Pucon, the team will head south to the world acclaimed Futaleufu River in Northern Patagonia.  A truly magical valley of steep and stunning mountains and unbelievable bright-blue water, this is a river that captures the hearts of everyone who has the privilege of visiting.  We will be based right on the Futa and will have big water rapids and play waves right outside our tents and cabins for three entire weeks!

I certainly am excited for what’s to come… it seems you just can’t beat Chile!

Paul strikes a pose, and looks suspiciously like Galen.

Its Easy to Apply to New River Academy

Paul drops into Garberator on the Ottawa. The funny thing is that Hayley, Paul, and I were on the Ottawa at the same time this year, but didn't meet until now!

Hey everyone its Drew McEachern here again, back in Chile with NRA for the start of our second semester. Now the big question at New River Academy right now is “who is this new student?” He looks like everyone would imagine Paul Bunyon the lumberjack with the big cow! But who is he really? Well, his name is Paul Raymond and he is joining the New River crew for the rest of the year. He was in the gap year program at the start, so none of the students really knew who he was. But once we all meet up in Pucon we found out he was in the school and not in gap year! Paul is 18 years old from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, he has been paddling for the past 7 years or so and rocks a big bushy beard. Now that Seth has shaved Paul has the best beard outta everyone in New River Academy. Here is our interview with Paul:

Thanks to Hayley for her help on the interview.

DM: What made you want to come to NRA?

PR: 5 years ago, My older sister Taylor and I went to the Nantahala river with her friend Joey Hall. Joey was impressed by my paddling and recommended the school to me.

HS: Does your sister taylor still kayak?

PR: Yes, she still has my first boat, a yellow kingpin 6.2 when I grew out of it. She still has it and paddles when she can

DM: What inspired you to grow a beard?

PR: The fact that I could, and it keeps me warm. And it makes me look older than I am.

HS: What do you like to do besides kayaking?

PR: Scuba diving, anything involvolving boats, like fishing, sailing, waterskiing. Anything involving a boat. I grew up in South Florida where everybody boats. Its natural. My parents own two boats, a 32 foot ocean master, with 250 HP Yamaha fourstroke, and my boat was a gift for going to college, an 18 foot grady white with a 150 four stroke Yamaha.

DM: What were you doing in college?

PR:I was taking engineering classes during my sophomore year in highschool at Florida Atlantic Univeristy. It was a little boring, and I had to write a 20 page thesis paper at the end of it, but it good.

HS:Where is your favorite place to scuba dive?

PR:My favorite place is probably off the coast of Mexico at cazumel. There are sheer cliffs underwater at 150 feet, which just drop off into the abyss. There are caves, it was amazing. I have also been to the Great Barrier reef in Australia. I have logged hundreds of dives, some off the coast of venezula, Hawaii and California (which was the coldest place!).

DM:Does Scuba dive help kayaking at all?

PR:No- but I heard a story from Tino about Steve Fisher in the Congo, and he was using a rebreather  tank like we use in Scuba.

HS:What are you excited for with your time at New River?

PR :Graduating Highschool!

DM: Are you going to go University next year?

PR: I think I might take a semester off, and go in the spring, but I haven’t applied yet, and don’t know where I want to go.

HS: What has been your favorite part of Chile so far?

PR: I got here on the 11^th of January and went to Maipo with the Gap year program, before surfing at Pichelemu and coming down to Pucon. My favorite was probably the time we spent at Cascadas de las Animas where we stayed in Maipo with the Astorga family.

DM: What is your background in kayaking, do you do more freestyle or riverrunning/creeking?

PR: I don’t particuarily enjoy playboating because I have found that sometimes they are arrogant- they are paddling to better their image, rather than themselves. I like to relate them to attackmen in Lacrosse. I have played Lacrosse even longer than I have been kayaking, 11 or 12 years. I play defense, but the attackmen don’t do any work. They get the ball passed to them, and they are really good at one thing, which is throwing the ball into the net for the goal, but that gets them all the glory. That is how I see playboaters.

HS: Do you feel that way about all playboaters?

PR: It’s a generalization, there are plenty of playboaters who are very humble and great to paddle with. You have to know someone really really well before you can judge them. It isn’t that I don’t like playboaters, I just don’t like the mentality that comes with it. It is when people kayak not for themselves, but to show off that I don’t enjoy it.

HS: How do you like the quarter so far? Is it different than what you expected?

PR:Its good, its different. Yeah, I suppose.  Part of why I was here is because this has been a dream of mine for a long time to actually come here, so sometimes it is hard when dreams become reality.

DM: Well, I don’t agree with all of your opinion about playboaters, but were excited to have you here Paul!

Its Easy to Apply to New River Academy

Meet Your Guides

Clay Wright

Clay Wright brings character, charisma and leadership to a great program.

Clay is a living legend and ambassador in the whitewater world.  You name it and Clay has done it:  appearances in many kayak films including National Geographic, multi-time US Team Member, sponsored athlete for over 20 years, and youth programs coach.  Whether it is competing, leading expeditions, developing freestyle score systems, or teaching safety Clay Wright is at the forefront of whitewater.  Clay has been guest coaching with Huge Experiences’ New River Academy since our beginning in 2001.  It is an honor to have Clay’s persona as part of this year’s Family Trip.

Kurt and Pablo Casey Leading as Father-son Team

Kurt Casey embraces his beautiful family in Chile. Pablo, Luna, Eva and Kurt at the beach.Kurt and Pablo Casey

Kurt Casey wrote the book on Chile and Peru whitewater.  Well, he wrote the online guides and is the foremost expert on South American whitewater. That’s pretty cool and we’re a bit envious to be honest.  If you are a paddler in Chile and really want the beta then there is no better person than Kurt.

Check out the fruits of Kurt’s lifetime exploration missions:

RiversofChile.com

PeruWhitewater.com

Kurt is Pucon locally respected for possibly the highest number of first descents of anyone in the world.  Just last year Kurt notched an unprecedented 6 first D’s in just four days.  Last week when Kurt invited Clay from the Pucon Kayak Hostel on a mission to the Futa we had a good ideal Kurt had been looking at the topos and sure enough Clay soon was texting about his most recent First D.

Kurt is married to Eva Luna and together they parent Pablo and Luna Casey.  Kurt hails from Pittsburgh where he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and  still remotely works with the family mining equipment business as VP of Latin America Sales for Casey Equipment Corporation.  Kurt will surely bring a cultural and geographical wealth of knowledge to the program.

Pablo Casey-

 Eleven year old Pablo is Kurt’s son fluent in English and Spanish.  For families bringing kids Pablo will serve as a helpful translator as you guys play on local rivers and lagunas. Pablo has already notched a few of his own cascades and New River Academy is excited for the day when Pablo is old enough to apply.

David Hughes-

David Hughes has been leading Chile based trips for 14 years is excited to share his favorite destinations with families.

David has led student and family international trips for over 15 years and may have more logged days of Chilean whitewater leadership than anyone in the past ten years. This year is special for David as Pucon Kayak Hostel hosts it’s largest group yet with the New River Academy families.

“Trip goals first and foremost would be to organize a medium that allows parents and children to optimize their Huge Experiences in this glorious country.  It’s a priceless opportunity for everyone involved.  Hiring the best guides in the world only further insures success.”

If you are attending then you might want to check out the,

“Parent Trip Itinerary.”  

River runs with Kids Camp

Rarely do beginners have the chance of learning basic kayaking skills in Chile. In the last  week at Pucon Kayak Hostel we taught kids how to read water, roll with style and throw the brown. Learning to kayak in Chile could be one of the best experiences a kid could ever have. First you start out with roll practice in a beautiful lake just north of Patagonia. Then we crank up the heat, taking them to a local hot springs where every student got their roll. Next they take advantage of the classic rivers, like the lower Fuy and the Rio Tolten. But the boys told me that  by far their favorite run was the lower Maichin.

Chile holds some of the best white water in the world. So no matter what skill level you are, from class V in a kayak to strolling down a beautiful class I on a stand up paddle board Chile has it all.

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!

portaging "Sunshine"

I have come here looking
to come to terms with myself and my past through kayaking. This is my 40 days
in the desert, it is my chance to figure out who I am and what I will do in the
world, and why. I hope to realize the faults I’ve made throughout my life and
what I can do to fix myself. Other than that, I am just going to kayak as hard
as I can and become as good as I possibly can, with the hopes that kayaking
will free me from the chains that have been holding me back all my life.

This is a shot of some of my family and Grandparents. I am so thankful that my family has always been so close to each other, and always there to support each other.

My little sister Mackenzie. Mackenzie is a super active, super athletic little girl. She's always fun to be with and has an awesome sense of humor. Even though I will always be stronger than her, she still thinks that she can beat me up.

My mom is awesome! She works hard, and still has time to take care of her four kids. I would never have been able to do half the things I have done without her, including going to New River Academy. In her spare time, she likes to read, relax, play tennis, work out, and watch videos of stouts.

I am so thankful to my dad for providing me with amazing opportunities. He is the hardest working person I know, and he is also the reason why I have been able to travel to so many awesome places and do so many cool things. Thanks for supporting me Dad. In my dad's spare time he likes to do anything out doors. Camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, and even a little kayaking!

My sister is awesome. She is a sick kayaker, and also the reason that I started kayaking. She is always working hard at everything she does, and she has become one of the best female kayakers that I know. I'm so thankful that even if none of my friends want to go kayaking, my sister Alexis Grace is always motivated to go.

My sister gearing up for another day on the water.

My littler brother is a super talented kid. He has the best grades in his 8th grade class, and he is one of the few committed Bassoon players in Chattanooga. He practices every day, and has been selected to play in a bunch of honors bands. My brother Harrison is super fun to hang out with, and even though I can always beat him in Call of Duty, I still like to play him.

My brother Harrison practicing his Bassoon.

My Grandparents are the coolest people you will ever meet. They have always supported me in everything I do, and they always have good advice to give me when I have questions. They are the happiest and funniest people I know. And they love Sponge Bob.

My littler sister Mackenzie loves her Iphone.

Thanks to all of my family for being who you are and for supporting me!