Paul strikes a pose, and looks suspiciously like Galen.
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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 11th 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!
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