Chileans are some of the nicest people, for example the Astorga family is letting us use their camp sites to stay in. We also get to eat breakfast and lunch at Carla (our spanish teacher)’s house on the other side of the river. This is where the Astorga family lives, not where their buisness is. It is pretty amazing the way the Astorga’s have shared their home with the school.

Galen browning on the road to the Hotsprings with the Maipo Valley in the back. Mixing American cultures with Chilean landscape.

Chile is a friendly country with people who care and have a strong culture built from centuries of learning. Chile’s people are more understanding than most Americans in so many different ways. One example of this is that they share more. Carla shares her house with us, and the entire family works together to run their rafting business. Here in Chile you can bargain people down on price when you go to buy something, which is pretty cool. It is hard to do that in America.

We set down in the Andes-surrounded Santiago airport after an overnight flight and immediately loaded all of our kayaks and gear onto a big bus to head to Cascada de las Animas, an eco-tourism resort on the mighty Maipo River that is only forty minutes outside of the city.

Cascadas de las Animas, or “Waterfall of the Spirits,” is our base for the first week and a half.  It is nestled in a narrow valley of beautiful, tall desert mountains, and includes magnificent camping, a gourmet restaurant, waterfalls to hike to, a zipline, horseback riding, and, most importantly, is the takeout to the upper section of the Maipo River and the put-in to the lower section of the Maipo River.

The lower section of the Maipo is a Class 2/ 3 run, perfect for practicing boofs, eddy turns, punching holes, and racing.  The same skills can be practiced for the more advanced boaters on the upper section, which is a Class 3 /4 stretch with one easily portaged Class 5 rapid, called Frenchman’s Curve.  Throughout the week, all of the New River Academy team improved immensely, and, after great assessment and a strong safety set-up, some ran Frenchman’s Curve!

After the Maipo, the team cruised to Pucon, the creeking capital of Chile.  With its Jurassic Park-like mountains, countless waterfalls, and majestic volcano, Pucon is one of the most well-known summer destinations for Chileans.  For kayakers, it is known for the insanely high concentration of rivers within its near radius.

New River Academy’s kayak school base is located on the Trancura River.  Similar to our location on the Maipo, our Pucon base is situated at the take-out to the more challenging Class 3/ 4 upper section of the Trancura and at the put-in of the Class 2/ 3 lower section of the Maipo.  While we have certainly been enjoying putting in and taking off of the river immediately out our back doors, the team has also enjoyed runs on the Palguin (a perfect intermediate waterfall run) and the Nevados (a more challenging steep creek run).

In addition to kayaking, the team has enjoyed Chilean-led dance morning workouts, natural mountain hot springs, delicious Chilean meals (so much fresh bread!) at communal tables in front of warm fires, and classes that often incorporate the daily experiences of our surroundings.  We are all taken with the culture, the beauty, and the boating of Chile and we can’t wait for the next four weeks!

Kira Tenney drops Pucon's Rio Turbio clean twenty footer.

Students Learn to Stomp

New River Alumni Jake Greenbaum has been hired as the guest coach while in Pucon.  Greenbaum having mastered the art of running cascades shares and exhibits proper form for the eager youth.

Galen Volckhausen practices stomping his feet down to transition his boof to angle entry.

Paddle Misconception:  Why do pros throw their paddles off big drops?

While, many think it’s dangerous pros often throw their paddles because it’s safer.  Large cascades tend to drop into clean pools easily manageable by any kayaker with a solid handroll. What is more difficult to manage is a safe placement of paddle upon impact.  The paddle has been known to strike the face, brow, neck, break, dislocate shoulders and cause other problems.  If you’re good enough to stick a cascade without it then you can dramatically reduce problems.

By David Hughes

Program Director, New River Academy

Owner, Pucon Kayak Hostel

Drew McEachern strikes himself with paddle to the face now proud of his earned battle wound.

Galen standing in the hot springs in the upper Maipo Valley after a long day of classes. Photo by Colin Klein.

Being a student at New River Academy also takes devotion to kayaking. Not only do you have to be ready each morning to workout and train, you also need to be ready to accept consequences for your actions. If you are late to class or morning workout, you need to carry your kayak with you to classes all day.

The experience you gain from each trip with the school is amazing. Being in countries like chile where there is limited power and small populations is a learning experience. It really makes you realize what you need, and you just want. If you are considering attending New River Academy be ready to not just to become a stout boater, but to also gain knowledge about yourself.

Felipe. Cook extraordinaire and Morning Workout Master

Every morning at NRA we get up at 7:30 am for our morning workout. Usually it consists of either yoga or a “21 gun salute,” which consists of simply too many push-ups and sit-ups. But every now and then, the coaches give us a treat, and Felipe relieves us from our routine and takes over morning workout. With Felipe, as always, you never know what’s going to happen. One morning we had an improvised team-building exercise involving our paddles.

Massaging our faces to wake up as instructed by Felipe

We did everything from charades with our paddles to throwing them in a circle without talking. The language barrier between Felipe and us would have been difficult if he wasn’t so experienced in using nothing but his hands and descriptive sounds to express his intentions. This allowed him to easily instruct us in whatever seemingly ridiculous exercise he had thought of for us.

Felippe guides through our next adventure with our paddles

Our second workout was a lesson on Capoiera. In Africa it is a lethal fighting style in which two competitors attach long knives to there feet and dual using nothing but their feet. In Brazil this fight has been turned into a dancing style. Felipe taught us the basics he had learned during the months he spent traveling Brazil.

Felipe demonstrates the porper form for a high kick

Our workout entailed two opponents encircling each other and mirroring each others motions. The goal is to move as in sync as possible, without coming into contact with the other person. The challenge for the morning was not getting kicked in the head, as we weren’t all fully awake yet. This was one of the most memorable morning workouts we have had, and one of the best so far!

Warming up

High Kick. Good Thing I warmed up first!

Kincaid Wurl goes for the handstand to scare his opponent

Dave takes on Felipe.

Thanks to Alex Zegart for the photos!

If you’d like to learn Capoeira for yourself, here is a link the Felipe showed me demonstrating how cool the dance can be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMX9KKzG4-0