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David Miller is happy to be back on the water in Chile!

After spending time at home in the midst of a Canadian winter for 6 weeks I was very ready to come back to Pucon, one of my favorites places in Chile. When I found out that we would only be here for 5 days I was a little disappointed but I knew it was going to be a great 5 days to say the least. The hostel has changed since we have been here last semester making it even safer and more comfortable. There are more places to lock up your gear and electronics. There is even another dome which we use for morning workouts and hanging out in. The boy’s dorm is finished as well. It looks great! There are big rooms with many beds and beautiful paintings on the wall. The family-like atmosphere of the hostel is even better with more paddlers and more students. We have two new additions to our school this semester: Paul and Keaton. They joined us to take part in the gap year program at NRA. They take a few classes with us and paddle with us everyday!

Another thing that was scarce in Canada in the winter was paddling. It was so great to get back to Chile and paddle the first day right in our own backyard. On the Rio Trancura there is a fun play hole that we paddled our first day with our new coach Stephen Wright. Not only is he one of the best playboaters in the world but he is also an amazing creeker. He is extremely well qualified to teach us both playboating and creeking and has already taught me and everyone else so many new things. He was able to help me improve my bow stall immensely by saying a simple two words. We are definitely lucky to have !Stephen! as a coach. The first day we were back on the water we had every student out there paddling which is a rarity for us. It was an awesome way to start off the quarter.

As much as we love the hostel we won’t be here for long. In two days we are leaving for the Fuy to meet up with the parent trip before returning to Pucon. The Fuy is about two hours away from Pucon. The section that we will be running is a class 3+ creek with a few drops. It is a few hours south so it may be a little bit more chilly. After the Fuy we will be back in Pucon for a few days then we are heading to the Futalafu. The Futa will be a long journey for us. It is about and 18 hour drive south so it will definitely be colder in Futa. On the Futalafu we will be doing lots of playboating. It is a big volume river with lots of fun play waves. Can’t wait to make it to these other two destinations but I will sure miss Pucon.

Its Easy to Apply to New River Academy