New River Academy on the other side!!

This year in Chile I spent 5 weeks with NRA as head coach on the rivers of  Pucon and the Rio Claro. It was a bit new for me being on the faculty side of things, lots of  questions for sure but it was good to share my knowledge of the rivers and kayaking with kids as others did for me during my progression of kayaking (im still progressing in kayaking i hope).

telling the kids how to hit the kicker on the cali slide

now showing them how its done...

We got to do many rivers around Pucon, such as the well placed Rio Trancura, the classic waterfall run Upper Palguin, and the Pucon favorite as well as mine Rio Nevado. The Palguin was one a few of the kids who planned to stay over break wanted to train on for the Pucon River Fest race. So we set a mock race up with the prize of a free dinner to who ever beat me. Sorry to say no free dinners for them.
Our next river is the Nevado which i describe as single track kayaking at its finest but once you drop in past the Wall Falls drop you are gorged in till the takeout. No worries though because its full of clean drops from there till right above the Demshitz drop where we takeout. One of our days on the Nevado we had guest coaches Evan Garcia teaching most of the young shit runnas how to properly through up a brown claw while stouting and Aniol Serrasolses come along with me individually coaching the two girls Haley and Sara how to style each drop, which they did. After this run all the kids watched from the cliffs edge as the boys and I fired off the Demshitz drop and the lower gorge for the 4th time that week.

Aniol stylin the Diablito

After enjoying these rivers and a few more around Pucon area we packed up and headed north the Rio Claro with smiles on our faces.


Knowing what lied ahead on the Rio Claro, I became very excited for the clean drops and beautiful gorges. The three sections of the river are 22 Saltos, Entres Saltos, and the well known 7 Tazas.  Having a relaxing day after a long drive up the day before but still getting 2 runs in on the 22, I was excited to see some friends from the Maipo make it down our way and got to link up 22 into Entres saltos and then i met up with the school for a Tazas run making it a todo claro run for me on day 2 at the Claro.

freewheeling the ski jump on 22...

round 1 of 4 on Garganta del Diablo...

just a little one..

For the next week and a half, we were located at the takeout for 22 saltos and the putin for entres saltos. It seemed just too good be true at times, not  a bad place for the school to finish off the first semester of school. Hope everyone had as good a time as me and cant wait to continue my Stomping Stouts with Authority 101... good lines everybody!!!

Kincaid Wurl laying out a sweet backflip

just a few pics of the everyday scenery 

The 2nd trip to head north was with a fellow yinzer, Kurt Casey. Kurt had done his homework as normal and had a few new runs around Volcan Chillan that looked promising. The first run was run was Rio Chillan which had some good class 3-4 creeky rapids for a few kilometers finishing in an unrun salto which will stay that way for a while I would think.

super stout with sick 300 meter gorge leading into it...

Next we headed to the Rio Cato which turned out to not have enough water to want to continue up to the steeps of the creek.  But being with Kurt it was easy enough to befriend a local family with farm along the river, whom which were very informative and helpful on what we were looking on the river for when we return with in the creek. In return some of the kids tried out our kayaks to see how theyliked it. Just so happened they were naturals.

first time kayaking and running class 2 rapids...

After the Cato we weren't sure the level on the Niblinto was gonna be good but we decided to roll in on the stout steep road through logging roads to find and discover a possible new chillian classic. Getting to the upper section of the river, it  seemed to be a Cali style run and made the trip to the north worth it.

just a quick glimpse at what the Niblinto has to offer...

It was short and sweet but holds potential for more goods higher up on the run just harder access, but cant wait to try to get there....

    More photos and video soon.......

ROUTIN, SCOUTIN, AND STOUTIN...

what a sight to see when you wake up
In the past week and half I have made 2 trips to the north of Pucon. First trip I headed north the Rio Claro with Ian and Rodrigo, meeting up with Nico and Raul Buenaventura for some high water 22 saltos.

hiking down the creek with normally no water to check the level

getting an overhead view of the first big drop

Ian boofin a the one after autoboof...

Arriving late in the night to the Claro we set up camp on the overlook of the 50 meter  waterfall. Waking up in the morning and seeing the flow on the waterfall, it seemed a bit juicy.  Finding a new road closer the putin for the run, we headed up to see what the flow looked like high up. Crossing over the creek bed of the stream that drops in on the 20 footer just below the putin and seeing more flow than normal we presumed that it was hitting its peek flow for the season. Finding one of the hardest parts of the section was putting in, everything else on the run seemed pretty good to go but gave us an idea that the level was too high for the Entres saltos section. So instead we headed down stream to scout and unrun stout named Salto de la Leona. It was  a great looking level for the waterfall but looked a bit too rowdy for the rapid leading into it so we wrote this one off till next time.

perfect looking 80ish footer with a stout lead in , so hasnt been run yet...

A PUCON WELCOME!!!

I have been chasing warm weather and world class kayaking since my junior year in high school when i started at New River Academy. While at NRA i found a place that i truely  fell i love with, along with a few other of my friends. This place is Chile.This will be my 3rd year in a row to Chile and hopefully the best one yet.

I arrived in Pucon and headed out to the Pucon Kayak Hostel just outside of town. Its the perfect rally point to head to any of the great Pucon classics. Shortly after arriving I went back into town to the gringo kayakers hangout spot, Latitude 39, and ordered every gringos favorite stout burger. Thinking its not off to a bad start, it got better. Two of the  local gringos, Kurt Casey and Ian Garcia, roll in and join Dave Hughes and myself for an afternoon cerveza.  Figuring out an afternoon plan to go kayaking Ian, Dave and I headed up to my pucon favorite, Rio Nevados.  Having a great run I finished off my day with a few slices of pizza and a few beers at Pizza Cala.  This is the Pucon life that we all love so much and I cant wait to have some new epics this year with the rest of the boys when they arrive.  Look forward to a north  update with Ian, Rodrigo and I..... BROWN!!!

Cali Dreamin...

Cant go kayaking in Cali without doing 2 things, big hikes and some over nighters.
Another great camp spot above a portage on West Cherry. 

 

Some more cali goods!!

Back home in Ohiopyle right now and just thinking about the past summer of kayaking in California and the upcoming winter of kayaking down in South America.

sick rapid in day one on Fantasy Falls,
a river with too many rapids to remember!!!

How to communicate with no cell service...

Winning means you go first!!

Droppin in the Toxaway slide on East Kaweah,

Boofin the top of triple drop, East Kaweah.
One of my new favorite runs for sure...

Nick Murphy on Big Kimsheezy falls!! 

Frenchy's drop on Kimshew,
Kimshew into Secret Stash is one of the ultimate days of kayaking!!!

In the beginning of May this year I loaded up my truck pointed west and drove straight to Three Rivers, California, which is the home of the Kaweah River. This was the start of a 3 month trip around California. This years snow pack was one of the biggest in years which made for a long season, even allowed a first D and some high water descents. Got to meet a new crew of boaters out there this year, (Nick Murphy, Taylor Cavin, Chris Kurbulic, and more...) plus got to do some boating near the end of the trip with the good ol boys ( Jared and Grahm Seiler, Evan and Ian Garcia, Fred Norquist, and Baby bird..). Of course it wouldn't be the same without a bender with the boys. Needless to say I had a great time, met some great new people, and enjoyed some epic kayaking. Ill chalk this year off as a win and still winning!!!

Chris Korbulic styling the Graceland slide!!!
Crazy fast feeling...

My cuzin pullin through and gettin us the hookup at a Girl Talk concert  with
VIP back stage passes, can you say WINNING!!!!!!!

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