Learning to Fall

This week has been an amazing second full week working in Pucón. I started the week teaching an advanced class in Spanish with fairly dubious weather. It was great to get out teaching on some good grade 4 sections and I really enjoyed stretching my Spanish by trying to translate all the technical jargon we use when teaching WW kayaking in English!

This week we've also had plenty of time for personal boating, getting in multiple runs of the Upper and Lower Trancura, Upper Palguin and the Liucura. There have been a few double kayak sessions this week too. The double kayak sessions are great because we go out in a two-seater whitewater boat, a guide at the back and a client in the front. It's a fun way for the clients to be able to experience bigger rapids without having to worry about making the right lines, and if we flip, we can just roll the boat back up with them in it. We've had everything from young and adventutous 20-something year-olds, to equally adventurous 70-something year-olds out in the tandem kayaks this week and it's also a fun session for us as guides to teach.

Can't complain about the office...

I suppose I should address the title of the post... Something that I've gained a bit more experience in whilst in Pucón has been kayaking larger drops and waterfalls. To be honest, it's just about learning to fall well... The Palguin has been a good playground and will continue to be a frequent playspot throughout the summer. But this week I had my first f-up of the season. We travelled about 2hrs to the River Llancahue. It's an extremely narrow but stunning river. I went with the boss Ben and another guide, Daniel. When we're paddling together we tend to go at quite a fast pace because we all know roughly what we're doing. I was told that we'd catch an eddy just above the lip of a 25ft waterfall (5ft ramp and 20ft freefall). Fine. Although when it came to catching the eddy I wasn't concentrating hard enough and missed, floating backwards towards the lip of the fall I didn't have any chance of saving it. Instead I got some speed up backwards and ran the fall backwards... I landed really nicely, much more luck than skill! The original plan was to get out and have a look, then run a line that we'd pick out from scouting it. I supposed after I fell off, the other two felt like they had to run it blind too, and they followed me down. This was the first time I've messed up in Chile and even though I laughed it off, I was pretty scared! Definitely gotta concentrate more in the future!!!

Daniel ran this one the right way round

The rest of the river involved a lot of walking, around various trees that had fallen into the river. It's hard to deny that the river was really beautiful though.

Hard to deny that this place is pretty cool. And photography skills are not bad.

There was another first for me this week too. I got out on the Stand-up Paddleboards with Daniel to have a play around before we start guiding on them. We started off on the chilled Middle Liucura and did pretty well. The rapids on the Lower Liucura involved lots of falling in, but nothing too serious. We then took the, admittedly questionable, decision to run the Lower Trancura with slightly bigger waves and holes to negotiate. Whilst we didn't do much of it standing up (mainly kneeling), we made it down fairly successfully and didn't swim any of the uglier and shallower sections, which was a relief. It was a fun afternoon overall and I got a lot more stable on the board as we went on.

Rapids on the Lower Liucura

It's clear to see that the tourists are starting to arrive here big-time. Traffic is ramping up, lots more people are walking around the streets and the place feels a lot busier. I escaped for today to come to Roberto's house in Loncoche where we went for a coffee and cooked some delicious food with his family. It's nice to have a kind-of foster family here to spend time with, even if one of Roberto's uncles speaks so fast I can't understand anything he says! I'll be spending the night here before heading back to Pucón for work in the morning. Next week I hope to be able to tell you about some new rivers I'd like to paddle and general life in and around Pucón.

A brief escape from Pucón

First full week

Due to some suspect weather, there haven't been that many trips with clients this week. COnsidering the high season hasn't started yet, this is pretty convenient for two reasons. Firstly, the rain brought up a lot of rivers that weren't runnable before. Secondly, the lack of clients meant that after a few hours of work in the shop, we got out boating quite a lot! Monday afternoon we went to see the Rio Nevado, a grade 4/5 canyon run. We arrived and everybody looked a bit nervous, there was a lot of water... For a first time run of this river we figured it'd be better to do it a bit lower, so we left with the plan of returning the next day for a slightly less chaotic first run. Luckily, the next day we had the perfect level and set off into the canyon.

This run was the best section I have paddled to date! Full of tight and twist corners, ducks under rocks and logs, countless waterfalls and drops and one amazing slide!!! It was great to get out paddling with the other two guides and the boss as it gave us some more time to get to know each other and everybody's paddling style. We hiked out of the river at the take-out all buzzing with adrenaline and keen to go back again to run this great section as many times as we can.

Jeremy styling the line

Setting safety can be fun too!

Scouting on the slide

On Wednesday everybody was a bit busy, but the boss offered to drop me off at the Upper Trancura and pick me up later. I've been keen to paddle this grade 4 section as it's notoriously fun, and I'll be working on that section, guiding and coaching, all summer long. I set off on my solo run with some information on the lines and where to get out for the big portage. Unfortunately my brain failed to retain all the information and I went down the wrong side of one of the islands, nothing major but it meant that I had an annoying walk back up to descend the right channel... I finished the upper section fairly quickly and paddled down the lower section too, where I got picked up in the van. It's always a bit more nervewracking paddling by yourself but overall the run was fantastic and I was glad to be able to get out on the water.

Yesterday was a busy day on the river too. In the morning, me and Daniel were out in the tandem kayaks paddling the Lower Trancura. It's fun for us because we paddle in the back of the boat, with a guest coming along for the ride in the front seat. You've got to be a bit more proactive about choosing good lines, but apart from that it's just point downstream and paddle hard. The safternoon I safety kayaked for the first SUP (stand-up paddleboard) trip of the season. Hopefully I'll be guiding the next SUP trip, starting with a few tiny rapids and then a really scenic paddle out.

Today I'll be teaching an advanced class on the Upper Trancura, it is raining, but it is a watersport I suppose... It'll be my first class in Pucón in Spanish which should be fun. I thought I'd also attach the compulsory videos of the drop and slide on the Nevado, too good an opportunity to miss :)

First few days in Pucón

I arrived in Pucón on Wednesday evening, which left me enough time to dump my stuff in my new accommodation and go out for a few drinks with my new boss.

My accommodation is a small room with two beds in a pretty rickety wooden shack-style thing, not the most luxurious accommodation I've stayed in but a bed is a bed and I'm not fussy. Thursday was my first day working in the shop, getting to know the staff, how the company works and what gear we've got. That evening I went out paddling with a friend to a local surf wave, it was great to be in a playboat again after a while. The might be pretty hot out here, but that river was absolutely freezing!

Team 2016

It's been far too long since I've been in a tiny boat!

Friday I spent a day shadowing one of the other two guides on an intro to whitewater day. I'll be running these things quite a lot this summer, spending the morning giving the clients some basic skills on the lake, then heading to an easy section of whitewater in the afternoon to give them a taste of the thrills that whitewater can offer. The river has some absolutely stunning sections, I'll be trying to get some decent photos of the work I do as the summer progresses.

View from the shop, 

Saturday was the best day so far. The head guide and I spent the morning reapairing gear at the shop and then we all headed off to my boss's house, who lives right next to the Palguin River. It's a classic Chilean waterfall run and we were told it's tradition to run it for the first time blind, after all you only get the chance to see a rapid for the first time once! The first run Daniel (the head guide) and I headed down with Ben (the boss) and I absolutely loved the river. There's a short hike in to start, a beautiful seal launch into the river followed by 3 waterfalls and quite a steep hike out. The best thing is that you can easily walk from the take-out to the put-in with your boat so me and Daniel did a total of three laps whilst the others BBQ'd the meat. We finished the trip with a delicious BBQ, beers in the sun and a bit of football.

If this is the start, just imagine how great the rest is...

What better way to do staff bonding?

I returned back to the centre where two friends from Concepción had arrived to spend the weekend. We grabbed some food together and then spent the evening chilling on the beach.

Today we went for a quick paddle on the lake, the cool thing about living here is even if I don't have transport to a river I can walk to the lake with my boat on my shoulder and let off some steam. The strong wind and heavy rain made it a bit more challenging on the lake. We then headed back to Loncoche to Roberto's house where we'll spend the night before I return to Pucón for work in the morning. It's been great to catch up with these guys who are taking a brief break from exam revision and I can't wait to start another week of paddling in the sun!