March 3, 2007 – Student Athletic Report

           We began the past week with a river run on the Bridge to Bridge section of the Futa.  This section is a long river run that contains arguably the best, and by far the most dynamic surfing wave of the river, Pistola.  After spending a good bit of time at Pistola, shooting video and photos of everybody’s great rides, we moved on to run the rest of the river section.  I’m not sure if anybody knows the names of the most of the rapids on this run but one thing is for sure, there are catch-on-the-fly waves and cool moves to be had by all. 

As we continued down river we came to a rapid known as Disco Biscuit, which at higher water has a great surf wave.  Since the water is low at the moment the rapid has turned into the perfect downriver trick playground.  There is a long wave train that ends in some very cool whirlpools.  It’s not uncommon to look up and see somebody throw a huge kick-flip and then get pulled into a whirlpool and get spun round and round.

Moving on from Disco Biscuit, the last main rapid goes by the name of Mundaca. This rapid is probably the biggest rapid the majority of the kids have run in their lives.  Here the river constricts and forms a series of twelve foot tall waves, which you skirt the edge of to avoid a big hole at the bottom.  The move is easy, but I think it’s safe to say everyone in the group gets a rush from skirting the edge of something so powerful.  After Mundaca there are about five more rapids with various lines and then the take out.  The take out has a great one foot tall green wave that is perfect for learning and improving our technique for any wave move out there.

            The reason I would describe our athletics this week with the word variety is because instead of kayaking one of our days we did something much more land based. We logged with oxen.  After school we all piled into the back of a huge truck and took a ten minute ride to an area where Luis, the owner of our campground, had scoped out some logs to be pulled from the forest.  We proceeded to track down the oxen that are left to forage in the underbrush, and rigged them up with a yoke.  We then watched as Luis hooked a large chain to the yoke and to the log he wanted to pull out.  After about five minutes of strain on the oxen, the log was sitting by the road almost ready to go into the truck, but there was a catch.  Luis sawed the pieces into small stumps and then handed us an axe.  We handed the axe around the group, chopping wood for around three hours until we had finished off about two trees.  Eventually, we all loaded back into the truck and drove back to our camp for dinner, study hall, and a much-deserved rest.

            Thus concludes the athletic aspect of our week.  Starting now we have nine more days to pull off the rest of the stuff we want to accomplish in Chile.  That’s all for now.

Tino Specht is a Senior at New River Academy.

photo1

Tino Specht on Pistola on the Futaleufu River in Chile. Photo by David Hughes.

photo2

Alex Mohn on Pistola on the Futaleufu River in Chile. Photo by David Hughes.

photo3

Sean Johnson splits wood as an after school activity in Southern Chile. Photo by Sara Hunter.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

All right reserved