WCKA: Conner Jackson

Posted in Blogroll - by snapdragon, on 23/02/2010

This winter I was able to raise enough money with much support to attend World Class Kayak Academy for their spring semester in Chile and West Coast. So far, it has been everything a young kayaker could dream for. Academics are a priority, and as such we are all required to do our homework before we are allowed to get on the river, which is quite a motivator when we are right next to kayaking. We started off northeast of Santiago, Chile on the muddy Rio Maipo, at a small village. It was a very fun stretch of river that offered tons of big water play and we were treated to very awesome hospitality thanks to the generous help of our cooks Israel and Estrellia. After the Rio Maipo we headed to the picture-perfect Siete Tazas section on the Rio Claro, and despite low water levels we were all stoked to get in some waterfalls. After a few short days we then headed south to the whitewater capital of Chile, Pucon. It was sweet to have so much kayaking so close, and we took advantage of this by getting on the river as much as we possibly could. The Upper Palguin became our bread and butter run for a two weeks. The 4 waterfalls on that stretch gave students a lot of time to practice their waterfall running skills. It was awesome. There are many students here that use Snapdragon skirts, including some fellow Snapdragon team members such as Todd Wells and Brian Jamieson. We are now headed south to the raging blue waters of the Rio Futalefu for some big water play and river running. It is sure to be a blast.