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THE INSIDE STORY ON GUIDED WHITEWATER ADVENTURE TRAVEL STORY BY CONOR MIHELL
PHOTOS BY TREVOR ZAHARICHUK T
he founder of what’s be- come one of the most suc-
cessful ecotourism operations in the world admits that he didn’t have an ounce of business sense when he first visited Chile and fell in love with the Futaleufu River in 1985. Chris Spelius, then a Dagger-sponsored rodeo boater who’d just competed in the Los Angeles Summer Olym- pics, taught kayaking for North Carolina’s Nantahala Outdoor Center and had notched the first descent of the Niagara Gorge, decided that he wanted to spend as much time as possible on the little known rivers of Patagonia. He figured the easiest way to do that was to set up shop as a river guide. “I started it almost like an experiment,” says Spelius. “I
was just curious about whether or not it would work. I would present slide shows on the Fu and it would be the first time people had heard of the place. I was amazed when the phones rang and the next season I was guiding trips.” Te first trips Spelius ran were bro deals in which he
charged nominal fees to lead class V American acquaint- ances on big water runs. After a few years, Spelius realized that if he wanted Expediciones Chile’s books to balance he had to be more inclusive in his programs and exclusive in his prices. Expert-only boating morphed into beginner- and intermediate-friendly river safaris with an emphasis on in- struction; whitewater kayaking expanded to rafting, trek- king, horseback riding, sea kayaking, climbing, fly-fishing and bird watching; and prices soared. Without even realizing it, Spelius had cornered the core
of the adventure travel and whitewater market: Older, moderately skilled paddlers with more money than time. A market for guided trips to places like Costa Rica, Ec-
uador and Mexico emerged, appealing to the middle-of- the-curve demographic that’s a far cry from the globetrotting, waterfall-hucking, dirtbag im- age of paddlesports marketing. Twenty-five years later, Spelius is still living his dream.
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Today, guided whitewater trips are offered in exotic places like Suriname, Norway, Tailand and Nepal, besides the classic Central
and South American destinations that started it all. Prices range from $350 for seven days of class III–IV+ paddling in Ecuador to $11,300 for three months of paddling and cultural immersion in Chile’s Futaleufu River valley. Trips run the gamut from laid-back programs with the
odd day of paddling to intense, every-day-on-the-water tours. For instance, Quebec’s Esprit Rafting, which has organized adventure programs in Mexico since 1995, runs a weeklong whitewater tour of the Sierra Madre for solid class III boaters simultaneously with a primarily land-based adventure tour to appeal to couples. “When each spouse comes back from the day and says, ‘you won’t believe what you missed,’ we know we’re doing our jobs,” says Esprit own- er Jim Coffey. Esprit’s average group size of eight participants is typical
for the industry, as is its 30- to 50-year-old demographics. Coffey requires that participants on his whitewater-inten- sive Mexican Week of Rivers program have intermediate skills, meaning that “they can roll and it’s fairly reliable,” he explains. Esprit also hosts its fair share of expert boaters. “Often people think that guided trips are about leading
a bunch of newbies down the river,” says Coffey. “But that’s not it at all. We give people the basic rundown and then we
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