SW
STANDINGWAVES THE SOURCE
FATHER OF CHILEAN WHITEWATER NOTCHES 15 FIRST D’S IN 2012
It’s a sunny December day with Whitewater Grand Prix (WWGP) kayakers rolling into the Pu- con Kayak Hostel from the Upper Trancura takeout in Chile. In the parking lot, whitewater pioneer Kurt Casey, 47, is surrounded by paddlers asking the usual questions about river levels, directions and dangers. He gets it all the time. In these parts, Casey is the source for river data.
He wrote the online guidebook for whitewater in Chile and Peru, and last year alone notched 15 first descents. Though he’s been making first descents since 1987, in January 2012 he banked a remarkable six first descents in four days—a record even for him. He humbly attributes it to good planning and luck. “We went in mid-January for a four-day road trip.
Five of the rivers had been scoped out. We’d just left the take-out of one river we got a first D on and were trying to find our way to the main road when we crossed the Rio Blanco de Cohuieco,” says Casey, as more paddlers drift closer to hear his story. “It’s a trib to the Cohuieco and had plenty of water in it. Man, that was a hike up that logging road from the take-out,” he laughs.
Prior to moving to Chile full-time, Casey traveled to South America 29 times for kayaking trips. He now lives on a farm outside of Pucon, in central Chile, and has two children—also kayakers. In the bustling parking lot, the crowd around Casey briefly clears as paddlers load boats. It’s the challenge of first descents that keeps him search- ing for more. “It’s a challenge to just find one, a challenge to know when to go, where to get in, where to get out and who to go with,” says Casey. “If all that works out, then the actual getting down the river part can be easy.” In the past, he’s discovered first descents by catching a glimpse of an unknown tributary while paddling another river. Now he gets a bird’s eye view with Google Earth. Getting to the put-in is often still a challenging hike through dense, un- touched jungle—that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the local paddling community. “Last weekend you had the Sudamericano Sla-
lom Championships. This weekend it’s the WWGP. There are probably a dozen different countries just here in your parking lot,” Casey tells me as he adjusts the wiring on his broken and weathered Crocs. “Ten years ago we were lucky just to find someone to go kayaking with in Chile.” Despite his record-worthy number of first de- scents, Casey is short on photos—he doesn’t even own a camera. “Today everyone’s got a camera on their head. After their run they’re watching videos of themselves. We used to just go kayaking,” he says. “It’s as much about the video or photo now as it is about going kayaking.” For old-school Casey, it seems it’s all guts and no glory.
CASEY RELAXES AT THE
PUCON KAYAK HOSTEL. PHOTO: DAVID HUGHES
34 RAPID SPRING 2013
David Hughes directs Patagonia Study Abroad, a kayaking student’s semester abroad program in Chile, and owns and operates Pucon Kayak Hostel on the banks of the Rio Trancura.
www.patagoni-
astudyabroad.com and www.puconkayakhostel. com. For Kurt Casey’s whitewater guides see www.
peruwhitewater.com and
www.riversofchile.com.
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