PADDLER 100
PADDLER 100
It was a couple of kilometres long , so it was a test of stamina , strength and , of course , technique to make it into the top 20 . I positioned myself around the Metreñehue Bridge . It was not only an excellent place to get some photos of the racing but to see the effort on the faces of the competitors as they kayaked through the final rapid to the touch point .
The rapid entrance is a small drop ; then , you move to the river right to catch the diagonals and tongues leading you into a small sticky hole . Once you have punched this , you must maintain your speed as the boils along the side of the main current are just waiting to catch you and drag you offline before you finally reach the 4-metre waterfall , where you have to work out your line and boof stroke with no visible marker when you are on the river . Also , there is a slanted rock where you should put your paddle stroke , which can catch your blade and , in the worst circumstance , will rip your paddle out of your hand !
Once you land , it is just the final rapid on the Upper Trancura , the Class 5 aptly named Last Laugh !
This year , Santi had decided to change the format of the race , with it happening over two days . The first day was a downriver race in the morning on the quieter final part of the Upper section finishing at the Metreñehue Bridge on the road from Pucon to Lake Caburgua . This was also a qualification run for the second day .
Each kayaker was given a start time , and it was a race against the clock to see if you would be one of the selected few to qualify for the next day ’ s event .
WOMEN ’ S EVENT
However , it was not just the competition format that had changed . This year in conjunction , there was a women ’ s event , Santi is keen to make it allinclusive , and with plenty of female kayakers in and around Pucon , it proved to be a great idea !
In the afternoon , the second event was a mass start downriver race . The men were first , with some serious amount of force and power being exerted to get a good position going into the first rapid , followed by the women , where again there was plenty of jostling trying to ensure the kayakers were heading first into the river . After wading across eddies and clambering over slippery rocks , I positioned myself slightly further into the river and had the best view to capture all the action at the start !
The stoke was high at the end of the first day , and everyone was buzzing for the following morning .
I met with Santi on the second day and headed to the Mariman Waterfall . The organising team was preparing to set up the course , which was taking a different format than previous years ! It was decided that rather than just having a downriver race on the rapid , there would be an extreme slalom with two gates placed at two extremely difficult eddies . The idea was to enter the first part , work to river right and make the gate on the far right in an extremely tight and boily eddy . Next followed a tricky move back into the main current through a hole while working hard left into a very unpredictable eddy where the stern of the kayak could get caught and flip you over as the returning current of the eddy was taking you up to the hole that was formed by a 2-metre drop .
NEED TO UP YOUR GAME
Once you had negotiated this gate , you needed to cross the main current ( pushing you back to river left and a horrible manky drop ) to get to the lip of the big drop and the final gate . Avoid the gate , boof to keep the bow free and clean while keeping hold of your paddle and not letting that cheeky rock underwater grabbing your blade before a final sprint over the pool below . This was challenging to achieve , but as Santi liked to say : it is the Mariman Extreme event , and you need to up your game . Judging by some of the faces of the competitors scouting the line and course , you could see it was not going to be easy !
So with the gates set , safety put in along the sides of the rapid and me on the island in the middle with camera in hand , we were ready to start !
As each competitor dropped in for their run , you could see that the first gate was manageable and the line could be held . However , the second gate was proving to be very unpredictable . Everyone ’ s