Whitewater Kayak Chile: Kayak Guides and Instructors
ExChile has been guiding and instructing whitewater kayakers in Patagonia, Chile since the 1985/86 season and we have developed an excellent understanding of what kind of person makes an outstanding river guide. Our guides and instructors are handpicked from the best kayak schools and instructional programs throughout North and South America. They are all experts in their field, relate well to people, and understand how to communicate difficult concepts effectively. Our guides are expected to enjoy spending significant amounts of time outdoors in isolated regions, to engage in resourceful problem solving and function well within a multi-cultural bi-lingual environment. In most cases our guides are over-qualified for the positions they hold with us. Our current guides and alumni include: world champions, national champions, authors, expedition pioneers, heads of instruction and company owners. Their commitment to your safety and the quality of your paddling experience is paramount.
Chris Spelius was a 1984 US Olympic Team Kayak Member, a Bronze Medalist in the 1991 World Freestyle Kayak Championship in Wales, England. He has won numerous freestyle, flatwater and slalom events around the United States and the World as a sponsored paddler with Team Dagger. He was also a member of Team Timex during the filming of PaddleQuest in 1995. His last professional freestyle competition and victory came in Norway in 1997. He was a longtime instructor at the Nantahala Outdoor Center and the Otter Bar Lodge Kayak School and worked as a raft guide at Holiday River Expeditions and Grand Canyon Dories (now OARs). His tenure as a kayak instructor has afforded him the opportunity to appear in numerous kayak instructional videos over the years. As a kayak designer for the Dagger Canoe and Kayak Company, Chris designed the Crossfire and the RPM, which went on to become the biggest selling kayak in the history of the sport. Chris' first ever descent of the Niagara Gorge in a kayak, which was televised by ABC Sports, garnered him and the sport international attention. In the year 2000, Chris was recognized by Paddler Magazine as one of the “Paddler's of the Century” for a lifetime of dedication to the sport of whitewater kayaking. Chris is a graduate of the University of Utah.
Chris first visited Chile in 1980 and worked as a raft guide on the Bio Bio River. He later coached whitewater kayaking on a grant from the International Olympic Committee to help develop kayaking as an Olympic sport in Chile. Chris first paddled the Futaleufu River in 1984 and has been personally guiding kayak trips in Chile since the 1985/86 season. While spending more time in the office attending to the operation of his business, his zeal for instruction has not diminished. His instructional philosophy and dedication to excellent instruction permeates the entire Expediciones Chile staff. A complete biography can be found here: Chris Spelius.
Fergus Coffee was born in the United States to British and Canadian parents. With his English accent and New England background Fergus is truly kayaking's "international man of mystery". Fergus began paddling in Britain and competed in slalom for five years and was coached by some of that nation's best paddlers. When not working in Chile he spends the off-season as the head of instruction at the Zoar Outdoor Kayak School in New England. Fergus is an active competitor in freestyle and extreme kayaking. In 2006 he placed 16th in the Teva Mountain Games, Homestake Extreme Kayak Race. Fergus has also paddled and worked extensively in Europe, Canada and New Zealand. Chris met Fergus while teaching a freestyle clinic at Zoar Outdoor and was so impressed by his racing background, instructional talents, organizational abilities, and people skills, that he recruited him to work in Patagonia.
Alejandro Rosales is one of Argentina's foremost kayaking pioneers and one of the most recognized names in whitewater kayaking in South America. He has numerous first descents to his credit and has spent much of his life developing whitewater kayaking in his homeland. He has guided extensively in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and the United States. In 1991 he founded his own company, Extremo Sur, based out of San Carlos de Bariloche, considered by many to be "the capital" of Patagonia, Argentina. Extremo Sur is one of the few companies licensed to operate rafting and kayaking trips on the Rio Manso in the Nahuel Huapi National Park.
Alejandro was the Argentina National Freestyle Champion in 1999 and runner-up in 1998. He has participated in kayak competitions around the world and has been featured on Argentina Television and in Weekend Magazine. He was also the first Argentinean to descend the Cascada Falls on the Rio Manso. A graduate of the Rescue III International River Safety Program, Alejandro wrote the book on river rescue in Argentina: Manual Para Técnica de Rescate en Ríos de Montañas. (The Manual of Mountain River Rescue.) A soft-spoken individual, he is an expert at team building and leading large diverse groups. In the tradition of Expediciones Chile's guide team, he is overqualified. A professional architect by training, Alejandro has spent his life following his passion for whitewater kayaking. Even thought he calls working for Expediciones Chile a vacation, we pay him anyway!! He is also the father of 7 year old son named Pedro.
Esteban Bauer's first time in a kayak was at age 4, where his skills developed naturally with the help and instruction of his father, one of San Carlos de Bariloche's first kayakers. In the past 16 years, Esteban has worked as a trip leader for expedition trips, safety kayaker, kayak instructor, rodeo clinic instructor, swift-water rescue instructor, and as head guide and operations manager of Extremo Sur, one of Argentina's most prominent adventure tourism companies. Esteban has achieved high rankings in international and national freestyle and kayak-cross competitions. He has also been the Argentinean representative for the 2001 Kayak World Cup, 2001/2002 European Cup, international rodeos in Chile and Europe, and is the four-time Argentinean National Freestyle Champion. Kayaking is his life and passion, and he believes it is the sole reason why he was put on earth.
Pablo Gonzalez is a kayak instructor with exceptional paddling technique and teaching ability but he prefers kayaking class IV water over the big class V drops of the Rio Futaleufu. He joined the Expediciones Chile team in 1997 and has worked with us in the United States on top of seving as an instructor and guide in Patagonia. Pablo was born and raised in Chile. He is a graduate of the prestigious Universidad Católica in Languages: English and American Literature. He taught at the Chilean North-American Institute in Santiago, Chile for few years, but at the age of twenty-four he traveled to the United States to get involved in the whitewater kayaking scene and outdoor recreation industry, something very new in Chile in those days. He is certified in Swiftwater Rescue (CATA) and has his guide's license for class IV-V whitewater. Pablo has be trained under the ACA Kayak Instructor Curriculum in North Carolina– but the certification is not formally recognized in Chile. For the past six years Pablo has been the owner of his own adventure travel company, GradoSur Expediciones, based out of Santiago de Chile.
Pablo is fluent in both Spanish and English, so if you are lucky enough to have him as you instructor or river guide you will really have the chance to see Chile from a native perspective and meet some of his local friends. You might also discover his guitar playing, as he is the instigator of many of our après river activities.
Alumni Guides and Instructors
A sampling of our guide and instructor alumni includes: Lars Holbeck and Phil DeRiemer, both of whom made the first kayak descent of the Futaleufu River in 1984. Phil DeRiemer (with Mary DeRiemer) is now the owner of DiRiemer Adventure Kayaking and paddles and instructs all over the world. The second generation of guides at Expediciones Chile team was lead by Ken Kastorf and Mike Hipsher. Both were with us for almost a decade guiding on the Futaleufu and other rivers in Chile. Ken Kastorff is now the owner of Endless River Adventures and leads kayak trips in Ecuador. Our third wave of guides included luminary paddlers like Jay Kinkaid, Matt Wilson and Brian Fletcher. Matt and Brian went on to found the Montana Surf Kayak School and Jay Kinkaid became the 2003 World Freestyle Kayak Champion.
