By Steve Brooks

Steve Brooks

Steve Brooks

Steve has lived in Austria for over 25 years, from being a place to come and work seasonally on the river to a base camp and finally making Austria his home! Steve’s love for kayaking and adventure is infectious, especially in the kayak school he set up 12 years ago. Based out of the Arlberg Region in Western Austria, the school runs courses for beginners, coaching and instructing kayakers through all the whitewater grades, including creeking and river running. Between the kayaking season in Austria, Steve can be found kayaking, leading courses, adventure trips and expeditions in the Soča Valley, Indian Himalayas, Peru and Chile in South America.

He speaks Austrian German like a local and has picked up a little bit of an Argentine dialect in Spanish. When Steve is not kayaking, he searches for that perfect powder run in the backcountry in his home mountains of St Anton am Arlberg or riding his Royal Enfield Bullet in search of undiscovered rivers in the Himalayas.  With their stunning newly built lodge in the Andes above Pucon, Steve and Mati, a Chilean local, show guests some of the best rivers Chile has to offer, from Waterfalls to Big Water to Alpine Style. Steve loves taking his Canon 1DX and lenses out on the river, looking for that perfect shot that showcases a kayaker’s skill and technique and some of the most spectacular scenery and rivers on the planet!

Connect with Steve: www.gokayaking.at; Facebook: SteveBrooks; Instagram: @kiste_wala

Finally, a huge thanks go to everyone who supports me in being able to keep kayaking, travelling, exploring and having fun: Peak Paddle Sports; Striebel Designs Paddles; Waka Kayaks and Arcteryx St.Anton – Austria

Mariman Extreme Kayak Slalom Race 2023

I was back in Pucon, Chile escaping a winter of relatively poor snow conditions at home in Austria. Our lodge on the flanks of the Villarrica Volcano was coming along nicely, and we were looking forward to welcoming our first guests to the lodge for a week of Class 3-4 kayaking. The madness of February around Pucon was over, and next on my kayaking calendar was the Mariman Extreme Kayak Race at the beginning of March.

I had managed to take photos in 2022 and had put a small article together for The Paddler last year, and Santiago (the organiser) was keen for me to be involved again this year.

Stunning location

Santiago originally developed the race to highlight not only the stunning location but also to show there was more to the Trancura River than just the rafting companies pumping down all the tourists that visit Pucon, which is one of the main adventure capitols of the Southern Hemisphere, not just in South America.

The River Trancura originates from the stunning Lanin Volcano on the Chile / Argentine border. As it makes its way down towards the Villarrica Lake, where the town of Pucon is situated, it picks up the volume with rivers such as the Maichin (my personal favourite around Pucon), Palguin (a steep creek made famous by its abundance of waterfalls), plus the outflow of the Caburgua Lake via the Carrileufu River and finally the Liucura River. The Lower Trancura is a Class 3(4) popular section of whitewater.

The Upper is a pool drop in character with steeper drops, amazing snowcapped volcano views in the background, and plenty of green vegetation along the banks of the crystal clear water. As you kayak down the Upper section, the drops and rapids become steeper and more challenging until you come to the hardest one, the Mariman.

The rafting companies portage their clients around, and if they are lucky and the levels are perfect, they get to watch the kayaks run the rapid waterfall along with the tourists who have paid to hike in and watch it from the viewing platform on the other side of the river.

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. 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.

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 all-inclusive, 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 stern was getting caught on the entrance, and then it was a question of where the boils were sending you. If you flipped, you were going to the hole at the bottom of the drop; if you made it upright, you were trying to get to the only piece of green water in the eddy to turn the kayak, set the angle and make the gate. If you were unlucky, the boils pushed you further lower in the eddy, killing your speed and ending your chance of a podium finish – it truly was an Extreme Slalom, and this was before the main waterfall!

It was a full day of extreme action, and by the end, we had the top three, but in my eyes, all the kayakers who competed on the second day were heroes.

The prize giving was in Pucon, where the party went on all night. What a couple of days!

Those two days of competitions were full of action, adrenaline, friendship and a community coming together.

These are just a few of my highlights throughout the event:

• The inaugural women’s event was a great addition. Though the ladies only raced on the first day, they put on a great show. I am sure this will inspire not only the future generation of female kayakers in and around Chile to come and compete not only to compete on the first day but the second day of racing especially set up for them to develop and show just what they can do on such a serious piece of whitewater!
• Watching the youngest competitor of the race at the age of 13! Vicente Villagran certainly made his father proud, though I have to say his Mum was a nervous wreck watching her son race in the time trial, but he paddled well and learnt a lot, and while watching the second days action with his Dad, you could see Vicente’s goal of competing with the best in Chile as he gets older!
• Also, the affection within the Chilean kayaking community! Chile’s top kayakers were travelling across the country to come and compete. Travelling to Pucon from Patagonia is an adventure in itself. Seeing their support and respect for Santiago’s passion for organising the Mariman Race is truly special.
• And finally, I would say the opportunity for me to get some sweet shots that showcase Chile’s best whitewater kayakers!