Our river family is growing with great news from the welcoming and beautiful community of Villa Pehuenia and Moquehue in Neuquén, Argentina where we held last year’s IRF World Rafting Championship. The event created a buzz in the community and has grown into a demand for learning how to raft. Stepping up to the challenge was Waikiki Rafting Masters (Argentina Masters Men who came second overall).
The new rafting school started this week on Lake Aluminé with participants of all ages coming to take part. Having witnessed the success of the IRF competition, students of the local Mapuche community are now also taking part in the rafting school. Participants are learning about raft racing, recreational rafting and some have expressed interest in learning to be a raft guide.
We asked Martin Miguel Arreseigor, team captain of Waikiki Rafting Masters how he got involved:
En Español:
Después del Campeonato Mundial de Rafting 2018 en Argentina río Alumine, muchos chicos de Villa Pehuenia quedaron con ganas de empezar a remar. Presentamos el proyecto como equipo Waikiki Master a la Municipalidad de Villa Pehuenia para crear una escuela municipal de Rafting y automáticamente dijeron que si. Lo más importante ya estaba presente, el gobierno tiene las balsas que se utilizaron en el campeonato mundial y la pusieron a disponibles para la escuelita de Rafting. Actualmente son 30 chicos que participan de dicha escuela de Rafting, la misma está orientada a la formación de futuros atletas y también futuros guías de Rafting.
Dentro del grupo de chicos que participan en la escuela de Rafting estamos trabajando en la base de un equipo de U19 Men, U23 woman, Open Men, Open woman y una equipo de master woman.
Estamos muy felices de cumplir este sueño de poder hacer crecer la actividad de Rafting en nuestra región.
In English:
After the 2018 World Rafting Championship in Argentina, the Alumine River, many guys from Villa Pehuenia were eager to start rafting. We presented the project as Waikiki Master team to the Municipality of Villa Pehuenia to create a municipal school of Rafting and they automatically said yes. The most important thing was already present, the government has the rafts that were used in the world championship and made it available for the Rafting school. There are currently 30 children participating in the Rafting school, which is aimed at training future athletes and also future Rafting guides.
Within the group of children participating in the Rafting school we are working on the basis of a team of U19 Men, U23 woman, Open Men, Open woman and a team of master woman.
We are very happy to fulfill this dream of being able to grow the activity of Rafting in our region.
Other local teams are now also assisting in running these rafting schools and we wish them all participants and teams helping teach, all the best success.
Read the release from Secretaría de Turismo de Villa Pehuenia y Moquehue here:
#AreYouReady #RaftersAreAwesome #StrongerTogether #RiverFamily #WeAreIRF #LiveTheStrengthOfTheRiver #ViviLaFuerzaDelRio #Aluminé #Neuquén #VillaPehueniaMoquehue
