Hi guys n gals!

I am trying to travel the world and kayak for a year.  In the next few weeks I will be applying for the Watson Fellowship which gives around 50 graduating seniors $25,000 to travel the world to pursue their passion.  Luckily for me the Watson is not Academically based, but instead they want to see people pursue their unique passions.   This is a 1 in a 1000 chance that I cannot pass up.

My project proposal (although still in development) is to travel to different countries and look at how important the paddling community is to people.  I know for me the paddling community has been my family since a young age. 

If you have any experience in paddling in other countries, I would love to hear about it.  I am curious as to what the paddling community is like, how it is similar and different to what you are used to, and how it is intertwined in the local community.

Some countries I am potentially looking at are as follows...
Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuedor, Zambia, Uganda, Italy, New Zeland who knows....

I really appreciate any help you can give me!  Just know that by posting you might be helping a kid travel the world and kayak, how cool would that be?!?!

Thanks,
Michael "Gordon"

http://www.watsonfellowship.org/site/index.html

Hey Gordon, I can only recommend the only place I've been, Ecuador. After spending almost three months mostly in Tena, I can tell you the guides down there are all known as guides just the laundry place is known as just that. The guides are all regular people just like everyone else, but are a little like celebs because the people of the area have kind of a spiritual view of the river. They look at it as a very pure thing. Anyway, the guides are all very kind and helpful. They also like to "hang out" with you and wait for you to buy them drinks and food. All part of the fun enchanting South American culture. I found it a fantastic experience to learn all of the things I thought I knew. I would spend at least a month there sometime between Nov and Jan. I can recommend some places to contact for gear also. Good luck, man!!! That is a great endeavor and opportunity.

Whitewater New Zealand (rivers.org.nz) is probably the best single resource for NZ paddling.

Spent six months there, and other than being awesome, the only generality I can offer is that the absence of an active message board made it much tougher to round up paddling partners. Had to start by going to a local shop and almost begging  for names and phone numbers to get the ball rolling....

Well I got my application in by the first, it was nicely polished, I am very happy with what I turned in, but I did not make the cut.  Thanks for the help guys.