Team Riot: Welcome Spiegels + Big Wave in China with Huge Experiences

Team Riot has a couple new team members named Speigel. David is the older brother and Eli is the youngin'. These kids are from the Seattle WA area but are rather worldly travelers. I have a unique privilege of coaching both these guys last summer on the Huge Experiences Colorado tour.

Currently David is attending his freshmen year of College in CO. We'll get a report from David soon. For now, Eli is in his Junior year of high school at Huge Experiences, currently traveling in China. Huge Experiences recently checked in with me from China with some sweet photos and a report regarding Eli:

When the New River Academy recently discovered what they are calling, "one of the world's best surf waves it was Team Riot paddler and student Eli Spiegel who hit the Huge move of the day. The school was departing the Salween River lying near the border of the former country known as Burma and China. After two and a half hours of curvy roads, constant bus honking, and viewing the roadside big volume water of the Salween the students spotted what they named "Fortune Cookie."

Students and faculty quickly noted the 12' trough, a huge pile, its steep glassy nature, and eddy access. Yes, that is right a big water wave with a perfect eddy that students would drift into. Fortune Cookie had a large curling river right shoulder and a river left rib in the middle offering teen kayakers the opportunity for the biggest aerial moves of their experience.

It was Eli Spiegel who stepped it up. Huge Experiences coach and director David Hughes stated, "Eli had been the first on and the last off the Burning Time wave all week. He kept trying more moves than anyone on what we thought was the best wave. That is until we discovered Fortune Cookie. Eli's hard work and passion definitely paid off big when he hit a 4 to 5' airscrew on his last ride of the day."

Eli Spiegel is an A student at the New River Academy and a Team Riot paddler. For more reports on Eli surf to kayakschool.org

Eli airscrews on Fortune Cookie wave on the Salween River.

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