In Search of Balance In The Peruvian Slums & Chilean Mtns with Beyond Boarding

In Search of Balance In The Peruvian Slums & Chilean Mtns with Beyond Boarding


It's easy to talk about all the pain and suffering in the world and how terrible it is, but until you see it with your own eyes it's just that, talk. For Tamo Campos, David MacKinnon and Marshal Chupa that meant fundraising for over a year before heading to Peru and Chile for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that would change them all. 

Spending time first in a Peruvian slum helping to build infrastructure for the incredibly poor people of the town of Belen before heading to the mountains of Chile to seek powder and reflect on their experiences in Peru, the crew undertook a noble task and seem to have handled it with grace and the proper respect and hard work it deserves. The sport of snowboarding is a fairly selfish act no matter how you look at it and being able to give back through it is one of the most special things a snowboarder can do. And in documenting their journey for a soon to be released documentary, the Beyond Boarding crew seeks to share not only their experiences but also the spirit which drove them to undertake their voyage.

Can't wait to check it out!

Here is the trailer for their film Belen:
 

Check out Beyond Boarding co-founder Tamo Campos' first-hand account of his experience below and then be sure to check out the beautiful photo essay by Marshal Chupa.

Last summer, myself and a team of snowboarders from Beyond Boarding set off on a South American road trip with a different kind of goal. Our eyes were set on getting an experience of what humanitarian work would be like in the slum of the Peruvian Amazon and follow it up with winter in the Chilean Andes. The combination of a development project in one of the biggest slums in South America and the lightheadedness from split-boarding volcanoes in Patagonia had just about everyone raising eyebrows to what this project was about.

Our plan was to experience it, film it and bring it back to share with our communities. We did our research, made home made split-boards, packed up our camera gear, partnered up with a local charity and raised enough money to rebuild a community center but nothing could have prepared us for Belen. 

 The first days in Belen were exhausting. The heat seemed relentless. Waking up in a pool of sweat was not the most pleasant alarm clock. This was different. Belen was a new world compared to the mountain towns I spend my winters in. Belen is a community of 40,000 people living on the garbage outflow of the town of Iquitos. Open sewage lined the houses. Flies carried disease from stagnant waste piles onto everything, including every meal of the day. The smell filled the air and even after a month we never really adjusted to the choking sensation of entering Belen. Yet with all these sights, sounds and smells there were moments that surpassed them in intensity. In thirty-degree heat we would all bring water bottles down to the raft. What followed was something I will never forget. Kids and adolescents lined up begging for a sip of our water. Kids desperate for a sip of clean water.

How many times do we appreciate turning on our taps at home? How many times do we realize that when we shower we are washing ourselves with clean drinking water? Is it fair that in my own life of 22 years I have never had to beg for water? Their innocence and desperation will stick with me forever.

After spending the rest of the month in Peru having new perspectives slapped in our face, it was time to move on to Chile where we toured the backcountry of Patagonia. I am thankful for that time as the long days touring up the volcanoes allowed us to process the Peruvian experience. Snowboarding was different now. It had this surreal feeling of how fortunate our lives are in the mountains. I wore a bracelet that one of the Belen girls had given me. We’d had a talk the day before I left Peru. She had given me the bracelet so that a part of her could travel to distant lands. She was only twelve years old yet she had come to the realization that she would never leave the slum of La Belen. As I toured up these mountains, I realized that although my perspective had changed profoundly from the trip, that little girl and her community would continue unchanged; lives without clean drinking water, without proper waste sanitation, without a fair chance at a high school diploma.

I realized in that moment how fortunate we were to be involved with the local organization in La Belen. They really are rays of hope in an area with so little. They chip away at the giant mountains of inequality in this world. Like everyone else they’re affected by lack of funding yet these people live their lives, day in day out, attempting to make the world a better place. They put perspective and humility into action. Being able to work alongside them for that month has changed the way I see and act in the world moving forwards. So as wild as it was riding down the inside of a volcano crater in August, my experience in Belen is what really enriched my life.
 

 Words by Tamo Campos - Co-Founder of Beyond Boarding

Beyond Boarding is an organization of snowboarders spreading awareness and actively participating in environmental and humanitarian projects. You can stay up to date by checking out their Facebook page

The South American film titled Belen will be out Fall 2013.

Check it out at www.belenfilm.com 

www.beyondboarding.org - www.marshalchupa.com

 

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