First Legal Descent of the Niagara Gorge

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First Legal Descent of the Niagara Gorge

Historical foogage from the early 80's of the First Legal Descent...

Historical foogage from the early 80's of the First Legal Descent of Niagara. Chris Spelius, Carrie Ashton, Don Weeden and Ken Lagergren. Mike Hipsher provided safety back up.
Ken and Chris were the first to descend the Niagara in the 70's. These Perception Mirages were the early plastic kayaks that made glass play boats obsolete. Ken was arrested and Chris escaped into the forest. Note the evolution of the kayaks, and technique. At the time we talked about if some day someone would run the falls in the future and we actually outlined the line. It still remains to be done sucessfully. The one attempt at the falls in a C-1 was fatal. For the Niagara kayak history hear the podcast at exchile.com

Added: September 17, 2006
Date produced: 07/07/1983
Producer: Chris Spelius, John Berg and John Wilcox
Copyright: exchile.com
This item has been viewed 13731 times

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big whitewater extreme first descent kayak kayaking kayaks niagara niagara falls niagara gorge whitewater

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big whoop
Wed, 09/20/2006 - 1:25pm I hope there is a sequel to this where we actually see these guys go over the falls. Especially the cute one.

wavetrain
Tue, 09/19/2006 - 10:46pm No matter how ya slice it, this will always be a classic - a great step to move the sport forward. Excellent!

dumbasspaddler
Mon, 09/18/2006 - 1:47pm It was finally fantastic to see this video. Why? Because i was there when the filmed it for American Sportsman. I live in Niagara Falls and wasn't a paddler at the time but had been hiking and swimming the Gorge for years. No, we didn't swim in the rapids but just above them. The video is just as intense as i remembered it. They didn't show much of Carrie Ashton but I remeber her being upside down quite a bit. Good roll though. I think I was just able to see my self omn the US side of the river just after Ken started in. I saw myself stand up from the rocks. Boy I sure got fat. happy paddlin'. Joe

NathanSilsbee
Mon, 09/18/2006 - 12:31pm Just so you know I am not critisizing, just saying how far the sport has come as far as what is runnable. In this documentary, they quote the Niagara gorge as "the feircest rapids in North America". That couldn't be any farther from the truth in this day and age of kayaking.... I think it was a great video. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

NathanSilsbee
Sun, 09/17/2006 - 10:49pm This sport has come a looooooong ways over the years.... ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

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