First Legal Descent of the Niagara Gorge
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- The historical footage gives you a view of whitewater kayaking in the early 80's. The first descent was in the 70's by Chris Spelius and Ken Lagergren. This resulted in the arrest of Ken and the escape of Chris. For a complete pod cast of the first descent see exchile.com
This is fantastic. I applied for a permit in the early 1990s, assuming that lobbying efforts by the AWA had been successful, and the response was ... amusing. Parks staff took my name and number, called me about 8 hours later and read 4 passages from the New York Revised Code, which described the offenses I'd be charged with if I tried such a thing. And no, they weren't handing out permits.
Carrie didn't seem 'unsure of herself' - seems like the announcer was being sexist there....
Women are not timid and helpless, especially not pro kayakers going through the fucking Niagara Gorge. Carrie has more guts than any man I know.
One of my favorite modern paddlers is Nouria Newman. She's one of the most badass whitewater kayakers out there. I suppose we need to remember that this announcer is from a different time, and there was a different attitude towards women who participated in these types of sports. Props to Carrie for paving the way for the women of today.
@@mikeemmons4062 Yeah Nouria is insane!!
Watch Carrie carefully - she took the best line and was in complete control. I talked with her a couple of weeks after this was filmed, and she just chuckled at the attitude she got from ABC.
@@fredcory2686 extreme sexism
Kayak design has come a long way .. wow
Well someone did notice the fact that we taped and glued our spray skirts down. That was the big fear...what would happen if the skirt blew. We had three illegal runs before we did the filming run.
chris
badass!
"where the flow is unpredictable, and the surge is mysterious"hahaha best narrarator.
You know I always thought the same thing from the first I saw the show before it aired. Carrie was one of the best paddlers in the country male or female at the time.
chris
Yeah, the smile and laugh is typical of a person who is 'scared as fuck'. She didn't say she was happy it was over, she said she felt better now. Doesn't everyone feel better after they accomplish something awesome?
If anyone was 'scared as fuck', they would never be in this sport, and would have never paddled into the Niagara Gorge. This takes guts and passion and years of dedicated training.
Fucking loved the music.
Omg this is freaking INTENSE! My heart was in my throat just watching it. I'm my hometown's only urban kayaker and I've taken tunnels, canals, spillways, and have gone down several local waterfalls but nothing like this. I'll never be this good... You guys are my heros! :D
Just awesome, gotta love the 80's. This is reality TV, ha, They're coming out the other end one way or the other, the force of that water won't stop for a rescue team.
The first and only time I ever saw Kayakers was at the Natahala River. This was back in the mid-80s when the Kayaks ,as seen above, were everywhere. When I got into Kayaking around 2005, after moving to Georgia from S. Florida, those were the types I naturally looked for. The dude at the store was sorta like "Dude! What decade did you just come from."
You practice holding your breath driving in your car!?!?!? Man, that's gotta be a hopeless feeling if you're under and you can't roll yourself back up. It makes me anxious just thinking about it...
Big waves but no holes!
I am not certain if I understand your comment but....for me warming up doing a full roll is a ritual of mine before a big rapid. Getting my body used to the water and going through the full range of motion before we head down the gorge. I think everyone in the group had extreme confidence in their own roll.... If you did not have confidence in ones woll .....this is not the river to paddle.
Lame? It was all I could do to keep Ken Lagergren from running the falls back then. That was in the 70's before you were born and when long boats were the norm. He had his line figured out and only way I stopped him was by telling him if he went for it I was not going to film it. He called me a weeenie. He said a 10 year old boy went over it in a life jacket without a scratch. Quote from Lagergren "You can not let anything: job, work girl friends get in the way of one and the river.
120,000 cubic feet per second
Carrie had bigger balls than anyone I knew at the time and she precise and elegant. That was a sexist comment without a doubt......bChris
This is so amazing... Props to anyone doing this
wow! great stuff! and loved the LA Rams football helmet...
😂😂😂
And in some old school kayaks too! Gawd those things are L O N G! The new style whitewater kayaks take out a lot of the work. I can't even imagine the control it took. It just blows my mind. :O
3:25 - "A chilly whirlpool 500 feet deep".
mmmm... no.
@suny123boy1 Deep, but not 500 foot deep.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Whirlpool
Putting myself in a barrel and hurtling down a huge waterfall would be my idea of hell. Who in their right mind would wana do that?
I saw the Himalayan waves on the jet boat and the guide said that the waves will swallow up whole trees. And then you see these people riding those waves on a kayak
Jet boat guides and everyone else up there overhype the rapids and call them Class 6. This is BIG Class 5 but not hardly Class 6...
Jet boats 100% do not go anywhere near these rapids. The jet boat only does the glen rapids to whirlpool. Which these rapids are class 5. Class 6 is up river where the jet boats cannot access
I'll cut Bob Beattie a break, since he is a great skier and courageous. However, saying that Carrie Ashton is "unsure of herself" and "perhaps fearing the size of the water" is preposterous. Let's see Bob make the run, then he can comment on Carrie.
and the on-screen time of her run is far shorter than the 3 men
I have always wanted to try a jet ski...I thought I could get it through there but going upstream. Hey Ken Lagergren did swim through there when he exited his kayak back in the 70's. He survived!!!!!!!
My biggest challenge is not to get a drop of water on my self....hahahaha!
Hi, Chris, I love this video. I hike that section of the gorge often and am always awestruck by the thought of running it.
I love some of the older videos of whitewater kayaking showing the Perception Dancers / Mirages. Chirs Spelius is the best because of his love for the sport. I remember doing the Kenebec in Maine @ 13000cfs. My friend peeled off down the river when we were dicussing whether we should be doing this and I had no choice but to follow. Lots of adeneline for me. It the best sport.
Thanks for posting.
This is a good place to sight see and a very good place to hold respect. I live here and this place is treacherous beyond your wildest dreams. It is a place you respect from a distance. Too many have taken it for granted and the majority have fared miserably. Most are never found.
Yes Wad9591 I was born and raised on the Niagara River. I was taught from the very beginning you just don't mess with these waters EVER!
This is some of the greatest whitewater footage ever. I wish they could get camera crews like this into the Tsangpo gorge or the Stikine. With the right kind of lenses.
Dean Jackson also has great footage
I am impressed. Those longboats are not easy to paddle. Big water is quite fun!
sweet background music almost like a 70's porn
sounds exactly like refused 'new noise'
I too thought the comment was not legit....... C spelius
:-)
11:58 Because i think you graduate in the first woman to get on the rabbits
Lovin it, I cant believe i have not seen this footage, i miss the old glass boats,Kayaking on Sun. and gettin drunk and doin patchwork on Tue. At least thats the way it was done in the southeast U.S. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
its amazing how much kayaks have advanced in design in 25 years...those look almost terrifying to use! fair play to them tho...thats some bit of whitewater!
Our first descent was in 76. The first legal descent I think was in 81.
Chris
I hope the original footage (film) is in an archive somewhere. This is amazing footage.
When someone Surfs it, then ill be impressed.
Chris told me he glued his skirt to the kayak, then slid down thru it into the kayak. I had him for a kayak instructor. Remember "two boats in the hole" on the nolichucky River.
Wow that is awesome... You guys are insane in the best way!
Is that a perception dancer I see? I just picked one up just like that last fall, had no idea it was this old!
fact check - I found info saying the whirlpool is 125 feet deep , not the 500 I think I heard the video say.
old school!
Also, Red Hill Jr. is one crazy bastard
Was.
3 dudes, follow them all the way. 1st woman, follow her for 5 seconds and talk about her hesitation and fear the whole time, and she picked a bad line. Come on.
Hah I agree my hero was little Roger Woodward.
We started off on these fibreglass(i assume) boats in the 80s. Like tanks.
its such a waste for it to be illegal to go in those rapids.
I will never be this cool.
Really enjoyed seeing what the old boats could do
Very impressive. Crazy but impressive and congrats for surviving.
3000 tonnes per minute? Maybe he meant per second😅
Dirty minds lol
Awesome! Chris you destroyed that line. SO MUCH WATER.
The low key sexism in this is palpable.
Cool video! Subtly dated sexism too!
oops i did not mean to remove your entry. Tell me who the guys were to run in it in a tube I would love to talk to them.
Write your post again please,
Chris
17 Years has now passed, and It is truly amazing even by today's standard,. watching these folks run that river.
My greatest amusement is the way things have changed dramatically.
Today when You Tubers record interviews there is a lot more dramatic effect in the way people
talk and display themselves on camera. Back in this time when this was recorded,
People were a lot more humble and courteous than the arrogance of our troubled society today.
It is something I miss.
I never knew Niagra had a deep throat. You learn something new every day!
What was her name again 🙄 I heard about that movie never seen it..
@@peterrivney552 Linda Lovelace. Terrible movie. Don't waste your time.
well I recall it was in the early 80s perhaps 1980 at the earliest 1982 at the latest. I can check the newspaper articles and let you know exactly.
0:48 i thought he was about to die
Hahh that was true....we hid in the woods..hid our boats in a drainage pipe, and evaded the police.
How was it a "legal descent" if it resulted in the arrest of Ken and the escape of Chris? LOL
5:06 "I'm going straight down the throat on these, yeah"
5:24 "Carrie, this is your first time." "Yes, it will be." "How does it look to you?" " *BIG* "
Hey Chris, I got your e-mail!!!!
For everyone else: On Oct, 5 1977 Thomas Beaman and Robert Murray entered the river beneath the Whirlpool Bridge and shot the imfamous "Whirlpool Rapids" on truck inner tubes. We tied the tubes together with a length of rope about 12 feet apart. We wore only life jackets, hockey helmets, and swim fins. We were not tethered to the tubes in any way. We where we were arrested on a multitude of charges. We repeated this stunt in Aug. of 80 We eluded capture.
man you cant rip through ther on no jetski.
LOL, i had a starcraft with a 350 and i could only get so far, then i just stood still with the motor full out.
Thanks for the comments. For more historical videos check out exchile.com
Anyone know what the music is at the beginning? Sounds like Refused-New Noise.
Oh I know man. A friend bought two pairs of 205's for $25.00. He got some laughs at line up at my resort, then shredded the mountain! He was impossible for me to catch.
Hey Chris, Do you still have access to the video's of the 1981 and 85 Stikine trips?
Every few years someone goes over the falls and lives. It's not unheard of, just do a quick search of Buffalo news.
@mkatlynwilliams She is brave!
About that not-to-flip, check 11:37. It doesn't make a paddler worse if there is a need for the roll. Just do that!
the only river that has a 1-10 scale is the colorado other than that 1-5 and 6 is supposed to be unrrunnable
that background music at the start sounds just like 'new noise' by refused ha ha
love the 80's beards
Didn't know the Bee Gees were big water boaters
Respect to that Girl, and Guys.
..they must all have balls the size of dinner plates.
amazing. now someone needs to do it in an open boat. OC-1!!!! amazing skill though these 4 were amazing
oooops, the post below is incorrect. the date of our original float was Oct. 5, 1977
incredible. interesting to note the way they talk about the kayakers relationship to the river
i love my old..215cm skis....
the 'hot shots' of today..can not ski em, like i do.
what kind of idiot wouldnt think this was sick? this is great footage man!
@Dole111 Just you wait till the flood gates at the dam are opened...
Seen these rapids last weekend and they are insane.
haha! That's great! I love old school kayaking videos.
I love the narrator's Yankee accent!
They talk of "energy" and "sunlight off the water" like they were hippie hold overs from a bygone age. The early '80's hadn't really hit with them, they were older..
@tpstrat14 there way to get out. you should take class.
meh... it's not that bad... there aren't reversals
They didn't have all the gates open
Originally from Niagara Falls, but at the time that this was filmed missed it because I was on a pleasure cruise of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean aboard the Luxury Ocean Liner USS John F. Kennedy. Would of loved to see it,
k, no thank you.
Chris made it seem effortless,that is how good he is.
Truly amazing. Soooo much power in there. Someday!
at like 49 seconds omfg talk about pool drop fun
that is the entire video.
Well let me rephrase that it looks like Chris and Carrie are paddling Dancers or some perception boats. Thanks for posting this Chris What were the other 2 boats??
Pretty sure they were Mirages - Dancers had not been released in 1981
those r the biggest waves I've ever seen
Looks like Perception Mirage (my first boat).
I've been there in person and the video does not capture the full experience.
Its like looking a picture of the Grand Canyon.
You have to be there in person to understand it.
I was there many years ago
and could not imagine anyone going down those rapids like that.
Nope and if you are born and raised here you stay away from these Rapids! They are nothing to fool around with.
nice job guys! great to see some classic footage!
keren man, do you like its
So happy to see a few others comment on the sexist comments towards Carrie.
I thought she had a great run, she didn't flip, and she handled it just as well as the others Though Chris was disputably the best, I think - what a fantastic run! - I have to say Carrie was better than Don and Ken. Saying that she was 'unsure of herself' and 'fearing the size of the water' is pure sexist nonsense. As the narrator himself says, only an expert can do this! If she was afraid of big water, why the fuck would she be this good at kayaking? It takes pure guts to participate in a sport like this, and women have to be absolute bulldogs to prove themselves and gain the strength necessary since our bodies have a much harder time forming muscle and upper body strength. Go Carrie!
+Jenna L. She sure did great, but she did have to roll once. That is large water!
Let's not get off the "deep-end" on this. I didn't hear Bob say anything "sexist". One point, Carrie did in fact roll on video. Take a close look at 11:39.
This really takes me back
She seemed to be the only one truly nervous, and even admitted as much afterwards, that's probably why he said those things. People are so ridiculous nowadays, everyone is a victim. I bet you're one of those people who thinks it's sexual assault to compliment a woman.
@@everythingviral972 In case you forgot, men have to be manly and not show fear. I guarantee you that the guys were definitely scared and their butts puckered up so tight but they weren't gonna admit it.
@Karrowt haha that sounds perverted lol