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
Video Rating: 4 / 5
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nice job guys! great to see some classic footage!
anyone know what the song is at the beginning? the violins?
Hahh that was true….we hid in the woods..hid our boats in a drainage pipe, and evaded the police.
this was back when men, real men, risked their lives to conquer nature. to try such a stunt now one would have to conquer a mountain of red tape before this mountain of water.
that is pretty amazing charging those waves in those oooold boats
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.
I’d die.
so chris spelius is training for the 1984 olympics then they say the gorge is not a trip for amatuers
Old school
Love to do that today, but definite respect for doing it all in pointy boats (the meltdown @00:44 is sick!)
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.
get that bitch out of the kayak and into the kitchen!
wow is hard to believe they maid it through that!!!!!!!!!!!
i love my old..215cm skis….
the ‘hot shots’ of today..can not ski em, like i do.
Hey folks Murph here. It was Aug 16 1980 the second time tom and i went through the whirlpool rapids. It was also at about nine oclock at night . Care to coment on that liz?
Yeah ok sure.
not then…
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.
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
oooops, the post below is incorrect. the date of our original float was Oct. 5, 1977
Our first descent was in 76. The first legal descent I think was in 81.
Chris
what year was this?
that look like a easy class 4 rapid
Who would dare go in that water? Its badly poluted.
In pyranha karnali
LOL In my perception corsica,It will be easy!
i knpw i wouldent kayak tht in my pyhraha karnali or recoil