First Legal Descent of the Niagara Gorge

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

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• First
• descent
• kayak
• kayaking
• extreme
• big
• water
• river
• fear

[speusa]

that is the entire video.

[speusa]

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

[speusa]

Thanks for the comments. For more historical videos check out exchile.com

[speusa]

Hahh that was true....we hid in the woods..hid our boats in a drainage pipe, and evaded the police.

[tomnshanna]

oooops, the post below is incorrect. the date of our original float was Oct. 5, 1977

[speusa]

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

[Kaapo73]

@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!

[ladyjennalyn]

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.

[RWOATMAN]

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??

[RWOATMAN]

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

[mkatlynwilliams]

@ChapSinclair I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice that. gotta love the 80s. What the hell did he know about kayaking and what lines to take? he didn't.. she was one of two not to flip, but did he mention it? "one of the best female kayakers" more like one of the best, period.

[guaranic]

Imagine taking an 18 footer down that

[stillrob420]

When someone Surfs it, then ill be impressed.

[MichaelH38DaS]

@Karrowt haha that sounds perverted lol

[CalTek]

@muskieandsalmon1 interesting to note. They negatively impact the fish stocks and vegetation (acidic feces) in the area. As an angler and an outdoorsman I do not welcome them at all.

[muskieandsalmon1]

@CalTek cormorant largely disappeared thanks to the chemical DDT..the same one that devastated the Bald Eagle... After many years since DDT was banned, the cormorants are finally making a comeback..and then some...for some silly reason, everybody hates them...but i would argue that not having them around did more damage...every ecosystem needs predators to keep disease down..