Poll: Best waterfall paddler ever (independent of waterfall world record)?

Guys, when the last option is called: 'Other (please comment)', and it's the favorite option, I think it would make sense to comment....

Whom did you have in mind?

from the videos I have seem him in, Flemming Schmidt (sp?) looks to be the most solid. Plus Nick Turner says so...

I don't know how to rate best water fall paddler. There are a lot of crazy ones, such as the guys from No Big Names, maby not the best paddlers but they huck them selfs of some big stuff, then there are guys like Flemming, Tao and others that are realy good paddlers and huck them selfs of some big stuff.

I think I just have to quote a classic, with minor changes

That wasn't paddling! That was... falling with style!

So many tough guys these days... gotta agree with Skirnir, Ben Stookesberry is tuff. Did you guys ever see that drop Angel Wings Falls or something that Jesse Coombs ran in one of Hotel Charley Flix? What about Charlie Center and Scott Lindgren(scotts drop on the royal gorge in Cali) the Knapps... it just goes on. Who was the first guy to run Cherry Bomb Falls? Plus there is the Chicks former record holder Shannon Carrol and also there is Nikki Kelly etc. etc

\"Any given Sunday\" it seems these days, ya know?

Shaun Baker is the undoubted waterfall king no other competition comes close:notworthy:

Flemming Schmidt.

what is the criteria? Most waterfalls run? Tallest wterfalls run? How well they paddle the drops? For what it worth, Ben stookesbury seems liek one of the most well oudned paddlers out there, continually pushing the limit on crazy expeditions

yeh it's hard to say i'd judge by the following criteria
-risk of injury on falls run
-consistency
-required technichal skill on falls run
-ability to paddle other features as well as they can paddle big drops
-and how much they've pushed the boundaries in kayaking.
Thats just my way of judging it

i think i'll run this poll again, with a couple of names added, like flemming and scott lindgren, and a couple of others, who hardly got any votes so far, removed from the list.

any other obvious choices that i should not forget in the 2nd round of this poll?

my two cents is to move on to a different poll. This one, although sparking conversation is a little vague to be able to get solid results it seems like. Maybe favorite waterfall paddler or best creeker?

What about asking about the hight of the highest water fall playak users have run?

you guys ever see they footy with Steve Fisher freewheeling the 50 footer Celestail Falls? How about Rush Sturges and the Hail Mary over a 30 footer?

Pretty technical manuvers over waterfalls..... pretty sik

I think for pure waterfall running Pat Keller is top notch. To quote Nicki Kelly about the Royal Gorge:

\"This is the river that has the multi drop thing that Scott ran in 'Thirst', this drop remains one of the most impressive cataracts ever run (IMHO). No takers on this trip, or ever again for that matter.\"

Props to Pat and Charlie Center for firing up these back to back fifty footers last spring.


Rush is often overlooked because of how good his playboating is, but the Hail Mary and styling Wabena on Royal are both epic.


imo Stookesberry is hands down the best expedition/exploratory boater out there, logistics genius and amazing ability to keep the group on track and come out the other side. Plus his innate ability to find good runs in wild places.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned him yet, but my vote is for Gharett Meng. This kid is amazing. He hucks big drops like nobodys buisness. I just saw some footy of him freewheeling an 80 footer in Chile. Look for this kid on a river near you. He's travelling with World Class Kayak Academy and is touring the world huckin big!!

I would have to second that. Gharret Meng is by far the best waterfall hucker out there. I let him use my boat for one of his trips to Cali and he was hucking so hard he broke it. It was a one of those Jackson Kayak Rockers and yall know how easy those things are to break. Anybody heard about his plans to huck Upper Yellowstone Falls? I hear he's having a special boat made for it!
MY PRAISE TO THE GARE-BEAR

Flemming Schmidt easy, ask me another

im going to put this one out there, when your talking about white water kayaking and your talking about the best theres only one guy. the legend that is the one and only god of kayaking bruce barnes. he has easily first decent most of the rivers in new zealand not to mention some of his more talked about ones in californa. the mans ran water falls people have never survived before he is the one god of kayaking.

definitely, i was lucky enough to paddle with gare bear a couple days ago. let me tell everyone this kid is the future of the sport. he was throwing stuff i hadn't even thought about. we ran the little white and he downstream pistol flipped wishbone and hail maried spirit. this kid is quite possibly one of the most impressive kayakers i have ever seen. he puts keller to shame. he is from zootown montana and i can't wait to paddle with him again.
freddy bundles

does anybody know who this gharret meng guy is and is there any footage of freewheeling an 80 footer and ruuning a 35 m waterfall?????

yes, there is footage of him running the waterfall. it is 16mm if you had looked at my last post. i am just waiting for the film to be developed. gare bear doesn't paddle for the cameras, though so all we have of him freewheeling la paz is a cell phone pic.
freddy

Ya, when i was kayaking with him he didnt really like to be filmed much. but he is deffinetly on the leading edge of kayaking. i dont know if i have any pictures of him hucking but I'll look.

Hey Darin

You forgot about Mikey Abbott when you were talking about expedition/exploratory boating!

you said imo Stookesberry is hands down the best expedition/exploratory boater out there, logistics genius and amazing ability to keep the group on track and come out the other side. Plus his innate ability to find good runs in wild places.

I agree with you as far as south america goes, but remember the world is bigger than the americas.

later

so is the film of gare bear developed yet????

yes, the gare bear footage is processed. i am in the process of editing it and compressing it. it should be ready within the next couple of days.
freddy

It's interresting this thread, and I suppose the question should have been asked right at the beginning... past or current paddlers.

For example, there is not one mention of Francois Ciroteau, undoubtedly the man who started it all (in Europe at least) and paddlers like Cully Eardman, Rob Lesser, Doug Ammons etc in the USA (actually, in Mexico in the 1970's and 1980's).

OK, you also need to remember that probably 90% of the people voting on here started paddling after many of the \"greats\" stopped running the gnar, but that still makes their accomplishments no less impressive.

Paddlers like Francois, even though is falls are pale in comparison with todays falls in height, are in many ways more impressive. The equipment sucked. The skills required were mostly undeveloped. We had no idea what the human body, or a kayak, could actually survive. So a 30 footer, which today seems silly, back then was mind blowing. Paddlers who were exploring what could be run, whether that was 30ft, 40ft, 50 ft and over were truly ground breaking paddlers.

Terje Hakkenson would get destroyed in a snowboarding competition today, as would Craig Kelly (if he was alive). But they were probably more impressive in their day than the top riders are today for many reasons, even though they could not come close to doing what todays riders do.

The list of paddlers who are hucking off falls today is long, and impressive. They are the kings - living on the very limit. But they could not do what they are doing if Francois, Rob, Kully etc had not broken this ground first.

Shaun Baker and Tao Berman must get praise, and be noted in this department, but honestly, I think the man who requires the most praise in this field is Francois Ciroteau. He started it all. He inspired me, that's for sure. While I had already begun running waterfalls in South Africa (30 footers) it wasn't until I saw Francois \"world record\" that I was motivated to push myself, which lead to my running of the 31m tignes fall, a record I held for 20 years before Felix broke it. If Francois had not pushed this as a part of kayaking, I probably would never have run Tignes. Francois deserves the dredit for starting this trend.

Votes like this will always represent who we currently know, from the perspective of who is doing what since we became active in a sport. If you asked this same group what the most influential boat was in changing paddling, you'll see the Disco come up, maybe the X, and if you're really lucky, you might get the RPM or Hurricane. Thats about as far back as peoples memories go, or thier knowledge of the sport goes. Most paddlers here started paddling afte the Fury (the first planing hulled boat) was invented, so they would have no knowledge of this important step. But none of those boats would exist today if it wasn't for the Dancer, or the Topolino, or Jet, the Lettman Mark VI that came before. All of these were breakthroughs long before most paddlers on here were paddling, or even born. The Lettmann Mark Vi had arguably more influence on kayak design than the Disco did, but that boat would never come up in a poll in a forum like this .

Just some food for thought - Francois Ciroteau should not only be on this list, he should be at the top of it.

Corran

Steve Fisher

he run big waterfall 3 years ago tyler curtis follow steve on 80' chaudiere fall and broke his elbow

steve was over flipping and corrected his angle in the freefall, that's very technical

he ran the chute st-ursule 300' slide like it was a ten time smaller

he run a lots of stuff and rack up a lot of first descent in quebec last year

Found this:

www.wetdawg.com/pages/whitewater/kayakin..._record/index_ww.php

If you read nothing, then at least read the second last paragraph

And yes, I know, the original question was independant of height...

\"The second measurement renders the identical length: 101 feet, the third highest waterfall ever descended, the highest waterfall a kayaker ever descended without swimming.\"

lol... I ran a 31m (101ft) fall in 1987 without swimming. That's a very old standard to be using in 2007

Corran

my friend françois Cirotteau !!!
it s a joke, so many are now flying kayakers, it s impossible to vote:lol: [img]