Just seen this on insta and am in awe quite honestly.

Dane Jackson running one of I think the last two rapids on the Indus River in Pakistan that had until now not been run.

A bit of a step up from Symonds Yat… 😳

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This was a hell of a thing.. #stoked #feltsendy #whosnext

A post shared by Dane Jackson (@danejacksonkayak) on Nov 22, 2019 at 9:02am PST

Just saying…

Is he still in that hole at the bottom?

Seemingly not, unless someone else posted it 😳

Didn’t see him come out on the clip. Guess he got some down time!!

Pfft, I’d do that on an inflatable unicorn……..

NOT.

#’tisbutaripple

I think I need to start kayaking. Looks like water-based DANGER mountain biking

…… yea, but i bet ya couldn’t put one of these in ya mouth without chewin it……….

I think I need to start kayaking. Looks like water-based DANGER mountain biking

On the plus side, water is softer than dirt.

On the negative side, dirt doesn’t try and drown you.

Flippin’ ‘eck! How anybody can look at that, see a line and tell themselves “yeah, that’ll go” is way beyond me. Balls of steel.

Balls of steel.

Or the social media driven requirement to do the next big thing and document it on Instagram.

Would he have done it with no camera and no witnesses?

Insane stuff where luck>judgement.

Would he have done it with no camera and no witnesses?

Yes, I imagine so. Whitewater kayaking has exploration at it’s heart. People have been looking to ‘conquer’ the next un-run rapid/river since forever. A bit like climbing really.

Getting down something like that takes a huge amount of skill and mastery on and off the water, never mind the astonishing courage.

I think I need to start kayaking. Looks like water-based DANGER mountain biking

On the plus side, water is softer than dirt.

On the negative side, dirt doesn’t try and drown you.

Very true. I almost exclusively was a kayaker but considering I live in the Midlands, it was never that easy to do without LOTS of driving.

I’ve never found in mountain biking that same feeling of complete commitment you get when you have stretched your spraydeck on, picked up your paddle and pushed out into the flow above a rapid. Can be incredibly sickening and focus-forming at the same time. Usually, on a bike you can choose to hit the brakes and pull up on the lip.

Something like the above, might look to some like an idiot in a barrel going off a waterfall, but for me, the level of commitment and belief he must have before he pushes off the bank is impressive.

Would he have done it with no camera and no witnesses?

The witnesses are usually the crew that paddle together and do safety cover for each other. Unlike biking it’s rare to paddle white water alone.
Camera, meh.

If you enjoy that, then check some of these….

I might have to watch the Congo one

I watched Into Twin Galaxies at the Banff Film Festival a couple of years back, an incredible trip to kayak where no one’s been before.

I think it’s on the Red Bull channel now. Well worth a watch.

Such a thing obviously requires skillz and balls of steel but how much is down to luck? And if he capsizes does he have to go back and do it again? Or does it count just to make it down without needing a helicopter rescue?
I also appreciate that you can’t get to the Indus on a bus and to even be at the top of those rapids is an adventure. But I can’t help the feeling that the same guy could paddle that stretch 10 times and 5 times hit a rock, get flipped or whatever and 5 times make it clean through.

Usually, on a bike you can choose to hit the brakes and pull up on the liproll to a stop, lean bike against wall, order the pint, maybe a bowl of chips…

Such a thing obviously requires skillz and balls of steel but how much is down to luck?

Insane stuff where luck>judgement.

Who was the snooker player who said “the more I practice, the luckier I get”?

Yes, there’s an element of luck in everything, but the skill in kayaking is partially in your control of the boat and partially in the knowledge and prediction of how a wave might surge and how that will affect where you end up and how you respond. In MTB, unless you’re on a really loose bit of trail, you don’t have to worry about the ground moving around under you. In kayaking, understanding and predicting how the water is going to move and where that is going to put you is the hardest part and the biggest skill. You don’t wholly make your own luck – some days you get a break, some days you don’t – but you don’t shout at the top of something like that and go “you know what, I’m feeling lucky, let’s do it”. Dane Jackson is a hell of a good paddler in a family of damn good paddlers, so pleased don’t ever think that ‘luck>judgement’ in whitewater.

Would he have done it with no camera and no witnesses?

Probably, yes. People have been running rivers and hitting big stuff since before social media, you know. Just like in climbing (but to a slightly lesser degree), there’s a cultureb in paddling about knowing and recording first descents. Pictures help evidence that, even back to the days of them being on film, and before that there were written reports. Recording an impressive feat isn’t exactly what you’d call ‘new’.

For reference, I’ve been kayaking for about 30 years and coach a university club. I still wouldn’t touch that rapid on the Indus with a 10-foot disinfected barge pole…

And if he capsizes does he have to go back and do it again? Or does it count just to make it down without needing a helicopter rescue?

If he swims out of the boat in the rapid, it isn’t a first descent. If he makes it down, even having taken 10 rolls and a total kicking but stayed in the boat, it counts.

I can’t help the feeling that the same guy could paddle that stretch 10 times and 5 times hit a rock, get flipped or whatever and 5 times make it clean through.

At his level, it’s more likely to be 9-1 or at worst 8-2. You wouldn’t even try it if you weren’t pretty damn certain that it would go, and you’d be unlucky if it didn’t rather than lucky that it did.

Can be incredibly sickening and focus-forming at the same time.

I agree.

Even a couple of weekends ago, heavily loaded open canoe, big weir, highish water, no safety (I was only one who thought it would go, and go fairly easily). You paddle out, you can’t get back to bank. All you have is a pal below with throw line. You take the line, you build up to the correct move/momentum/water current and hope your observation of current and reactions are up to it….
You both feel sick and confident it’s ok.
20 seconds later the adrenaline hits as I eddied out… Only to realise I had a second boat to get down it too…

My pal Mark a few years back – shortly after a rafter drowned in this very drop.

Watch the best, watch Everest

The Mike Jones expedition to the Dudh Kosi. Bonkers, brilliant and an excellent film.

<h1 class=”title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer”>Dudh Kosi: Kayaking Down Everest (1977) – Full Film by Leo Dickinson</h1>

https://youtu.be/OUXfOmhDgSc

Less huge than the Indus or the Dudh Kosi, but pre-Social Media and awesome

Thanks for your reply, Pyro. I like the “the more I practice, the luckier I get”, I’m going to borrow that. Respect to all the kayakers.

“I can’t help the feeling that the same guy could paddle that stretch 10 times and 5 times hit a rock, get flipped or whatever and 5 times make it clean through.”

If he swam in that it would very likely be the last swim he did.

WW kayaking is one of the few adventure sports thats actually harder AND more dangerous than it looks. Paddling a  UK rapid like Fairy Glen or the East Lyn at a good (water) level safely requires several years of practice. An onlooker might think they could probably do it after a lesson or two but they very much couldn’t. Many people have died because they didn’t check everything properly or took a silly risk. Paddling something like the OP’ video requires a lifetime of dedication to the sport, a huge amount of prep as well as the aforementioned balls of steel. Amazing.

Matt OAB, that’s cool. Respect to anyone running that kind of stuff in an open boat. It’s hard enough in a creekboat! 👌

Watch the best, watch Everest

The Mike Jones expedition to the Dudh Kosi. Bonkers, brilliant and an excellent film.

Minor claim to fame…Rob Hastings, one of the paddlers on this was one of the art teachers at my school, also ran the school canoeing club including a weekend trip to the Mike Jones Rally in Llangollen.

WW kayaking is one of the few adventure sports thats actually harder AND more dangerous than it looks.

True dat. WWK makes MTB feel utterly pedestrian and dull in comparison. That feeling when you head into a deep gorge or hard rapid is so mind blowingly intense. That (unique?) combination of strength, skill, luck, stamina, technique that you need to get it right is just…….

But the on the flipside, when you’re the weakest in the group,
On a glacial meltwater river high in Norway
You’ve missed the eddy.
So you’re at the front of the group
Not sure where to go as the waves are big and the spray continuous,
You hit a hole and get worked a bit
You roll up and try to catch an eddy
But miss it and get worked again
You’ve not paddled much this year due to work/family so you’re out of practice, and weak.
Your roll isn’t as good as it should be.
You capsize again, roll up on the third attempt.
Exhausted, straight into another hole,
Pull the deck and swim.
Bash into a few rocks.
Try to swim to the side, but the water pulls you back to the middle.
Another hole, the water pummels you into the river bed, bashing your cocsyx.
The current rips your boots off. Batters you off more rocks. One of the minor bones in your foot breaks from the impact.
More cuts an bruises on your legs (47 to be exact)
Dislocated finger from wedging it in a rock to try to get out of the damn water.
4 degrees Celsius.
Your mates try to rescue you but they don’t have decent cowstails and your numb hands can’t hold on.
You eventually get a hand through the grab loop and they try to tow you to the side, but another hole flips the boat and you need to let go to avoid your hand being crushed.
All the time knowing that your energy is too low and that the crux rapid is fast approaching. You’ve been in the water for over a kilometre now.
You give up, but your mate is back again screaming at you, yelling to make one last effort on the final bend.
Which you do, and he does.
You’re lying on the rocky riverbank unable to move for many many minutes.
Gradually come to……..

Two days later, x-rayed and dosed up on painkillers. New shoes and different boat. Can’t go home as the bathroom is upstairs and I’m on crutches. So stay in Norway. 7 days to kill.
I’ll never kayak again once we get home, so might as well have one last go.
Keen mates carry my boat down to the Sjoa. I hobble down on my crutches and somehow cram my dodgy foot into the end of my tiny playboat.

Borrowed paddle felt a bit weird, but pushed off into the river. The feeling as I hit the first wave train was just insane. Utter terror and utter commitment and determination. More adrenaline than you could imagine.

Did California the year after, then Norway again, then New Zealand, but it was always a struggle getting into the zone.

So I gave up and focussed on safe sports like skiing, rock climbing, ice climbing etc