# And you thought Evan Garcia was a bad ass.



## DanOrion (Jun 8, 2004)

So badass. Big water always leaves me in awe.

First d's of tight little creeks or big waterfalls is one thing. Running shit like these videos is quite another.


----------



## Schutzie (Feb 5, 2013)

Wow...........Those Siberian dudes had what had to be an early Georgie white pontoon, and they ran with the Creature Craft concept, and even a cataraft.............all home built............haven't seen a wood frame in 30 years! And home made Life Jackets? And paddles? and not a groover in sight.......

And all in rapids that seem to make Lava look like a riffle..........

Gotta love those guys


----------



## lemsip (Sep 11, 2009)

I'd love to see a copy of this First Complete Kayak Descent Of the Fraser River

I saw it on TV when I was a kid and I remember a photo from it being on the cover of a canoeing (kayaking) magazine.


----------



## powdahound76 (Jul 20, 2006)

I had the chance to fly over Devils Canyon several years ago, as well as several other steep and crazy steep V and V+ runs near Talkeetna. Nothing I will ever boat, but cool to see. Some great potential for wild 1st Ds and wilderness multi day creeking. Love watching these older videos, those guys had stones. Plus there was a lady on the 1st legal trip down Niagara Gorge if my memory serves me right.


----------



## gnarwhal (Aug 26, 2008)

Which person do you suspect is Walt Blackadar?


----------



## Rez072 (Apr 21, 2008)

*Blackadar was clearly not ****ing around...*

Here's the famous Sports Illustrated article of him soloing the Alsek.

All I have to say is that he found adventure on that trip.

The Alsek River flows in a torrent into the Gulf of - 08.14.72 - SI Vault


----------



## glenn (May 13, 2009)

gnarwhal said:


> Which person do you suspect is Walt Blackadar?


I'm pretty sure the white boat is Blackadar. He's famous for big water run it sideways style. This was his second decent, the first being a first D solo I believe.


----------



## gnarwhal (Aug 26, 2008)

He also had a lot of big swims as I recall from his biography 'Never Turn Back'! So I thought he might be the guy in the red boat. Thank u for posting these videos spaghetti monster!


----------



## Phil U. (Feb 7, 2009)

powdahound76 said:


> Plus there was a lady on the 1st legal trip down Niagara Gorge if my memory serves me right.


That would be Risa Shimoda, small woman, less than #100, in a squirt boat! Risa has been active with AW and is part of designing playparks last I saw her. Badass boater.


----------



## tmacc (Sep 6, 2009)

Phil U. said:


> That would be Risa Shimoda, small woman, less than #100, in a squirt boat! Risa has been active with AW and is part of designing playparks last I saw her. Badass boater.


Apparently, according to the video, It wasn't Risa on the first legal run, but she and Woody ran it at some point A little after this. I agree with you she is a badass boated. We use to say she had a brass vigina....and I mean that only in the most complimentary sense.


----------



## cayo 2 (Apr 20, 2007)

I think that is Cully Erdman with Blackader.They were filming for Wide World of Sports. I think Walt had run all bur Devil 's Creek Rapid before.Walt went first got backendered initiating a ''rolling frenzy "of "rollups and rollups., flips on flips,blurred my mind into a drunken stupor " and swam at the end.The film crew chief tried to abort the. "Suicide. "mission but Cully went anyway flipped twice but did not swim.What Glenn called sideways Tyler Williams in his book "Whitewater Classics " calls "an angled bracing style perfect for big water ".Cully is the man, pioneer of Chiapas ( spectacular area is a massive understatement! !!!!!) and the once mighty Macal in Belize.I have heard that before, that Blackader was phenomenal in big water but mediocre at creeking., seems he was more fearless and good at rolling in super intense water but far less skilled than today 's top notch boaters.

The same book says Spelius and Langrran 1 D 'd the Niagara, with Langeran getting arrested and Chris eluding the law.The first person to run the falls successfully in a padded barrel was female an "elderly school teacher ",who then admonished others not to do anything so foolhardy.


----------



## CBow (Aug 26, 2007)

If this is the film from the August 1976 first desent of Devil Creek rapid the dude in the white Hollowform kayak is either Cully Erdman or Barney Griffith. I'm pretty sure its Cully, who like Walt preferred the sideways brace into the hole technique. Barney, at that time was only 18 years old. 
Great vintage footage!


----------



## cayo 2 (Apr 20, 2007)

slight corrections. :Lagergren not Langeran

might have been American Sportsman or Wide World of Sports

Williams quote not quite verbatim, close though


----------



## Flying_Spaghetti_Monster (Jun 3, 2010)

CBow said:


> If this is the film from the August 1976 first desent of Devil Creek rapid the dude in the white Hollowform kayak is either Cully Erdman or Barney Griffith. I'm pretty sure its Cully, who like Walt preferred the sideways brace into the hole technique. Barney, at that time was only 18 years old.
> Great vintage footage!


Any of these guys around, or does anyone have any info on them. Walt has passed, but what about the others????


----------



## cayo 2 (Apr 20, 2007)

Cully operates Slickrock Adventures in Belize....He has a sweet life...they have their base camp on a small tropical island with all manner of watersports toys and one of the only surf breaks in Belize offshore and the reef of course....then they do multisport adventure tours on the mainland...unfortunately the river they did IV -V (p) rafting and kayaking on has been screwed up by dams...they take newbie clients down II -III stretches and through a cave system...don't hear much about him exploring anymore ..hope he does...some of his guides have done some first d 's down there.......
...


----------



## CBow (Aug 26, 2007)

Thats cool. I have not seen Cully since about 1982. Glad to hear he's doing well.
He taught me to Kayak back in the day when I was a student at CMC.


----------

