Paul Ridley Completes Solo Atlantic Row

According to CNN.com, 25-year old Paul Ridley has completed his solo row across the Atlantic, taking 88 days to make the journey.

According to the story Ridely would row as much as 12 hours per day, as he made his 2950 mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Even more amazing, the young man crossed the pond without a support vessel following in his wake, and in the process he became the youngest American to make that journey, and just the third person from the U.S. to do so at all.

Paul rowed in a custom made boat that he and his sister spent $60,000 having built. Back in 2001 their mother passed away from skin cancer, and Ridley dedicated this row to her and to raising funds for cancer research. His website, RowForHope.com, has more information about Paul, his cause, and ways that we can all help out.

Ridley says that he is happy to be home and off the water, and will now take some time to rest up and regain his strength. But he also says that there is a lot to be accomplished yet, and that he'll soon be back to work trying to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.

Congrats Paul! Awesome work. Glad you're home safe and sound.

Top Ten Best Waterfall Kayak Runs in the U.S.

Inspired by the recent 127-foot record kayak drop, the National Geographic Adventure Blog brings us another great top ten list today, this time giving us the 10 best waterfall kayaking runs in the U.S.

The list has some excellent, and big, drops from all over the country, ranging from North Carolina to California. There's even one on the Potomac in Washington D.C. Best of all, each of the runs in the top is accompanied by an excellent video to truly demonstrate why it belongs on the list. For example, check out the clip below of a crazy drop over the Mesa Falls, on the Henry's Fork portion of the Snake River in Idaho, which comes in at #5 on the list. And when you're done here, head over to check out the rest of the drops.

Video of Record Breaking Kayak Drop

Remember that epic kayak drop I posted about yesterday? The one where paddler Pedro Oliva went over a 127-foot tall water fall in Brazil? Well now there is video of it, and it looks even crazier than it sounds. Check out the video below and try not to wet yourself.

Thanks for the vid GoBlog!

Updated: It appears that this isn't from the new record breaking drop set a few days back, but was instead of kayaker Ed Lucero making a big drop of 31 meters (101 feet) a few years back. The video for the drop made a few days ago, which is actually 25+ feet higher, should be out soon, but this one isn't a record any more.

Today Show Interviews World Record Kayak Drop Guy!

Remember Pedro Olivia? He's the guy I blogged about a few weeks back who set a new world's record for a kayak drop by going over a 127 foot waterfall in Brazil. He set the record back on March 4th by going over the Belo Salto waterfall, and besting the previous record by nearly 20 feet in the process. The fall took nearly 3 seconds to complete, and it is estimated that he was traveling in excess of 70 mph when he hit the water.

This morning the Today show interviewed Pedro and showed video of the falls, and his epic drop, while also doing a good job of discussing extreme kayaking in general. The piece is more than 7 minutes in length, and is a solid piece from the mainstream media. Check it out below. The falls look crazy!

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Paddling The Length of the Columbia River

The always excellent Wend Blog has a great post this morning about the Columbia Experience, an expedition that got underway two days ago that will paddle nearly the entire length of the Columbia River all the way to the Pacific Ocean, covering a distance of roughly 1000 miles in the process.

The three man team consists of Keel Brightman, Paul Gamache, and Ryan Scott, who came up with the idea of making this journey to raise awareness of the environmental effects of dams on the river. The Columbia has more than 400 dams along its length, and that has changed the landscape through which it runs dramatically. The expedition is expected to take roughly two months to complete, after all it does take a long time to portage around all those dams.

Cool adventure for a good cause. Check out their video below, and watch their blog for updates from the field.


The Columbia Experience from ColumbiaRiver on Vimeo

World Record for Kayak Drop Shattered! (Yeah, again!)

Remember awhile back when I posted about Pedro Oliva's big kayak drop of 127 feet? I even followed up with some video of the crazy feat. Well, it seems that that huge drop may now be a distant memory, as it supposedly wasn't just beaten, it was completely destroyed.

A new blog post over at the Tribe website indicates that extreme kayaker Tyler Bradt has set a new record by making a 186 foot drop! The post doesn't offer a whole lot more information than that, but the Outside blog is reporting that the record was achieved on Palouse Falls in Washington State. Apparently, Bradt is alive and well, with Outside saying, "He rolled up at the bottom with the wind knocked out of him, a broken paddle and an uncontested new record for the highest waterfall kayaked."

As of now, there are no pictures or video released, but expect some soon. There were cameramen and photographers on hand to witness the event.

One-hundred-eighty-six feet! All I can say is WOW!

Paddler Circumnavigates The Falkland Islands

Kayaker Marcus Demuth of New York City, became the first person to completely circumnavigate the Falkland Islands, finishing up the 615 mile paddle in 22-days on the open water.

According to Paddling Life, before Damuth's successful attempt, three other similar attempts failed. Two British special forces teams and an American team all tried to the journey, but each of those teams failed in no small part thanks to the crazy, unpredictable weather in the region. The Falklands sit less than 600 miles north of Antarctica, and 300 miles east of Cape Horn, which means cold, powerful, sustained winds buffet the islands.

The unpredictable weather in the Southern Ocean isn't the only thing that Damuth had to contend with on his journey. He also had to navigate through mine fields. Some of the waters surrounding the Falklands still have left over mines from the Falklands War back in the early 80's, and Marcus was forced to navigate using two maps at times. One of those maps was a nautical chart showing the way, and the other was a map of the location of the mines provided by one of the British teams that had previously made the attempt.

You can read more about the Falklands Circumnavigation at Demuth's website, where he has more stories from his days out on the water and plenty of photos too. Great story, and very cool expedition. Congratulations to Marcus for his successful journey.

New Record Kayak Drop Set!

Yesterday, kayaker Pedro Oliva set a new world record for the biggest kayak drop ever, going over the Salto Belo, which translates to "Beautiful Falls", on the Rio Sacre River in Brazil, and plunging some 127-feet to the water below. Oliva is part of a team of paddlers who have been scouring the region looking for big drops to make just such an attempt, and catch it on film.

The falls are in a remote region, and it took the help of some Brazilians living in the area to lead the team to Salto Belo. Once there, they had to set up a 40 meter repel to drop down and scout the landing zone, where they determined that while the drop could be potentially lethal, the sheer volume of water coming over the falls would probably soften the landing, allowing the paddler to escape unscathed. It is estimated that roughly 5000 cubic feet of water per second go over the falls.

When he made the drop, Pedro's team timed him at 2.9 seconds in the air and reaching speeds of roughly 70mph. The epic drop also breaks the old record of 108 feet set back in 2004 by Ed Lucero on Alexandra Falls in Canada. That drop was equalled on the same falls in 2007 by Tyler Bradt.

Thanks to the Outside Blog for the heads up on this one and for the photo. If you look really close, you can see the tiny spec of a kayak going over the edge.