Niagara Gorge in a Kayak (Ben Marr's run from 2014)

[@whiskeyy8911]

"Did you just kayak that? No way man, you want a cold beer?" Lmfao

[@kayak2hell]

Welcome to Canada...

[@johnmaxwell1750]

I kayaked the Niagara Gorge twice legally in 1978. This video takes me back to two of the most salient experiences in my life. The water was blue-green, fast, and the Himilayas were bigger than how they come across in this video. Seemed like the biggest waves were 20 to 30 vertical feet, trough to peak. Paddling the Niagara Gorge is a serious thing; if you miss your roll and swim you likely will die. During my first run a guy couldn't roll up. When Marty McCormick (a slalom paddler from DC) got to the guy and pulled him out of the water, the guy's skin was blue and he was not breathing. Marty helped revive him and the guy survived.

[@tankmaster1018]

I don't doubt for a second that a swim there would kill most people, even strong swimmers. Hell, I think that one rafting company that used to send tourists down the gorge on massive inflatables had one of them capsize near the whirlpool rapids which is almost at the end of the gorge right? I think two people drowned in that incident. I obviously haven't paddled the Gorge, but I walked along the edges on the footpaths and the waves were massive from the shore. I can't even imagine how small you would feel in waves like that in a kayak... Still probably the biggest waves that I've seen that aren't on the Congo river, or the Mistassibi at high levels.

[@johnmaxwell1750]

@@tankmaster1018 - The big waves in the Niagara Gorge often behave like flood waves in that they might suddenly rise up and then explode, burying a paddler deep. It doesn't matter how good you are, because if you get caught in a random wave explosion, in Kruschev's words, "Ve vill bury you!" If you get blown out of your boat, in all likelihood it's curtains. It would be really interesting to see what the Niagara Gorge rapids are like if no water is diverted for power production.

[@johnmaxwell1750]

@@tankmaster1018 - It is like being in huge sea waves when you paddle through the Himalayas, with water frequently breaking down on your head. I was filming with a super 8 film camera attached to my deck in a waterproof box. When paddling up the wave face of biggies, my bow pointed up to the sky; no trees or gorge side was visible. The wave face ascent angle felt like 45 degrees. Incredible!

[@tankmaster1018]

@@johnmaxwell1750 Damn man, I really appreciate all the detail you went into with that response. The way you described it makes it really easy to picture the wave size, steepness, and power of the current. Well maybe not easy, the only way to really understand what the Gorge is like is to do it yourself I'm sure. I'm sure its horrifying in person though with how the GoPro fisheye lens really flatness out some of the "steepness" factor like in this video. I also can't imagine paddling that alone like Benny did... I would be so fucking scared that I would probably freeze up and swim/drown as soon as I got swallowed by one of those monsters. Like I said before, there are only two places that I can think of that even come close to competing with that. I'd be curious to see what you think too since you obviously would have a way better idea of how footage of a run like that translates to real life: Bridge Rapid on the Mistassibi: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYDbe3qJnqhra9U Inga Rapids, Congo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmK4o6SYi9GrrLM

[@johnmaxwell1750]

@@tankmaster1018 -- I got one thing wrong in my comments -- I paddled Niagara Gorge in 1987, not 1978. Typo. Roger Zbel, who owns Precision Rafting in Friendsville, Md. tells me about another river with huge water not on your big water list. The Tsiang Po river in China. Roger was there with a party trying to make a first run of that remote river. It was a multi-day camp-along-the-river expedition which ended prematurely when one member, Doug Gordon, didn't roll up and drowned, Roger says the water they encountered was as big or bigger and more technically difficult than the rapids of the Niagara Gorge. I think that if any of a number of higher gradient, powerful rivers throughout the world are in flood, they may have bigger and more continuous rapids than the Niagara Gorge. Possibly the New River Gorge might be one if the water flow is increased by the remnants of a hurricane passing over the watershed. But possibly the scariest may be in Africa where, in addition to big water, one must deal with crocodiles?

[@evangreen26]

Lmfao I'm gonna go with you ended up on the Canadian side lmfao "want a cold beer?"

[@jwiereng]

yep. Niagara local here, I recognize the shoreline. For sure the Canadian side

[@SalvatoreIadicicco]

This is one of the deadliest rapids in the world with the most powerful push point (Volume of Niagara Falls 3/4 of a mile into a 100 ft wide squeeze) at level 6 rapid with 15ft wave that 99% of boats have been taken under and never seen again. Its so deep in some parts they cant measure it. You are friggin nuts!

[@connorcoultas9629]

Not class 6 man much harder stuff than this has been run.

[@melanieroseb]

Connor Coultas it’s a class 6, what’s under the water is terrifying. You fall out you’re dead.

[@beenwithalowercaseb19]

@@melanieroseb there’s a lot of class 5 rapids that if you swim you’ll die. This is class 5

[@adamhale2526]

@@melanieroseb def not class 6. 5+ at best but theres way bigger stuff out there than this.

[@mcphistoification]

@@adamhale2526 Niagara Parks disagrees with you. Says class 6. But also my friend’s cousin was playing by the shore and got sucked out. They found him a week later down river, what was left of him. Enter at your own risk.

[@billtooke6642]

This is in November. It can only be done around then since they divert twice the water in the late fall through early spring for hydroelectric usage. In the summer, there would be twice the water than here, and you'd be sucked into the whirlpool

[@averycannon5240]

The ending is straight from a William Neely page

[@abairdk]

Made a Class 6 rapid look easy

[@Michael65429]

Class 5 dude, not 6. Locals are scared of the gorge and call it 6 to instill fear into people. There are rivers and creeks being paddled that are more dangerous and a lot harder than this!

[@austinwlock]

@@Michael65429 no my friend those are class 6 rapids. There is good reason to be scared of that water too.

[@josephaugstell6194]

@@Michael65429 considering the body count this thing has we have every right to be scared. It just claimed someone else yesterday 🙄

[@gabrieldeschenes607]

@@Michael65429 not class 5 class 5+. I know There’s plenty other more insane and dangie rivers out there but the Himalayas will end u if u come outta ya boat

[@stovepipe6769]

​@michaelhill56 just curious do you live in the area? Have you seen these rapids up close. This video does not show how insane those rapids are.

[@bindig1]

Those are class 5 rapids! The man is insane. Just looking at that river scares me

[@kefka1911]

Class 6

[@affablecamel153]

Class 4.

[@austinwlock]

Class 6

[@affablecamel153]

@@austinwlock Class 4.

[@affablecamel153]

@@fella704 No they are 100% only class 4 rapids. You know absolutely nothing about rapids and are very ignorant.

[@dswilliamson2112]

The beginning of the second set of rapids had some serious stuff on the left side.

[@gowonclasp7249]

Those rapids are like tidal waves in the sea

[@nonames000]

absolutely nuts, how do you even save yourself if something goes wrong, and im aware of kayaking survival lol

[@tankmaster1018]

In simple terms, you don't. If you swam at the top of a rapid like this, surviving is pretty much a coin toss. You can get lucky and avoid the worst of the crashing waves, but no matter what you're in it for the long run until the rapid ends. They used to actually send huge commercial rafts down this stretch of rapids as a sort of tourist attraction. If I recall correctly, they had two separate incidents where rafts capsized, and there were fatalities that resulted in both cases. It's a survivable swim with your chances increasing if you have proper gear and are physically fit with iron lungs, but I would give myself a less then 1/4 chance of surviving that without flush drowning.

[@Michael65429]

@@tankmaster1018 I remember hearing about the drownings because I had just begun boating in 74. Here's the link to the AW database. www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accident/detail/accidentid/4386/ Impressive stuff, much bigger than when I paddled the New River gorge at 27' back in 85...

[@mcphistoification]

You don’t survive, period. Don’t let this dude lie to you. Everyone local has someone in their family that got swept away in the shore and never seen again.

[@jakubmateju3092]

WOW i remmember reading about these rapids like 15 years ago ...

[@ActuallyAndrewFishing]

Outrageous!

[@michaelpryor78]

Solo paddling isn't a problem when someone else wouldn't be able to save you anyway

[@tankmaster1018]

You can say that again! Nobody would be able to do a fucking thing for you until the rapid ended... if you were still alive by that point of course and didn't flush drown.

[@katanyajason3316]

John Maxwell's comment above seems to differ

[@ronp8865]

I know how video shrink the size of waves and drops so I can't even imagine what that looked like for real! Nice run.

[@tankmaster1018]

You know that if a kayaker has to take more than one paddle stroke on the upstream face of a wave, that the waves are absolutely massive. I can count on one hand the amount of rivers I know of besides the Gorge that consistently have standing waves as massive as that... and I would bet money that Benny Marr has paddled all of them!

[@danrook5757]

Going on the boat runs, yes it’s crazy , let alone on a kayak, I thought it was illegal

[@BrokVoekler]

Did you accept his beer offer?

[@dswilliamson2112]

I have seen the lower Gauley at VERY high water take on characteristics of this run he just did.

[@kenta4037]

That is amazing!!! But how does he fit those balls in such a low volume kayak?

[@GarettMacLaren]

I love how it cuts at "Ummm" after buddy offers Ben a beer, we all know he shotgunned it.

[@nigelcampbell8460]

Insane rowdy

[@chrisjr1247]

I may have taken the beer for sure after that shit or some Whiskey

[@tbpc1]

You should try all the rapids in the gorge

[@johnbarroll1120]

Too bad there isnt some kind of O2 mask for when your get stuck under water for more than 30 seconds. In cl5 or 6 rapids.

[@tankmaster1018]

Theres a system called "Rapid Air" that is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, that fits into your life jacket front pocket. You can take like 3 or 4 extra breaths off of it if you get stuck underwater and can't afford to pull and swim. Steve Fischer and his crew used it when they paddled the Inga Rapids on the Congo River where getting held underwater by whirlpools on the eddy lines was a real concern, and they saved Steve's life after he got held underwater by one for over a minute and was forced to swim. Benny Marr, the paddler in this video was on that trip as well!

[@Kurokyura]

Radical

[@KatariaGujjar]

Great. Now try kayak through the Falls.

[@tankmaster1018]

Jesse Sharp is the only kayaker who I'm aware of who tried that. His body still hasn't been found to this day.

[@KatariaGujjar]

@@tankmaster1018 What.. for real?

[@tankmaster1018]

@@KatariaGujjar Yeah for real. Here's the accident report that American Whitewater published on his death. If this link gives you trouble for any reason, just Google "American Whitewater Accident Jesse Sharp"(www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accident/detail/accidentid/74)

[@cheskybaba4864]

POV doesn't show the amplitude . This is the first legal run - a lot tougher in the long boats. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bmrHdaN-pbKbj7M

[@tankmaster1018]

Yup... Any video where you are trying to give people an idea of the steepness or scale of something is pretty fruitless with a GoPro video. I've only been kayaking a year at this point, but I've skied my entire life and tried out all sorts of different "action cams." Its always really frustrating because 90% of popular/reasonably priced action cams have the fisheye lens which is fantastic for showing wide angles and recording in an aspect ratio that squeezes a huge amount of the landscape into a single shot, but holy hell does it screw with proportions and size. So Benny Marr shot this video and I will probably never be good enough in my life to run rapids at the level he does, but if you've ever taken a GoPro skiing or snowboarding then you understand the "GoPro/fisheye lens effect." You get a beautiful wide shot, but anything steep looks almost flat, and any massive wave looks about the same as how the human eye would perceive a much smaller ocean wave. Anything that looks big or scary on a GoPro will probably be multiplied by a factor of 3 or 4 in person, especially a gorge like this with super steep and fast moving waves. I remember the video that got me into kayaking in the first place was a local paddler going down Little Falls right outside of DC area, and it looked like a relatively easy, but fast moving and powerful rapid with decent sized waves. I still would pay good money for a picture of my face when I dropped into that rapid for the first time and realized just how fucked/in over my head I actually was... I've had a few drinks and am just rambling now so I'll stop before you shoot me, but the difference between a fisheye POV view of something compared to being there for real is so massive that its hard to believe until you experience it yourself. Have a good night man and sorry for the random/drunken rant

[@essential9687]

@@tankmaster1018 His original Facebook video only has 85k views. Unless you've been on the White Water Walk, you will never truly understand what an accomplishment this is. A very underrated achievement in my opinion. Thanks for uploading to KZbin because this deserves more views than it has.

[@tankmaster1018]

@@essential9687 Hey thanks dude! Yeah I originally uploaded it after reaching out to Benny on his Facebook page and getting permission to post it since I thought a lot of people would like to see it who would never stumble on his Facebook page. I have done the White Water walk myself though actually twice, and I was scared shitless from the shore. Now that I kayak myself too and realized the effect GoPro's have on flattening out huge features like that, I would be afraid to even get near those waves. This is absolutely one of the greatest kayaking accomplishments if were talking about a solo gorge run when its only been accomplished by teams of experts in the past. And Benny also completed the first Stikine descent without portaging Site Zed, and he's probably run it 30 times since then... Talk about a living legend man!

[@waterdragon4950]

Yah freakin’ hoo!

[@sidecaster]

Brass balls

[@elliswoodall407]

Big one around 2:21

[@tankmaster1018]

You know its a big wave when the backwash almost flips you...

[@seanbaskett5506]

Only the likes of Benny Marr runs Class VI rapids in a f*ckin' playboat. He doesn't need float bags, he has his enormous buoyant balls.

[@SerpWerx]

That's nothing. I solo scuba dive from my canoe in this part of the river. For my next feat I will be parasailing it

[@jojochara6352]

Did you forget to take your meds again?

[@SerpWerx]

@@jojochara6352 Medication is for losers

[@Classiciam29]

Dude the rapids are being him!!! He went from the whirlpool out! People jet ski up the all the time

[@andywood5699]

Beer Me!!

[@jayhome2715]

Normally this is illegal.....those rapids are incredibly dangerous. I hike that area all the time....the water is nuts....so unpredictable. Ultimately all you're doing is placing other people in harms way who have to save your ass potentially!

[@tankmaster1018]

Not me in the video dude, got permission to post it. And its Benny Marr also, one of the best living kayakers. Go watch the footage of him running the Inga Rapids on the Congo River and then you can tell me about how much danger he is on the Niagara Gorge, which he got permission to run by the way

[@tankmaster1018]

Watch this video of him. He paddles one of the steepest and most powerful Class V+ drops in the United States without even breaking a sweat kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGfXnquhgZusorM

[@johnmaxwell1750]

There is no possible rescue in boating the Niagara Gorge except if another boater who is running the Gorge with you is able to get to you and help you to shore. No profressional swiftwater rescue team can realistically help you until after you get through the heavy rapids. Pro swiftwater rescuers might recover your body downstream if you drown, but that's about all they can do or should do.

[@tankmaster1018]

​@@johnmaxwell1750 Nicely said. Thats one of the defining characteristics of whitewater in the class V+/VI range, that rescue is difficult and hazardous even for experts, and may be flat out impossible in cases like this where you have a V+ high volume river that is wide as hell. Even the best kayaker in the world wouldn't be able to do anything for you besides letting you hang onto a grab loop to hopefully keep your head above the water once in awhile. You swim on this rapid, your going all the way through it, and also swimming whirlpool..

[@nickking1510]

You are lucky you were not killed and never found last year 2 other people died and have never been found except there kayaks , in Ontario they will charge$$ to rescue you because people have gone ice fishing on Lake Erie and to late in the year ice break off people rescued and charged for it$$$ ,trucks fall through ice or go boating engine quits weather problems Canadian coastguard tows you of the lake $$$.Also you doing stunts like that are going to get that portion closed for recreational use like fishing and even hiking to close to the river . You have a death wish , 2 years ago a canoeist at Queenston boat ramp in much much slower water drowned ,its way down stream of the power stations where it widens up on it way to Lake Ontario . People that don’t respect the Great Lakes and the power of the rivers between them pay with $ and or their life

[@tankmaster1018]

You know that I'm not the person in this video right? Haha its Benny Marr, one of the best kayakers in the world, and he got permission to do this. And then I got permission from him to upload it here on KZbin since he only posted it on Facebook originally. Lmfao at you suggesting he has a death wish for riding the Niagara Gorge, when he has ridden rapids literally 3 or 4 times the size of that without even breaking a sweat! Check his footage out of the Stikine or Inga Rapids and then I'll take you seriously when you say Benny has a death wish!

[@nickking1510]

If anything went wrong he would be very likely be drowned

[@tankmaster1018]

@@nickking1510 Oh I'm not arguing the point that it isn't dangerous as hell man! Just that he had permission first off, and that if anyone is gonna survive it it would be Benny second off. Check out his run down Tumwater Canyon (kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGfXnquhgZusorM) Thats all! Hope you had a good Christmas man!

[@dkburger]

@@tankmaster1018 wait ur saying is ISNT dangerous?

[@tankmaster1018]

@@dkburger I'm not saying that at all. Its one of the most dangerous rapids in North America dude. I was just saying to the other guy that if anybody is going to paddle it and survive, then its going to be Benny Marr since he is one of the best paddlers in the world. Thats all! Have a good afternoon man

[@Classiciam29]

Not really that impressive at all