‘Pardon ze’ French,’ but in the world of whitewater kayaking, 189-foot Palouse Falls in Washington state is one waterfall that’s not to be f***** with. It’s only been run successfully once, by Tyler Bradt, one of the best kayakers on the planet (even though he’s currently on a round-the-world sailing expedition) and is a world record for height. It was attempted by Rafa Ortiz in 2012, but Ortiz came out of his boat after running the falls. Meaning it’s not officially a world record.
With spring runoff starting, Washington kayaker James Ng of nearby Richland recently attempted to run Little Palouse Falls approximately 1,000 feet upriver from the main, beastly Palouse waterfall. Watch as he messes up the drop, gets turned backwards above the rapid, goes over backwards and rolls, which unfortunately pops his sprayskirt (the neoprene cover worn by kayakers to keep water out of the boat). As the kayak fills up with water, he struggles to get it to shore—extremely tough business, especially if you’re in a situation where you need to ferry to the side of the river above a terminal rapid. Here’s some rough footage:
Luckily, Ng fished himself out of the river and came away with only an apparent concussion and stitches (presumably suffered after he went over the drop backwards and upside down).
Nathan Schweiger, one of the safety crew–fellow kayakers holding ropes next to the rapid to spot Ng–moved down to the falls as fast as he could to help his friend. “I went to the waterfall and was hoping he didn’t go over,” Schweiger told the local Daily Sun News. He couldn’t see Ng against the cliff on the river’s edge. “He was up against the cliff. He just sat there for a little while and got his breath.”
Ng was lucky. For reference, here’s a view of Bradt running the big falls successfully in 2009:
