Aug 022010
THESE daredevil extreme kayakers paddled down the breathtaking 300ft spillway at one of Wales biggest reservoirs. The apparently fearless pair reached speeds of 45mph as they sped down the 1:3 gradient of the Llyn Brianne Reservoirs concrete overspill run. All they had for protection were their flimsy canoes just 1cm of plastic separated them from the fast-flowing water and their coloured helmets. The extraordinary pictures were taken by photographer James Davies as he passed the reservoir, around 12 miles from Llandovery. I just could not believe people would have the nerve to paddle to the top of the spillway then calmly shoot over and downwards towards a virtual sheer drop.
the throwline at the end made me laugh, what was he going to do with it from there? hope i have the ballz and skillz to do this one day, although i hear theres a nasty anti-scour lip at the bottom and iv’e become somewhat attached to my head
I have no problem at all with people doing things like this as long as they dont expect others to put themselves at risk if it goes wrong or to go for compensation because of they’re own possibly thoughtless risk-taking.
Stark raving bonkers
These kayakers were well prepared and ran the spillway very safely. They used standard rescue and boating techniques that would be used to run far larger and scarier rapids. For some perspective, look up Zambizi Commercial Suicide rapid, its class 6, and 10 times more dangerous than this waterslide.
Please disregard my last comment, the whole message did not post.
throw bad to rescue a boater that may get stuck in the hole at the bottom of the For all the people saying this is “irresponsible” and the kayakers have a “lack of protection” you really have no idea what your talking about. They’re using industry standard equipment for whitewater kayaking (type III or V PFDs, helmets, and boats) and used adequate safety measures to prevent injury or death, such as their PFDs to provide flotation in a swim, and the filmer being equipped with a chute.
xD the last one .. nice jump
I would hit this if there wasn;t an 8 foot wall of ater at the end of it . although it might look alot crazier when i got there.
Just to add some facts – it’s actually the UK’s tallest reservoir, and the world’s biggest clay-core dam.
When this made the news last year, Welsh Water issued a statement saying that this was dangerous (I suspect these folks wouldn’t be doing it if it was safe!) and placed a ban on people doing this.
While it may be dangerous, people thrive on danger like this and I suspect there are far more dangerous things that people legally do on Kayaks…
not sure it is legal
is it ilegal???nd if it is how illegal???
lol now its illegal, but yet so crazy
I’d go down in a Zorb!
45MPH into a wall of water, thats extreme. As for protection try the impact vest, helmet and the stand-by crew with a safety line (check the last 2 seconds in the clip)
That looks like so much fun!
that looks an nasty buseater down there
but they handle it easy cause thanks their great speed
just a message to say, for all they hype this got for how dangerous and how irresponsible these paddlers are for lack of protection. i think its time people know the truth, its not the most extreme peice of kayaking to be done, people do far more dangerous things,
To descrivbe the kayaks as flimsy, well iff you’ve ever carried one, or paddled one in any seriouse water, you would know how tough and resiliant they are.