Co founder of World Wild Adventures, Jaime Sharp, Just Returned from a fun project on the Grand Canyon in the USA.
He and three others attempted to paddle the legendary Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River self supported in Sea Kayaks. Self supported means they had no Rafts with them and carried all they needed in their sea kayaks while paddling through the large rapids of the Grand Canyon.
Jaime states
” this for me was a fun project, a way to challenge the “status quo” of how sea kayaks and rivers are viewed and to challenge personal skills. They (sea kayaks) have become seen as worthy vessels for the appropriate rivers, though there has not been much mention of loaded white water expeditions in Sea Kayaks.” “this was a great chance to do the Grand Canyon in a very different way from the other 20,000 people who do it every year”
The trip fell over Christmas and temperatures where down below freezing at night and rarely got above 7 degrees Celsius during the day. On the trip there were also 5 white water Cross river boaters and one OC1 (open canoe paddler), which gave the group of 10 and really varied mix of experiences to share. One paddler James Manke was not only paddling the Grand Canyon in a sea kayak but also did the whole thing with a traditional Greenland Paddle, plus not to mention this was his first ever river and long expedition.
Jaime recalls “James really had to learn quick and he ended up in a lot of wrong places to start with after following the lines of other people with standard paddles. He got beat down hard in some solid features, though his great rolling skills meant he never swam” “at the end he was able to know what lines he should take and he did an amazing job, I know as I paddled half the time with a Greenland Paddle and it is much harder to get around in the rapids with”
here is a short film put together by James
Jaime hopes to make a short film documenting the trip by the end of the year, though is also due to be back on the Grand in August for another run this time in Rafts and this time in the heat of summer.
“it is going to be great to be able to compare the two trips at the end, the luxuries of rafts, the difference in warmth, the water flows and the larger chance of snake and scorpion encounters in summer”.
we look forward to more stories and video to come
The World Wild Team
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