“Man, should I do this?”

Um, yeah, that would probably be going through my head prior to going down an 80 foot waterfall in a kayak. Evidently it goes through Evan Garcia’s mind as well, in this captivating film by David Maser that chronicles a day in the life of Garcia, the 23 year old daredevil who’s made a habit of running large waterfalls in his kayak.

Your jaw will hit the ground when the video slows down just before the “stout drop” that constitutes a seriously mad waterfall. There’s another shot in the film when he goes over again and we see it from a distance and you’ll appreciate just WTF this guy just pulled off. Amazing. And hypnotic (though I supposed I’m getting wooed a little by the high def).

This isn’t the highest waterfall jump ever. But it’s way up there, and it’s a pretty sick feat.

The guy’s a searcher. I’d love to know which waterfall he drops in the video…it looks like Washington or Oregon. Metlako Falls maybe?

There’s something about the waters of California that makes for some of the sickest, most incredible human/marine life interactions you could think of. As in, the kind that no one would believe, unless you had the video to prove it. In this case, the human is kayaker/diver Rick Coleman. And the creature? None other than the largest animal on the planet.

Coleman encountered several blue whales off Redondo Beach California, near San Diego. As fate had it, he had his handy underwater camera with him. When he saw a fifty foot blue whale he knew he was (almost literally) onto something really, really big. And he’s got some amazing video to prove it. At one point, you can see that the whale – the blue whale being the largest creature in the history of the Earth – come up underneath him and almost over turn his puny little kayak.

To quote Keanu Reeves from The Matrix…”WHOA”.

The encounter is not without controversy. At one point, Coleman left his kayak and took a dip with baby blue, leaving his wife anxious for him to resurface. And some feel that his actions, of paddling next to the blues as they fed, borders on harassment and violates several marine interaction regulations.

You could make that argument, though considering that his kayak had no motor, unlike some really pesky whale watchers here in the Pacific Northwest, and his actions had minimal impact on the whales’ behaviour, if at all. My thoughts? I’d probably crap my pants if I saw a blue whale surface by my kayak, and then admittedly to the same thing as Coleman! Not condoning getting so close to whales, but, OMG, enough said. Just watch this amazing video!!!

Forget beer and UFC. Real men buy kayaks. Like Sam Freihofer and Tod Wells, who just took a leap of faith over Metlako Falls, in Eagle Creek, Oregon. That’s an 82 foot plunge, by the way, and beats the former record for a tandem kayak jump by 12 feet.

Gosh I love kayaks.  Neat video here of a kayaker catching some nice waves at Hertzelia Beach in Israel.  Nice waves too.  I’m thinking it’s not impossible Jesus and his crew caught a few tubes back in the day.  I’m sure surfing and/or kayaks are in the Good Book – maybe somewhere in the back.

First the good news. A kayaker and some fishermen encountered a huge great white shark in Australia and got some cool video. Now the bad news. This is shark porn folks, and it’s why people are killing upwards of 100 million sharks each year.

Adrenaline junkies in BC have reason to feel hardcore once again. Raid the North Extreme, a 500 km wilderness race held every year in Canada is coming to the Kootenays in September. The race comprises of teams of four and takes teams across some of Canada’s toughest wilderness by kayak, canoe, fixed rope, mountain bike and on foot. Or to put it another way for us city folks, it’s like The Amazing Race in the boonies. This is not a race for the Sheraton crowd!

Kayaks are quickly finding their way into my lexicon of coolest and most useful tools around.  I mean, you can skydive with a kayak, score a second meeting with a suitor of your choice with a kayak, and as this video shows, you can do multiple cartwheels on a raging river with a kayak!  Really, kayaks just rock!

Thanks to the quick-witted and jovial chaps at getoutdoors.com for blogging about this. They’re talking about a list posted on MSN UK about the ten hobbies that are most likely to get you some attention from the opposite sex. It seems men just can’t say no to a woman who lists “dancing” or “yoga” as a pastime, while women just can’t get enough of a dude with a surfboard, climbing boots and/or kayak. And you thought firemen had all the luck! Insert smarmy comment here ->…………<-. Oh heck I’ll do it, next time you’re in the bar working your mojo, replace “Hi” with “Did I mention I have a kayak?” Better yet, have some lads help you carry it into the bar, slam it down on the dance floor, get in and grin with a thumbs up. You’re a master pick up artist!