Alex Nicks is probably the best white water kayaker I’ve ever paddled with. Perhaps that’s not saying much, as I’ve only been white water kayaking about a dozen times, but the fact is Alex is a phenomenal kayaker. He is, as I understand it, one of Britain’s best.
I took a clinic with Alex a few weekends ago in the frigid waters of High falls near Kingston, New York. We paddled in very small boats, which I believe are made for freestyle paddling. Either way, they were much smaller boats than I was accustomed to.
So Alex took me through a series of Class II rapids (ripples, really) and then we ran a quick Class III that was one fine hoot. It had been a while since I paddled on a river (I’m mostly sea kayaking these days) so the experience was a reminder of how much fun it can be. Then we came to a wicked class IVish rapid that I had to portage around. Alex did not. Alex plunged right into the rapids and spent five minutes doing graceful pirouettes in the maw of the beast. I was amazed. Blown away.
Anyway, all of this is to make a further plug here for Alex’s work. You see, he is not only a superb kayaker, but he is an excellent filmmaker. He not only shoots for Jon Bowermaster’s awesome paddling series for National Geographic – the highly regarded Ocean’s 8 series (which I’ve blogged about before) – he also makes his own films. I got a copy of one of these DVDs and can tell you it will take your breath away. The DVD I have is called Tweaking the Nose of Terror and features a “terrorizing 43 minutes” of the most amazing white water footage you will ever see. From Patagonia to Iran to a run down the exceedingly treacherous stretch of the White Nile, this is a DVD that both amateur and extreme paddlers should own. I’m going to re-watch mine several times and, in fact, and going to try and get it autographed. ;-)