Bren’s five biggest waterfalls of 2016

2016 was the year of the waterfall for me. Thanks to a great crew set up I got the opportunity to run almost all the waterfalls I had hoped for in that year! Here are my five favourites, and thanks again to everyone that came out to run them with me, set safety or shoot photos!

5/ Demshitz drop

This waterfall is one of the most well known and iconic waterfalls in Chile, made famous because of the legendary ‘Demshitz’ crew. It is fair to say that I am on the trajectory I am on in my river running and waterfall kayaking because I was adopted by this crew in 2012. Jared Seiler one of the co-founders got the first descent of this waterfall many years ago and whilst kayaking has moved on a lot since then, this waterfall remains just as challenging and sought after.

4/ Koosah falls

A tricky lead in made even more complex by the high water we had leads into a perfect seventy footer. This was the waterfall that my mentor, Dave Fusilli broke his shoulder on and my first big waterfall of the year, I was definitely feeling the nerves above this one!

3/ Megatron

Quite possibly one of the rowdiest and longest pieces of whitewater in the world. Don’t believe me? Check out the video!

2/ Brenning Fossen

A first descent and one of the rowdier waterfalls I ran this year, I had no safety for this one and the distinct possibility of running at the very least the next rapid on the Rauma on my head if I messed up. Thankfully despite taking one of the biggest hits of my life at the bottom I stuck the drop and even managed to catch the eddy before the next slide &endash; stoked. Named “Brenning Fossen” in joking homage to “Flemming Fossen” which is at the end of the Rauma river, Norway.

1/ Newen falls

The perfect eighty foot waterfall. This was one of the first big waterfalls we ran as a complete crew in Chile and it did not disappoint. An amazing grade 4 gorge leads right up to the final eddy on the lip of this drop. Everyone in our crew had good lines on the waterfall and then we blasted out the easy lead out gorge in the afternoon sun. One of my favourite days on the water!