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Polk Deters
Whitewater Kayaker
In the rough and tumble world of whitewater boating,
a first descent is like the holy grail of paddling—it’s
the rush of adrenaline that comes with twisting and
turning down a stretch of river no human has ever
tackled. First descents are what NOLS Instructor Polk
Deters lives for, and he’s had the honor of
being one of the first people down some of the world’s
toughest rivers.
Take, for example, his recent expedition down the
Stikine River in Northern British Columbia. Once called
the “Everest of Rivers,” the Stikine is
‘very solid’ class V, which in the paddling
world means that it’s about as furious and fast
as a river can get. Polk joined an intrepid group
of boaters on the Stikine’s Grand Canyon, becoming
among the first 20 people to have ever paddled that
stretch of whitewater. When the group took off, the
river was flowing at an average of 8,000 cubic feet
per second (cfs). Before they made their way to the
end-point three days later, the river’s water
level had more than doubled to 20,000 cfs. That’s
a lot of whitewater.
“It was a pretty intense experience going
to bed and putting a marker on the river and then
waking up to see it 2 1/2 feet underwater, and not
having any idea what’s downstream,” says
Deters.
With a growing total of 25 first descents, Deters
has made a name for himself in the whitewater community.
He’s been featured in countless kayaking movies
and articles and has also excelled in the racing scene,
where he was ranked 4th in the world in 1999 in an
open class race in New Zealand.
For Deters, the feeling of winding around a corner
and not knowing what’s next is unmatched. “Doing
new rivers is a big thing for me,” he says.
“First and foremost is to do a river that no
one else has done, going around a corner and having
no idea what’s ahead.”
Surprisingly, one of Deters most memorable recent
expeditions wasn’t at all about big water: It
was about big conservation. In December he joined
the Nature Conservancy to map and scout three rivers
in the Yunnan Province in southwest China. While the
group tackled some big water, and paddled in areas
that had never been explored, Deters was most excited
about his role in trying to protect one of the most
ecologically diverse areas in the world.
“Rivers take you to places that a lot of people
don’t get to see,” says Deters. “A
lot of these are remote places where the only way
in is by river craft. That’s a pretty cool feeling.”
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