Dane Jackson and a Tour of Some of the World’s Toughest Class V Whitewater

Dane Jackson is undoubtedly one of the world’s best whitewater kayakers. That’s tough to quantify, of course, but he’s backed that claim up competitively, and with his “soul boating” – when he’s just out there running ridiculously tough whitewater, often doing it first. Here, Mr. Jackson gives us a tour of the great Stikine River in northern British Columbia, Canada. It’s commonly thought of as some of the world’s toughest big water Class V. Dane gives us a POV view that we don’t often see of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. The river is most often run in two days, but the new generation of kayaker has started to charge it in a single day. Dane spent a week there, making multiple runs, but used his first trip down to do it the traditional way, as an overnighter. This river packs a punch, as Dane found out when he got caught in a pair of giant hydraulics.