Nouria Newman may not be a household name but the French kayaker certainly should be. She’s pure badass and pretty much strength personified. Nouria races with the boys (she’s regularly the only women in the field during Idaho’s annual North Fork Championships), has done massive first descents in wild places (see below), and has found success in both the competitive (she was a slalom world champ in 2014) and expedition realms. And whether you’re a kayaker or not, you can appreciate her talent. The piece above is a quick profile of Newman, shot mostly on California’s Upper Cherry Creek, part of the Tuolumne River drainage that flows from the central Sierra Nevada.