I enjoy paddling with Tim Gross. He's a great guy and a great boater with good judgement. That said, it came as no surprise to me when Tim broke the World Freefall Waterfall Record in 2002. He had talked about running the falls but I don't think any of us thought he would actually DO it..

The Priestly brothers were there to film Tim's descent of the falls, and they later said that it measured in at 101 feet, seven inches. They said later that about halfway down the updraft from the falls below flipped Tim in midair, and for the last fifty feet he was upside down, his boat "fluttering like a leaf" as it fell.

When he hit, he was blown out of his boat but was ok.. He thought about giving it another go, but in the end decided to save it for another day.

Here's the pics Isaac sent me recently, extracted from the new kayaking video Breathe which will be premiering in Portland on June 21, 2002 (see below for details).

The falls, as viewed from the front. Yes, that's a person standing at the top..

Tim, dropping the falls..

Halfway down..

In the end, I'm just glad Tim was ok. Geeeez that's a huge waterfall; I get nervous just looking at the pics! (and to think I broke my back running a 33 footer; I can't imagine what the impact must have been like!)