Sea Kayaking... with kids?

February-March 1995

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

 

Never turn back?

Book review by Alan Wilson

Never Turn Back, The Life of Whitewater Pioneer, Walt Blackadar by Ron Watters, The Great Rift Press, 1994, 293 pp, b/w photos, maps ISBN: 1-877625-02-7 (hardcover) 1-877625-03-5 (paperback)

For those who paddle only sea kayaks, whitewater paddling may seem a strange and foreign world populated by thrill seekers and competitive adverturers. For many sea kayakers, paddling is an intentionally gentle activity - as much a chance to get close to nature as a physical challenge. There certainly are those who seek thrills on the sea, but the average sea kayaker chooses to be off the water well before it reaches the kind of conditions which whitewater enthusiasts will travel thousands of miles for.

Never Turn Back is a story of the archetypal whitewater paddler, Walt Blackadar, an American physician whose passionate hobby was seeking out North America's most `unrunnable' rapids and pushing himself to ultimate limits - often a brutal and life-threatening test. For many years Blackadar was considered the pre-eminent whitewater paddler, running the wildest rivers in northern BC and Alaska, and throughout the Western United States.

Blackadar was an amazing, indomitable personality. Some found the man domineering, but he also championed the cause of wilderness when it was distinctly unpopular and played a big part in the establishment of the 2.2 million-acre "River of No Return Wilderness" in his home state of Idaho. All of this on top of running a medical practice, having a full family life, and having incredible experiences, such as a pioneering solo paddle down the "impossible" Turnback Canyon on the remote and wild Alsek River in the Tatshenshini region of northern BC.

What finally broke (or at least began to erode) his spirit was the death of another paddler - a young woman he was leading on a river run. After that tragedy he seemed to become death obsessed. The day he himself drowned, running rapids on the Salmon River in Idaho, we are shown a man rendered weak from injuries both emotional and physical, failing to take proper precautions.

Whitewater paddlers will definitely want to read this book, in part to understand more of the history of their sport. And since many of the most experienced sea kayakers also have some whitewater background, it will have a broad appeal. It is also instructive of the history of the struggle for wilderness preservation and its long link to the paddling world.

But some sea kayakers may at first find the story unpalatable. The thematic quote for the book is from Winston Churchill: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in..."

In a world such as ours, where the art of compromise and cooperative solutions is crucial, it is tempting to say Churchill's dictum is a bad strategy. As Blackadar's life ultimately showed, there is a self-destructiveness in this relentless approach to life. On the other hand, even the gentlest of paddlers will probably find that they are swept up in the current of Blackadar's amazing life and find the book hard to put down.