Three years ago, on July 11, I was at the river to watch my friend Jason Beakes and South African extreme paddler and film-maker, Steve Fisher film a rising young star in the kayaking world, 26 year-old Shannon Christy, running the mother of all rapids in DC: Great Falls. Just before Steve had set up his equipment to film, Shannon decided to take a practice run with someone else, though she was new to this river, and only 3 years kayaking experience under her belt. Heartbreakingly, she drowned, swimming out of her boat and into the one place on the river you absolutely cannot go, a rapid called Subway. Steve, Jason and others spent the next 4 hours working to recover her body from the massive waterfall. I was there, my heart breaking though I didn't know Shannon.
I visit the river almost daily, and have been astonished to see, over and over again, a rainbow, or a giant heron perched, or a column of mist rising from the spot where she died. I know it is magical thinking, but somehow, she is there, joyful still.
It is a day that rocked everyone involved, causing many to question and revisit the risks involved in this sport we love, and to redefine their relationship to our wild lover, the River.
We all come to terms with death in our own way, but little in the logical, word-filled universe helps us do it.
Below is a short film that Steve made... channeling, I think, some of the incomprehensible grief of that day, and other friends lost to the rivers... and how we go on after the loss...
And there's just some seriously rad kayaking footage here, from the realms of the beyond... the paddler is Pat Keller, who was also good friends with Shannon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQuvRkUEnuU&list=PLyUytW0ghPSdqpcSQAPRjTzuQKUCixTtx&index=7
