A hot pink kayak drops over the edge of a giant waterfall. For a few seconds, only froth and foam are visible. Then, a light pink spot emerges from the foam, getting brighter and brighter until kayaker Dane Jackson emerges victorious, still in his kayak. It’s the first giant drop in his descent down the world’s steepest rideable waterfall series at Chiapas, Mexico’s Santo Domingo Gorge.
Spoiler alert: he lived to tell the tale.
The four-part gorge drops more than 300 feet in less than .2 miles. Its four powerful waterfalls are Angel Wings, The Dome, Toboggan, and Raw Dog.
Jackson is a four-time Freestyle World Champion kayaker. His whitewater adventures include feats in Chile, Pakistan, and Kenya. But Chiapas, Mexico, has been on his mind for the last decade.
“I have been to so many incredible places all over the world, but the Santo Domingo Gorge is truly a one-of-a-kind sequence of waterfalls,” Jackson said in a statement. “It is one of those places you can’t believe when you see it. You can look up at that majestic sequence of waterfalls and know you can run the entire thing; there is nowhere and nothing like it.”
The beautiful falls could easily turn deadly. Much of the Santo Domingo River is only accessible by kayak. So, if something were to go wrong, good luck getting medical help in time! The nearest hospital is two hours away by rough back roads. And that’s only going to help if you can get the kayaker out of the gorge.
Jackson assembled an international safety paddle team in case he ran into trouble. His crew — Israel “River” Maderos (Mexico), Bren Orton (United Kingdom), Adrian Mattern (Germany), David Sodomka (Czech Republic), and Issac Martinez (Mexico) — was trained in emergency procedures and positioned along the route. You can see them in the video, sitting in the calm pools at the bottoms of the falls, probably crossing their fingers and toes that Jackson didn’t wipe out. California-based adventure photographer Lucas Gilman captured the footage.
Jackson, 29, is based in Rock Island, Tennessee. He spends more than half the year living in his RV while traveling to kayaking events and looking for new thrills. Jackson started kayaking as a child. His father, kayak champ and designer Eric Jackson, founded Jackson Kayak.