Kayaking
Zack Mutton freestyles some of world's highest and wildest kayaking drops
Follow one of New Zealand’s best Whitewater Kayakers learning processes as he pushes the boundaries of downriver freestyle kayaking.
Written by Zack Mutton
Downriver freestyle has been around for a long time but in recent years a handful of people have been taking it to another level, demonstrating that it’s possible to have control in the air while throwing tricks off large waterfalls. This has been inspirational and exciting to me, and over the past year I have been working hard on my downriver freestyle skills.
When paddling waterfalls above 60ft it's crucial to get the bow of your kayak down and to pierce the water first at a 90 degree angle for a soft landing. If the bow of your boat comes up and you land flat it most likely won’t end well - opening the possibility for huge impacts and spinal injuries. The orthodox way of tackling waterfalls this size is to go off straight, let the nose of your kayak drop and catch it with a paddle stroke feeling the angle out until tucking up for impact. The key is to do as little as possible as any sudden or big movements can pick the nose of your kayak up and that's how you land flat.
It’s easier said than done and I think it’s safe to say that any experienced big waterfall kayaker has messed up at least once.
Over the years there have been some attempts at freewheeling some bigger drops, some semi-successful and others career ending. I have always thought that the way you are seated in the kayak, having your legs locked in and limited control in the air for tricks. So until recently I never gave throwing tricks off large waterfalls much thought. It wasn’t until last year when Dane Jackson and Kaelin Friedenson both threw Back Freewheels off big waterfalls, and demonstrated a sense of control in the air I’d never seen before, that the idea of throwing tricks off big waterfalls really grabbed my attention and made me think it’s something I’d like to throw. However, big waterfall freestyle wasn’t something I could just rock up to with a “huck & pray“ mentality. I had to be 100% certain that I would execute the trick well enough that I could at least get the nose of my kayak to a good enough angle for landing otherwise spinal injuries were likely.
I could already do 30ft Back Freewheels but I never had the control to bring the nose all the way back down again which is really only half the trick. I figured it would be best if I relearned the whole trick from the beginning if I was serious about throwing this trick from double the height. So I started from bottom at the beginning of 2022 at home in Okere Falls, breaking the trick into smaller more manageable pieces and taking away the consequence of height. The first step was becoming familiar with the movement which meant hours of visualisation and flat-water drills in the lake, dialling in the transition from stroke 1 to 2 and the edge angle to control the bow of boat all the way through the trick and guiding the bow down for landing.
I’m around so many cliffs on the rivers while paddling and I like to dabble in a bit of cliff jumping. My learning process for cliff jump tricks gave me a process for downriver freestyle. I would break the trick into 2 or 3 separate tricks, practice them from lower heights and then once I felt confident increase the height and link together all the movements and there’s the trick.
The trouble was for the next step of learning my Back Freewheels I needed a clean 15 foot drop with a sharp lip to practice my timing which was really hard to find around home. I made do on the drops on my home river, the Kaituna, but they weren’t ideal and so I mostly stuck to my flatwater drills and visualisation throughout the New Zealand summer.
Cut to June 2022 I was in Norway above Double Drop fired up to try some Freewheels. Downriver freestyle on double drop is unique because of the double nature with a 30ft drop followed by a 40ft drop a few metres afterwards. I would have liked to practice on a clean 40fter with no lead in before going here but I was finding it hard to find such a drop and I felt this was the best opportunity I would get for a while.
Zack Mutton Double Drop
© Zack Mutton
Zack Mutton Double Drop
© Zack Mutton
Zack Mutton Double Drop
© Zack Mutton
There is a rock shelf across the landing of the first waterfall. Jamie Sutton had scouted it without water a few years back and described a sharp ridge-like rock running across the landing. Most likely this rock shelf was what Aniol hit when he broke his back throwing the same trick almost 10 years earlier. If you don’t have speed you land on it. I was confident I could clear the rock shelf and land with enough control to be able to set the back freewheel for the second drop. The height was still low enough I wasn’t worried landing flat on impact.
The first attempt started as I visualised. I ran up to the drop, got lots of speed, cleared it and landed my first freewheel well. I knew the second drop was going to hit really fast but it caught me off guard how quick. I wasn’t prepared to throw the next freewheel and ended up going off it completely backwards, missing the crucial stroke timing on the lip to throw the trick back to facing forward. I had been so careful to set myself up in a safe place over to the left of the second waterfall avoiding another rock shelf, that I had made it a lot harder to throw my second trick.
The next day I was hoping there was still enough water. I couldn’t find anyone to paddle with, so I drove out to Double Drop by myself to wait, hoping some kayakers would turn up who could do safety for me. It’s a big pool at the bottom, so safety is relatively straightforward. Sure enough after a couple hours of being parked up on the side of the quiet almost farm-like road eating sandwiches, a couple of kayakers turned up and were keen to paddle and safety me. It was on! I went for my second attempt.
I was a bit more nervous than my first time but I had to put fear out of my mind and focus on the moment. I was confident on the first drop, with the speed to clear landing on the rock shelf and to land solid so as to not roll or fumble between the drops. My first freewheel was exactly how I planned, making sure to pull my boat out of the water then throw. Next, I had to commit to hitting the back freewheel off the second drop better. It was such a quick transition and coming up to it backwards from the first freewheel meant that it was difficult to control what part of the drop I was going off.
I was more right than I anticipated, close to a rock shelf on the second drop. With what felt like literally no time at all between the two drops though I had no time to correct it. I had to go with what I had and throw the second move further right than I wanted. The absolute was that I could not land upside down on the rock. I got it around, somehow just missing the rock. It was my first back freewheel off a waterfall this size that had the sense of weightlessness, so I was stoked to have laid it down. It wasn’t my cleanest, but I got taste of what it’s like and some much needed experience and learning for later in the year in Mexico.
Zack Mutton and crew
© Zack Mutton
Zack Mutton
© Zack Mutton
Zack Mutton - Tomata
© Zack Mutton
Shortly after Norway I was hanging out with a good friend Kaelin Friedenson. Kaelin had thrown one the biggest back freewheels to date off a waterfall in Mexico called Tomata 1. He and Dane Jackson were the only two kayakers in the world that had demonstrated control in the air with big back freewheels. He invited me on a downriver freestyle trip Dane Jackson was planning with him and few others back in Mexico. The crew had some big plans for this trip and I knew some of biggest downriver freestyle tricks would happen. My attention was drawn to Tomata 1, a 60ft waterfall with the perfect lip to back freewheel, it was this waterfall that made me want to join the trip so much.
Before I got there I wanted to do some more work on my back freewheels to be 100% sure that I could get my boats nose down and not land flat. Kaelin’s home river Great Falls in Washington DC was the perfect place to practice back freewheels with multiple 5ft to 15ft drops. I flew to meet Kaelin two weeks before the Mexico trip kicked off for some final practice. The sessions I got at Great Falls were invaluable experience. Kaelin and I spent hours dialling in our tricks and heading into Mexico we felt well prepared.
Zack Mutton - DC Great Falls. Photo credit: Eric Friedenson
© Eric Friedenson
After arriving in Mexico City airport with Kaelin we met up with some legendary filmers Steven Donavan, Lucas Gilman, Brandon Rieck and another kayaking buddy from back home in Okere Falls New Zealand, George Snook. We crammed all our gear in a mini van, made a sketchy stack of the five boats we brought on the roof and piled in for the five hour drive to Veracruz. We made it to Adventure Rec hostel the next day, our base for the 10 day trip and met up with the last of the crew Dane and Bren Orton.
Things took a turn for the worst on a warm up lap down the Big Banana Section on the Alesseca River with Kaelin taking an unlucky hit on a 40fter called Silenco. Luckily we were able to paddle him out to the takeout but it was gutting not to have him paddling with us for the rest of the trip. To add to our bad luck there was a flu going around the kayakers at Adventure Rec. Dane and Bren had already been brought down by it and I was worried it was only a matter of time before I would be sick too. I was keen to get the Tomata Back Freewheel done while I was still feeling 100% so on the second night I decided the following day would be the day.
During the van ride out to Tomata 1 it was hard not to be nervous, but I made a point to acknowledge and embrace this. The filmers, Bren and myself got dropped off on the edge of a banana farm only 100m walk from Tomata, while a couple other paddlers carried on further up the River. I planned on spending a couple hours of scouting, visualising and warming up before going for the back freewheel. I was stoked when I first set eyes on the Falls, it looked exactly how I had seen in all the photos and videos.
I made sure to look at the falls from a few different angles mostly focusing on the lip. It was such a perfect drop and my confidence only grew the more I looked at it. I ran through the move in my head over and over again visualising as realistically as I could. I had all the little steps, this was now the chance I had been waiting for to piece them all together.
Bren one of the paddlers that was doing safety for me that day had been waiting patiently in the shade while I did this. He was originally waiting for a few more kayakers to show up to help him. It was tough dealing with the nerves, being ready to go at the lip but having to wait. We had chatted about safety with him at the bottom of the pool so I could go for it now. We both felt comfortable so we geared up, along with the filmers. Steven Donavan waded across the river upstream of the falls to gain a different perspective with his FVPOLE while I warmed up.
I went through the movement a couple times on the flatwater before feeling ready. Bren paddled off Tomata conventional style first to set safety from the pool for me while I stood watch ready to jump the 60ft cliff and help him if in the unlikely event something went wrong. Bren styled like I thought he would.
Now it was the time I had been waiting for.
My nerves faded as I began to focus into the moment knowing I had prepared well for this. It was quite a committing feeling pulling up backwards to a 60ft lip but my visualisation had helped prepare me. I made sure to wait for the tail of my boat to drop off the edge of the falls and to feel the acceleration of myself beginning to fall before throwing. In reality it was only waiting a split second but when going backwards off a waterfall that size it felt a lot longer.
Timing was key. I threw my edge down and pulled on my first stroke and transitioned to my second stroke just like I had practiced. The boat whipped around and I felt control and time on my second stroke to set the angle for landing. I handed my paddle off to the side and tucked for impact.
I was stoked. To have linked up all the little learning steps from the past year of practice and to have executed the back freewheel with control felt epic. I don’t think I realised just how well executed it was until afterwards looking at Steven Donavan’s amazing FVPOLE GoPro shot. It was cool to see the transition to the second stroke and the landing angle.
As satisfying as it is to have thrown that back freewheel the hunger for the next big thing is there. It’s sparked the thought in me about how far is it possible to take this trick and will it become a standard practice in big waterfalls? I’m excited to slowly keep ticking along at this trick and see where it can be taken next. Progress is made in the little steps!
Zack Mutton - TODO RAUNDALSELVI
