Amazon Express

Epic Kayaks is thrilled to support this exciting and ambitious paddling adventure! West Hansen and his crew have selected the Epic V8 surfski to help them meet their goals. The V8 offers excellent speed and efficiency, and will give West the extra stability he needs to stay in his boat during those 48 hour paddle sessions!

The Expedition – Summer 2012: kayak the entire 4,225 miles of the Amazon River – the world’s longest and largest – in a source-to-sea attempt to establish the solo speed record AND the fastest time of anyone to complete the course. This is similar to combining the Tour de France and an Everest ascent into one treacherous challenge.

West Hansen, of Austin, Texas plans to traverse the distance from the river’s source to the Atlantic Ocean, 4225 miles (6,800 km) away, in 40 - 60 days. Previous expeditions have finished the journey in 140+ days.

The first challenge will be to get to the headwaters at the top of the Andes Mountains, then kayak treacherous whitewater though blind canyons two miles deep and barely wider than most Main streets. 300 miles of Class I through V+ rapids where only a handful of people have survived since the first recorded descent in the 1970's. Then, the cloud forest for two hundred miles, hidden from most of the western world due to its inaccessibility, and often hostile terrain. Finally, 3600 miles of massive amounts of fast, flat water in a river so wide the banks often cannot be seen from either side, ending with an island larger than most countries - at the mouth of the greatest river on Earth.

Click here to learn more about the Amazon Express expedition