Bren Orton, who has died in a kayaking accident aged 29, was a world-class British white-water kayaker whose passion was to travel the world exploring and “running” wild rivers and big rapids, and dropping over huge waterfalls.
One of his most spectacular stunts was to paddle over the notorious Big Banana falls deep inside the jungle of Veracruz, Mexico, in December 2017, a drop of 128ft (40m).
The waterfall was first run by another paddler in 2010, but Orton also fancied his chances, together with his German paddling partner, Adrian Mattern.
Things did not get off to a good start. The pair were still sick from a trip to Pakistan when they arrived; camera equipment was stolen; and when they got to the falls they discovered it was out of season. Worse, Orton realised that he would have to abseil down into a gorge to reach the falls: he knew nothing of climbing and had a fear of heights.
With the promise of “a few beers” they procured the services of an 18-year-old local climber with knowledge of ropes. Unfortunately he left the harnesses at the hotel, but he managed to fashion new ones with some webbing and a karabiner (the D-shaped metal ring with spring-hinged side used by climbers for holding rope).
Orton felt distinctly unsafe as he lowered himself into the abyss to make a reconnaissance of the falls, but by the time he had returned he had made up his mind. “I decided, looking at the lip, that whilst not ideal it was completely doable and I could hit the line,” he later wrote. The pair vowed to return the following day.
Orton was sick again overnight and could not stomach any breakfast. But he overcame his reservations and was first to lower himself on to the upper section of the river. His kayak was lowered down next.
“I tried to find that magical feeling I get before all of my best lines,” he recalled. “Calm, excited and clear minded. I gave the ‘go’ signal to the team, took one last deep breath, exhaled and sent it.”
He described the drop as an almost mystical experience. “The brain does strange things to you when you’re in the air and I remember everything slowing down, the air awareness taking over, and ‘watching’ myself as I rode down the first half off the waterfall in what felt from a third-person view point.”
The impact, however, was colossal – like being in a car crash. “It was crazy. We both had really good lines,” he said the following day, but “when you’re running a waterfall that big you have to accept you’re going to take a big hit. We both took big hits.” (Mattern successfully followed.)
Orton had lost his paddle and was severely winded, but his arms remained aloft for minutes as he celebrated. It was the second biggest waterfall that had ever been run and set a new British record by 50ft.
Brendan James Orton was born on June 10 1994 in Warrington and educated at StGregory’s Catholic High School. He first fell in love with kayaking after a school trip to the Lake District aged nine, but soon decided that school was not for him.
At the age of 16, after learning that the White Nile was to be dammed in Uganda, he sold some childhood possessions, worked on a building site and bought a ticket. It had always been a dream to paddle the rapids. Two months after his trip, the dam was completed and the rapids were lost.
Thereafter he pursued his passion. Initially, he focused on the discipline of freestyle; this is where kayakers perform tricks on a single feature of white water. Orton invented one called the “Slim Chance”, a backwards loop-to-loop out of a hole. He also competed internationally, representing Great Britain at the 2015 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships in Ottawa, where he made the final in the men’s kayak.
To support himself, Orton worked variously as a gravedigger, call-centre employee and building-site labourer. He even participated in medical trials to fund his travels, an experience he described as “sketchy”. Ultimately, he secured sponsorship deals from kayaking brands and started making videos of his adventures on social media, building up an audience of almost 59,000 followers. He moved to Innsbruck, Austria, and began to apply the freestyle skills he had learnt to wild and remote rivers around the world.
Orton was no stranger to the dangers of the sport. Several months after his 128ft drop, he ran the 100ft Alexandra Falls in Canada and was not so lucky. He suffered a serious head injury and was knocked unconscious, ending up upside down in the water. He was rescued only thanks to the herculean efforts of his team.
Other destinations he paddled included Pakistan, India, America, Austria, Norway, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Uganda, Zambia and Japan. In 2019 he fulfilled another dream by kayaking the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet, which is fed by the Himalayas and is home to some of the wildest white water found anywhere in the world.
Orton said people were often left disappointed with his explanation of why he did what he did: “They expect heroic reasonings of how I am ‘pushing my sport’ or tales of a quest to ‘break new ground’. Unfortunately my answer can’t live up to their expectations and my reply is simply ‘Because I want to’, which I think is actually the best reason to do anything.”
Orton, who described himself on Facebook as a “happy ginger dude”, was kayaking on May 16 and died after becoming trapped in a recirculating feature on the River Melezza in Switzerland; he did not resurface. His body was discovered in Lake Maggiore two weeks later. He was unmarried.
Bren Orton, born June 10 1994, diedMay 16 2024
