April 16, 1995 – Don Kinser, Milt Aitken & Steve Frazier made a pilgrimage to West Virginia. On our first day, we ran Big Sandy Creek. While waiting in the parking filed for the shuttle ride, a guy showed up with a Ducky and a really long paddle. I asked (condescendingly) if he was going to run the river in that. He said “Yes, but I stand up”. I didn’t believe him, but we had a video camera and he wanted some video of it. So, we ran the river, and sure enough, this guy stood in the ducky the whole way and ran 18 ft Wonder Falls standing. Then he ran Big Splat standing, although he wiped out and pinned the ducky on the splat rock. But no big deal, he got out, stood on some unseen rocks under the surface, unpinned it, carried it up and ran Big Splat repeatedly successfully, all while standing. His name was Jeff Snyder and he called it “Striding”.
For the rest of our week long trip, we told this story and people from all over, including Europe, knew who he was, but all were impressed with the video of him striding over big drops
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