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greg von doersten tyler bradt white nile, 2011
richard hamilton smith bob foote
Joe Kellogg
grand canyon, 1984
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It’s always tricky messing with the karma between a man and his boat, especially when asking to clamp a camera box onto his canoe before he runs a big drop in the Grand Canyon. Fortunately Bob Foote likes a challenge. You might ask what’s the big deal. People put GoPros on boats all the time. Well, it was 1984. The 35-mm film camera was cradled inside a .50-cal ammo can, its lens pointing out a small window I’d cut into the steel and then covered in Plexiglas. When Bob triggered the remote switch, the motor drive went ZZZIP-ZIP until the entire film roll was exposed. One of those shots became the April 1985 cover of Canoe magazine, but Bob drew the line when I asked him to run Lava Falls with it. — Richard Hamilton Smith
Greg Von Doersten
It’s in the Can
When I got the chance to film Tyler Bradt and friends training to run the world’s biggest whitewater, I used a professional DSLR in an Aqua Tech water housing. The rig weighs 8 lbs. and is similar to Richard Hamilton Smith’s ammo-box in one way: We both had to convince someone to strap it to their boat and charge giant whitewater. — Greg Von Doersten
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