Kayak Right Alongside An Actively Erupting Volcano In Hawaii
If you’ve already gone shark diving, skydived from the top of Mt Everest, edgewalked the CN Tower, did some death-defying ironing, slid down this insane waterslide–and you’re still looking for new thrills, here’s a crazy idea.
Follow after Pedro Oliva, a professional kayaker, who kayaked the raging river that surrounds an actual erupting volcano. With his team including extreme sports photographer Alexandre Socci, they took on the rushing waters that was almost boiling hot, braved through the blinding steam, and risked some scalded equipment as they rowed along Kilauea, an active volcano in south-central Hawaii.
In what was supposed to be a filming of an episode of their Brazilian TV program titled Kaiak for Channel OFF, the team set out to the blazing mountain slope of Mauna Loa. At the first light of day, the molten lava was still glowing as it oozed and gushed out of the active volcano. While everyone else was dumbfounded and uncertain of what to do next, Pedro Oliva took his kayak and went right in.
Alexandre Socci recounts his experience:
“As a water photographer myself I was trying to get into the water but it was impossible, the water was about 90 degrees Celsius and there were lots of lava particles floating that could burn anything in seconds… even the kayaks came out of the water with some ‘scars’ from the floating lava!!!”
Socci’s incredible photos seem like they were screenshots of a VFX-heavy action movie scene: the daredevil kayakers row recklessly through the current as steam fills the air, the volcano spurting red fire in the background.
Rowing through blazing hot waters is no joke, one of Olivia’s oars even caught fire because of the drifting lava flows. He warns us viewers not to think their kayaking stunt was at all safe, no matter what it looks like in the photos. That goes for all potential volcano kayakers.
