One of the most influential kayakers of the last 20 years, Rush progressed the sport and culture of whitewater paddling with cutting-edge descents across the sport's many disciplines.
Rush Sturges grew up along the banks of California’s Salmon River, where his parents owned and operated the acclaimed kayaking school Otter Bar. From the beginning, Rush was mesmerized by the challenge and power of whitewater, soon progressing from the beginner-friendly rapids near his home to more challenging rivers. As a student at World Class Academy, Rush traveled the world, honing skills on the river and behind the camera while earning his high school diploma.
By 2003, Rush had already begun representing the United States, earning his first major victory at the Junior Freestyle World Championships in Graz, Austria. He went on to compete in several more freestyle events, performing admirably in Australia (2005), Canada (2007), and Switzerland (2009). In the ensuing years, he began to break away from formal competitions in favor of more ambitious, exploratory projects.
Rush's creative vision built on the legacy of mentors like Scott Lindgren and brought new energy to the sport as he and his friends began pushing to go bigger, go further, and document their exploits in a way that brought others along for the ride.
Rush applied his freestyle skills to the continued progression of big wave surfing. Many springs were spent searching for new, larger waves across Ontario and Quebec while refining how they were surfed through the invention of new tricks and the consistent push for increasing amplitude and flow.
Inspired by the ski and skate culture athletes of the early 2000’s, Rush sought opportunities to bring freestyle tricks and maneuvers to bigger and more technical rapids. Notable descents include the creation and execution of a Hail Mary (a front flip off a waterfall) on New Zealand's Maruia Falls (30 ft/10 m) and Oregon's Celestial Falls (45 ft/13.7 m). These descents and others solidified Rush's legacy and influence in the realm of downriver freestyle.
Podium finishes in groundbreaking international events like the Whitewater Grand Prix, which consisted of multiple competitions across disciplines, and the North Fork Championship solidified Rush's status as one of the most well-rounded kayakers in the industry. Outside of competition, Rush worked to bring consistency and style to global classics, such as the deep committing canyons and granite slides of California's High Sierras and exploratory runs of previously undescended rivers and rapids around the world.
In the late 90s, the waterfall world record hovered just under 100 ft (98.4 ft). Rush knew more was possible. Nearly a decade was spent developing the skill and control needed to successfully run taller and taller waterfalls. In 2007, he and Tyler Bradt made an attempt on Alexandra Falls (107 ft) in Canada's Northwest Territories, for which Tyler claimed the world record. Rush ended up behind the waterfall, and the resulting swim remains one of his closest near death experiences. His love of freefall continued with only minor incidents and the occasional broken nose until a descent of Bonita Falls (80 ft, Argentina) led to fracturing his L2 vertebrae. Undeterred, Rush continued to refine and popularize the art of paddling waterfalls with multiple descents on many of the sport's most iconic drops. His flawless 2011 descent of Mexico's Tomata 2, a technical (80 ft/24 meter) cascade, earned him a Rider of the Year Award for Best Waterfall Line. Rush has supported multiple waterfall world record descents, including Tyler Bradt's 2009 descent of the 189 ft Palouse Falls, documented in his film Dream Result, and Rafa Ortiz's attempt to run Niagara Falls, which formed the narrative for the film Chasing Niagara.
Years spent on the warm waters of Uganda's White Nile River served as a training ground to develop big water skills that Rush took on remote and challenging big water rivers around the globe, including the infamous Murchison section of the White Nile (a river known for having one of the highest concentrations of hippos and crocodiles on the planet) the Stikine River (Canada), the Indus River (Pakistan), The Betsibuku River (Madagascar) The Glomaga River (Norway) and the Salween River (China). In 2012, Rush, Tyler Bradt, Benny Marr, and Steve Fisher became the first team to successfully navigate the infamous Inga Rapids of the Congo River, a section which had proved fatal to the team of seven French rafters who made their attempt on it in 1985. Fisher earned the accolade “National Geographic Explorer of the Year” as their team leader. The section still remains unrepeated.
After more than a decade spent traveling the world and financing kayak trips in part by selling DVDs of his films, Rush moved to White Salmon, WA, for its nearly year-round access to quality Class V whitewater. The pristine waters of the White Salmon Rivers provide the perfect environment to continue refining technical skills while finding new ways to apply his creative vision.
“I’ll never stop paddling,” he says, “It’s the best feeling in the world. But I’ll be the first to admit that my goals within the sport are changing. I’m still running difficult whitewater consistently year round but I’m also running my production company, River Roots, and investing a lot more into my art. But for me personally it’s all part of the same process. Kayaking is an art form and it goes hand in hand with everything else that I love to do. As long as the passion is still there, I’ll never put down the paint brush. But I’m starting to be a bit more mindful of what I put on the canvas.”
(Words by Anna Bruno)
