“Rush Sturges has proven himself as a renaissance man of outdoors culture.”

The River Runner follows legendary expedition kayaker Scott Lindgren’s 20-year quest to be the first person to paddle the four great rivers that originate from Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The film is not simply a jaw-dropping adventure, but also an intimate portrait of Lindgren as he navigates the terrifying terrain of trauma, addiction, and a life-threatening brain tumor.

The thing that drew Rush Sturges and Darby McAdams to White Salmon, Washington? The promise of world-class, year-round whitewater. Watch below as the filmmaker-athletes hop in a Bronco Sport to explore some of their favorite zones after the season’s first big rain.

SAN SEBASTIAN – Is a new breed of genre auteurs emerging? Rush Sturges’ “Chasing Niagara,” produced by his River Roots label for Red Bull Media House, tracks the preparations of Mexico’s Rafa Ortiz, one of the world’s best and most daring big waterfall kayakers, to run the 167-foot Niagara Falls. Attempting it in a decked canoe in 1990, Jesse Sharpe died in the attempt.

Evading crocs, resuscitating paddlers and getting a perfect frame on wild rolling waves – it’s all in a day’s work for film producer Rush Sturges. This is how he does it. Filming extreme kayaking is one of the toughest and most taxing camera gigs on the planet – just ask Rush Sturges. Over the last decade and more, American Sturges – who is a top competition kayaker himself – has been through hell to capture the world’s best paddlers in some of the most amazing whitewater sequences on the small screen.

What do whitewater kayaking, hip hop, and folk music have in common? The answer is simple: Rush Sturges. Throughout his career, professional whitewater kayaker and filmmaker Rush Sturges has traveled the world and taken viewers with him. He's chased massive waterfalls and whitewater across the world, and recently released a feature-length film, "Chasing Niagara." Now, Sturges takes the world on a new adventure: his brand new, full-length album, "A Life Worth Living."

Expedition kayaker Scott Lindgren knocked off first descents of the most remote and dangerous rivers on earth, from the Himalayas to the Sierra. He paddled with an aggro attitude and saw weakness as an unforgivable trait in himself and others. But when a brain tumor started to derail his athletic performance and threaten his life, everything changed.

There isn’t a lot that scares Tyler Bradt, so before he steered his kayak off the lip of eastern Washington’s Palouse Falls and dropped 18 stories amid water rushing at 2,000 cubic feet (57 cubic meters) per second, he recalls his mind running gin clear, just like the current. “There was a stillness,” says the extreme kayaker. “Then an acceleration, speed, and impact unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I wasn’t sure if I was hurt or not. My body was just in shock.”

If you haven’t already watched Rush Sturges’ latest whitewater film The River Runner, do yourself a favor and toss it up on the ol’ tube tonight. Chronicling the story of legendary boater Scott Lindgren’s quest to paddle the four great rivers that originate from Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash, the film dives deep into his struggle with trauma, addiction, and a life-threatening brain tumor. It’s an exploration of vulnerability within adventure sports culture and a look into mental health in high-stakes environments.

You don’t need vanloads of equipment or even years of training to become a professional adventure filmmaker. You just need a decent camera, some innate talent, and guts. Rush Sturges is proof. The 28 year-old professional kayaker and filmmaker started his career when he was in high school, shooting paddling groups on the Salmon River in California with a Canon camcorder.

Any kayaker who’s worth his or her weight in noseplugs knows of Rush Sturges, an accomplished filmmaker and expedition kayaker who grew up on the banks of the Salmon River in California at his dad Peter’s Otter Bar Kayak School. Under his production company River Roots, his most recent film (after his acclaimed “Chasing Niagara”) is “The River Runner,” which premiered at this year’s Telluride Mountainfilm Festival to rave reviews, and is now streaming on Netflix.

When a routine after-school fistfight ended with another boy stabbing a three-inch blade into his shoulder, Scott Lindgren made his brother swear not to tell anyone—especially not their mother, who had enough to worry about raising two boys on her own. Years later, when doctors discovered a baseball sized-tumor wrapped around the carotid artery in his brain, Lindgren again kept it under wraps.

Raised on the banks of California’s Salmon River, Rush Sturges began developing his skills as a whitewater kayaker from the age of 10. After winning the Junior World Championships of freestyle kayaking, Rush turned Pro and began touring the world straight out of high school. Along the way, Rush documented his adventures with his friends, developing a passion for filmmaking.