Nouria Newman and paddling partner Sandy MacEwan completed the second full descent of the Klinaklini River in north-western British Columbia, after postponing their launch when overnight rain doubled the water flow. The 125-mile river is considered especially challenging: of three earlier groups to attempt the full route to the Pacific, only one had succeeded.
The pair waited for the water to recede before setting out. By the time they reached the 12-mile crux, the river had returned to its usual volume of about 10,000 cubic feet per second. They carefully scouted the six canyons in the lower gorge and completed the descent.
Newman, 35, says the uncertainty is part of the appeal. She describes whitewater as fleeting, with moments of intense happiness giving way to the next challenge. Rivers can shift rapidly between exhilaration and danger, making judgement and preparation central to the sport.
Her early career was built around competition. Newman won the Ottawa XL freestyle event in 2013, took second at that year’s ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships and won team gold at the 2014 world championships. She has also been named extreme kayaking world champion five times. But she was drawn towards wild rivers, including the Stikine, where she became the first woman to run the dangerous rapid known as Site Zed.
Over the past decade, Newman has paddled in dozens of countries, including solo expeditions in India and Madagascar and first descents in Colombia and China. She set a women’s record for the largest waterfall drop at 104 feet and, in 2023, became the first woman to run Pakistan’s Rondu Gorge.
Newman says experience has not made her fearless. She distinguishes between risk—the chance of missing a line—and consequence, or what could happen if she does. Preparation involves calculating risk, she says, but decisions on the river also rely on intuition. A serious incident on an expedition in India, when her boat became trapped above a siphon and she was pulled through it, reinforced how uncertain those decisions can be.
After shoulder surgery and two seasons of inconsistent results, Newman was removed from the French federation team at the end of 2017. She then travelled to India for a solo expedition. She later completed a master’s degree in journalism and political science at Sciences Po, writing her thesis on social expectations around fear, particularly how women are taught to be more fearful than men.
Newman says river trips matter to her as much for the people involved as for the water itself. She wants to be known primarily as a whitewater kayaker and says she prioritises time on rivers over growing her social media presence or pursuing commercial opportunities. Telling her story directly, she says, is part of doing things her own way.
Sources: The Guardian Sport.