Empty kayak found after kayaker ‘in distress’ goes over waterfall

OREGON CITY, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) - Authorities are searching for a kayaker in Oregon who went over a waterfall and never resurfaced.

At about 11 p.m. Saturday, multiple 911 callers reported a kayaker in distress on the Willamette River, just north of the Willamette Falls.

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said a witness reported the man appeared to be struggling before he jumped out of his kayak and attempted to swim away from the falls.

The man disappeared seconds later, according to the witnesses.

The sheriff’s office didn’t disclose the man’s name and only identified him as a 20-year-old from California.

“To our knowledge so far and talking with the family, he was a very inexperienced kayaker,” said Sergeant Nate Thompson with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. “Maybe been on a kayak a couple of times in a lake, not a very experienced kayaker as far as river kayaking.”

They said Monday that the man’s family had been vacationing in a floating home community less than a mile upstream from the falls in the Canemah community.

The kayaker had ed a family member shortly after getting into the river at around 10 p.m. that night.

A search for the man was initiated involving emergency responders from several local agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Portland Police Bureau.

The blue hard-shell kayak that the man was last seen in was found empty Sunday morning. It was spotted several miles downstream near Hog Island before it was recovered.

The sheriff’s office said Monday that they’ve expanded the search zone to span an 11-mile stretch of the Willamette River. They said that they’ve scaled back on their aerial resources and focused on boat searches.

“We’re still optimistic that we’ll be able to find him so his family can have closure,” Thompson said.

Willamette Falls is the second-largest waterfall in the United States, after Niagara Falls, in of volume.

The drop from the top is around 50 feet, but the depths below can range from 15 feet up to 150 feet, according to Thompson.

Thompson said this is the first case in his career in which a kayaker has gone over the falls.

Local kayak rental companies haven’t even opened their doors yet this season, partially due to the strong currents.

Brock Browning, the White Water Rafting Manager at eNRG Kayaking, said he’s known a few people who have gone over the falls intentionally, but they were high-level kayakers prepared for the impact.

“It’s a tragedy anytime anything happens in white water or any sort of outdoor recreation field at all, it’s such a small community that it always hits close to home,” Browning said.

He said they have not gone out on the river at all in the past couple of weeks due to increased rain and the fast currents.

A lifelong Oregon City resident, identified only as Geoffrey, came to take photographs of the falls Sunday morning and noticed the police presence.

He said he fishes above the falls, but he always minds the safety buoys in place. He said getting up close to the edge would be “a suicide mission.”

“There’s no good time to go over those falls,” Geoffrey said. “I don’t think anyone could survive going over. Maybe a professional kayaker at high water. There’s a lot of daredevil people, but I don’t think this is a daredevil deal.”

Caroline Stanley expected to see the powerful, gushing tides of the falls on her first visit Sunday, but she certainly didn’t expect to come across a search mission.

“Kind of shocking, especially so late at night,” she said. “Around here, I guess I wouldn’t know that people would be able to access this area by kayak.”

With questions still swirling in the rushing current, community said they knew for certain that this was unprecedented for the iconic Oregon landmark.

“I wonder if they were lost or got into a situation they weren’t able to get out of, but I’ve never heard of anything like that happening,” Stanley said.

Anyone with information about this case is urged to the Sheriff’s Office Tip Line, by phone at 503-723-4949 or by using the online email form.

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