Safety concerns surround daring B.C. kayak video

Kayak video could land thrill-seekers in trouble Video of daredevils sliding down a Lions Bay drainage ditch at breakneck speeds could land them in trouble with the law.

An exhilarating GoPro video of a kayak hurtling down a drainage ditch in B.C. has drawn concern from the nearby community, where some say the stunt performers were trespassing to record an unsafe activity.

The video shows kayakers Rush Sturges and Ben Marr piloting a tandem kayak at high speed down a long, narrow, concrete drainage ditch near Lions Bay, B.C.

"We may have just gained access to the lion's den," Sturges says in the video, which has been viewed nearly 1 million times on GoPro's YouTube channel.

Sturges and Marr are shown rocketing down the drainage ditch, which is only slightly wider than their kayak. Their paddles frequently clip foliage on either side of the route.

"They were going faster than I could say they could survive," Rand Chatterjee, of the Sea Kayak Association of B.C., told CTV Vancouver.

Chatterjee says the kayak could have easily spun out or run out of the drainage ditch, potentially leaving the two men injured in a hard-to-reach area.

Peter DeJong, the chief administrative officer of nearby Lions Bay, says the two men were likely trespassing on private property overseen by the Ministry of Transportation. "The village (of Lions Bay) does not endorse or condone the activity in any way," DeJong told CTV Vancouver. "When people access that drainage area they're trespassing… on the ministry's property to conduct what's clearly a dangerous activity."

The Ministry of Transportation said in an email statement that it is looking into the video and considering whether to involve the RCMP.

Sturges, Marr and GoPro have not responded to CTV Vancouver requests for comment.

The video, called "Return to the Ditch," is a follow-up to a 2013 video recorded by Marr and Sturges, in which they go down the ditch in separate kayaks.