Bend kayakers paddle 150 miles nonstop on Willamette River, break record

Two Bend endurance athletes set a new speed record on the Willamette River in April in preparation for one of the world’s toughest paddling races. Chelsey Magness and Daniel Staudigel paddled 150. 4-miles nonstop from Eugene to West Linn in a two-person kayak in 17 hours and 44 minutes in mid-April.

They averaged nearly 8. 5 miles per hour. The Willamette River flows north and stretches approximately 187 miles beginning south of Eugene and feeds into the Columbia River.

The pair launched at dawn and reached West Linn’s Bernert Landing shortly after midnight. They finished the route without stopping or outside support. Magness and Staudigel said their pace surpassed other times previously recorded for the Eugene to West Linn stretch and marked a new record for long-distance paddling on the river.

“There’s been other attempts, but it’s never been fully unsupported or nonstop,” Magness said. While times of 24 to 30 hours have been recorded in the past, those included stops and didn’t involve pushing through the night, Staudigel added. The feat was also training for the Yukon 1000, a 1,000-mile paddle race from Canada to Alaska often described as the longest paddle race in the world.