WEBVTT

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Okay. I'd like to present 
a hypothetical idea.

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A way to practice taking risks, 
because after all,


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practice makes perfect. Right?

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So I want you to picture a stadium. 
The biggest stadium you've ever seen.

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and it's got a huge arch 
over the top of it, 


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a hundred meters high.

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Now, most people think that that arch 
is simply there for supporting the structure.

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But others believe that arch is also there
so that we can tie a rope to the top of it,

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we can stretch that rope
all the way to the rim of the stadium

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and do a huge rope swing 
all the way across.

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And better still, we can do that 
in a kayak.

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But wait! What if the rope breaks? 
You could die!

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Okay, maybe you didn't ask that question. 
But I'm pretty sure that you did ask,

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"What's a professional kayaker, 
and what's he doing on our stage?"

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I haven't done much to change the world,
but I have made a career

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out of exploring remote rivers.
And the rivers taught me

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just about everything I need to know.

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Growing up in South Africa
was a good life, but a simple life.

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No TV, no video games, 
but I did have a kayak and a river.

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I had the disadvantage of having 
very few kayak mentors

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to teach me what could be done in a kayak, 
but I had the distinct advantage

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of having nobody to tell me 
what could not be done.

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I remember as a young teenager, 
hearing about a French rafting expedition

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that had attempted to take on and navigate 
the world's biggest rapids, 


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on the Congo River.

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I saw this old photocopy 
of the Paris Match magazine,

NOTE Paragraph

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and this was the last photo ever taken of them.

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Right about the same time,

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I saw an old newspaper 
with this photo of Marco Begni


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kayaking off a waterfall near my house.

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If you look at the top left of the frame, 
you'll see a kayak there.

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I clearly remember walking into the kitchen 
and saying to my parents,

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"I'm going to kayak down 
that waterfall one day."

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And my dad said, "Well, son, 
if you work hard and practice,

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maybe one day you'll be good enough."

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About ten years later I found myself 
kayaking off that very waterfall.

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And about 15 years later I found myself 
standing next to the Congo River

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on the very same spot where 
that last photograph was taken.

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Now I think the best way for me 
to introduce you to my Congo expedition

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is to play the trailer to the film that 
I made about it. Have a look.

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Some call it a calling. 
I think of it as an obsession.

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Inga.

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World's biggest rapid.

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Almost every attempt to survive it 
causes death.

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I've been kayaking my whole life. 
But when is enough enough?

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I first heard the story, and seven people 
died having their attempt.

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Now I've waited half my life for my turn.

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All I have to do now is call a team of the best,

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put my friends' lives on the line...

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I've definitely been struggling with it. 
I've woken up quite a few mornings

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and just almost felt like calling the boys 
and saying,

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I just don't know 
if I'm in for this one.

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This is the obsession: to release yourself 
by accomplishing the goal.

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Or by being stopped by something outside of your control.

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But once you start this journey, 
even if you don't want to go,

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you have to.

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(Energetic music)

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You can run all the big water you want, 
but how do you prepare for something

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that's never been done before?

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In a place where help is not on its way.

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Congo.

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A place where experience is just a word.

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The lesson that we learned today 
is not to fuck with these rapids.

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Fisher messed up because he got off 
to the side where whirlpools form,

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where all of this stuff goes down out here.

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I may have had the closest call of my life, 
but I didn't come here to die.

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I came here to win.

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(Helicopter noise)

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(Music slowly builds)

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-Steady bro!
- Fuck, they're not gonna make it dude!

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(CONGO: The Grand Inga Project)

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All right, so. Spoiler alert: we survived.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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So what you just saw 
in the introduction there, is

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even us extreme sports guys feel trepidation 
as we approach a new challenge.

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And in this case, it was fearing 
that if we took the next step,

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the voyage itself would take on a life 
of its own, and drag us along with it.

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It would be like faring out into a huge river 
with a strong current,

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and you can't stop.
It's a commitment.

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So how, then, do we prepare for something 
that's never been done before?

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In my profession I have a small box

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that I start with 
that has five tools in it.

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My equipment: I make sure 
I have the right gear.

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My physical well-being: I make sure that 
I've prepared physically for the task.

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The location: I make sure that I'm 
in the perfect place to do what I do.

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And once I've checked those three off, 
I use those to develop the other two,

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which are the skills and the experience.

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But you can't use any of these tools 
until you demistify risk.

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We can mitigate risks purely 
by understanding them, 


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and the way that we understand them

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is that we take a seemingly impossible idea 
and we break it down

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into little digestible parts, 
and we look at each step individually

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and see if that is attainable.

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What happens then is what we're doing,
is that we find that many of our fears

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are unjustified,

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and very often we find 
that what's before us

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is far less risky than we thought.

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So... give me a second. 
Might need some applause here.

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(Applause)

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So you know, as humans, 
we are not inherently risk averse.

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We evolved by taking risks, so it's okay 
if there are risks in what we do.

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We simply need to understand those risks, 
and once we understand them,

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we're ready to take the first step. 
So let me show you what I mean.

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Let me show you how I put that to use 
every time I look at a rapid or a waterfall.

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As I paddle up to the top of a waterfall, 
the first thing I do is climb out of my kayak

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and I walk down the side of the river 
and I look at the pool below.

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That's my goal, that's where I want to be.

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And it's only then that I turn back 
at the rapid, and Oh my gosh!

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If I look at the whole rapid 
it's far too daunting.

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So what I need to do is break it down 
into smaller chunks, into individual moves

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and see that I can do 
each move individually,

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and only then do I figure out 
how to link those moves together.

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So let's zoom in on this photograph. 
If I would have shown this top part of the rapids

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to even an intermediate kayaker, 
they would say,

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"Okay. Well that looks fairly chunky, 
but it's good to go."

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And if I showed them the next part, 
they would say,

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"Oh, that's a pretty straightforward job. 
Yeah, let's go do it."

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And if I show them the last part, 
they would say,

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"Okay, it's pretty spectacular but it's a straight shot.

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You don't really need to do anything. 
It's good to go."

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You'll have to take my word for that.

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But the job is not done there. 
Once we cut a problem horizontally,

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the next thing we need to do 
is cut it vertically.

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What we're trying to do 
is establish the path

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or line that we're likely to be on.

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And the reason that we're doing that 
is to eliminate the parts

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of the rapid that don't affect us.

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The parts of the rapid where we will not be.

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Because if we do that, then we can look and see 
if there are any deadly features.

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If those deadly features are in the eliminated part 
we never have to think about them again.

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And if those deadly features are in our path, 
and they're unavoidable,

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well then we don't go. It's far too risky.

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That's how extreme sport works. 
Sorry to disappoint you guys.

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(Laughter)

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So imagine you're walking along 
a trail like this.

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You're walking along 
and you've got a cliff on your left side.

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You're thinking about 
what you're doing while you walk.

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You're not thinking about 
the cliff the entire time.

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It's only if you turn towards the cliff 
and start approaching it

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that it becomes a real danger.

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And then you stop.

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Okay, so how do you know 
if you're on the right path,

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and what happens 
if you're on the wrong path?

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Well, in kayaking there's no turning back.

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So what that teaches us 
is not to panic when things go wrong.

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When the unexpected occurs 
we have no choice but to solve the problem

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and keep on moving.

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But fortunately, as in life, 
if we zoom back just a little bit,

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perhaps to where we haven't yet

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climbed in the kayak 
and made the commitment,

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we get to see that very often

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we can start down a path, 
realize we're on the wrong path,

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turn back and reset the plan.

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Let me show you what I mean.

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(Laughter)

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Have you ever heard the cliche, 
"never give up?"

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Well tonight we're canceling it. 
We don't say that anymore.

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From now on we say, 
"Don't give up too easily."

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On this particular trip, 
our plan was to use a rope to rappel down

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into the base of Victoria Falls

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and kayak through the rapids 
at the very base of the falls.

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Once we got down there, 
we found the unexpected.

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The wind and the spray 
from the falls themselves

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were so strong 
that it was impossible to kayak,

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so we had to fall back 
on to our contingency plan

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and climb a hundred meters back up the rope

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and cancel the whole idea.

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But guess what? The TV show we were 
making about it, turned out great,

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and we got this photograph. We gave up but 
we didn't have to feel ashamed of it.

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if you refuse to give up on an idea, 
then you inhibit your ability to experiment.

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But if you're willing to give up 
after a good effort, then when you do give up

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there's no reason to feel guilty.

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Okay, so I think that now 
you're starting to get to know me a little bit,

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so I think that we're ready

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to talk about the stadium idea again.
How do you guys feel now?

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But wait! What if the rope breaks? 
You could die!

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The rope is not going to break, 
and here's why.

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Right from the start, 
we're going to use a rope

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that is thousands of pounds stronger 
than it needs to be.

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So we've used the right equipment 
to eliminate the problem

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and we never have to think about it again.

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We've eliminated the "what if" factor. 
It's called "pointing positive".

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We can now focus on the how, 
and in this particular case,

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the more important question is,

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"How long does that rope need to be 
to make sure that we don't hit the ground

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on the way down?"

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And once we're finished, 
how are we gonna get

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from the end of the rope 
back to the ground?

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Now, with a few simple 
mathematical calculations,

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these are pretty easy problems to solve.

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So we're ready to go. 
Are you guys ready? 


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Audience: Yes

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All right, let's do it.

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(electronic music)

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(Wind noise)

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All right. (Applause)

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I can see you want to do that, don't you?

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All right. So when we imagined 
this idea, first of all,

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the idea sounds crazy. But once 
we break it down and demystify the risk,

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then we suddenly find that it's so safe 
that this very swing has now become

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a fully fledged commercial operation.

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Yes. You too can go to Durban, South Africa. 
You can pay your money,

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and you can go and do a giant rope 
swing across a stadium.

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You can take a leap of faith. 
And hundreds of people do.

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And guess what the most common thing 
that they say is afterwards?

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"Man! It just really wasn't as bad 
as I thought it was going to be,

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and I feel as if "If I can do that,

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I can do anything!" 
And guess what? They're absolutely right.

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So right now, we all live always 
at the edge of uncharted waters.

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And no matter that they're something 
meaningless like kayaking down a rapid,

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or meaningful like changing the world, 
the principle is always the same:

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We need to buck up 
and add our piece to the puzzle.

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It reminds me of a quote that I heard once.

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I was in the deepest gorge in the world, 
in Tibet.

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One of the boys ad-libbed 
a quote out of a book

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called "The Wanderer" by Sterling Hayden.

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And I'll give you just one line.

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"Ive always wanted to sail 
the seven seas, but I can't afford it.

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What these people can't afford is not to go."

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End quote.

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Thank you very much, Athens!

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It's been a pleasure and a privilege. 
Good night!

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(Applause)