This is the extraordinary moment daredevil kayakers plunged down remote gorges which are impossible to reach on foot.
Raphael Boudreault-Simard filmed professional kayakers tackling the Dipper and Ashlu creeks in British Columbia, Canada, famous among adrenaline junkies for their beautiful but hair-raising rapids.
The aerial cinematographer navigated the drone down around 25kms of water, avoiding the vertical stone walls of the narrow creeks.
He then used a mixture of image blurring, video acceleration and colour changes to create a ’tilt shift’ video effect, which makes the kayakers look like the miniature characters from the film The Borrowers.
The 26-year-old, who has kayaked for ten years, said: “The technique had not been used before with sports.
“I was pretty excited to give it a go.”
The breathtaking footage shows professional kayakers Aniol Serrasolses and Nouria Newman flying down huge waterfalls, inches away from razor-sharp rocks.
The team took six days to do the filming, and Raphael spent another 25 hours in post-production work to give the video its mind-bending effect.
The creeks, on the west coast of Canada north of Vancouver, are legendary among extreme water sports lovers but are not for beginners.
“It’s risky if you’re not careful, said Raphael.
“If they miss their line it could be fatal.”
But he added: “These guys have been paddling sine they were five years old.
“They spend a lot of time studying the water. There’s actually a lot of preparation behind running waterfalls like this.”
