By Darin McQuoid Early in the morning I get a call. Hazy from sleep, I distinguish a few key words: “hike,” “first descent,” ”waterfall.” A mission is born.

The First Ascent kayak team heads to Kaietuer Falls, Guyana, as part of a Brazilian TV series film shoot.

Story and photos by Chris Korbulic First Ascent kayakers Chris Korbulic and Ben Stookesberry are in Brazil filming for the second season of “Kaiak,” the first adventure kayaking television series.

By Chris Korbulic In 2010, Ben Stookesberry, Brazilian Pedro Oliva, and I faced some of the most difficult whitewater in central Brazil. Thanks to Pedro’s desire to be the face of kayaking in Brazil, images from the trip were produced into a television series for a Brazilian network.

Yesterday Eddie Bauer received word that the South African whitewater guide, Hendri Coetzee, who was leading First Ascent Kayakers Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was pulled from his kayak on the Lukuga River by a crocodile and is presumed dead.

Ben Stookesberry: “Yesterday, we had 200 people, 250 people on the Rwanda side following us, local villagers … there was one guy … he started scouting the drops for us, trying to pick out lines with hand signals.

Be First recipient Gerry Moffatt has set out across the Kingdom of Bhutan to complete his 14-year quest to paddle all of Bhutan’s major rivers and to help pave the way for a sustainable Bhutanese adventure travel industry.