It has been little over a year since we lost Shannon Christy but we still remember her smile and energy she spread where ever she went and did. She was the Journalist’s first Outdoor Editor covering the WCU and WNC outdoor and kayaking community with passion. Her college friend Morgan Carver said in her post:
“Thank you for being that someone I could look at and think ‘That girl is happy. She knows what she wants and she loves Jesus, life and the occasional ice cream cone. I want to be friends with that girl.'”
Bethesda Magazine in their July-August edition published a story on what happened July 11, 2013 on the Potomac River Great Falls.
“Christy had stood on a cluster of rocks above Great Falls, exuding outdoorsy charisma as she flashed a wide, confident smile at Jason Beakes of Poolesville, an elite kayaker who was preparing to guide her through her first run down the falls, a set of rapids that drops more than 55 feet in about a third of a mile. The river roiled around her, careening over boulders, frothing in furious currents and swirling in countercurrent eddy pools.
‘I’m ready,’ she said as a production crew from CBS’s 60 Minutes Sports captured the scene.
It was Tuesday, July 9, four days before the 26th annual Great Falls Race on July 13, which attracts the world’s best kayakers.
Christy had come at the invitation of Beakes, whose outfitting company, Active Nature, organized the race, and professional kayaker and documentary filmmaker Steve Fisher of South Africa, who’d been contracted by CBS to help film a story about the white-water paddling scene at Great Falls and in the area. Beakes invited Christy to participate because he thought she represented something important about white-water kayaking: She paddled because she loved the access to the rarest and most beautiful parts of the world, and to be with others who valued the same experiences.
Finishing her first run, Christy flashed her well-known smile for the camera.
‘Ahh, that was great,’ she said in a Southern drawl, her big blue eyes bright, her kayak slung over her shoulder. ‘I cannot wait to do it again.'”
Read the full story here.
WCJ’s first Editor-In-Chief and Christy’s good friend, Lauren Johnson, wrote a post “A beautiful life” sharing some of her own memories of Shannon.
Related stories:
CBS 60 minutes: Whitewater kayaker’s death illustrates the danger of her sport
CBS: Extreme kayaker Shannon Christy profiled by “60 MINUTES SPORTS”
