Flow Collective – Meet Rafa
Flow Collective, located in White Salmon, features backpacks, sweaters, t-shirts, and hats from and for river people. When you purchase apparel from the Flow Collective, 10% of profits goes towards river conversation. Rafa Ortiz, known as “the Mexican kayaker who seeks the gnarliest whitewater,” calls White Salmon home and is the founder of Flow Collective. Rafa is one of the many creative outdoor enthusiast who is defining the character and future of White Salmon, Washington.
Ask any up-and-coming South American kayaker who their hero is, and the likelihood is that you’ll get the same answer: Rafael Ortiz. Rafa has garnered a massive legion of fans with his aggressive, all-out approach, and he can regularly be seen hurling his boat off 100-foot waterfalls and down the gnarliest of whitewater runs.
Ortiz learned to paddle in Veracruz but honed his skills in Canada, and 2005 became the first Mexican ever to compete at the World Freestyle Championships. It was daredevil Ben Stookesberry who introduced Rafael to the thrills of expedition paddling, a sport that has taken him all over the world. During an expedition in Veracruz in 2010, Rafael conquered the second highest waterfall in the world, The Big Banana Fall (42m).
In 2012, Rafa had one of the busiest years of his life, beginning with a six-week expedition to New Zealand with Ben Brown, for the Red Bull Flow Hunters project. It was followed by a short adventure in Washington, US, where he managed to land the tallest waterfall ever dropped by a man, The Palouse Falls, with 57.6m.
Now a top international kayaker, Rafa has been the star of Red Bull Chasing Waterfalls, a two-year project designed to discover unknown routes, rivers, and, of course, waterfalls. He also embarked on a Red Bull US project alongside Ian Walsh and other legends, and can usually be found slaying whitewater around the globe. Rafa’s latest project was to follow his dream of kayaking Niagara Falls, and it culminated in the movie Chasing Niagara, released in 2016.
