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Our editors spend a lot of time sorting, testing, and reviewing the latest and greatest gear, and it’s always interesting to see which reviews connect the most with our readers. These are the seven most purchased products from June. If so many of your fellow gear nerds like these products, then maybe you will too. 

One of the most popular bug repellents on Amazon. One reviewer wrote, “This stuff works fantastically. It lasts for hours and has no chemical smell. It definitely has a lemon smell, but not like the furniture-polish lemon smell. I had no bites when using this, and I was out for about three hours. You would need to reapply if you’re getting in and out of the water—just keep that in mind. Mosquitoes love me, so if it works on me, it should work on anyone.”

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“This is one of the best 20 books I’ve read in my life,”one Amazon reviewer wrote. “It is about far more than just survival in adventure sports or combat. It’s about how to handle all kinds of disasters that we all eventually face. The book [by Laurence Gonzales] is elegantly written, too. I have been a sea kayaker, scuba diver, and backpacker over the course of my life, and as I read I remembered incidents and people over decades of my life. As for myself, this book has kept me from doing some insanely stupid things—and reminded me of dumb things I’ve done that should have killed me.”

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Our readers take relaxing seriously and many of them snapped up the DoubleNest hammock, which we featured in our weekly deals column. It’s big enough for two to hang out in and can hold 400 pounds. Plus, it packs down to the size of a grapefruit.

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Mix up a tasty cocktail and keep it cold for hours in the Rocks tumbler. The smooth, beveled bottom provides a comfy shelf for your pinky finger and allows the cup to sit well in your hand.

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Of another popular bug repellent, one Amazon reviewer wrote that “Sawyer Picaridin is more effective than anything I have ever used, and mosquitoes love me! Yesterday, I used Sawyer Picaridin and went out in the afternoon to prune banana trees for several hours and never got a single bite. And it feels so much better on my skin.”

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Contributor Janna Irons wrote about her essential gear to train on the road, and these laundry soap sheets made the top of her list. “Just throw a few in the sink with whatever needs washing, then lather, rinse, and air-dry. Each pack comes with 50 biodegradable sheets.”

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“This book,” by Creek Stewart, “has everything concisely thought out, explained, and organized,” one Amazon reviewer wrote. “There’s not much on nuclear attacks; this is more for the things we see in the news every year, like floods, fires, or potential mass evacuations. I’ve read a lot of these books, and this is the most useful by far (along with his book on a bug-out vehicle). He lists items you should consider but always reminding you to pack what’s relevant to you and your needs.”

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Today through June 16, Backcountry.com is offering 20 percent off select full-price climbing and camping gear with the promo code: SMR20. Click here to see everything that's on sale or check out our top picks below. (Note: All prices listed are the original price of the product before the 20-percent-off markdown.)

About Our Deals Coverage

We work with top retailers and brands to find the best deals on outdoor gear. Then our editors and writers carefully review the sales to select the products we’ve used and trust. When you click a Buy Now button in this story, it will take you to the brand whose sale we're covering.

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Specially designed to hold your favorite beer, this growler has double-wall vacuum insulation and insulated cap keep beer at a perfect tap temperature for 24 hours. The plastic cap seals tight to hold carbonation and a unique one-handed design ensures a perfect pour.

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Handy for beginners, Petzl’s latest belay piece has an anti-panic function that automatically brakes if the belayer yanks too hard on the release, stopping the climber’s descent.

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This pad heavy ditches insulation for reflective layers that trap heat without adding extra weight. The Speed Valve opening allows for inflation up to three times faster than with traditional nozzles.

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Faster than ever, the updated Flash can boil half a liter of water in 100 seconds flat. For maximum happiness, order the coffee-press attachment ($10) and enjoy a quickly brewed cup of joe in the morning.

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We featured the Hubba Hubba NX in our 2014 Summer Buyer’s Guide, dubbing it the perfect backpacking tent. At just 3.4 pounds, this two person tent has plenty of space to space to spread out and two vestibules for storing gear. It comes with a special compression sack that separates the tent body from the poles and stakes so you can easily split the weight between two people. 

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The U-shaped zipper on this bag splays the body wide open, providing easy access to nearly everything inside. The Transporter has padding on the handles, which helps it sit comfortably on your shoulders when carried as a backpack. The spacious front-zip pocket, plus three more on the outside, keep everything from toiletries to dirty laundry tidy. 

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The Roo is a great all-around hammock with some awesome upgrade options. You can buy the Dragonfly mosquito net, which encompasses the entire hammock while still affording plenty of room to sit up. Then there’s the weather shield, featuring Kammok’s own sun-, snow-, and rain-proof fabric.

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Ever take a whipper and yank your belayer four feet off the ground? The Ohm solves that problem. It replaces the first quickdraw and cams down on the rope should you fall, distributing the weight for your partner below.

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Yes, it's gorgeous, but this versatile hunting knife features a drop point triple-laminated stainless steel blade that's ideal for cutting out a fresh tenderloin to throw on the grill back at camp. The gorgeous curly birch handle offers an ergonomic grip and is carved for a finger guard. It comes with a leather sheath. 

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Soak the Swamp Cooler in cold water, wring it out, then clip it over your dog’s back and chest. The three-layer coat has a wicking outer layer to facilitate evaporation, an absorbent middle layer, and soft, cooling fabric inside. As water evaporates from the coat's middle layer, it draws the heat from your dog’s fur, cooling her through evaporation. Plus, the light-colored vest deflects the sun’s rays.

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The beige color may say “construction site,” but these gloves were made for sunny summer cragging. Durable leather palms afford ample grip when belaying and rappelling—while staving off dreaded rope burn—and the articulated fit minimizes fumbling when feeding out or taking in slack. My favorite parts, though, are the stretchy nylon backs. They act like screen doors for your hands, venting and keeping them from getting uncomfortably sweaty, while also preventing sunburn. Carabiner holes on the cuffs are icing on the cake.

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For car camping, you won't get a better nights sleep than when using the incredibly comfortable Exped Megamat. The three-foot wide pad is constructed with a rugged nylon fabric and has an adjustable firmness that permits a fine-tuned fit with its self-inflating foam and additional hand pump. 

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Perfect for coffee—hot or iced—this tumbler is sure to make your office mates jealous. The narrow bottom fits in most cup holders.

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Leather lash tabs and a boxy design give this bag an old-school look, but it also comes with modern amenities like a laptop sleeve, making it great for commuting.Stitched from 1000-denier Cordura fabric, Topo offers 15 different color choices. 

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Masters Athlete

Don’t Follow Masters Marathon Champ Molly Friel

The fleet 50-year-old runner took the pavement less traveled—directly to an unprecedented berth at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials

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Feb 24, 2018

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Feb 24, 2018

The fleet 50-year-old runner took the pavement less traveled—directly to an unprecedented berth at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials

As a runner, aging marathoner Molly Friel seemingly does a lot wrong. She doesn’t put much thought into her diet. She never stretches. Hates speed work. Can’t train much on hills or in crystalline air. Owns a bunch of foam rollers, all of which go unused. And yet, back in late 2016 and probably between handfuls of Doritos, Friel told her coach that in 2017 and at 50 years old, she wanted to qualify for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Then she did something very right. On December 3, Friel became the second-oldest woman ever to land a spot at a trials marathon. She finished Sacramento’s California International Marathon in a swift 2:43:57, well under the qualifying time of 2:45 and far faster than the time then-54-year-old Sister Marion Irvine ran (2:51:01) to qualify for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Friel ran virtually each of the flat CIM’s 26.2 miles in 6.25 minutes.

But Friel is not exactly the freewheeling John Daly of masters marathoning. She’s consistent. Friel also qualified for the trials in 2004 and 2016. She’s workwomanlike, logging 100-mile weeks in an era when many of her peers opt for less. She’s also unfettered. Friel trains and competes as she does only to please herself. “I’m not sure that these stupid-crazy finishing times get me anything,” she says, “except self-satisfaction.”

Well, such “stupid-crazy” results also gain Friel entry into America’s most selective women’s marathon. In the trials, Friel will no doubt lose to athletes who are a fraction of her age. But don’t lose sight of the cool truth that Friel, who was running high school track before a lot of her competition were born, gets the honor of being in the mix. You don’t see 50-year-olds playing Wimbledon or racing in the Tour de France. Older athletes generally have lost more than their world-class abilities. They’ve lost the desire to push themselves ridiculously hard.

“I’ve never met this woman, but clearly she loves to run,” says Robert Andrews, founder of the Institute for Sports Performance, a Houston-based organization that focuses on mental performance and works with myriad pro athletes and Olympians. “Her authentic self seems to mesh with her natural talents.”

Friel’s age isn’t the only quality that distinguishes her from her competition. Take her approach to traditional speed work: Friel has always disliked the track sessions that are often part of a marathoner’s training mashup. In the buildup to Friel’s CIM race, her coach devised workarounds. Ian Torrence, who heads up the Flagstaff, Arizona–based coaching company Sundog Running, often forced his athlete to dig deep during, for example, a 17-miler. Friel would run a few miles at a 6:10 pace, and then a few more at 6:20. Then she would repeat and repeat. She says she suffered plenty.

“On paper, you’d think Molly would be able to run a fast 5K,” says Torrence, who has coached Friel for five years. “Not her thing.”

For her age, Friel also logs a lot of distance. She believes her peers don’t approach her mileage, and guidelines indeed exist for “older” marathoners to log as little as one-third of Friel’s biggest weeks. On and off, she’s been running a lot since she was a kid growing up in Great Falls, Montana. “I’ll see a lot of women saying quality, not quantity. But some people’s bodies can’t hold up to more stress,” says Friel. “I’m a mileage junkie. I’m on the odd end.”

What’s even weirder is where such a prolific runner lives. Friel, who works part-time as a legal secretary, resides and trains in Fresno. The hot, flat, and smoggy central California farming hub has been home to Friel and her husband for 14 years. In prepping for CIM, she deepened her groove in the Lewis S. Eaton Trail inside Woodward Park. Friel pounded up and down the mosquito bite of a climb that is Hospital Hill. “You make do with what you’ve got,” says Friel, who sometimes trains alone and sometimes with her Dalmatians, Buster and Flynn. “That little bit of extra particulate matter in the air is my form of altitude training.”

As her A-race approached, Friel did some push-ups, snacked on Doritos, and never stretched. “Though sometimes I pretended,” she says.

Then, on a mild Sacramento day last December, Friel had a great race. She set out with a pace group purposed to finish in 2:45. Friel knew the pacesetter, and when she fell back at mile 11 and again at mile 15, Friel said to herself, “I know I can run with him.”

Torrence hadn’t given his client a backup strategy. “The goal was to qualify,” he says. “If she blew up, she blew up.”

Somewhere after mile 15, however, Friel found a rhythm. While she downplays her competitiveness and her connection to running, it’s highly likely that the athlete who seemingly does so much wrong enjoyed what gets her out there every day. Before mile 20, Friel dropped her pacesetter pal and his group.

“Love and passion for what you do are their own kind of fuel,” says mental performance coach Andrews. “In some cases, that can be better than the right diet or whatever was your target number of training reps.”

Now Friel waits for which of four cities, come the winter of 2020, will host the Olympic Trials. Torrence says that even without the help of a foam roller or a better diet, the 50-year-old Friel will show that she belongs. “She’s going to do better than what people think,” he says. “She won’t be bringing up the rear.”

Shortly after Andrew Tilin, our Masters Athlete columnist and longtime contributor, wrote this story, he was killed in a traffic-related accident in Austin, Texas. He was 52.

They crushed at Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon. Here’s why.

Kenyan Dickson Chumba was the first person to cross the finish line in Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon, but the day really belonged to Japanese running.
 
Yuta Shitara, a 26-year-old who looked like he was fading bad with approximately 10K to go, pulled a Lazarus and started a late-race surge that didn’t end until he’d crossed the finish line in second place (the highest-ever finish by a Japanese man in a Marathon Major) in 2:06:11. With that time, Shitara eclipsed Toshinari Takaoka’s national record from 2002, and earned a bonus of 100 million yen. That’s $934,457. For comparison, the winner of the Boston Marathon, which is the Marathon Major with the largest purse, receives $150,000 and a bonus of $50,000 if he or she breaks the world record.

But the race was much deeper than Shitara. A slew of Japanese men turned in career performances. Japan put six runners in the top ten in the men’s race, and had nine runners who ran faster than 2:10. Yes, nine. After a quick perusal of the fastest-ever marathon times, I found that only 17 American men in history have ever gone sub 2:10. On a record-eligible course (i.e. not Boston) that number shrinks to 11. Much as I’d like Dathan Ritzenhein or Abdi Abdirahman, whose marathon PRs date back to 2012 and 2006 respectively, to prove me wrong when they run the Boston Marathon this April, I think Galen Rupp is the only American marathoner who is currently capable of putting up that kind of time.
 
As Japan gets ready to host the next summer Olympics, the nation seems to have found the magic formula for producing world-class level marathoners. What’s the secret to their success? To find out, I reached out to Adharanand Finn, author of The Way of the Runner: A Journey Into the Fabled World of Japanese Running, a project for which Finn spent a year traveling around Japan trying to gain insight into one of the most running-besotted cultures on Earth.

Marathoning Has Been Big in Japan for a Long Time

“Japan has this incredible history of marathon running. It goes back a long way. It was really a post-war thing. After the second World War, the country was devastated and they were looking for ways to get everybody back on their feet and they started running ekidens and marathons. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, the Japanese were having a marathon boom, whereas in the West it only happened in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, and in East Africa it didn’t happen until the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. The Japanese were dominating in the ‘50s and into the ‘60s. For example, in 1965, ten of the top eleven fastest marathons in the world were run by Japanese men. In 1966, it was 15 of the top 17. Those are the kind of stats that the Kenyans are running these days.”

The Most Prestigious Ekiden is Japan’s Superbowl

“The ekiden races are long-distance relay races, where each leg is frequently about a half-marathon in distance. The biggest ekiden, the Hakone Ekiden, is the biggest sporting event of the year in Japan—the whole country comes to a standstill. Baseball overall as a sport is bigger, but this one event dwarfs everything else. It’s on January 2nd and 3rd, and everyone in the country sits down to watch. I’d say that, for most runners in Japan, to be on the team that wins that race would be bigger than winning an Olympic medal.”

It Matters That They’re Hosting the Olympics

“I think the reason why suddenly there’s been an upturn in performance in Japanese marathoning is that the Olympics are coming up. The marathon is going to be the biggest Olympic event for Japan. So there’s a lot of pressure from the federation and Olympic committee in the country to get focused on the marathon and forget the ekiden for a while. (Writer’s note: offering a million dollar purse for setting the national record should help.) So Japanese runners have been given much more freedom in training. They’ve set up this national program to find the best runners and get them purely focused on the marathon. That’s been a big change in the last few years.”

Top Japanese Runners Often Fly Under the Radar

“There are a couple of reasons why the Japanese were kind of invisible in that third slot of world class marathoning—behind the Kenyans and Ethiopians. One was that they would go to races like London and Boston and they’d finish third or fourth, or fifth and sixth. But they’d never be in the lead pack, because the Kenyans would go off super fast and a lot of them would drop off near the end. Nobody’s focusing on who’s coming in fourth or fifth, unless you’re from that country. Also: running is so huge in Japan, that for top runners it’s much more worth their while to run in Japan. They all run for corporate teams for Japanese companies. Part of the reason these companies set these teams up is for employees to have something to feel proud about. The Japanese races are so popular and so big—and not just Tokyo. There’s the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Lake Biwa Marathon, the Osaka Women’s Marathon—these things are as huge as the big sports finals in the U.S.”

Running Can Be a Viable Career Choice

“Part of the reason they have so many good runners is because of these corporate teams. There’s about 60 teams, 30 for men, 30 for women. Each team has about 20, full-time, paid athletes. So that works out to be about 1,200 full-time, elite long-distance runners. The traditional model is that a company sets up an ekiden team and the runners are part of the team, but also regular employees. Once their running career is finished, they carry on in the company with their office job. They basically have a job for life, even though they are brought into the company because of their running. At one of the corporate teams I went to, they rotated their runners around the company, so everyone would get a chance to meet them. There was a real sense of pride and belonging with the team. It’s morphing a little bit, but, in Japan, if you’re a talented runner in college, at a level that in the U.S. or in Europe you wouldn’t be good enough to make a career out of it, in Japan it can still be a way into work.”

Runners in Japan Live a Comfortable Life

“Even though it’s all supposed to be all amateur at that level, I spoke to coaches of high school running teams who said that they couldn’t compete because their schools weren’t giving them enough funds to buy the athletes. So there’s a lot of bartering going on even on the high school level, so I’m sure the top athletes are getting paid well. Runners in Japan are living a comfortable life. They’re also big stars–they can’t go down the street without having to sign autographs. They are like a basketball players in the U.S.”
 
So there it is. Clearly, the answer to America’s marathoning woes is that more rich companies need to start putting distance runners on their payroll. 

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Summer is heating up and so are the deals at Huckberry. Here are seven awesome products on sale now. 

Handmade in Colorado, the Rover pack has two exterior zippered pockets and an internal laptop sleeve to keep your essentials protected. This special-edition colorway won’t be produced again so get it while you can.

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Every Sven-Saw is made in Minnesota, and the blade folds down into the handle when not in use. The aluminum-alloy frame is lightweight and the whole saw weighs just over one pound. 

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Have superb surf style no matter your geographic location with the stylish Huntington Middie shoe. Made from soft suede, the shoe is slip-on for easy on and off. 

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Treat yourself to a leather wallet that will age gracefully with you. The London Cash wallet has enough room for five cards and 20 bills. The Italian leather has brass snap hardware that will take on its own patina with use. 

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The Stillwater boardshorts are ready for the river, lake, or ocean. The DWR finish resists water and stains and helps you dry out faster after a day in the water. In traditional boardshort fashion, this pair doesn’t have a mesh liner.

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Made from Japanese cotton, this plaid button-down is cut and sewn in Los Angeles. The front chest pocket is cut by hand to match up with the flannel pattern on the rest of the shirt. 

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Leave your old double-burner stove at home and break out the ultramodern Kuchoma grill. Two burners sit beneath a removable, nonstick grill grate and drip tray for easy use and cleaning. 

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Hosting a barbecue is usually a pretty low-key affair. But if you’re not careful—and don’t have the proper extracurriculars in place—it can quickly morph from a good party to a boring outdoor meal. Luckily, landscape guru Scott Cohen knows a thing or two about how to make your yard the perfect outdoor entertaining space. He’s been designing and building yards in California for 30 years. He’s also a regular expert on HGTV and has written nine books on yard design. Cohen gave us five tips on how to make your backyard the perfect barbecue landing pad.

Cohen always starts his jobs with a questionnaire to see how his clients plan to use their yard. You should set up your yard with your goals in mind as well. “Most of the time, when people say they like to entertain, they usually mean they want to drink, hang out, eat, and talk, but you want to put different activities or games around that,” Cohen says. When you’re picking your games and thinking of where you’ll lay them out, focus on the different levels of activity desires. A volleyball court might not be a smart space investment if you’re the type of backyard gamer who wants to play with a beer in hand (better to stick with cornhole).

Yes, you may be the master at Spikeball, but a good host should think of their guests. “If you put some thought into the layout of your backyard, you can create different opportunities for entertainment. Different people have different things they like to do. Some like ping-pong. Some like cornhole,” Cohen says. If you physically space out activities and have at least three games you can pull out at a time—a Spikeball set and bocce balls take up hardly any space in a closet—you will seriously up your odds for satisfied guests and a lively party.

Set up different spaces for different pursuits, even if you don’t have much space to work with. “People rarely hang out on one giant patio,” Cohen says. “They break into smaller groups—one can be around a fire pit, another can be an outdoor kitchen, another area can be for dining, another can be for laying out in the sun. The same goes for games.” Speaking of which…

“Anytime you entertain inside, people always hang out around the food. You can’t get them out of your kitchen. The same thing applies when you get outside—it becomes a central hub of the backyard,” Cohen says. And you won’t segregate the cook from the rest of the party.

Making space pull double duty is the most efficient way you can use it, and a little ingenuity can turn banal outdoor spaces into playgrounds. Cohen has made some epic oversized chess and checkers boards (even Scrabble) out of patios simply by altering the color of paving stones to look like the board. “If you have a pathway going down a side yard, why can’t it be a hopscotch court for your kids?” he says. “There is no reason why a sandbox can’t be a sand trap with an artificial-turf putting green.”

Learning to look on the bright side

One Sunday last August, maybe halfway through a 22-mile trail run in 85 degrees and full sun, the day after we’d run 24 trail miles as part of a training schedule, I said to my friend Jayson something along the lines of, “It’s definitely warm today.”

Jayson, sarcastically and appropriately, replied: “Thanks, I hadn’t thought about that.”

I historically have tended toward negative thinking, but for about the past 15 years, have gravitated toward people like Jayson who do not. And because of that, I have learned the utter uselessness of complaining about things I can’t change—like the fact that during the summer, it’s often hot outside. In the winter, it’s often cold outside. Sometimes when we want to do things outdoors, it’s windy. Or it’s rainy. Or the things we like to do make our feet hurt, or our shoulders. Or we have to carry heavy backpacks to get somewhere to do something. And whining about it does exactly nothing to help.

I climbed a lot with my friend Lee for about six years, and the general theme we arrived at through many long hours in uncomfortable positions was that pretty much every problem you have in the mountains is your own fault, and there’s no sense in complaining about it. Cold? Should have brought more layers. Tired? Should have gone to bed earlier before our 3 a.m. start. Getting rained on? Could have waited for a day with a better weather forecast. Scared of a hard move on a climb? Should have trained more and gotten stronger. Handhold or foothold broke? That’s geology; rocks don’t last forever. Usually one of us would acknowledge the ridiculousness of our uncomfortable hobby with the same joke, which neither of us ever laughed at: ”You know, we could be at home watching golf on TV right now.”

My grandmother used to be fond of the saying, “You can wish in one hand and shit in the other one and see which one fills up first.” Which is a way of saying that if you’re not going to do anything to fix a problem, talking about it just to talk about it is pointless. Whoever originated that saying was, however many decades back, talking about what Dr. Travis Bradberry calls “solution-oriented complaining.” Bradberry says you should minimize complaining, because of its negative effects on many areas of your mental and physical health, but if you do complain, make sure it has a purpose other than just venting.

I’ve learned to rein in my negative thoughts over the years, realizing the friends I hang out with don’t really want to hear them, and it’s helped me to minimize them or eliminate them in my own head: If it’s hot, acknowledge it and review things I need to be doing to deal with it: hydrate, slow down, find a pace that won’t result in heatstroke. If it’s cold, I make sure my clothing is layered so I’m not sweating and my extremities aren’t going numb. If it’s windy, I just laugh and try to stay upright.

I’ve also listened to a lot of interviews with people who succeed—whether in climbing mountains or other pursuits—and I started to notice a trend: none of them seem to complain their way to the top—they are good at finding solutions, not whining about problems. We’d probably all do better to follow their lead, even when it’s hot outside, or cold, or windy, or raining, or snowing.

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I arrived early to set up the lifeguard tower at Sunset Beach, on Oahu’s North Shore. It was 1994, my first winter season as a lifeguard. I’d made a few mellow rescues but hadn’t been involved in anything serious yet. This morning, the waves were small and clean. The water was packed with bodies. But an offshore buoy had read 17 feet at 25 seconds overnight, which meant that, in a few hours, the surf would be huge.

North Shore lifeguards used to work in teams of two. My partner for the day, Roger Erickson, showed up and, without a word, walked past me up the stairs to the tower.

“Roger,” I said, “buoy number one really jumped last night. The waves are gonna get big quick.”

He turned around, put an imaginary phone to his ear, and said, “Hello? Buoy report?” then waved me off. He proceeded to organize his things.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say I idolized Roger, but you never knew what kind of mood he was going to be in. He joined the Marines in 1966 and was shipped to Vietnam. Returning to Southern California, he fell in with some bikers and served ten months in prison for assaulting a police officer. Roger moved to Hawaii in the early 1970s and for the next three decades paddled into some of the biggest waves ever ridden on the North Shore. We sat in the tower without talking for 45 minutes.

“Roger,” I finally said, “I still haven’t had a legit rescue. Can I get the first one today?”

He scanned the lineup through his binoculars. “You can have every damn one of ’em,” he said.

We posted “high surf” signs in the sand while the new swell quickly filled in. Soon, a set caught everyone inside. Broken boards drifted aimlessly. A cluster of surfers bobbed in the channel. We stood in the tower assessing the damage. “Here you go,” said Roger. “Take your pick.”

I paddled the 11-foot rescue board out into the channel. Most people were doing OK, but one guy was struggling. I put him on my board, and we caught some whitewater to the beach. I filled out the required paperwork and climbed back up into the tower. Sunset Beach was now completely closed out. Waves with 30-foot faces were detonating on the reef. No one was in the water.

Roger scanned the ocean. “It’s not over,” he said, handing me the binos. A lone figure, about a half-mile out, was waving his arms in the air. I got butterflies.

Behind us, the traffic moving along the two-lane highway slowed to a stop. Hundreds of tourists gathered next to the tower. I stood in front of the giant shorepound, holding the rescue board upright in the sand. Sensing a lull, I ran into the water and started paddling. Almost instantly, a wave doubled up on the shallows, sucked me backwards over the falls, and sent me bouncing up the sand. I looked to the tower, where Roger was smiling and pumping his fists.

“That’s alright,” he yelled. “You got it!”

I waited for him to make the call.

“Go!” he yelled, pointing to the horizon. “Go! Go!”

I squeaked into what used to be the channel, dodging waves that seemed to come out of nowhere. Past the break zone, I found a scared teenager sitting on his board, drifting slowly toward Kauai. Mounds of whitewater obscured the beach a half-mile in.

I heard sirens racing away from us on the highway, which meant the jet ski was being hauled to Waimea for another rescue. We were on our own.

“We’re gonna have to ditch your board,” I said.

“I don’t care,” the kid said. We started paddling tandem toward the beach.

Taking a break, we sat up and watched the backs of giant peaks heave toward shore, the offshore spray casting rainbows around us. It was the type of day surfers dream about: waves as big as buildings, the sun sparkling. Then, as if the music suddenly stopped, I realized I didn’t have a plan. I had someone’s life in my hands, and there was a huge audience on the beach waiting for the outcome. But I was mostly concerned with Roger, watching from the tower.

“Listen,” I said with faked confidence, “when I say paddle, you paddle as hard as you can.” The kid nodded. I paddled us farther inside and let a few waves roll through.

“Paddle!” I yelled as another wave drew us up the face. As soon as it started to pitch, I sat up, dug my legs in, and let it pass beneath us.

“Paddle!” I yelled as the back of the wave pulled us forward. “Paddle!”

The next wave exploded behind us with a sharp, thunderous clap. I looked back. All I saw was whitewater. We were being thrashed violently in the froth. It took everything I had to keep us upright.

Finally, the wave shot us out across the flats. The kid still had his hands sealed in a death grip on the handles. We looked at each other with astonishment. I pushed him into a small wave, which he rode up the sand. The crowd cheered.

We sat beneath the tower and filled out the paperwork. “Brah,” he said, “you saved my life, you know. Thanks.”

I went into the tower and sat with Roger. He was scanning the horizon through his binos. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

“Textbook,” he said quietly. “Textbook.”

Jeff Johnson is a photographer, director, and writer in Santa Barbara, California.

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Three members ofcontroversialsocial-media collective High on Life were killed when they were swept over a waterfall in Canada. It’s a tragic, if sadly predictable, conclusion to a career of risk-taking one-upmanship that once landed two of the trio in jail for damaging Yellowstone National Park’s largest hot spring.

According to reports, Ryker Gamble and Alexey Lyakh dove into a pool above British Columbia’s Shannon Falls in an attempt to rescue Megan Scraper after she slipped and fell.All three were then reportedly swept over the 98-foot drop, prompting a two-day search that eventually led to the recovery of their bodies. 

Rugged terrain and heavy seasonal water flow complicated search and rescue efforts. The bodies were eventually found and recovered by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who rappelled into the base of the falls from a helicopter, then used an underwater camera to find the bodies. “I can’t say enough about the incredible skilled work done today by the RCMP teams along with Squamish SAR,” said Sascha Banks of the Squamish RCMP in a statement. 

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Once remote and challenging to access, visitation to Shannon Falls has increased in recent years following the 2014 construction of the nearby Sea to Sky Gondola. “It looks beautiful, it’s a sunny day, but given the extensive water flow that comes off the mountains, and the number of incidents that we’ve had in the Squamish area lately, people just need to be prepared,” Banks said in the statement. “Unless you have the knowledge of that area, the expertise and the right equipment you should not be up there.”

Part of the issue is the natural terrain. “The granite there is beautifully carved by the water over hundreds of years, and it’s very slick, and with the spray and some lichen that builds up on it, people don’t realize how slippery it is,” Squamish SAR official John Willcox explained to the Vancouver Sun. “We’ve had a number of dogs that have gone into the water, and people that have slipped into the water as well. Fortunately in the past, they have all been able to be rescued.”

In 2014, High on Life shot a video of the group cliff jumping and sliding down waterfalls at nearby Lynn Canyon. Two years later, a teenage boy was killed attempting to perform similar stunts there. High on Life responded to his death by stating on their YouTube page, “Our team has been trained and involved in gymnastics, diving, stunts, and the extreme sports community for over a decade. We take many precautions when assessing safe diving spots, including checking water levels, water currents, height measurements, etc, and always have locals and professionals alongside with us when embarking on these epic cliff jumping missions. As much fun as it can be, it is also EXTREMELY dangerous. There have been several accidents and even deaths at this location, and we DO NOT condone others to try and attempt the same things we've done.”

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That was just one of a number of controversies the group has been involved in. Created seven years ago by a group of high school students from Vancouver, High on Life showcased their international travels and frequent risk taking. The group quickly garnered a large following—it currently has 502,000 subscribers on YouTube and 1.1 million followers on Instagram—apparently allowing at least some of the members to call it their full-time job. In 2016, Gamble, Lyakh, and another man were spotted cavorting on Grand Prismatic Hot Spring in Yellowstone, damaging its sensitive microorganism mats and risking their lives in the process. The incident eventually led to the three being found guilty for a laundry list of related crimes, and they served a week in jail, payed thousands of dollars in fines, and, most notably, were banned from all U.S. public land for five years. 

There have been other reports of similar incidents. High on Life has trespassed into a sensitive archeological area at Machu Pichu, climbed Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, affixed a rope swing to Utah’s picturesque, but fragile Corona Arch, and water skied behind an RV across the Bonneville Salt Flats. In 2016, a Change.org petition asking corporate sponsors to end their sponsorship of the group garnered 22,418 signatures over a week, and prompted brands like Budweiser to announce they wouldn’t work with High on Life in the future. 

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Across social media, reactions to the deaths have referenced these controversies. A GoFundMe campaign established to raise funds for funeral services proved so controversial that its comments were disabled, and its original $100,000 goal was reduced to $50,000. At the time of writing, it’s raised a total of $2,791. A GoFundMe for Gamble’s girlfriend (Instagram influencer Alissa Hansen) has proven more successful, raising $13,123. 

In response to the deaths, the surviving members of High on Life recorded this video. 

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As early as last Wednesday, rain began dumping into the Havasu Falls area of the Grand Canyon, turning the renowned and typically placid turquoise water into a muddy flash flood. One visitor told The Arizona Republic that almost in an instant the winds picked up with “sand blowing everywhere” and the pools of water beneath the base of the waterfalls filled and sent people scrambling to higher ground. The surge caused the speedy evacuation of nearly 200 visitors, although no serious injuries were reported.

From June to August, the area, which sits ten miles from any road and deep in the Havasupai Reservation, is especially susceptible to flash floods because of monsoon season. Visitors usually stay at a campground between Havasu and Mooney Falls, surrounded on either side by canyon walls that are hundreds of feet high and make it nearly impossible to escape. By Thursday the rivers had swelled so much that everyone was ordered to evacuate a couple miles upriver to the town of Supai.

The floodingdestroyed footbridges and obstructed exit trails, so tribal members drove ATVs to help move visitors outside the canyon completely. A helicopter that normally helps shuttle supplies and tourists into town also began lifting five to six people at a time to the rim, while others sheltered in a community building and a school in town as they waited their turn.

“I saw nature’s beauty and her wrath all in the matter of a couple of days,” Christopher Brewer, who was camping when the floods hit, posted in a Facebook group for those visiting the area. “This was the most happy and scared I’ve ever been in my life and I still don’t regret coming down here.”

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By Thursday evening nearly everyone had been evacuated. Reservations to the area are often made months in advance, and for the next week tribal officials said the campgrounds and all access to the falls will be closed, according to the Havasupai Tribe's website.

At least 300 people had reservations impacted, Havasupai spokeswoman Abbie Fink told the Associated Press. Those individuals will have the opportunity to reschedule their visits for later this year.

So far it doesn’t seem like there was any serious damage to structures in the town or to the natural formations. That wasn’t the case in 2008, when a massive flash flood caused the evacuation of hundreds of campers and tribal members. When people returned they found that Navajo Falls, one of the most prominent features in the Havasu Canyon, had been decimated as water ripped through the terrain and diverted the river that feeds the falls.