Sporting

     Jennings, 25, is a Richmond native and consummate adventurer. While he learned River Adventure 101 on the James as an early teen, he’s since moved to bigger, more challenging rivers. And his 6'2" frame, topped by a curly mop of red hair, shows signs of his recent encounters with Mother Nature. His face is tanned and peeling, from climbing Oregon’s Mount Hood a few days ago. He is perhaps a little thin, from a recent recurrence of malaria contracted on his last expedition. Outfitted in modest, earth-friendly action attire made by a new sponsor, a clothing collective named Nau, Jennings has come home for a command appearance at the Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation Department’s 2008 winter lecture series. It’s a rare opportunity to visit his family as well as shake hands with the hundreds of friends and admirers who will pack the auditorium to listen to his illustrated talk: “Conservation and Exploration at the Edge of the Earth, Papua New Guinea.”

     Just as the James River’s meek demeanor, in its current low-water state, gives no hint of its tricky Class III-IV rapids, so too does Jennings’ soft-spoken manner belie his passion for adrenaline-pumping, extreme whitewater action. The guy is a paddling wunderkind, filmmaker and fervent conservationist whose résumé is full of first descents on wild, unexplored rivers all over the globe—the Terrazu in Costa Rica and Upper Palgien in Chile among them—including more than a couple of 100-plus-foot waterfalls. “You can only drop blind once,” he says, adding, “I love running unexplored whitewater. So much freedom; no norms.”

     National Geographic Adventure magazine recently named Jennings a 2008 Adventurer of the Year, calling him a “whitewater visionary.” The honor was bestowed for his successful expedition to New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, last year, which turned out to be much bigger than a first descent down the Pandi River.

     Supported in part by a National Geographic Young Explorer’s Grant, Jennings led a team of five other expert kayakers accompanied by geologists, a herpetologist and entomologists from California State University, Chico. Their goal: to probe the volcanic island’s deep jungle river and cave systems, as well as survey the animals and organisms unique to the habitat. The mission—billed as conservation through exploration—focused on ways the indigenous population of New Britain Island might economically protect their rich environment from the ravages of unregulated logging or impending oil palm plantations, which will rob the land of its biodiversity.