Kilauea by kayak

Brazilian kayaking champion Pedro Oliva has made a career out of surviving 100-foot waterfall descents, but never had he paddled in boiling waves. Last April, Oliva navigated six-foot swells off the southeastern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island as Kilauea volcano spewed molten lava into the sea. “At one point, the wind shifted and we were completely engulfed in steam,” says Benjamin Stookesbury, another kayaker on the trip. “It definitely felt like a place we shouldn’t be.”

Oliva, Stookesbury, and Chris Korbulic were in Hawaii filming an episode for the Brazilian adventure series Kaiak, but a season of scarce rainfall had dried up many of the islands’ rivers. When the team discovered that Kilauea was erupting, they booked a charter boat to the action, although no one dared to go as close as Oliva did – at…