ThePADDLER 62
Red Bull sponsored a boat cross ( extreme slalom ) event at Rock Island , over the waterfalls .
Dane didn ’ t race ( we wouldn ’ t let him ), but he wowed the crowd doing his first freewheel over the falls in his little orange Ace 2.1 ( 21 gallons before Clay cut the ends off of it and welded it shut ). The Ace 2.1 was a boat I tried to get Wavesport to make , but the CEO of Confluence at the time said no to kids ’ boats . After they also fired David Knight , I started Jackson Kayak , and my first design was the Fun 1 for Dane , who was now truly loving paddling every day and needed a proper boat . His Ace 2.1 was super low volume , and the Fun 1 would be a much better river runner , loop bigger , and he could still flatwater cartwheel it with a bit of practice .
The Fun 1 and Dane got along very well . Dane was able to run a ton of notable creeks and rivers with me in that boat . South Silver in California , for example , Cascades , Brush Creek , etc .
HOME SCHOOLED
Dane didn ’ t seem to like school that much , certainly not in comparison to Emily . They were both home schooled , but Emily did her work , plus extra , and Dane was always trying to get away with doing less than requested .
It wasn ’ t long before Emily and Dane started competing and having fun doing it . Kristine and I organised the first ‘ Cadet Rodeos ’ to have a place to compete , and we started getting other young kids into it as well . Jason Craig is a good example who would become one of Dane ’ s best friends and his fiercest competitor . Jason beat Dane at the 2009 World Championships in the junior class . Nick beat me as well , but Emily won her first senior women ’ s class that year .
That same year , the top pros in the men ’ s class would keep tabs on who was left that Dane hadn ’ t beaten . At the Teva Mountain Games , it was only me and Jay Kincaid that were left ! I won that event , Dane was third , and I was the last man standing whom Dane had not beaten . Fast forward , and the question isn ’ t who he hasn ’ t beaten ; it is who has beaten him in any event ? The list is short these days in who can compete in a kayak and have a chance of keeping up or beating him at a race , freestyle , or doing anything on the water in a kayak .
I moved back to whitewater territory when I was 15 years old . I got my first kayak that year and learned to roll it . However , my knowledge and skill in a kayak were that of a beginner . I was paddling a four-metre 1992 Olympic slalom kayak called the Lettman Mark 4 , made of very weak fibreglass by Old Town in Maine . We had to patch the kayak almost every time we went out .
FIRST SWIM
The first time I tipped over in whitewater , I swam instantly at Magic Falls on the Kennebec River . It irked me so bad I committed never to swim again . My next swim was in 1996 , 16 years later on the Potomac due to being pinned underwater under a log at Great Falls .
I was on the Kennebec working as a whitewater photographer at age 16 , and my life was starting to be a
I moved back to whitewater territory
Creeking in Mexico with Rafa Ortiz and Clay Wright