Advocates – International Whitewater Hall of Fame

Bill Mason

Bill Mason developed a great passion for canoeing and the wilderness very early in life. As a renowned, award winning Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker and conservationist Bill Mason is widely considered a Canadian Canoeing Legend.

Bunny Johns

Bunny Johns stands out for her sport-changing facilitation of how the process, technique, and safety of whitewater paddling instruction was taught and shared across the USA.

Charlie Walbridge

Approachable, humble, and always friendly, Charlie has probably contributed more than any other single person to promote river safety and develop standards and rescuer techniques.

Chris Hawkesworth

Through his decades of camerawork and film-making alone, Chris made a remarkable and pioneering contribution to interest in, and enthusiasm for, whitewater canoeing, kayaking and rafting.

Dave Manby

As an Advocate, Dave Manby has spent fifty years at the center of the international river running scene, inspiring others to paddle rivers around the world.

Helen Brownlee

Helen Brownlee has dedicated her life to the sport of canoeing and has been involved in shaping its progress internationally and at home in Australia for well over thirty years.

Holger Machatschek

Have you ever wondered where large cockpits, bulkhead footrests, the throw bag, and life jackets came from? No other has influenced the "Alpine whitewater sport" more than Holger Machatschek, for several decades.

Isamu Tatsuno

Joe Puliam

Joe Pulliam’s life has been dedicated to whitewater, beginning with a strong love of rivers and the people he paddled with and guided by what became the whitewater industry.

Kent Ford

Kent Ford’s unique background includes more than twenty years of teaching, paddling, coaching and international whitewater racing. His twenty plus videos and books on paddlesports have influenced the education of a half million paddlers and have made him one of the most recognized paddlers in whitewater worldwide.

Klaus Lettmann

Lettmann’s kayak designs and their materials construction set the standard for the early whitewater industry throughout the world and was the basis for what we know today.

Martin Litton

A major part of Martin’s life has been spent fighting to protect and preserve the integrity of many of the West’s beautiful places.

Oliver Cock

Oliver J. Cock’s contributions to whitewater kayaking became an integral part of the foundations of the British Canoe Union (BCU). His whitewater films, many from the 1940’s and 1950’s provide a valuable documentation and history of early whitewater paddling and training.

Payson Kennedy

Payson Kennedy co-founded the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in Wesser, NC in 1972 with Horace Holden and developed it to become a world-class facility.

Pete Skinner

Ramone Eaton

Ramone (Ray) Eaton was an outstanding leader of networking among paddlers from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. As Vice President of the American Red Cross, his knowledge and expertise in whitewater instruction and safety influenced ARC’s role and involvement in whitewater canoeing and safety.

Risa Shimoda

Risa Shimoda has been one of the most prolific river stewardship organizers for grassroots advocacy, freestyle paddling, and whitewater park promotion in the history of kayaking in the United States.

Theo Bock

Theo Bock was renowned in his day as Germany’s first river explorer, an accomplished racer, and the organizer of the first German National Championships.

Tom Johnson

Tom was the first kayak designer to make the leap from fiberglass to plastic with the River Chaser manufactured by Hollowform.

William (Bill) T. Endicott

Bill Endicott vastly influenced whitewater slalom in the U.S. and internationally for thirty years.

William Nealy

William Nearly, heralded as “Whitewater’s Poet Laureate,” was one of the best known ambassadors of the sport. He brought a self-deprecating sense of humor and wealth of practical knowledge to all of his work.