Tag Archive for: North America

Eric Jackson

Eric Jackson is considered by many to be the best kayaker in the world. No one has excelled at as many different aspects of the sport as Jackson has.

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.

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.

Lars Holbek

Lars Holbek was one of the most accomplished whitewater explorers of all time. Futaleufu, Stikine, Fantasy Falls, Golden Gate, Hospital Rock; these titles conjure some of the world’s most difficult, top-quality whitewater, and Lars was the first to paddle all of them.

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.

Richard Bangs

Richard Bangs has been the preeminent whitewater rafting explorer of the last forty years. His always inquisitive mind and spirit of adventure has led him and his Sobek teammates to pioneer whitewater rafting on rivers throughout the world.

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.

Bill Masters

Bill Masters is the Steve Jobs of the modern whitewater kayak industry. He took kayaking from the club days of fiberglass boats being manufactured in limited numbers and designs in the backyards and garages of America to the worldwide exposure it enjoys today.

Julie Munger

Julie has been a big part of the rafting world for over 30 years, she was a huge part of breaking down barriers for women in the sport and her accomplishments at the time were as big or larger than many of the things men were doing.
Robert Harrison

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.