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A C A I NS T RUC TOR PR OFI LE
Charlie McArthur L4 WW Kayak IT, L2 SUP IT
How long have you been in paddlesports? If you count ocean surfing as a paddlesport (it most definitely is), that was my first paddlesport. I learned to surf in the ‘60s in Hawai’i as a child. I started whitewater kayaking in the mid-’80s in long plastic and glass kayaks in Colorado.
We ended up doing a bunch of first descents in the Roaring Fork Valley in the ‘90s with the advent of shorter plastic creek boats. I started SUP for an hour in 1973, inspired by a local Hawai’ian. I did not SUP again until 2003 in Fiji on my honeymoon. That was a multiday session.
What is your favorite boat? Favorite paddle? I have many favorite boats depending on their purpose. I mostly split my time between play boating in a Jackson Allstar and a Dagger Axiom 8.0 for teaching. I still paddle my Sin Squirt boat, race Gore Canyon in a Wavehopper get in some slalom sessions and paddle my 17’6” Greenland hunting kayak that I built. Way more fun to mix it up as it keeps you from getting lazy. I use a Double Diamond from Werner for kayaking and an X-wing SUP race paddle from
C4Waterman.
Tell me a little about one of your favorite places to paddle? I am lucky and get to paddle in Colorado, California, Hawai’i and Australia pretty regularly. Anywhere I am paddling at the moment is the best—for example, in a large pond this afternoon with my daughter.
2012 OLYMPICS
Seven lucky U.S. paddlers will be heading to London in late July for the 2012 Olympic Games. The canoe and kayak athletes will compete in two disciplines—whitewater slalom and flatwater sprint. Sprint racing is head-to-head, much like track, and its held in the same venue as rowing. The addition of 200m sprint races to the Olympic program should provide spectators and the television audience with some exciting finishes. Olympic slalom racers must zig-zag through gates while handling man-made rapids at the course north of London. The U.S. has not yet named its 2012 Olympic team. Among the possible participants are a
pair of two-time Olympians hoping third time’s the charm—sprint kayaker Carrie Johnson and slalom kayaker Scott Parsons plus two young athletes looking to begin their Olympic legacies— slalom kayaker Caroline Queen, 20, and sprint kayaker Ryan Dolan, 22. Visit
www.usack.org to follow their journeys to London.
PHOTO: TODD PATRICK
PHOTO.COM
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