How I Found River Running - Addy

I was introduced to whitewater early in life through my dad, who started kayaking when he was just 13 and kayaks were still fiberglass. Our first overnight rafting trip was when I was 15 years old on the Rogue River in Oregon, and I felt completely at home on the river as soon as I was on the water. The next year we were fortunate to have a friend win a permit for a trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, and from those 16 days I knew that whitewater and rivers would be a major part of my life.  I spent the rest of that summer learning to kayak and the next year, at the age of 17 I drove to Idaho to visit my Godfather and spent several weeks playing on the Salmon River near Riggins. I kayaked and rafted every day, and by the end of the summer had plans to return the next year as a rookie raft guide. I worked there the next 5 years for a small whitewater company running single and two-day trips. I found a family in the whitewater community there, people of all ages and backgrounds who shared a love for rivers. I made mistakes and learned how to be okay with that, how to own up to them and learn from them. I honed my communication skills and my independence. 

After five years on the Salmon I joined some family members who were guiding in Dinosaur National Monument out of Jensen, Utah. I spent two years there being consistently challenged and learning more about teamwork, communication, and managing large groups in the backcountry than I could possibly have imagined. I fell in love with some of the most beautiful canyons in the world on the Yampa River and the Gates of Lodore section of the Green River. I also fell in love with my partner guiding on those rivers, and we have since run whitewater all over the United States together. With friends I’ve met through the whitewater community I’ve kayaked in New Zealand and rafted the Zambezi River in Africa. I’ve taken swims in freezing water and celebrated clean lines, and all of it has been with people I love.  

Becoming a guide taught me how strong I am. It taught me how to be confident and humble. It has provided me with deep friendships and showed me time and time again that strong connections with people are so important. As a woman it showed me my value is so much more than my looks or my body. It's in my strength, my intellect, my friendships, how I carry myself and treat the people around me. It's my happiness. Rivers have brought more joy to my 26 years than I thought I could experience in an entire lifetime. I see this strength and joy reflected in the people around me, and especially the women I have met in my many years as a guide and river runner. I see how women in the whitewater community have been empowered by river running, finding the beauty in challenging our bodies and our minds with big whitewater and with working as a team in difficult conditions. Along with finding myself through this community, I have found the most inspiring, strong, beautiful, kind, and fierce women. 

These women make up our team, Rapid Fire Racing. Competing on a world scale is something I could only have dreamed of, and sharing a boat with the women on my team is an honor. I could not be more excited to experience where our shared excitement, expertise, and motivation will take us.