American Canoe Association

The ACA Board of Directors invites you to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting on Sunday, November 24 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM ET. During the meeting, we will share highlights from the ACA 2024 Impact Report and details of the ACA’s financial status. We will also announce the winners of our annual awards. We hope to see you there! https://lnkd.in/ejWZ3dei

This October, we are celebrating Karen Locke as ACA Instructor of the Month! Karen has been teaching swiftwater rescue courses for the past 6 years. Recently, with the help of her amazing mentors, she earned her ACA Swiftwater Rescue Instructor Trainer certification as well. Last month, Karen also became certified as a Whitewater Rafting Paddle and Oar Instructor. After years of professional guiding and teaching on rivers all over the world, Karen settled down in Moab where she is the proud owner of Confluence Rescue, a low-cost and scholarship-based rescue company. She strongly believes that life-saving rescue courses should not be cost prohibitive and has scholarship funds available for all Confluence Rescue courses. The ACA applauds Karen’s commitment to fostering creative opportunities that allow anyone to fall in love with paddling. All ACA members and instructors know how it feels to find community, challenge, pride, and joy through paddlesports. The best of us knows how it feels to share that experience with someone else. Congratulations Karen on a well-earned ACA Instructor of the Month award! Read more: https://lnkd.in/eYDeK7Rf

ACA staff members joined Outdoor Alliance in Capitol Hill to celebrate their 10-year anniversary by meeting with lawmakers and asking them to pass the EXPLORE Act — a bipartisan bill package that will improve outdoor recreation on public lands and waters. Meeting in-person with lawmakers is one of the best ways to keep the issues that are important to paddlers and other outdoor enthusiasts, priorities in congress. In the words of Charles de Gaulle, "politics are too serious a matter to be left to politicians." As the oldest and largest paddlesports organization in the United States, the ACA is uniquely positioned to represent the interests of paddlers. We work hard to make sure paddling is a safe and enjoyable experience for all. Photo by Torch Pictures Read our update: https://lnkd.in/enysBZmM

Please join us in congratulating Dave Bumgarner — ACA’s Instructor of the Month for September 2024! Dave is an instructor trainer for whitewater kayaking, swiftwater rescue, and packrafting as well as an instructor for whitewater canoeing. Dave also is a member of the ACA Swiftwater Rescue Committee. Dave is an exemplary instructor and instructor trainer whose impact extends beyond the borders of the United States. Paddling is for everyone, and Dave makes it a priority to ensure his students can learn in safe and fun environments, no matter who they are or where they come from. Based in Colorado, and the founder and lead instructor for the Gunnison Kayak Program, Dave most often teaches on the Gunnison River near Crested Butte, Colorado. He has also traveled to bring ACA instructor courses to paddlers abroad. He taught the firsts ACA packrafting instructor courses in China and the first ACA swiftwater rescue instructor course in Chile. Dave will be returning to China to run a couple more packrafting instructor courses and he highly recommends that ACA instructors expand their reach outside the United States. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eYDeK7Rf

Congratulations to ACA Instructor of the Month, Brett Davis! This August, we are celebrating Brett, who is a whitewater kayaking and a whitewater pack rafting instructor trainer based out of Durango, Colorado. Paddling and career have gone hand in hand for Brett for the past 26 years, throughout which he has worked with collegiate outdoor recreational programs. Recently, Brett worked with the Protect the Dolores River coalition to bring awareness to the Dolores River corridor to further protect it from further development and preserve it as a natural wonder. They have been doing this through a campaign initiated by a film, The River of Sorrows, which can be streamed for free on Outside Magazine or viewed at the Paddling Film Festival World Tour! For more: https://lnkd.in/eYDeK7Rf

That’s a wrap on the Paris 2024 Olympics! 5 incredible athletes, 2 medals, and an unforgettable experience for the 2024 USA Canoe/Kayak Olympic Team! It’s a great time to be a paddler! The ACA is so grateful to be able to support paddlers’ goals from the recreational level all the way up to the Olympics. Get ready for the Paris 2024 Paralympics that are scheduled to begin on August 28!

The American Canoe Association and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee have officially announced the roster of Team USA’s canoe sprint athletes nominated to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The athletes who will be competing for the United States are: Women’s Canoe: Nevin Harrison?— San Diego, CA Men’s Kayak: Jonas Ecker?— Bellingham, WA Aaron Small?— Seattle, WA These athletes will race at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium August 6-10. Please join us in wishing them luck as they prepare for this monumental event! Nevin Harrison became a household name after she won the Women's C1 200m event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in women's canoe sprint. Though canoe sprint made its Olympic debut in the Paris 1924 Olympics, women have not had a canoe event in the Olympics until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, almost a century later.?Nevin will attempt to defend her title as reigning Olympic Champion for the Women's C1 200m this summer. Now, a full hundred years since canoe sprint was added to the Olympic Programme, the Olympic Games are returning to Paris and will make history by achieving numerical gender parity on the field of play — meaning that the same number of men and women will be competing in this year's Olympic Games. For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. men have qualified a Kayak Double to compete in the Olympic Games!?Jonas Ecker and Aaron Small will be competing in their first Olympic Games this summer. This talented Washington State based duo will compete together in the Men's K2 500m event and individually in the Men's K1 1000m event.?Keep an eye on these two, we are sure this is only the beginning for them. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e2C8MTkx

Check out this great report from our friends at Outdoor Industry Association and Outdoor Foundation! Find their 2024 report and many other helpful data driven reports on our website: https://lnkd.in/dysvKc2F Some highlights from this report: Outdoor participation grew 4.1% to a record 175.8 million participants: 57.3% of all Americans aged six and older. For the first time ever, more than half of American women are participating in outdoor recreation: The female participation rate reached 51.9% in 2023, up from 50% in 2022. Members of the LGBTQ+ community continue to be the most active adult cohort: LGBTQ+ outdoor recreation participation rates total 60%.

The ACA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee have announced the roster of Team USA’s canoe slalom athletes selected to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The athletes who will be competing for the United States are: Evy Leibfarth?of Bryson City, NC and Casey Eichfeld?of Charlotte, NC. Please join us in wishing these two incredible athletes luck as they prepare to race at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium for the 2024 Paris Olympics later this month! At only 20 years old, Evy is set to compete in her second Olympic Games. She will be making history this summer as the first American woman to compete in three whitewater events — women's canoe, women's kayak, and women's kayak cross! The Paris 2024 Olympics will be Casey's fourth Olympic Games, having previously competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, and the 2016 Rio Olympics. This summer however will be Casey's first games as a husband and a father! With his family cheering him on, he will be competing in men's canoe and men's kayak cross. In case you haven't heard, kayak cross will be making its Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In this exciting event, four paddlers drop into a technical whitewater course from an elevated platform and compete in a head-to-head race to the finish line. Canoe slalom was first included in the Olympic program in the Munich 1972 Olympic Games and has appeared continuously in the Olympic program since the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Everything has led to this, and it’s just the beginning. Learn more about our athletes’ dreams becoming a reality as part of Making Team USA, presented by Xfinity at: https://lnkd.in/e5VzEuh9

Want an insider look to a world of inclusive paddling and outdoor recreation? This amazing article by ACA Instructor Trainer, Committee Leader, and Volunteer Extraordinaire Kyle Thomas provides a window into broadening audiences and access - take a moment to check it out! https://lnkd.in/excZn3Tp