Liz Arnold

Congratulations to Liz, our new river manager for the 2009 season!
This Wet Planet Trip Leader / River Manager has been busy racking up some great accomplishments on the river in the past couple of seasons:

• 2nd Place in the FLI Riverboarding Championships in 2008
• 2nd Place overall in Riverboarding in the Gorge Games 2008
• 1st Place in the Timed Sprint in Riverboarding in the Gorge Games
• 3rd Place in the Extreme Downriver Race in Riverboarding in the Gorge Games
• 3rd Place in the 2008 Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge Open Class with Team Wet Planet
• 2nd Place in Riverboarding in the 2007 Animal Upper Gauley River Race
• Iron Woman Award in the 2007 WaveSport Open
• Two first place wins in the 2006 Riverboarding Awards: Riverboarding Poster Child of the Year and Best Riverboarding Guide
• Two riverboarding first descents in South America (Cotahuasi River, Peru; Azul River, Chile)

Liz Arnold first rolled into the Wet Planet base in the spring of 2006. Her car was packed full of river and camping gear leaving just enough space for her dog, with multiple riverboards were strapped on top. Within moments, her infectious smile and wealth of river experience made it feel as if Liz had been at Wet Planet for years. She currently calls the Wet Planet campground home during the whitewater season, and this full-time trip leader, river guide, and certified wilderness first responder is an invaluable part of team Wet Planet.

Liz's love for whitewater began early in life. Taking her first rafting trip at age 8, she has remained hooked on river running ever since. At 17 years old, she took her first job as a commercial raft guide on the Snake River outside of Jackson Hole, WY. After two years on the Snake, she re-located to the east coast big-water rafting mecca of West Virginia. While attending school in North Carolina and West Virginia, she spent the next five years continuing to develop her river skills on east coast classics such as the New River, Gauley, Ocoee, Upper Yough, and Chatooga rivers. With multiple commercial guiding seasons on demanding whitewater runs such as the class IV-V Upper Gauley, and our very own class V Farmlands and Wind River, Liz's whitewater skills are impressive.

However, Liz was not content to enjoy river travel from a raft alone. Desiring a closer interaction with the river, she began riverboarding (picture swimming down the river on a body board with nothing more than fins for propulsion) five years ago. Kicking her way down rivers that many kayakers feel challenged paddling, Liz has become a recognizable face in the world of riverboarding. She is currently sponsored by Ripboard Inc. and is the company's Northwest rep. She is also sponsored by ProMotion Wetsuits, a local Hood River wetsuit company.

We're excited that she has remained in the Northwest and continues to be a valuable part of the Wet Planet team. This season, Liz is our new River Manager. Unfortunately she'll be spending this summer recovering from multiple knee surgeries, so we won't see her in a raft until close to the end of the season. In the meantime, she'll be behind the scenes making sure our trips are running smoothly and keeping both guests and guides happy all season. Look for Liz driving the bus, checking people in, in the back of a Wet Planet raft, kicking her way downstream on her riverboard, or playing her guitar and serenading all of us on the back porch.