David Sacquety

When it comes to all things rafting, David Sacquety is The Man! With decades of river experience, David has been humbling kayakers for years by rafting rivers and rapids that kayakers previously thought were only runnable in a kayak. With his tremendous river experience, love of travel, and seemingly endless amounts of energy, it is simply a blast having David as part of the Wet Planet team.

David began guiding whitewater professionally when he was 15, spending springs and summers on Southeastern classics such as the Upper Yough, Cheat, and Tygart Rivers and the fall seasons on the Upper Gauley and Russell Fork Rivers. To date, his experience and accomplishments running whitewater are impressive:

• 20+ years of professionally guiding whitewater.
• Commercial river experience in the USA (including West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Colorado, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington), Chile, India, Nepal, Africa and New Zealand.
• Commercial guiding experience on 42 different rivers around the world.
• Class V raft guide.
• First raft descents on several Class V runs, including the North Fork of the South Platte River in Colorado (Bailey Canyon), Pindar River in Uttarakhand, India, Spirit Falls (Little White Salmon River, WA - 35 feet), Wishbone Falls (Little White Salmon River, WA), Stove Top Falls (Little White Salmon River, WA), Horseshoe Falls (East Fork Lewis River, WA), Big Falls (aka Big Kahuna, Canyon Creek, WA), Big Fluffy Falls (Little North Santiam, OR), North Fork Clackamas in Oregon, Roaring River in Oregon, Curtain Falls (Middle Fork Feather River, CA - 30 feet), and Island Falls (Upper Upper Cispus, WA).
• Second raft descent of Big Brother (White Salmon, WA).
• Photo of Spirit Falls raft run (with Doc Loomis) featured in SOTAR advertisement in Paddler Magazine and Oregon Outdoors.
• Photo of Wishbone Falls raft run (with Ryan Baumgartner) featured in Aire/Cascade Outfitters advertisement in Paddler Magazine.
• Photo of Curtain Falls raft run (with Dave Slover) featured in SOTAR advertisement in Paddler Magazine.
• First commercial paddle raft descents of Upper Animas River in Colorado (with Ray Kitson), and Zanksar River, India.
• First R2 raft descent of East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, including Flight Simulator rapid (with Laura Sol).
• Trained as Wilderness First Responder by Wilderness Medical Institute.
• Trained as Whitewater Rescue Technician by Rescue 3.
• Been guiding on White Salmon since 1994. He actually worked at the current Wet Planet headquarters location when it was still a gas station with AAA Rafting. You could say that he is the Wet Planet employee with the longest tenure.
• Worked in New Zealand on the Kaituna River and ran Tutea Falls 4 times per day. If you think that Husum Falls is big, you should try this one. It is 21 feet (7 meters) high!

With all of the time David has spent on rivers running challenging whitewater, it is probably even more impressive that he has found the time and energy to explore so many other interests as well. Somewhere in there he found the time to earn a BA in History from Mary Washington College, an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Oregon State University, and an MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) from University of Portland. He has traveled in Egypt, Kenya, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain, France, New Zealand, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), and Ethiopia. He has trekked to Mount Everest base camp and Annapurna base camp in Nepal, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and scuba dived in Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Zanzibar. He played soccer and wrestled in high school and played rugby in college. He has even run four marathons.

Interested in becoming part of the Wet Planet team? Check out our Employment Opportunities.