|
|
 TEAM WET PLANET |
|||||||||||||
 Dave Hammond |
|||||||||||||
In 2002 Dave Hammond, in search of the next great adventure, rolled into the Pacific Northwest driving a well worn station wagon stuffed with three kayaks, a mountain bike, a snow board, and plenty of rock climbing gear. A whitewater paddler at heart, Dave fell in love with the rivers of Washington and Oregon. His background guiding rafts and safety kayaking on some of the most challenging whitewater rivers in the US and Latin America made Dave a perfect fit for Wet Planet. These days, it is not uncommon for returning guests to burst into our headquarters enthusiastically declaring, "We want the same guide we had last year. We want Craaaaazy Dave!!!" No one is sure where the Crazy Dave nickname started (best guess is that Steve White started it as a joke), but our guests love him. Dave is anything but crazy ... he's a whitewater professional who has been running rivers since he was a kid. |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Dave first learned to paddle at the age of 11, when his Dad, an old school paddler from the 1970's first put him in a kayak. Whitewater paddling has been part of who Dave is ever since. Growing up in the Eastern United States, the commercial whitewater scene surrounding such classic rivers as the Gauley, Youghegeny, and Cheat Rivers became familiar stomping grounds for Dave as he developed his unmistakably smooth, classical paddling style. |
|||||||||||||
He attended West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, just a quick drive from such legendary class V runs as the Upper Yough and the Upper Gauley. During summers off from school, Dave pursued his career in the whitewater industry, teaching kayaking, safety kayaking, video boating, and raft guiding. His love of the sport even led him to learn the art of carving handmade wooden paddles. Although many of our guests appreciate the natural history knowledge he gained while completing his degree in Geology, Dave does admit that during his school years, he probably spent more time on the river than in the classroom. |
|||||||||||||
| At some point in his paddling career, Dave developed a need for speed. Not content to just run even the most difficult rivers at a normal pace, he began to push the limits of his paddling abilities by paddling his favorite rivers faster and faster. This drive eventually culminated in Dave's entry into the sport of downriver racing. As Dave describes it, "using extremely long, fragile, and almost impossible to control kayaks, the object is to get from point A to B on the river as fast as possible." Dave is fast! He spent two years competing at a World-Class level as a member of the U.S. Downriver Team. | |||||||||||||
| Out of school, Dave was free to spend his winters, as well as his summers, traveling on rivers. His winters became full of paddling adventures in Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Chile. He has paddled renowned rivers from the Grand Canyon of the Colorado to the Futaleufu in Patagonia, experienced difficult rivers in fledgling paddling communities in remote Central American villages, and even worked in the fledgling sport of river boarding (guiding people with boogie boards and fins down icy Chilean Rivers). Along the way, he gained fluency in Spanish and an appreciation for the river communities and cultures of other countries. | |||||||||||||
| For the moment, Dave calls Wet Planet home, living in the campground at the Wet Planet Headquarters. We are excited and proud that Dave chooses to put his energy and passion for whitewater into Wet Planet. He will be taking time off this June to attempt to qualify again for the US Downriver team. Hopefully we'll be able to bring you news of Dave's success later this season! | |||||||||||||
| Oh yeah... he's getting married in August to Talia Norman, another member of team Wet Planet! | |||||||||||||
| If you have any doubt that team WET PLANET is one of the industry's leaders, check out some of our key staff: | |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
