Joel McCune

Whitewater is not something I do. Whitewater is a part of who I am.

A common question, especially given the brutally steep initial learning curve of whitewater paddling is, how did you get started? Tell me about your first time paddling. My answer typically is rhetorical, "Tell me about your first time in a car." I was, quite literally, raised paddling whitewater rivers. I have no memory of not being in a boat on moving water.

Until I was 21, this was all whitewater open canoeing. This is what my parents did, so naturally what I learned to do as well.

At 21 while guiding in Colorado on the Arkansas River one summer, I turned a kayak, a Perception Amp, into a C1. For the next two decades, I was exclusively a decked canoeist. I started primarially in playboating and creeking. Along the way I started pursuing slalom racing seriously.

During my tenure as a slalom athlete, almost from the beginning, I was also coaching aspiring young athletes. One of the first training camps I attended was in Durango, Colorado under Cathy Hearn, one of the best athletes the sport has ever seen. Cathy and I share similar philosophies in sport and coaching.

Excellence is realized throughy the pursuit of a vision of perfection. This vision, it is not a possesssion coaches hold, and athletes may be lucky enough to one day be granted a glipse of. Rather, athletes and coaches should be students of their discipline, constantly curious, humble and learning from each other, between coaches, athletes and athlete coaches...the latter of which all athletes should be.