Paddler News Feed

 

•	Hotline
•	Destinations
•	Gear
•	Skills
•	Book and video Reviews

< March April 2002
	Hotline
Bobby Kennedy, the Boater

Editor’s note: At a recent tradeshow for the Professional Paddlesports Association, the keynote speaker was Bobby Kennedy, chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance and son of the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Fresh from a recent first descent on British Columbia’s Headwalls Canyon, he’s also a long-time paddler, with several Latin American first descents to his credit. This March, he’s taking some of his kids to run Chile’s Futaleufu. While others at the ensuing press conference fired off questions about his political aspirations and the war in Afghanistan, we cut straight to the chase: his paddling background. His eyes lit up immediately.

Paddler:: Do you call yourself a rafter, canoeist or kayaker? Kennedy: Kayaker

Paddler::: When did you get started paddling? Kennedy: I got started when my dad began taking my siblings and I rafting on various waterways of the West. We did most of the major ones…Middle Fork of the Salmon, the Grand, Cataract, Yampa Canyon, and Deso/Gray. Then my brother, Michael, started a whitewater company on the Kennebec in Maine and I helped him run that off and on for about 10 years. My wife used to guide up there.

Paddler:: When did you first get in a kayak? Kennedy: Probably when I was about 7 or 8 on the Colorado. My dad brought a kayak along on a commercial trip and I got in it. He had a couple of Kleppers and a Topo Duo.

Paddler:: How many boats do you have at home? Kennedy: I have an old Perception and Prijon at home, plus two even older ones that are now planters. We also still have a few rafts from the old days stashed between my house and my brother’s…a couple of 13-foot Avon Pros and two Adventurers.

New Brunswick News: (interrupting): Have you ever been to Georgia before? Kennedy: I’ve been to Aurelia Island a few times.

Paddler:: (emphatically): You ever try a cartwheel? Kennedy: No…but I did try some of those play kayaks a while back at some convention that had a wave pool. But the wave wasn’t that big. I tried a couple squirts. I haven’t invested in one yet, but I’d like to.

Paddler:: How many times do you paddle per year? Kennedy: Nowadays, I do three to four overnight trips per year, and a couple of day trips. Not nearly enough.

Paddler: (while the other press mongers shake their heads): What’s the worst trashing you’ve ever had? Kennedy: That would have to be on the Carianni in Venezuela in the mid-’70s. We had put a trip together for a first descent with our company, Utopian Whitewater, and had about 30 people along. I wrote a piece on it that ran in Esquire magazine. We went over this waterfall and lost all our boats, and after trying to survive by eating caterpillars and things we were finally rescued by the Venezuelan airforce, which sent a helicopter for us. I think they came after us because we had a minister from the Venezuelan government along. I remember a funny story about it…. after we lost all four boats, we still had four pounds of bacon left and we cooked it all at once. We never saw any signs of people the whole trip, and all of a sudden, once we started cooking the bacon, about 40 Indians showed up out of nowhere. We gave them some bacon, and then they started retrieving all our gear from downriver.

Paddler:: And now you’re off to the Futaleufu? You ready to tackle Inferno Canyon? Kennedy: I think so…but I’ll have to take a look at it. I was supposed to go on the first descent, but my wife was pregnant with our first child. Now she doesn’t want me to go because she was a guide and doesn’t want to be left out.

—edb