Bigfork teen hoping to paddle to graduation

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

David Myers is spending the first half of his senior year like most other Bigfork High School students. Classes, early soccer practices and thoughts about college. But when January rolls around, Myers will be in a drastically different place than his peers: kayaking in China.

Myers was recently accepted to the World Class Kayaking Academy based a few hours south of Bigfork in Alberton, Montana. Essentially a floating, traveling high school, the academy caters to the best young kayakers around the country and allows them to spend a semester or a year finishing course work, learning about new cultures and paddling some of the world's greatest stretches of whitewater.

Myers, 17, said he has been kayaking since he was 9 years old, following in the footsteps of his older brother Jon, who competes in kayaking competitions on the professional level and also spent the latter half of his senior year in the kayak academy.

"Luckily I know everyone there really well," David said of his family connections to the school.

Each year the program starts and ends in Montana, but the intervening destinations follow good river levels around the world. This year the program will go to Mexico in the fall before packing off to China to kick off the spring half.

The chance to go to China — other common destinations for the program include Chile, Australia and Africa — is not only an opportunity to view that country's unique culture, but to possibly be among the last to ever run some of the country's rivers.

Myers said the group would be "paddling rivers that may never be run again due to recent hydroelectric dam proposals."

Though the academy bills itself as a place where "you don't have to be a world class paddler to get into World Class," the school also boasts that turning into a top-tier paddler "happens once you get here."

Myers had to submit not only character references and academic transcripts to get accepted into the program, but also a sort of skills reference from those he paddles with to testify that his proficiency with a paddle is enough to get him down some of the world's biggest whitewater.

That part wasn't difficult for Myers, as he's a regular fixture on the leader board at the annual Bigfork Whitewater Festival and a common sight at put-ins around the valley despite his young age.

Both Myers brothers, as well as a few others from the area, conduct their "Dawn Patrol" through the spring and into summer, gathering each morning before school and work to paddle the Swan River's "Wild Mile."

In June, Myers competed at the U.S. Freestyle Kayak Nationals in Salida, Colo. and was ranked third in the nation for the open beginner/sport class.

Though the months with some of the country's most promising paddlers and highest caliber instructors could easily send Myers toward a potential career in kayaking, he said his older brother's experiences dabbling on the pro circuit have sobered him in that path.

"When you're around pros it seems different," he said. "Some pros won't do anything without a camera, and a camera is just another thing to postpone a trip."

Besides, he said, "It's a real hard sport to live off of."

None of which means he wouldn't want to compete in the occasional competition, especially while he's waiting to gain residency somewhere along the West Coast before starting school.

His intended area of study comes as little surprise: Hydrology.

"I just love the water," he said.