Image by Miles Clark

MEET EVAN GARCIA, a graduate of World Class Kayak Academy (along with Matador Ambassador Shon Bollock), and one of the stars in Shon’s feature film Slippery When Wet.

Over the past few years Evan has stood out for pioneering huge drops, and making the biggest, hardest lines look easy.

As co-editor of Bombflow TV, he and crew are picking up where longtime paddle media industry leader LVM (Lunch Video Magazine) left off, regularly publishing long (typically 20-30 min) episodes around paddle missions, races, and keeping it safe and happy around the world.

Bombflow just released episode 11. (Note: if you can’t handle lots of bros shooting whiskey in a post-race sausage party, fast fwd to @17:00 where you get an incredible POV into one of the runs Evan grew up on).

Here’s more deets on Evan. Stoked to have him as part of Ambassadors.

Age: 23 years old

From: Bozeman, MT

Years paddling: 13

Favorite river: Alsaseca River, Mexico

Favorite drop: Toketee Falls, Oregon

Favorite place to kayak: Sierra Mountains, California

Philosophy: Kayaking is the way I channel my love of living life to its fullest. My paddling is an expression of style, not strength or ego. I try and float down the river using its power to fuel my descent. Once I was able to harness the power of flowing water and use it to my advantage, everything seemed to make sense. My favorite part of kayaking is running big drops…there is a certain finesse in stomping big drops that often is overlooked and there is no feeling like it!

In my mind whitewater kayaking is the ultimate extreme sport…I combine my paddling with hiking, climbing, swimming, hitch-hiking, foreign languages, team-work, 4×4 driving, and just about anything else you can think of into being a successful traveling kayaker…And that’s why I love it!

Sponsors: Liquid Logic Kayaks, Sweet Protection, Astral Buoyancy, Voke Tabs, Coalatree Organics, Disidual Clothing, Werner Paddles.

Learned to paddle: My Father Mike Garcia taught my older brothers and me how to kayak at a young age. He owns an outdoor / kayak shop in Bozeman, MT and has been paddling whitewater for over 30 years. His passion was directly transferred to his three sons…myself being the middle child and most gypsy of them all! I liked kayaking, but it took a trip down the Grand Canyon when I was 13 to really fall in love with the river. My family has always supported and helped me become the paddler that I am today!

View of how kayaking has evolved: Waterfall dropping has come a long way in the last 10 years. When I was growing up a 60 foot falls were very impressive and not a normal feat. Now people are going out lapping 60-70 foot falls on a daily basis…And two people have run a 190 foot drop without injury! I really looked up to the kayakers who looked good while running hard whitewater, made it look easy! So that’s what I tried to do with my paddling. No one but yourself can teach you how to run big drops…experience, being able to read the water, and getting comfortable enough to slow down and do what you need to is what big drop running is all about.

Next paddle mission: BC, Mexico, Chile!