Kayak Session:Abe, growing up in the Andes, in the mountains of Ecuador, how were you first introduced to kayaking?
Abe Herrera: In 2005,I saw an article in National Geographic about the rafting world championships on the Quijos River. It made me realize I was missing out on the Whitewater in my own country. I knew then that I wanted to be involved. I found a raft guiding program in Washington state to learn Whitewater so I could come back home to Ecuador and have a tour or rafting company.
KS: How was that first contact with paddling?
AH: Freaking cold, but the 3 mm neoprene wetsuit made me feel like a superhero. Rafting gave me the best summer of my life up to that point, but I quickly understood that no one had more fun in the river than kayakers. After buying an InaZone, my first kayak, and swimming a few times in frigid water, I realized I needed instruction. I volunteered as a guinea pig for an ACA instructor class on the Skykomish River with Chris Jonason, who I credit for introducing me to the sport. I was 23, older than I wish I was when I started to kayak, but it motivated me to catch up fast.
KS: What was your first reaction the first time you returned to the warm water paradise that is Ecuador?
AH: To not have all that extra gear on felt amazing. It was like experiencing a whole new dimension, with true freedom of movement.
KS: Did you have any Whitewater experience when you decided that starting a rafting company was your future?
Now, after years of working in the industry, I know I never want to have a rafting company, but then, being from the mountains, it was a foreign subject. My only experience was a serious beatdown when I was a teenager, doing a "first descent" on a Class IV creek just west of Quito. My best friend and I stole a raft from the farm we were hanging out at—a cheap, inflatable Kmart raft— and almost drowned falling out of the raft with no PFD, helmet, or any idea what we
