Tom McEwan (whitewater kayaker)

Thomas Edmund McEwan (born March 3, 1946), known as Tom McEwan, is an American whitewater kayaker. He competed internationally on the US National Wildwater Team.

Adventurer[]

McEwan is credited with numerous first descents including the Great Falls of the Potomac in 1975,^[1] the 1973 descent of approx. 8 miles of Linville Gorge, with Jamie McEwan.^[2] He, Jamie McEwan, Andy Bridge and Wick Walker were the first to explore the Mexican whitewater on the Santa Maria in 1985.

In 1981 McEwan participated in an expedition to Bhutan with Wick Walker, Les Bechdel, Eric Evans, Jamie McEwan, with Ed Hixon in support, on the Wong Chu, Para Chu, Pho Chu, and Mo Chu.

In 1998, McEwan and his brother Jamie, Roger Zbel and Doug Gordon were the kayaking members of an expedition to run the Tsangpo Gorge, considered the "Mount Everest" of rivers.^[3] They were supported by Wick Walker, Harry and Doris Wetherbee, Paulo Castillo, and Dave Phillips. The expedition encountered unanticipated high water and ended in tragedy when teammate Doug Gordon capsized, missed his roll and died.^[4]

Educator[]

While adventures are exciting to people and can expand humanity's horizons, Tom McEwan has arguably had a far great impact on the world through his leadership as an educator through his numerous roles at summer camps. In the United States, many school districts have a long break during summer. Camps exist to give children productive outlets for their physical energy and engage them in a variety of important skills and experiences devalued in modern classroom curricula. In this context, Tom McEwan has served in a variety of capacities as a hands-on educator, leader, and director of various summer camps, most notably Valley Mill Camp in Germantown, MD. Tom started and ran Liquid Adventures Kayak School in Cabin John, MD until 2016.^[5] It is difficult to identify a simple metric to value his role overseeing thousands of children over many years, but one can easily recognize his tutelage and adventuring lineage of a large number of accomplished kayakers, such as World Cup champion Andy Bridge, Olympic gold metalist Joe Jacobi, adventurer John Weld, and University of California full professor of river science Gregory Pasternack.

McEwan's teaching style was a blend of hands-on training and leading by example. During summer weekends, McEwan would take a group of campers to kayak whitewater rivers that would shock many parents in the current culture of over-protectionism. During these trips, students would follow McEwan from eddy to eddy working down rapids, but also practice a variety of intricate maneuvers quite different from what other boats would be doing. These activities developed a deep alternative mindset for thinking about how rivers function and how to navigate them, and these insights can be seen in how students who trained with McEwan have become creative leaders. Also, by example McEwan taught students to work hard at times when others would rest. For example, many whitewater reaches end in reservoirs, but rather than casually drifting through the, McEwan set a challenging pace for teens a third of his age to try to keep up with. His paddling form was heavily influenced by experience in wildwater kayaks, and he also trained students in these unusual forms of boats.

References[]

Books about Tom McEwan[]

• Wickliffe Walker (2000). Courting the Diamond Sow : A Whitewater Expedition on Tibet's Forbidden River. National Geographic Society. ASIN B001TL2O5S.
• Todd Balf (2001). The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la . Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-609-80801-6.