Dave Kurtz

As a teenager he found canoeing through the Boy Scouts, and he furthered that pursuit when he came to Penn State for graduate school. There he met Tom Smyth and Bill Bickham, and together they completed the first descent of the Upper Yough. But more importantly, Bill and Dave became competitors on the slalom course. Dave’s Explorer Post brought the first fiberglass boats to the slalom courses; and even today he’s involved in slalom racing through his Mach 1 slalom team.