Volunteer Of The Month - Presented By Kokatat

American Whtiewater is proud to announce our January 2014 Volunteer of the Month: Ian Buckley!

In the cold waters of his birth home, the United Kingdom, Ian Buckley was taught to kayak in the 1970’s by his father, an instructor in early Outward Bounds programs.

Although he progressed to the kayak slalom team during his high school years, whitewater kayaking took a back seat to other interests like climbing, alpinism and skiing. Finally during a trip to New Zealand in 1995 his whitewater interests were re-awakened and his fate was sealed with a move to California – the Mecca of whitewater kayaking. Now after paddling whitewater in 13 countries and feeling the pains of an aching back from one too many hard landings Ian prefers to photograph other people running the hardest rapid of the day.

Notwithstanding Ian’s skillfulness on our whitewater rivers it is his expertise off the water that has garnered recognition as American Whitewater’s volunteer of the month. With a background in design engineering, Ian put his skills to work authoring detailed comments for Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) regarding their license amendment to add the New Slab Creek Powerhouse to the Upper American River Project (UARP) #P-2101. Upon final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the UARP license, SMUD will provide whitewater recreational flows for what is known as the gem of the UARP - Slab Creek.

After it became clear that the boating put-in and the first rapid on the Slab Creek run could be compromised by the water discharge from the new powerhouse, Ian detailed the discharge from other similar facilities, demonstrated the effects and implications to the river channel and provided recommendations for AW to include in their comments to FERC. As a direct result, SMUD subsequently adopted these recommendations in their 2013 Draft License Amendment Application adding “common practice” design of a fixed cone valve with a reinforced concrete structure to dissipate flow energy before flows are released into the river channel. Additionally, Dave Hansen, Project Manager Licensing and Permitting Power Generation, has assured AW that SMUD will continue to consult with the boating community during the design and construction of the new powerhouse to meet overall design goals of minimizing impact to the instream boaters at the Slab Creek put-in. In the true spirit of our AW volunteers Ian continues to offer his help and expertise as well.

In recognition of his efforts, he'll be receiving a custom Kokatat WoolCore Shirt! Thanks Ian!