Sam Butler, 25

Years Paddling: 13
Homeland: Nelson, BC.
Current Boat: CHiLi & FIVE

About Me: I started kayaking when I was 12 and became instantly hooked!
Most of my paddling experience has been centred around my BC home region here in the West Kootenays, BC. But over the years I've had the chance to visit many random, wild rivers around this great province, not to mention an awesome winter season chasing flows in Ecuador a few years ago now. I love exploring new, hidden creeks with the intention of one-day running them, and of course, lapping all the local classics while pushing myself at all levels. I have lots of fun competing with creek racing now being my favourite form of river competition. With few races around to enter, I'm proud to say I've done rather well in the events we do get to have, including podium wins at the annual Toby and Wilson Creek races. With that, I'm excited to become part of the regional, ZET Canada team!

Paddling Ambitions: I would like to eventually travel around to more races, mostly just to see how well I can do on entirely new river courses. But with few races being planned during these strange times, I've now taken to pushing my skills with down-river freestyle tricks. This in-turn helps transform the river into a whole new type of playground. For this, I'm pretty excited to have the new ZET Chili as my go-to racing and river-play machine.