I spent seven years training as a zen buddhist monk and from the moment I first put a paddle blade into a river three years ago at the ripe young age of 48, I felt the concept of zen shift to an actualization of zen. I was struck by the value the lessons of 2500 years of zen practice take on in the rivers, and I started thinking about writing something about that.

At first I sat down to write a blog about zen training and paddling.The original idea and my attachment to it fell away as soon as I realized that I have a very a limited authority to write about paddling, so I invited some of my friends (who can write about paddling with great authority) to contribute using traditional zen stories as a starting point for their thoughts on the confluence between zen and whitewater paddling. Please contact me if you want to write one.