Charles C. Walbridge

Charlie Walbridge is a nationally known whitewater safety expert with more than 50 years of river-running experience. He began paddling whitewater seriously in 1967 while attending college. He has paddled rivers throughout the US and Canada and made several first descents. He was an A-ranked C-1 slalom and wildwater racer in the mid-1970s and worked part-time as a river guide until the mid-1980s. He has collected and published reports of US whitewater fatalities for more than 40 years and has written books and articles on whitewater safety, including The American Canoe Association’s Knots for Paddlers (Menasha Ridge Press, 1995) and The American Canoe Association’s River Safety Anthology (Menasha Ridge Press, 1996). He has served as an expert witness in many wrongful death cases and is quoted often in newspapers and magazines. Charlie has been active in both the American Canoe Association (ACA) and American Whitewater (AW). He held the position of safety chairman for both organizations and now serves on the AW board of directors. As a member of the ACA Instruction Committee, he helped develop programs in whitewater canoeing and swiftwater rescue, and he trains students and instructors in swiftwater rescue.