Quinn Martell
Primary Outdoor Sport: Kayaking
Favorite Beverage: Root Beer
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Cooking & Reading
Go-To River Snack: Bobo’s Bar
Guilty Pleasure: Podski Hamburgers
Pump-Up Music: Rick Ross
Book Recommendation: Dungeon Crawler Carl
Three Words to Describe You: Quirky, Curious, & Kind
“The University of Puget Sound had a kayak club, and they offered pool sessions. And I was like, 'Okay, cool. I should try this.'
Their program was really, really unique, where they had two people that were pouring everything they got into it to make sure that everybody was safe and had an understanding of how the river works. Once I figured out that it was more of a legitimate program and I could learn how to kayak in the pool and then practice on the river every weekend and slowly step up, 'cause Washington has so many rivers, that quickly became my entire world in college.
I remember talking to my buddy and I was like, 'Okay, this is it. This is what we're doing now.' I'm addicted. I wanna keep doing this, and I wanna keep getting better.”
“One of my best friend’s dad passed away kayaking when we were young. So that was my first time hearing about kayaking. It was like, 'Oh, that shit's dangerous.' And it is. So having that mentality with kayaking, and understanding if I was to swim right now, I have very little control about what could happen. I was very cautious in my progression, even though maybe I could've been fine. But I'm not really a huge fan anymore of rolling the die of what happens.
The coach of the kayak club, he said there's three things: it's new river, new people, or a new flow. Make sure two of those are something that you're familiar with before trying to move up a different progression, and I think that's something that I try to keep in mind.”
“Big water Class III is my favorite type of kayaking ever, because the consequences are low. You can still get fully engulfed. You could flip. You're like a sea otter, just playing around in the waves.
Versus why a Class V is so appealing, they're waterfalls. You're kayaking waterfalls. You're getting huge boofs. You're going really, really fast. The skips are insane. You're turning the volume up on what the feelings are that you could normally experience in Class III. Say one Class III river has one really sick boof with no consequences. That really sick Class III boof is the entirety of the river on a Class V.”
“The feelings that you get on a Class V is really sick, and that's not a fear thing, at least for me. I'm not chasing the fear for Class Vs. I'm chasing the feeling of that super skip or that really sick boof or a really sweet wave to surf.
And oftentimes, a really cool Class V river is absolutely gorgeous, because it has been untouched by people. Not many folks are going out there. And if folks are there, it's all kayaking people who respect that place and that's also really neat.”
“I used to skate in high school, and that felt like a creative outlet, and I feel like that shows up in kayaking, too.
There are some really rad kayakers, ladies and men, who just push, push, push, push, push, and they make it look really good, but there's also a lot of people who maybe haven't developed their frontal lobe fully and are just sending it, and that's cool, too.
But I think the people who can do difficult and easy things with grace and style, that's what I think is looking good out there. It doesn't really matter what rapid you're on. If you're making it look really smooth, that's what I appreciate.”
“Having grown up skiing in Idaho, powder days were sick, but it also felt like it was a fading thing. It gets tracked out or the snow turns bad.
Kayaking, you're getting a powder day every single time, fresh laps. Doesn't matter if you're following somebody, you're getting the same exact sweet, sweet boof or sweet, sweet surf. It doesn't get tracked out, which is really cool.”
“It's such a big outlet for me. It's a way to quite physically wash off the day. If I have a hard day at work, I'll go kayaking, get my wiggles out, and feel really just like, 'Okay, I'm back.' Grounded in a way. No matter what's going on in work or relationships or the world, it's like, 'Alright, I can just kayak, and this is a way to reset.'
I think being able to take what I appreciate about kayaking, that flow state and the smoothness and the refreshing and the calm and the tranquility of the water, and applying it to other activities has really taught me, 'Alright, I can slow down and think and appreciate.'
Those are lessons that I think really help impact my mental health and being able to just go with the flow. Appreciating the small things is definitely one of them. Slowing down, not being too hasty in getting from point A to point B. Understanding things will go wrong a little bit and you just have to roll with it.”
“The question my parents always ask me is, 'Are you happy?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, absolutely.' 'Cause I think that's the answer for it all. If you're not, something's gotta change. I think happiness is the biggest thing and knowing who you are.
I remember talking my girlfriend, where she's like, 'So many people in my graduating class are getting full-time jobs, six-figure salary. They're just so set up because they did an internship right out of college, and that was the path they chose.'
Meanwhile, a lot of our friends are just like, 'I wanna go see things. I wanna go do things. I wanna go try things out.' And the line is not always so direct. It's very much a squiggly path.
As long as you're thinking about what makes you happy and being respectful of other people's time and all this stuff, I believe it'll work out.
Life is not guaranteed, and I think that's clear in kayaking. You can have all the skills and all the confidence and it still can go wrong. So there are no guarantees. I don't wanna wait to do these things.”
“Kayaking’s given me a way to navigate life. It's enabled me to slow down, think quickly, react, but really all in what I can control.
There is only so much I can control, and I can choose to put myself in these positions, and everything else that happens is a little bit out of my control, and that's okay. And now you just have to figure it out from there with an attitude of ideally some curiosity and some fun.
That's why I'm here right now. That's why I'm in Bend. That's why I met all my friends. That's why I still wanna travel and see different things. It's given me such a different avenue to explore the world. And I'm hungry to see more.”
