This profile originally appeared in Rapid magazine.
Sidelined by a herniated lumbar disk at last November’s Green River Narrows Race, two-time race champ Andrew Holcombe sat down with Rapid at his home in Asheville, NC, to talk about racing, his injury, his planned comeback and what it’s like being the nicest guy in paddlesports.
I first met you in Graz, Austria, at the 2003 World Freestyle Championships. Talk about transitioning from freestyle athlete to extreme racer.
I’ve been entering races since I was 16, but nobody really cared outside of the race. Now, extreme racing has come to the forefront and people are noticing. That being said, I’ve made a conscious decision to head more towards that side of competitive paddling. I’ve backed off my freestyle schedule but I’m not going to stop competing. My goal is to do everything.
Psychological difference between getting ready for a freestyle event versus a race?
The energy around racing is so strong that you can feel it in a way that I have not often felt in freestyle competition. Just imagine the way you feel above a rapid that you’re nervous about running, and then translate that to however many people are racing. There’s an element of utter failure that definitely brings something to racing that you don’t find in freestyle. Failure in freestyle means flushing out of a hole, in racing it means running Gorilla backwards.
Number of times a year you run the Green?
I easily do 80 to 100 runs a year on the Green, just because it’s my home river and it runs all the time. In the month before the Green Race, I’m out there five times a week.
Talk about your injury and not being able to race.
I had a talk with my physical therapist about what “backing off” really means. I don’t want to end up in surgery. It was definitely hard to give up the Green Race but I plan on kayaking for a long time and it’s just not worth it. I’m not a person to carry around a lot of angst and anger about something like that.
You’ve got a reputation for being the nicest guy in paddlesports.
I really just try to do what I feel is best and right. This extends into both my personal kayaking and my work. I suppose I’d rather be known as a nice guy than a jerk—it creates better opportunities.
What’s your day job?
I’m a kayaker. I paddle competitively, teach kayaking for Nantahala Outdoor Center, run kayak trips in Mexico with [my partner] Anna Levesque and recently started working with Dagger as their Team Manager.
What does being a Team Manager mean?
I’m the interaction point for the team paddlers and the people at Dagger. I relate what competitions and projects the athletes want to be involved with, as well as communicate to the team what it means to represent Dagger. I also help the R&D department; if [Dagger designer] Snowy [Robertson] comes to me asking for some feedback, I can reach out to the team for him.
Plans for this season?
First off is healing from my herniated disk. I plan to head to the Whitewater Grand Prix in Quebec at the beginning of May and to the Teva Mountain Games in June. I’d like to throw in a trip up to the Stikine and a visit to Europe for one of the big extreme races. We’ll see what I can make happen.
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Spring 2011. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
