Squad Bio:

Name: Kyle McCutchen

Birthdate: 2/16/82
Hometown: Grand Junction
Currently Resides in: Denver
Work: a self-unemployed guidebook author and slumlord. I occasionally work on projects for CKS, but I’ve been a little busy over the last six months. Currently accepting job offers.
Years Paddling: starting my 15th season
Top 3 Rivers: Vallecito Creek, Little White Salmon, Rio Embudo, Crystal Gorge, Big South, Bull Lake Creek and that is way more than three. I love any run that is scenic, somewhat remote, and containing challenging whitewater. See the five-star list in our new guidebook. Contrary to belief, I even like freestyle and float trips. Oh yeah, North Fork Payette.
 
The Perfect Vacation is: Packing up the truck, driving through the night, arriving right on schedule (4 am), sleeping a few hours and putting on to a river that I’ve never done before. Repeating the process for a few days straight and then returning home.
Hobbies other than kayaking: Snowboarding, Mountain Biking, reading, writing, talking shit, drinking, eating, traveling
 
Favorite website: A hugely biased trio of coloradokayaking.com, therangelife.com and mountainbuzz.com
Recent playlist on my MP3 player: I don’t own a MP3 player. But recently I’ve lightened my listening time of Korn, Tool, Manson and NIN for the likes of GZA, Black Eyed Peas, Outkast, Talib Kweli, and Atmosphere. I mix in a bit of acoustic and DJ Shadow.
 
Best day of paddling ever: Tough to call. Christopher Creek, AZ for the unknown. Yule Creek, CO for going big (the trip when I didn’t break my back). Bull Lake Creek, WY, day five as the hardest I’ve ever done. I have probably 20 other runner-ups.

See more of me at: Whitewater of the Southern Rockies Guidebook, www.coloradokayaking.com, www.coloradokayak.blogspot.com
 
Additional info: When I was eleven I paddled an old fiberglass sea kayak across a lake in Montana. That feeling of floating across the surface of the water, so effortlessly and gracefully, immediately hooked me for life. Not long after, my family and I started the sport together. I’ve grown to love nearly every aspect of the sport since then, and my passion has undoubtedly changed the course of my life forever. I love the feeling of catching my first eddy of the season, doing a squirt, throwing an end, and hitting a new freestyle move. Surfing, boofing, and blunting eat away at my thoughts every second that I can’t get to the river, and I live my life in anguish of the next time that I can paddle. Even the glorious smell of old gear sends me longing for the next trip, and the next adventure. I have never felt so addicted to something as I have kayaking. It is the greatest sport I have ever known.