What is the ACA?
What is the American Canoe Association and what does it do for me, the Paddler?
a Carolina Paddler Article
by William Holman
-Let us start with the first question and the beginning of the ACA. Do you remember what you were doing in 1980? Do you have records of what you did back then? Now imagine a nonprofit organization that dates back 100 years prior to that. One that started in 1880 that still has records of Presidents, events, and even original members. To put the time in context, this is before the first car was invented in 1886, the well-known Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903 or the first helicopter in 1907. So, this paddling club was formed before cars were a thing; imagine setting shuttle with a horse and buggy!
The American Canoe Association (ACA) was originally formed in 1880 by 24 canoe enthusiasts from multiple Canoe Clubs in and around New York. William Alden of the New York Canoe Club was the first Commodore. More recently, North Carolina’s own Robin Pope was the President of the Board of Directors. At the January 2023 Board Meeting, Pope officially retired from the position and David Lumian was voted the new ACA Board President.
According to Article II in the American Canoe Association’s first Constitution, the American Canoe Association was formed for:
“Canoes. —A canoe, in order to be placed on the Association list, and to be entered for races, must be a boat sharp at both ends and not more than thirty-six inches in width on deck. She may be propelled by sails or paddle, or both; but she must be capable of being efficiently propelled by a double-bladed paddle.”
Almost 243 years and 91 Commodore/Presidents later, the ACA has grown into the nation’s largest and most active nonprofit paddlesports organization with over 15,000 members and more than 180 Clubs and Affiliate Organizations across the United States and the world. (By comparison, British Canoeing has over 90,000 members and a much heftier budget.) The ACA is the nation’s recognized leader offering the gold standard curriculum for paddlesports instruction and education. There are more than 6,500 ACA certified canoe, kayak, rafting, safety & rescue, and stand-up paddleboard instructors in the United States. A little over 200 instructors are active in North Carolina to help keep you safe and educated on whatever paddlesport you choose. The ACA sanctions nearly 4,300 paddle sport events each year. Many of the best-known events in North Carolina have been recognized by the ACA such as Carolina Canoe Club’s Week of Rivers and the Mighty Mayo River Trip and Chris Rezac’s Oceans clinics, to name a few popular examples. The ACA is also deeply involved in paddlesport competition including serving as the National Governing Body (NGB) in paddlesports for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Finally, the ACA is very involved with wilderness stewardship, doing their part to take care of our waterways and access points.
I assume many will read this and think that’s great but what does the ACA really do for me as an individual paddler? What affects me in ways that I can relate to? What does the ACA do that makes it worth paying $40 a year for membership? All excellent questions I have asked myself in the past.
The first and most obvious benefit comes from the Safety, Education, and Instruction Counsel (SEIC) Branch of the ACA. The SEIC is the National Activity Council of the ACA that is responsible for ensuring all instructors certified by ACA are getting the best information possible. The ACA arguably has the largest network of paddlers and instructors in the world to consistently discuss and adapt paddlesport safety and education to reflect the most up to date measures. While this may not sound like a huge impact, it really is. Your instructors go through an Instructor Development and Certification Workshop to ensure you get the most up to date information. They must teach a specific number of courses and attend an instructor update within their certification process to maintain their standing.
This is all to ensure you, the student and paddler, get the best training available. The ACA also provides insurance to instructors and affiliated clubs to ensure they are protected financially while educating the public. This is a huge benefit since paddlesports are inherently a risky activity.
In a more public setting, the ACA is involved as the NGB for the U.S. Olympic Committee, just one aspect of the Competition Division of the ACA. (The Competition Council is another “National Activity Council” of the ACA.) So, in 2021 when everyone was rooting for North Carolina’s Evy Leibfarth in her amazing Olympic runs, you were watching a sport that the ACA helped shape. Of course, the ACA can take no credit for Evy as she is awesome on her own, but the sport in which she paddles has been shaped in many ways by the ACA.
Another less public and lesser known initiative of the ACA is the stewardship and partnerships division . The ACA partners with many national organizations to broaden access and protection for public lands and water. One such organization is Outdoor Alliance which is a nonprofit coalition of national advocacy organizations that includes American Whitewater, Access Fund, International Mountain Bicycling Association, Winter Wildlands Alliance, the Mountaineers, the American Alpine Club, the Mazamas, the Colorado Mountain Club and the Surfrider Foundation.
ACA partners with L.L. Bean to offer the Club Fostered Community (CFC) Grant Program. This program provides grants to local and regional paddling clubs and organizations that implement projects on local waterways. (Hint, hint local clubs!). This is all in addition to many other partnerships, including the most notable one, the U.S. Coast Guard and USCG Auxiliary. This relationship has been instrumental to the USCGA initiating a paddlecraft safety program called Auxiliary Paddlecraft, or AUXPAD.
The final division—and newest National Activity Council of the ACA – is focused on the community, meaning you and me! This division is also why I am writing this story as the newly elected ACA North Carolina State Director and no longer as the Carolina Canoe Club Safety Chair. Over 20 years ago the ACA created a State Director program to allow local paddlers and clubs a representative at state level to help provide information and relay concerns back and forth between the ACA and the paddlers, the “grass roots” as the ACA refers to them. Recently, you may have seen a post from me on Facebook about the ACA making changes with the program. Those changes are what led to me being nominated and accepting the position as the ACA State Director for North Carolina.
We now have the ACA Regional Activity Council (RAC) – structured just like the SEIC, but implemented geographically to give grassroots paddlers a voice and a path for problem solving. Now instead of the paddlers and clubs going to the State Director who in turn had to talk straight to ACA National, the State Director has a Regional Chair to speak to and a network of other State Directors within the region to share ideas. And they can go collectively to the ACA National Staff when a critical mass of members have the same problem and need a solution. Prior to the formation of the RAC, ACA was steered in a direction more based on input from the SEIC and Competition Counsels because their Council Chairs have a seat and a vote on the ACA Board of Directors and there was no one in the room to speak for local paddlers and clubs. With the ratification of the new ACA bylaws, the Council Chair of the RAC also has a seat and a vote in the Boardroom. Now we all have representatives with a vote at a level that makes a difference. It provides me and other State Directors with a support network at local levels with whom to share concerns and information and the framework to host large multi-state events like you will see happening in the near future. When you saw all the information recently pop up about the RAC and Chair positions and subsequent voting, this is what it means to you. It means you now have someone at the national level of the ACA whose sole purpose is to relay the voices of the paddlers at your level. So now when you voice a concern or problem with the ACA to me (or your respective State Director if you are not in NC) then it will be heard and it will be addressed, at many levels to ensure a satisfactory result.
As your State Director for the ACA of North Carolina, I hope to make ACA a common name amongst all paddlers and to build a network of all paddlesports in North Carolina whether it be a common paddler, a competition paddler, an instructor, a paddling club, or association, or even a paddlesport business. We all have a part to play in paddlesports in our wonderful state and North Carolina cannot become the best paddlesport state in the world without all of these categories represented. I ask all of you help me to make North Carolina the best state for paddlesports.
Paddlers: Tell me how I can make the world of paddlesports better for you! What do you not see or hear about that you want to? What can I do to get you more involved as a member of my team or as a certified instructor for our state? Make me earn the title that I was elected to!
Competition Paddlers: Teach me! Teach me what I need to advocate for on your behalf. Volunteer to serve on our ACA North Carolina State Council as the competition representative so I can make sure all your concerns are addressed properly.
Instructors: Let’s get all those courses reported in CMS so we can keep track of how many people we teach even if you are teaching for a business. Don’t let me be the one who teaches the most beginners this year because I’m the only one who reported my classes! Help me keep the large network of instructors current to send emails as I have for the May 20th event! Use the network to find other instructors and build your own network. Help me make North Carolina the leader in Instruction for ACA. We already have many of the greats, help me make sure we have many new instructors to follow in their footsteps.
Paddle Clubs and Associations: Join me and be a part of my network, let me prove to you why you should become a PAC. Let me be your voice to make things happen and ensure your members are represented. Put me to work to make your club a proud member of ACA!
Paddlesport Businesses: I will always promote you as we cannot exist without you. Whether you are a retail store that supplies us with our boats and gear or an outfitter that rents boats that helps a new paddler get into the sport. You may be a location that provides instruction and this need is how most of us become certified as instructors. Support me and the ACA and let me support you and build this huge network of paddlesports within North Carolina that includes you!
Everyone: Make me work as your State Director! I am not asking you to join ACA but I am asking you to make me work
for you to prove why you should join ACA. If I cannot make you feel that it’s worthwhile becoming a member to support this great organization then I am failing my job as your State Director.
William Holman
North Carolina State Director
American Canoe Association
ACA L4 Swiftwater Rescue Instructor
ACA L1 Intro to Kayak Instructor