Sarah Ruhlen Enters Hall of Fame
Sarah Ruhlen Enters Hall of Fame
A Carolina Paddler Article
By Alton Chewning
Sarah Ruhlen is a legend within the Carolina Canoe Club, and for that matter, among Southeastern paddling circles. Her name is known by teenagers, by oldsters, by the casual canoeist and the grittiest hairboater. She wrote and lived the “Rules of Stoke.” Maybe we should have retired the use of the word, stoke, after she died, while it still meant something approaching the spiritual and before it became a catch word used in advertising to indicate excitement. Sarah’s idea of stoke was something different.
Sarah paddled the hard stuff, in both canoes and kayaks. Sarah taught others how to paddle, in both canoes and kayak. When she died in August of 2022, she held a Level 5 instructor’s certification in both whitewater kayaking and canoeing. At 26, she was the youngest to hold the lofty canoe instructor status and the only woman.
As Sarah’s physical capabilities diminished, she found other ways to contribute to the whitewater scene. Always a lover of photography, she began taking more photos and learning to shoot and edit video. She was able to turn these skills into a livelihood and translate them to the whitewater culture. In her last years she was doing the signature videos for the Green Narrows Race and other competitions. She would work around the clock importing new footage as it came in and then turn out a captivating piece for the day-of-race celebration. Everybody knew her and felt like she was a friend and understood them.
Her amiability knew no bounds. Shane Benedict, a founder of Liquid Logic, rented her a room at his house close to the Green. Soon his lawn became a staging area for her fleet of boats, rumored to be 22 in number at the time of her death. Then the living fleet arrived, friends who wanted to see her, people without a place to stay, racers who wanted to let off steam, a rotating cast of newcomers, sponsored paddlers, friends of friends. Shane’s house became a tent village and party central, affectionately known as Club Verde. The neighbors tactfully complained, “The paddlers are good kids, it’s just their music is kinda loud.”
For all her skills, for all her gifts, Sarah had one failing. Nature had dealt her a bum body. Not that she was out of shape. At her peak she could portage and paddle with the best of them. It just seemed bad luck and bad health sought her out. She was diabetic and had a host of other come and go illnesses. In the end it was an obscure autoimmune syndrome that brought her down, taking her once muscular body and paring it down to thinness. Her body wasted away in a heartbreaking fashion.
Sarah kept her head up. She pursued all sorts of treatment, some experimental, some holding a promise of renewed vigor. Time ran out before a cure was found. I paddled with her and her dad, Rich, her good friend Logan and others at Nantahala during the 2022 Week of Rivers. She seemed weak but still enthusiastic, uncomplaining, eager to help others. A few weeks later she died in her sleep.
In 2021, the Southern Appalachia Whitewater Hall of Fame, inducted its inaugural class of individuals and organizations. The Carolina Canoe Club was one of those first groups honored. CCC members Bob Benner and Wayne Dickert were among inductees. Every other year, a new group of HOF members are chosen.
The criteria for inclusion:
As an INNOVATOR by creating new methods, technologies, or products; – as a LEADER among people in organizations or movements;
as a PIONEER who defined new pathways for others to follow, particularly in paddling sport; and/or
as a person who has achieved NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS and served as a role model for others.
Inductees need not have resided in the Southern Appalachians but must have had significant activity and influence in the region. For the purpose of this program, the “Southern Appalachians” is generally intended to include the contiguous mountainous areas of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
Inductees must be at least thirty years old and must have achieved accomplishments or contributions to the sport for a continuous period of at least ten years.
Sarah met many of these criteria, in her unique way. One place she was lacking was age. Sarah died in 2022 at 26 years old. The selection committee made an exception and included her in this 2024 class. Her accomplishments are some of the most varied of the eighty people in the Hall of Fame.
INNOVATIVE PHOTOGRAPHER & VIDEOGRAPHER;
INSTRUCTOR; COMMUNITY-BUILDER;
INSPIRATION AND ROLE MODEL TO CLUB
BOATERS AND PROS ALIKE FOR LIVING
AUTHENTICALLY AND FORGING ONE’S OWN PATH
FOR THE JOY OF PADDLING.
#WRITEYOUROWNRULESOFSTOKE
This past Saturday, a group gathered at Black Dome Mountain Sports, the temporary home of the Southern Appalachian Paddlesports Museum. They would induct Sarah Ruhlen and others into their Hall of Fame. Her dad was there and many other surrogate moms and dads. Sarah was raised by her blood parents but also by other parents, river parents, people who took her in, or ones she adopted. The celebration wouldn’t bring Sarah back, but it was a reminder of her spirit and enthusiasm, of the friendship she could show to the stranger and the friend.
Sarah, who had so many bright moments, lived a difficult life, but she didn’t dwell on the hardships or the miseries she sometimes faced. She tried to enjoy life, to live fully and to help others as much as she could. Her mortal life wasn’t long, but her spirit of living endures.
I have a favorite quote by Anis Mojgani that runs through my head every day. I keep it in my PFD, in my car, on my phone.
“I want my words and actions to be the quantification of my love.
To make tangible the passions in my heart for the world and the people in it.”
And I try to ask myself if my words show my love. If my actions show my love. Do people see me and know who and what and how I love? How I love the world, the people? Does what I create help to show that?
Sarah Ruhlen September 5, 2019
Sarah’s involvement with the Green Narrows Race
Photos from induction ceremony taken by Dana Hoffman