Me by Dane Jackson

Learn more about Dane

March 14, 2006

I am Dane Jackson and I am 12 years old. 10 years of my life I have been a kayaker and love the outdoors. I was born on July 19th, 1993. When I was born I was three months early so I had 70% hearing loss and I am small for my age.

I moved in the RV November 1st 1997 when I was 4 years old. We stayed in the RV for 5 years. We moved in a house here at Rock Island November 2002. Living in the RV was cool because we got to go all over the US and Canada to paddle. That is when I really started getting good at kayaking.

My first competition was in Salida, Colorado in a small playspot right below a bridge. It was me and a bunch of other kids. I won so it was a fun day. My best competition was inVail, Colorado at the Teva mountain games in 2005. It was a huge event and it had an awesome playspot right in the middle of a big city. I got 9th in the pro men’s class since there were no juniors. I made the US team in 2005. It was at route 3 wave in Watertown, New York on the black river. I got third over all in the juniors and went to Australia for the world championships in 2005.

When I went to Australia it was mainly for the World championships. I wound up getting 18th out of 30 juniors. It wasn’t the greatest position but I was just happy to be there. While we were in Australia and when the worlds were over we went to Sydney to see some really cool stuff. We got to pet Koala bears and see kangaroos. We went on train rides through the mountains. My favorite thing we did while we were in Sydney we took a boat ride to the great barrier reef where we went scuba diving and snorkeling. Once we were done with that the next day we did a really cool thing. We climbed to the top of Ayers Rock with nothing but chains to grab onto that were just stuck into the rock. But at the top it was one of the most beautiful views.

December 2006, I did my big adventure which was going to Africa. We were there for a month. We were there for mainly kayaking the Zambezi and White Nile, but also for Safaris. Kayaking was really cool because it was HUGE whitewater and awesome playspots. We were there making the playboating videos with Jackson kayak. We got to see loins, white flamangos, and all the amazing animals that are in Africa.

What makes me feel lucky is what I have done in my life, where I have gone, and my friends and family. I am looking forward to this summer and competing well in kayak events. This summer I am going to help two kids from Uganda make it through high school. They are my age and don’t have enough money to go to highschool. I will be using my savings and allowance to pay 40 dollars a month for each of them. Thanks for reading my story, and have fun in the future.

Dane