‘Kayaking is our lifeblood’: Kayaking more than a sport for Rock Island’s Jackson family
ROCK ISLAND, Tenn. (BVM) — The once popular TLC song said, “Don’t go chasing waterfalls,” but for Rock County’s Dane Jackson, waterfalls are what help give his life more thrills. Jackson, a world renowned competitive and freestyle kayaker, has become synonymous with his daring plunges down waterfalls throughout the country and throughout the world in nothing more than a kayak.
In February, Jackson took a particularly spectacular 134-foot dive down the Salto del Maule in Chile. The drop was the farthest of Jackson’s career and good for the second tallest known descent in history behind only Tyler Bradt’s 189-foot descent at Palouse Falls in Washington. The moment was the completion of a years-long obsession for the kayaker, but kayaking is just in Dane’s blood.
“Kayaking is our lifeblood by choice, our source of friends and family, and a way to use our creative energies,” Dane’s father, Eric Jackson said.
The Jackson family includes some of the most successful kayakers of all-time, beginning with the head of the home, Eric. Eric, who started doing freestyle kayaking in 1980 while working as a whitewater photographer on the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers, learned the sport from his father as a teenager when the family would alternate between kayaking and canoeing on river trips. At the time, the world of kayaking was mostly club racing composed of local kayak clubs and most kayakers would travel to compete in competitions. Although there was a USA kayaking team and a world championship for slalom and downriver racing, this was an ultimate goal for a kayaker and not made for the recreational type.
“For a whitewater kayaker, being on the USA team was the pinnacle of competitive kayaking in the ‘80s,” Eric said.
Eric’s first competitive turn in the sport started in 1983 when he attended the University of Maine and participated in downriver racing and slalom. Through a lot of dedication, and support from his wife, Kristine, Eric was able to carve out a long and storied career in the sport.
Eric, achieving the dream of many kayaking hopefuls, was one of the longest participating members of Team USA, having been on either the slalom or freestyle roster for 25 consecutive years from 1989 2014 as well as two additional years in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, Eric became team captain of the USA Kayak Fishing Team and competed in and won the Pan Am Kayak Fishing Championships and expects to be on the team for years to come. Four freestyle world championships, two Pre-World championships, and a World Cup championship are just some of the patriarch’s many accomplishments.
“I have won hundreds of competitions over the years,” Eric said.
A success in the water, Eric also established himself outside the water as well. Eric, along with his business partners Tony Lunt and design partner David Knight, launched Jackson Kayak in 2003. Jackson Adventures, as it is now known following an expansion of the company’s products, has continued to produce some of the world’s best kayaks. Eric left the company in Dec. 2019 to launch a new brand of fishing kayaks, Apex Watercrafts. Eric has also established himself as one of the best teachers of the sport in the country as well having released a number of books and videos on the techniques and strategies of the sport.
“I learned to roll in 1979 from Bob O’Neil, the only person who knew the roll in the club we joined, and my dad organized roll clinics in a pool in New Hampshire,” Eric said. “I taught my dad and 40 other club members how to roll. I enjoyed that and always did some teaching of friends. I started creating instructional curriculum in 1993, with my ‘EJ’s Strokes and Concepts’ program, trying to bring best practices from my Olympic training and coaching and freestyle to the masses, as it was not available to the public at that time.”
But, perhaps most importantly, Eric was able to spread the interest of the sport to his children.
Eric and Kristine have three children, their 30-year-old daughter Emily, 26-year-old son Dane and their youngest son, KC. The family is a close-knit bunch having spent most of their time on the road traveling from place to place for Eric’s competitions. Doing this, the family never truly established a home, instead living in an RV and having the kids being homeschooled by their mother. With all the time in and around the sport, it was only a matter of time before Eric’s children picked up the paddle.
“Before my kids started kayaking with me, I could go anywhere and run anything,” Eric said. “Once they got into kayaking, I had to tone it down in order to paddle with them much of the time. However, it didn’t take long before Dane in particular was comfortable on Class 5 (one of the most difficult classifications of river paddling). In 2005, my kids really started taking kayaking into their own hands. They couldn’t get enough and were enjoying the attention of fans and the thrill of competing.”
KC hasn’t jumped into the field like his siblings, but it doesn’t bother his father. He understands that there has to be a desire to fully enjoy the sport and he doesn’t push any of that onto his youngest child.
“KC is still a bit like Emily was at her age,” Eric said. “Ask him if he wants to be a kayaker and he says no. I don’t pressure my kids to paddle, never have. They have to want it. We’ll see if, like Emily did at age 13, KC decides to paddle.”
Although KC hasn’t been able to compete at a national or international level yet, both Emily and Dane have established themselves among the best in the world.
Starting in the sport in 2002, Emily has competed on the international level for many years including being a member of the USA kayak team. Much like her father, Emily has also seen many successes in the water including being a three-time World Freestyle Kayak Champion and a 10-time GoPro Mountain Game winner. On top of that, Emily married Canadian kayaker and World Champion Nick Troutman and the two have had two children together, Tucker and Parker, who spend their time with the couple on their kayaking trips.
For Eric and the family, the addition of Nick was welcomed with open arms, even though he beat Eric for his world championship in 2009, and the continuation of the family industry is just the icing on the cake.
“We had Nick traveling with us for years before they got married and certainly years before Nick was a strong competitor,” Eric said. “We kept him with us, traveling in the RV to events because of his character and willingness to help us with whatever was needed. We were very excited when they started dating and even more so when they got married. It is fun watching Nick and Emily with Tucker and Parker. The grandkids are still young, but getting a lot of travel and kayak experience. My guess is that both of them will kayak!”
Dane has done some pretty remarkable things in a kayak himself. He first started freestyling at the age of six and the “paddling prodigy” has won three world championships himself on top of a slew of other accolades including being the Grand Prix champion three times. Dane, who is sponsored by both Red Bull and GoPro, has taken his kayak game to a different place than his other family members by doing more of the extreme sport type of thrills. With his most recent waterfall completion, Dane has now gone over six waterfalls and is looking to do more in the future as he continues to travel throughout the world kayaking.
At first, it was Eric who taught the young Dane how to maneuver the difficult rapids, but before long the roles have reversed.
“Dane has been running Class 5 whitewater since he was 10 years old,” Eric said. “I led him down all of the rivers in the beginning and eventually he started leading me down rivers I have never been on. It was never news, as I was there for the first eight years of him running extreme whitewater. Now the news comes from afar when he is off somewhere running a big drop or river when I am not with him and it is never ending. He goes from one trip to the next with little time in between.”
From the outside world, it may seem borderline insane for someone to drop off a waterfall in just a kayak, but the family understands the risk of the lifestyle and use a family motto to help them handle the pressures of the sport.
“We live by the quote, ‘worry is like interest paid in advance on a debt you may never owe’,” Eric said. “I am aware that something bad could happen and so is he, however, he is the best at what he does and tries to be as safe as possible, while pushing the limits.”
Emily and Dane are both humorous when it comes to discussing how they got into the sport. Emily described it as a “family affair” while Dane explained that his dad might have had something to do with it. Though it may not be so surprising as to where the siblings picked up their love of the sport, kayaking will forever be the link that ties the family together.
“I am very happy to see that my kids not only enjoy it, can make a living doing it, but also excel at it,” Eric said. “It makes me proud to know I was able to transfer my knowledge to them and that they were able to build upon that knowledge and do it their own way.”
Family is the biggest reward Eric has received from his kayaking. Ask him about his favorite moment kayaking and he will tell you about the family’s trip around the world in 1999 starting in the Zambezi River in Zambia before spending three months in New Zealand for the world championships and recreational kayaking and hitting the coasts for some surfing as well. Or maybe he will tell you about the time both Emily and Dane learned the eskimo roll on the same day near their home in Rock Island, the moment they went from learners to Eric’s “paddling buddies.” Ask him about his greatest accomplishment, Eric is quick to say that teaching his kids and helping them be the best in the world is what he is most proud of.
As the premiere family in the sport, Eric understands the pressure of their success, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“The ‘first family of kayaking’ is a term that has been thrown around for a while now,” Eric said. “Being part of this sport and having an impact like we do with kayak design and manufacturing, doing events, running events, my wife ran the USA Freestyle committee for many years and was on the board for the International Freestyle committee, is a big responsibility. But (it) certainly is a dream come true for me.”
The family, after many years on the road, now have Rock Island as their headquarters, where Eric and Kristine live. Even though the family didn’t have much of an official home when the kids were growing up, it didn’t matter much; it was about being together. As long as the Jacksons have a paddle, a kayak and some water, they will always have a place they can call home.
