The formative years

Thom’s interest in the out-of-doors began with his involvement in a boy scout troop in Shaker Heights, Ohio. While Ohio is not known for its outdoor recreation opportunities, Thom gained an appreciation for camping, hiking, and water sports by accompanying his scout troop to the few wild places that did exist, eventually earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

While attending Ohio State University, Thom found weekend work guiding whitewater tours on wild rivers in the neighboring state of West Virginia. He made the acquaintance of one particularly talented guide, James Snyder, who would go on to radically redesign whitewater kayaks, thereby revolutionizing that sport.

These tiny new kayaks, called ‘squirt boats,’ were capable of very gymnastic moves and even underwater maneuvers. Thom sponsored Snyder’s first trip to the western U.S. to introduce this new breed of kayak and the new approach to kayaking that it implied to boaters in the West.

Upon completing college with an honors degree in Environmental Education, Thom emigrated to Portland, Oregon where he continued guiding on rivers in California, Oregon and Idaho, while also teaching environmental science at a series of outdoor education centers around Portland. He responded to the lack of local river safety instruction by establishing his own kayaking school about the same time that he was hired as a science teacher for Portland Public Schools.

His operation of River City Kayak School led to the acquisition of property along the Clackamas River in rural Clackamas County, Oregon, a place known for rich outdoor recreation opportunities and bigfoot sightings.