The Dave Hansen Whitewater Crew
Read about our office crew: click here.
Jason Crockett
Born in the small town of Pineville in the Appalachian Mountains, Jason lived in Kentucky for 23 years before graduating from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree in Construction Management. Since then Jason migrated west living in mountain towns like Breckenridge, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, and Coloma, California. Jason guided two summers on the challenging American River before coming out to Jackson Hole in 2005. Like all of our guides, mountains and rivers are his first love. During the wintertime, Jason is an intense skier and logs in many days on the mountain slopes. Jason brings a unique perspective to Dave Hansen Whitewater, educating the rest of us on the difference between a simple “cookout” and a genuine southern “barbecue.” For those of you laymen, a cookout is simply throwing some beef patties on the grill and turning up the Justin Timberlake. A Jason Crockett barbecue, however, is a live Blue Grass band, Louisianna shrimp flown in from the Bayou, and a 6 foot pit with a pig roasting for some 18 hours. Now that's a barbecue. We at Dave Hansen feel truly lucky to have him returning to our team for a third season in 2008, as he is unequivocally one of the best guides on the Snake.
Arne Carter
Arne was born and raised in Salt Lake City. Growing up, he says he probably spent more time in the mountains than in his home. He enjoys snowboarding, kayaking, mountaineering, mountain biking, camping, and pretty much anything that doesn’t involve being indoors. He started working at scout camps when he was 16, teaching canoeing and guiding backpacking trips. Ironically enough, he met his future wife at boy scout camp. He came to Jackson for the first time when he was 18, and fell in love with the river. He is one of the few guides on the river who has guided every section of the Snake from Pacific Creek to Sheep Gulch. At 19, Arne served his mormon mission in Taiwan, where he learned to speak Mandarin Chinese. A fan of rivers anywhere in the world, Arne decided to go rafting one day. To his chagrin, he overheard the Taiwanese rafting company discussing how they were short one guide, and whatever would they do? To their relief, Arne stepped up and told them he was a guide in the states, and he was promptly handed an oar to guide a boat down the river. Arne is currently pursuing his degree in International Agriculture Business, with a Minor in Chinese for Utah State University, and we hope he will be signing his 10 year contract with Dave Hansen Whitewater any day now.
Molly Luft
Molly is simply unstoppable. She is the triathlete of the river business. She can put a smile on your face while taking your phone reservation, she can drive you safely to the river as a CDL-licensed bus driver, and she can entertain you all the way down the Snake River as one of our most indispensable guides. Molly grew up in Portland, Oregon, slide tackling boys on the soccer field. This experience may have helped her earn a soccer scholarship to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University, where she became a two-time captain of the soccer team and studied her way to a degree in Earth and Environmental Science. Molly will return to Dave Hansen for the 2008 season, but not until she travels down to Grenada, Nicaragua, as a volunteer for the nonprofit organization, Soccer Without Borders. For six weeks Molly will make a difference in the lives of young Nicaraguan girls--and maybe even teach one or two of them to slide tackle the boys.
Tyler Babcock
This summer will mark Tyler “T-Bone’s” 5th summer as a professional river rat. He spent two years as a Kayak Instructor on the Salmon River where he fell in love with the sport; he now returns for a third summer here on the Snake River in Jackson. T-Bone hails from Salt Lake City, Utah, where he spends the school year studying at the University of Utah. We love this kid: when you're the President of the Whitewater Rafting Club, you know you can't get enough of the river. Tyler enjoys mountaineering, backpacking, skiing, and if he can trick enough friends, rafting and kayaking Cataract Canyon in the middle of winter. In addition to all of the above talents, T-bone can play the harmonica, strum the guitar, and recite Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. With this array of talents, you will surely be in great hands.
Bryson White
Growing up in Utah, Bryson’s first river experience was at age 7. On a hot summer’s day he and some of his fellow neighborhood troublemakers inflated a small ten-dollar K-mart raft and tried their luck on the local creek. After a bitter cold swim, a completely destroyed boat, several near drownings, and the dispatch of search and rescue personnel, Bryson was dedicated to big whitewater. His professional guiding career began at age 17 when he landed a job taking boy scouts canoeing on the upper stretches of the Snake. Since then he has guided three years here in Jackson Hole and spent the 2007 season on the Main and Lower Salmon rivers in Idaho. He’s excited to be back working in Jackson with Dave Hansen this summer and says “this will be the best dang summer of my life.” We like to think it’s because he’s working for Dave Hansen, but in reality it’s because he’s marrying the girl of his dreams this coming May. He’s proud of the fact that it only took him one year to actually get the guts to ask her out. When he’s not on the river, Bryson likes to think about the river. He enjoys playing the piano, climbing rocks, riding his bicycle, and singing in the shower. He is a studying Business Administration at Utah State University and ought to graduate sometime within the next five or ten years (which gives him plenty more summers to work for Dave Hansen). Bryson is a river guide because he loves to meet new people, make new friends, and share something with them that he loves.
Jason Laughlin
Jason, or “Duece” as he is affectionately known around Dave Hansen, has guided every section of the Snake from Pacific Creek to Sheep Gulch. Growing up in Oregon, Jason started fishing at age six, and started rafting at age twelve. Guiding for the Boy Scouts at age 17, Jason has floated The Deschutes, Upper Clackamas, Henry’s Fork, and the Hoback. Jason loves everything outdoor including mountain biking, hiking, swimming, photography, rock climbing, and snowboarding. Somehow he finds time to attend Brigham Young University and after earning a Business degree, he plans on attending law school. We don’t know how he’s going to handle a classroom for so many years, especially since he constantly calls us during the winter time trying to figure out a way to guide trips down the Snake in the middle of winter.
Matthew Lynn
We are thrilled to have Matt returning to Dave Hansen Whitewater for the 2008 season, and his fourth season with us. A river guide since age 16, Matt has navigated rivers across the United States for the past 9 years. Although he has guided on the Shanandoah, Potomac, and Youghiogeny of West Virginia, and the Gros Ventre of Wyoming, he believes that the Jackson area and Snake River Canyon are the most beautiful scenery he’s guided on. Matt is one heck of a talented guy, graduating from Salisbury University with a degree in Studio Art. Recently, Matt has focused on competitive cycling, training and racing in the marathon mountain biking division. At the end of last season, he completed his first 24-hour solo (yes, that is 24 hours in a row of riding a bike!). An avid outdoorsman, Matt spends his free time hiking, kayaking, scuba diving, running, and biking. Matt has enrolled in the University of Wyoming's teacher program where he is pursuing his teaching certification. After he completes this program, Matt will be able to teach during the school year and guide for Dave Hansen Whitewater during the summer time for the rest of his life! Except for the fact that Matt guessed his manager’s age to be 10 years older than the actual age, he is an exceptional person and a highly skilled guide. He is originally from Brownsville, Maryland, which is ten minutes from Harper’s Ferry.
Bill Hardman
We are relieved and excited that Bill has torn himself away from playing his guitar in Atlanta and has returned to Jackson for his fourth summer as a guide with Dave Hansen Whitewater. Bill has lived his whole life with one foot in the river, fishing from the Nantahala in North Carolina to the Snake in Wyoming. Born in Gainesville, Georgia, he loves to play guitar, flaunt his true southern accent, and call in sick in September when the fish are rising nonstop… We wouldn’t be surprised if he snuck a flyrod on the back of the boat. Bill graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Business Management. Be careful with Bill, as he is our most creative guide; he is responsible for naming "Preaching Rock" and don't even listen to his Boy Scout Eagle Project concerning the retaining wall....
Tara Meyer
Tara came to us in the summer of 2005 from her fabulous hometown of Portland, Oregon. Having grown up rafting the Deschutes River with fellow Dave Hansen guide Molly Luft, Tara took to guiding on the Snake River faster than we could say, "WOAH, IT'S THE BIG KAHUNA!" She was very lucky to be trained by Dave, Matt, and Bryan. In 2007, Tara graduated with a B.A. in Natural Science and Film and Media Studies. When she is not hanging out in Jackson Hole riding the rapids or wrestling pigs, we can usually expect Tara to be out on some sort of adventure. In the past few years she has studied in New Zealand, spent time interning at a television station in Kathmandu, and rafted some class V rivers near the Nepalese-Tibetan border. This summer, Tara will be journeying to India to photograph wild tigers before heading back to Nepal for some rafting and trekking. After she finishes hugging elephants all around Nepal, she will return to Dave Hansen Whitewater for the 2008 season in August.
Owen Popinchalk (pop-in-chalk)
Born and raised in Jackson Hole, mountains and rivers are Owen’s lifeline. His family took him on his first raft trip down the Snake at the ripe age of four, and he has not stopped running rivers since. Owen has paddled or rowed his way down rivers in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and even Costa Rica. Making his home in the Kelly Yurt Park (a small community of Yurts 12 miles north of Jackson), Owen uses this special place as a base camp for climbing, skiing, and backpacking in the Tetons. As if that weren't enough, you will also find him biking the trails in the Jackson valley, hunting in the fall, and hanging with friends and family year-round. If you are like his employers and curious about his name, it is Czech in origin and was changed slightly when his ancestors arrived at Ellis Island and pronounced their name “Papinczaak”, and it was subsequently written down as “Popinchalk.” Owen is another one of our returning guides who has signed a lifetime contract with Dave Hansen Whitewater. He is looking forward to being on the river and explaining what a yurt is to all his clients.
Mike Kaiser
After four years of teaching in inner-city schools such as Harlem and Seattle, Mikey is excited to have his classroom under the Tetons on the Snake River. After years of enjoying rivers recreationally, Mike got serious this summer. No, it wasn’t Meryl Streep’s performance from The River Wild that inspired him to grab the oars, but actually our own guide Jason, who challenged him point-blank: “Do you want to be a river guide?” he asked, “Or do you want to just be a Snake River guide?” Mike went through an extensive training program, learning how to study and read water under Bud, Matt, Jason and the rest of the Dave Hansen team. Mike is returning for his second season with us and is a talented, dedicated and focused guide…as long as you don’t mention that there is a snake in the boat. DEAL OR NO DEAL Update! After creating a video with his students from Aki Kurose middle school in Seattle, Mike has been selected for an interview to be on the show and win some money. Mike's goals are to pay off his loans, create a scholarship for his deserving students, and afford therapy for his snake phobia.
Dan Bennett
We call him the “Ragin’ Cajun” of the Snake River despite his many years of residence in Jackson Hole. A native of Bayou LaBatrie, Louisiana, Dan speaks English as a second language. His adoptive parents found him washed up in a basket in the marsh following Hurricane Betsy, a cottonmouth water moccasin coiled beside the infant. He’s been plying the waterways ever since. Originally a swamp paddler and bayou fisherman, Dan got his whitewater experience paddling canoes and C-1s on the alluvial rivers of the Smoky Mountain region after graduating with an art history degree from LSU. Among his vast experiences, he has worked as an oil-field rough neck and an award-winning newspaper journalist. Dan is still making headway on his life’s ambition to climb every peak in the Tetons, but riding his road bike has been a considerable distraction. Dan gained an intimate knowledge of the plant life of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem after a bear stole his food during a backpacking trek in the Wind River Range. Dan joined the Dave Hansen team in 2007 as a scenic guide and is never happier than when sharing knowledge about the plants, the birds and the mountains that adorn the banks our magnificent Snake River.
Dave Hansen
With over four decades guiding on the Snake River, Dave is a virtual Jackson Hole legend. Naming Lunchcounter and Big Kahuna back in 1967, Dave pioneered commercial whitewater rafting in the Snake River Canyon. A religious fisherman, I think Dave has spent at least half his life in a boat. Dave has a deep love and respect for the Jackson area, and no one could ever accuse him of putting business ambitions over outdoor interests. Consequently, he kept the company small and intimate. These days, as Dave approaches 67 you will find him fishing, golfing, breakfasting at Route 89, or chatting it up with Bud about the latest fishing hole.
Bryan Lyster
Trained by Dave himself in 2005, we are so fortunate to have Bryan returning this summer for his fourth season on the Snake River. As a Nationally Registered EMT with a Wilderness Rating, and Outdoor Emergency Care Technician, Bryan is as well prepared as they come. Growing up on a farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Bryan spent most of his waking hours in the outdoors fishing, skiing, and horseback riding. Before moving out to Jackson Hole, Bryan graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in Human and Organizational Development. This makes him exceptionally skilled at organizing water fights…. Bryan makes the most out of each season, spending the fall in Alaska as an assistant hunting guide, returning to Jackson in the Winter to volunteer for Snow King’s ski patrol and coach the wrestling team at the middle school. When not memorizing lyrics to Guns N’ Roses, you will find Bryan backcountry skiing, biking, rafting, or hunting.
Bud Chatham
 Bud with Guide in Training, Hyla Chatham, (for the 2020 season) |
Bud is an owner and guide for Dave Hansen Whitewater. Born and raised in the Bay Area of California, Bud owes his love for rivers to his father, cousin, and uncle. Spending his high school summers guiding fishing trips with his cousin on the Truckee River, and his college summers out here guiding in Jackson Hole with his Uncle’s whitewater company (our respected competitor…but which shall remain nameless), Bud has never strayed far from rivers. Bud has been guiding on the Snake for fourteen seasons now, and his goal is to keep Dave Hansen Whitewater thriving for yet another four decades. Bud respects Dave Hansen so much he even has Dave’s cell phone number speed-dialed ahead of his wife’s.
Jacie
In Training for the 2022 Season. Photo Coming Soon.