Call for Candidates for the Coalition of American Canyoneers Board of Directors

It’s election time at the Coalition of American Canyoneers.
Time for you to decide leadership positions for the Board of Directors and we encourage new candidates to come forth during this election cycle.

The Coalition of American Canyoneers is a volunteer based organization for the members by the members. We meet once per month via phone and have up to two retreats per year with electronic communication in between. We are always in need of individuals who are interested in getting involved to help us promote canyon access, conservation, education, and safety. We will hold the election via email vote from September 24th – September 30th, 2024.

There are three openings for a two-year term.
Hank Moon, Jason Bowman, Kevin Anderson, and Calvin Jiricko (incumbents) are retiring from the current board.

The following people have declared their candidacy:

Cam Davenport
Dean Brooks
Ira Lewis

If you have questions or are interested in running for a Board of Directors’ position, please send a short bio and photo before September 23rd, 2024 to: election.board@americancanyoneers.org

Candidate bios will be posted below from September 24th through the election cycle and reminders will be sent to our members to vote.

Cam Davenport

Hi, my name is Cam. Canyoneering changed my whole world. It took going to the guts of the earth to find some of the most spectacular scenery ever to be had and adventures greater than a mind could imagine. Not only was canyoneering beautiful, challenging and fun, I met my whole world on the Colorado Plateau. Some of the greatest people on earth, a bunch of misfits all together for the love of exploring into the depths of the earth. Protecting these canyons and the people that go through them are my priority and goals when joining the CAC.

Dean Brooks

I was introduced to canyoneering in 2009. I’ve descended canyons in six different countries and six US states. I have three children, all competent canyoneers that have traveled the world with my wife and I to descend canyons. In addition to my family, I have introduced dozens of others to canyoneering and enjoy sharing my passion for the sport with newcomers.

In 2023, I joined my second month-long, canyoneering focused winter descent of Grand Canyon, as a boat captain and participant in over thirty canyon explorations, many of them “first descents”. Recently, I’ve led disadvantaged teens from challenging urban environments into slot canyons in my work with a non-profit outreach program in my home town of Boulder, Utah. I spent seven years as a canyoneering focused volunteer for Capitol Reef National Park and four years on the board of directors for Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners. I am well trained and highly experienced in the use of modern retrievable anchors, including toggles (Fiddlestick, etc), sand anchors and water anchors, and I advocate for leave no trace techniques wherever possible.

Ira Lewis

In 2004, I descended my first canyon in California’s San Gabriel Mountains, which sparked a passion for the sport. Pursuing local canyons on weekends and far-flung canyons for vacations from work has introduced me to canyon communities in 17 countries and all of the western United States. I was lucky to have started out learning from some of the bigger names in our American canyon sport history.

I authored the current canyoning guidebook for Colorado and have continued to explore new routes in Colorado, bringing a large percentage of the beta for Colorado’s canyons (wet and dry) to ropewiki.com. For the last 15 years, my home base has been in Colorado, which allows me to make annual spring and fall trips to southeast Utah for dry slot canyons as well.