Artist, Photographer, Filmmaker, Environmentalist, and Canoeist

Bill Mason could not fathom why every man and woman did not own a canoe.

Film Credits: Paddle to the Sea, Cry of the Wild, Song of the Paddle, Path of the Paddle Quietwater, Path of the Paddle Whitewater, and of course, Waterwalker.

Book Credits: Path of the Paddle, Song of the Paddle, Canoescapes.

Biographies about Bill: Fire in the Bones, Spirit of the Wilderness.

Bill Mason could paddle a canoe comfortably in conditions that would make swimmers out of most of us. That's the challenge: to paddle long enough to achieve that oneness with the water and the canoe.

The final scene of his film Waterwalker says it all for me. Bill is paddling a river of no name, through a landscape blanketed with snow, touching my soul like no other piece of film, art work, or photograph I've ever seen. He inspires me in that twenty-second clip to drop everything I'm doing and drift to the water in my mind, body, and spirit.

Thank you, Bill.