Carmen E. Kuntz

Freelance Writer and Photographer

Ontario, Canada

Sharing my passion for environmental conservation and self-propelled exploration in honour of the wild people and places that make everyday an adventure.

Carmen E. Kuntz

Freelance Writer and Photographer

Ontario, Canada

Sharing my passion for environmental conservation and self-propelled exploration in honour of the wild people and places that make everyday an adventure.

Featured
Fall 2017
As some of the last wild rivers of Europe, and home to a slew of endemic and endangered plant and animal species, these rivers are biodiversity hotspots. The surrounding mountains, hills and valleys provide the opportunity to journey back in time with locals who still live off the land. The true value lies in sustainable tourism such as rafting, kayaking, canoeing and fishing. However, opposing hydro power in these regions can be a tricky political business. A year ago, I was presented with a simple solution: save the rivers by paddling and fishing in them. Maybe we can show local governments and decision makers there is more value in a free flowing river rich in eco tourisms, than one clogged with concrete. Let’s use our fishing rods to fight back!
Kayak Angler Magazine
Featured
BREAKING THROUGH
A six-part series profiling athletes reaching the next level in their sport. The Ottawa River, which separates Gatineau from Ottawa, surged beyond its banks this spring, turning streets into rivers navigable only by boat.
Teton Gravity Research
Featured
In Search of the World’s Best Freestyle Kayaking Wave
Freestyle whitewater kayaking is often associated with park-and-play: usually, you need car access. So when an international crew of whitewater aficionados loaded eight featherlight carbon freestyle kayaks onto rafts and paddled into the Canadian wilderness in September, they took the hunt for fresh waves to a new level.
Outside Magazine
Featured
Slalom and Tequila: Recovering From Traumatic Brain Injury
The surge of whitewater rocks me up and down in my kayak. Waves of nausea and pain pulse in my head and chest. I grab the wet rocks, trying to ground myself in the swell of the eddy. I look at the tops of the trees waiting for the intensity of the pain to pass—I smile to appear OK but it’s just a mask.
Mountain Life Magazine
MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Fall 2016
Mountain Life Magazine
Machno Adventuring in Montenegro
A kayak can be a lot of things: it can be a toy, for surfing and playing; it can be transportation, covering long distances by freshwater or saltwater; it can be a school, an opportunity for constant learning and development. A kayak is also an incredible tool for discovery. From the seat of a kayak, with a paddle in hand you can go places few are able to go.
Team Pyranha Blog
The Pivot: A Superhero Second Skin
The sky darkens, threatening to split open and smash us with rain at any moment. There we stand, a textbook pathetic fallacy: Myself and 25 other kayakers have just paddled up to a concrete wall blocking the flow of the mighty Soča river, funneling it into a pipe. We clamber onto the dam and out from the dead water.
NRS - Duct Tape Diaries
2017 Tara River Festival, Montenegro
There are many different recipes for a successful kayaking festival. Kayak Fest Tara combined elements of kayaking that often get forgotten or eliminated in the bigger, highly competitive events. Mellow whitewater, race courses that everyone can paddle and local food, drinks, music and paddlers made this festival feel like party that everyone could enjoy.
KayakSession.com
Kayak Festivals of Europe
Kayak festivals are simple: Paddlers coming together at the same time each year to celebrate and enjoy the act of kayaking. The focus of each festival is different; some, like Sickline or King of the Alps concentrate on competition. While others, like Gauley Fest in West Virginia, were created to take advantage of the annual water release.
NRS - Duct Tape Diaries
Kindling Magazine
Four amigos united around a common thread of making getting out there easier. We like going into the lesser visited places. Since moving to the same town, we found ourselves often wandering the woods together. We share a credence that spending time outside, away from cars and shopping is an inherently beneficial thing.
OutdoorExplore.com
Simply Slovenia
I’m biking through the old city streets of Europe. Baguette in my bag and hundred-year-old buildings around me, I feel like I’m living the stereotypical European vacation. The only difference between my holiday and scenes from a cliché Hollywood movie is that instead of a classic cruiser bike with a wide seat, I’m cruising on a rusty, red mountain bike with squealing brakes.
NRS - Duct Tape Diaries
Food, Balance & Whitewater with Ben Marr
In some form, we are all seeking balance. Work-play balance, training-recovery, fun-fitness. Benny Marr spends roughly 300 days of the year on the road. For him, the pursuit of balance is a constant. From spring in Ontario and northern Quebec, summer in BC, and White Salmon in winter with some ocean hopping here and there, he is literally chasing whitewater.
Canoe & Kayak Magazine
Boardsports in the Land of Water
Ontario is the land of water. And where you find water, you’ll find boardsports. Dedicated and adventurous riders in the Collingwood area are challenging the idea that you need oceans and mountains to get gnarly on a board. Blue Mountain local Erika Langman is comfortable on any board. From surf to snow, wake to wind, she constantly seeks the feeling of flow - going fast and high on a board. Her playground is the lakes, ponds, ditches and shoreline of the Collingwood area. In her eyes, it’s just as good (or better) than any mountain town or seaside village.
MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountain
Unleashing Big Water Potential
The Canadian near-frozen north has been steadily gaining a reputation as the place for big-water hungry kayakers. Melting snowpack fueled by spring sun or spring showers sees the rivers of eastern Ontario and northern Quebec rising to create raging big water and monstrous surf waves. It’s the Promised Land for whitewater kayaking.
Canoe & Kayak Magazine
From Russia with Love
I’m in the middle of Siberia, roughly 300 kilometers from where the boarders of China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia converge. Sweat drips off my back and shoulders. I’m in a Russian sauna or banya, crammed in with 12 other people from eight different countries. It’s more than 175 degrees and I’m being whipped with tree branches to the point of pain.
Duct Tape Diaries - NRS
The Balkan Rivers Tour
What do you do when you find out a dam is going to be built on your home river? Do you start a petition, get other paddlers involved, write letters to politicians? When Slovenian kayaker Rok Rozman found out there were 2,700 proposed dams to be built in his backyard, the Balkan Peninsula, he did the opposite—he went kayaking.
Duct Tape Diaries - NRS

About

Carmen E. Kuntz

Freelance Writing

Photography

Web Content

Social Media

Editing

I’m a dreamer, a day-light skinny dipper and a cinnamon bun connoisseur.
I’m a bike riding, flip-flop wearing, whiskey drinker. I’m a sushi chief, a chance taker and mistake maker,
a professional dirt magnet and compassion giver.
I’m an inconsistent yogi and student of meditation,
an accident prone adventurer and an artist of tan lines.
I have a masters in laughter and am happiest floating in whitewater.
I’m an avid listener, a loud talker and an energy giver,
a water worshiper and I’ve got good friends and bad habits.
I’m a big sister, a little sister and a best friend,
I make mistakes, I fall hard and occasionally light things on fire.

A more formal introduction:
I'm a regular contributor at Rapid Magazine and Mountain Life Magazine where I write about my two passions; the environment and adventure sports. My Geography degree is highlighted by my interest in human and large carnivore interactions in the backcountry. I’m passionate about river conservation and protecting Canadian wetlands.

I aspire to share my passion for environmental conservation and self propelled exploration in honour of the wild people and places that make everyday an adventure.

-Carmen