Kalispell native Brad Ludden has paddled his way to the top of the whitewater world

If whitewater kayaking has a superstar, it's arguably Kalispell native Brad Ludden.

He's been a poster boy for the adventure sport, appearing on the cover of Outside magazine, in National Geographic Adventure magazine and even a Warren Miller film. And he's coursed through rivers across the globe.

But at the ripe old age of 24, he's starting to think about retirement.

"Basically I realize my body can't last forever," he said. "As much as I love it, this career will be over someday, so I'm setting up my retirement."

He figures his body, which glossy magazine spreads show to be as toned and fit as any athlete, might hold out until he's 30. After that, he expects sponsorships like his current gigs with Subaru, Nike and kayak giant Dagger, with their free cars and gear, won't be as lucrative.

So what's a kayaker to do?

Buy real estate and set up a nonprofit organization.

Three years ago Ludden, who's single and lives outside of Vail, and a fellow kayaker formed Summit Investments, a residential and commercial real estate buying company in Colorado.

"We're seasonal athletes," he replied as an explanation for the venture.

Professional seasonal athletes are used to income streams that ebb and flow, so a year-round supplement is nice, Ludden said. Regular income will be increasingly important once kayaking begins to take its toll on their bodies.

He kayaks "less and less" now, about 150 days each year - down from the 300 he used to log.

"But that's the way I want it," he said. "I feel like now I have other obligations."

Those obligations range from making sponsor-related appearances to helping run a free kayaking camp called First Descents. He started the camp several years ago for young adults with cancer.

Each summer First Descents (named after the kayaker term for the first successful trip down a body of water) holds week-long camps that teach participants to kayak. The camps take place in Vail and sometimes Missoula.

The idea stemmed from volunteering with his mother at a similar camp in East Glacier when he was a teenager.

"He just fell in love with it and said, 'That's what I want to do," his mother, Jinny Ludden of Kalispell, recalled.

When he was 18, he began planning in earnest for the camp. In 2001, the camp came to fruition in Vail.

Ludden's mother, his father, Chuck, and sister, Courtney, have been kayaking together since Brad Ludden was 9.

Jinny Ludden found a coach for her son when he was 11. His enthusiasm for the sport wavered after he fell out of his boat and went downstream on the Lochsa River.

"I just didn't want him to quit on a fear," she said.

Brad Ludden now seems fearless. He's had to add pages to his passport due to trips to more than 40 countries and has kayaked rivers from Ecuador to Africa, where the water is often rough enough to make a even a mother with kayaking experience nervous.

But the Luddens made a choice when Brad was 13 and his sister was 14, Jinny Ludden said. She and her husband told them "no" wouldn't be a part of their parental vocabulary.

"They had the freedom to fly," she said. "It was their lives, take care of it."

That philosophy worked well.

"They were so in awe of that responsibility that they were stricter on themselves than we would have been," she said.

Brad Ludden continues to execute that level of responsibility in his kayaking, she says. This year he, his sister and a friend were at a flooded river that he opted not to run. Even though Ludden was confident he could handle the water, the group had no rope to throw in case something went wrong.

"I like to hear that," his mother said.

Ludden went on international kayaking trips and attended courses on the sport as a teenager and eventually became known as an athlete to watch on the river scene.

Outside writer Greyson Schaffer has worked with Ludden and describes him as a "poster boy" for the sport. Many kayakers Ludden's age started when they were young and have developed skills that latecomers to the sport envy.

"They took it on like the way you now see skiers start early and get so good at it that it seems second nature, almost as if the boat is an extension of the body," he explained.

Ludden, though, stands out from his peers for his skills but also for his media savvy.

"We keep coming back to him because he's constantly doing things and reinventing himself," Schaffer said.

Ludden developed a knack for marketing himself by being a superb athlete. He is charismatic but laid back and continues to pursue interesting things, Schaffer said.

His river trips have been chronicled by writers as well as adventure filmmakers such as Warren Miller. Ludden appeared in Miller's film "Journey."

He's still dabbling in all of the above, but now Ludden said his focus is more on planning his future beyond professional kayaking - and that doesn't involve a 9-to-5 office job.

"I've never really had a normal job," he said. "I realized I never wanted a life where someone tells me what to do and where to be when."

He anticipates the investment company will give him a revenue stream and thus the freedom from the traditional rat race. And it's also something he enjoys although it's "more mundane" than a whitewater career.

But First Descents is the true goal.

Ludden teaches at some of the camps each year, and often is joined by his family. Courtney Ludden teaches kayaking and his mother assists with varied tasks and repsonsibilities around the camp. Chuck Ludden, a physician, provides campers with medical assistance.

"In time that will become my full-time gig," Brad Ludden said.

In the meantime, he'll likely be recovering from what kayaking has wreaked on his body.

"I feel like I'm 50," he joked. "My back hurts, my shoulder hurts…"