Photo by Chad Christopher
I first met Sarah on a Carolina Canoe Club Easter trip. Groups were splitting up, and we needed someone to lead a Big Laurel trip. Sarah volunteered, saying she had run it five or six years before. Someone ventured, “How old were you then, twelve?” From the moment she picked up a paddle, Sarah Ruhlen brought laughter, enthusiasm, and fierce determination to the river. Raised in a family of paddlers, Sarah grew up riding tandem canoe with her father, eventually becoming the youngest person and only woman to achieve Level 5 ACA Instructor certification in solo and tandem canoe.
Sarah was not only a gifted paddler but a connector — of people, of passions, of generations. Sarah was the darling of the Club; she crossed age divides so easily. Adults called themselves her “river parents”, opening their homes and hearts to a girl who made everyone feel seen and heard. She knew no strangers and after 30 minutes, people were her devoted friends.
Sarah shining, with an insulin pump on her belly and a glucose monitor on her arm. Photo by Sage Donnelly
Her life wasn’t easy. Diagnosed early with type one diabetes, Sarah faced this and other medical challenges most could not imagine. But the adversity never defined her — she lived as though joy was a discipline, and paddling, her meditation. Just weeks before her unexpected passing, I paddled with her on the Nantahala. Her body was thinning but she was still stoking others’ fires.
Death claimed her body in August of 2022. Auto immune conditions combined with diabetes to rob her of the physical vitality she displayed for many years. As a friend observed, she was born with a magnificent spirit trapped in a compromised vessel. The tension between her gifts and her deficiencies defined her bright life.
Sarah was an artist, writer, and photographer whose self-portrait was her life itself. In her own words from Rules of Stoke, she wrote, “You have to learn to love your life and to realize what is good in it, even when society would tell you how wrong you are to do so.”
She wrestled openly with depression, calling it her “amoeba,” and spoke courageously about the tension between outside expectations and inner truth. Yet she continually returned to paddling — and to the people — who reminded her of who she was.
“Give it away,” she wrote. “Stoke is caught. It’s shared… When you have your own fire, drag others into it with you.”
Sarah had stoke, her life-force, long before the word dissolved into overuse and exploitation. Sarah’s legacy lives in the boats she gave away, the Green Race films she made, the festivals she promoted but most of all in the quiet conversations she had with those in doubt — often reminding them they were enough. In her final published words, she encouraged others to “Build your own world… with your words, and your intentions… Do something each day you’re not sure you can do.”
Sarah did just that. And the world she built is still paddling on.
P.S. Sarah liked dinosaurs and she always had a toy dinosaur in her PFD. She frequently gave dinos away. Her favorite was the Triceratops, or, as she told kids, a TriSarahTops.
About the Author
Alton Chewning is an active kayaker and the editor of the Carolina Canoe Club’s journal, Carolina Paddler. After a career in film and video production, Alton found researching and writing to be an enjoyable means of meeting people in the paddling community. Having long admired the renowned river guidebook author, Paul Ferguson, Alton is now updating Ferguson’s writings for a new generation. The first book in the Paddling the Carolinas series will be published by UNC Press and available in December of 2026.
This story is published alongside “Rules of Stoke” by Sarah Ruhlen and as part of the 2026 ACA Story Project, a month-long collection of stories written by ACA members. Without opportunity, these stories wouldn’t exist. That’s what the ACA does. Through education, stewardship, competition, and club support, we create opportunities for paddlers of all abilities. Your gift helps write the next chapter. Help us raise $25,000 by December 1 for the next paddler, and the one after that.
