Imagine floating through Glen Canyon  – pre-dam, the summer sun shining through the long days of June, and the river humming quietly along at forty thousand cubic feet per second. It’s a scene that would be impossible today, but it’s exactly the way George Wendt experienced the Colorado river for the first time. In 1962, Wendt joined a UCLA trip through Glen Canyon on a makeshift raft that he and a friend had assembled with stacked inner tubes and wooden planking. Years later, he described that first trip as floating on a “magic carpet ride through a beautiful paradise.” The beauty of the canyon left a lasting impression on his career as a river runner, and it led to a passion for conservation that helped save thousands of river miles throughout the American West. 

At his core, Wendt wanted to share wild rivers with whomever he could. In 1969, after years of guiding friends, family, and strangers on private expeditions, George and his wife Pam founded Outdoor Adventure River Specialists (O.A.R.S), an exclusively oar-powered outfitter. In the forty-seven years that he ran the company, O.A.R.S. became one of the largest in the industry, offering whitewater trips throughout the world.