The grand opening of Taylor’s Wave marks the culmination of a decade-long journey fueled by love, perseverance, and a community’s commitment to honoring one of its own.
For years, Marc Hunt dreamed of building a world-class whitewater wave on the French Broad River near Asheville, North Carolina. His vision was ambitious: create a destination for freestyle kayaking that would serve paddlers of all skill levels, attract international competitions, and bring new opportunities to the Asheville area.
But the dream would ultimately become something much bigger than a wave.
In early December 2015, Marc Hunt and his wife, Cat Potts, received the phone call no parent ever wants to get. Their son, Taylor, had passed away while kayaking with friends in Ecuador. Just 22 years old, Taylor was already an accomplished and experienced kayaker. He was known not only for his ability on the river, but also for his love of paddling, his willingness to teach others, and his passion for helping and guiding fellow kayakers.
Taylor’s loss left his family devastated. Yet in the midst of their grief, Marc and Cat found a way to turn their pain into something that would carry their son’s spirit forward.
The vision of a wave on the French Broad River became a way to honor Taylor’s life, his love of kayaking, and the community he had helped build. What began as Marc’s dream of a world-class paddling destination transformed into a lasting tribute to a young man whose impact reached far beyond his years.
For the next decade, Marc and Cat worked tirelessly to make that vision a reality.
They raised funds, pitched donors, recruited supporters, and navigated the countless challenges that come with building a major whitewater feature. They brought in Scott Shipley of Calibre Designs to help design and construct the wave, and slowly, the pieces began to come together.
“People have been trying to build a whitewater park on the French Broad around Asheville since the 1990s,” says Hunt regarding the genesis for the project. “Scott Shipley and his firm, S2O Design and Engineering, were part of some of those early efforts, and so was I. Scott’s early work captured how great a wave could be here. The French Broad carries generous flows, typically from about 1,000 cfs in late summer to over 2,000 cfs in the wetter months, and that is the real difference-maker.”
Then they went about finding the perfect location.
“Scott and I scouted the river for possible locations and eventually found a great site,” he adds. “The town of Woodfin welcomed the idea and has been a strong champion of the project ever since. Taylor had died a few months before we found the right site.
“There are in-stream whitewater parks in Idaho (Kelly’s) and Montana (Brennan’s) that were named as memorials,” he adds. “We were hugely honored that the town ultimately agreed to honor Taylor in the naming. Doing that also seemed to provide a little extra gravity to our fundraising and political efforts to get it built. “
But the road was anything but easy.
Financial challenges, opposition, skepticism, and construction setbacks threatened to derail the project. Then, in 2024, Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding to Western North Carolina, leaving widespread destruction in its wake and presenting yet another obstacle for the project.
Still, Marc and Cat refused to give up.
Neither the setbacks nor the devastation brought by Helene could overcome the determination of the Hunt family and the community that had rallied around their vision. Through years of fundraising, planning, design, and construction, the dream continued to move forward.
Finally, on October 22, Taylor’s Wave officially opened.
The grand opening brought together local residents, paddlers from across the region, community leaders, and members of the Hunt family to celebrate a project that had been ten years in the making. The festivities included a freestyle kayaking demonstration by local paddlers, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and speeches from community leaders and the Hunt family.
Following the ceremony, the celebration continued with a community gathering at French Broad River Academy.
For those who had followed the project over the years, the opening was more than the unveiling of a new whitewater feature. It was the realization of a dream, a celebration of perseverance, and a powerful reminder of what a community can accomplish when it comes together around a shared purpose.
A Wave for Everyone
The finished feature is an impressive addition to the French Broad River and offers something for paddlers of varying abilities, depending on river levels.
At higher flows, the feature transforms into a dynamic wave-hole combination capable of delivering the kind of powerful, aerial freestyle that attracts top-level paddlers. The wave becomes a playground for experienced kayakers looking to throw every trick in the book, with plenty of opportunity for big air and technical moves.
At lower flows, the feature greens out into a more forgiving wave, opening the door for beginner and intermediate paddlers to learn to surf, develop their skills, and experience the excitement of freestyle kayaking.
That versatility is part of what makes Taylor’s Wave so special. It is designed not only to attract the best paddlers in the world, but also to create opportunities for the next generation of kayakers to learn, progress, and fall in love with the sport.
The surrounding park and greenway are still under construction. Once completed, the greenway will provide a continuous trail connecting Asheville and Woodfin, passing directly by the wave and creating a new recreational corridor for the community.
The combination of the whitewater feature, park, and greenway has the potential to make Taylor’s Wave one of the premier freestyle kayaking facilities in the United States, while also serving as a gathering place for the broader Asheville community.
The River Always Moves Forward
The river, like life, is ever-changing.
We never truly know what lies around the next bend. Sometimes, the river brings tragedy, as it did for the Hunt family in Ecuador in 2015. Sometimes, it brings devastation on a much larger scale, as Western North Carolina experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Hunt continued his thoughts regarding the wave’s future and the area’s response to the project:
“The response from the community and from paddlers and surfers has been off-the-charts positive, and we’ve only seen the wave at low water,” he says. “Higher flows will only add to that. We have always aimed for it to be world-class.
“There’s real potential here for monthly local freestyle and rodeo events, as well as national and international competitions. The park on shore next to the wave was designed to support all of that. I’m especially eager to see instructional programs for youth, and club use, take root. ,At the core though, we have hundreds of kayakers in the community, and the wave is already proving to be the social hub for us. And by the way, it seems to be working well for board surfing too.
“Paved greenway trails will connect the wave to the heart of Asheville, and I think daily spectating will be huge. All of this is great for health and wellness, environmental stewardship, and local economic development. When we got this effort rolling in 2016, that was the vision, and we’re on track to make it real.”
Rivers also bring renewal. They reshape the landscape, carve new paths, and create opportunities where none existed before. In that same spirit, Taylor’s Wave represents something far greater than a new feature on the French Broad River.
It represents the determination of a family to honor their son. It represents the strength of a community that refused to let a dream die. And it represents the enduring power of kayaking to bring people together, build friendships, and create something meaningful.
Ten years after Marc Hunt first envisioned a world-class wave on the French Broad, that dream is now a reality.
Taylor’s Wave is open.
And while the river will continue to change, the legacy of Taylor Hunt will flow on through every paddler who surfs the wave, every young kayaker who learns a new move, and every person who finds a place to belong along the banks of the French Broad.
Photos by David House davidhousephoto.com