By Sammie Spillman ’16

Senior Sebastian Tosatto was born in Alabama, moved to Virginia when he was two, and then a year later his family moved to Maryland. Instead of playing field sports as a boy, Tosatto was interested in kayaking. He started kayaking at the age of three, and did his first white water when he turned five. His father, who started kayaking in college, taught teaching Tosatto as soon as he could swim.

Tosatto allowed kayaking to become a huge part of Tosatto’s life. After learning how to kayak, he continued to improve his skill through several camps and even did a year at a traveling whitewater kayaking high school called World Class Academy. The school is based out of Trout Lake, Washington but students travel all around the world each year. Tosatto attended the World Class Academy his sophomore year in high school, and was able to travel to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Chile, British Columbia and Nepal.

Adventure is something new, something unusual and exciting. Tosatto lives this life. Kayaking has brought him new scenes, experiences and memories. When Tosatto was in Chile, the Rio Fuy lead to a 40-plus foot waterfall, where he then went off and landed successfully at the bottom; to this day that is the highest waterfall of his kayaking career.

“I kayak for the scenery, the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie and because it isn’t what everyone does. I like to go outside the typical cookie-cutter individual and take the road less traveled by,” said Tosatto. “My favorite thing is the places you go. Some places in this world are only ever going to be seen by kayakers. The brush is too thick to fly in. You can’t hike in. These are special spots that we as kayakers get to enjoy without the taint of availability.”

The sport of kayaking can be very dangerous. The worst experience Tosatto had was when he was going off a waterfall and was pulled into the cave behind it, where he was then underwater getting beaten against a rock. He was under for a minute and a half before he managed to resurface.

“People always ask me if kayaking scares me and if I’m scared of dying. I’m not. To me life isn’t about how or when you’re going to die. It’s about how you choose to live,” said Tosatto.

Kayaking isn’t even the full extent of Tosatto’s adventures; among kayaking he is passionate about rock climbing, mountain biking and scuba diving. He plans to continue to kayak as much as possible, as well as his other activities. Even his career will be adventure, Tosatto plans on enlisting in the Coast Guard at the end of summer, with plans to become a Coast Guard rescue swimmer.