Notable graduates: David Blodgett — Concrete accomplishments on the water

When competitors from other schools hear about David Blodgett of UW-Madison's Concrete Canoe team, they generally have the response: "That's not fair."

Blodgett, a UW-Madison senior graduating in civil engineering, has been building functional boats since he was 14, and worked for Carl's Paddlin' in Madison (now the Paddlin' Shop) for several years. He's also an accomplished whitewater kayaker, an extreme water sport that requires more agility and precise steering than whitewater rafting.

Kayaking has not only driven his interest in the Concrete Canoe competition, but also his major, Blodgett says. Traveling across the U.S. for whitewater kayaking has allowed him to see river basins submerged under lakes from damming.

"What I want to do is figure out how to do what dams do without the dam. Treat the watershed instead of treat the river," he says. "That's kind of my passion — it comes from the whitewater kayaking because I know there are so many beautiful, wonderful, amazing rivers beds and canyons that have been buried by a dam."

Calling himself "kind of an unconventional" civil engineering student, Blodgett says he has already taken 15 to 20 graduate credits for water resource classes to learn more about replacing dams with more natural systems. He will continue on in graduate school in the fall and incorporate geology and geographic information science into his studies.