Whitewater rapids dont care about your plan. Trust me on this one.

Out on the water, conditions flip in a split second. Hesitation has instant consequences, and sometimes the smartest thing you can do is swallow your pride, admit you messed up, and ask for help. Sound familiar? (If you’ve ever led a team through a chaotic product launch, a sudden organizational shift, or navigating AI adoption, I’m guessing this sounds pretty familiar.

Before I fell in love with leading people, building developer communities, and organizing tech conferences, I spent years competing as a world-championship whitewater kayaker. It turns out that competing or fighting for your life in a rapid teaches you a lot about modern leadership. The river taught me to read chaotic conditions before choosing a route. It taught me how to fully commit to a decision without getting trapped by it. I learned exactly when to push forward and when to pause. Most importantly, I learned that when something goes wrong, you pull your teammate out of the water first and worry about picking apart the mistake later.

In this Talk, I want to share a few personal stories from both the water and the tech world to explore how we can lead when uncertainty is guaranteed/unavoidable. We’ll talk about how to make choices when you have only half the data, how to create an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up, and how to turn stressful setbacks into genuine, practical improvements.

Whether you’re a team lead, an experienced manager, or someone who leads without a formal title, I hope these stories give you a fresh perspective and concrete tools for when the current gets a little too strong.

No kayaking experience required :)