West HansenWest Hansen is a native life-long Texan, proud father and husband who lives in central Texas. He was born in Pasadena and raised in League City, which used to be a quaint little town, where Friday night high school football was attended by the entiretown. He spent his younger years on the gridiron, working construction and cooking jobs, rabbit hunting from the bed of a pickup truck and hanging out in Thrifty's grocery store parking lot with his buddies committing acts of philosophy. Escaping the comfort of his hometown, he attended college in the thriving metropolis of San Marcos, where after long last he was granted a degree in Psychology from Southwest Texas State University. During college he worked in a psychiatric facility and ran cattle on a ranch where he also lived. Following graduation, he worked in the public mental health field and is now a private social worker specializing in health care for people with a few winters under their belt. After taking classes in whitewater kayaking in college, he cut his teeth on the flooded Guadalupe River, then moved on to ultra-marathon canoe racing in 1992 with his first Texas Water Safari canoe race. He set several course records in the Missouri River 340 and still holds the USCA C-2 record in the Texas Water Safari, where he has completed 20 of the 265-mile races, as of 2019. Citing an inability to do nothing, Hansen ran for U.S. Congress in 2018, but didn't make it out of the Primary, though he learned way too much about how the sausage is made. He's been a member of the Explorer's Club since 2012 and plans on spending the rest of his life exploring those faraway places, enjoying the company of family and good friends, seeing what athletic endeavors his body can tolerate and perhaps put out a few more books. Read More Read Less