Sticking to the Basics by Andrew Holcombe

Have you ever heard of the book All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten? The title alone is a great reminder, in my opinion, that we learn a lot of the most important life lessons at a pretty early age. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to apply them to the myriad of circumstances put in front of us. How does this apply to kayaking? Well I’m a firm believer that you learn most of the skills necessary to be a great kayaker in the first year (or maybe if you want to get really crazy in the first month). The trick, and this is what we spend the rest of our kayaking careers on, is figuring out how to use and apply the basics in lots of different and sometimes quite intense situations. The following sequence of photos of Big Boy on the Ravens Fork illustrates this quite well. At first glance Big Boy is a pretty intimidating rapid. However, if you look closer the most important skills sets being used are made up of things we learn on our first couple trips in whitewater: Maintaining an aggressive forward body position and how to punch a diagonal wave or hole.


The key to a successful line here is to punch the left to right diagonal at the top of the picture. To do this I set up angled towards that diagonal with an aggressive (slightly forward) body position.



As I approach the diagonal I keep my body position forward while adjusting my boat angle to hit the diagonal at 90 degrees. This, as we learned early on, will allow me to punch across the diagonal without turning.



Notice that my right paddle blade is in the water to help hold my angle as my boat begins to cross the diagonal.


Completing the right paddle stroke my boat crosses the diagonal with my body weight still forward and angle still at 90 degrees relative to the diagonal.


Success! I’ve crossed the diagonal thus continuing my path from right to left and my body weight is still forward and aggressive.

It’s important to remember that the decision to run a large or difficult rapid is not one to be taken lightly. But, once you do make it its good to remember that you use the same skills you learned early in your kayaking career. The rapids are just bigger, taller, and scarier. So get out there and remember the basics.

Got Protection?

No, not that kind of protection ... this kind



Foot protection!

It’s that time of year when winter has faded away and the rivers are filling up with excited kayak, canoe and raft paddlers again. It’s time for you to enjoy the thrill of the whitewater rapids. Hopefully you have been schooled on the importance of the essentials for paddling: boat, paddle, helmet, personal floatation device and sprayskirt (for kayakers). I would like to add another river essential, for your own personal safety and comfort, proper footwear.

Studies and river stories have shown that the place where many injuries occur is on shore while either scouting or running down the river back to help rescue someone or something. It is also essential to have proper footwear when you encounter an “out of the boat experience” yourself and have to perform your own rescue. One of the best ways you can prevent injuries in these situations is to wear sturdy but comfortable booties or other supportive footwear designed for watersports.

To help you better protect yourself from injury and provide for a more comfortable trip down the river, we looked at several good options for your feet. We have chosen the best models for kayakers, canoeists and rafters. The footwear was tested in various boats on the Nantahala Outdoor Center’s local rivers such as the Nantahala River, Ocoee River, Chattooga River, Cheoah River, Pigeon River, Nolichucky River and French Broad River. Because there is footwear for a broad range of paddlers, I will give my overall impression of each one then include information about their best specific use(s).

To read the full review, Click Here to go to the Outfitter's Store blog.

One of My Favorite Places, NOC Summer Camp

By Palmer Miller - a former NOC Teen Leader and camper.


As part of a photo-journalism assignment for New River Academy Palmer chose to write about one of her favorite places, the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Sitting on the bank of the Nantahala River, the NOC has been working with paddlers and rafters for the past 30 years, through its outdoor programs and camps. Its excellent service is world-renowned and people continuously return. Many expert paddlers are born at the kid, teen, and adult kayak camps and programs.

Sam Fulbright, a New River Academy alumnus, professional photographer, and an avid playboater, attended two of the NOC teen kayak camps. The beginner camp gave him more confidence that backed up what he already knew. The intermediate camp helped him delve more into the sport of freestyle kayaking, and by the end he was hitting stern squirts and cartwheels. He believes the “NOC was [really big in] solidifying my boating skills.

I found that their programs gave me a lot of confidence in my kayaking and they worked really hard to get all the fundamentals of kayaking built up, and built up well.” For the experienced paddlers to the rookies who are scared to run Nantahala Falls, the Nantahala Outdoor Center is the perfect place to have a good time and life-changing experience.

Click on the following links to find out more about:
NOC Kids and Teens Camps
The Exploits of Palmer Miller
NOC's Summer Photo Course with New River Academy
New River Academy

Three Lines through Nantahala Falls

Rob Barham does a presentation for AWC

Rob recently headed down to Hotlanta to give a talk about proper creeking techniques to the Atlanta Whitewater Club members. He met up with a fun and excited crowd and gave his presentation with a lively discussion challenging paddling dogmas. Some say his presentation was in revival style, and told the members of AWC

"It is time to free yourself from paddling dogmas!"

As always, Rob can find a way to make instruction fun! At the end of the presentation, Rob gave away shirts and DVD's to excited participants. According to the Vice President of AWC Chuck Spornick,

"A good time was had by all."

To see more photos and info from Rob's presentation, check out Chuck's photo site.

Come Explore The Dominican Republic This Winter

Daylight savings time is over and the drought continues in the Southeast. These two things along with the rough and tumble economy could bring one down, but don't give up too quickly we have the perfect cure. You need to take a paddling trip, and it just so happens we have the perfect place, the Dominican Republic.



We are looking forward to our second season in the Dominican Republic after two Pilot trips last year. We ran our first ever commercial trip in January 2008, followed up by an advanced Teen group in June. In September we returned once more to teach a swift water rescue, and first-aid course to our Dominican counterpart Rancho Baiguate. Needless to say we spent quite a bit of time there this past year and are looking forward to our 2009 season with some new runs to add to our itinerary.



So why should you come to the Dominican Republic with us this winter? Because you can't afford not to that's why. Plane tickets to the DR are under five hundred dollars from the southeastern US and depending on how far south you are they could be really cheap. The Ranch where we stay is only 45 minutes from the Santiago International Airport (STI) and is on the banks of the Jimenoa river. Just think you can leave home in the morning take a short flight, go paddling in the Dominican Republic and take out at the door of your room all in one day.








Not only are we offering kayaking trips but we can accommodate non paddling friends and family as well, with a rafting or multi-sport adventure. Rancho Baiguate offers everything from horseback riding to multi-day trekking trips and of course the best rafting trips in the Caribbean.




We are the only outfitter running trips in the DR. Our partner Rancho Baiguate has been rafting in the DR for over ten years. We are still discovering new runs all the time. Paddling is still very new in the DR so there are many logistical challenges; that's where we come in, all you have to do is buy your ticket pack some clothes and let us take care of the rest.

The trip dates and full pricing details are on the NOC website just click here.

Why we love the southeast

The southeast is great. We have bologna biscuits. We have coca-cola. We have lots of creeks. Here's some photos of what the instructors have been up to the past two weeks.

This is the Chattooga at .4 feet.
Surprisingly, everything is still runnable. To the left, Herm finds low-water Seven Foot to be more like Six Foot. To the right, Israel shimmies under the log at center crack. It's definitely a skinny man's move.There's nothing better than paddling the lake out in the dark with friends.

Here's a little creek that flows into Jocasse. Heck of a paddle in. Heck of a hike up. But the slides are heck of a lot of fun - especially this one. Thank you Wayne Gentry.

And then it rained -some sort of hurricane or something. Some of us headed over to Joyce Kilmer to stare at the really big trees. We did some kayaking too. There was a big slide. We like big slides. Below, Sean Corbett refuses to stop for red lights in the Hallway.

Speaking of big slides....we found some more on the East Fork of the Tuck the next day.

On the left, Michael Curtis disengages the flux capacitor as he reaches 88 miles per hour. To the right, Jason Aytes stares into the mouth of the beast, while Rob Barham gets creative with a tight line. Below, Joe Ravenna punishes a rapid into submission. Later,
the creek punished the boaters into submission as they portaged around a wood-choked monster sieve. (Top picture) Thanks for checking in. See ya where the water is.